YMC Radio Buzzy

You Must Create (YMC) is a London fashion label which started out back in 1995. They've been causing a bit of a stir lately with a series of free-to-download podcasts, which Ben Ayres from Rough Trade emailed us to flag up. "If you like a bit of weird and rare 1950s audio," he says, "these podcasts are something else. A friend's done them and every track and each advert/jingle has been taken from original vinyl 7"s, no reissues allowed..."

www.youmustcreate.com

Bruce Springsteen - Life Itself

Quite the reverse of his 80s Boss persona, Springsteen has spent the last two decades subtly and poetically tackling American life through increasingly moving songs. In January he spoke at length with The Guardian about the departure of George Bush and "a historically blind administration who didn't take consideration of the past: thousands and thousands of people died, lives were ruined, terrible things occurred," and gave a away a free MP3 via the newspaper's website which gives a pretty accurate indication of where his head's currently at. Fine it at www.guardian.co.uk/music/audio/2009/jan/18/bruce-springsteen-free-download.

Say Hi - Wintry Music

As we can only dream of winter melting away, sample this emerging American songwriter who captures the season perfectly. "The overwhelming percentage of the year I spend cooped up writing records definitely comes with some cabin fever," Seattle-based Eric Elbogen - a/k/a Say Hi - told SPIN.com. "And this song is mostly about that." It's free from www.spin.com/audio/download/41395/Say_Hi-November_Was_White.mp3.

Antony and the Johnsons - My Lord, My Love

This is the bonus track from the new Antony and the Johnsons album, The Crying Light which is the follow up to the Mercury prize winning I Am a Bird Now. It's been on sale online since the middle of January but - quite differently to most other digital releases - was available as an "instant digital download," meaning fans who pre-ordered the album from www.antonyandthejohnsons.com were able to listen to it straight away, ahead of the release date. There's nothing 'bonus' about the track in question though - it's a cracker, and makes a perfect finale to the album.

Erasure - Total Pop! (Mute)

I've never really gelled with Erasure because - from the very start - they were never quite what I expected. I remember waiting through hours of ITV's Saturday morning zoo TX for them to close the show with their first ever appearance. Vince Clarke had always been so dark and techno-logical with Depeche Mode and Yazoo, and had appeared on the front of Look-In competitor Look Alive a few weeks before with wires sprouting from his head. So I was convinced I was going to see a cross between Kraftwerk and Fritz Lang. Yet I saw Erasure, something - as the duo themselves would say - was more technicolour Circus than black-and-white Metropolis.

Expectation and image aside, this compilation proves two things. One, that they have written a fair number of songs that are built to last (and would sound impressive in any format - from disco to piano/vocal), like Always, Am I Right? and Ship of Fools. And secondly, they know how to put together a compilation. The First 40 Hits is the subtitle of this double CD, but the Deluxe Edition box set is the one to go for, featuring a jam-packed DVD produced in conjunction with the BBC containing not only Top Of The Pops clips but appearances on Wogan, Going Live! and even The Tom O'Connor Roadshow!

As a footnote, while Andy Bell's fantastic Electric Blue proved he could cut it on his own, the compilation I'd really love to hear (or compile!) would be a Best Of Vince Clarke, covering not just Erasure and Depeche but one-off classics like The Assembly and his Paul Quinn collab, right up to the 00s cinematic excess of The Clarke & Ware Experiment.

Annie Lennox - The Annie Lennox Collection (RCA)

I'm possibly not the best person to review a Best Of Annie Lennox, or at least not the most typical of Lennox fans. One of my favourite albums of all time is The Eurythmics' For The Love Of Big Brother, their aborted soundtrack to Michael Radford's 1984 feature film. But the rest of the Eurythmics catalogue leaves me indifferent – either because the hyper-exciting surreal electronica of the early 80s has since become daily regional radio fodder, or because of the whole late-80s leather jackets and rock-out period, full stop.

When Annie Lennox started out on her solo career, there was a hint of getting back to something a little more arty than Be Yourself Tonight. There was the Little Bird EP, complete with a monumental dance mix by N-Joi. And then there was the ballad of the early 90s, the strangely since-overlooked gothic anthem Love Song for a Vampire.

Both are present here (although Little Bird is the standard 7” version) alongside others you'll be familiar with (like Walking on Broken Glass, No More 'I Love You's and Why) and half a dozen tracks that you'll come to afresh (like a cover of Ash's Shining Light). It's all solo material of course, so nothing from 1984. But it's still well worth a listen, and a handful of one-track spot-buys from iTunes.

MADONNA CONFESSIONS by Guy Oseary (Powerhouse)

Not as mind-blowing as Sex but not as time-wasting as an Andrew Morton, this new addition to the Madonna library is a straightforward photo album from her recent Confessions mega-tour, as she heads out on her latest Sticky & Sweet jaunt. It’s her first official book since 1992’s legendary Sex in fact, as it’s 100% approved and was shot exclusively by her manager Guy Oseary.

These credentials, oh and he’s also the CEO of Maverick Records, gives Oseary unparalleled backstage access and opportunities for capturing intimate moments of life on the road with one of the world’s most famous artists. Does he use this wisely? He doesn’t really bother, as the bulk of this book’s 250 colour photos are of Madonna shot on stage, not off. So it’s very much a record of her costumes and image changes – which would range from glam equestrian (who’d have thought it) to Combat Rock to space-age disco revival – across the course of each nightly Confessional.

It all looks fabulous but only serves to remind that what’s really missing from the Madonna library is any in-depth - or even superficial - survey of her music. The songwriting and production, the stuff people actually get when they buy one of her CDs. As such she might forever only be covered in books like these – which celebrate the image rather than the art.

Various Artists – Amazon Holiday Sampler

A token Christmas gift from the online warehouse in the form of a five-track download-only festive album, available completely free of charge. Featured is a 1999 Digital Remaster of I Wish You A Merry Christmas by Bing Crosby, a 1991 remix of The Beach Boys doing Auld Lang Syne and – possibly most festive of all – a Peggy Lee rendition of Deck The Halls.

Wilco – I Shall Be Released

The Chicago rock band Wilco came up with a great idea during the recent presidential election. While voter apathy didn’t turn out to be an issue in the end – as it is most years – this is an idea that would work well in the UK. Quite simply, all you had to do was promise to get out and vote and, in return, the band would give you a free download. The track in question was worth voting for too, a cover of Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Released. You can read more and find the track on About.com at guitar.about.com/b/2008/11/04/free-wilco-mp3-download.htm.

Chris Morris – On the Hour

November 24 saw Warp Records release the first volume of On The Hour, the 90s spoof radio current affairs show by Chris Morris. And The Guardian ran this excellent exclusive free download, which also just happened to feature the first ever broadcast appearance by another near-legendary figure: Alan Partridge. Hear his arrival on the airwaves at www.guardian.co.uk/culture/audio/2008/nov/14/chris-morris-alan-partridge.

Long Division With Remainders – Volume 10 EP

This is the latest release from the LDWR collective (myspace.com/longdivisionwithremainders), an experimental electronic outpost dedicated to the art of the remix. A different artist recycles and remixes a set of found sounds to create a new EP every few months and this one – a riotous session from Australian sound artist Susan Hawkins - is the tenth to appear so far. They’re all available as free downloads and, when the project is complete, will be pressed up into what’s set to be a highly collectable limited edition CD box set.

Z-Trip – Obama Mix

A fantastic one-hour DJ mix of election fever and hip hop beats that was burning up on the internet in the weeks leading up to the big vote. As Dave Allen from Gang of Four (and OK Computer favourites Shriekback) recently explained on his blog (pampelmoose.com), “What happens when one of North America’s brightest lights in the DJ/Mix/Mash Up world, Z-Trip, gets fired up about the election? Well he teams up with artist Shepard Fairey and throws some fundraising parties. Then he puts together a 58 minute mix and gives it away online…”

djztrip.com

Keane – Spiralling

This is the first the internet heard of the new Keane album when it was given away as a free MP3 download from Keane’s official website. It was only available for one week but, in that time, clocked more than half a million downloads before being made available on iTunes and all the other digital platforms as a paid-for track. To OK Computer’s ears this is bog standard Keane – forgettable and anthemic, dreary and dream-like, all at once. If you missed the free download, another interesting taster can be found on YouTube – a radio recording of Love Is The End, recorded from Portuguese radio when it was accidentally played when the album was still under wraps!

keanemusic.com

Kina Grannis – The Goldfish Song

Kina is an emerging singer songwriter of – to quote Wikipedia – “half-Japanese, English, French, Welsh, and Irish descent.” Her home-made, hand-crafted songs and videos on YouTube are a delight and all we can hope is that she retains this humour and delicacy in the face of recently signing to a the major coproate empire that is Interscope Records. Time will tell. In the meantime, savour this and other live acustic numbers on her YouTube page.

youtube.com/kinagrannis

Goldfrapp – Clowns, Live from Union Chapel (guardian.co.uk)

Late in October The Guardian website gave away four completely free Goldfrapp MP3s. Three were album tracks but the first was this exclusive live rendition of Clowns from the band’s latest album, Seventh Tree. It’s stripped down, very acoustic and an essential addition to any Goldfrapp collection, digital or otherwise.

Andrew Poppy- …And The Shuffle Of Things (Field Radio)

The very first time I listened to this album it felt like a Best Of Andrew Poppy. This is not a compilation, though – it’s 10 brand new recordings – but it does draw many of the diverse threads of the electronica/classical composer’s work from the past 20 years together into one complete whole.

My Stress Mistress and Wave Machine Parts II and III will be the entry point for those who discovered Andrew Poppy via his early 90s album Recordings. What Else: What Then Now, on the other hand, links bank to the minimalism of his highly collectable early 00s CDRs and private pressings like Why Blink.

Text has always played a part in Poppy’s work, although this abstract poetry has hitherto been confined to record sleeves and CD booklets. But Shuffle has incorporated it into the music, with Andrew himself reading a mixture of memoirs, memories and ideas (which sometimes overlap with Yoko Ono’s instruction pieces) across the music.

Tracks like the rattling, dream-like My Father’s Submarine’s wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mute or 4AD sampler, but only Andrew Poppy can drop in an entire male voice choir (an original recording, not a sample) to make a finished piece that lifts this track – and the style of the whole album – right up into another world entirely.