Listen up: TuneSmith’s musical recommendations for August
Posted by Anthony on July 29th, 2009Looking for the perfect music to take on your trips? Here, our very own TuneSmith, DJ Rob Wood, compiler of the Mr & Mrs Smith: Something for the Weekend CDs, makes his essential monthly recommendations…
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ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast by Cornershop
When? You need to wipe a frown off your face
Why? This is smile-inducing English pop at its finest
Despite the shelves of Cornershop being stocked with sonic treats from genres far and wide, the one very unifying fact about this great little band’s songs are that they could only ever be British. Their ear for a sly beat is still very much evident on Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast, as is the Asian-tinged pop hooks. What’s new here is a very Exile On Main Street-era Stones rock-meets-soul which elevates this album to their very best. Cornershop have always been idiosyncratic, fun and joyfully ramshackle, but their wonderful ability to get up a dead simple, but dead good groove is what might just make this one of this year’s sleeper hits. Anyone partial to gospel-soaked rock or wonderfully wonky beats should see this as a refreshing curveball that glances beautifully away from Britain’s mainstream.
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THE SMITH CLASSIC
Station To Station by David Bowie
When? You’re in somewhat of a tizz
Why? It’s Bowie’s most messed-up but brilliant moment
It’s a cliché to say that bad times breed great music. Fact is, it seems largely true. Bowie made so many great records in the ’70s, that it is hard to pin down just one body of work. But what is certain is that his life was a mess when he made this exceptional album. Cocaine addiction had left him in pieces, constantly shadowed by deep paranoia. This gave opening track Station To Station an epic sonic eeriness, as well as the Thin White Duke character, as whom Bowie later starred in The Man Who Fell To Earth. As the album progresses though we are invited into a white funk and brilliant slow groove on mini-masterpieces such as ‘Stay’ and ‘TVC15’. When Bowie closes the album with the heart-cracking ‘Wild Is The Wind’, you can only conclude that his pain was art’s beautiful gain.
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