Sunday Jamz with Joe, Shak and Sam (11/12/16)

Myself and two of my friends, Joe and Sam, for the past couple months have been participating in a weekly activity. This activity is sharing a song with one another on a Sunday, a song which has dominated the listening-time of our weeks. It was an activity designed to give each other an insight into our current listening habits, and has been enjoyable because we all love music, and more specifically, finding new music.  

Anyway, we have been talking about an accompanying blog to this activity for a while, and so here we are. The blog will be a structured preservation of our thoughts on the songs we share. Feel free to read if you think you might give a shit. 

Here is the Spotify link to the playlist which accompanies this activity. It has every song selection from the three of us from the first time we did this. The order is as follows: Joe's song, my song, Sam's song.

The playlist: sunday jamz

Without further ado, here are the songs. Complete with all the colloquialisms of our infantile Facebook Messenger writing styles. 



Joe's song:
Deep Purple - Sail Away

Sam: "The recurring central riff of the Deep Purple track was enjoyably funky and the solo piqued my interest. Solid track overall but not dying to hear it again so soon."

Shak: "Strength is definitely the vocals and the catchiness of the riff. Good, strong song. Highlights the strengths of that old 70s Hard Rock scene. Concise, catchy songwriting, backed by mesmerising riffs. Not amazing, not exceptional, didn't blow me away, not a favourite, but a solid track."

Joe: "Riff is totally reminiscent of early Rainbow songs like Man on the Silver Mountain and David Coverdale even gets dat DIO vocal goin. Love the occasional synths and everything about it really. Yeah it's not mind-blowing but I dig it as another sick example of that 70s vibe."

Shak's song:

UB40 - Food For Thought

Joe: "Definitely one of the best Reggae songs I've heard in years - super catchy riff and avoids sounding like Ska too much. Sick vocal melodies, nice sax. Enjoyed it more than i thought i would, especially considering I'm not huge on Reggae in general."

Sam: "That sax was sexy as fuck. Agreed, Joe. It's one of the better Reggae songs I've heard, period. Though, admittedly, not hugely clued up on the genre. I thought the lyrics were particularly well written."

Shak: "For me, it's interesting. Cus I have been going through shit tons of Reggae recently, all the 'cornerstones' of the genre, and UB40 have definitely been one of the most unique bands I've come across. This song really encapsulates that. The saxophone leading the track is a nice twist on the genre and really hypnotic and Ali Campbell in general is just a great singer. I like how there is constant variation in the instrumentation, even as the vocal line repeats. Love the track, love the album. Lotsa peeps keep saying 'don't go past album one of UB40', and I want to, but i'm scared lol."



Sam's song:
Galaxie 500 - Strange

Shak: "Nice jangly, sad song. Love the rawness of the vocals in the verses. Verses are definitely the highlight for me, not to diss the chorus, good chorus too. The emotional solo to take us out too is very nice. I've started On Fire a couple times but always get distracted away from it. Now, I have a stronger will to check it out properly. Sounds up my alley."

Joe: "The Galaxie 500 song was cool but it doesn't make me want more. Kinda reminded me of something R.E.M might do, with a little more distortion over everything and more expressive vocals. Didn't stand out as anything particularly special to me. The 90s dream pop/jangly sound isn't really my jam."

Sam: "Lately I've become more and more interested in Slowcore and Dream Pop. On Strange, I thought the production, particularly the reverb on the raw vocals, captured the imagery of the lyrics perfectly. Simple, yet enchanting."

That's it. What did you think of the songs?

What have you been listening to this week?

We are considering different formats we could do this in. Transcribed conversation or maybe even a Podcast.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Follow our listening habits in full at:

last.fm/user/DreadAlert1 - Joe

last.fm/user/FlamingVagabond - Sam

Disclaimer: We are not professional reviewers. Do not hold us to a high standard.