Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!
Another week, another Mixtape Monday! This week I’m happy to say has a little more variety than the week before. You see all the usual favourites in the New Wave and Punk genres, but this week there’s also Country, 50s crooner, instrumental funk, Gangsta Rap and yes, even kids music. This is probably the most varied of genres I’ve had on one of these playlists, so you’ll either enjoy it or hate it, but at least you’re getting a taste of a variety of different things, like an international buffet of sorts (but not really).
- Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
I had gone to see Sparks in concert a few months ago and I had bought this album on vinyl at the concert from the merch stand. Months later, I still hadn’t opened it and physically listened to it. I’ve heard this album many times already but when you buy a physical copy, you, of course, still want to give it a spin. No idea why I waited so long to do it, part of me was waiting for the “right moment” I guess… whatever that was. Let’s be honest, there’s no real right moment for anything, so at some point you just have to go “fuck it” and give it a spin, which is exactly what happened in this particular moment. - Eiffel 65 – Europop
I was a kid of the 90’s. Growing up as a young kid of the 90’s and listening to a lot of radio, I was constantly exposed to the Euro Dance hits of the time. That was the music of my childhood. So as an adult, I often revisit those Euro Dance tunes because, of course, there’s some sort of nostalgia attached to it but also, they’re just bangers and I absolutely adore Euro Dance music. These days I find myself checking out full albums by these groups. Yes, thee groups aren’t know for their albums and more their individual songs and hits, but hey, it’s always worth checking out more tunes, who knows what dance bangers you’ll discover! - Barney’s Favourites Volume 1
I listened to this album completely out of spite. I wanted to prove to Cristina I listened to it after she jokingly said this album after I asked her to guess what I was listening to. So I did and now you have to too. - N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton
Now for something completely different. Talk about tonal whiplash going from Barney’s theme son to Fuck Da Police, but after listening to an entire kid’s album, I felt the need to listen to something entirely different from it. I hadn’t listened to this album in a really long time, Rap is not a genre I generally listen to often or… even sometimes, but is a genre I would like to get to know more of. But if there is any rap album I listen to, it’s always Straight Outta Compton. The brutal honesty of the music just makes it stand out from a lot of the rap music I had been subjected to in general and makes this one a classic that’s warranted every revisit. - The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro
I wanted something familiar and this one was one I was craving for at the moment. There’s something quite eccentric about this music, even if it doesn’t sound eccentric (I’m not talking Zappa or Beefheart levels of eccentric). It’s kind of difficult to quite put my finger on what it is, but it’s there and I love it. I can never quite decipher what they’re talking about in these songs but then again as they say in their song “Poppies in the Field”: “Don’t ask me what that means” and that one line perfectly describes the content of the album. - The Go-Go’s – Beauty and the Beat
I was listening to a podcast that was talking about this album. Hearing them highly praise this album that sits very nicely in my top ten favourites (It currently sits at the number 10 spot) made me want to listen to it again. The album never fails to make me happy and put a pep in my step. I always said if I was a young adult in the early 80s, I probably would have been a Go-Go’s groupie, but really, who wouldn’t be? - A-Ha – Hunting High and Low
When I was listening to albums for my Album World Tour series, I found myself debating between two albums I really liked for the country of Norway. I eventually decided on the more rock heavy one, but Hunting High and Low was super close to being the chosen Norway album. But hey, just because it wasn’t chosen doesn’t mean I couldn’t listen to it. Here’s an album that isn’t well-received just because it has it’s huge hit one it (Take on Me), it’s legitimately a solid album and I often find myself enjoying a lot of the other songs on it over the big hit. - Willie Nelson – Red Headed Stranger
Just like Rap music, country music was a genre that I don’t listen to very often and, especially when I was younger, I always had the immature attitude that all country music sucks. I’m happy I grew out of my shitty narrow-mindedness because I was able to discover so many great country artists that give the genre a great name. If anyone is saying how much country music sucks, tell them to listen to Red Headed Stranger, if they still think it sucks, never talk to them about music ever again because they’re clearly narrow-minded jerks who think their specific taste in music is the only good music. - Cardiacs – A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window
Why, oh why, do people not talk about Cardiacs more?! When will they finally get their time to shine? When will Tim Smith finally receive the accolades he so obviously deserves? Why, oh why doesn’t everyone listen to the great band known as Cardiacs?! - The Shangri-La’s – Leader of the Pack
This was single-handedly the most frustrating album listening experience I have ever had in my life. Not because of the album itself, no, no. I love the girl groups of the 50s and 60s. I wanted to listen to this album so badly, but I was never able to find a copy of it in it’s original form. Every version of it seemed to include a random array of songs that were never on the original. Where was the original version?? I found a version on Youtube but two songs were missing from it… so I decided, I’ll make a Spotify playlist of the album that will be the original version of the album with the correct running order of songs…. that would be easy right? Oh no, no, no, of course not, because why would it be? Some of the songs seemed to not exit on Spotify at all. But goddammit, I was determined to listen to this album. I listened to whatever was on Youtube and then switched over to Spotify for the missing songs, at least THAT worked out…. Jesus Christ. - X – Los Angeles
You know when you’re hitting the gym, running on the treadmill, and you want to listen to music while you do it? Well, of course, you need music that will keep you going, pump you up and not get long and boring. You want to keep that momentum for when you’re running. I’m like that and since I’m a big album lover, I like to find albums that will hold that energy for the 15-30 minutes I might be running on the treadmill. Los Angeles is one of those albums that can do that perfectly. Except I wasn’t on the treadmill, I wasn’t even in the gym. I was driving home from work at 3 in the morning. Same idea though, right? - Black Flag – Damaged
yyeaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! - Ravi Shankar – The Sounds of India
Picture this, or don’t, just read what I’m saying, or don’t do that either, do what you want, I don’t control you. But picture this, you’re chilling in bed late at night, have a massive headache and want to wind down with music… what kind of album would you seek out? Obviously something calming and chilled out, right? Why not the tingly-tangly sounds of Ravi Shankar and his sitar? No joke, this was exactly what I needed at that moment and it worked a charm. I once listened to this album while in the gym and that was the wrong place to listen to it, but winding down in bed? Perfect. - Supergrass – I Should Coco
About two years ago I found myself being slightly obsessed with the Britpop genre and wanted to listen to as many albums as I could within the genre. It didn’t last very long but I came out of that phase with some new albums that I loved. I Should Coco was one of them. Don’t know how emblematic they were of the genre, I mean, they’re no Blur or Pulp or Oasis, but they’re still wonderful, if that means anything to you. - The Vapors – New Clear Days
Another british band but a decade earlier from Supergrass, which is kind of funny because about a decade ago I was obsessed with this album. Turning Japanese was my only go-to karaoke song at the time and I found myself playing Bunkers, Trains and Spring Collection a little too much. That obsession quickly died away and hasn’t even been a thought in my head in almost ten years, but the album still holds a special place in my heart. - The Yardbirds – Roger the Engineer
Step aside Led Zeppelin for the band you basically stole most of your music from. Why is it fair you get all the praise and The Yardbirds became a blip in musical history? Life isn’t fair I guess. - Arkells – Laundry Pile
This is Cristina’s favourite band and they just released this album. You should of heard the pure excitement and glee in her voice when she found out and bought their album on vinyl months before it’s release, even though at the time, she didn’t even own a record player. That’s how excited she was, she bought a record player just for this album. When your partner is excited about things, by golly you get excited too, no matter what. This one is for her. - The Fall – Room to Live
Once again, It was another case of wanting to listen to a certain band’s entire discography. However, with The Fall, it’s almost like I forgot I was doing it. Months ago, I basically listened t their first four albums in quick succession. Maybe that was an overdoes of The Fall because I essentially just didn’t revisit the discography listen…. until now! - Devo – New Traditionalists
You never need an excuse to listen to your favourite band. You never need a reason to be in the mood to listen to your favourite band. If you want to listen to them, you listen to them. And that’s exactly what I did. Before Oh No! became my favourite Devo album, I often cited this one as my favourite, it’s definitely one of their darker albums, especially in contrast to Freedom of Choice, which came out the year before this one, but was eventually overtaken by Oh No! Regardless, it still stands as one I will never stop listening to. - Tangerine Dream – Phaedra
I was saving this one to do the exact same thing that Ravi Shankar’s Sounds of India did for me a few nights before. An album that would help me wind down at night before bed. That didn’t happen, instead I found myself listening to it while cleaning my bathroom. - Frank Sinatra – In The Wee Small Hours
My parents are over and when I want to listen to music I try to compromise and listen to something that I enjoy but also won’t annoy the hell out of them. So, of course, I chose Frank Sinatra’s most depressing album. - Booker T. and the M.G.’s – Green Onions
To counteract the depressing tone I had set, I put on Green Onions to get things all funky. It didn’t really change anything as my parents didn’t listen to it, but it did something for me, that’s for sure. - The Human League – Dare!
I recently was looking through my most listened to artists and was socked to see how low Human League ranked and with how low the amount of listens were. I was sure I had listened to them way more than that, so to help boost those listened to numbers, I listened to Dare which still stands as one of the greatest synth pop albums of all time. Why am I so concerned about how many listens Human League has? I don’t know but believe me I also feel this way for many, many other bands. This may become a reoccurring theme. - Frank Zappa – You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5
What better way to soundtrack my cleaning of my place than with a 2-hour Zappa album. It’s getting harder to listen to them because of their lengths. It takes a lot to sit and listen to something that is over 2 hours long, so I have to pick and choose those moments very specifically. Doing a deep cleaning of those house seemed like a perfect moment to put it on, hopefully these opportunities come up more so I can finally get through Zappa’s extensive discography.
Bosco's Modern Life 