The days darken, the clocks retreat and the tube becomes a symphony of snuffles… it can only be the onset of winter. Here are five songs that have helped me survive the first week of this shit:
Anna Calvi – Moulinette (Live) (mp3)
The Sunday Times bade me download this, but then I found a live version from a show at the Luminaire. Calvi’s tremulous house-of-cards folk sounds even more delicate in this unfettered surround, and yet her voice stays strong and true, a lighthouse amid the darkness and distant drums. I defy you not to loll your head along during the chorus…
Jamaica – Short & Entertaining (mp3)
The best thing in winter is to walk fast: this is the perfect musical accompaniment, a bouncy frolic of a song that’ll have you stomping along and shedding layers in no time, albeit once you’ve double-checked this really isn’t Phoenix. The English-using, Paris-based trio are bringing their scratchy rock sound – college boys meet cardinal pessimist – to Kitsune Maison’s blow-out party next week…
Is Tropical – South Pacific (mp3)
… as are London lads Is Tropical. This is one of their softer tracks: a bruiser with fuzzy hair; a metaller in a cardigan. Simon Milner sounds like a yokel singing about his hometown as he gushes about South Pacific – only for a cacophany of bells and bass to sound, and drag him kicking and screaming (in delight) back to the 21st century.
Clare Maguire – Ain’t Nobody (Memory Tapes Remix) (mp3)
I quite liked Clare Maguire’s early stuff, then cynically decided she’d gone too mainstream. But, between you and me, that Aint Nobody song isn’t half bad – like a Walthamstow version of Ellie Goulding. You know what’s better, though? Memory Tapes‘ remix. Basically, trusty old Dayve takes the previously marginal strange-ometer, and turns it up to 12.
The Ruby Suns – Dusty Fruit (mp3)
An enchanting bassoon-player told me about the Ruby Suns, then promptly vanished from my life without so much as a see-you-later. Cruel, but I still hope she comes back one day. Meantime, at least I’ve inherited some sun-drenched, calypso-style pop, and have images of rooftop rum-shack parties, parasols and perfect beaches baked onto my eyelids.
Monday Music’s a weekly post where I abandon my London focus for five songs from artists anywhere that I’ve enjoyed in the past week