every little thing she does is cabbage

You nearly only got 4 today, because I cycled too fast :P

1) Forty Days - Streetlight Manifesto
Another band my ex-partner got me into with their mix CD; I properly enjoy a lot of their stuff (?ska in an ?anarchist vein). This one's a bit negative in theme/style, so I often skip it, but I do like it, particularly the way the repeated ?trumpet break comes back all funky and syncopated.

2) Dragostea Din Tei - O-Zone
The Numa Numa Song to you plebs ;) As a language NERRRD who found the one with the teeth weirdly attractive (I haven't changed), I was ALL OVER the video for this in '04. Catchy mainstream pop in a foreign language with the English glossed in subtitles? YES PLEASE! I deciphered the whole thing with the help of a Teach Yourself Romanian book I already owned because nerrrd (I didn't have internet - it was a struggle, but genuinely a very fun and interesting exercise, and probably a stronger learning experience). Then, on the strength of it, I 1) got super into learning Romanian and 2) took a gap month in Moldova (the weird disco braces boys' homeland) in '06. Formative as hell. And I still know all the words.

3) Zagaiom - Zdob şi Zdub
OH, what a LOVELY segue! For when I was in Moldova in '06, I picked up an album by Moldova's foremost folk punk (?) band, Zdob şi Zdub! No, they actually are Moldova's biggest band - they're the ones they send off to Eurovision (like NORMAL countries, instead of the weird UK that sends chancers nobody's heard of), and I probably bought their album on the strength of their fucking fantastic 2005 entry, Boonika Bate Doba (Granny Beats the Drum). I don't regret this purchase one bit - it's full of honking up-tempo nonsense. This particular track is one of the exceptions, a pleasant gentle ballad; if you were wondering how well I've retained my Romanian over the past 14 years, the only bit I could understand was what seemed to be the Russian phrase for "cuppa tea".

4) The Loser In The End - Queen
Natch. This is off Queen II, their second album, and the second non-compilation of theirs I owned. I had it on cassette and I'd listen to it again and again, start to finish, on my headphones, lying on my bed with blinds drawn and mood lighting on. I preferred the baroque falsetto prog-ish tracks to Roger's straight-down-the-line rock, but it was admittedly quite good for giving the ears/brain a rest at the end of Side 1...

5) Plea From A Cat Named Virtute [sic] - The Weakerthans
Off my ex-partner's mix CD again; I bloody LOVE The Weakerthans, and they might actually be the band I have second most of on my Walkman, contrary to my claim in the first instalment - I'd forgotten how much I'd nicked off said ex-partner. They're gentle and sometimes melancholy, but always whimsical and hopeful. This one is about a cat trying to convince its owner to get over a breakup. While it's genius, I can't help wondering what my ex-partner was thinking.

Listening to Acaster's FUBAR iPod shuffle show has made me think about what's on my Walkman, and what would come up if I went on the show, and such. I always listen to my Walkman when I'm cycling (so, usually, in 15-20min bursts on the way to/from work), and I always have it on shuffle, and I've kind of got into the habit of skipping over most of my less-favourite songs, so out of the 4GB of music that's on there I'm maybe only listening to a quarter of it regularly. Bit of a waste, no? Perhaps I should commit to either deleting some songs off there for good, or being less heavy-handed with the skip button and giving my less-played songs more of a chance.

So I thought it would be interesting, every however-often-I-feel-like-it, to actually listen to five songs in a row without skipping (roughly emulating what would happen if I went on the show), and have a little muse about what comes up. This morning I got five in a row that I actually don't want to delete, so we're starting today XD

1) Stormtrooper in Stilettos (She Makes Me) - Queen
Vast quantities of my Walkman are Queen. I got big into them in my teens and never really moved on XD Brian May does the vocals on this one, and it's a bit gentler than I usually listen to on my commute (I'm mostly after fast-paced stuff that'll pump me up), but it's a pleasant listen, especially the femdom overtones :P

2) Misfire - Queen
Told you vast quantities of my Walkman are Queen. John Deacon wrote this one, I think? It's got a similar acoustic-guitar-chord-backing to the last one, but faster, so that was a nice segue. Again, it's pretty light, but fun; I mostly enjoy reading the lyrics as a euphemism for jizzing.

3) Acid Jazz Singer - The Fratellis
The Fratellis are possibly the act whose music I have joint second most of on my Walkman, in that I have an entire two of their albums. I do not keep up with music XD Particular highlights: the rising walking bass in the chorus, and the line "she said don't you look ridiculous" in the first verse.

4) For The Girl - The Fratellis
Told you! On the whole I find The Fratellis mildly problematic (I have nagging vague concerns about some of their lyrics - cf "I'm a lucky man and maybe so is she" in this one) but enjoyably up-tempo and sadomasochist-ish ("she was breaking my bones while I was busting her noses"). So I tend to sweep the bits I'm not sure about under my mind-carpet and not investigate them too hard...

5) Teachers Get Tired - Shinobu
Ah, now! I had to look this one up! Because one of the "albums" on my Walkman is a poorly-ripped skippy copy of a mix CD a former partner made me ten years ago, and this is one of the songs off it, and I never got into it enough to find out what it was or who it was by, but I do quite like it! Said partner also forced upon me a digital copy of possibly their entire music collection, lots of which I ignored, but certain artists of which I added to my Walkman on the strength of whatever song of theirs was on the mix CD. Maybe I'll fish out the rest of the Shinobu from there, now...