Woah Leonard, I didn’t see you there.

So Hallelujah is making history, for the first time in 51 years the same song has sat in the first and second rankings of the singles chart. I was expecting Alexandra Burke to take the prize, suspected Jeff Buckely of making top ten and he again outdos my expectations of him; however, what I did not consider was people buying the Leonard Cohen original, enough to put it into the top 40 for the first time, the original came in at 36.

That is frankly remarkable, has there ever been 3 versions of a song in the charts at the same time? It appears the X-Factor is making the populous wake up and smell the chords of some much better artists. Alexandra Burke may have got 576,000 singles sold but that doesn’t mean she is as talented as the other two. I also feel it shows just how powerful the media and especially the internet is at getting lots of people riled up and encouraged to go do something, its been commented on lots of time, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen a “Let’s make an old single / comedy song / outlier a number one for Christmas” that must have got a few hundred thousand people not only nodding their head at the monitor but also clicking purchase on some website.

I did not listen to the chart being announced, partly because my ridiculously hectic and stressful week has come to end and I have come home for Christmas, and when my mother told me she going to roast some parsnips in maple syrup to go with a rabbit stew, I collapsed into our sofa and began watching the Antiques’ Roadshow (it was a bloody good episode, let me tell you), other reasons for not listening was that I don’t have a wireless and and realplayer hasn’t spent enough time on the naughty step for me to update it to listen to the radio online.

Filed under: News, Alexandra Burke, Christmas #1, Jeff Buckley, Katy Perry, Leonard Cohen

Alexandra Burke won the X-Factor, Leonard Cohen rejoices?

Oh wow! Alexandra Burke won X-factor! I was reading the BBC news website for my daily underdose of current affairs when I saw the link and I skim read the article, apparently 8 million people voted for her. I don’t know much about X-factor other than I presume she won some good loot as well as singing with her hero (Beyonce) and a ridiculous amount of publicity. All X-factor winners also receive the de facto prize of Christmas #1, for the last 3 years this has occurred and a cursory glance at Christmas #1s show that the winners of these talent shows normally get to the top spot. This is not surprising as the publicity they attain blows out of the water most other competing acts, for instance 8 million people not only sat down to watch the program but decided it was the worth their effort to vote this talent to win the competition, even if a fraction of those people go out and buy the single she has got the place.

I was just about to launch into a mini attack of programs like X-factor and then I paused and realised that would be uncalled for, this Alexandra seems to have impressed some sort of judging panel and 8 million people, her releases will not affect me and I probably won’t even realise I’m listening to her, so good for her.

However, Alexandra Burke’s debut single (and therefore #1 within a fortnight) is going to be Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen released Hallelujah in 1984, since then it has been recorded for release around 170 times, notably by Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley, the latter’s version has been described as close to perfection any song can achieve apparently, I disagree. Buckley sounds like he is whinging and preaching way too much in it – I don’t think that’s the point of the song there Jeff. I am well aware Leonard Cohen might not be to everyone’s taste, and the original could, if you were malicious, be described as a monotone droning of a poem set to music. I would say it is more a poem than a song in the original but its still pretty good, I guess it depends which version you hear first and what you expect from it. Which bring me to the thing I’m dreading and will be annoyed by in the coming weeks. Hallelujah is an excellent song, but sometimes people get confused as to who wrote it first, I’m hoping it’s fairly obvious to Miss Burke’s fan base that she isn’t singing it for the first time, but more importantly (to me anyway) is that they are well informed and don’t credit Buckley. I really don’t care how much his cover is loved, I get a little twitchy when people believe he wrote it, and no kiddiwinks, Leonard Cohen did not go back in time to cover it.

I guess it’s just a pet hate, and I don’t like it when I don’t realise a song I thought was the original is in fact a cover, for several months I thought Peter, Bjorn and John’s Young Folks was a Japanese song (I was in Japan at the time and Shugo Tokumaru was being played a lot, I am also fairly certain but blatantly mistaken that there is a version sung in Japanese…).
I agree the original Hallelujah may not be the best version, but credit where credit’s due. For the record my personal favourite cover is the Rufus Wainwright version, it’s one of the few songs of his I like. I guess Cohen himself is pretty pleased with it, it’s like the UK are giving him one big Christmas present, of royalties.

Lastly, what an odd song to be Christmas #1, it’s not very cheery or Christmasy…

Filed under: Articles, News, Alexandra Burke, Christmas #1, Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, X-Factor

Santa couldn’t have planned it better…

Moshi Moshi and Wichita records are holding a joint Christmas party on the the 16th December, there are a limited number of tickets on sale and they haven’t released the full line up yet. However, I bought a ticket when it was First Aid Kit playing because I would quite like to see them live (I bought their EP yesterday, which was odd because I didn’t think it was being released here until February next year – it’s as delightful as expected), this morning I checked the event’s website again to see if there was further clues as to who I’ll be seeing, a polite silver bauble said Slow Club. Well, this shouldn’t really have been as surprising as both bands have Christmas songs either being released or available on the internet, and also pretty much guarantees me a wonderful evening. So that leaves but three questions:

1) Who will the other two bands be?

I’ve not noticed any Christmas themed songs by other artists on the labels, so it shall be a mystery.

Then using the might of the internet Tom and I found that the other artists will be James Yuill and Sky Larkin: the latter of which isn’t turning me on as much as the other bands but I’ll wait till after the gig to pass a more definite judgement.

2) Will one band get up on stage with the other?

I know I whinged a bit about Slow Club having other artists up with them, but just imagine for a moment First Aid Kit and Slow Club singing together… At the moment I am going through a heavy phase with respect to these artists so this thought actually makes me whoozy.

3) Will Slow Club take me to court?

Slow Club are at the Buffalo Bar this Friday in conjunction with Twee as Fuck and I was considering going, and although I bought the ‘Christmas party’ ticket before I knew they were playing there the courts might see it differently and I’ll end up with a restraining order again…

Filed under: News, First Aid Kit, James Yuill, Moshi Moshi records, Sky Larkin, Slow Club, Stalking, Twee as Fuck, Wichita

Two dates for the diary.

5th December – Tickets released. 3rd/4th June – Concert.

The show is being advertised as circesque and we have been told to expect jugglers, dancers, acrobats and tattooed ladies (because all ladies who tattoo themselves are forced into the travelling arts apparently), I could be talking about a crazy Irrepressibles show or Cirque Du Solei, but I’m not. Britney Spears is coming to Europe, Blighty to be exact, for just 2 days, I guess we should be excited. However its at the O2 arena and Britney Spears.

I quite like circuses, and considering I’ve seen a bear ride a motorbike in Eastern Europe before it became gentrified by the EU I’m certain her show will pale in comparison so I wont go, you can though. I imagine it will be unpleasantly expensive, so what you should do if you are so inclined for some sort of show, is buy her album then just go to your local circus and play the album on repeat as you see clowns, lion tamers and all manner of other circus people. It will probably be equally well choreographed.

Filed under: News, Britney Spears, Circus, What?

A new Bon Iver EP!

I’ve been trawling the internet as I do in search of new music and news of old bands that I hold close to my heart. I came across a gem this evening and thought I must share it with you as it made me smile from ear to ear.

If you have ever read the first post on this blog you will have some idea of how much I love Bon Iver as it was just a long gush about how amazing his gig in Paris was. They played some new songs when I saw them in Paris so I had an inkling that something like this was on the horizon. They are releasing a new EP entitled ‘Blood Bank EP’ on January 19th. I hope some of you out there are as exciting as I am about this and I’m sure you are.

To go with this post I thought I’d share a little beauty I found, from an album Justin Vernon created before Bon Iver became what they are, called Hazelton

Justin Vernon – Hazelton

Filed under: News, bon iver