Moose - Little Bird (Are You Happy In Your Cage?)

I've posted before about how Moose tend to be lumped in with the shoegaze scene but I don't think they really were shoegaze. I've since learned that they were, in fact, the original shoegaze band: that is, it was in a review of a Moose gig that the adjective "shoegaze" was first applied. So I guess by default they have to get that label. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

I mean listen to this song. It's a fantastic track, catchy as all hell and with clever, deliciously evil lyrics and Russell Yates's always-appealing vocals. Shoegaze, however, it is not. It actually reminds me more of something like Kitchens of Distinction's "Drive That Fast" (I must put that up some time). Should have been a bigger hit but I guess that's what happens when everyone just dismisses you as belonging to a genre you don't really belong to at all.

The Jasmine Minks - Cold Heart

Not many people seem to remember the Jasmine Minks now, but in the '80s they were one of the brightest sparks in the Creation catalog, which is quite a compliment. I put their current forgotten status down to Alan McGee's peculiar fondness for "Cut Me Deep", which means that every couple years when a new Creation compilation comes out people who don't know the Minks only get to know that song instead of this one - which is far far better. I mean, listen to it, it's outstanding.

No idea what it's about though. And I probably don't want to know.

Mrs Robinson!

For an Irish blog there can only be one song today. (Readers abroad who have no idea what I'm talking about can click here.)

I just can't stop laughing about this.

My Bloody Valentine - Lose My Breath

Here's a great MBV tune, from their finest (oh yes it was) album Isn't Anything. Dark lyrics, but Bilinda's dreamy vocals make this one of the sexiest songs ever recorded - and the fact that it barely seems as though it's trying to be, only makes it more so.

New Order - Procession

Speaking of 80s tracks with amazing bass lines, here's one of my absolute favourite New Order songs, from the 1981-82 EP. While "Temptation" was the big hit off this release, "Procession" is much closer to the style I wish they'd stuck to (and, to be fair, they mostly did for the next couple of years). The electronics were present but not overwhelming; the production was still fairly minimalist and the quietly-mixed vocals added something in terms of atmosphere while distracting attention away from Bernard's always-dodgy lyrics (to be fair again, they're not too bad here). Even today, what they were doing on this record is so exciting.

I suppose there's an element of nostalgia on my part - this dates from right around the time I was beginning to discover a musical world beyond the charts - but even if that weren't the case, I still think I would get a shiver listening to it every time.

God, what a beautiful track.

APB - Shoot You Down

In the late 1970s/early 1980s there were a handful of British bands that had their roots in the post-punk scene but seemed to take as much inspiration from funk as from punk. APB were one of those bands, Medium Medium were another and I'm sure there were more I can't remember right now.

I'm not a huge funk fan, and this particular subgenre of post-punk isn't one of my favourites. But inevitably it produced a few classic tracks and "Shoot You Down" (this version is from a 1986 New York gig) is definitely one of them. What an amazing bassline.

Iain Slater, incidentally, went out with one of my flatmates when I was living in London. A very nice fella who I had absolutely no idea who he was at the time.

The Sea Urchins - A Morning Odyssey

Let's get the new year off to a bang with one of the few Sarah tracks that could legitimately be described as "anthemic". The Sea Urchins were, of course, the makers of the first ever Sarah single, which was the uncharacteristically mediocre "Pristine Christine"; their strengths lay more in the Sweeping Ballad, this and "Please Rain Fall" being the prime examples.

I have to admit that James Roberts's voice was a hurdle some people had trouble getting past. But the effort is more than worthwhile, I think.