On Saturday I has a 3 hour coach journey, so I planned ahead on something fun to do. I settled on picking a theme for my song of the week and trying to make a playlist that fit to this, then choosing my favourite to become the song of the week. The theme I chose was “Long songs”, one which was very heavily inspired (read: stolen) from my wonderful friend Sof (see their playlist here)! As an arbitrary rule, I let myself pick songs that were 8 minutes or longer (and hey who was I to judge if a few that were close enough got through).

I think the reason I never really pick a theme for these is because whenever someone asks me to pick something related to a theme, every example just conveniently decides to take that time to leave my brain. This, combined with the fact that the spotify mobile app refused to show me song lengths without me first playing them, seemed like a bit of an issue. In all reality it led to a nice session of me catching up on old songs that I forgot about, mainly that of W.H.Lung and Squid. I will not go through all the choices (because otherwise I would be writing for hours), but pick some highlights out.

• Amber Waves: I mean it’s Ethel Cain what do you expect from me (perverts ftw)
• The Wrong Side of History: I really loved regressive left for their beautiful synths and dancy music. They were a really unashamedly political band and one which I really respected for it. I love the different phases of this song, which are linked well together and keep it interesting enough to justify it’s length. Luckily the main singer has gone on to create a new band “The Itch”, who have released one song so far; Ursula a song which I instantly fell in love with.
• Crap Art: I’ve really built myself a reputation of liking songs where you just get talked at and The Cool Greenhouse are really not helping me in this department. They definitely take some getting used to, at one point in time their single “Alexa” was the only song by them I found palatable. However over time I likened to their style of weird stories and tales spoken to a backing track of strange guitars and synth. This is their longest song and will definitely be a strange listen for most people, but I do recommend trying some of their more accessible songs such as 4Chan and Landlords.
• The Cleaner: The first time I was introduced to Squid, via their song Houseplants, I found it funny that they were singing in such a strange way (perhaps a side effect of the fact that the drummer is singing). I don’t know that I really enjoyed the song at the time, but I’ve certainly warmed well up to their post-punk sound now. The cleaner is one of their older songs and has a dance-esque vibe, the guitars are fun and light, the drums constant and interesting. I think one of the main (albeit stupid) reasons I like the song so much is because it reminds me of the Greg Davies BBC TV series ‘The Cleaner’, where Greg plays the role of a crime scene cleaner who gets into lots of silly mishaps.

The song of the week, comes from a small band local to me - NOT SOUP. I saw them not too long ago supporting Keg and, not knowing what to expect, I waited in anticipation for them to start. What I did not expect was a prog rock, math rock mix. Not something I usually go to see live, so I was a little nervous, but boy did they show me up. The intricate and impressive guitar and poly rhythms ran over their long and impressive songs. The lyrics were interesting and sung well with great emphasis. The song I chose was one I felt is particularly pertinent and one which is some of their best work.

See the playlist here:

The track of the week:

See my friend Sof’s song of the week here!