Look! A Blues Brother!

Update on yesterday's situation: I'm currently listening to not dance music, but some experimental electronica from Autres Directions in Music (download it free and legal here), sure to make our mate Jamie run screaming to Ibiza: it involves laptops, found sound and geographical idiosyncracies, that's probably more than you need to know. Which leads me nicely on to...

NUMBER 8

Frank Black. Alright, the link wasn't as smooth as I'd hoped for, but look ma! I'm eclectic!
I feel I'm allowed to be particularly harsh on Frank Black: I've invested a lot of my time into the man, which has seen pretty mixed results. Actually, technically speaking this is his first solo album since 1996, now his band The Catholics have gone their separate ways, but it's very different in style to that one: gone are the heavily-produced rock guitars, in is a smooth, live-to-two-track country-soul feel produced by actual legends such as Steve Cropper, and Penn and Oldman. It's not spectacular, but one has to retain a certain objectivity writing a list like this: Honeycomb is still a whole whack better than most of the albums released this year. The songwriting is solid, if unadventurous, which actually suits the guy quite well - it makes a change from the crazy shifts and turns which usually characterise his work.
I do feel a certain obligation to insult the producer, Jon Tiven, here: his production's a bit so-so and the guy himself is something of a knucklehead, but this is a personal grudge, don't read anything into it...
It's pleasant, what more can I say? It's certainly worth a listen if nothing else. Hang on a mo! I think I have something in my back pocket here!
*rummages around a bit*
Yes! It's Frank Black's cover of 'Dark End Of The Street', how convenient. It was written by the above-named Dann Penn you know, although you might remember it by Percy Sledge or the Commitments: http://s62.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1XSOJTVDY7VFO1PMGXGJ2SWZY2
How good am I to you?