every little thing she does is cabbage

Finally got around to buying Surf Music (of course) and started listening to it properly. For the full effect, I should really be blasting it through a PA system while loudly having a conversation and huffing liquid nitrogen, but my earbuds will have to do. Which means I can actually make out the lyrics. And Track 3's got me a little bit heartbroken.

She said she wants braces
But you don't need them, girl

Your imperfections are perfect
So don't ever change
If we all had no flaws then we'd all look the same
F them braces
You don't need them, girl

You'll always be pretty
As long as there's love in your heart
And some crooked-arse teeth in your mouth

2019: Jacaster heard that song several hundred times while sat waiting to go on stage.
Also 2019: Jacaster started wearing Invisalign.

Genuinely can't deal with... with... I can't even describe what this is, but whatever it is, boy's sure got a goddamn knack for it.

Gang! GANG! Do I have a good one for you today!

I spent my entire teens home-taping pop songs off the radio; I have maybe 60 of those 90-minute cassettes, ten or fifteen songs crammed onto each side, dating between 1999 and ?2006, a mix of current hits and (more and more as I got older and more into Radio 2) whatever classics happened to get played. I moved to more of a digital-walkman-based system around 2010, and although I always kept my cassette walkman and a small selection of tapes with me, I haven't touched it in, god, at least five years.

Recently I was prompted to retrieve my entire set of home-taped cassettes from the family home (in their lovely purpose-built case with the slidey drawers and the little cassette-sized slots). I thought, well, I don't want to chuck these away, but if I've got to have them cluttering up the house, I should probably actually make use of them, at some point?

And yesterday I got a song in my head, one I really love (Lovestruck, by Madness) and realised I only possess in analogue format. I don't hold with streaming services, you see; maybe I could rip the digital audio from somewhere on YouTube, but by the time I'd done that, well, I could just as quickly have resurrected my old audio cassette setup...

- Which cassette was it on, then? Check my little notebook with its handwritten alphabetical system of listings (also, fortunately, safely retrieved from the family home). Seconds later, we have the answer: cassette number 7, from 1999 itself...
- Find the cassette in the case, first of all ripping off the parcel tape I'd stuck over the drawers for transit.
- Does my cassette player that I haven't touched for aeons still work? Yes, it looks like it does! Need some more charge in those batteries, though...
- Do my rechargeable AAs that I bought in 2012 and have barely used in years still charge? Yes, they do! And enough to power a cassette player at appropriate speed and volume, no less!
- The final hurdle: how the fuck do I carry this thing so that I can listen to it while cycling? Turns out, it fits perfectly in my shirt breast pocket (much as, I imagine, a stylophone would...) (actually, my housemate has a stylophone... maybe I'll try that when I get home :P)

Deliberately I didn't check the tracklisting (neatly written out, with numbering, on the sleeve that comes in the cassette case). What I enjoy about shuffle is not knowing what's coming next; also, in this situation, I'm going to have to listen to everything in the order it comes without skipping (I could fast-forward, but that would be very awkward while cycling), and I don't want to know there's a run of utter garbage on the way and lose the will to power through it. This is only cassette number 7, after all, back when I was still newly bewitched by the Top 40 and its Stockholm-syndrome-like power of repetition and familiarity; it's probably full of throwaway pop shit that "oh, I love it so much, I can't bear to not record it, what if I never hear it again!". Isn't it?

Five songs in and... oh dear... I might be making one of these posts twice a day for the next 180 days XD

1) Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
Well! That's a pleasingly solid start! 11-or-12-year-old-me had taste :D

2) ?The Whole Of My Universe - ?
THIS is a real mystery. Sounds pretty indie, sort of Beck-ish; I do remember it, and remember liking it, and writing it down with satisfaction in the tracklisting when I managed to capture it; I couldn't remember the artist (though I think they might have been relative unknowns), and I left the sleeve at home, but I assumed I'd be able to search-engine it from the lyrics fairly quickly, because we live in the future now. But... nope! Not a thing! Very odd... I shall investigate further and update you once I'm able to check the tracklisting...

3) Dance The Night Away - The Mavericks
I... had absolutely forgotten that my gran quite liked The Mavericks, and our tastes intersected at this particular song which had got a lot of airplay, and I think I, unusually, recorded this song onto this cassette from an album of theirs that she owned! (This theory would be borne out by it actually having the full outro, rather than being abruptly cut off where a DJ started talking over it...) Her cassette player, marvel of marvels, had two decks, so you could do reel-to-reel recording with it; I coveted it greatly, and occasionally took advantage of visits to do little projects like this. Oh, bless her. I'd forgotten all about that.

4) Feel Good - Phats and Small
I know that this is what it is and who it's by, because Zoë Ball triumphantly announces it just at the end of the recording. I must have decided to keep it in because she timed it so neatly. This was the only thing about this song that was worthy of noting.

5) Love's Got A Hold On My Heart - Steps
You know what? This is actually bloody good. I was never particularly a Steps fan, but neither did I particularly deride them, and as a sort of low-rent ABBA, they really do the job. Heartfelt soaring vocals! Tasty chord progressions! A beat perfect for striding from the cycle park to the office! This is what cheese is all about - it's overblown, and it's manufactured, but we humans are simple creatures and we respond to the by-the-numbers tugs on our emotions nonetheless. Embrace it, and it feels triumphant. XD

Another five songs I was happy not to skip this morning, so another instalment. Songs With Accidental Significance edition.

1) Dance with the Devil - Cozy Powell
I enjoy this drum instrumental, because it appeals to my rhythmic sensibilities, and also it's basically the only drum instrumental I have in my music collection, so obviously it makes me think of Jacaster, even though I have no idea whether this is actually the kind of drumming he likes or does. Idle googling just now revealed that the melody line (a sample) was also used in Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy, which is obvious once you hear it!

2) Blockbuster - The Sweet
I mean, this is fun. Looking forward to watching that today (/as soon as I can pirate it).
I am a sucker for The Sweet's humorously overblown glam, although I prefer Ballroom Blitz (fun at karaoke, and a favourite request at my friends' traditional home-brewed New Year disco). I don't think I know anything else by them; perhaps I should investigate.

3) Galaxy Song - Monty Python
My mum has always said she wants this at her funeral. (Possibly performed by me on guitar, as it used to be a party piece.) The family situation is fraught at the moment, and our relationship has been difficult for a few years, but whatever else can be said about her, at least she has a sense of humour.

4) Livin' Thing - ELO
I tend to take a punt on CDs I'm vaguely interested in if I see them in charity shops, because I know that if the items on sale don't shift fast enough, they'll have to be binned. I knew maybe four songs by ELO before I bought the compilation this came off, and quite liked their arch falsetto-harmony style, and figured it was worth it for Mr Blue Sky alone. This one's not a particular favourite (I got unexpectedly irritated by how many times the line "I'm taking a dive" comes up), but it's pleasant enough.

5) You Come Through - PJ Harvey
Another off the skippy rip of my former partner's mix CD! And I hardly ever bother listening to this one in full, because I'm an uptempo-or-GTFO kinda guy, but on giving it a chance, I did quite like it. I wouldn't be able to manage a huge amount of melancholy PJ Harvey all in one go, but the trippy rhythm (7/8?) and the ethereal tuned percussion (xylophone? marimba? I know nothing) make this a compelling listen. It's stuck in my head now, and I do not mind it.