first impressions



Das Capital - The Songwriting Genius Of Luke Haines And The Auteurs

You have to bow down in awe at that title, and he's written reviews of all of the songs in the liner notes the first line of the first review being "My first masterpiece". Fantastic! Anyway, this is a best of with a difference - each song has been re-recorded with a full on orchestral backing, all pretty good songs - songs that I didn't admit to liking when I was a youngster but I'll admit to liking now that I'm all grown up and mature (ha!). The version of Lenny Valentino is 2 minutes and 16 seconds of genius.



As an aside there is a great picture in the CD booklet of Mr Haines in a smooth white suit and trilby sitting on a bench sitting next to four young female "pikeys" - Sleazy Phil would like to reproduce this scene at some point ;-)



Martina Topley-Bird - Quixotic

I can see why this was nominated for the Mercury prize, it reeks of quality - a bit schitzophrenic at times but still quality through and through. There's a song called Soul Food which is one of the most wonderful and uplifting examples of soul music I've ever listened to - just stunning, shames anything released recently calling itself soul music. Then she follows it with Lullaby where she goes all bluesy - but without the pain and regret, it's all very comforting - difficult to explain, imagine a style of music like the blues... but pinker, and fluffier. She even has a pretty good go at punk on "I wanna be there". Great CD



Dangermouse & Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life

There is more to hip hop than 50 bleeding cents and Emin-hey-guess-what-I'm-still-angry-at-my-mummy-em you know; good quality hip-hop, funny and intelligent beats and rhymes, has a go at George Bush - nice!