we've talked the whole night through....

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Earworms of the Week.

Evening. The usual motley selection again this week. Same old same old.

> "Substitute" - The Who

I've earwormed this pretty solidly, on and off, since it first burned itself into my head as Geordie, the character played by Daniel Craig, strutted around Soho in "Our Friends in the North" with this as the perfect soundtrack. It's still my favourite song of theirs, and I'm not sure whether it's because of the brilliant tune or the (often slightly surreal) lyrics.

"I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.
The North side of my town faced east and the east was facing south"

Eh?

> "Souljacker pt I" - The Eels

I've listened to the Eels an awful lot over the last twelve months, and they've been a pretty regular occurence on these lists. I've not actually had them on the stereo this week, but I did happen to start talking to someone about the Mark "E" Everett's father and his "many worlds" theory. I still can't quite get my head around quantum mechanics and Schrödinger's cat, but I do quite like the music of Hugh Everett's little boy. This song, and the "Souljacker" album in general are quite different to the really personal stuff that features on some of his other albums. It's quite a lot rockier, and that's illustrated best of all on this song, which is both quite full on and pretty sinister sounding. Brilliant.

Now, is that cat dead, alive or both....?

Hmm.

> "Sonnet" - The Verve

I don't get the Verve. They were the best thing I saw at Glastonbury in 1993 and they've done some amazing songs, but I simply cannot listen to a whole album. I proved this to myself yet again by popping on "Urban Hymns" the other day. Dear oh dear. The singles I can cope with, but who told them that all those overly long, swirling dirges were any good? Well, they're not. The odd decent song is not enough of a reason for a band to strut about the place as though they're the greatest band on the planet. It's bad enough when Oasis do it, but somehow Richard Ashcroft doing it is even worse. "Forth" came out this week, and I won't be bothering with that, I don't think..... although I see that the band have already managed to fall out with each other again, so perhaps we won't have to put up with them much longer, although I imagine that Ashcroft will hang around like a particularly persistent stain. This song?

"Yes, there's love if you want it
Don't sound like no sonnet, my lord
Yes, there's love if you want it
Don't sound like no sonnet, my lord
My lord "

Is that profound or just shit?

> "Sex Bomb" - Mousse T feat. Tom Jones

This began to play on a loop in my head as soon as I heard that it was being played extensively at the Beach Volleyball match between Russia and Georgia, along with "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Burning Down the House". Given that the two nations were at that very moment engaged in a rather nasty war, that may just about be the least sensitive soundtracking to a sporting event ever. The fact that the victorious Georgian girls were in fact both Brazillians fast-tracked to citizenship for the sole purpose of winning a medal is neither here nor there. Also, this is a terrible, irritating song and I have no desire to have it playing in my head, thanks very much.

> "Highly Evolved" / "Get Free" - The Vines

I got a bit stuck in the "v" section of the artists list on my iPod this week. It may have meant that I listened to The Verve, but it also meant that I listened to some other rather better albums, including this delightful and most welcome blast from the past. Yes, perhaps they're rather in thrall to Nirvana, but "Get Free" in particular never fails to give me a rush.

> "Gone Daddy Gone" / "Blister in the Sun" - Violent Femmes

Another band from the "v"s. Good band (thanks Cat!) and fantastic songs both. "Blister in the Sun" has been slightly sullied by being used in a crap advert, but thankfully it hasn't been ruined, and that snappy drum will live for ever.

> "I Want You To Stay" - Maximo Park

I don't know where this one came from, and I didn't actually even recognise it at first and had to google the lyrics I was humming to work out what it was. I should have known, really... Paul Smith writes some fantastic lyrics:

"I rewrite my life beneath the moonlight,
Please hold me now till my breath runs out,
There are many things that I am not,
But there's one thing that I cant deny

A double bluff you fed me lines,
The shortest cut you're searching for,
A mesh of tones surround your eyes,
I wish I knew how it came to this

I always said you could rely on me,
Now it seems that I was wrong,
I want you to stay,
I want you to stay with me"

Well, alright, perhaps those are a bit random and A-level schoolboy poetry, but heartfelt, passionate, Geordie..... Maximo Park are all these things. I love'em.

> "Gold" - Spandau Ballet

A rather inevitable by-product of the winning performance by the British Spring Cycling team at the Velodrome this afternoon. I was at work and so only watching on a live updating screen on the BBC Website, but I was absolutely thrilled. The cyclists have already returned us 2 golds and a silver medal at this games, but there's a whole lot more to come. I've only one more thing to add, and it's a cry that throws me right back to being in Athens four years ago. CHRIS HOY! 'Nuff said.

Oh, and it's a ridiculous song.

> "Mansard Roof" - Vampire Weekend

Initially planted in my head a couple of weeks ago when a builder (incorrectly) told me that the little extension thing he had built onto the attic roof of a house he was working on was a mansard roof. Recalled to mind when I popped the album on when I was cooking some roasted vegetable and chorizo pasta the other night. It's a good summer listen, certainly. Another "v", you'll notice. If the week was any longer, I'd probably have got round to the Velvet Underground, Verbal Warning, Suzanne Vega, The View and the Von Bondies....

> "Good Morning" - Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly & Donald O'Connor

When this one started circling around my cerebellum the other day, I was under the impression that it was sung by Doris Day. As ever, google quickly proved me wrong and told me that it was on the "Singin' in the Rain" soundtrack (I thought that was only one song long?). I haven't even seen the bloody film and yet here we are.

This one is weapons grade. You just try shifting this....

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Right. That's your lot. Have a good weekend, y'all.