Música ecléctica

I think we are well overdue, dear reader, another little selection of some of the "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late, don't you..?

Let's start with something completely unexpected - and rather wonderful:

Pomplamoose ft. Sarah Dugas - Sweet Dreams vs Seven Nation Army mashup [Eurythmics, White Stripes]

Next up, a new one from everyone's fave gay Glam-Rocker:

Adam Lambert - Eat U Alive

It's always good to hear something new from one of my most revered bands of the 80s - and it is indeed [gulp] forty years this year since Notorious was released - with "their friend Nile". I love the pastiche of Top of the Pops in this video, too:

Duran Duran feat. Nile Rodgers - Free to Love

One of our most cherished divas of late has put together what she's calling a "visual album" on her YouTube channel - and from it, I adore this one:

Jessie Ware - Don’t You Know Who I Am [official visualiser]

Speaking of "Divas", our beloved Princess has released a brand new track to accompany her Netflix documentary. Perhaps not destined to rank amongst her classic back-catalogue, but it has charm, nonetheless:

Kylie Minogue - Light Up [visualiser]

But - saving the best to last - THIS!

MEEK - Beautiful Freeks

As ever, I love to know your thoughts...

¡Nuevas melodías!

Madonna, GaGa and Christina Aguilera approve.

Frustratingly, it was a delightful Spring day today while I was stuck in the benighted office...

How about a little selection of the "newer" music that has caught my ear of late, to cheer things up a bit?

To open proceedings, here's a queen who's definitely overdosed on old Todrick Hall videos:

Boy Blu - Platinum Pleasure

Next - quite a surprise, as the artist formerly known as "Sporty Spice" makes a very welcome return, more than twenty years since her last solo Top Ten hit. Why no video? It's a mystery. Great song, though!

Melanie C - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Side-stepping a little bit from the mainstream, it's always good to know that the icon that is Iggy Pop can still be dragged out into the light to make new music. When it's the eccentric Anna Calvi doing the asking, I guess it's hard to resist...

Anna Calvi feat. Iggy Pop - God’s Lonely Man

Our absolute favourite Spanish goths-turned-dance-act Fangoria never fail to please - and I adore their new one! "A little bit of everything", apparently:

Fangoria - Un poco todo

Miss Jessie Ware is rapidly becoming a firm favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers, and for the video for her latest faboo (Ennio Morricone western-inspired) choon, she's only gone and roped-in [geddit?] the lovely James Norton as "The Cowboy". Lucky bitch!

Jessie Ware - Ride

And finally - saving the best to last, I am eternally grateful to our Blogger chum Mr DeVice for alerting me to this one! A meeting of true minds, where Neath's finest son and the legend that is Ana Matronic are concerned, methinks:

Bright Light Bright Light & Ana Matronic - Cold Sweat, Hot Boys

My kind of evening!

As ever, dear reader, I love to hear your thoughts...

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STOP PRESS:

The UK's entry for Eurovision in May has been announced. I love it!

Look Mum No Computer - Eins, Zwei, Drei [United Kingdom entry, Eurovision Song Contest 2026]

[NB If you can't see the video, try here]

Keep on moving up that mountaintop

Happy 40th birthday today to one of my fave artists of recent times - Miss Jessie Ware!

She's one of those home-grown British artists who is critically lauded, brings crowds in to her live concerts, and is generally well-liked - but has never been a huge chart presence [not that what passes for "the charts" these days is actually meaningful in any particular way, as it counts shit like TikTok and Spotify "hits" as a gauge of success, rather than physical sales]. She's more "Paloma Faith" than "Little Mix", in effect.

I love her. Her vocals are good, her music is cheerful and catchy, and she looks like she knows how to have fun! And we like fun:

Jessie Ware - Spotlight

Jessie Ware & Róisín Murphy - Freak Me Now

Jessie Ware - Free Yourself

Jessie Ware - Pearls

Kylie Minogue and Jessie Ware - Kiss of Life

Brilliant, one and all!

Many happy returns, Jessica Lois "Jessie" Ware (born 15 October 1984)

The countdown begins...

As the Madam and I do the final whizz around cleaning in preparation for receiving visitors, and I turn my attention to preparing the buffet - I think some musical highlights from 2023 are in order, to get the juices flowing for a party!

Blam! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go to the Grave [Wham! vs Black Sabbath Bill McClintock mash-up]

Jessie Ware - Pearls

Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha [Finland; Eurovision Song Contest 2023]

Adam Lambert - Holding Out for a Hero

Troye Sivan - Rush

And the "Song of the Year":

Kylie Minogue - Padam Padam

However, as my 60th year passes into the ether, let's have another outing for my song from my birthday post - this:

Shirley Bassey - If I Never Sing Another Song

Happy New Year, dear reader!

That is good to me as well as that

It would appear that Ms Scarlet may be right - it certainly feels like that elusive "Indian Summer" is upon us. Yay!

Time, methinks, for a little round-up of the "newer" music that has caught my ear of late...

Let's open with the very welcome return of one of my favourite 80s synthpop bands, shall we? It's sublime:

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Bauhaus Staircase

Here's darling Jake and his latest (and very catchy) choon:

Jake Shears - Last Man Dancing

If "Dafydd" from Little Britain got a load of naff tattoos and started hanging around with a woman who wouldn't look out of place in one of the windows in the Red Light District of Amsterdam...

Bentley Robles, LEXXE - I Just Wanna Dance

This is hilarious! Described by none other than Whigfield as "Like Borat, but with music", this piss-take of all things "90s Eurodance" is a work of genius:

Kyle Gordon feat. DJ Crazy Times & Ms. Biljana Electronica - Planet of the Bass

Cute gay pop-muppet Troye Sivan is back with an earworm...

Troye Sivan - Rush

Now, here's a formidable team-up of talent! Two "house fave" ladies for the price of one...

Jessie Ware & Róisín Murphy - Freak Me Now

With a complete change of tempo altogether, here's (a very short clip, unfortunately, of) something I heard recently on Radio 3 from the late, great Medievalist Belinda Sykes and her band :

Joglaresa - Bailemos! "A Dance Song after Rod Temperton's Boogie Nights"

But, finally, there is only one song for which the anticipation has been building - Our Princess Kylie's new one! It's brilliant:

Kylie Minogue - Tension

As ever, dear reader, let me know your thoughts!

The Spring collection

It's been a hectic few days!

On Saturday, a smattering of "Our Gang" gathered for the first time in ages at The Perseverance pub off Great Ormond Street for another "Film Club" evening, then on Easter Sunday Madam Arcati and I took Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex to Kew Gardens (a first for Steve, and Alex hadn't been since he was a little kid) to see it in its Spring magnificence!

No sooner did we get back home, but I was off with them back to Braintree - and spent a happy (if miserably wet and windy) couple of days touring the numerous garden centres and nurseries up and down the county. I came back last night on National Express (in total it took four hours from being dropped off at the airport to getting home!), laden with a haul of twenty-seven new plants - 22 of them fuchsias! Phew.

How about a little selection of newer music that has caught my ear of late, to ease the aches and pains..?

Let's start out a bit classy, shall we, with a first-time collaboration between two favourite vocalists here at Dolores Delargo Towers:

Jake Shears and Neil Tennant - Rent (Live at BBC Radio 2 Piano Room)

Time to crank it up a little, with this jolly little number:

Jason Mraz - I Feel Like Dancing

Miss Ware says "it's time to shake it 'til the pearls fall", and who are we to argue?

Jessie Ware - Pearls

Could this one sound more Eighties if it tried?

Purple Disco Machine x Kungs - Substitution

Dame Sophie of the Ellis-Bextors' recent single from her new album Hana is a joy:

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Breaking the Circle

Speaking of joy, this is one I've brought back with me from Braintree, where we certainly did whoop with joy when we discovered it!

Todrick Hall - Sorry Barbie

As ever, dear reader, let me know your thoughts...

There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle

Dame Joan approves...

Time again, dear reader, for a selection of some of the "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late - and guess what? Most of them are by artists we love and cherish...

Let's open with a corker from a band who have been performing together as a unit for forty years, with a brilliant "spot-the-celebrity" video, to boot!

Duran Duran - Anniversary

A "blast-from-the-past" here, in the form of the once-very-fanciable Dr Robert and chums - contemporaries of Duran Duran, yet disappeared without a murmur for several years:

The Blow Monkeys - One More Time

Next, a man whose career began a whole decade later, yet has carved himself a niche in the public consciouness as an "eccentric treasure". Our "gang" is hoping to get to see the new Wes Anderson movie The French Dispatch some time soon, and Mr Cocker's contribution to the soundtrack is here accompanied by an animated video directed by none other than Mr Anderson himself!

Jarvis Cocker - Aline [from The French Dispatch]

Taking a little diversion from the "oldies-but-goodies", here's a beautiful little number from Italy that rather tickled my fancy, both in its original form...

Club Domani & Airys - A Che Ora l'Amore

...and in this remix by the omnipresent HiFi Sean:

Club Domani & Airys - A Che Ora l'Amore (HiFi Sean Remix)

Another band we've loved for decades is back on top form with this excellent choon:

Erasure - Time (Hearts Full of Love)

And, finally, a world-beating team-up of Our Princess Kylie with a 21st century hit-maker - and a fab camp "Dynasty-meets-Taboo"-style video to go with it!

Kylie Minogue and Jessie Ware - Kiss of Life

As ever, let me know your thoughts...

Songs of the Year? Part 1

Yes, I am more than well aware that I haven't really been keeping my ear on the pulse of newer music as regularly as I used to. I make few excuses for this, other than a) the joys of getting older and more disconnected, and b) seeking comfort in more familiar stuff in a most unsettling year when every one of our usual entertainments was cancelled. However, dear chums, there are one or several choons I could tick off as "quite jolly discoveries of 2020", such as these...

Let's start as we mean to go on, with a faboo uplifting track [featuring on vocals the lady cavorting with all those lovely mirroball items in the photo above] that might have filled the floor at many a club and festival, had there been any:

The Shapeshifters feat. Kimberly Davis - Second Chance

Next, the biggest hit of the year, both in sales and in streaming [unless there are any sudden surprises]. Mr Abel Makkonen Tesfaye [yes, that is his real name!] has a penchant for gory videos [as I mentioned when I posted my own personal fave song of his back in April], but some clever bugger out there has merged this song with footage of that dance scene from The Breakfast Club instead - and it works perfectly!

The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

Speaking of all things retro, Erasure received a great reception for their new album The Neon in the summer, and from it, this drag-queen-heavy video:

Erasure - Nerves of Steel

Speaking of drag - an unexpected [for me] joy next, from a hitherto unknown reggaeton artist from Puerto Rico, who plays all the female roles here...

Bad Bunny - Yo Perreo Sola

I was overjoyed when one of my favourite eccentrics made a bit of a comeback, with a typically odd-yet-very-catchy number:

Róisín Murphy – Murphy’s Law

This year, I observed an ongoing trend in new songs that leaned heavily towards the sounds of the 1970s and 80s, including other favourite tunes of the year not actually included in this list by Dua Lipa and Doja Cat [as well as the above-mentioned The Weeknd] - and here's another in a similar vein that was a bit of an "earworm" in Spring:

Jessie Ware - Spotlight

And, rounding off this "first half" - another sure-fire dancefloor hit that unfortunately wasn't...

Jax Jones, Martin Solveig, RAYE, Europa - Tequila

Part Two of this self-indulgence will be winging its way in a couple of days.

As always, dear reader, let me know your thoughts!