Another month, another 10 free downloads from the iTunes Store courtesy of Belgacom. Last month I went for building the perfect compilation from my youth. This month I took a diffferent approach.
Regular readers will know that I listen to 3wk Internet Radio quite a lot. Whenever I hear something I really like, I make a note of it on my handheld, and then whenever I’m next in a record store or on Amazon.com and stuck for something to spend my hard-earned moolah on, I’ll whip out the list and pick something from it.
Sometimes I hear a couple of things from the same band, and only like the one track, or I listen to snippets of the whole album on Amazon and don’t like the whole thing enough to justify buying it. Sometimes I just can’t justify buying another armful of CDs. Whatever the reason, I’ve got a list of odd tracks I liked when I heard them, and don’t want to buy the full-length they’re taken from. So this month I decided to pick 10 tracks from this list. Some of these I couldn’t even remember how they went, but for the sake of a free download, what did I have to lose? The ten (in no particular order) are:
- Faultline, Where Is My Boy
This is a great track. Guest vocals by Chris Martin of Coldplay fame.  A slow, heartfelt delivery makes it a definite ‘down’ track, but kind of uplifting, too. - Spouse, Telephrenic
Not sure why I made a note of this one. It’s OK, but nothing to really write home about. - The Potomac Accord, Sunset On The Empire
Slow, heavy on the piano, and some shouted vocals over the top, give this a Silver Mount Zion feel, but with the accessibility of maybe Antarctica – I’d lay bets on them being Canadian. - The Vines, Evil Town
This is a different kettle of fish. From the initial outburst of distorted guitar to the final squeal of feedback, this is first-class noise. (The iTunes Store warns me it is “Explicit”, but it’s hard to tell from the distorted vocals.) Better than anything on their next album, Vision Valley, which I did go out and buy. - The Stands, The Way She Does
Very Retro. The guitar on this owes a lot to The Draize Train by The Smiths (it’s on Rank), but the overall feel is that of a 60’s guitar freak-out, quite similar to The Coral, or Palace Of Oranges. Not bad at all! - The Castle Project, In Frustration
Another slow-burner. Slow, steady pace and some pained vocals. I’m a sucker for pained vocals and earnest delivery (and no, Emo doesn’t do it for me – too manufactured). And the build-up over the last minute and a half is great. - Frank Jordan, To Never Have Without
Pretty moody in the same way that Shannon Wright is, but with a reasonably fast pace. And a decent length, too. Three minutes of setting the scene, followed by a good four minutes of multi-layered guitar noise with a couple of interesting switches (and a last 60 seconds of seemingly unrelated accordion that would do Tom Waits proud). - Jets To Brazil, Mid-Day Anonymous
Another one I’m not sure why I made a note of it. It’s a bit American Alternative meets Post Punk, so not the kind of stuff that normally catches my ear. Plus, Green Day do it much better. Ho hum, at least I didn’t pay for it. - The Raveonettes, That Great Love Sound
This is a great lift-me-up track. Sure, it’s very (deliberately) retro, but it just hits the spot perfectly – a big, positive, confident swagger of a song. Great for psyching up for a night on the town. - Cat Power, Good Woman
Slow, simple, and beautiful. Everyone should listen to this at least once in their lives. Probably not what most people would call a ‘classic’, but something in this moves me in the same way that We Are Free Men by Bright Eyes (which was strangely relegated to a B-side on the There Is No Beginning To The Story EP) does. Must be something in the vocals.
And that’s it for another month. Ten generally great tracks, and all for free. At least it beats the CDs the music glossies seem to insist on giving away free on the cover these days in a bid to boost sales. My 3WK B-list still contains plenty of goodies, and I’m still adding to it almost daily, so I may well stick with this approach next month.
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