Tunes of the Month (June/July)
Alright, it's been a while since I last did an Album of the Month update (the last being before my honeymoon to Paris back in mid April--yikes). Well, it's finally about time we took a few minutes to focus on tunage before getting back to more pressing issues (Karl Rove's recent propaganda stunt, Tom Delay's questionable ethics, the assault on PBS/NPR, the assault on climate change, the looming reality of a quagmirish Iraq, etc., etc., etc.).

When I tell folks that I didn't buy a whole lot of CDs in France, Mrs. F rolls her eyes. OK, I bought like eight or nine--but that's pretty tame for me. The purchases ran the gamut, from the Indian-inspired electronica chill of the latest Buddha Bar compilation (Buddha Bar VII) to the pure pop of Tahiti 80's new platter (Fosbury) to French electro rap (Kery James' La Vérité, which was surprisingly picked out by Mrs. F). But I'd have to say my top of the crop was Les Sénégalaises by SanSeverino, a jazzy acoustic combo that offers a modern twist on Django Rheinhart's delicious gypsy guitar led by Stéphane Sanseverino. It's jaunty and makes me think of the Paris cafe life every time I put it on.

I've also been quite take with the debut of The Magic Numbers, which features my aforementioned Song of the Summer, Forever Lost. They make 70s-inflected pop music that would make the Lovin' Spoonful proud and is chock-full of sweet, sad melodic hooks that you can't get out of your head.

But I think my pick for album of the month will have to go with a surprising find--but not so surprising after you find out I discovered it via BBC Radio 1's Blue Room. Yes, I do feel a bit of a Remora, hanging on to the tasty tidbits spun by Chris and Rob--but they continually discover fantastic songs and bands that fit my musica ouvre just perfectly. One of their current Blue Room songs of the month is the single "Little White Lights" by Rebelski (aka, Martin Roman Rebelski, session keyboard player for Doves and occasional remixer of their songs). I dug it a lot and, after digging about for a bit more about the album, decided to pull the trigger on the full album from Amazon UK. It's a wonderful slice of Brian Eno electronic pop that's quiet, elegiac and very soothing--perfect for some stressful workweeks that have been experienced around the LemonDrop lately. It's also happily not too dependent on the current trend of blip-and-beep style of electronica, focusing primarily on synth keyboards and good songcraft.

Speaking of tunes, I just moved into my new offices at the West Seattle ActivSpace, where I finally unboxed and shelved all my old LPs and hooked up my old stereo receiver from college as well as a turntable. I've started going through the collection alphabetically (we'll see how long this plan holds up) and have so far listened to:

• Ace - Five-a-Side (the original band of Paul Carrack, who had a few solo hits as well as sang with Squeeze on its East Side Story album, including the song "Tempted")
  
• Art of Noise - Who's Afraid of the... (chunky slice-and-dice beats from the mid-80s that certainly don't sound so distant today)
  
• Asia - Asia (I'm not proud to admit this, but "Only Time Will Tell" still is a great song)
  
• Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain (wow, this one really took me back to my high school days spent discovering cool new British music with my friends Tony Dodge and Burl Gilyard--still achingly beautiful pop)

There will be more updates as I move through the catalog.