Farraginous Friday #23 – Good day sunshine

Hello Farraginous followers! Welcome to the 23rd installment of Farraginous Fridays! As the British summer has really got going weather-wise, I thought it appropriate for this week’s list to be sun & summer themed.

Farraginous Friday #23 – Good day sunshine    (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #23 – Good day sunshine    (YOUTUBE)

Lucky Soul

Butter wouldn’t melt in the mouth of Lucky Soul‘s Ali Howard. Deliciously summery bubblegum pop from this South London 6-piece with their 2007 track One Kiss Don’t Make A Summer.

One of the poppier and accessible efforts from the delightfully disturbed Of Montreal. Oslo In The Summertime is a lonely look at a man slowly losing it in Norway’s capital from Athens’ finest!

Country rock legend Don Henley is up next with his overly covered classic The Boys Of Summer. In fact I say it’s Henley’s; he only wrote the words! The music came courtesy of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell. FACT!

Everyone if familiar with Lauren Laverne and her TV/radio presenting pursuits but not everyone is familiar with her old pop group Kenickie. Stay In The Sun is a definite highlight from their otherwise rather dull second album of 1998 album, Get In.

The Magnetic Fields

It’s a downbeat affair next with The Magnetic Fields and their desperately sad I Don’t Believe In The Sun. Can’t recommend the incredible triple album 69 Love Songs enough!!

I’m going to be perfectly honest with you and say that Blister In The Sun is the only Violent Femmes song that I know. It’s instantly recognisable hooks and catchy lazy vocals make this a perfect sunny sunshine track!

The Libertines took the english indie scene by storm in 2002 with their debut album Up The Bracket. I think Don’t Look Back Into The Sun may well be my favourite of their tracks and it was released as a single 2003 but never appeared on an album.

2008 saw Elbow release their most poppy and succesful album to date. One Day Like This is such a glorious song with a beautifully full and lust arrangement. Begs to be played loud!

a-ha

Couldn’t resist this one, a-ha‘s The Sun Always Shines On TV is such an effortlessly epic pop anthem I just had to include it. Apparently the band were all suffering from severe flu while recording this song… doesn’t really show on the recording… don’t know why I bothered mentioning it.

Finishing us off this week are indie royalty Belle and Sebastian. This has to be one of the best pop songs ever written; Another Sunny Day encapsulates so much of the British summer in just 4 minutes! An adorably addictive pop smash from the Scottish legends!

That’s your lot for this week my sun-kissed lovelies! I hope you’ve enjoyed the summery blast of this week’s sun & summer themed playlist. Don’t forget, if you don’t have Spotify then there is always the Youtube link. So no one need miss out!

Remember to add your suggestions below and please do continue to invite new listeners to the blog! The easiest way is to invite people to the Facebook group dedicated to Farraginous Fridays. You can find it here – http://groups.to/farraginousfridays.

Laters!
Farraginous Francis x

Farraginous Friday #23 – Good day sunshine    (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #23 – Good day sunshine    (YOUTUBE)

Farraginous Friday # 16 – The magic touch

Welcome to the 16th edition of Farraginous Fridays, the music blog for real music fans!

This week we will be looking at songs engulfed in a puff of smoke! Magic tinges the playlist and I’m sure there will be something for everyone here…

Farraginous Friday #16 – The magic touch    (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #16 – The magic touch    (YOUTUBE)

First to wave the wand this week are the cult conjurers, Steve Miller Band. Apparently inspired by Diana Ross, Abracadabra is from the band’s 1982 album of the same name. This tune went to number one in the US and is at #70 in the Billboard‘s Greatest Songs of all Time.

Screaming Jay Hawkins

Two years later The Cars released their joyfully simple hit, Magic. This track was taken from Heartbeat which after the band’s plethora of huge hits, turned out to be their last album.

Now if there’s anyone in the world you wouldn’t want pursuing you romantically, or otherwise, it would be Screaming Jay Hawkins. He rips and roars his way through I Put A Spell On You like a man possessed. By the end of this 1956 hit, the crazy Clevelander has got himself in to a right old state!

In The Morning Of The Magicians is truly one of the most beautiful and magical songs I’ve ever heard. The Flaming Lips have always been savants of spacey other-worldliness and this wonderful track from their tenth studio album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is no exception.

REO Speedwagon‘s peak had long gone by the time their 1984 album Wheels Are Turnin’ came out. But the album still managed to achieve Top 40 singles. Although Break His Spell wasn’t one of these, it still shows, to me, what REO were all about.

Of Montreal

Next up is one of my favourite bands of all time with a joys-of-love type track from one of my favourite albums of all time. Of Montreal have one of the most insanely experimental, peculiar, fun and fucked-up back catalogues around. Your Magic Is Working is from the 2004 album Satanic Panic In The Attic. Chief member, Kevin Barnes, wrote every song and performed every instrument on the album! GENIUS!!!

M. Ward has a natural air of cool about him and his Post War album has exactly that but without a hint of pretentiousness. Magic Trick is designed to feel like a 50s/60s rock ‘n’ roll live show and does indeed make you want to sing along. Listen out for backing vocals from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James.

One of the biggest selling artists in Canada during the 90s, Sloan are still pretty much unknown in the UK and US.  Witch’s Wand is a plea to a friend with a drug problem and is from their 2008 album Parallel Play.

Patrick Wolf

I could resist! I tried and I tried but it I just couldn’t do a magic themed playlist without this storming smash hit from Scottish cheese-meisters Pilot. The band was formed by two member of the Bay City Rollers (David Paton and Billy Lyall) and Magic is from their album debut album of 1974.

Burberry donning multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wolf waves the final wand of the playlist with his 2007 indie-poptastic The Magic Position. This was his last single for 2 years. The quirky and sparkly arrangement of this wonderfully jubilant track makes it the perfect closer to this week’s magical playlist!

Thank you for listening and I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s mix. Do leave comments below if you have ANYTHING to say about the selection or any tracks which you would have included in the list.

Please do continue to tell your friend’s about Farraginous Fridays. Send them along to the Facebook group here – http://groups.to/farraginousfridays or just invite them straight to the blog at http://farraginousfridays.com.

Until next time…

Magic love
Farraginous Francis x

Farraginous Friday #16 – The magic touch    (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #16 – The magic touch    (YOUTUBE)

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F09049705362C6EB