Friday 21 August 2015

TheMadster comes of age

Today marks a significant milestone in the Robster household. Our firstborn turns 18 and is therefore officially no longer a child. Hooray! That's my job done! Oh wait, there's another one who's got a couple years left yet...

Anyway, TheMadster will be off to Uni next month to study Sports Fitness and Personal Training. She'll no doubt be taking with her a hatful of tunes pilfered from her ever-loving father. I'll probably do her a uni playlist, something to impress her new friends. Maybe. Well, OK then, nothing tooooo embarrassing, at least. I'm open to suggestions from my readers, of course (comment below).


Something else happened exactly 18 years ago today as well - Oasis released their long-awaited third album. Now, history will tell us that while it was at the time the fastest-selling album ever, it was also a bit of a dud. And true, it wasn't as good as the first two; it was overlong, overblown and overdone. But, there were a few good tunes on there if you scratched beneath the surface. Don't Go Away was definitely one of the record's best songs, probably because it clocked in at less than five minutes and didn't go on and on and on for the hell of it. Oh, and the date of the record's release is in the artwork, which means TheMadster's birth will forever be marked on an album cover!

Number one in the album charts 18 years ago was 'White On Blonde' by Texas. I never really got Texas. That album in particular was just annoying; way over-produced and polished to within an inch of its life. I bought it for TheMadster as it was her birthday no.1, but I've never played it and she's never shown much interest in it. Mind you, if I had to choose between that and the number 1 single that week, I'd take Texas everytime. Top of the singles charts? Brace yourselves - Men In Black by Will Fucking Smith!

So today's songs of celebration? I'm going to post a version of Don't Go Away as an ironic statement, what with TheMadster buggering off to uni and all. I'm not posting owt by Texas or Smith though, so instead - Foals always go down well around here, and their last album 'Holy Fire' certainly did its time on the MP3players of TheMadster and MrsRobster. So with their new album hitting stores in a week's time, I thought I'd post a couple of their tracks. First, a surprsingly good Tom Vek remix of the enormous Inhaler, originally from 'Holy Fire', and then a live version of the awesome title track of the forthcoming new album. Hopefully this meets with TheMadster's approval.


The first 18 years have passed in a flash, and like every teenager of course, she reckons she's had it hard and no one understands. Let's see what she says in 18 years time, eh? Enjoy it while you can Madster - you're only 18 for a year!



Soundtrack:

3 comments:

  1. As the father of an 11 and 9 year old, I tip my cap and congratulate you for a job well done. I recommend This Ain't No Picnic by Minutemen. No use sugarcoating it, man. I loved this song and all of it pessimism when I was 18. Still do today.

    Working on the edge
    Losing my self-respect
    For a man who presides over me
    The principles of his creed
    Punch in, punch out
    Eight hours, five days
    Sweat, pain and agony
    On Friday I'll get paid

    This ain't no picnic

    Hey mister don't look down on me
    For what I believe
    I got my bills and the rent
    I should be content
    But our land isn't free
    So I'll work my youth away
    In the place of a machine
    I refuse to be a slave

    This ain't no picnic

    ReplyDelete
  2. Playlist, playlist...hmm... OK Computer was released in this year.... so anything from there... oh and of course a few HMHB tracks... Also released was Glow by Reef (remember them?)
    Place Your Hands still sounds good after all these years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's been a long time since I heard 'Be Here Now', but I seem to remember that there were some potentially good songs on it, but they needed some serious editing. There was some kind of documentary at the time which fetured Noel and Liam bashing out a couple acoustically (atround a swimming pool if I'm not mistaken) and they were better than the LP versions - from memory anyway.
    I'll salute TheMadster's 18th by using the same words my Mum greeted me with on every April 16th for 50 years. Many happy returns of the day....do you feel any older?

    ReplyDelete