Safari Soundtrack of the Year
It’s been a funny year for me music wise. I’m still struggling to keep up with what’s going on back home. I’ve bought a couple of duff albums on the back on online reviews and I’m sorry to lose The Beat on the BBC’s World Service. Anyway, here are the top 10 most played tracks on my iPod from this year (multiple offerings from single albums are left out).
- Killing the Blues, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (Raising Sand) – a little bit of country, a little bit of blues. Not much good for the road, but pretty fine for my back porch
- Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken, Camera Obscura (Let’s Get Out of This Country) – windows open and turn the volume up. Like Belle and Sebastien, but for grown-ups
- Roscoe, Midlake (The Trials of Van Occupanther) – who said prog rock was dead? Tales of stonecutters and village folk
- Follow the Dollar, Eliza Carthy (Dreams of Breathing Underwater) – Who said English folk music was rubbish?
- 24 Hours from Tulsa, Gene Pitney (24 Hours from Tulsa)- listened to this a lot on the drive from Kigali to Goma, and during the rest of my time in the DRC. A karaoke favourite of mine
- R.A.M.O.N.E.S., The Ramones (We’re Outta Here) – it’s fast, it’s loud and Lemmy guests on vocals. What more could you ask for?
- You Know I’m No Good, Amy Winehouse (Back to Black) – this will always remind me of long, late-night drives through Botswana
- Mercy, Duffy (Rockferry) – not sure what this is doing here. Shows I haven’t rigged things. And could be worse. It could be Dido
- Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake, Grandaddy (Sumday)- something of a mainstay of all my roadtrips
- Hark the Herald, Kate Rusby (Sweet Bells) – this only came out three weeks ago, but it’s been getting pretty heavy rotation at every Christmas party I’ve been to
If I knew what a "meme" was, and whether it was different from an "idea", this is the sort of thing that I’d pass on. I’m not going to, but feel free to join in.
