Sluncho's Listenings of the Week (19/10/09 - 23/10/09)

Foetus in Excelsus Corruptus Deluxe - "I'll Meet You in Poland, Baby"

A victim of my terrible old habit of not actively relistening to tracks that didn't snag me on the first listen, this wonderful number is bizarre by even Foetus standards but the violin melody is gorgeous and the lyrics are very funny. I'm sure you'll be hard-pressed to find a better tune that styles the conflict between Hitler and Stalin as a break-up song. Video sadly lacks a spine-tingling electric violin solo at the beginning, but it is present in full on Male.

Mule - "Mississippi Breaks" (Thanks, JB)

Equal parts Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Jesus Lizard, Mule combines slamming production with infectious southern rock grooves to create a wonderful sound that wouldn't be out of place coming out of the stereo of truckers and good ol' boys the world over. Vocalist P.W. Long's voice is so distinctly working-class country that you can almost smell the cheap tobacco and sweat coming out of your speakers.

The Sugarcubes - "Traitor"

Yet another victim of my terrible attention span, I went as far as to dismiss it entirely in my review of Life's Too Good, something I now immensely regret. One of the album's strongest tracks, it is soaked in uncharacteristic darkness and it works wonderfully. The sudden, jarring intro hits you like a brick and the matter-of-fact delivery of the lyrics has quite an unnerving quality. This is without a doubt co-vocalist Einar Örn Benediktsson's finest hour.

Public Image Ltd. - "Public Image"

An uncharacteristically conventional track, especially coming out of the band's early era (First Issue is a record so infamous for a challenge to listen to that it was never released in America and even our own JB had a nigh impossible time trying to enjoy the album), "Public Image" feels like the last spark of John Lydon's Sex Pistols spirit and it makes for a hell of a toe-tapper. While PiL can rock and pretty hard, here they're rocking as tight a Top 40 pop band but without losing their unique sound (Jah Wobble's bass, there is nothing on Earth like that).