ebotunes

The Guardian newspaper recently published a list of ‘1000 songs everyone must hear’. Imagine my delight when I discovered that they’d also published the raw data as part of their new Data Store service. Naturally my first thought was some kind of Last.FM mashup.

I thought it would be great if you could match up the list with your Last.FM listening history to find out exactly how many of the songs in the list you had and had not listened to. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get the API to bend that way. Maybe I’ll find a way eventually.

So I settled for just pulling in listener stats for each song (so that you can sort and see what is the most listened to song etc.). And as an extra touch, hooking up to LyricWiki to get the song lyrics, which for the most part, are available.

http://1000songs.ebotunes.com

One thing to keep in mind is that Last.FM users only cover a particular demographic (mostly young, tech-savvy people),  so don’t be offended if the results are skewed in that direction!

Let me know what you think, and leave any suggestions and feedback on the UserVoice page.

Thanks to PHP Last.FM API and the LyricWiki API.

1000 songs on ProgrammableWeb

The phrase “return to form” is one I’ve always felt to be a little over-used, and I’d imagine it’s had it’s fair share of column inches in relation to Dig Out Your Soul. In this case I’d say it’s not only a lazy observation, but an inaccurate one, what with the previous two Oasis albums being by no means wide of the mark. Indeed it took a while to be convinced this one was an improvement on Don’t Believe The Truth. Lead single Shock of the Lightning is Oasis-by-numbers, just as Lyla before it, and to a lesser extent The Hindu Times before that (although that was welcomed with accusations of bare-faced plagiarism, which is in itself something of a Gallagher trademark – and while we’re on that subject, why did everyone always bang on about Oasis ripping off The Beatles? Answer me this: have you ever seen Definitely Maybe and Never Mind The Bollocks in the same place at the same time?).

The familiar sounding comeback single tactic can go one of two ways; either you think Oasis are past it and can’t come up with anything fresh and original, or it reminds you of just why you love Oasis,justifying all thise teen years spent staring into the bathroom mirror wishing your eyebrows would grow a bit bushier. Also as a first single, SOTL fulfills it’s role of being one of the weaker tracks on the album. Falling Down, on the other hand probably prevails as the highlight.

One slight disappointment is Liam’s’ effort I’m Outta Time (which I was appalled to learn will be the second single), which is just a tad on the whiny side (‘If I had to go/In my heart you’d grow’ – come on Our Kid, grow a pair), but other than is decent enough musically. Other highlights include stomping opener Bag It Up, and Noel’s lo-fi effort (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady.

Soldier On is casually epic, and a fitting end to the album. Fitting in that from start to finish, Dig Out Your Soul is the sound of band wise enough not to try too hard. Beyond the first two singles, it’s difficult to pick out anything to suit a Radio 1 playlist, which hopefully signals a future where the masses can continue to chew over the Kaiser Chiefs and leave the rest of us in peace to enjoy the good stuff.

Traveling all the way to the other side of the world only to end up going to see a band from your hometown, may seem a bit mental to some. But when it’s a band as joyous to watch as Franz Ferdinand, you can’t argue. Not to mention the tickets coming all the way from Lapland.

Dissapointingly there was no Scotland/Glesga shout out for us to take advantage of, although the upside of not being in Glasgow was that the crowd about a third of the size it would have been at the SECC. The Palace Theatre in Melbourne (NOT the Palais…lucky someone double checked the address) is in the same ball park as Camden’s KOKO, stretched a bit longways so maybe a tad more capacity, but at the same time managing to feel that smidgin more intimate.

Opening the set with a new song (Bite Hard, according to latest info on Setlist.fm)  can often be a bold/arrogant move, but when the album’s been ‘coming soon’ for longer than most can remember, it’s almost a bit of a relief. Most of the new stuff sounds fairly familiar, due to catching them a couple of times at the festivals last year, including the 30-minute piledriver of a surprise set at Glastonbury.

A short way into the set we’re blessed with the enticing drum intro of The Dark of The Matinee, a part of the song which oddly I’d never taken much notice of until that very moment, despite it being a personal favourite. Coincidentally, a few days earlier listening to same song in the car, it occurred to me that 2004’s Franz Ferdinand is just about as solid a debut album as most bands could hope for. Appetite for Destruction or even Definitely Maybe it mightn’t be, but that’s really nothing to be ashamed of, and track-by-track there’s very little to complain about.

At pre-encore time, my mind met with the familiar ‘but there’s so many they haven’t played yet, there’s just not time for all of them’ panic. Kind of like the way you feel after the first song of a White Stripes show. This in turn got me pondering where Franz Ferdinand in fact lie in the grand scheme of things. They have a little bit of everything – the tunes, the charm, the performance – maybe the local connection comes into it somewhere too. Now asking anyone to name a favourite band is madness. Even if there is an answer, it’s still a shitty question. A top three would be a challenge for most. But as Franz restarted the party with Michael, I had a tiny suspicion they’d be in with a shout for the Top Ten. I’m still not sure, ask me again in a few years.

After all the effort of carefully selecting music for my iPod before I left, I’ve hardly even listened to it so far. On the first flight from London to Tokyo I was kept entertained by the films and muic they had on the wee screen at my seat. They had the new Raconteurs album (Consolers of the Lonely), which I hadn’t got round to buying/hearing yet, so I listened to that while I was snoozing. It’s pretty good! Although to be fair I always find that music sounds twice as good when your half asleep – it’s a strange phenomenon.

As I mentioned in my ramblings about Tokyo, the new Oasis album (Dig Out Your Soul) was released in Japan the day we arrived (a week earlier than in the UK), so I was dying to get alisten to that. When I got to Mount Fuji on Sunday night, I had an email saying that as part of the deluxe box set I’d ordered, I could download the album the day before it’s UK release! Which I did, but then couldn’t actually listen to on my iPod for various technical reasons. Until I got to Hiroshima, got it sorted and had a good listen. First impressions are good although it always takes a while to draw your attention away from the first couple of tracks and any singles you’ve heard already.

The new Metallica album is awesome! There’s probably not much more to say on that. It’s fast. It’s loud. It’s catchy. (Some would say too loud but that’s a story for another day!)

Seriously, buy this album. Now. I know its only March but I might as well just give it album of the year right now and get it over with.

As is normal practise with a new album I get addicted to too quickly, I needed to go cold turkey for a few weeks on this one. Delete it from the iPod, stop telling people how good it is, and find something else to keep me amused, perhaps an old classic. In this case I had to resort to Metallica’s entire back catalogue, due to being approximately 50 words into my 3500 word essay on Bob Rock, and with less than a month to finish it. But that’s another story.

Thankfully I’m now past the annoying phase of Studio Head and am onto the appreciative phase. Man this record sounds good. It was produced by Bernard Butler – ok so his bands were shit but I’m willing to let him off with that now. Eilidh’s bass sounds awesome – solid, present, but not obtrusive. Another thing you notice with This Gift compared with The Repulsion Box (ebo album of the year 2005) is that Adele’s voice is much more controlled and focussed, but no less feisty. Overall the album sounds a lot thicker – a bit less mandolin and tambourine this time around, and the guitar riffs are louder and heavier.

Best track? It was Chains, but now it’s Flags. Make up your own mind (…what? you haven’t bought it yet? how many times do I have to tell you!)