I Eat Music

		Carl Barat says a Libertines reunion is looking increasingly likely: "Lots of people have come up to me saying a reunion would be a good idea. And I do think so too. I'd love to do it. It was a good band. I don't want to just do gigs. I want to make new material. We haven't got a date yet but it will happen if Pete stays on his current trajectory. Pete's very keen and persuasive"
		Reverend & The Makers' John McClure says celebrities should use their power more wisely: "If David Beckham had of spoken out about Iraq it wouldn't have happened, I honestly believe that hand on heart, or Britain certainly wouldn't have got involved. But because he kept his gob shut, and everybody else did, it happened, we sleepwalked our way there"
		Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding announces that the group are going to have a year off: "It's not fun when it feels like groundhog year. We've been on a treadmill for six years and need a break. It's very difficult when there are five of you trying to make decisions. Three might vote to do something that you don't want to do - that can be frustrating. We'll probably start doing another album next year"
		Trent Reznor explains why he's ending Nine Inch Nails' life as a live band: "I'd never want to be Gene Simmons, an old man who puts on make up to entertain kids, like a clown going to work. In my paranoia, I fear that if I don't stop this, it could become that. Because it's nice to get a pay cheque, and now the only way to get a pay cheque is to play live, so it's all those things swirling around in my head"
		Courtney Love responds to claims by former Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson that he has a contract that says she can't, as she plans, use the Hole name without his involvement: "I just heard that a former guitar player is saying I can't use my name for MY band. He's out of his mind, he may want to check the trademark. Hole is MY band, MY name and MY trademark"
		Leonard Cohen would like everyone to stop covering 'Hallelujah now, please: "I was reading a review of a movie called 'Watchmen' that uses it, and the reviewer said, 'Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?' and I kind of feel the same way. I think it's a good song, but too many people sing it"

These quotes were torn kicking and screaming out the 17 Jul 2009 edition of CMU Weekly – our 40th issue. Read it like you know you wanna.

		Michael Eavis says he will pay a fine for Bruce Springsteen's Glastonbury headline set running over its curfew himself: "I gave him 10 minutes and he took nine. I'll pay the fine - £3000. Paul McCartney [2004 headliner] paid me back, [but] I'm going to pay the Bruce Springsteen one myself. It's not a lot because it was fantastic. The last nine minutes were spectacular"
		Pete Doherty says that he could handle a Libertines reunion on top of his other commitments: "Even though people presume that Babyshambles was a substitute band, it existed back in the day alongside The Libertines. It's not weird having all three going, it's ideal. It's what I want, just to make music and then perform it or release it in a way that's the most natural"
		Trent Reznor reveals that, unlike Chris Cornell, he resisted his former label Interscope's attempts to get him to work with Timbaland: "I turned in [2005 Nine Inch Nails album 'With Teeth'] and I would get back, 'Hey you know, maybe we need to put some beats on this record'. 'What do you mean, beats?'. 'Well, this urban thing is really taking off. You'll get it in the club. You know, what if we had Dre or somebody...'"
		Swedish indie popster Jens Lekman reveals that he came down with the H1N1 virus, aka swine flu, on a flight to France: "I was crossing the Atlantic when things started getting really bad. A ring of empty seats formed around me. People's eyes were kind but determined, they read 'Poor you, I really wish you all the best but if you come near me or my kid I will have to stab you with this plastic fork'. Now I'm in quarantine for ten days"
		La Roux's Elly Jackson admits, having previously got annoyed about the suggestion in some interviews, that there are some 80s influences on the duo's debut album. No, really. I know, I didn't believe it either. Crazy, isn't it?: "I think it'd be quite weird if I said, 'Really, do you think it sounds 80s, that's a bit mad isn't it? I thought it was jazz-funk'. Yeah, of course it is. But hopefully with a modern tinge"
		Lady GaGa brands her music "soulless". But she thinks that by doing that she's being clever: "Warhol said art should be meaningful in the most shallow way. When you listen to a song like 'LoveGame', is it communicating my soul to you? No... I make soulless electronic pop. But when you're on ecstasy in a nightclub grinding up against someone and my music comes on, you'll feel soul"

These quotes were taken from the 3 Jul 2009 edition of CMU Weekly, which you can read in full here.

Yeah, we knew there was a music angle to this whole swine flu thing. Earlier this week Pete Doherty reportedly hugged someone with the virus, but that wasn’t quite good enough to get our juices flowing. Now, though, it’s a different story: Glastonbury, and probably all music events this summer, are going to be cancelled, bands are pulling out of gigs left right and centre, Madonna is spreading digital swine flu, record labels are shutting down their Mexican HQs and Nokia ComesWithMusic is still rubbish.

According to reports, this year’s Glastonbury Festival may have to be shut down if there is a large scale outbreak of swine flu in the UK, as the virus is easily transmitted between humans so big gatherings of people would be a no no. This would, of course, also apply to any and all large public gatherings but, hey, Glastonbury is like the king of large public gatherings. The festival’s press office told Xfm that there were currently no plans to cancel the event, but that they are “watching the situation to see how it develops”.

While all events in the UK may not yet have been cancelled, some in other countries have. Peterborough-based Bhangra-rock band Kissmet have revealed that a planned 60,000 capacity gig in Mexico City they were due to play this week has been cancelled, because getting 60,000 people together in the middle of a flu epidemic is apparently not a good idea. The band’s Ron Singh told Peterborough Today: “As soon as they started talking about people having to stay indoors, I knew there would be a problem. Right on the nose, we were told we couldn’t go. We are really gutted”. Finnish comedy goth band Rasmus and British electronic type Four Tet have also confirmed that they are cancelling shows in the city.

US rapper Young Jeezy is not planning to go to Mexico City but has cancelled a gig at the University Of Delaware due to take place tonight after ten students there displayed symptoms of swine flu. The University’s President Patrick T. Harker said: “While the Centres For Disease Control have not yet confirmed any swine flu diagnoses, I have no doubt that these suspected cases are causing a great deal of concern among the entire campus community. The University’s first priority is the health and well-being of our students and employees. Therefore, we are working closely with the Delaware Division Of Public Health to safeguard student, staff, and faculty health”.

Meanwhile, Madonna has been spreading swine flu via the internet. No, not the actual swine flu, a computer virus using its name. And Madonna hasn’t actually been spreading it herself. An email which claims that Madonna has come down with swine flu has been doing the rounds. Opening links in the emails launches a computer virus which does bad stuff to computers. A spokesperson for anti-virus software company McAfee said: “We see attackers all the time trying to trick us into infecting ourselves through the use of current affairs and popular topics and here’s a big celebrity who people want to follow the gossip from”. Rumours that all computers are set to be culled remained unconfirmed.

Back in the real world, both EMI and Universal have confirmed that they have closed their Mexico HQs until the flu outbreak is contained. EMI are shutting down until further notice, while Universal will re-open its offices in the country on 5 May. A spokesman for Universal told Music Week: “It is apparently considered complicated and risky to travel around the city at present”.

And finally, Nokia ComesWithMusic. Nokia’s unlimited-within-certain-limits music download service launched in Mexico yesterday. You might be thinking that it’s unfortunate timing, but at least they’ll have a better excuse when very few people sign up for it this time

This week I found myself with five tracks available in my monthly allowance on eMusic and no idea what to download. This is something that happens a lot. Under pressure to choose something, I experience the same thing that generally happens when I walk into a record shop, where I forget the name of every band I’ve ever heard of and just start flicking aimlessly through the shelves in the vague hope that something might trigger a memory.

The other option, of course, is to ask someone else what I should be listening to. So, I fired up Twitter and posted this message: “I have five eMusic tracks that I don’t know what to do with. Everyone name one achingly beautiful song. Please. Thank you.” Simple but, as it turned out, very effective.

There are plenty of new ways to get automated musical recommendations, on sites such as Last.fm, or Pandora, or iTunes’ Genius function. But these all have their faults. They’ll never quite match up to real human recommendations, because a computer will never say to you “I want it played at my funeral, but only as a way of forcing people to listen to and remember it,” as @marshamusic did when recommending Bread by Clem Snide. Plus a computer’s recommendation is all too easy to dismiss. But when someone’s told you that they find something achingly beautiful, you feel some kind of duty to listen to it. You can’t just click delete and forget about it.

For example, I’ve never had much time for Sigur Rós, but as you might expect, there were a number of their songs recommended. Normally I’d avoid them but today I’ve sat down and given them proper time and attention and discovered Sæglópur, which left me gasping for air when it kicked in. I also have to admit that Svefn-G-Englar was a pretty impressive track to end on.

For the most part, people recommended the kind of gentle music that would initially spring to mind when you mention beautiful music. But then there’s Thinktank by Airiel, a fast-paced rock track with shoegazer-y vocals that builds and almost runs out of control across four minutes. It’s not an obvious contender, but you can see why @_joshhall_ thinks it’s beautiful. It is beautiful. The way the guitar and vocal melodies play against each other is really lovely and there’s an upbeat feel that is completely infectious. The same could be said for Teen Angst by M83, which rushes at you and envelops you, rather than soothing you from a distance. Or even Dilaudid by Mountain Goats, which you could argue is a bit confrontational but is so simple and compelling that I had to listen to it four times in a row.

It’s also interesting to see which songs by bands whose music I know well other people rate. For all the Elbow songs that came through, no one mentioned Switching Off, which for me is their finest moment and finds them at their most beautiful. Also, the one Cure song that was recommended was A Night Like This. Not a bad choice by any means, but on the very same album (Head On The Door) you’ve got Push. And while Samson by Regina Spektor is definitely beautiful, what about Us?

But if I wanted to write a list of all the songs I think are achingly beautiful, I would. That’s not what this is about. This is much better than that. It’s been an opportunity for me to discover new music, as well as re-discovering some old things as well. If I was to write my own list now, there are some things I’ve just heard that would now appear on it, which I suppose is the point.

So, after that very long introduction, here is the playlist. We kick off with my own choice, An Ending (Ascent) by Brian Eno, before moving onto what my followers on Twitter decided was the most achingly beautiful music out there in the order it was recommended to me. If you want to contribute to my next playlist, follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andymalt.

You can listen to all the tracks that are available on Spotify (sadly not everything at the moment) all together here.

Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent) (Spotify | Last.fm)
TV On The Radio – Family Tree (Spotify | Last.fm)
Catherine AD – Carry Your Heart (Last.fm)
Sigur Rós – Vaka (Spotify | Last.fm)
Clem Snide – Bread (Last.fm)
Andrew Bird – Masterfade (Last.fm)
The Reindeer Section – Where I Fall (Spotify | Last.fm)
Elbow – Scattered Black And Whites
Elbow – Great Expectations ( Spotify | Last.fm)
Fionn Regan – Snow Atlas Mountains (Spotify)
Death Cab For Cutie – Brothers On A Hotel Bed (Spotify)
Regina Spektor – Samson (Spotify | Last.fm)
Sufjan Stevens – Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (Spotify)
David Berkeley – The Blood And The Wine (MySpace)
Richard Buckner – Lil Wallet Picture (Last.fm)
King Creosote – Admiral (Spotify)
Jenniferever – From Across The Sea (Spotify | Last.fm)
Airiel – Thinktank (Last.fm)
M83 – Teen Angst (Spotify | Last.fm)
Mew – White Lips Kissed (Last.fm)
Oceansize – Music For A Nurse (Spotify)
M. Ward – Post War (Spotify)
Elliott Smith – Whatever (Folk Song In C) (Spotify)
Great Lake Swimmers – Your Rocky Spine (Spotify | Last.fm)
Tunng – Bullets (Hot Chip Remix)
The Mountain Goats – Dilaudid (Spotify)
Joanna Newsom – This Side Of The Blue (Last.fm)
Nick Drake – Northern Lights
Bonnie Raitt – I Ain’t Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again (Spotify | Last.fm)
The Cinematic Orchestra – To Build A Home (Spotify)
Joseph Arthur – Honey And The Moon (Spotify | Last.fm)
Jacques Brel – Ne Me Quitte Pas (Spotify | Last.fm)
Doves – The Cedar Room (Spotify | Last.fm)
Elbow – Starlings (Spotify)
Bette Middler – The Rose (Spotify)
Coldplay – Yellow (Spotify | Last.fm)
The Cure – A Night Like This (Spotify | Last.fm)
Beck – Lonesome Tears (Spotify | Last.fm)
Nick Drake – Way To Blue (Spotify | Last.fm)
The Beatles – She’s Leaving Home
The Postal Service – Nothing Better (Last.fm)
Joni Mitchell – Blue (Spotify | Last.fm)
Sigur Rós – Sæglópur (Spotify | Last.fm)
Alison Krauss and Union Station – Ghost In This House
Wolfman feat. Pete Doherty – For Lovers (Spotify)
M83 – Unrecorded (Spotify | Last.fm)
Sigur Rós – Hoppípolla (Spotify | Last.fm)
Sigur Rós – Glósóli (Spotify | Last.fm)
Manchester Orchestra – Sleeper 1972 (Spotify | Last.fm)
Nine Black Alps – Intermission (Spotify | Last.fm)
Interpol – Untitled (Spotify)
Radiohead – All I Need (Last.fm)
Maria Mena – It Must Have Been Love (Last.fm)
Des’Ree – Kissing You (Spotify | Last.fm)
Smashing Pumpkins – …Said Sadly (Spotify)
Iron & Wine – Upwards Over The Mountain
Michel Polnareff – Lettre À France (Last.fm)
Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road (‘Live 75-85’ version) (Last.fm)
The Magnetic Fields – All My Little Words (Spotify)
Sigur Rós – Svefn-G-Englar (Spotify | Last.fm)

Thanks to @MyChemToilet, @CatherineAD, @luke_is_best, @marshamusic, @adamkillip, @sesp, @_joshhall_, @mrstealeaves, @katbrightlights, @SongHooks, @charliemoo, @CaroUnLimited, @radioedit, @agoss, @Astrild, @winstonszen, @JonathanDeamer, @ianshepherd, @lsutherland, @Quiverdisc, @JackMarshall, @myrrhlarsen, @James1am, @samovarious, @JeremyMeyers, @smkng, @Mark_Mulligan, @frani_lieberman, @Jeremiah_James, @tomgillet, @tamipants

Now, you know me, I’m not one for being cynical, but Lady GaGa was in the press a lot last week, talking about how she used to be a drug addict, how she loves being naked, how she used to be a stripper, and so on. And now her single, ‘Poker Face’, is at number one, despite it being awful. But I’m not saying those things are connected, after all, that single has been rising up the charts for weeks. It’s like the charts were in the olden days, when you could get to number one just with sheer persistence. And I guess Christina Aguilera not being around much at the moment helps, too.

Anyway, GaGa’s at number one, then Flo Rida holds fast at number two (don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that Pete Burns suffering kidney failure has helped him, it’s just a very catchy tune), and the two Comic Relief singles, the Bryden/Jones’ cover of ‘Islands In The Stream’ and The Saturdays’ cover of ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, drop to three and four respectively. Beyonce, meanwhile, breaks into the top ten, stopping at number nine with her new single ‘Halo’, despite it not being officially released as a single yet.

Outside the top 10, La Roux just misses out, hitting 11 with ‘In For The Kill’, as do the Pet Shop Boys, who make it to 14 with ‘Love Etc’. Another single not officially released for a few weeks yet, AR Rahman and The Pussycat Dolls’ collaboration for the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ soundtrack, ‘Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)’, is at 20. Franz Ferdinand’s new single, ‘No You Girls’, rises from 52 to 27, though with it being featured on the new iPhone ad, I’d expect to see it go higher this Sunday (it’s certainly got itself stuck in my head). And rounding off this week’s new entries, Enrique Iglesias and Ciara stop at 30 with ‘Takin’ Back My Love’.

Over to the album chart now, and U2 have quite embarrassingly been knocked off the number one spot (and right down to number six) by Ronan Keating’s tribute album to his mother. An album coincidentally released the same week as Mothering Sunday. Mums don’t like U2, they like ballads. Everyone knows that. Which will be why Bette Midler has risen from number 21 to number nine this week, and Lionel Richie is another new entry at 10. CMU Weekly’s recent competition prize for the mums of readers, Barry Manilow’s ‘Greatest Songs Of The 80s’ faired less well, only making it to number 22 – though possibly because people were waiting to see if they’d won it before buying it, rather than the fact that Manilow’s 80s covers only serve to remind you that the originals were much better.

Probably not a new entry powered by mums is Pete(r) Doherty’s new solo album, ‘Grace/Wastelands’, which goes it at 17. You have to travel right down at the bottom of the chart for this week’s final new entry, ‘My One And Only Thrill’ by Melody Gardot at number 40, but before that there are some re-entries worth noting. Following an actually quite good edition of ‘The South Bank Show’ on Will Young, the singer’s latest album, ‘Let It Go’, is back in the chart at 30, Enrique Iglesias’ ‘Greatest Hits’ is boosted by his new single, making it to 36, and another possibly mum-fuelled purchase, Luther Vandross’ ‘Lovesongs’ compilation (originally released for Valentine’s Day) is back in at 38. In between the last two is Michael Jackson’s ‘King Of Pop’ compilation, proving that he might be able to sell out the O2 Dome 50 times over, but people are more interested in seeing a freakshow than listening to his music. Possibly.

The chart is written on Post-It Notes and stuck on the wall by The Official Charts Company

This article originally appeared in CMU Daily on 23 Mar 2009