Saturday, April 23, 2011

F&M Playlist

Our music team pick the songs or albums, old or new, they just can't turn off

Kraftwerk Autobahn Orthodoxy holds The Mix to be Kraftwerk's nadir. It's my favourite of their albums: all the signature numbers in one place, at manageable lengths. Michael Hann

Cravo & Canela Est�pido Cupido A glorious, slinky reworking of Neil Sedaka's Stupid Cupid, recorded in Salvador, Brazil, in the late 1970s by a band whose identities are largely unknown; the vocals are by two ladies known simply as Fabiola and Vera. It's on the album Preco De Cada Um, a cult recording now available on CD. Robin Denselow

Fixers Another Lost Apache My amazement at hearing a single by a new major label-signed "indie" band that didn't make me want to beat everybody involved in its making and manufacture about the head cannot be underestimated: not only that, but Another Lost Apache is genuinely great, a concoction of Beach Boys harmonies, tumbling drums and a hint of the early Beta Band's cyclical songwriting style. Alexis Petridis

Lykke Li Sadness Is a Blessing Its big bass drum intro, heaps of echo and an Everest of a vocal, laden with hurt and melancholy ("Sadness is my boyfriend, sadness I'm your girl"), mean you have to check the record to make sure this wasn't produced by Phil Spector in 1966. That such a fantastic single is being made by a Swedish independent-minded artist in 2011 should be a cause for international celebrations. Dave Simpson

Washington Welcome Stranger Newish songwriter Megan Washington has won awards at home in Australia, and if more of her songs were like this ? an embittered look back at a former relationship, strummed and sung in an apparent daze ? she might win them here, too. Caroline Sullivan

Nguuni Lovers Lovers Cheza Ngoma Dream Beach Records is a new boutique label promising to put out underground African music to appeal to east London indie kids. Whatever your reaction to that premise, they've started terrifically well: this fast, trebly pop has infectious summertime appeal. Tom Ewing

Vanbot Lost Without You Sweden's Vanbot create the kind of crystalline dance-pop that makes you a little weepy. Lost Without You is basically Robyn's Dancing on My Own part 2, which, as anyone with ears will tell you, is no bad thing. Michael Cragg


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