Doubtful Comforts - luck can do you like a shotgun.

'Want To Listen' Music 2009 - Part 1: Hot on the heels of my recent post there is a début single from Blue Roses. 'Doubtful Comforts' is released on March 2, 2009 by Rough Trade. It is available for pre-order now and there is a limited vinyl 7". For an update on this artist see here.

If you want temptation, but don't blame me, then start here:
http://www.roughtrade.com/site/

An album that has very much become on my 'want to listen' list is by an artist who is well known, particularly for the band she once fronted; it is 'Colonia' and she is Nina Persson, formerly of The Cardigans, in her 'A Camp' persona for the first time since the eponymous album in 2001. After the passage of eight years it is, rather unsurprisingly, not quite the same beast and, arguably, it is an even better one. [See my update on this item - 6 February 2009]

Well that has dealt with Shipley and Stockholm, at least for now.

Something I learned today...

I very rarely buy compilations and when I do it is usually because I want to get a cross-section of the popular output of an artist or band. Almost inevitably it is therefore one of some antiquity and of which I am insufficiently interested in obtaining all the albums that they released.

I made a rare exception this week and bought a compilation CD that consisted entirely of tracks by new artists and it arrived this morning. What a good idea that turned out to be!
'Something I Learned Today' is a compilation album, released by UK independent label Dance To The Radio, devoted entirely to new artists in the Leeds/Bradford area.

There are more than a few excellent tracks on it; The Grammatics - 'The Shipping Forecast' is one that was quite new to me, and something of a revelation, but while many tracks on the album are pop-rock-indie driven there is one truly remarkable exception. That is Coast - written by, mostly played by, and entirely sung by Laura Groves - because it defies any easy attempt at categorization and is totally acoustic and truly wonderful.