New moon rising

Not sure if you guys are aware but there are these books, right, and in them are words about vampires, Mormons, love and death and all that kind of stuff. Somewhere along the line someone decided to turn these books into films in order to create great art and perhaps make a few bucks to keep food on the table. MONEY WASN'T A MOTIVE. They cast some hunky young men and some beautifully kooky women and sat back and waited for the awards. None arrived, but the soundtrack entered at number 1 in America and sold a lot more then people expected. So, they've decided to make another film and luckily there's another book to base it on and this time they've really gone all out on the soundtrack in the hope that even more people will get to understand the art.

Big literature fan and all-round film buff Thom Yorke has contributed this rather catchy ditty, entitled 'Hearing Damage':



Whilst Lykke Li has created what we can now call a 'fangtastic' ballad, 'Possibility':



In all seriousness, both these songs are top drawer, with Yorke's even having a hummable chorus and the advantage of not sounding like a headache. We see this soundtracking the bit in the film where the hunky vampire has a bit of a bad day. Lykke Li's effort is glacial, dreamy and very lovely and this will of course be played over someone dying or musing their existence.

New Musick Monday

We were on fire last week! We really pulled it out of the bag didn't we? True, putting our money behind Dizzee Rascal (three no. 1 singles and counting) and Madonna (global superstar for the past 25 years or something) is hardly taking a shot in the dark (are there too many metaphors in that sentence? Are they even metaphors?), but there you are. Madonna crashed in at number 1 and Dizzee settled in nicely at number 3. Poor Mika had to settle for a number 4, which sounds a bit dirty at first, but isn't because a number 1 is wee and a number 2 is poo so a number 4 is...we're not sure really. The single we tipped by Thom Yorke was limited to about 2000 copies so it didn't get anywhere, but it's more about the art of creating music with him isn't it?

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Album by Girls



Anyone who's anyone in the 'bloggesphere' (yuk!) is in love with this duo. We're not going to lie, we've only heard a few things (which we liked a lot), but we trust the opinions of our peers so we're giving it a shot. Plus, they have an amazing backstory, which these days is nearly enough. Basically, one of them lived in a cult, they may or may not have a millionaire benefactor and they seem to have consumed a tonne of prescription drugs in the recent past. They make woozy, simple songs that sound like they've been made during that point between sleeping and waking.

LISTEN TO THIS AND FEEL A BIT DISAPPOINTED

Once by Kid Harpoon



This guy is from round our way. Or at least from round our old way. He used to frequent some pubs that we have heard of and visited occasionally but we never met. It's an interesting story, isn't it? It's kind of more interesting than this debut album, which takes a lot of the promise from his early recordings and pushes it through a massive filter called "Personality Reducer - Use with care for fear of over-producing the shit out of everything". Some of it is alright, but getting Trevor Horn to produce it seems like a bit of an error.

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'4Ever' by The Veronicas



Your enjoyment of this song will hinge on whether or not you find young women pretending to be 'rock' a). really annoying, b). annoying, but a great song is a great song, or c). inspirational, because Avril Lavigne is punk and genuinely angry. We're with the b) group, and sometimes a song comes along that's so undeniably, almost irritatingly perfect in a throwaway pop kind of way that it makes us a bit sad for everyone else. This single was produced by Max Martin, who is 'responsible' for this and this, the latter is a kind of template for this rock/pop thing and appears on a certain person's iPod not too far from here.

New Musick Monday

So, last week we predicted big things for Jay-Z (hardly putting our necks on the line - it entered at no. 4), Jazmine Sullivan (more of a risk seeing as the album was probably brought by anyone with an interest about a year ago - it was nowhere) and Florence & The Machine. The latter has had some pretty extensive coverage thanks to the Mercury nomination, but the single failed to dent to the top 40. Luckily, the album re-entered the top 10 and another track, 'You've Got The Love, also started to climb the top 75. Imagine if that were to become the next single? IMAGINE.

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Tongue N' Cheek by Dizzee Rascal



Tongue N' Cheek!? Tongue 'N Cheek!? Oh dearest Dizzee man, this really won't do. If you're using N' then what you're actually trying to say is Tongue AND Cheek, which just sounds like some grizzly meat order at some posh restaurant. Grammar issues aside, this is essentially Dizzee's coming out album...not like that, but in terms of him embracing pop and deciding that he's going to stop going on about knives and 'beefs' and concentrate more on going on holiday and dancing. It's not just about the three (three!) number 1 singles though, with the ridiculous 'Road Rage' taking in grime, drum n bass, techno and probably some jazz.

DOWNLOAD THE BEST BITS OF THIS

Celebration by Madonna



'Hung Up', 'Music', 'Vogue', '4 Minutes', 'Holiday', 'Like A Virgin', 'Into The Groove', 'Like A Prayer', 'Ray Of Light', 'Open Your Heart', 'Borderline', 'Secret', 'Justify My Love', 'La Isla Bonita', 'Papa Don't Preach', 'Lucky Star', 'Crazy For You', 'Who's That Girl', 'Frozen', 'Live To Tell', 'Beautiful Stranger', 'Don't Tell Me', 'Cherish'. Just a few hits to choose from.

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'FeelingPulledApartByHorses' / 'The Hollow Earth' by Thom Yorke



Oh, we're not going into all of this again. Just scroll down a bit for more info. Cheers.

They're like buses

You wait for about thirty minutes in the pissing rain for one to come and then two arrive at the same time. Buses are notoriously unreliable. Thom Yorke is not unlike a bus in this respect. Here is another music video, this time for the glitchy, vaguely haunting 'The Hollow Earth':



The video features artwork from underground graffiti artist Banksy. Not sure if you would have heard of him, he's not really been covered in the press too much.

'The Hollow Earth' is released as a limited 12" today but can also be downloaded (not a word) from the Members area of Radiohead.com once you've ordered the vinyl. It will then be available from all the usual download places from 6 October. It's a double a-side with this, 'FeelingPulledApartByHorses':



Not good to listen to with a headache, but pretty amazing nonetheless (the last three minutes are OMG, like, LOL, so good). Fingers crossed there will be some home video footage of Thom cooking a veggie lasagna or something tomorrow.

Better than all the rest

Little Thom Yorke has been a busy bee of late, what with him and his mates playing Reading and the announcement that he'll release two brand new solo singles tomorrow, one called 'FeelingPulledApartByHorses' and the other 'The Hollow Earth'. Exciting. He's also contributed a track to the new Twilight film (details of which are due to be announced very soon) and there's also this track, 'All For The Best'. This cover is part of a benefit CD for Mark Mulcahy, the frontman with cult American band Miracle Legion. The CD will help raise funds to enable Mulcahy to continue recording and look after his three-year-old twin daughters, following the sudden death of his wife.

Yorke's haunting interpretation of the Miracle Legion track also features brother Andy on backing vocals.



The video harks back to those days where videos could mean bugger all to anyone but somehow be deeply unsettling. What's with all the skulls!?

Other acts to appear on Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy include Michael Stipe, The National, Frank Black and Mercury Rev.