Showing posts with label RAYE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RAYE. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 April 2026

Ceol nua! *


"One is a DJ, one is what one plays..."

As we live in hope that there might be at least some sunshine over this long weekend (as opposed to looming grey skies and blustery winds), it's time, methinks, for a little selection of some of the "newer" music that has caught my ear of late:

Let's open with something fairly low-key and jolly - a very welcome new choon from probably the only boy-band that has actually progressed to assume the "national treasure(s)" mantle...

Speaking of sunshine - this sublimely summery number from Reigate's most notable export since Dame Margot Fonteyn, Disclosure, really lifts the spirits [especially so for me, as it is a mere four weeks to go before we are back in Spain!]:

Who else but the fantabulosa Mr Bill McClintock would ever have thought that 90s boy-band NSYNC and death-metallers Slipknot would ever fit together? But they do!

House favourite eccentrics - beloved here at Dolores Delargo Towers, and over at Hexenhausli DeVice - Haute & Freddy are back, and as completely fruitloop as ever...

Multi-award-winner Raye is certainly more Lily Allen than Kate Bush - but her new release (a very surprising collaboration with Oscar-winning film music composer - everything from The Lion King to the recent Dune remake - Hans Zimmer) is quite the work of art. It took a few watches/listens, but I love this!

Even the mighty Raye, however, isn't top of this list. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson (CMAT)'s lyrics in the opening verse are rather scathing...

I was at the
Jamie Oliver petrol station
I needed deli but god I hate him
That man should not have his face on posters

...which makes it even more remarkable that the fat-tongued Mockney git makes a personal appearance in the video! Regardless - it's utterly, utterly brilliant!

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

[* ceol nua = "new music" in Irish Gaelic]

Thursday, 24 July 2025

Thought for the Day


Just the two, dear?

Happy Tequila Day! I can't stand the stuff myself, but it inspired a couple of great songs:

Take it to the motherfucking dance floor, indeed.

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

London calling...

Another snippets post today, dear reader...


[click to embiggen, or even better, right-click and click "open in new tab"]

And now, the weather: Muggy.


STOP PRESS:

Team GB diver Jack Laugher is getting very excited indeed about the games to come, it seems!

Sunday, 27 December 2020

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:

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!

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:

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...

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

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:

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

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!

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Earworms, again...


Gawd only knows what's going on here, but I could sit and watch it all day

SUNSHINE!!!

The weather out there is glorious - it's predicted to hit 30C tomorrow - and I'm trapped indoors [except for frequent fag breaks, of course] dealing with dull council business. Oh, for a decent Lottery win....

Never mind, eh? I'm in the mood for some music - so how about a soupçon of choons that have caught my ear of late?

First up, a little number that I picked not because the singer is trans [pertinent in this countdown week to Gay/LGBT Pride], and certainly not because of her vocal - ahem - talents, but because... it made me smile [and lord knows, we need a bit of that!]:


Next - a REAL treat! It's the new single from everyone's favourite campsters, Erasure!


Here's a band who sound remarkably like Talking Heads, with a naughtily-titled song (a position with which some of us may be familiar)...


...more sunshine and happiness, courtesy of Mr Sparro and the oddest selection of "safety gays" in the business:


...and, finally - "take it to the mutha-fucking dance floor!"


Enjoy - and as ever, let me know what you think, dear reader.