Music I'm Listening To This Week

I should be forgiven for thinking that Stornoway were a new band from Scotland - not just from their name, or the fact that they sound a little like Belle & Sebastian (meets Mumford & Sons), but also because it was my old Glaswegian music blogger mate JC, The Vinyl Villain,who first brought them to my attention.

Turns out though they're actually from Oxford - home to Radiohead, Supergrass and my recent obsession. Wherever they hail from, they make a glorious summery sound on this single, and their album Beachcomber's Windowsillhas shot to the top of my Must Buy When I Have Some Money list.



A record I bought much earlier this year (when I had more money!) was the not-at-all-difficult second album from Fleet Foxes. Unlike many of the critics, their debut took a long time to grow on me, and only really made its mark with the release of the "bonus tracks" edition featuring the sublime Mykonos.

Helplessness Bluesowes an even greater debt to Simon & Garfunkel than its predecessor and includes a couple of lyrical moments that sneak up and mug you with their beauty, notably the title track's bridging refrain...

If I had an orchard,

I'd work till I'm raw
If I had an orchard,
I'd work till I'm sore

Maybe it's not grammatically ideal (and the linguistic pedant in me wants to quibble with their clumsy repetition of 'unique' in the same song's opening stanza), but it's a sentiment I think we can all get behind.

However, the Fleet Foxes song that's wedged itself in my head this week is this one, with its timely commentary on the education funding debate...

The borrowers debt is the only regret of my youth



Mentioning Simon & Garfunkel reminds me of the long-awaited new long-player from Paul Simon, So Beautiful Or So What.Now in his 70th year, Simon was seen recently grouching on the Glastonbury sofa that his voice isn't what it used to be. Well, neither are my ears, Paul - but I'm damned if I can hear any kind of deterioration from the voice I fell in love with as a teenager (when you'd already been using it for 25+ years).

The best thing about the new Paul Simon album is that he's written a song about Jay-Z (I can't wait for Jay-Z's riposte... "I'm Wearing Diamonds From The Soles Of Paul Simon's Shoes"?) but that's not the one I've chosen to feature here. No further explanation should be necessary...



I stumbled across this next track during a completely random youtube search. If you're a fan of the deep south soundtrack of the Coen Brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? then I think you'll dig The Civil Wars too. Barton Hollowcomes from the album of the same name.



This week's music has been all very folky and melodious so let's finish with something completely different... and so wrong it hurts. A greasy, spotty, belching chunk of shamelessly juvenile, spectacularly un-pc, nerd-rap-rock from the late 90s. Ladies and gentlemen, it's The Bloodhound Gang... from the album, ahem, Hooray For Boobies.

You and me, baby, ain't nothing but mammals

So let's do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel...