Enjoying the Music

Tired tonight.

A combination of not getting much sleep (my brain has forgotten that Go To Sleep program) and going hyper due to being highly miffed this morning (desk booking incident) has burned me out somewhat today. I may have ... an early night.

Desk booking ? We have to book our desks and there's a 70% occupancy rate. We have 70% of the desks available that we'd need if everyone was in. You can imagine the mayhem when all the desks are needed. Especially when you have contractors who cannot recognise the difference between an N and a O and therefore sit in the wrong desk and don't have the courtesy to move when you point out their mistake to them. I have to admit, I am extremely blunt when it comes to the desk booking. We're having to be more aggressive than we should in defending our area due to poor briefing given to new joiners.

But enough about work. Ok. Had a couple of meetings that restored my faith in professionalism after that incident with the incompetent contractor. I mean ! Not being able to recognise basic shapes. God forbid he gets anything important to do.

Yep. I have a low opinion of the support contractors we see, mostly due to the reason we have them in. Low pay and worsening conditions are making people jump ship over to other organisations. Who then come back doing similar jobs, poaching staff and costing us more money.

Fact of life in our place.

Music ?

I currently have Hannah Peel's The Broken Wave playing in the background. It's a wonderful album with an amazing singer and her magical music box. Songs like Song For The Sea just make me stop everything and listen.

(I wanna get this post out before midnight, so I will probably come back and fill in the links later ...)

What other albums do I have like that ? Albums that grab you with their quality and hold your attention all the way through. Albums with a story. Albums that carry their theme. Albums with a certain magic. Albums to truly enjoy.

Well, on the theme, it has to be Madonna's total disco celebration of Confessions On A Dance Floor. If you're looking for energy, this has it. In spades. Awesome album, got me back listening to Madonna. She's always been an outstanding artist, who has evolved over the years. She still has it.

I listened to Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare last night. The Arctics first two albums kept you listening with their quirky new style all the way through and when A Certain Romance comes on to finish Whatever Happens ... you know you've been listening to something that'll be a classic. It's just a perfect ending to a quality album.

Cardigans ... you just knew something was coming from these :-). All of their albums are triumphs for me, they're jammed full of amazing songs done in their own unique style which has also evolved over the years. It's kept evolving into Nina Persson's solo projects too. You have the outstanding cover of Iron Man, the beautiful lullaby of 03.45am No Sleep, the shut your cares away and dance of In The Round, the poignant Song For The Leftovers, the violence of I Need Some Fine Wine, the happy wanderlust of Daddy's Car. The anthemic For What It's Worth and rocking My Favourite Game. I'll be a fan until I die. Or go deaf.

And listening to Hannah Peel's Cailin Deas Cruite Na Mbo, I'm reminded of the delicate flower that is Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes. Her first album, Fur And Gold was utterly enchanting with songs like the Rabbit Song, What's A Girl To Do and she's got better from there with songs like Laura.

And with the name Laura (who was a lovely lady who worked on the same project as me for a while), my mind goes to albums related to two very special ladies who I have the pleasure of knowing :

First up is Morcheeba with lead singer Skye, their Big Calm has that theme running through, that piercing voice and variation of songs that comes together as an album. And it's rounded back with the sublime Fear And Love.

And the other is the Carpenter's Gold album, which is just littered with song after song that I'll sit back to listen to and attempt to croak along to. Songs like We've Only Just Begun. That wonderful voice of Karen C was taken from us far too early.

Who have I missed ? I grew up with All About Eve and Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books. One of the characters that caught my imagination was Menolly, a singer songwriter who was a victim of prejudice, making up addictive ditties that the traditionalists hated. But I loved those stories and Julianne Regan of All About Eve became the voice of Menolly for me. And she liked a Facebook comment when I said "Happy Birthday our Wild Hearted Woman" (that being one of my favourite tracks), which made me very happy.

Oh and there's also the inimitable Kate Bush with those soaring vocals. I had a few of her albums on repeat. They worked really well as albums that interwove the songs together and I still listen to them. She kinda ran out of steam with The Sensual World, I didn't like the albums after quite so much. But when there's The Kick Inside and Oh England My Lionheart and ... Hounds Of Love (best ever album by our Kate) ...

I think I may well know what I'll be queueing up next for a long trip in the car.

No blokey albums ? Let's have a look. I think that's reflecting my tendency to fall in love with that female voice. (post ed - I forgot about the Arctic Monkeys up there)

What to finish on, it could be no other than the band I adopted for a nickname. That'd be Alisha's Attic with their middle album, Illumina. This album is amazing, full of emotion and it won my heart with songs like The Incidentals which gets me humming along and maybe even breaking into singing if no one is around to hear me.

I get embarassed with the bad karaoke.

I'll leave it there but not before seeing some A Camp tracks pop up, which reminded me of Algebra. Hope the neighbours can't hear me with that bad karaoke.

PS Forgot a couple. I've been following Garbage from the early days and they keep coming out with great albums. Fix Me Now, yes please. And then there's one of the albums which was the genesis for this post, The Staves debut with Dead and Born and Grown.
PPS I missed Goldfrapp too ! Their first wonderfully wierd album, Felt Mountain, with the sublime Utopia is coming up soon in my listening. Road To Somewhere is their best for me by a long way. Close your eyes and relax.