Leamington Spa lynch-pins Coves are set to release their second album, Peel, today (1 April)… Yes, really (no April fools here), although they do sympathise with your confusion, hence why one half of the band, John Ridgard, has made us this playlist of “Songs to become lost and confused to”. “The premise of this collections is they are all songs that you put on your headphones when heading out and as you begin to float rather than walk you realise you have been walking for an hour in the wrong direction and are lost and confused,” he explains.
Clinic – Distortions
“The ultimate soft hit. It sounds like sinking into a mattress which becomes a cloud which becomes nothing…and you are floating.”
Broadcast – Winter Now
“This is so woozy and dreamy and caramel. You could drift off walking and wander under a bus and feel no pain. I have definitely got lost to this song on a cold, clear sky winter morning.”
Tak Shindo – Hali Ha’I
“I don’t know much about this – it’s on a compilation called Mondo Exotica/Ultra Lounge, but I have recently been getting really into the 50s lounge jazz/exotica instrumental stuff…the kind of music they were making for advertising and library music back then..it was so perfect, with such high production values. I guess it was associated with high class back then but to me it’s so perfect that it’s eerie… stuff like this and Henry Mancini, it conjures up images of real druggy depravity and ultra violent crime to me…maybe I just have a problem, or I really like juxtaposition. Anyway, when out and about this kind of stuff completely changes your perception of surroundings, barings lost, destination unknown.”
The Radio Dept – You Stopped Makin Sense
“This sounds like sepia video footage of rolling hills filmed from the window of a mustang. Like, picture the video to Alanis Morrisettes ‘Ironic’ but all the versions of Alanis are on heavy heavy downers…half moon eyes and face planted on the car door windows. It is one of the most beautiful songs. I never get bored of it and it always removes me from the horrendously fast surroundings of modern life.”
Heron Oblivion – Rama
“This is a new band recommended to me by a good friend the other day. This song is a journey that you can just melt into but then all of a sudden at around 8mins it explodes into a crazy guitar wig out. It’s fully immersive. You could not be paying any attention to Google maps whilst listening to this song.”
Unloved – Guilty Of Love
“A new one from David Holmes’ new project. I really like David Holmes. Everything he does is like a soundtrack even when it is not a soundtrack. This song is another journey, albeit a small one but it goes from nothing to intense pretty quickly…it’s kind of like dipping your toe in a lake, beautiful surrounds, but then you have been snared by some kind of sea life and you are suddenly splashing and drowning. This could be the story you are inventing as your last night bus rolls on past you unnoticed.”
Whyte Horses – Snow Falls
This melts my world. It has those dreamy tinkly sounds that suggest wavey vision as you enter a dream sequence. All the vocal ahhs carry you away from reality and when the chorus comes in…just keep on runniiiiiiiing….i want to start running and only stop when everything has changed.
The Sleepy Jackson – Good Dancers
“This song has been with me for years. I love the weird gooey string sounds and the rhythm and the words… when walking on a busy high street it makes me want to grab a stranger and start slow motion waltzing down the road. In reality this would be a disaster involving police and a beating from an enraged husband. Confusion would stem from concussion experienced in a police cell.”
Soulsavers – Revival
“Where ever I am, when this song comes on I want to climb to the highest point I can find, throw my arms in the air and drop to my knees. I had a BIG experience to this song at an ATP in in Butlins a few years ago…you know, one of them. It changed me. So whenever I hear it now the world melts away. I could be anywhere physically, mentally I am out of my mind at a family holiday camp, squashed against a few hundred others, a silhouetted Mark Lanegan is stood a few feet in front of me bellowing out… I wanna see a revival tonight!”
Angel Corpus Christi – Dream Baby Dream
It’s the repetition and the pulsing synth. It could go on for hours as you finally lose consciousness and fade away..it keeps you in the place..then BANG, you sit up like you have been hit by lightning…you have reached the last stop on the tube line and you are miles from home.
For more head to Covesband.co.uk.