12elativity Track Listing

Weclome to "12elativity", our collection of songs on Space and Time. Again, the CD is a bit of a narrative. It begins Right Here, Right Now, so Don't Stop Me Now and Let's Go! "Good Riddance" some might say. Having Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun our intrepid Space Cowboy begins to Zoom on his journey of the solar system. Armed with his knowledge of Planet Sizes he navigates to a well-known Satellite. Catching sight during a penumbral lunar eclipse of the Low Red Moon, he finds himself wondering about red celestial bodies and ponders if there was ever Life on Mars? Is there still? Is it Like Today back home? Would he ever meet a Girl From Mars? All this conjecture has left him inattentive and he's ran out of fuel and is doomed to drift Out Of Space as we know it until all that can be perceived of the Solar System is Starlight. Forever.

Track No.	Title	Artist
1	Space and Time	The Verve
2	Right Here Right Now	Jesus Jones
3	Don't Stop Me Now	Queen
4	Let's Go	Stuck In The Sand
5	Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)	Green Day
6	Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun	Pink Floyd
7	Space Cowboy	Jamiroquai
8	Zoom	Fat Larry's Band
9	Planet Sizes	Steve Mason
10	Satellite	Sara Hartman
11	Low Red Moon	Belly
12	Life On Mars	David Bowie
13	Is It Like Today	World Party
14	Girl From Mars	Ash
15	Out Of Space	The Prodigy
16	Starlight	Muse
17	Forever	HAIM

Under The Milky Way - The Church

Another song I want to share which almost certainly won't be on the CD is 'Under The Milky Way Tonight'. Why I haven't put this onto the CD is beyond me as it typifies everything I think the CD Consortium is about. It is a song that was introduced to me by a close friend at university - I instantly loved it. It is a song I think everyone should hear. I suspect that I put it on the first workplace compillation CD I was ever responsible for creating, and one of my colleages loved it - this is what it should be all about. Sharing gems. I have tried sharing it with others since, and can say that it doesn't result in universal delight, as I think it should, but here it is nonetheless.

Monty Python's Galaxy Song ... by Stephen Hawking!

Well, CD 12 is shaping up, but not quite all the contributions are in. In the meantime, there are a couple of tracks I'd like to share that I don't think are going to be on the CD. Space permitting, I was going to add Monty Python's Galaxy Song because I love it and because it so brilliantly sums up some mind-boggling facts about our universe. I love the way that a profound truth from physics about nothing being able to travel faster than the speed of light is added as a seemingly throwaway comment 'and that's the fastest speed there is'. Just yesterday, Pete  H was saying that it was a shame that none of the iconic physicists had done songs about space and time ... well Pete, I present to you now, Stephen Hawking performing the Galaxy Song from Monty Python. Look out for Brian Cox too.

CD 12 Launch

Copy of email sent to contributors:

Dear All,

I think I’ve had enough positive ‘Let’s get on with it’ responses, and no ‘Let’s just wait a bit’ responses to trigger the launch of the next project.

Simon has chosen the theme ‘Space and Time’ for the next CD, so off we go.

I’d like to have all contributions in by the close of play on Monday 26^th September.

Rules, pretty much as before – if you need any clarification, let me know.

We have 5 minutes and 20 seconds each again, but this time, I’m going to say … JUST ONE TRACK EACH! I know this is a controversial move, but it will hopefully make the guessing of who put on what more straightforward (not that that’s a massive element of the CD for some of you). This also means that we don’t have to be too strict about the 5 minutes and 20, but please don’t go choosing anything massively over. 

The title of the CD will be ‘12elativity’, but the theme remains ‘space and time’.

I have currently got a shortlist of 1 hour and 37 minutes’ worth of space and time songs, so I don’t think you should have problems finding material, so broad is the theme.

Happy selecting,

Chris

My Thoughts on the BreXIt Tracks

My thoughts on BreXIt tracks:

(I tried typing these in as a comment, but somehow they were too lengthy to be admissible)

OK - my thoughts on the tracks ...

Rule Britannia - I could go on about this at length. Basically, I am proud (mostly) of my country, but don't go in for the Jingoistic fervour that is associated with Last Night Of The Proms so shy away from this on those grounds.

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day - Good solid song (1 point)

Strasbourg - Having recently visited, love the city. Simple but effective (2 points)

Budapest - Familiar through the kids' CDs - very melodic and catchy. I love his voice (wouldn't want to listen to too much). I love the little guitar riff in the background (3 points - maybe a bit low).

Spanish Caravan - Well this has long been a personal favourite and I have contributed it myself to a CD in the past. I was therefore obliged to give it (12 points)

Amsterdam - I love the album this is taken from (but much less so their follow-up album) (10 points)

Holland, 1945 - this grew on me (not sure why I didn't like it at first, maybe a bit too distorted) (7 points)

Radio Free Europe - good song which maybe didn't get any points from me because of over-familiarity.

Fell In Love With A Girl - I'm not quite there with The White Stripes - some I like quite a lot, but this is probably a bit too loud.

Norgaard - I've put a Vaccines track on before - this one was chosen because it filled up my time allocation nicely and is about a female from Europe - it is also one of the more catchy Vaccines tracks.

That's Me - Well, despite having this on my Abba Gold CD, I'm not familiar with it at all and quite like it - I feel some regret that I wasn't able to give it any points. Definitely deserves a place on a 'Europe' CD.

Penny Lover - I can't believe that so few people thought that this was Jasper's track, and I'm very amused at Neil's attempt at fitting it in with the 'Europe' theme - penny lover, prefers Sterling to the Euro! Nil points from everybody. It's not a dislikeable song though, I must say.

Cake To Bake - What to say? This song was a bit of a revelation. At first I didn't give it the respect it deserved. BUT, Pete didn't trawl through many Eurovision CDs for nothing. Strangely, this great song didn't even make it to the finals. Very catchy, amusing lyrics (reinforcing what we already suspected about the link between food and comedy) and it makes me smile each time I hear it. (7 points).

Jungle Drum – I love this. I had never heard it before. (8 points).

One – How to be kind? I’m not a Metallica fan – it’s his voice more than anything. Some very pleasant guitar in it though.

Borders – I didn’t give this any points! How did that happen? A good song. Right on topic.

Completely new to me. I think there were others that I seemed to enjoy more, but this deserves points. Thankfully others did think it worthy of points and it scored a very creditable 67 in total.

Making Plans for Nigel – Ah! I think I can see what’s happened here. Whilst I like this song, and admire the brilliance in fitting the song to the theme, I don’t think I would have awarded it 6 points. I think my 6 points for this were intended for ‘Borders’ … which luckily would have placed it one point behind the gold medal position and hence doesn’t affect the overall winner. (This never happens to Neil.) (6 points).

Split (Pt. 2) – Yep, I really liked this, especially after the first couple of listens. And a non-blues track (OK – so there are bluesy bits in it) from Mick surely deserves some points. (4 points)

When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe – I have been holding back from putting on a Divine Comedy track for ages, but there were so many that were contenders for this CD (I wonder if Neil Hannon is a Europhile). I chose this one because the title seemed appropriate, with the nod to former troubled times. I do however love the line ‘Twilight turns from amethyst to deep and deeper blue’.

Breaking Glass – I’m not a Bowie fan, this one is OK though – but I still couldn’t bring myself to give it any points.

I Predict A Riot – I love the song, and we play it in our band, but over-familiarity probably kept it from scoring any points in this instance.

Anarchy In The UK – Another strong song which I really like, but not enough to have given any points to.

BreXIt - The Aftermath

CD Club #11 - BreXIt				Awards
Track No.	Title	Artist	Chosen By
1	Rule Britannia	Arne	Allan	12
2	Rome Wasn't Built In A Day	Morcheeba	Pete H	70
3	Strasbourg	The Rakes	Allan	47
4	Budapest	George Ezra	Simon	74
5	Spanish Caravan	The Doors	Franck	39
6	Amsterdam	Imagine Dragons	Fran	69
7	Holland, 1945	Neutral Milk Hotel	Howard	50
8	Radio Free Europe	R.E.M.	Nick	34
9	Fell In Love With A Girl	The White Stripes	Allan	45
10	Norgaard	Vaccines	Chris	47
11	That's Me	Abba	Simon	6
12	Penny Lover	Lionel Richie	Jasper	0
13	Cake To Bake	Aarzemnieki	Pete H	33
14	Jungle Drum	Emilíana Torrini	Rob	45
15	One	Metallica	Sam	19
16	Borders	The Sunshine Underground	Neil	67
17	Making Plans For Nigel	XTC	Rob	53
18	Split (Pt. 2)	The Groundhogs	Mick L	38
19	When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe	The Divine Comedy	Chris	14
20	Breaking Glass	David Bowie	Howard	4
21	I  Predict A Riot	Kaiser Chiefs	Katja	51
22	Anarchy In The UK	Sex Pistols	Jim	53

 

Finally, only five days after the deadline passed, I have had all the results in. It was a nail-biting finish - most (all but one) of you got your sheets in on time and there was just one point between the winning track and the two runners up. Thankfully the result of the final scoresheet wasn't to give us a tie, but an outright winner. And the winning track, with a grand total of 74 points was ... Budapest, by George Ezra, as selected by, you guessed it, Simon!

So, congratulations to Simon who gets to choose the theme for the next CD (more of that later) ... again.

A creditable second place goes to Pete Hodgson's choice of Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, by Morcheeba with 70 points, just a gnat's whisker ahead of Fran's selection Amsterdam by Imagine Dragons which scored 69 points.

We can't go any further without mentioning Jasper's distinction of nil points! Well done - a thoroughly deserved Wooden Spoon.

So, on to the guessing game ...

Rob was king of the psychologists/complete guessers by correctly identifying 5 people out of the 20 tracks he didn't contribute. Second was Katja who also identified 5 people (one of whom was Jim though) out of 21. Pete H was third with 4 out of 20 which I've judged to score just better than Fran's 4 out of 21.

The track most easily associated with the contributor was my Divine Comedy track which 6 of you managed to guess correctly (no surprise there).

The most elusive person was ... Howard, who put on two tracks without being pegged for either of them. Also, newcomer Sam wasn't pegged for Metallica by anyone.

OK, on to total combined contribution and average overall contribution ...

Allan amassed 104 points in total (from 3 tracks), followed by Pete H with 103 (2 tracks) and Rob 98 (2 tracks). In terms of average contribution per track, Fran wins with 69 points (1 track) followed by Neil (67 from 1) and Jim (53 from 1). And the 'Why Did You Even Bother' award for worst total contribution goes to Jasper with 0 points from 1 track.