"i begin to wonder" - danii minogue

"and i-i-i begin to wonder"


2 girls on my train were listening, at a volume that seriously distorted on their mobile phone's tiny speakers with every pounding bass note, to some androgynous-voiced r'n'b singer's pseudo-romantic whinings and singing along in between their equally loud conversation. i think between them they totalled about 40% of the notes in tune and the guy's [i think] top range was well beyond them, but there was something about their enthusiasm for this aural drivel that was infectious and a tiny snatch of it stayed with me.

as is so often the case with things you really dont know and didnt hear well enough to have any grasp on becoming earworms, it quickly mutated into something vaguely similar that i did know better, though not really in this case because it is significantly better.

"little sunflower" - freddie hubbard

standing on the platform of blackfriars station, staring down the thames towards tower bridge and the rolling hills of se16 beyond, the wintery wind whipping off the water and through my hair with this tune in my head.

for some reason i have never been able to fathom, this tune always reminds me of jacqui, whom i have never met and only know through cohabiting a discussion forum. our greatest bond was that sick determination with which we clung to the last tattered fragments of a once-vibrant community right up until we finally had to give it up as dead. ive had no contact with her in months, i wouldnt even know how, and to be honest ive rarely spared her a thought, but every time i hear this tune i remember something clever, or funny, or bitchy or just plain relevant and necessary that she contributed and it makes me smile.

nirvanaweb is dead - long live all the former nirvanawebbers in whatever it is they do now

"desperate guys" - the faint

"you were warming the bass up, your hair covered your face up, i was acting indifferent at the merch booth putting on make-up"



for a brief period about a year ago i was a bit obsessed with this song. i first heard it on xfm walking home from the train station at night after a jazz workshop. the snatch of lyric above almost literally stopped me in my tracks - even with its dodgy scansion and not-quite-as-clever-as-it-first-appears word play i just found it so evocative. theres a sort of swagger to this song that is strangely aspirational. and those ridiculous string samples. and that squelchy bass riff.
as i write its been in my head for the last five and a half hours. its that kind of song. i recommend anyone to listen to it, but only if theyre prepared for the earworm consequences.


i was never that cool, but i did at least used to be cooler than i am now. acting indifferent. putting on make up.