Love Is All I Bring

Althea and Donna “Uptown Top Ranking” – This is the only hit single from this Jamaican duo, who were teenagers when the song hit big in the UK and Jamaica in 1978. There’s something about the sound of the keyboards in this song that I absolutely love, though I’m not sure if I can quite explain what it is about it that I find so evocative. I haven’t had much luck in finding more of their songs or any detailed information about Althea and Donna, so if you know anything, please let me know.

I Monster “Who Is She” – I can’t find much information about this band either, but I know that they are from Sheffield, England and the name of their album is Neveroddoreven, which is one of the better palindromes that I’ve seen. The song thuds and plods along like a caveman Portishead while the singer croons romantically, sounding a bit like Roy Orbison doing a Scott Walker impression. It’s peculiar, but it works.

Also: Check out Bubblegum Machine, which is a weekly mp3 blog which has been around for a while now, but I didn’t know about it until Mike wrote about the site on Clap Clap today. Over a year’s worth of selections are ready to download, which at two songs per week comes out to being the rough equivalent of a four or five disc box set. It’s a pretty amazing site, especially if you like kitschy pop obscurities.