M3 Volume 10… Available Now
After over a year and a half of M3 mixes (which is the concept that started everything), we’ve reached a big milestone, the tenth installment in the series. Rather than getting all crazy and drunk with success (success? ha) and expanding the mix to twenty songs or doing some best-of retrospective, I decided to challenge myself with a concrete theme for M3 Volume 10, and after much deliberation I settled on it: female vocals. Too often I’ve heard people say “I don’t like bands with girl singers” or something foolish along those lines, so here’s a mix to rectify ignorant notions like that. I did my best to shy away from the easy big names like Jenny Lewis and Feist and company, though Regina Spektor and Amy Milan did make the cut, but for the most part these are lesser known women or bands with female vocalists (The Revelations? Havana Guns? Delays? Who?). Let it be known that M3 Volume 10 is not completely bereft of male vocals, as the guys chip in with back-up vox from time to time, but there’s no doubt it’s the women who own the spotlight here. Truth be told, Torquil Campbell does sneak a verse in during “One More Night” at the very end of the mix, but its one of my favorite verses of all time so I let it slide. A special thanks is owed to James from Green Pea-ness, without whom three of the critical tracks (“Fulwood Babylon”, “You’re The Loser” and “The Get Go”) would not be here, as it was he who turned me onto them in the first place. Now then, with that out of the way, let’s move on to the track summary.
Oddly enough, this all-female M3 begins with Harvey Keitel’s voice presiding over the intro to the first track, Johnny Boy’s self-titled theme, on which the eerie intro (which is sampled from Mean Streets) soon gives way to a barrage of percussion and the mix is officially off and running. Next up is The Long Blondes’ Erol Alkan-produced b-side, “Fulwood Babylon”, one of the elite songs of the year, which gives way to Havana Guns’ shockingly-unheard “She Always Goes Down”, which I nicked off of Bliss Pop’s hit parade back before the Guns tragically disbanded. Next up are two 50’s girl-pop revivalist groups, The Revelations with “You’re The Loser” and The Pipettes and those heavenly “whoa-oh-oh” backing vocals on my favorite track from their 2006 self-titled debut, “Sex”. Those signature “Be My Baby” drums continue, almost identically, on Johnny Boy’s amazing and incredibly-titled debut single from way back in 2003, “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve”. Rounding off side one (let’s pretend we’re classy vinyl listeners) is Delays “Nearer Than Heaven”, which somehow manages to soar just as high as “Generation” and is a fitting end to the mixes first half.
Recent blogger favorite Headlights kick off the second segment of the mix with “Put Us Back Together Right”, and continuing the surgical theme, Charlotte Gainsbourg literally attempts take her lover apart and (presumably) put them back together right on “The Operation” off of her stellar debut album, 5:55. The driving basslines only continue from “Operation” to New Young Pony Club’s discreetly-danceable “The Get Go”, which has snuck it’s way into heavy rotation on my iPod despite my initial neutrality towards it. The Shortwave Set follow with their excellent new single, “Is It Any Wonder”, starting a catchy-piano-riff trend that will continue over the next three tracks on Imogen Heap’s excellent b-side “Speeding Cars”, Gainsbourg’s “Everything I Cannot See” and Regina Spektor’s “Better”, the latter of which features The Strokes’ Nick Valensi making a guest appearance on electric guitar. Closing things out is one of my favorite tracks of last year and one of the best break up songs of all time, Stars’ “One More Night”, which Stars announced at ACL to be about “trying to fuck someone in order to kill them”. And on that pleasant note, a milestone is born. Downloads below.
UPDATE: Wow, I really fucked this up. Turns out the lead singer of Delays is a dude, which is pretty much ridiculous. I had a sneaking suspicion this might be true, but a quick poll of my friends yielded the consensus, “There’s no way in hell that’s a guy”, so I left the mix be. Oh well, it’s too late to change it now, we’ll all just have to do our best to perservere. Here’s to irresponsible fact-checking!
Download: M3 Volume 10 [follow link]
M3 Volume 10:
01. “Johnny Boy Theme” - Johnny Boy
02. “Fulwood Babylon” - The Long Blondes
03. “She Always Goes Down” - Havana Guns
04. “You’re The Loser” - The Revelations
05. “Sex” - The Pipettes
06. “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes…” - Johnny Boy
07. “Nearer Than Heaven” - Delays
08. “Put Us Back Together Right” - Headlights
09. “The Operation” - Charlotte Gainsbourg
10. “The Get Go” - New Young Pony Club
11. “Is It Any Wonder” - The Shortwave Set
12. “Speeding Cars” - Imogen Heap
13. “Everything I Cannot See” - Charlotte Gainsbourg
14. “Better” - Regina Spektor
15. “One More Night” - Stars