Word of Mouth Magazine: September CD

The September issue of Word of Mouth includes a really good, eclectic CD including songs from Ladytron, The Boy Least Likely To, Juliet, Alfie, and Griffin House.

The magazine itself features interviews aplenty. Noel Gallagher discusses his father, his fears about becoming a father, and much more. Elvis Costello's is largely framed as a series of his various opinions, but they aren't just single sentences. He discusses a series of topics, such as music not being better in the past. He says, "You remember the best things about music that you first loved and think it was all golden, but actually if you could transport yourself back,what made those songs so exceptional is they appeared against a backdrop of mediocrity.").

I haven't read all of K.T. Tunstall's interview yet, just read a few of the questions and answers, but so far it looks good and she sounds cool. She talks about when she and her brother were kids, and her dad would sneak them into St. Andrew's University in the middle of the night to let them look through their giant telescope. That's the basis for her album title, Eye to the Telescope.

She says, "I've always understood the link between maths and art. As a kid, a physicist's lab is just heaven, all '70s gadgets and tubes and bubbling things. Social Services are gonna catch up with him one day but my dad used to play amazing games with me and my brother with liquid nitrogen. It came in cannisters on little trolleys, and he'd take the cannisters off, put me and my big brother on the trolley and then just sluice nitrogen down the corridor, a really thin layer on the floor. He'd say, "Don't touch it, kids!", push us through it and you'd be sailing through all the dry ice coming off the floor and mercury bubbles just bouncing off everything. Science is so close to artistry."

I love that she has that insight, and talks about it. Here's a track from the Mercury-nominated Eye to the Telescope -- I quite like it, and now I really notice every mention of words like "fire" and "iceberg"!

mp3:KT Tunstall - Other Side of the World

There's also an interview with Bananarama (!) which I haven't read yet, an article about the Pixies (ditto), and "much more"...

September Word of Mouth CD Track Listing:

1. Baxter Dury - Cages
2. mp3:Juliet - Neverland (Word of Mouth's reviewer loved her first single, but disliked her debut album, reviewed in this issue. According to the liner notes for this CD, "this album had the rest of the Word staff filling the small but well-trodden dance floor." I think this track is fun, haven't heard anything else by her)
3. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Promise
4. mp3:Griffin House - Tell Me a Lie (I'm not so sure about the lyric "Tell me a lie, if it's true" and I think "writin' checks that I couldn't cash" might be a bit cliched but I still kinda like it. I might change my mind and decide I really like it or am irritated by it. Not sure yet)
5. Stereo MCs - Warhead
6. Richard Thompson - Let It Blow
7. Lord Kitchener - My Wife's Nightie
8. mp3:The Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me (If a dude says he loves this song, you could probably give him a flower and totally own his soul)
9. Hal - Keep Love As Your Golden Rule
10. mp3:Hayseed Dixie - Rockin In the Free World (this is a good place to mention that I love Anderson Cooper now, more than I already did)
11. mp3:Alfie - Where Did Our Loving Go (I think you've probably been mad since the joke about the flower)
12. mp3:Ladytron - All The Way (Word of Mouth has an interesting write-up about this track. Ladytron's music is "frosty electronica which... inevitably cracks to reveal a warm and seductive centre." Yet "Elsewhere on their upcoming, third album they abandon themselves to the paradoxical joys of club music, where nothing's as sexy as the asexual. Here they're in a more reflective mood, providing a fine closer for this month's CD." So this song is seductive, and therefore less sexy than their asexual tracks? Sexy is less sexy than non-sexy. Yes. This makes sense. Somehow. Maybe if I read it again...)