You can't do that. And it's such an easy way out.

My third involvement with the shuffleathon, painstakingly organised by SwissToni, proved itself to be a bit of a bugger. The main hindrance for me was that 99% of my music is boxed up and out of reach, leaving me with a rather large hole where the inspiration should have come from.
As with most things, there are certain rules....or let's say guidelines that go hand in hand with making a compilation and much as I'd like to admit that I like to bend the rules....this time I feel more like I wiped my arse on them and hung them out to dry.
I could list a baker's dozen reasons why this time it was much more difficult to put the CD together, but I won't. However, what I will say is that the sixteen tracks that made the final cut, only one of which survived the numerous culls since day one, all hold a certain something for me. This hasn't been a project of trumpet blowing proportions, not by any means. I threw out the idea of opening with a blinding track that kicks the listener in the bollocks, grabbing their attention, then continuing with an array of musical selections that were chosen to leave them with an admirable impression of wonderfully varied and eclectic musical tastes and selections.
No, this is much, much more me.

I don't know Alan of Random Burblings, the receiver of my shuffleathon disc. I purposely stayed away from his blog, so as not to find myself swayed by him in my musical choices. After all, this is my shuffleathon disc to him, not vice-versa. Now my disc is in his hands, I shall be reading back through his writings and sticking around, because from what little I've read so far I can't help but like the guy. I'm sure I've stumbled on him before, but in the completely different scenario of a Jack The Ripper message board. How very strange. And to add even more weirdness into the mix, I think he used to verbose with The Girl, back in her blogging days. Small world, huh.


For that cloud reaching guitar hook, for that wonderful mix of different instruments dipping in and out, for the simple reason that they were obviously a talented band even right back in the beginning, for the proof that they weren't always a bunch of 'up their own arses' wankers, for that ingenious angelic choir, for that brilliant banjo intro, for that bassline....that guitar hook....and that anthemic chorus that makes me wanna scream my lungs out, for his voice and those words that could surely touch anybody, for those cheekily clever lyrics, for that dreamy fairytale ending, for her screaming vocals, for that hammond sound that keeps creeping in and those wonderfully strange instruments, for that damned cow-bell, for that building and building of pace and layer, for the way it grows from a simple ditty into a screaming and crashing wall of noise, for that absolutely amazing piano ending that kicks in at 3 minutes 52 that defines the 'hair standing on the back of your neck' moment.
And for a million other reasons....

Thirteen Senses - Thru The Glass
Albert Hammond Jr - Lisa
Elbow - George Lassoes The Moon
Genesis - Duchess
Fightstar - The English Way
Gomez - How We Operate
Jet - Lazy Gun
Radiohead - Last Flowers
The Seahorses - Love Is The Law
Jem feat Vusi Mahlasela - You Will Make It
Paramore - Decode
Talk Talk - Inheritance
Portishead - Magic Door
DJ Shadow feat Christina Carter - What Have I Done
Broken Family Band - It's All Over
Leaves - Epitaph