Related Recs

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Blur, "Coffee & TV"

I love it when inter-band dynamics actually make it into a video. By 1999, guitarist Graham Coxon’s drinking problem (happy birthday Graham!) and creative grievances meant that he was increasingly distant from the rest of Blur. “Graham wasn’t happy and he didn’t always turn up,” the Britpop group’s bassist, Alex James, said in his memoir. “It was frustrating because, when he did, everything he did was brilliant.” This is a single written and primarily sung by Coxon, who plays the missing son of a sad suburban English family, first seen pictured on the side of a milk carton — a milk carton that promptly comes to life and becomes the video’s happy little protagonist. It is, in fact, brilliant, and it is, in fact, Coxon's handiwork. "Do you feel like a chain store/practically floored?" I wish I'd written that line.

@coreydubrowa

Mar 12, 2024

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thomas dolby, 'one of our submarines'

In 1982, when his debut LP "The Golden Age of Wireless" came out (42 years ago today), Thomas Dolby was something of a British pop curiosity, better known for his catchy one hit wonder "She Blinded Me With Science" -- an early MTV hit -- than as any kind of serious album artist. But this track put his English-eccentric early image to rest -- it encompassed all the paranoia and fear of global armageddon that was making the rounds at the time but also the diminishment of empire/colonialism and even a personal sort of melancholia ("And I can trace my history down a generation to my home/in one of our submarines" is a true story, with Dolby having lost his uncle in a submarine during the Second World War, while his father worked in intelligence overseas). I love multiple meanings/interpretations and this song -- catchy and up-to-the-minute as it was then from a techno-pop standpoint -- is loaded with 'em. I also love songs that can be both poppy/radio-friendly and fraught with mournfulness all at the same time. "Bye-bye empire, empire bye-bye." "Rather than talk generally about World War II, and it was more just a case of, well, in any war situation, how does that affect life, and love? That was something that really appealed to me." Dolby got his A-levels at Abingdon School in Oxford (future home of Radiohead) and was elementary school friends with the late, great Shane MacGowan too. Doesn't get as much attention as he should but still touring/making music today.

@coreydubrowa

May 13, 2024

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Blur, the BBC shipping forecast and ‘this is a low’

This might be Damon Albarn’s greatest musical achievement. A song about missing the comforts of home 🇬🇧 while on the road Using the BBC’s nightly Shipping Forecast (itself, the most British thing ever - a specific platform to obsess about the weather) as a metaphor Loaded with obscure place names, English totems of days gone by (like a more jaded Ray Davies) and allusions to a fracturing relationship with Elastica’s Justine Frischmann (due in part to her heroin addiction and his dabbling, something Albarn wouldn’t discuss publicly for years). And some of Graham Coxon’s most inspired guitar soloing. ‘Finding ways to stay solo.’ ☔️ Instant Britpop classic.

@coreydubrowa

Feb 2, 2024

Top Recs from @kittycraft

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BISEXUALITY

never done me any wrong

@kittycraft

Jun 2, 2025

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PALESTINIAN LIBERATION

and liberation to all, of course

@kittycraft

May 30, 2025

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HOPE (يأمل) BY SLIMAN MANSOUR, 1985

all of mansour’s works are gorgeous and so beautifully representative of the palestinian condition (pre and post-intifada) but there’s something about 1985’s ”hope” that’s always stuck with me, much like 1993’s “the nazarene” (also attached). i cannot recommend looking further into mansour’s works enough. follow him on instagram @/sliman.mansour 🕊️

@kittycraft

Jun 3, 2025