´óÏó´«Ã½

Dan Black - 'U + Me ='
The Bird and the Monkey - 'Moon Moth' (via ´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing)
Hybrid - 'Sinequanon'
Mika - 'Lollipop'
Taylor Swift - 'Love Story'
Goldfrapp - 'Believer'
The Bug - 'Catch a Fire'
Sean Kingston - 'Beautiful Girls'
Diddy - Dirty Money - 'Hello Good Morning'
The Long Lost - 'Amiss'
The XX - 'Do You Mind'
Ironik - 'I Wanna Be Your Man'
The Heavy - 'How You Like Me Now'
P Diddy featuring the Neptunes - 'Diddy'
Mumford and Sons - 'I Gave You All'
Cat Power - 'Hate'
Massive Attack - 'Future Proof'
Emika - 'Double Edge'
The Breeders - 'Divine Hammer'
Coldcut - 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes'

So last week we were talking about handclaps being the cheapest musical instrument money can buy. But I've thought of a cheaper one. One which is just as devastatingly effective, and which you won't have to spend any time at all learning how to play. It's called silence.

Listen to 'Do You Mind' by the XX a second. Can you hear it? Its all around the music, like a cloud, or a halo. A great big whoosh of nothing, which the band are playing with just as much expertise as they are those guitars. Other bands would fill that space with more instruments. There would be percussive things - those shaky eggs you get in the music room at school, or something bongo-y - or orchestral things like violins or oboes. Diddy would probably use the quiet moments to check his microphone is working with a quick "yeah", or maybe a "yeah...yeah". That's how he rolls.

Each of these things is great in its own way - so long as Diddy doesn't go on and on - but they don't grab at the attention like silence does. It's like when you're a kid, and you lose a milk tooth, the tongue just can't stay away from the gap, even though it might never have been to that part of your mouth before. As sure as eggs is eggs, as soon as there's a void, there'll be someone looking into it.

And that's what the XX do so well, they're a lantern in a dark cavern, but they're the darkness around the lantern too.

, it's an emotional rollercoaster, deep in the heart of an emotional fairground. And Mika's lollipop? That's emotional too.

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