An acquired taste was a concept I struggled with as a child. Once I’d got my head round the meaning, I had severe doubts about the wisdom of investing time acquiring a taste (such as one for marmalade) when you could be simply indulging your existing manias (such as lemon curd sandwiches made with contrasting slices of fried bread and toast). Suspicions of over-indulgence might seem a justified reaction to this concoction, so it’s worth emphasising that this was a holiday breakfast thing, and the ingredients were all just sitting there, like noshable paints waiting for a culinary Picasso to turn up.
Unsurprisingly, between the ages of 5 and 50, things have changed, or in this case, reversed. Musical marmalade tends to provide my instant hits, whereas poppy stuff will take me more digestion time. As a tribute to the citrus-tinged breakfast of my childhood, here comes a triple tier pop treat of things that have grown on me. Like marmalade.
First, Luv Luv Luv. These spelling reformers who populate song lyrics with Luvs instead of Loves work their nuts off, but non-native speakers still have an occasional tendency to pronounce love with /ɒ/ (like dog) instead of /ʌ/ (like dug). I have a cherished memory of a Spanish covers band insisting that they didn’t care too much for monny, ‘cos monnny couldn’t buy them lovv. Millie Turner is from Clapton, so it must be all my fault that I can detect a little trace of lovv, lovv, lovv here, along with where you comming from? It´s possible my ears are down with a dose of Abba-itus, or Robyn-itus, or just Scandi-itus. Either way it´s enough to win me over, so we can add this to Millie Turner´s list of hits, which is already hu-mong-ous.
What about Baby Queen? Like ex-bloggee, Toya Delazy, she moved to London from South Africa and is currently lapping up the vibes, the opportunities, and the transport. She says of her forthcoming album’s sounds, “I want the listener to feel like they’re on the top of a London bus, travelling through a city they’ve moved to for the very first time, seeing the world through new eyes.” I actually really miss London bus life, so I get this completely. Narcissist, by the way, is an edgy pop blast. By edgy, I mean there’s swearing. Catchy pop swearing.
It was frosty this morning, and while I was out, I spotted three lamp posts in a row, all with pigeons sitting on them, absorbing the night warmth residues. One Lamp For Each Pigeon, I thought, that could be a nice name for a song (By FKA Twigs or Wilco possibly). It´s this kind of understated lyricism that has left me ill-suited for the role of 21 st century glitter bomb pop diva. Lady Gaga knows all about THAT, as evidenced by her song entitled 1000 Doves. No half measures there. We’re looking at the Planningtorock remix, it’s not Planningtorock’s first visit to the blog. Last time it was a re-jig of Romy’s epic pop wonder, Lifetime. This time Gaga gets the treatment, a proper hysterical synth-bubble work out. The vocals have been done all manly too, which lends everything an extra pumped edge. A bit like Erasure´s Andy Bell, or like when glam poodles dress up formally, in their best bow ties and tuxedos. And then they sit eating lemon curd.
THIS WEEK
Millie Turner – Luv Luv Luv
2,812 views since 27th August Weekly Average Views – 570
LAST WEEK
Cleo Sol – 23
Weekly Average Views – 7,333 Blog Week Views – 4,275
EXTRAS
Baby Queen – Narcissist
Lady Gaga – 1000 Doves (Planningtorock remix)