nixsight

It’s a bit hectic here, so I’m running behind on my music post this week. This is, of course, not news to anyone – I’m always running late on my posts. Eventually I’ll get to a point where I don’t feel the need to apologise at the beginning of every one that’s overdue. You’ll note that I’ve dropped the date from the posts, and that’s in some ways an admission of how rubbish I am at keeping up!

This week, I’m in a slightly romantic mood, so I figured it was a good time for unusual duets. Though, of course, it being me, they aren’t necessarily the most perky of songs in some cases.

Miss Otis Regrets/Just One Of Those Things – Kirsty MacColl/The Pogues

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It’s almost Christmas, which is, of course, the perfect time for Kirsty MacColl and the Pogues. But “Fairytale Of New York” is a bit of an obvious choice, and you’ll all have heard it a million times. And besides, this is a track that you just don’t hear often enough.

“Red Hot & Blue” was an AIDs charity album of Cole Porter covers released in 1990, and for some reason, rather than duet on one song, MacColl and the Pogues opted to instead do a medley of two. This works out pretty well for me, actually, because I had heard the latter, but the former – which probably sparked off my love of murder ballads – was all new to me, and MacColl makes it tragic and beautiful.

This might even be the point at which I really started to appreciate the Pogues by themselves. I always loved “Fairytale”, but it’s fair to say that that song works best because it’s a pure and fluid call/answer between two very different voices. This one still gets some extra strength from the contrast, but it’s sharper, and it’s not just between MacColl and MacGowan – the two songs performed are very different from each other, too. Somehow, it works perfectly, with each song complementing the other, and afterwards I properly appreciated what the Pogues actually do.

Let’s Do It – Joan Jett/Paul Westerberg

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“Tank Girl” was not as bad as people said it was. I’m almost certain about this. At the time I loved the damn thing, despite the terrible response it got. But on reflection, this might just have been a formative response to Naomi Watts… mmm… Naomi Watts!

But whether it was a good or bad or average movie or not, the soundtrack – which I think was heavily influenced by the “Judgment Night” and “Natural Born Killers” soundtracks – is pretty damn fun. It features Portishead, Ice T, Bjork… as well as a bit of Bush and Hole (snarf).

It’s also got this inspired cover of another Cole Porter song. Porter was a truly great songwriter, and it stands up to reinterpretation beautifully. I don’t know Joan Jett’s stuff all that well, and I get the feeling Paul Westerberg might be one of those guys whose normal output would just annoy me.

But this is such a playful song, and this version adds a layer of mischief and pop-rock for good measure.

You Don’t Know Me – Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor

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It isn’t going to be a surprise to anyone who has spent more than five minutes on this site that I really have the Spektor love. I’m not sure whether it’s been as clear, but I also have a man-crush on Ben Folds.

This song, from Folds’ most recent album, is a perfect merging of the duo’s vocal strengths, but it’s also one of those misleading little song confections – the tempo and delivery is persistently perky, but the subject matter is another well-observed and pragmatic song about the relationship condition from Folds.

On first listen, I was a little disappointed that it was more Folds than Spektor. Because I am an idiot. It’s a perfect little song, cute and realistic in equal measures, and you must listen to it until you love it.