New Musique Plastique

What a stressful time I've had tonight. For some reason my broadband connection decided I had changed my name and/or password and I'm sitting here thinking 'no, I haven't'. It's obviously just been having a moment to itself, decided that I was ok really and then let me on.

Crucial news is, of course ....

Our Velocity

As you might notice from the posts below, the new Maximo Park single is now available for download from their site and from iTunes. The hard copy version (with 'B' sides) will be available on 19 March. It's essential listening so you ought to buy it. You know, deep, deep in your hearts, that you should.

Young Kimmy

I have also fallen in love. The previous custodian of the honourific, 'Kimmy' was Kim Weston (she of the 'It Takes Two' duet with Marvin Gaye who played at the Jazz Cafe last year) but the title has now gone to Kim Wilde - or at least she's 'young Kimmy'. Isn't her single, 'Perfect Girl' (video below) just a perfect piece of power pop? I think so at least.

On the strength of that song I downloaded her latest album, 'Never Say Never'. It seems like it's only available in Germany for some reason (she's big over there) and the import version on Amazon is ridiculously expensive. So I downloaded it from iTunes for half the price. And it's worth it. She's back with a bang and looking good too!

How come these pop stars look so good and us ordinary mortals don't? Which of us was the pop star in the '80s and which of us the civil servant? Um... I was the latter in case you're not sure. She's 6 months younger than me so how come she looks a decade younger? It's just not fair. But she's gorgeous! There's a touch of Debbie Harry going on in the video but I don't care. I can't wait for the UK tour.....

There are some great tracks on the new album, which is a mixture of new material and re-takes on old hits. There's an outstanding verion of 'Kids In America' with Charlotte Hatherley that just reeks of energy and power - listen to it if you can.

Eurythmics

Ok, so they're hardly new, but wasn't 'Sweet Dreams' a great record? I've had a Eurythmics 'best of' since it was issued on CD but haven't invested in the albums. Tonight I recorded the record onto my poota and then taped it onto digital CD (it's complicated) and heard some of the tracks for the first time in decades. And what a good album it is.

Some of the records I'm taping aren't available on CD, others are, but I'm hearing them for the first time in decades to decide whether I want to invest or not. I think I'll be investing in more Eurythmics...