This bird has flown

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There is an urgent need for some colour today, I think, to brighten things up around here. Sometimes black and white is just too limiting. You can miss some perspective, the fine details, the beauty in the shades and washes. One of the greatest things about this city is all the red sandstone that resides here. Truly, as well as being built on 'rock and roll', Glasgow's construction could not have happened without this vibrant stone, now awash with atmospheric pollutants (pdf) like fly ash and lead and slowly crumbling around our feet. But the ocean-coloured blue birds, on Byres Road, that have left the ground but never seem to land, don't seem to mind that much. They just get on with looking beautiful and being rather special, in this 'silent sigh city'. And if that appears like a rather stretched and tenuous connection to the first single by a wonderful Swedish indiepop band you might not have heard about, then you'll just need to believe me when I say that it isn't. So there. :)
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Happydeadmen - 'Silent sigh city' (4.02)
Happydeadmen - 'Whatever happens' (3.57)
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The Happydeadmen were, unarguably, Sweden's first real glow of indiepop hope back in a time when it was all heavy metal, punk and goth. You can find Happydeadmen (1988-1999) squatting here. Jan Hedin's voice is amazing, the guitars soar sweetly too. And the really great news? Fraction Discs are re-issuing their 1990 album 'Eleven Pop Songs' tomorrow. You can read all about it here (pdf) and download here. It'll be good to hear this record again, at last, without the scratches, jumps and hisses.
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PS, And a Happy Birthday to you, Maggie.x
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