I have been bad...

Well, strictly speaking, I've been bad over the last couple of weeks and it came home to roost today, via Mr Postman.

I'd been out to see my physio at St George's and when I returned there was a lovely pile of parcels waiting for me. Christmas has come early! In five parcels I received:

Jane Aire & The Belvederes: her self-titled LP from 1979. That, I think, completes my collection of her vinyl and I will, over the weekend, burn me a 'The Complete Jane Aire' CD for my personal delectation. Kirsty MacColl and Rachel Sweet provided backing vocals on the LP. More will, no doubt, follow on Jane Aire...

'Greanta' by PottedHeid: I came across PottedHeid months ago on a sampler CD from Toppler Records and then found them on MySpace. I now have their one and only album - I suspect 'their' is actually 'his' since the band seems to be Fred who also masterminds Toxik Ephex. He's sent me the CD and just asked me to put a fiver in the post, so I will do. He also sent me a sampler CD of some of his other music that I haven't heard yet. One of my favourite PottedHeid tunes is 'Cheery Beery Night' with the title repeated over and over as a chorus, a lovely, simple song that does what it says on the can! The music is a strange mix of electro-celtic-eastern-folk songs - none of those labels are sufficient, really, but I like it.

'Follow Your Heart's Desire' by Pura Fe: ordered from the Music Maker Relief Foundation, an indie folk label in America with charitable status, Pura Fe's CD also arrived today in a huge envelope along with a magazine and stickers. The CD was even carefully wrapped in tissue paper - that's how special the music is.

I got Pura's latest CD from France a couple of weeks ago. I first found Pura on a DVD about 'powwow rock' with her vocal band, Ulali. I then found her on MySpace and listened to some of her solo tracks and liked what I heard. Pura identifies with the Tuscarora Nation that live in the southern states of America and a quote on the CD states that 'Pura Fe's voice soars the heavens, elegantly stating the indigenous influence on the birth of the blues.' I think I read somewhere that she's planning a new album and hoping to collaborate with her heroes like Buffy Sainte-Marie and Taj Mahal. Need I say more? Pura's excellent version of 'Summertime' is my current tune on my MySpace site.

'4 Track Sampler' by The Dresden Dolls : I won this CD/DVD on eBay a month ago but was accidentally sent the wrong CD so after some to-ing and fro-ing I finally have the right one. It's a few years old and is on Amanda's own 8ft Records label, from before The Dolls were signed to Roadrunner, so I was hoping that some of the songs might be earlier versions or demos. But, even if they weren't and they were exactly the same, then I'd still be happy to have it as a collectors item. Well, blow me, they *are* early versions, sounding rawer and live! Coo! On the CD are 'Girl Anachronism', 'Coin-Operated Boy', 'Gravity' and 'The Jeep Song'. The video for 'Girl Anachronism' is on the DVD. I'm particularly partial to 'The Jeep Song' so it's nice to have this version. One can never have too much Dresdens or Miss Amanda.

'Star - The Best Of Sylvester' by Sylvester: why isn't Sylvester available on re-mastered CD? I borrowed Chris's copy of this CD ages ago and have been listening to it regularly on iPey so thought it's about time I invested in my own copy. The ultimate Disco Diva has landed! We need more Sylvester.

'Looking Back - The Definitive Collection' by John Holt: a double CD from Trojan. I've been releasing my reggae soul over the summer and John is another one of those under-rated reggae stars from the '60s/'70s who deserves another listen. I bought his '1000 Volts of Holt' a month or so back and one of my favourite tracks is his wonderful version of 'Mr Bojangles'. He co-wrote 'The Tide Is High' with his band, The Paragons, which, presumably, still earns him money from Blondie's cover, but he did so much more than that.

'Very' by The Pet Shop Boys: the re-mastered double-CD version. I'm not a great PSB fan - or at least I wasn't until Chris took me to see them at Hammersmith a few months back. I've always been more of a PSB singles man rather than albums, but I'm slowly exploring their back catelogue. They've produced some truly great catchy songs over the years (and still are, with things like 'The Sodom And Gommorah Show') so I'm looking forward to listening to this.

So there you are. A nice selection, I think, with lots of different musical styles from the well-known and the less-well-known. It's nice exploring new music.