There's work to be done!

Matt can have his Radiohead - and they're amazing, its true - but today brought little old Skye something much, much more to his taste: Chemikal Underground's recently released double CD extravaganza - The Delgados, The Complete Peel Sessions (a record that'll make a great companion to Strange Fruit's BBC Sessions).

I haven't worked my way through both discs yet, but there are some inspired versions of many of the tracks that we've all come to know and love, plus some of the bands first experiments with a fuller, string sound on the second Peel Session (with songs like Mauron Chanson, a track that appears here for the first time on an LP). There are some inspired covers, too, such as the Dead Kennedys' 'California Uber Alles' and an awesome version of Cat Stevens' 'Matthew & Son' (which is one of my deep secret shame records. I met Cat Stevens once, since I went to school with his nephew - he wasn't singing at the time though).

Individually, every song on the record is a delight; as a whole, this record gives an amazing insight into the development of the band from the session recorded for Peter Easton's Beat Patrol program, broadcast on Radio Scotland but also aired on Peel's show (hence the inclusion on this record).

I love the Delgados; my (rather woeful) personal blog is named Accused of Stealing, after the track from The Great Eastern (of which there's an awesome acoustic version on the record); and it was a huge shame that the band split when, as far as I was concerned, they were at the top of their game. Although there have been a lot of tributes to Peel recently, I can't think of a better way to commemorate him than with this set from one of the great underrated bands that he championed. Buy it today (from amazon or itunes; you pays your money, you takes your choice).

The Delgados - California Uber Alles (yousendit / megaupload)
Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles (yousendit / megaupload)
The Delgados - Matthew & Son (yousendit / megaupload)
Cat Stevens - Matthew & Son (yousendit / megaupload)