Hit 40 UK

If you like pop music, my opinions on music, Simon Cowell, British radio, Top 40 music, countdown lists, Christmas, reality tv shows, or merely have ten minutes to spare, do head on over to this post on my other blog.

If not, you're at the wrong blog, fella...

Deck The Balls With Halls of Folly

Who's up for some modern-day renditions of a few carols?

Relient K is a pretty good gospel rock band. A little too 'American teen', if you get what I mean. But they play their instruments well, their faith is strong, and they have a sense of humour:

What's a partridge? And what's a pear tree?

Well, I don't know, so please don't ask me

But I can bet those are terrible gifts to give!

I'm only posting a few Christmas-y songs here, but they have more secular stuff as well, if you're interested.

Relient K - Angels We Have Heard On High

Relient K - Deck The Halls

Relient K - Twelve Days of Christmas

Relient K - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

If you're only taking one, take the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Folk Music Lives!

There's a lot of nice music floating around the UK Top 40 radio airwaves this time of year. Leona Lewis, Alicia Keys, Timbaland Presents One Republic, and the group that sang 'Uninvited'-- good stuff, all. Worth downloading.

But this is talent!

Amy Macdonald -- Mr Rock and Roll

Talk about a lovely folk/pop song. Very Gordon Lightfoot indeed. Amy Macdonald is only twenty years old. Scottish. Influenced by Travis and The Libertines, apparently. (I have to stop researching posts on Wikipedia! Although I did remember she was Scottish. Virgin Radio made a point of it.)

I suppose as you get older you more and more frequently find that you're older than the best new talent out there, in whichever field. It's still disconcerting, though, having the fact that you're a nobody drilled into you.

Tried to upload some photos but Blogger is being temperamental. Look her up on Google's image search.

Marillion

How can anyone resist a band with such a beautiful name?

I came across Marillion a few years ago, while watching a Dream Theater DVD that had a clip of DT playing at some lucky-ass jazz club in the States with various guest artistes, two of whom were Marillion band members. Easter is a beautiful and underrated song.

Marillion then popped up again after an opportune trip to the UK resulted in my picking up a crateload of excellent prog music cds (prog-- progressive rock / metal) that I would've found impossible to get in India. The bass player, Pete Trewavas, was a member of the prog rock supergroup Transatlantic, which had the sensational lineup of:

Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) - drums
Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings) - guitar
Pete Trewavas (Marillion) - bass
Neal Morse (Spock's Beard) - vocals/keyboards

Dream Theater and Spock's Beard are US bands, Marillion is a UK band, and The Flower Kings are Swedish, so Transatlantic was an apt choice of name. Most of these bands have gone on to become some of my favourite groups.

Marillion's music doesn't really feature the instrumental virtuosity that draws me to Dream Theater, nor the soft keyboard-heavy genius of Spock's Beard or Transatlantic. Their music is far more radio-friendly (not that that's a bad thing), and in fact the Wikipedia page informs me that Marillion have had a string of UK chart hits spanning their career. I like this description, which I have flicked from the said Wikipedia page:

Many current fans would endorse the description of 'complex, melodic rock with a spiritual and sometimes melancholic edge.'

It's strange to see spirituality cropping up here, for Transatlantic (the supergroup) came a cropper when Neal Morse quit both Spock's Beard and Transatlantic to pursue his Christianity. Hmm.

So, to the music.

I really like this video. Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci look so young! And Steve Hogarth has the cutest pointy ears. Do watch it through to the end, where Hogarth does some interesting vocal hopping.

Marillion -- Easter (live with Dream Theater)




The next video is a montage of album art and band pictures. An interesting fascination with jesters seems to emerge. It's a nice song too, and I suspect many of you will enjoy this music more than 'Easter'. I love the line, "For she's got to carry on with her life/ And you've got to carry on with yours!"


Marillion -- Childhood's End





Edit: Sorry Yohan, I know you're not a fan of embedded videos. But one of them is a concert clip, and the other one shows the wonder that is album art!