Music of the Week – Anita O’Day, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Feist, The Unmixed Tracks

This week, I have been listening to a blend of new and old. These songs have stuck with me as I have wandered around town making and trying to implement plans.

Anita O’Day, I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.

This has long been a favorite song. It’s Rodgers & Hart, and though I have heard it dozens if not hundreds of times, the meaning eludes me. Perhaps, because it’s reflective, it’s quite sad, though the lyrics would suggest happiness.

This is the refrain:

I didn't know what time it wasthen I met you.Oh, what a lovely time it was,How sublime it was too!I didn't know what time it wasyou held my hand.Warm like the month of May it was,and I'll say it was grand.

Grand to be alive, to be young,to be mad, to be yours alone!Grand to see your face, feel your touch,hear your voice say I'm all your own.

I didn't know what time it waslife was no prize.I wanted love and here it wasshining out of your eyes.I'm wise,and I know what time it is now.

Buy Anita O’Day on iTunes.

Arctic Monkeys, You Know I’m No Good.

I actually love Arctic Monkeys, and I am looking forward to buying their new album. Here is there cover of another of my favorite songs, Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good, which has followed me around all week.

Buy Favourite Worst Nightmare.

Feist, Tout Doucement.

I have been humming this all week. It’s lovely and lounging.

Buy Let It Die this week and The Reminder next week.

The Unmixed Tracks.

The most exciting thing I have heard this week is an unmixed guitar/bass/drum track from the album. I literally jumped up and down when I heard it. It was as I had imagined it would sound when I first heard the demo. I am tempted to play it again, but getting my heart racing would be extremely foolish when I really should be falling asleep.

 

Blog Round-Up — Amy Winehouse, Andrew Bird, Annuals, Bloc Party, The Cinematics, Kaiser Chiefs, Mark Ronson

Culture Bully has 13 live songs from an Amy Winehouse show in February.

Good Weather for Airstrikes has a review of the Annuals/Kaiser Chiefs show in NY. I am a huge fan of Annuals (Complete or Completing is still a favorite) and I also really enjoy Kaiser Chiefs, so it’s an interesting read. Plus, mp3s.

Good Weather for Airstrikes also has an mp3 from Bloc Party’s appearance on BBC Radio ’s Live Lounge: a cover of Nelly Furtado’s Say it Right. Plus, more mp3s from my favorite source of wacky covers.

BBC’s Collective, which is not technically a blog, has an interview with Mark Ronson about his new covers project.

30 frames confirms why all music videos look the same.

The Music Slut covers Spinner’s coverage of The Cinematics covering Jeff Buckley at SX, under the headline “Jeff Buckley’s Mother ‘Teary Eyed’ After Cinematics Cover.” An impressive example of great pr at work.

I Guess I’m Floating reviews Andrew Bird’s Armchair Apocrypha.

 

"Retro Soul" Primer on Soul-Sides.com

Check out the Retro Soul primer on Soul-Sides.com.

There are links to songs from Amy Winehouse, including a new live version of “He Can Only Hold Her,” Sharon Jones, The Poets of Rhythm, Breakestra, and Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators.

 

Amy WInehouse & the Dap-Kings?

Check out Soul Sides for a great post about Amy Winehouse, her band, and issues of race.

I have been listening to Back to Black (or large parts of it) for months and I never realized she was backed by two of the Dap-Kings.

Of all of the music I have slept on in recent years, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings may be the most egregious. I’ve only been listening to them for months, instead of years, because I never knew they existed. (How embarrassing is that?)

Download:
Mp3: <a href=”http://www.divshare.com/download/256228-055“>Amy Winehouse, Rehab
Mp3: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?.

Buy:

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black on Amazon.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Naturally on Amazon or eMusic.

 

Arjan Writes: Review of Amy Winehouse in NYC

Since the London cancellations last week, everyone here in Austin has been wondering whether Amy Winehouse would show, and if so, how she would perform.

Thanks to an excellent review from Arjan Writes, the shows should be on and great.

 

Essential New Releases – Amy Winehouse

There is one essential new release this week:

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black.

This album is finally receiving its US release. It’s an excellent album and a very worthy follow-up to her 2003 album Frank.

Key tracks: too numerous to mention.

I haven’t heard an album with such top to bottom fabulousness in years.

Listen:
Amy Winehouse, Rehab (Desert Eagle Remix).
Amy Winehouse, Love is a Losing Game (acoustic).

Buy it here on Amazon for $7.99(!) or iTunes.

 

Amy Winehouse – Love is a Losing Game – Acoustic Version

Amy Winehouse should be much, much more famous in the US. She’s a unique talent and she has a great voice.

I saw her video for Love is a Losing Game at about 3 am this morning. I think.

Here is a great acoustic version:

Amy Winehouse, Love is a Losing Game

Notes from a DIfferent Kitchen is streaming the video.

 

Amy Winehouse – Free iTunes Download

Click here to download Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good from the iTunes Music Store: You Know I’m No Good.

 

Music on Which I Have Slept – Amy Winehouse

Whenever anyone asks me what music I listen to, I always tell them “really crappy British music, with a preference for covers of crappy British music by crappy British artists.” (It’s a minor lie, but a reasonably cute one.)

Then they ask for examples and I end up telling them of my love of The Kooks and the Lily Allen cover thereof. Then they look at me like I am slightly insane . . . mostly because they’ve heard of neither. I think. Or it might be because I am.

So it’s a shock I completely slept on Amy Winehouse.

Really, I blame Perez Hilton. Like the rest of America, I do not know why I keep him in my rss reader, but I do. I feel unclean every time I glance at his stuff, but I guess I find his Paris Hilton tongue baths amusing.

I know he wasn’t first or probably even early, but his estatic embrace of Amy Winehouse meant I would absolutely skip it.

I was so very very wrong.

It’s an amazing album and she has an amazing voice. It’s very 60s Soul. (While I have been typing, I had a short playlist running in the background. I had searched something and it was playing in order. I did not even notice when it jumped from Winehouse to a Mary J Blige/Nina Simone collaboration.)

Best tracks:

Rehab is the killer track.
You Know That I’m No Good
Me and Mr. Jones