The Listening Club - 1st September 2013

Howdy folks,

Hope all is well and good with you all. Here in Amsterdam the summer is still performing well above par, even if the evenings are drawing in a little too soon, dammit. Plenty of stuff keeping me occupied as usual, this weekend being Uitmarkt, the supposed start of the "cultural season" - must say, I didn't notice the last one finish - but a good opportunity for me to nose about in some of the slightly more refined areas of Amsterdam life, enjoying bits and pieces of theatre, dance, classical music, even a bit of opera. Not bad at all, I must say...

Last week, back over yonder, it was the "covers you think are better than the originals" vortex and my word, I don't think we've ever had such a diverse array of shizzle to present. Hard tunes done mellow, serious songs done stupid, crap tunes done better, really something for everyone and anyone. Thanks to all contributors for chipping in, was a lot of fun! Suggestions for next month's vortex please?

Back to the week previous to the week previous, @mrhig emerged clutching the frisbee for his debut selection, so over to him for the intro...

"I decided to take advantage of last week's cover versions vortex and continue the theme with an entire album of covers! In the grand tradition of Listening Club (as with the first entry I could find on this blog), my first ever Listening Club choice is a compilation, in this case gathered from three or four albums by one artist. 

The songs you will find here were originally in a different language. It's well worth tracking down the original artist if you hadn't heard of them before; the brilliance of their music shines through even if (like me) you can't understand most of the words. Here, however, we are dealing with English translations; regardless, I think the original charm is quite intact.

Both of the artists (the writer and singer of the original songs, and the artist covering them) have been particularly influential to a certain breed of musicians - the theatrical, the dark, the flamboyant, those that don't fit the standard mould. Get ready for a few waltzes, maybe the odd tango - don't forget a pretentious drink, maybe some absinthe - and prepare yourself for an odyssey of carousing, intoxication, a preoccupation with death and perhaps an STI or two!"

Fantastische!... Direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles, you have been warned!) is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow@listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm BST/EST (GMT+1)!