It’s been a couple of months since I last did one of my round ups of new videos I have been watching on YouTube, and that means that I have plenty from which to choose – far too many for one post! I’ve managed to whittle them down to a respectable number, though – I try to keep these to a maximum of six songs but I think I might make that seven this time. And they are all well worth a listen, so I hope you enjoy them.

One of the things I always enjoy is when someone comes out with a good ‘fuck you’ song, so I’m starting with this one today:

Bryan Adams released 51st State as a single on 1 July, with this lyric video to accompany it. In just eight days it has been viewed 559,000 times and has 23,000 likes. The comments section is incredibly supportive, and not just from Canadians – there are many Americans in there too, expressing their support for Canada and their shame at what their so-called president is doing in their name. If only he could be persuaded to shut up and do the job he is supposed to be doing, without offending just about every other nation on earth. After yesterday’s comments at the NATO summit, maybe we should be expecting a song supporting Greenland soon – there were several earlier in the year, along with the video of the Danish Prime Minister and the whole of their parliament helpless with laughter!

I’ve played this next duo several times and they always go well. They are quite prolific and have released a couple of videos recently, leaving me the hard choice of deciding which one to play. I’m going with this one, but it was a real coin toss:

Jack & Daisy with their cover of Learning To Fly, which as I’m sure you know was originally recorded by Tom Petty and released on his excellent 1991 album Into The Great Wide Open. The song was co-written by Tom with Jeff Lynne, in their Traveling Wilbury days. Jack & Daisy do their usual superb job: no frills, just a great performance and lovely harmonies.

In the previous one of these posts I played a song by The Rolling Stones from their upcoming album, which is called Foreign Tongue and is released tomorrow. In the usual fashion several of the tracks have already been released and it is shaping up to be a great record. Here’s another from it:

As the video showed, that was Jealous Lover, and I think it is fantastic. The two actors are Anya Taylor-Joy and Charles Melton, doing a great job. The album has several star guest contributors, amongst them Paul McCartney, who plays bass on some tracks, and Steve Winwood on keyboards. I really can’t wait for tomorrow!

You may recall that around a year ago I wrote a post about a young Australian band who had been recommended to me by YouTube, chalking up another success for their algorithm. I have played them on several other occasions and they released a new song on 25 June. They are Little Quirks, and this is She’s Wild:

Fun and imaginative, like everything Little Quirks do. As I have said before, they are an Australian indie folk band formed in Gosford on the Central Coast (New South Wales) in 2014 by sisters, Abbey Toole (guitar, vocals – 15 at the time) and Mia Toole (drums, vocals – just 11), and their cousin Jaymi Toole (mandolin, vocals – 17). The group have toured Australia and released four EPs and a full length album. In 2019 they were joined by Alex Toole (Jaymi’s older brother) on bass guitar and since 2021 their friend Jordan Rouse has played lead guitar. Jaymi has recently announced her departure to branch out on her own, and I’m hoping that works well for her and doesn’t damage the Little Quirks dynamics – twelve years of being together has served them well. This song is the title track of an album scheduled for release in October – I wish them well with it.

I have also written previously about the Pub Choir, which hosts shows during which the audience learns a song which then becomes a video, usually made across several shows on a tour. Their latest is a compilation from shows in seventeen US cities:

The Pub Choir with Pat Benatar’s We Belong. The Choir is a musical act founded in 2017 in Brisbane, Australia, by Astrid Jorgensen. At each Pub Choir event Astrid arranges a popular song and teaches it to the audience in three-part harmony, concluding with a performance which is filmed and shared on social media. There is no formal recurring membership and participants purchase tickets to attend each show, which is usually held at a licensed venue, hence the name. She has said that she founded Pub Choir “to help regular people reclaim music in their lives, free of pressure or judgement.” When I wrote about this before I mentioned that the key element for me in all of these videos is that everyone is having a lot of fun: if you can’t have joy in your music, there’s no hope, is there?

Anyone who has seen my posts before will know that I am a huge fan of Lewis Capaldi. He released a live EP in May, and has made a video for one of its tracks:

That was Stay Love, a typically lovely Lewis Capaldi song, with intelligent lyrics and his amazing voice. He is now back with us, seemingly well-recovered after his health issues, and is touring the UK and Europe this summer: he is playing two dates in London’s Hyde Park this weekend. There has also been talk of a new album – I hope it’s right!

That is six tunes and, as I said at the beginning, that is what I normally restrict these posts to. But when this video came out on Monday I knew I had to play it:

Living With War was the title track of Neil Young’s twenty-ninth album, which was released in May 2006 and reached #14 in the UK and #15 in the US. This reworked version, with a bigger choir, adds even more power to the song, in my view, and the video is full of timely reminders of the cost of war to ordinary people. Only the rich and powerful profit from wars – ring any bells?

That is definitely my lot for today, and I hope you found something in this melange to enjoy. I would have posted this anyway – it was on my schedule to do – but I’m also linking it to John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop, as #4 of his prompts this week is “What have you been watching on YouTube lately?” Thanks, John – you cross them and I’ll head them in!

I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday, so until then have fun and try not to melt in the heat! 🔥