I’m posting after midnight so it’s definitely the 24th but it still counts as the 23rd for my blogging schedule because I haven’t gone to sleep yet. I’ve been working hard for the last year on trying to change my life. I’ve been trying to create healthy habits. I’m trying to focus on using my spare time in a fulfilling way.

And all that has slipped this week. I’ve worked 15 of the last 16 days. I’m not seeing a lot of people due to lockdown and I’m having a bit of a wobble. So I’m trying to correct my life systems. An important part of that is the sense of achievement from writing a blog entry. So here it is. Mission accomplished.

It’s a song for the occasion. The only motivation song that ever spoken to me in anyway, The Real Thing by Client Liaison. And it’s hard to tell, as things often are with Client Liaison, how serious this song is intended to be, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a fucking great song. It’s a great sing-along. It’s a great boogie

“Don’t stop keep moving get on your feet
You gotta know that you’re the real thing”

That’s my mantra for this week. I am The Real Thing. I am a superstar.

You can listen to The Real Thing by Client Liaison here.

In the early days of this blog, I lived in Galway in a mad house while I did my masters. In hindsight, I was having a terrible time and it has had an impact in terms of my physical and mental health. It was always dark. It rained so much. I don’t know if I should have done that masters at all and it made me feel shitty about college in general for a long time. It’s all stuff that I’ve made peace with and I see it as a learning experience about myself.

The best times in Galway were when people would come to see me. Galway is a great place to show someone around. There’s good food and good pubs and a beautiful part of the world on a good day.

Spare Time by Tides reminds me of when Shóna came to see me after my last exam of the first semester and we hung out in Galway for a bit and then she drove home. We listened to this song in the car as the weather turned and the rain came down in sheets.

It’s a cool song. Very pop. Very danceable. And it’ll always remind me of the good parts of my time in Galway, Shóna coming to see me and rescue me from the rain.

Listen to Spare Time by Tides here.

Don’t Save Me will always remind me of working in the Yard making concrete fencing. It was all over the radio and I used to turn the volume up so it could be heard over the machines and through the ear protection.

Haim were a band that became too big for me at the time. When everyone knew who they were I lost interest. It’s a lame personality trait and I like to think I’ve grown out of it. I think in part it comes from an oversaturation in whatever circles I was inhabiting and that Haim were a little too extra for me. The same thing happened at that time with Chromeo. And it was easier to come back to Chromeo because I have a signed poster of them in my room so they’re judging me all the time.

The truth is, in a world where people will still listen to R Kelly ignoring his shittyness as a person, I need to ignore the fact that I find Haim annoying as people and go back to enjoying some of my favourite songs. And Don’t Save Me is one of my favourites. It captures so much of that early 2010s indie era – synths, guitars, drum machines and harmonies. If I listen to it when I’m walking I have a dance routine that goes with it in my head. And that’s really all you can ask for from a song.

Listen to Don’t Save Me by Haim here.

Both versions of this song could have had posts.

Remixes are an interesting idea. Sometimes they’ll improve a song. Sometimes they’ll completely change a song. In this case I think it’s more of a subtle vibe change – possibly an improvement, but I haven’t fully decided. The Original Mix is a chilled driving montage song. The Fred Falke Remix cranks the dance-ability of the song up a notch.

I think Fred Falke really gets it right because he captures most of the great element of the original. The vocals are already great. There’s an attitude to it, kinda reminds me of Client Liaison and the eighties pop those guys are obviously inspired by. The bass is funky and the keys have a spacey feel.

So then in his remix, Fred Falke adjusts some levels, bringing the vocal out even more in the mix. He sticks a driving beat on it and creates a building momentum. Then when the chorus comes in it’s irresistible. It’s impossible not to dance to.

Love it. Two absolute bangers, one grown from the other. Very good, very good. Insane video also, which you can check out here.

Listen to Sunny Days (Original Mix) by Patterns here.

And listen to Sunny Days (Fred Falke Remix) by Patterns here.

This Club covered Teardrops by Womack and Womack while riding a small train on Dún Laoighraire Pier and it’s one of my favourite Youtube gems.

This Club were a massively underappreciated band and I think this is a great advertisement for them. This is an incredible live performance that highlights their great harmonies, their originality and their fun. They’re probably a band who happened slightly too soon for themselves. If they’d appeared in a post Spotify world they would have been all over the happiest cheekiest playlists and then they’d have conquered the world. As it is, they have one of the best Irish albums in my opinion and some absolutely incredible covers under their belt. Great songs by some good lads.

You can watch Teardrops by This Club here

We used to listen to cassette tapes in the car when I was a kid. My dad, like lots of dads, probably, used to record songs from the radio and edit them down and make these tapes. We listened to a lot of Stevie Wonder. To the point where he’s just Stevie.

There’s lots of great Stevie Wonder songs.

If You Really Love Me is the song in my head at the minute. I was building Spotify playlists for my mom to listen to as part of a mother’s day gift and I thought some Stevie would work. I then got sucked into the This Is Stevie Wonder playlist and this was the song that jumped out at me. The verses are theatrical, the choruses are fun and it’s the perfect length at 3 minutes on the dot to make me want to play it over and over. Enough to get me hooked, not enough for me to feel like I’ve heard enough.

You can listen to If You Really Love Me by Stevie Wonder here.

Drug Dealer Girl is one of my favourite songs from that era of internet mixtapes, which I’m overly nostalgic about in general. I was obsessed with free downloads and I always gave a free mixtape a chance. I think this was a solid mixtape from the scene and this was my standout track. It’s very dated because it was so of the time, which is an exaggerated issue for anything in that time period where technology was developing so quickly.

You can listen to Drug Dealer Girl by Mike Posner here