Bruce Springsteen Top 30

My Bruce Springsteen Top 30 list has just been published on WiMP, the excellent Norwegian streaming service. If you follow the link below you'll see what songs made the list and you'll also be able to hear an extract from each song if you don't subscribe, and if you do subscribe the music is readily available of course. The list consists of 24 Springsteen performances from throughout his career and six fantastic cover versions. Have fun!

Erik's Top 30 list

Brand new Norah Jones single here

"Happy Pills" is the first single to be lifted from Norah Jones' forthcoming fifth solo album, ...Little Broken Hearts. Struggling with reinventing herself she's been more successful as a contributer and collaborator lately than on her own. I'm not really sure if "Happy Pills" will put her back on the map, but it's a decent pop song all the same. The album will be released towards the end of April, so here's hoping...

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Santana readies new instrumental album

"It's for people who love "Caravanserai", "Europa", "Samba Pa Ti", the instrumentals, says Carlos Santana of his 36th album, Shape Shifter, to be ready for a May release. I for one am excited about this. Read more about the album and his forthcoming two-year residency on House of Blues in Las Vegas on Billboard.com.

The countdown continues. Today's new Springsteen song is "Rocky Ground".

Nine down, two to go, here's Bruce Springsteen's "Rocky Ground", and the release of Wrecking Ball is in two days.

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An Emotional Fish - Celebrate

An Emotional Fish was an Irish band that released a fabulous self-titled debut album in 1990, featuring amongst its many great songs the single "Celebrate". It was the album opener, a song to immediately grab your attention and keep it for the duration of the entire record. "Celebrate" is an up-tempo pop song, with a kind of "alternative" shine to it, but a pop song nevertheless. The rest of the album is quieter, more atmospheric, but mostly just as good. The follow-up album Junk Puppets was easily forgotten and they also released a third album that I haven't heard. And now, incredibly, they've found back together, so who knows where that will lead. I'll not be having my hopes up too high, but I'll play "Celebrate" any day and keep loving it forever. Good times!

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Talk Talk - Living In Another World

Talk Talk started becoming really amazing on their 1986 album The Colour Of Spring. Having released two fine albums before, their third record saw them become serious. The ambition was a lot higher than on 1984's It's My Life album, and that had been a great leap forward from their debut as well. What was to follow were two albums of astonishing, beautiful music called Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock, but The Colour Of Spring was their transitional album, a perfect bridge between Mark Hollis' undeniable pop sensibility and his later forays into atmospheric mood music. "Living In Another World" is a perfect example.

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Simple Minds - Theme For Great Cities

Now this is good! The instrumental opening track from Simple Minds' 1981 album Sister Feelings Call, a companion LP that was initially given away free with the Sons And Fascination album, is a very fascinating and atmospheric piece of work. Last week I saw the band perform their 5 X 5 show, playing five songs from each of their first five albums, and luckily this was among them. Bliss!

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Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train

"Crazy Train" may be Ozzy Osbourne's best post-Black Sabbath song, taken from his first solo album, Blizzard Of Ozz in 1980. The main draw here is co-writer Randy Rhoads' amazing guitar playing which is simply mystefying. It's a frenetic few minutes of guitar work, where Rhoads blends his signature heavy metal playing with his classical training, creating a melodic, high-strung and adventurous piece of music. "Crazy Train" indeed, this is marvellous stuff.

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Lightships - Sweetness In Her Spark

Wow! This is a nice surprise. Gerard Love whose day job is being singer, songwriter and bass player in the wonderful Scottish band Teenage Fanclub, is ready with a solo project under the moniker Lightships. "Sweetness In Her Spark" is pure pop heaven, and fits nicely into the same musical landscape as Teenage Fanclub inhabit in their lighter moments. The album Electric Cables is set for an April 2nd release. Looking forward to it!

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Prefab Sprout - Pearly Gates

Sorry to go on and on about Prefab Sprout and the genius of songwriter Paddy McAloon, but when I get started on him I can't let go that easily. "Pearly Gates" is yet another mindbogglingly beautiful song by the great man, the last song to appear on the quiet Protest Songs album. Although it was recorded after their breakthrough album Steve McQueen and set for release following that it was shelved for a few years and finally released in 1990, after the group's biggest success, the album From Langley Park To Memphis featuring songs such as "The King Of Rock'n'Roll" and "Cars And Girls". "Pearly Gates" is very different from those, but very, very pretty.

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Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately

This may be considered soppy, but do I care? Not at all! Van Morrison's 1989 hit "Have I Told You Lately" (not to be confused with the 1945 Scotty Wiseman composition "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You") is one of the finest love songs ever written, and it's sung by a man whose voice is most probably one of two things: 1) God's own plaything put on earth to please mankind or 2) God himself. PS! I am not a religious person, it's just that every time I hear Van Morrison sing it always makes me wonder if there isn't something divine going on after all.

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Sirkus Eliassen og Ben Kinx - Æ vil bare dans

"Æ vil bare dans", the new Sirkus Eliassen single, has now got a music video. It's great fun, and the song is simply catchy as hell. And let me just say I'm a bit curious about the rabbit in the video. It looks warm. Never mind that though, enjoy the video and this fabulous song, a certain hit if ever I heard one.

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Madonna - Girl Gone Wild

Here's a brand new Madonna single, "Girl Gone Wind", the second new song from the forthcoming album MDNA. It's pretty straightforward electro-pop and to be frank, doesn't sound that exciting. I liked first single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" better.

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One day closer to release, one more Springsteen song: "You've Got It"

We're close now. Three more days and Bruce Springsteen's new album Wrecking Ball is in the shops. The countdown continues with the track number eight, "You've Got It".

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Talking Heads - Life During Wartime

One of Talking Heads' most well-known songs, "Life During Wartime" is David Byrne's musings on the hard life lived in New York City towards the end of the 1970's. "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around", he sings to a fabulous funk track. "Life During Wartime" was the first single to be released from 1979's Fear Of Music, but this clip is lifted from the 1983 concert film Stop Making Sense.

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Donkeyboy - Pull Of The Eye

This weekend sees the release of Norwegian pop group Donkeyboy's eagerly awaited second album Silver Moon. The Drammen group had great successes with the singles "Ambitions" and "Sometimes" from their 2009 debut Caught In A Life, and seems set for further victories with their new songs. First single "City Boy" was catchy as hell, and so is "Pull Of The Eye", featuring guest vocals from former Idol finalist Vivian Sørmeland.

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The Little Hands Of Asphalt - Fitzcaraldo

Sjur Lyseid is the man behind The Little Hands Of Asphalt, and released his band's second album Floors on Friday. It's a great pop record, brimful of catchy pop songs like "Fitzcaraldo". Hope you like it too!

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