time means nothing....

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Earworms of the Week.

Hello. It's my birthday today, so I'm going to be doing this week's earworms myself, alright? I've been keeping a list and everything, so it should be proper accurate this week. Maybe. It's surprisingly hard to keep a track of all of the tunes that flit across your head, you know.

Anyway. Shall we get started?

> "Hush" - Deep Purple

They played this at half-time in the Nottingham Forest vs Carlisle game that I had the dubious pleasure to attend on Monday night. Forest were appalling and duly lost the game 0-1 to see their rivals overtake them in the league. Still, you can't beat a bit of Deep Purple can you? There can't be many bands that insist on quite such ridiculously long organ solos. I used to have a friend at University who used to get stoned listening to Deep Purple's Greatest Hits. He told me that it was the best way to enjoy their music, although usually this seemed to involve him sinking into deeper and deeper fits of hysterics as the songs get increasingly theatrical: just when you think he can't sing any higher.... I never found it all that funny, to be honest, but there you go. That's marijuana for you, eh? Tsk. I've always liked "Fireball" to be honest. This one's a bit tainted by the Kula Shaka cover version.

> "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" - Billy Ocean

Billy Ocean, eh? Legend. He'll be your non-stop lover. I'm laying the blame for this one squarely at the feet of Troubled-Diva's annual Which Decade Is Top For Pops feature (where the readers get to vote on songs from a week in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s). To be completely honest though, I've always had a soft spot for this, and for Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling". I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's the pastel coloured jackets with the rolled up sleeves?

> "The Beginning of the Twist" - The Futureheads

Their debut album was a work of brilliance, but their second album was a massive disappointment and the band were dropped by their record label. It's good to see the boys from Sunderland are back with a bang with their new single. Proper good.

> "Never Ever" - All Saints

Another one from "Which Decade". This might have a slightly silly half-spoken introduction bit, and the pronunciation of A to Zed and A to Zee grates a little bit, but this is a really classy song that still sounds good today. Sure, perhaps "Black Coffee" and "Pure Shores" were their best songs, but this is still pretty damn good, and certainly a whole lot better than their execrable cover of "Under the Bridge".

> "Losing" - Tina Dico

She didn't play it at The Maze the other night, but this remains my favourite song of hers.... right from that nagging beginning and the lyric:

"How many lies have you told today
Into the dark of your coffee cup
To cover up your footprints"

I still haven't listened to her new album, but I'm very much looking forward to it.

> "Rule the World" - Take That

Is the fact that this bunch of ageing blokes are the biggest boyband in Britain a poor reflection on the state of our music scene? Actually no. Surely it's an endorsement of the fact that they have come back with a string of absolutely fantastic songs that would have graced any era. This is from the film soundtrack to "Stardust" and features a terrible pun on the name of the main female character, but even so it's a lovely song. Made by honking Howard's bellowed chorus. This has been in my head more or less continuously for months now.

> "Your Love Alone is Not Enough" - Manic Street Preachers

Winners of the "Godlike Genius" award at the recent NME Awards, and whatever I might happen to think about the NME, it's hard for me to argue with the award. This band have shone brightly for me for much of the last 20 years. Generally I prefer their older stuff, but this song is from their last album, "Send Away the Tigers", and is a duet with Nina Persson of the Cardigans. It's not quite up there with "Archives of Pain" or "Faster" perhaps, but it stands comparison with almost anything else in their back catalogue. Great band. No compromise.

> "Californication" - Red Hot Chili Peppers

In so many ways, the RHCP are a ridiculous band, but I've been listening to them now for even longer than I've been listening to the Manics, and from ridiculous funk-rock, socks on cocks beginnings, they've just got better and better. Hard to believe, but this song is now nearly a decade old. Still one of their finest albums, although the decision to sue the makers of the David Duchovny TV programme of the same name is surely ridiculous... even when they released this it was hardly original, was it? Silly boys.

> "Fascination" - Alphabeat

Ah, more scandinavian pop and a band who really seem to have the wind in their sails at the moment. I saw them in the Social a couple of weeks ago, and I'm seeing them again at Stealth in a couple of weeks time... it looks likely that in the meantime they will have had a massive chart hit with this song. Hurray. Say the Word (the word is on your lips...).

> "Fire" - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

"I am the God of Hellfire and I bring you.... FIRE doo-doo-doo".

Another from "Which Decade", but as I've been saying that opening line to people (more or less at random) for years, it really doesn't take much to put this slice of bonkers genius into my head.

"I'll see you burn".

Indeed.

> "One Thing" - Amerie

I think I heard this on the radio as I was driving into work. Now, clearly this is not normally the kind of thing that I am particularly into, but there was no denying quite how effectively this sank into my brain, nor how it refused to leave for several days.

> "After Hours" - We Are Scientists

Yeah, alright, so this is exactly the kind of stuff that I always have at the top of my earworms lists. Whatever. It's my birthday, right? I love We Are Scientists, they're funny (see their website - the Sci-Cave - for details... it has an advice section). More importantly, they are a bloody good band too, specialising in that slightly spikey, angsty guitar music that I love so much. As I was saying yesterday, I was supposed to be seeing them touring, but I'm double-booked with the James reunion tour, so I'm just going to have to hope that they play the festivals later in the year. Great video too, incidentally, and this song has a really nagging guitar riff.

So there we have it. More mainly guitar based nonsense.

I'm now off to enjoy the rest of my day (a day off from work, no less) and get ready for a lovely meal out with my friends. I can't think of a better way, or better company, to spend my birthday with.

Have a good weekend y'all.