Nancy's Mix

Profuse apologies to Nancy for the delay in posting this review. The world seems to have gone mad in the last few weeks, and this was an ill-starred mix. Thanks to Nancy for sending a replacement disc when the original didn't materialise (although it did arrive some time after the replacement.) She also sent an extra disc on that occasion, and I will review that shortly.

3rd of July - The Jody Grind
Lovely, mellow song with a slight Latin tang. Doesn't send shivers up my spine exactly but I'd enjoy chilling out with this in the background.

¿Donde Estabas Tu? - Omara Portuondo
This is the full-throated, hip-grinding slinky, Latin Real Thing. This one makes me want to grab somebody sexy and drag them onto a dance floor for some serious intertwining of limbs.

Gold Mine - Take 6
More mellow chill-out music. Starts out sounding like an orchestra tuning up, and segues into something between Manhattan Transfer and the Swingle Singers complete with cool piano-bar finger-clickin'. Nowt wrong with that, but it's music for drifting off to.

Falling For A Funny One - Eye to Eye
Still smooth and slinky. This time with a dollop of something close to soft seventies soul. I like this one. It's got a nice beat to it and I can imagine running along Walney beach with this in my earphones, gliding along to the rhythm.

Gone Daddy Gone - Gnarls Barkley
And now a complete change of time and tempo. There's something of the 60s West Coast counterculture about it, except that it's been sanded down and given a coat of varnish. Plummy arrangement with all rough edges rubbed off, and a growly voice devoid of menace. I can't help feeling it should be more thrilling than it is.

Stella - Ida Maria
This one I do like. I've never heard of Ida Maria before but I'd like to hear more. Sexy little lesbian love call.

New Experience - Michelle Malone
And here's more 60s stuff given a 21st-century twist, in this case a song incorporating an original twist on John Phillips's San Francisco. Nice voice.

Since I Met You Baby - BB King and Katie Webster
Absolute classic 1950s gospel blues. This is real spine-tingling, toe-curling stuff and they don't make 'em like this any more. So what if the production sounds its age?

Eight Ball - The Jody Grind
Somebody likes The Jody Grind a lot around here - I'm building up a fine collection now. Ah yes, they take their name from a classic Horace Silver jazz tack from the 60s, and that figures. Here they are again, and this time they're doing something like vintage Jefferson Airplane which I like.

Jimmy Olsen's Blues - Spin Doctors
At first I thought I was going to really like this, judging by the opening. Afterwards it turns into a routine piece of guitar rock which does little for me. I must be getting old!

Micky's Monkey - Mother's Finest
This is also guitar rock but there's something in the play of the voices that sounds a little more dangerous and therefore more satisfying.

Sunday Morning - K-OS
Nice solid beat to this one. The vocals sound deceptive, as if this is one that is going to grow on me. The arrangement is clever and demands to be listened to. I can imagine this one going out running with me.

Rose Garden - Southern Culture On The Skids
Country standard with a memorable tune, performed here with great gusto. Maybe it's being taken a tad too fast, as if they are rushing through it without stopping to savour the venom that runs through the song.

Honeysuckle Rose - Holly Cole
Lovely rendering of the Fats Waller classic. Whimsical, theatrical, camp as hell and with a glorious fiddle accompaniment.

David - Nellie McKay
I had the singer's Ding Dong on a previous Mix Club sample and I came to love that. This is another in the same mould of original and disturbingly chirpy psychosis. Nellie McKay is a real discovery for me and I will be hunting her music down.

Mary Ann - Steve Miller
I like this. Smooth, cool, jazzy and infectious. I'm a sucker for this kind of louche, piano-bar stuff, don't you know?

Ruby - Walter Hyatt
Hmm. Here's more of the piano-bar stuff. Somebody is getting to know my susceptibilities too much. There's a real old-school Tin Pan Alley feel to this, even though it can't be. Waiter, another martini if you don't mind. Straight-up, rocks on the side, and an extra olive please.

The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In Her Kiss) - The Nylons
Gorgeous doo-wop twist on the great Betty Everett song. Betty's is the best version (step aside, Cher) but this one has an infections campness about it.

Lounge Axe - The Jody Grind
Hello, here's the Jody Grind again. I have a feeling that seeing these guys live is quite an event. I can't easily get over to Atlanta but maybe they'll play Forum 28 one day. And I is Annie Lennox!

Poupée de cir poupée de son - France Gall
Blimey, this takes me back! Not that I'm familiar with the particular song, but certainly of the form - the peculiarly French kind of 60s pop music associated with Johnny Halliday and Françoise Hardy that bravely tried to hold the line against les Anglo-Saxons. Pleasant, and unmemorable but for hinted-at memories of warm baguettes and artichauds au vinaigrette!

So, a lovely, mellow compilation. Not everything grabbed me in a what-have-I-been-missing way (as happened with my last mix from Nancy), but there's nothing here I wouldn't enjoy hearing again, and one or two that are a delight. Others will, I'm sure, grow on me.