Call and Response - Colors Bleed from Winds Take No Shape (2004) /ethereal folk pop/((I really can’t confidently discern one complete sentence of the lyrics. And it seems neither can anyone on those virulently common pop-up ridden mass lyric websites, or anywhere else on the internet for that matter. I’ve a feeling it […]

U2 - Stay (Faraway, So Close) from Zooropa (1993) /post-pop/((“Dressed up like a car crash,the wheels are turning but you’re upside down.You say when he hits you, you don’t mind…because when he hurts you, you feel alive…Oh now, Is that what it is? / And if you look, you look through me,and when you […]

Scissor Sisters - It Can’t Come Quickly Enough from Scissor Sisters (2004) /retro glam pop/((“We knew all the answers and we shouted them like anthems, anxious… and suspicious that God knew how much we cheated. It can’t come quickly enough, and now you’ve spent your life waiting for this moment. And when you […]

Four Tet - As Serious As Your Life from Rounds (2003) /organic synthesizer/((A dense mist rises off of the silvered asphalt. The dull heat that clung to the air has been sliced through by fresh rain that deluged under dark skies. And now as the sun blazes down from the white hot horizon […]

The Housemartins - Flag Day from London 0 Hull 4 (1986) /alt.pop/((“Too many Florence Nightingales / Not enough Robin Hoods / Too many halos not enough heroes / Coming up with the goods / So you thought you’d like to change the world / Decided to stage a jumble sale / For the poor […]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds or Johnny Cash - The Mercy Seat from Tender Prey (1988) or American III: Solitary Man (2000) /black romantic/((“And the mercy seat is waiting. And I think my head is burning. And in a way I’m yearning.to be done with all this measuring of truth.An eye for […]

Expectations can be a real bitch. I’d been keenly looking forward to the Ted Leo show at Call the Office for a rather long time. It was a strange situation: I found out they were playing at CTO a month and a bit ago, and the name sounded familiar, so I looked into […]

Ted Leo/Pharmacists wsg The Reputation Live at Call The Office in London - July 17th, 2004 - Review
The Reputation

Ted Leo/Pharmacists

1 Giant Leap - Racing Away (with Horace Andy, Grant Lee Phillips, and Kaolin Thompson) from 1 Giant Leap (2002) /ethno-tribal-dream-ballad?/((“Dream my grandfather,dream of great quiet.Merely a flash betweenwords and blue silence.Gentle this hour.Great is the highway.Brave are these cowards.Racing racing racing racing away.”The race. The blur rides down into us. Artificial beams of yellow […]

Sinead O’Connor - You Made Me The Thief of Your Heart (written by Bono, Gavin Friday, and Maurice Seezer) from In The Name of the Father [soundtrack] (1993) /celtic ballad/((“I’ll never wash these clothes,I want to keep the stain.Your blood to me is precious,nor would I spill it in vain.Your spirit sings,though your lips never […]