New Order Love Covers

Two superior covers of New Order songs today. I don't mean superior in the sense that they're better than the originals - although they are both wonderful and give the songs new leases of life - but in the sense that they're a cut above yer typical cover version. (Note to self: don't say 'superior' next time - 'brilliant' would have served just as well and would've saved all this unnecessary blather.)

Anyway, where was I? Yes, two superior brilliant versions of New Order songs, Love Vigilantes by Laura Cantrell and Bizarre Love Triangle by Frente. I've blogged about Frente on a number of occasions in the past and am sure I must have put their atmospheric, acoustic take on BLT up here at least once before, but it's always worth another outing.

Meanwhile, listening to the gorgeous, heartfelt vocals of Laura Cantrell - who I don't think I've written about before, although I could be wrong - it's hard to believe she trained as an accountant or lawyer, or something equally square, in a past life. But that's probably just narrow-mindedness on my part. I could listen to her country stylings all day - and quite frequently do. John Peel's musical tastes may have been more than a tad eccentric at times, but with his championing of Laura C (and loads of other stuff in fairness), he was bang on.

Laura Cantrell - Love Vigilantes mp3

Frente! - Bizarre Love Triangle mp3

(Would be interested to hear which of these you prefer. Me, I'm torn!)

Three of a Kind #60

I loved the Record Mirror as a teenager. Smash Hits was funnier and more irreverent, but RM held an equal place in my affections for one basic reason: it featured charts; lots of them. Not just yer bog-standard Top 100 singles and albums (which were exciting enough on their own) either. No, the Record Mirror also printed the following charts each week: Music Video, Compact Discs, Twelve Inch, US Singles & Albums, Disco, Eurobeat, Reggae, Indie Singles and Indie Albums. As someone who, at the time, regularly compiled my own weekly airplay chart based on stuff I'd heard on the radio (what can I say, I was an odd kid!) all this was very heaven to me.


(Pout, pout, knock yourself out: Dr Robert deigns to appear on this week's cover)
Anyway, for no reason other than pure, unabashed nostalgia we're going to focus on the charts from the April 19th 1986 issue of Record Mirror for today's Three of a Kind. Here's what was topping the various countdowns in each of the aforementioned categories that week, followed by three of my favourite chart-toppers from the list.

Gallup UK Singles: A Different Corner - George Michael

Gallup UK Albums: Hits 4 - Various

Music Video: Alchemy Live - Dire Straits

Compact Discs: Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits

Twelve Inch: Rock Me Amadeus - Falco

US Singles: Kiss - Prince

US Albums: Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston

Disco: The Finest - The SOS Band

Eurobeat: You're A Beat - Eastbound Expressway (me neither)

Reggae: Hello Darling - Tippa Irie

Indie Singles: Shellshock - New Order

Indie Albums: Black Celebration - Depeche Mode

New Order - Shellshock (12" version) mp3

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (Salieri Mix) mp3

The S.O.S. Band - The Finest mp3

Mildly Interesting 12" Remix Fact: At a whopping 8 minutes and 21 seconds, this version of Rock Me Amadeus isn't even the longest track we're featuring today; Shellshock and its 9 mins 39 has that distinction. This is my favourite New Order track, by the way. Funnily enough Rock Me Amadeus is my favourite Falco track, too. Not quite so much competition for that one, though, admittedly

Mildly Interesting Pop Periodical Fact: All good things must come to an end, and the Record Mirror did just that in (I think) 1990. I had to reluctantly switch to the NME after that. Johnny Cigarettes was good, but it was never quite the same. Ho hum.

Buy music

Three of a kind #3

Today's Three of a kind features, rather spoddily, a trio of songs that all peaked at number 18 in the UK singles chart in 1984. Now, bear with me on this one because the other thing these songs have in common is that they're all dead good - honest!

First up is the pick of the bunch, for me, Tossing & Turning by Windjammer, which remains one of the great lost (or at least largely forgotten) soul tracks of the decade. Having done much of my growing up in the eighties I'm still a sucker for most soul (and funk) music from that era, and Tossing & Turning sounds as great today as it did all those aeons ago. Just a perfect song for a summer's day - or any day at all - really.


Windjammer - Tossing & Turning mp3 (available for seven days)

Track number two will be familiar to many, coming as it does from one of the decade's best bands, New Order. Thieves Like Us is a typically generous six minutes plus, recorded while the band were in the middle of a very purple patch indeed. So hip it hurts.

New Order - Thieves Like Us mp3 (available for seven days)

Finally, we find soul troubador (and cheesy pullover fan) Jeffrey Osborne getting all funky on our backsides with his second-biggest hit of the year, Stay With Me Tonight. Now, Jeff's probably most famous for late-night local radio favourite, the tender ballad On The Wings Of Love, but Stay With Me Tonight is a much more raunchy affair, as the title suggests. The old saucebox. (I should warn you here that this song features a none-more-eighties - and slightly incongruous - guitar solo two thirds of the way through, so brace yerselves!)

Jeffrey Osborne - Stay With Me Tonight mp3 (available for seven days)

Buy music that peaked at number 18 in the UK in 1984 here