Imperfectly

I once asked Rio about her favorite Ani album and I forget what she said but I was shocked it wasn't Not A Pretty Girl because to me, as an Ani noob, obviously that was the best album, what with having 32 Flavors and Not A Pretty Girl on it. Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?

Well Rio was right and as I grew up I started appreciating the depth of Ani's catalogue more and more and I find myself settling on Imperfectly.

Imperfectly, released 1992, was Ani's third album. I was introduced to Ani in 1996, so I came to it late. For a start it has my favorite song: Fixing Her Hair. I can't find it online to link, but your should go beg, borrow or steal because Fixing Her Hair is one of those immaculate songs. Gorgeous guitar, sublime lyrics. It speaks to a feminist experience on a visceral level and asks simply "what is this beautiful woman settling for?"

The album rocks out too. Here's the classic In or Out. I didn't really love In or Out at first, it's the kinda bi-pleaser stuff she moved passed on her later albums (i.e. post Little Plastic Castle). But in the end that's exactly what I grew to love about the song, and the album, it's such classic Ani, the kinda thing we all listened to her for in the first place.

Two more tracks to mention. I think Served Faithfully is beautiful and it reminds me of the great Belle and Sebastian track You Can Take You Carriage Clock and Shove It. Finally, the opening track What If No One's Watching is an exciting and uplifting aetheist anthem. And those don't come along everyday.

For all that, and a bunch of great tracks besides, Impectly is the Ani Album of the Year.

We Love You

Here's what I love. I love bubblegum punk. It's not a very big genre. It seems to be entirely girl bands (boys just don't get the aesthetic). Ok, so I can only think of two bubblegum punk bands. One is The Rondelles. The other is Helen Love. She's from wales.

The song is "We Love You" and it's super awesome. It's from the album "Radio Hits Vol 2." You can hear it on her myspace

This song is all about the tude. It's about making your own music with your friends and it being awesome because you love music and you don't give a fuck. Incidentally, I discovered Helen Love while I was on a wiki search for the origin of the phrase 'girl power.' Helen Love coined it, before Shampoo even. Helen has a song about this boy who beats up on her friend and how her and all her friends are going to go kick the shit out of him. It's called "beat him up" because when you are punk, you don't have to be subtle (enjoy the link to the serge gainsbourg original).

On a only vaguely related note (girl power via the spice girls), I found out Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller are not the same person, despite both being British and associated with American idol and good at picking out generically-pretty-voiced-and-looking girls who will make lots of money selling mediocre albums. And they're both called Simon. I digress, and in a dramatically unpunk-rock way. I told you boys didn't get it.

Anyhow, We Love You. It's great, Julie has more fizz than a bottle of tizer, and it's my song of the week.

Lollipop

I like things that are gay and bouncy, and this tune by Mika is both.

I don't have much to say about this song except that Mika is real pretty and that also I like the part where the kid sings the "I went walking with my mama one day" verse. The whole album - life in cartoon motion, is a good one although I rarely listen to more than the first two tracks any more (this and Grace Kelly). Add Mika to the list of chirpy pop coming out of the UK recently, like Lily Allen and The Pippettes. Must be some kinda spirit of doo-wop thing going around.

This brings the number of songs which are great fun and have lollipop in the title to 3:
My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small

Lollipop by the Chordettes


So for being fun, gay, pretty, bouncy and called 'lollipop,' lollipop was the tune of a couple of weeks ago.

Express Yourself

The song of the week is Express Yourself by N.W.A. from Straight Outta Compton


The eponymous sample from this song is a great song in its own right: the soul/funk classic by Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band.

The song is something of an odd duck on the album. The vocals are Dr. Dre, leaving DJ Yella on production (Dre mostly produced the other tracks). I know this, because Dre says his own name repeatedly during the song, which is a public service the friendly fellas at nwa provide for their listeners through the album. They never said it was a bad attitude. Second, despite being a defence of their nasty lyrics, the song is just plain nice. Straight outta compton is a genius influencial album and all, but sometimes I feel like a bad feminist for enjoy that delightfully misogynistic shit. Dre even goes all nancy reagan on the ganja ("its known to give a brother brain damage") It's like when Bob sings "all them drugs gonna make you slow" on burnin' and lootin' Oh shit! Also, Dre rhymes "Yella" and "a-capella."

Sure, I'm lame and old for chosing the least gangsta n.w.a. song. But express yourself is fun, funky and positive. It also sums up the appeal and politics of the rest of this definitive album. And for that, it's my song of the week.

Charles Wright is not related to Eric 'Easy-E' Wright, although that would be a nice piece of trivia to end on, huh?