[This series just gets more and more fun - excellent! I'm delighted that you all seem to be into it. Here's Tim from The Daily Growl. He's from the Diplomatic Service of the The Nation of Scottish Bloggers, being a Glaswegian (you know, slightly malnourished, likes to glass folk, etc...) posted to the London office for the foreseeable future.]

I love this film. Never tire of it. It’s nothing really to do with the story – it can’t be, there’s almost none there. It’s just a very simple tale of unrequited love. But that’s maybe why I love it so much. Without having any plot twists to worry about, Wong Kar-Wai puts all his effort into making it a film that you feel. Everything about it is great, from Christopher Doyle’s amazing cinematography, the period detail, the splendid costumes, the slow but certain way that the story unfolds. To cap it all, Maggie Cheung is totally gorgeous (and if it’s men you like, Tony Leung ain’t half bad either) and looks even better in costume designer William Chang’s wonderfully retro cheoungsams. Just watch her as she swishes downstairs, all dressed up to get some soup from the stall outside. Surely the sexiest soup-run ever.

The whole thing is a sumptuous, sensual delight and being such, it’s not all about what you see. The score is an integral part of its lusciousness. Hearing tracks on their own (as you will below) somewhat disjoints them from the whole piece. Sure, the main theme is beautiful, and there are plenty other pleasures and curios to be heard, from Nat King Cole’s Spanish language versions of his famous songs, to traditional Chinese music, to something that can only be described as proto-Cantopop. But they have to be heard as part of the film, or at least the soundtrack album, to be appreciated properly. So do yourself a favour.

I’ve written this piece so far in the first person, but I need to add that this movie, and the films of Wong Kar-Wai more generally, are a bit of a shared passion of Mrs Growl and I. So much so that when we went to an exhibition of Christopher Doyle’s work in an East London gallery a few years back, we just had to fork out an unreasonably high amount of cash for a print from the making of In the Mood for Love. Maggie Cheung stares upwards towards the camera, looking as fine as ever. Wong sits overseeing his masterpiece. It’s a great shot. All that’s missing, in fact, is the soundtrack.

Nat King Cole – Aquellos Ojos Verdes
Yumeji’s Theme (by 梅林茂 of course!)
Michael Galasso – Blue (this sounds like an instrumental version of the gospel standard Wayfaring Stranger, but with a definite Chinese twist)

Definitely, definitely Wayfaring Stranger. What a fine version too.

Posts in this series:
- Crash Calloway from Pretending Life is Like a Song writes about The Commitments.
- Nate, who plays viola in The Young Republic explains why some terrible films have excellent scores.
- My dearest darling Mrs. Toad sings the praises of the High School Movie.
- DC, presenter of The Waiting Room, goes on a truly interminable ramble about the great Tom Waits and One From the Heart.
- Brother of Toad talks about how the context of music can interfere with its use in a movie.
- John sums up Natural Born Killers in three sentences.
- I have a go myself by writing about the art of referencing films in your song lyrics and what it lets you do.
- Tim from The Daily Growl digs away at the sensual texture of In the Mood For Love.
- Matt from Draped in Velvet might never forgive the false start of the world of rap-rock.
- Ian from Broken Records delivers the rant that started this all off: why soundtracks just don’t work!

Tim at The Daily Growl tipped me off to this lovely little mini-album, a mere six songs long, but I had been well aware of Sara Lowes since her work with King Creosote and The Earlies. He has a fine ear for this sort of low-key indie pop stuff with plenty of folk in it and a laid back, evening-with-a-glass-of-wine vibe and this is another excellent discovery by the internet’s favourite ex-Weegie.

By evening music I don’t, as I often do, mean really downbeat. It’s definitely a pop record, and opener I Wish puts you in no doubt of that with a funky, old-fashioned, borderline-R’n'B rhythm. She switches pace quickly however, slipping down into a dreamy ballad that could easily have come out of one of the folkier Northern Soul records in the 70s. This broad span encapsulates the extremes of this album quite well actually. In parts Kate Bush (Down & Out), touches of old school folk, touches of the show tune and a hint of the more soft-focussed kind of jazz siren at times as well. There’s even a bloody 70s disco *pscheuw* sound in Down & Round, of all things.

Perhaps if Feist had been more obsessed with folk than pop she might have produced an album not dissimilar to this one. It’s full of flute, swoonsome harmonies and gentle rising strings. The overall mood of the thing may not be angry or miserable enough to be entirely my kind of music, but this is a really lovely little record.

Sara Lowes – Uniform Days

hype | buy from her myspace page

…and don’t spare the horses.

Yes, we are back. What an enormous relief, I hear you all cry. How did you ever get by without me. Well before I get back to my usual crisp, clear and perfectly formed blog posting* I have some bits and bobs to round up, so this will be a bit of an all-over-the-place post.

Christmas lists:
Yeah, I’ll probably be making at least one. Top 20 albums perhaps, but not much more than that because I just can’t quite be arsed. A lot of people are making Festive 50 lists in honour of the great John Peel, but I am not sure I could face it. The avalanche of new songs in 2007 reduced to fifty? I doubt I could whittle them down, but I may yet have a go.

The Contrast Podcast is doing one, and listeners and participants are invited to take part. It’s a great project, so if you don’t know what I’m talking about then bugger off and have a listen. Just email Tim your top five songs of the year, in order, by November 27th and you’ll be counted. The whole lot will come out as a series of podcasts over the Christmas period, which sounds rather jolly. Details on participating can be found at the bottom of this post.

Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Leftovers

The Waiting Room will also be doing a big old Christmas Special, with special listener requests. It doesn’t have to be at all related to Christmas, so if there’s something in particular you’d like to hear then leave a comment on the site or email DC direct and let him know. My vote was for No Christmas in Kentucky by Phil Ochs which, if you know it, is a relentlessly depressing song about poor people not being able to afford the sort of stuff everyone else takes for granted at Christmas time, and just how bleak Christmas must be if you are living in poverty and abandoned by your nation. I couldn’t find an mp3 though, so the festive spirit has been given a temporary reprieve.

Decoration – Only a Plague Can Stop Us Now

Other Shit:
Mike at Manic Pop Thrills reckons we should try and engineer a Christmas #1 for Malcolm Middleton in the UK charts. Given that the song in question is entitled We Are All Going to Die, I think you’ll agree that there could be no better choice. Given that the likely winner is some ratty old transvestite from The X-Factor, I think we owe it to ourselves as a community to get Malky in there if at all possible. Help save Christmas for the misanthropes! ‘We’re All Going To Die’ gets a digital only release on 17^th December and I’m not sure where to buy it just now, so I’ll try and remind you all closer to the time.

Blogfresh Radio has been scraping the bottom of the barrel once more and invited me to talk about Found, one of last week’s reviews. Click here for the appropriate episode.

The Sequins – Treehouses

The Daily Growl – or Tim, as he’s known to his mates – took me on a pilgrimage to the new Rough Trade record shop when I was down in London, where I spent almost a hundred quid on vinyl. What a moron. And before you ask, no I can’t afford it – not anything like. Still, I have accumulated enough singles recently that record companies have sent me as promos that I figured I might as well give in and buy a record player. Some fifteen years after they became obsolete. Genius.

Phil Ochs – Talking Cuban Crisis
*Anyone sniggering at this is barred.

Tim over at The Daily Growl has had a baby. Or rather, I presume the actual baby part was largely left to Mrs. Growl, but nevertheless, he’s a dad! So in a rare instance of me not being sarcastic, snide, deliberately obtuse or excessively cynical, Song, by Toad offers its most heartfelt congratulations. Fucking brilliant.

Pulp – Babies Yes, I know this isn’t appropriate, but it’s so splendidly inappropriate that I rather like it.[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Pulp-Babies.mp3]

Back immediately to matters musical, poor old Tim, as he says in his own post on the subject, went out recently with the lovely intention of buying little Isobel Growl the single that was top of the charts when she was born as a sort of keepsake for her. Except it turned out to be shit. So he tried the top of the indie charts… which turned out to be shit as well. What’s a well meaning new dad to do? Downloading her something from the top of the eMusic charts and storing it on a USB drive for ten years just doesn’t have the same ring to it somehow. Maybe a compilation, I suggested – some decent popular stuff to mark time and place, some appropriate stuff for sentimental reasons and some of your own current favourites, for personalisation.

Whilst this isn’t a bad idea of course it is rather predicated on the assumption that wee Isobel won’t grow up to be an emo kid. Or into supermarket pop. Basically, this wonderful gesture of love and sharing might have her wrinkle her nose and say ‘Dad, that’s shit.’ Not that she’d say that I hasten to add, because she’ll be a well raised little girl of course.

How do you stop your kids going off the deep end – turning to the dark side, as it were – as far as music is concerned? I mean, drink, drugs, stealing, cheating, lying, teenage pregnancy and a taste for tinned custard are one thing, but any honest, decent upstanding citizen must surely draw the line at Fallout Boy. Or Busted. Or Westlife.

Half Man Half Biscuit – Vatican Broadside Who indeed?

Well to prevent such unmitigated disasters in the life of a youngster you need one thing first and foremost, and this Tim has: decent taste in music. This is an important starting point. You can’t keep kids away from Limp Biscuit (yeah, yeah, whatever) by trying to lure them away with the spineless dadrock of Coldplay. (Tim, I’m afraid this includes Athlete – keep them well away from the poor girl, you might lose her for good) No Aerosmith, no Kasabian, no Jamiroquai (unless you’re keen to find out what it’s like to be stabbed in the foot by a desperate six-month-old armed with a pencil), and definitely no prog. None. The Lead Zeppelin are not a band. Nor are The Pink Floyd. Nor, come to think or it, The Deaf Leopard.

Now that this is established we begin the long, meticulous process of indoctrination. My own parents had an excellent good cop-bad cop thing going. My Dad had all the more heavyweight stuff – Dylan, The Band, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Jackson Browne – where my Mum had more pop taste – Duran Duran, Bowie, The Stones, early Elton John, ABC, Tina Turner, even some Depeche Mode and Erasure. This way, if I felt I had to rebel then I had somewhere to go that was different, but never outside the confines of what is just and right. Very, very cunning. A bit like the way Tony Blair conned a nation into rebelling and voting Labour, only to realise when it was already far, far too late that they were just a bunch of Tories in sharper suits.

So, comprehensively outplayed, where do I find myself now? Exactly where my parents’ music collection put me, that’s where. So never fear, Tim, play your cards right and she’ll be putty in your hands!

The Band – Rocking Chair for the Old Git.
David Bowie – China Girl for Mother Toad.