I Count On You, I Do

Elastica “I Want You” – I’m not sure how this one ever fell through the cracks, both in how this song never ended up on a proper Elastica album or single, and in that I never bothered to get a copy of their Radio One Sessions compilation til just recently. There is some excellent material on the collection, including several songs that I’d never heard before, and some raw, energetic versions of some familiar album tracks. During their existence, Elastica took a lot of heat from narrow-minded critics for knicking hooks from other bands (particularly Wire, whose music served as the basis for at least eight songs in their catalog), but the truth is, they were fearless and utterly ruthless appropriationists with excellent taste and a knack for improving upon their source material. The active ingredient in the Elastica formula was most certainly the effortlessly sexy phrasing of Justine Frischmann, who could very well be the most seductive rock singer of the 1990s. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Whomadewho “Satisfaction” – The appeal of this one is fairly straightforward – it’s a cartoonish punk version of Benny Benassi’s recent club hit “Satisfaction” performed by an obscure band from Denmark. From what I’ve read in the paper this weekend, posting this sort of thing makes me “cheeky.” So be it! (Click here to buy it from Limelight Records.)