The Listening Club - 17th August 2014

Hey there,

What's this? Where did my summer go? Doomy gloomy skies and sub 20 degree temperatures? Grr. Fortunately it didn't stop yesterday's double bill enjoyment of a trio of classical concerts in a disused munitions factory, followed by gleeful consumption of ALL the food groups and beer groups at Kimchi Farm Festival. Fun will be had, regardless...

Advance heads up time..., in the forthcoming month or two I'm going to be away for not one, not two, but three weekends as I do a little visiting around the UK and take in a couple of Kate Bush concerts along the way (mega-squee!). So for Sundays 7th Sept, 21st Sept and 5th Oct I'll be needing caretaker-managers to look after these here environs - let me know if you're able to help out on any of those weeks, would be very much appreciated indeed, ta!

Last week the venerable @holette was in the chair, and brought forth Courtney Barnett's rather ace Double EP "A Sea Of Split Peas", which seemed to go down pretty well with everyone indeed. Thanks to @holette for the fine pick and for nominating @andershanson for his debut selection - and here he is with the intro...

"Six months on from my first ever Listening Club I was both terrified and excited when @Holette threw me the frisbee last week.  At the risk of this now turning into one of those overly emotional Oscars speeches I must also thank @EmmaPrice who introduced me to all this when I once asked her what this Listening Club was that she kept tweeting about every Sunday.

So my pick...  This is actually a very recent album, only released earlier this year.  I heard one track from it via a free single on iTunes and then just downloaded the whole album as I instantly fell in love with it.  We all have that initial enthusiasm when you can't stop listening to a newly purchased album, but this one has lasted.

What I love about it is that it's beautiful.  It is wide open landscapes, the open road, it's sunset after a hot day, it's meandering home with friends after a day in the park, it's a film soundtrack, it's calming and it's relaxing, yet it's also earnest and thoughtful.

After building it up, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this first choice of mine doesn't end my chances of every being asked to make the pick again in the future.  Enjoy!"

Okaydoke! Download is here (download link at the top of the page, thanks Google for the redesign) and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the song titles, you have been warned)  is here!

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)!