Top Twenty Earth Songs

For the next few weeks (or until I grow bored of it), I've planned a musical trip into outer space. And where better to start than home?

Naturally, there are more songs about Earth than any other planet in our Solar System... so here's twenty of my favourites...

20. Placebo - Allergic (To Thoughts of Mother Earth)

If Placebo were starting out now, I probably wouldn't buy their records. Right place, right time.

19. Meat Loaf - Peace On Earth

Meat doesn't want peace on Earth. He just wants to go home.

18. Imogen Heap - Earth

Put that down and clean this mess up
End of conversation
Put your back in it and
Make it up to me now

Whatever you say, love.

17. Curiosity Killed The Cat - Down To Earth

I enjoy this now more than I did at the time, but Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot's hat is still very silly.

16. Prefab Sprout - Earth: The Story So Far

I was so looking forward to this long-unreleased Prefab Sprout album (Lets Change The World With Music) that when it finally arrived, disappointment was perhaps inevitable. Although Paddy's voice is still angelic, the instrumentation mostly sounds like it was recorded in his bedroom on a Bontempi. He just about gets away with it.

15. Green Day - Last Night On Earth

I quite like the fact that Green Day have written a musical. It's the ultimate one finger salute to all those former fans who've been screaming "sell-out" to them for years. This was never a band you should take seriously.

14. Duran Duran - Planet Earth

Yes, I know. I know. But you'd have been disappointed if I hadn't included it somewhere.

13. The Sundays - On Earth

The Sundays are a band that always make me feel younger. They remind me of a certain time. Ironically, a time when I wasn't actually listening to any of their records. But I should have been.

12. The Divine Comedy - Life On Earth

Too good for youtube, apparently. Shame.

11. Gay Dad - To Earth With Love

For about 5 minutes one Wednesday in January, 1999, Gay Dad were the next big thing. And then, like that, they were gone.

10. George Harrison - Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

Forever the coolest Beatle.

9. Carole King - I Feel The Earth Move

See also Martika, obviously.

8. Graham Coxon - People of the Earth

People of the earth, your world is crap
You ain't even on the universe map
People of the earth, you do not rock
You are nothing but a fluffy flock
People of the earth, you have failed
You still worship The Sun and The Daily Mail

7. Neil Young - Falling Off The Face Of The Earth

For a cranky old bugger, Neil don't half make some beautiful records.

6. PJ Harvey - The Colour Of The Earth

A cool a capella rendition (followed by the full album version) of one of the stand out tracks from Polly Jean's second Mercury Prize winner.

5. Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth

It was about time someone judged Belinda's biggest hit worthy of a reassessment in cool. Thanks to Lana Del Rey then for paying homage on Video Games.

4. Sparks - Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth

Never turn your back on Ron & Russell Mael. Or on the excellent Niko Case cover.

3. Strangelove - The Greatest Show On Earth

Many of the Britpop era bands that slipped through the cracks were a damned sight more interesting than the ones that bothered the Top Ten. Patrick Duff's Strangelove deserved stardom far more than Oasis.

2. The Dandy Warhols - Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth

Another band I sometimes think I've left behind... but they're better than history remembers them.

I never thought you'd be a junkie because heroin is so passé...

1. The Penguins / The Crew Cuts / Death Cab For Cutie et al... and, of course, Marvin Berry & The Starlighters - Earth Angel

C'mon man, let's do something that really cooks...

So. Those were my favourite Earth songs. Now tell me yours.

Points deducted for anyone who mentions the one I left out on purpose...

2011 - Albums of the Year

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain...

What an excellent year it's been for music. As well as great new records from old favourites like Luke Haines, Elbow and PJ Harvey, I've also made some incredible new discoveries from the likes of Skint & Demoralised, The King Blues and Cosmo Jarvis. Many of the artists I've been championing don't get a lot of attention from the radio or music press, yet they have strong fanbases and if the winds of taste were blowing in the right direction for a change, they'd be topping the charts. Not that topping the charts means anything to anyone but the X-Factor idiots these days.

Anyway, it's been a hard fought battle on my own chart of the year. Will my favourite band of the 21st Century clinch a hat-trick of number one albums... or has someone else beaten them to the top spot?

Click the links to hear a selection of my favourite tracks from each of the albums.

My Top 20 Albums of 2011

20. Glen Campbell - Ghost On The Canvas

19. Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!

18. Half Man Half Biscuit - 90 Bisodol (Crimond)

17. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See

16. Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What?

15. 8in8 - Nighty Night

14. Skint & Demoralised - This Sporting Life

13. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once

12. Luke Haines - 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970's And Early 1980's

11. Shirley Lee - Winter Autumn Summer Spring

10. Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full Of Holes

9. The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

8. The King Blues - Punk & Poetry

7. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

6. Cosmo Jarvis - Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange?

5. Elbow - Build A Rocket, Boys!

4. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

3. Noah & The Whale - Last Night On Earth

2. The Indelicates - David Koresh, Superstar

1. Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

Apologies to The Indelicates then, it would have been nice to let them win three albums in a row, but brutal honesty must give the award to Frank Turner this year. Truth is, any one of the albums in the Top Five would have been a worthy victor in less exciting years. There's not an album there I wouldn't fight to see gain more recognition. Cosmo Jarvis asks, Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange...? And FRank Turner replies...

Not everyone grows up to be an astronaut
Not everyone was born to be a king
Not everyone can be Freddie Mercury
Everyone can raise a glass and sing
Well, I haven't always been a perfect person
I haven't done what mum and dad had dreamed

But on the day I die I'll say
"At least I fucking tried!"
That's the only eulogy I need
That's the only eulogy I need.

Happy New Year, thanks for wasting some of the old one reading this silly little blog. Despite everything, it's been fun.

Music I'm Listening To This Week

The Countryside make a mellow, mournful, haunting sound on their debut album, Beggars On Horseback. It's the brainchild of Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Graeme Slattery (former guitarist with The Devlins) and charts his journey from city dweller to his new home in a converted 17th century stable in the countryside of County Wicklow. As someone who's lived most of his life staring out across misty moorland and rainswept pastures, I found the album hugely evocative - and it helps that Graeme counts among his influences Paddy McAloon, Roddy Frame and The Blue Nile.

You can hear listen to the full album here. It's available to download from evil iTunes and other digital retailers (I'd recommend the latter).



Good on PJ Harvey for her victory at this year's Mercury Music Prize with a record that's actually about something. Let England Shake isn't her most immediate record, but persevere and you'll soon be clasping it to your bosom. A brave, thought-provoking and majestically sad record that proves award ceremonies don't have to be all about the bling.







And finally, this. The soundtrack to Super 8 breathes new life into a number of early 80s gems. It's great to see some love given to My Sharona by The Knack... but I rarely need an excuse to dig out the ELO. Their records never fail to brighten up a movie score. Don't bring me down.





The Mixtape Lives On... is coming.