Crisis Averted: we’ve found a guest editor for NYLPM. Two guest editors actually, who’ll get a week each. Who are these modern-day Herculi? One of them is American and has a weblog already, and one of them is British and doesn’t (unless he’s been keeping it very secret). And – in a doubtless futile attempt to drum up interest – THAT’S ALL IM SAYING!! Until the end of October.
The new Sugababes’ record’s ginger steps towards a more ‘rock sound’ (read: acoustics or copies thereof all over the place and a guitar solo mixed hilariously low on one track) led me to download a prime example of how such things should be done, viz. “Toy Soldiers” by MARTIKA! This is an ace single (“Won’t you come out and play with me” puts a shiver down my spine, what a way to introduce your big chorus) though I’m probably fooling my own ears to hear it in the Sugatracks. It’s also pretty much all I’ve listened to today aside from a few more faltering steps on the Long March that is Popular. (What am I saying, I’ve become genuinely fond of all that fifties stuff and will be sorry to see it go, it’s had a terrible effect on my ability to ‘get’ current music though. There’s just too much of a context shift for me to be able to go from the Dreamweavers to grime in one sitting, I think I might just ignore the next six months or sit them out as a pop exile.)