The Radio Dept. – Heaven’s On Fire (2010)

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Good morning folks. I hope you’ve had a good August. I’m back today and raring to go with a bit of musical miscellany. In 2010, The Radio Dept.’s core members, Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson (aka Martin Carlberg), fell out with their record label Labrador after the release of their tour-de-force long player Clinging To A Scheme. It resulted in a 6-year hiatus which gave fans a lot of time to absorb all that the album had to offer.  The record contained a handful of strong songs and three were released as singles – ‘David’, ‘Heaven’s on Fire’ and ‘Never Follow Suit. ‘Heaven’s on Fire’ opens with a vocal sample Thurston Moore’s observations about youth culture and then explodes into a happy Saint Etienne-like indie dance anthem. Have a great week.

Saint Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (A Mix Of Two Halves) (1990)

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I was very sorry to hear about the untimely death of Andy Weatherall yesterday. He changed UK music in the early 1990s. Sandwiched in between his genre-defining mix of The Happy Mondays’ ‘Hallelujah‘ and his production of Primal Scream’s beloved Screamadelica was this Balearic, dub-fused, double-headed remix of Saint Etienne’s Neil Young cover ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’. R.I.P. Mr. Weatherall.

Saint Etienne – Western Wind / Tankerville (1994)

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In February 1994, Saint Etienne released Tiger Bay, their third studio LP on Heavenly Records. Band member Bob Stanley referred to the album as “an album of modern folk songs done in twentieth century styles like techno and dub”. Quite amazingly, the powers that be decided to drop the ‘Western Wind’/ ‘Tankerville’ suite from the American edition on Warner Bros. While the delivery of ‘Western Wind’ maintains the essence of a traditional English folk song, the shift into trip hop of ‘Tankerville’ was incredibly current.

Blur – To The End (1994)

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On this side of The Pond, Blur’s third album Parklife had such an impact. In 1994, it sounded like the quintessential Britpop album. Part concept, part social commentary, the album did more to define Britpop than all that followed. For all the the happy-chappy singalongs, nestled at the heart of the album was ‘To The End’. Slightly sophisticated, slightly psychedelic, and ever so slightly sounding like Saint Etienne, the band would revisit the same style with their classic ‘The Universal’ from the following LP The Great Escape. Have a great weekend. 

Neil Young ‎- Only Love Can Break Your Heart (1970)

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Off his 1970 album After the Gold Rush, ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ was written for Graham Nash after his split from Joni Mitchell. Nash was Neil Young’s previous bandmate; Mitchell was a colleague who shared the same manager. That intimacy was originally lost on me when introduced to the song through Saint Etienne’s cover 20 years later. Have a great weekend. And Happy Valentine’s Day!

Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us Now (1991)

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By way of some soothing respite from hardcore punk, here’s Saint Etienne and their much-loved long player Foxbase Alpha. ‘Nothing Can Stop Us’ has that early 1990s dance sound mixed in with pure bubblegum pop. It features a very prominent slice of Dusty Springfield (‘I Can’t Wait Until I See My Baby’s Face‘) and it worked to a tee. Great memories.