Happily Imperfect

A song you didn’t realize was a cover? The Pet Shop Boys were a formative band of my youth. In an era of Stock, Aitken, and Waterman cookie-cutter pop, they stood out both with their sound, and their art house stylings. One of the few bands of that time that I still follow, I had most of their albums and was lucky enough to, finally, see them live a few years ago. A version of this song features on my favourite album of theirs but the original PSB version got heavy rotation on the radio when it…

A song you’d like to hear covered by someone else. Which artist? Let’s start with a favourite song of mine, something I know very well as I’ve been listening to it for many many years. It’s a song that fully introduced me to a band that was still building it’s reputation, and which had just released it’s second album, and on that album was this song which still, to this day, brings goosebumps. As for who should cover it, I think it has to be something more than an acoustic stripped-back notion,…

A song from the last gig you went to. I waited a long long time to see this artist live. Her Jagged Little Pill album was my era, the songs remain sharp, vivid, and bold. She set a trend that said “women can rock too” and opened doors for many current artists who now, too, headline stadiums. And that voice. Ohh my God that voice, so strong, so alive, it was such a treat of a gig. The warmup acts of Skunk Anansie and Wet Leg got things going but Bellahouston Park erupted when god* arrived on the…

A weekly recap of the articles and posts I’ve read that I think are worth your time. The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play: The Pattern Of Thinking That Justifies Cruelty – ideatrash — “There are ways that the world is cruel that we cannot change; entropy exists, life feeds on life. But there is a giant difference between those things we cannot change and needlessly increasing suffering in the universe.” * Lost & found in Tokyo: a first-timer’s adventure — Lottery win = travelling. * An Open…

A song you’d do at karaoke? No. I do not enjoy karaoke. But, the first time I did it I was “volunteered” on a work night out. The track, I kid you not, You Got The Power by Snap. Even if I HAD chose to sing that night it’s not exactly a first choice candidate, ya know? The second time I sang at karaoke was a very VERY drunken night in Spain. The local bar that my expat in-laws frequented, long after they called it a night, started up karaoke and I was drunk enough to perform Times Like These by…

A song you’ve seen performed live, or would really like to see performed live? Nnaaaaaa na na naa na na naaaa This track fits the brief perfectly. I was lucky enough to be lying near the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury one sunny afternoon. I was fairly stoned, and just enjoying the grass under my feet and the blue skies over head. Between bands the PA pumps out music and it was from here that I heard it performed live, by several thousand people, a choir of the great unwashed, murmuring their way…

I am having a bath. I don’t have baths very often, but I’ve a bad head cold so I’m hoping some vapour bath bubbles and a hot steamy room will help unclog me a bit. But I don’t have baths very often, to the point that I once shared the fact on social media. A bath in a new home. A photo of my feet sticking out of the water. I’m 186cm tall (6’1”) so most regular sized baths are a little too small for me to lie out completely. So there I was, happy in my bath, cropping the photo a bit to keep…

A song that you discovered in an unusual way. Ahhhh illegal music, downloading MP3s galore, Napster, Limewire, WinAmp. I had more music than I could ever listen too, most of it still on an old iPod. I download all sorts. Compilations made up by others were a favourite, 20 tracks, all random and it was in one of these that this track appeared. Most of those compilations weren’t great, in either artistic/musical talent, or even decent digital recordings. But this, this sonic treat that I only…

Jesus fuck. The three children killed were aged five, eight and 11. A seven-year-old and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to a hospital in a critical condition. It is unclear if the attacker had any links to the school. On June 16th 1999 —over 27 years ago— I wrote my 4th ever blog post about a shooting incident in America. I now can’t recall what happened that day, but the history books do. I wrote about another shooting 21 days later. The issue remains. As complex as it may seem. It’s the…

Tickling my son, chasing my son, generally just being silly with my son, illicits his laugh and my heart swells with joy and love. The back and forth banter between my wife and I. Pronouncing bagel BAHgel. Mash Potato. Coffee at the perfect temperature, not too hot to scald, but hot enough to feel going down. Watching Dave, our old boy dog, slowly waking up and looking around the room, realising a new day has started. The turning of the leaves in Autumn. Losing yourself in a great book (finally…

A song that reminds you of a particular friend. I’ve known this person since I was 15. I met her through a mutual friend. We are still friends today and have been through the full gamut of life experiences. Ohh and for a while we were married. Louise and I met as teenagers, married at 21, and have now been divorced for mumble mumble (16?) years. We’ve been through a lot both as a couple and as friends, and I’m so glad she’s still part of my life. It’s telling that, the night my younger sister…

A song that reminds you of one of your favorite places. I had been there many years ago, I think. My childhood was largely built around parks and gardens, walks in forests and shopping centres. I always loved being outdoors. So I presume I’d been to this place before Becca took me there. It fit the bill, country walks among the trees along well-trodden paths. Quiet, but accessible, secluded but not hidden. We walked and talked as the dogs ran ahead, following trails through towering pines,…

High profile bloggers return to X. A new CEO, a different algorithm, and a whining “but it’s where the action is?”. So it’s ok to be in the platform run by a sociopathic Nazi as long as you aren’t SEEING the right wing hatred? Have I got that right? And hey all the interesting stuff is there anyway, so what’s the problem? AND it’s all been De-Musk’d SO THAT MAKES IT ALL OK. But hey, as long as you get interesting things to click on, that’s ok. Question, regardless of what the algorithm shows,…

I do not believe in god, and while I’ll concede there are some aspects to organised religion that can do good, on the whole I don’t think religion is a good thing. I’ve felt this way for a long time now, and when I’ve mentioned my non-belief to believers in the past, the discussion usually ends up at a similar place, with a familiar question. If you don’t believe in God, or anything particularly spiritual, where do you get your morality from? And looking at it from the point of view of a…

What song makes you feel like you’re in a dream? I can’t help it. I think ‘dream’ and my brain leaps to ‘dream scene from a movie’. How do YOUR dreams play out when you try and relive them, try and capture them? For a while I tried to keep a dream journal but after just a few weeks I gave up. All I had was some jumbled words and locations. All of which I could easily, rationally, explain away —I’d visited my Mum the same day I went for a swim in the Loch, so obviously she was out there swimming…

A weekly recap of the articles and posts I’ve read that I think are worth your time. GitHub – Myraas/BetterGreenButton: A tiny macOS menu-bar utility that makes the green window button maximize instead of fullscreen · GitHub — A tiny macOS menu-bar utility that makes the green window button maximize instead of fullscreen. YES! We are going to kill “unalive” – Anil Dash — “One of the things that’s most concerning to me is that an entire generation has grown up not realizing how extreme it is…

If today were a genre, what would it be? Pick a matching song. It’s a birthday weekend! Today we have Jacks’ party, and tomorrow we have his cousins party. To say Jack is excited for his party is an understatement, we’ve just got to try and keep him calm adjacent until this afternoon! “Get The Party Started” by Shirley Bassey Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Listen to Gordon McLean's Apple Music playlist View original post on Crucial Tracks Thanks for…

Every month, on the 9th of the month, I write him a letter. Sometimes it’s only a few paragraphs, sometimes I find myself realising something about his character that I recognise in me and write about how that played out through my life. Mostly I just write about what has happened in the previous month, and how well he’s developing, growing, and learning. Today’s letters brings the total up to ~37,000 words (so far). I have no idea if he’ll ever read them, although I am starting to compile them…

So this is a little unprecedented. I wrote this post and sent it on to Ben as a heads-up. I’ve included a summary of his excellent, well-reasoned reply and have to agree with all his points. And for the eagle-eyed, you may have noticed that he’s already made a change, with the Random view moved to the top of the page, whereas before it was buried down in the footer. Ben is passionate about this project, and I can only applaud him for his response and immediate action! Now, read on for my…

What’s a remix or cover you like more than the original? Heck what a question! Fires up his playlist of Cover versions… well, let’s see. Lianne La Havas version of Weird Fishes is a wonderful reimagining in a trip hop style with her smooth soaring vocals over it. Glorious. Ben L’Oncle Soul covers Seven Nation Army and turns it into a much smoother sound. Johnny Cash took Hurt and made it a soul baring, emotional crying for help that moves me to tears. Nouela’s version of Black Hole Sun is a…

What’s a hidden gem or underrated song you love? I think it was a recommendation from a website that took me to this artist. Describe as emo meets alt-country, I loved their sound, and especially (as you’ll have noted already, Dear Reader) the lyrics. I saw them live twice in two different, very small, venues in Glasgow around 2016/17. Just a bunch of young guys with musical senses ahead of their age. I know not if this is a hidden gem, or underrated song, only that most people will likely only…

What’s a song that grew on you over time? I’m sitting here in my Paul’s Boutique t-shirt trying to figure out what changed in the three years between 1986 and 1989. In ‘86 my 13 year old self was, musically, driven by Radio 1, The Top 20 and, of course, Top of the Pops. It was a diverse time for music, rock was fading as hip hop and dance started to appear. By ‘89 I was 16, music was still somewhat Top of the Pops driven but I had discovered NME and my musical tastes were rapidly widening. The…

One piece of advice that stuck with me, although I know not where I received it, was to look up as I walked around a city. Try it the next time you get the chance, there is far far more interesting things happening above head height in most major cities, so rather than focus on the shop fronts, look at the actual buildings that house them, imagine the history of what they’ve seen. And maybe, sometimes, look further, enjoy the clouds in whatever form or shape they come, and if it’s night time,…

What’s your favorite deep cut from an album? It’s 1977, I am 4 years old. Meanwhile, a band are recording their next, and sixth, album. Adjusting to a world of punk, still riding high after a tour featuring songs like Somebody to Love, Brighton Rock, and Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen headed back to the studio. During that Day at the Races tour, Queen started to realise they were on to something, they’d been annoyed by crowds singing along but, according to Brian May… “They sang every note of every…

What song makes you feel like you’re in a different country? The first time I went abroad I was 15, a three week camping holiday in France. My main packing priority was my Walkman and a good selection of tapes (cassettes) I was still mostly in my parents musical realm but was delighted to have borrowed two tapes from the library to take with me. So, alongside Soull II Soul, Bomb the Bass, and Queen, I had an old album from Dire Straits, Love Over Gold. Thinking back, and checking the timelines,…

A weekly recap of the articles and posts I’ve read that I think are worth your time. Mick Jagger Tells the Story Behind ‘Gimme Shelter’ and Merry Clayton’s Haunting Background Vocals | Open Culture — “We randomly phoned up this poor lady in the middle of the night, and she arrived in her curlers and proceeded to do that in one or two takes, which is pretty amazing. She came in and knocked off this rather odd lyric. It’s not the sort of lyric you give anyone–‘Rape, murder/It’s just a shot…

Share a song you feel was ahead of its time. There are some obvious tracks, Blue Monday (‘83) sounds like a track from the mid 90s club nights, I Feel Love (‘77) setting up electronica that wouldn’t appear for at least a decade, Teardrop (‘98) laid tracks for trip-hop artists to follow, and you could even argue that Smells Like Teen Spirit (‘91) set a pathway for rock music through that decade. But I love the Chemical Brothers, so I’ve always found it startling to hear them involved in a track…

Becca and Jack are aware this weekend and I, unwittingly, have stumbled into a Christopher Nolan themed couple of days. I love movies, I love the art, the cinematography, the camera shot choices, the scripts, the characters arcs, the whole thing. From set design, lighting choices, editing choices and more, is utterly fascinating. I grew up watching old movies on a Sunday afternoon. We had 3 TV channels and that was your choice. Thankfully some of those movies were Hitchcock (a surprisingly…

I read this post and found myself thinking: …and then what? Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the reasons people are leaving, and I think many of those reasons are entirely valid. In fact, if you’ve been paying attention here, you’ll know that I’m one of the people considering such a move myself and for similar reasons as stated —“Someone spent years somewhere, it changed under them, and now they’re packing up”— but I’m not sure the reason for just leaving a service/system is always…

What’s the last song you discovered and loved instantly? I tend to find new songs and instantly gorge myself on them. From unheard to on heavy repeat, I’ve always enjoyed that journey from ‘hey that’s interesting’ to ‘man this is catchy’ to ‘I love this track’. This track first appeared a couple of weeks ago, and it reminds of many songs, with a hint of Joanna Newsom in there, Pinegrove, Wolf Alice, and a few others. The soothingly soft guitars, her voice is hypnotic, the quiet/loud(ish)…