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Tunes

Best tunes of 1994: #29 The Lightning Seeds “Perfect”

<< #30   |   #28 >>

Back when I was a young man, especially in the years just before, during, and immediately after my time at university in Toronto, I was a proverbial night owl. I would often stay up all night and only go to bed a few hours after the sun rose on the new day.

This behaviour likely had its roots in the job that I started the year after I graduated high school, working at the local 7-Eleven. I often worked the midnight shift because I was the new guy, was young, and appreciated the meagre shift premium. And often on those shifts, my good friend Bowers, who was also a late nighter, would pop into the store on the nights he wasn’t himself working at the paint factory, coming in during the wee hours to rock the Addams Family pinball machine, shoot the proverbial poo with me and whichever young lady was my shift partner on the night, and we’d walk home together when my shift ended around 7am. On those nights when we were both off work, I’d head over to his place and we’d watch movies all night in his basement over pizzas and beers.

During university, I had no lack of friends who also enjoyed partying late into the night, drinking, listening to tunes, laughing, and generally being ridiculous. On those later evenings, there was always a point where others would disappear off to bed and only the hardy few remained. Those were the moments where the decision was made either to pack it in or realize that you might as well wait to make sure the sun came up. Of course, it was usually the latter.

And when the sun did peak its bright rays over the horizon, it was magic.

It was pure perfection. The air was crisp. The streets were quiet. The skies were replete with a myriad of colours. It felt like the world belonged to you (and your friends) and nobody else. There was a joy. But there was also a sadness.

This song, “Perfect” by The Lightning Seeds, perfectly* encapsulates this feeling, this mood, this magic. Frontman and driving force, Ian Broudie puts into music and words exactly how we all felt in those moments.

“Now tomorrow’s here today
And yesterday’s today’s just fade away
Watch the morning chase the night
Rolling home, it’s getting light
Feeling sleepy, full of wine
Fall in bed, just in time.”

“Perfect” is track one on the Liverpudlian indie pop band’s third album, “Jollification”. It starts off with low level music already in progress, sounding off in the distance like a faraway bird, a shadow in the bright blazing sunrise. Then, the song proper starts, a jolt of life, that second wind, roaring guitars and dancing synth washes and a drum beat that matches the beat of your heart. The song feels bright and wistfully happy – a song of hope for a new day but sadness for the night we’ve lost.

*Sorry, not sorry.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1994 list, click here.

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Playlists

Playlist: May (or May not)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve put together and shared one of these playlists on here. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I purposely put together a mix of any sort, even for myself, for my own consumption. I typically just press shuffle on a massive collection I have on Apple Music of some of my favourite songs and go with whatever Apple puts forward. And yeah, of course, it’s always good. However, I felt inspired this week, even as I recover from a nasty spring cold, and decided a new mix was in order.

The inspiration? This winter felt very, very long to me, even longer than normal. December and January actually feel like a complete void to me because of the health issues I was experiencing at the time and then February got cold, real cold, and we received dumping after dumping of snow. March was a mixed bag weather-wise and April seems to have been unseasonably cold and rainy*. Things finally felt like they turned the corner when the calendar was flipped to May last week, even though I haven’t necessarily felt well enough to get outside to enjoy it just yet. The sun has been out, brightening everything and warming everything up. I’ve heard the chirping of birds every morning, the grass on the ground is coming in green and the trees lining my street are starting to bud. All of this has cheered me considerably and has me hoping for good things for the rest of the year.

So I wanted to put together some tunes that reflect this feeling. You know? A collection of the kind of songs that just scream sunshine and flowers. A melody that brings a smile to your face and lyrics that beg to be sung along with. Tunes that perk you up from the very first notes and have you wanting to get up and dance, wherever you are, whoever you’re with.

Many of these songs are old favourites (like “Lay back in the sun”, “Everything you’ve done wrong”, and “Movin’ on up”) and have appeared on many of my mixes over the years, some of which may have already appeared on playlists on this site. Some of these songs are newer ‘classics’ (like “Weighty ghost” and “Dreaming of you”) and some are even brand new tunes that I can’t seem to loosen from my head when the mood takes (like “Somebody new” and “Simmering”).

I’ve kept the playlist to twenty-five songs to keep it from being unwieldy but there were many more that I could have added. Perhaps there will be a volume two to share if the summer turns out to be as positive as I’m hoping it will be and if the mood takes me to make another mix to share so soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this collection of songs as much I’ve enjoyed putting it together and that you play them on repeat like I’ve been doing this week. Perhaps they’ll bring the same wide smile that I’ve had on at times while listening. I sincerely hope so.

For those who don’t use Apple Music, here is the entire playlist, with links to YouTube videos:

1. Spiritualized “Lay back in the sun”
2. Bedouin Soundclash “When the night feels my song”
3. The Waterboys “Glastonbury song”
4. The Cure “Friday I’m in love”
5. The Submarines “You me and the bourgeoisie”
6. The Verve “Bitter sweet symphony”
7. Real Estate “Somebody new”
8. Wintersleep “Weighty ghost”
9. Sloan “Everything you’ve done wrong”
10. Pixies “Here comes your man”
11. The Coral “Dreaming of you”
12. Suede “Beautiful ones”
13. Luna “California (all the way)”
14. Doves “Catch the sun”
15. Violent Femmes “Blister in the sun”
16. Allo Darlin’ “We come from the same place”
17. Primal Scream “Movin’ on up”
18. Morrissey “Sing your life”
19. Belle & Sebastian “The boy with the arab strap”
20. The Radio Dept. “This time around”
21. Young Galaxy “We have everything”
22. Blind Melon “No rain”
23. Pale Blue Eyes “Simmering”
24. The Clientele “Bookshop Casanova”
25. The High Dials “Our time is coming soon”

And here is the promised link to the Apple Music playlist.

*Yeah, I know, April is known to be rainy… but still…

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.

Categories
Tunes

Eighties’ best 100 redux: #83 [Tie] Yazoo “Only you” (1982) & The Flying Pickets “Only you” (1983)

<< #84    |    #82 >>

The #83 position on this Eighties’ best 100 (redo) list is occupied by two very different versions of the same song: Yazoo’s original synth-heavy New Wave hit and The Flying Pickets’ a capella cover of “Only you”.

Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode after the release of their debut album, “Speak & spell”, in 1981 and formed Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) with vocalist Alison Moyet. “Only you” was released as the duo’s first single and would later appear on Yazoo’s synth pop trailblazing debut “Upstairs at Eric’s” in 1982 but was actually written by Clarke back when he was still with Mode. Yazoo would only release one more album before calling it quits in 1983 when Clarke went on to form Erasure (another synthpop duo) with Andy Bell.

Though Yazoo’s “Only you” hit #2 on the UK singles chart, it was actually beaten by The Flying Pickets’ a capella cover version of the same song. They scored the coveted Christmas number one spot on the UK singles chart in 1983 when they recorded and released it as their debut single. The Flying Pickets started as a six piece group that specialized in a capella covers and were very active on the political left. They have never officially broken up but the members have changed so much over the years that not a single original member remains.

Both versions of the song bring me back to grade 10 music class because this is where I first heard the two of them. Ms. Harrison, the music teacher, brought in The Flying Pickets’ version to play for us and to show us an example of a capella singing. Many in the class liked the song so much that we listened to it again the next day, and the next, and it got to be almost a daily ritual at the end of each class. Finally, someone in the class or maybe it was Ms. Harrison again (my memory on this is a bit fuzzy – it was a few decades ago) brought in the original Yazoo version to bask in the differences in sound, feel, and emotion. To this day, though I am a much bigger Yazoo fan than I am of The Flying Pickets (can’t say I know any of their other songs), I love both versions of this tune equally.

Here is the original Yazoo version:

Here is a cappella cover by The Flying Pickets:

Original Eighties best 100 position: #83

Favourite lyric: “All i needed was the love you gave / all I needed for another day / and all I ever knew / only you.” Okay. Maybe I’m cheating here because this is the chorus but I do love singing along with it.

Where are they now?: Yazoo reformed for a tour in 2008 that brought them through Europe and the US but that was pretty much it. Erasure is still very much Clarke’s primary project. And as I mentioned already, Flying Pickets are still plugging away out there somewhere.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.