WBER’s DJ Kelsey has put together a playlist of songs by British artists to celebrate the 2012 London Olympics that begin today!
Got To Get You Into My Life/ The Beatles
All the rules fell by the wayside with Revolver, as the Beatles began exploring new sonic territory, lyrical subjects, and styles of composition. It wasn’t just Lennon and McCartney, either — Harrison staked out his own dark territory with the tightly wound, cynical rocker “Taxman”; the jaunty yet dissonant “I Want to Tell You”; and “Love You To,” George’s first and best foray into Indian music. Such explorations were bold, yet they were eclipsed by Lennon’s trippy kaleidoscopes of sound. The biggest miracle of Revolver may be that the Beatles covered so much new stylistic ground and executed it perfectly on one record, or it may be that all of it holds together perfectly. Either way, its daring sonic adventures and consistently stunning songcraft set the standard for what pop/rock could achieve.- All Music Guide
Naive/ The Kooks
The Kooks arrived fully formed in 2006, for their debut sounds like the work of a band well into its career: the confidence with which the foursome from Brighton play and the abandon with which Luke Pritchard sings; the witty songcraft and deft arrangements; the drama and fervor they unleash from the very first notes and carry through to the end. They display maturity but also play with the fervor of kids and project a wide-eyed charm that is very endearing. On most of Inside In/Inside Out, the band sounds like a more energetic Thrills or a looser Sam Roberts Band, maybe even a less severe Arctic Monkeys at times.- All Music Guide
Bad Thing/ Arctic Monkeys
Breathless praise is a time-honored tradition in British pop music, but even so, the whole brouhaha surrounding the 2006 debut of the Arctic Monkeys bordered on the absurd. It wasn’t enough for the Arctic Monkeys to be the best new band of 2006; they had to be the saviors of rock & roll. Lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner had to be the best songwriter since Noel Gallagher or perhaps even Paul Weller, and their debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, at first was hailed as one of the most important albums of the decade, and then, just months after its release, NME called it one of the Top Five British albums ever. Some may call it striking when the iron is hot, cashing in while there’s still interest, but Favourite Worst Nightmare is the opposite of opportunism: it’s the vibrant, thrilling sound of a band coming into its own. – All Music Guide
LDN/ Lilly Allen
Like most British pop, Lily Allen’s debut album, Alright, Still,overflows with impeccably shiny, creative productions. However, Allen attempts to set herself apart from the likes of Rachel Stevens, Natasha Stevens, Natasha Bedingfield, and Girls Aloud with a cheeky, (mostly) amusing vindictive streak in her lyrics that belies the sugarcoated sounds around them. You know exactly what she means when she says her ex is “not big whatsoever” on “Not Big”; later, she revels in being the one that got away on “Shame for You.” And “LDN” is a glorious summer confection, even if “it’s all lies” underneath the Lord Kitchener sample and “sun is in the sky” chorus. – All Music Guide
Honky Tonk Women/ Rolling Stones
“Honky Tonk Women” was the last and one of the greatest of the Rolling Stones’ classic 1960s singles, reaching number one in 1969. Most Rolling Stones classics are based around a primal blues-rock riff, and in “Honky Tonk Women,” there could have been several: the clipped circular one at the beginning of the song, the responsive ones that echo Mick Jagger’s vocal through the verses, or the ones played by a combination of guitars and horns in the instrumental break. Also crucial to the musical greatness of the track was Charlie Watts’ funky, no-frills drumbeats, which lead off the song and ricochet throughout the song with great authority but absolutely no bombast. Although “Honky Tonk Women” is rock & roll, there’s a lot of country and blues influence, perhaps even more country than blues.-All Music Guide
Starry Eyed/ Ellie Goulding
It shouldn’t surprise any Ellie Golding fan to know that the British songstress wrote music for the likes of Gabriella Cilmi and Diana Vickers before issuing this full-length debut. That’s because Golding’s sound doesn’t stretch far from other teen Brit-pop artists of 2010, who are more likely to pull back and dig deep on a record than indulge in the froth of Girls Aloud or Sugababes. Golding finds a balance between both camps on Lights. Ultimately, Golding’s debut album is something of relevance; it lacks the dramatic crash and bang of Florence + the Machine’s Lungs, but is certainly a more restrained, compelling listen than the debut records by Pixie Lott and Little Boots, two artists whose electronic dance-pop is echoed here. – All Music Guide
Under Cover of Darkness/ The Strokes
When the Strokesreturned from their lengthy post-First Impressions of Earth hiatus with Angles, they’d been apart almost as long as they’d been together. While they were gone, they cast a long shadow: upstarts like the Postelles and Neon Trees borrowed more than a few pages from their stylebook, and even established acts like Phoenix used the band’s strummy guitar pop for their own devices. During that time, the members of the Strokes pursued side projects that were more or less engaging, but it felt like the band still had unfinished business; though First Impressions was ambitious, it didn’t feel like a final statement. For that matter, neither does Angles, which arrived just a few months shy of their classic debut Is This It’s tenth anniversary. Clocking in at a svelte 34 minutes, it’s as short as the band’s early albums, but Angles is a different beast. Somehow, the Strokes sound more retro here than they did before, with slick production coating everything in a new wave sheen.-All Music Guide
Coffee and TV/ Blur
Blur’s penitence for Brit-pop continues with the aptly named 13, which deals with star-crossed situations like personal and professional breakups with Damon Albarn’s longtime girlfriend, Justine Frischmann of Elasta, and the group’s longtime producer, Stephen Street. Building on Blur’s un-pop experiments, the group’s ambitions to expand their musical and emotional horizons result in a half-baked baker’s dozen of songs, featuring some of their most creative peaks and self-indulgent valleys. – All Music Guide
Flux/ Bloc Party
The album begins with two of Bloc Party’s angriest, most experimental songs, which revisit the beat-heavy territory of A Weekend in the City’s “Prayer” with even more charged results. “Ares” is a modern-day war chant, with seething processed guitar lines fueled by huge pummeling drums, the likes of which haven’t been heard since the big beat heyday of the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy. – All Music Guide
Ask/ The Smiths
For many Smiths fans, Rank is as close as they will get to a live performance from Morrissey, Johnny Marr, and company. Recorded live at The National Ballroom in London in October of 1986, roughly six months before they disbanded altogether, these 14 songs capture the Smiths performing in full-on rock-star mode. Though Grant Showbiz’s production and engineering work consistently places Morrissey’s voice too loud in respect to the rest of the band, the performance is suitably epic, hit-packed, and engrossing. Morrissey is in fine form, randomly trilling and squawking throughout, providing enough cocky banter and personality that the fact that he’s nearly out of breath for half the performance doesn’t put a damper on the festivities. – All Music Guide
Stylo/ Gorillaz
Gorillaz began as a lark but turned serious once it became Damon Albarn’s primary creative outlet following the slow dissolve of Blur. Delivered five years after the delicate whimsical melancholy of 2005’s Demon Days, Plastic Beach is an explicit sequel to its predecessor, its story line roughly picking up in the dystopian future where the last album left off, its music offering a grand, big-budget expansion of Demon Days, spinning off its cameo-crammed blueprint. Plastic Beach is the first Gorillaz album to play like a soundtrack to a cartoon — which isn’t entirely a bad thing, because as Albarn grows as a composer, he’s a master of subtly shifting moods and intricately threaded allusions, often creating richly detailed collages that are miniature marvels.- All Music Guide
Pumkin Soup/ Kate Nash
On a first listen to Kate Nash’s debut Made of Bricks , it’s easy to hear the similarities to her contemporaries (Lily Allen, the Streets, Amy Winehouse) and influences (Björk, Robbie Williams). Her most popular songs are both intimate and confrontational, using brief portraits and slang-conversational vocals to illustrate the larger issues going on — the dinner party that exposes a crumbling relationship on “Foundations” or the futility of using “Mouthwash” as a defense against feelings of low self-worth. Nash has plenty of maturation to do as a songwriter and performer, but she shows considerable promise on this debut. -All Music Guide
Tears Dry On Their Own/ Amy Winehouse
The story of Back to Black is one in which celebrity and the potential of commercial success threaten to ruin Amy Winehouse, since the same insouciance and playfulness that made her sound so special when she debuted could easily have been whitewashed right out of existence for this breakout record. (That fact may help to explain why fans were so scared by press allegations that Winehouse had deliberately lost weight in order to present a slimmer appearance.) Although Back to Black does see her deserting jazz and wholly embracing contemporary R&B, all the best parts of her musical character emerge intact, and actually, are all the better for the transformation from jazz vocalist to soul siren. – All Music Guide
Fit But You Know It/ The Streets
Mike Skinner has a problem, and from the sound of it, it’s life-threatening. Skinner’s urban British youth persona is even more fully drawn than before, and this time he delivers a complete narrative in LP form, with characters, conflicts, themes, and post-modern resolution on the closer. Skinner drives these tracks with a mere skeleton of productions and delivers some cruelly off-key harmonies on the choruses; only the single, a rockabilly buster named “Fit but You Know It,” makes any attempt to connect the dots from beats to melody to production. Confronting doubts about his seriousness and squashing whispers about his talent, Skinner has made a sophomore record that expands on what distinguishes the Streets from any other act in music. -All Music Guide
Posted by arts 
BiblioPod 