The Go-Go's - Vacation

Yes, Cinnamon Songs will be on vacation for the next couple of weeks. See you in August!

The Church - Sisters

The Church put out about eight billion records so it's not surprising they were a little inconsistent, but I generally really like their recordings up til around 1985. After that I can take them or leave them.

This is an absolutely lovely track from the 1981 Too Fast For You EP...there's a much better video for it in my head.

The Stone Roses - Elephant Stone

With all the massive hype around the Roses at the time, it's easy to forget that they really did have some absolutely magnificent tunes. I just heard this one again recently for the first time in a while and I'm still struck by what a great little three-minute pop song it is. A genuine classic.

And don't they look so young and innocent in the video, too?

Pow Wow! - So Weird

Maybe it's just me but Brooklyn seems to be producing a lot of really good bands these days. Of course it probably always did and I just never heard about most of them. Pow Wow! have a somewhat eclectic sound, firmly rooted in a lo-fi aesthetic but claiming influences from the Smiths to the Supremes to Burt Bacharach. Actually, their stuff reminds me a little bit of Graham Coxon's solo work.

This was the b-side to their 2009 single "Handhold". Not an official video, I don't think.

Aztec Camera - Pillar to Post

The first single from their classic debut album High Land Hard Rain, released when Roddy Frame was all of 18 years old. I've said it before but I still find it astonishing that anyone could be so talented, and write such mature, thoughtful lyrics, at 18. Of course he probably looks back and cringes at them now.

Surprised there doesn't seem to be an actual video for this.

Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine

I'm not a huge fan of the whole Explosions, Mogwai, "post-rock" (what a silly name) thing, for a number of reasons. I tend to prefer my songs short and snappy, and I like music that really engages you rather than just sounding nice in the background while you’re doing something else. Same as I didn't like the related genre of "ambient". But I have to admit that once this song gets going, it’s really quite lovely.

From their 2003 album, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place.

Game Theory - 24

Here's an absolutely lovely piece of jangly guitar pop from Game Theory, a band whose ambition often overreached their ability but they certainly got it right on this particular track. Contrary to what the video indicates it's actually from their 1985 full-length debut, Real Nighttime.