Once Round the Record Fair

Big news for record lovers, indeed. November has been unfair to us - so many records to buy, so little money. My first priority was to get the Royal We album and the 7" and they both lived up to expectations. I'm listening to Dolly Mixture and I suddenly think there's a similarity there... Otherwise the wee Royals have been notorious for mixing the Sound of Young Scotland with glam guitars and girlie riots. The self-titled minialbum actually presents a range of sounds: from the typical late 90s Glasgow sound of the single "All the Rage", to the Raincoatsy time-changes in "That Ain't Me Sweet Love", to the ukelele ditty "Back and Forth Forever". It's clear why the demagogues of eclecticism Geographic signed them. And after all it's as natural as Postcard signing Orange Juice. My favourite line is 'put that body away - hey hey hey' in "I Hate Rock n Roll". But my favourite song is by far "Willy", and you'll know why when you've heard it! In short: 20 minutes you're guaranteed not to stand still.

Recently, I also got the second Slow Club 7". It wasn't as monumental a moment in my life as when the first one came. Maybe I've just gotten used to the fact that Slow Club are real? In fact, the songs are amazing and you'll recognise them from the live performances. The difference is that the arrangements are a bit more fleshed out this time, the odd guitar overdub here and the odd Bright Eyes choir there. The dragging waltz-time b-side benefits most from this treatment with it's unexpected crescendo. Both sides are on their Myspace page.

Another 7", that has yet to arrive, is Wake the President's second offering "Remember Fun?", which I've been looking forward to for a while. Both the songs have been up on Myspace so I know how great they are. I hope you all voted for them on Radio 2 - I certainly did. I'm not surprised they got single of the week! I think they're playing in London soon, so look out.

It's all 7" today apparently. The last one that deserves mention is the the debut from Zoey van Goey, released by Erik and Björn incidentally, on their Say Dirty Records. The a-side is definitely the best song I've heard from them so far with its lackadaisical strum. It's produced by Stuart Murdoch, but I don't think he needed to do much anything because they've had their act together since the start. Also, B&S trainspotters should be overjoyed to know that Bob Kildea plays bass guitar here.

By the way, I just discovered that The Thanes are playing at The Woodside on Saturday! Why does Edinburgh have to be next to Glasgow instead of Malmö?!

CLOUD 23 The Royal We - Willy