Firstly, many apologies to any (are there any?) regular readers for the complete lack of updates. Won't bore you with the reasons but TracksandGigs will be back to normal in the new year with reviews of all the latest albums. 2009 wasn't such a great year for music but 2010 already looks great with new LPs from Innocence Mission, Tindersticks, Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes on the radar and all sorts of Pavement activity to get excited about.
I have already heard the new Tindersticks album, courtesy of a promo. I've played it so much it feels like an old friend rather than a new, as yet unreleased, album. More on this in the New Year.
Anyway, I have decided to nominate a T&G Christmas Number One. This will be a yearly tradition and almost uniquely it will be based on MUSIC. Yes. Much as poking Simon Cowell in the eye sounds like fun, Rage Against The Machine are on Sony so seem to be rather raging against themselves these days and there seems to be something of an irony in people responding to peer pressure and internet campaigns to pay 79p for a song with a chorus of "fuck you I won't do what you tell me". Or is that just me? Most likely.
Anyway, I am nominating Camera Obscura's 7" single which couples a cover of Jim Reeves' 'The Blizzard' with their very own insanely catchy 'Swans'. 'Swans' I have blogged about before. It will always hold a place near to my heart as I ran an entire 10k race with its nagging melody dancing around my brain. 'The Blizzard' is new and utterly gorgeous. Managing to be both warm, solemn and jangly at the same time, Tracy-Anne Campbell sings Reeves' song about a man who travels on a pony in the snow to meet his love Mary-Anne and then....freezes to death just yards from where she waits. How much more Christmassy can you get?
Anyway, its a beautiful single, when I look around for the competition, I...can't see any...and it would have won even if there had been some, so the TracksandGigs 2009 Christmas Number One is...
Camera Obscura 'The Blizzard/Swans'
Take that Simon Cowell.
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