“But what does it sound like?” asked one comment on Stylus Magazine’s review of Sally Shapiro’s Disco Romance. Tracks of the Day are sometimes irritating because I feel obliged to tell you what a track sounds like. I’d rather you just go and listen to the track, perhaps the 30s snippet on iTunes. Or perhaps you could trust my judgement and buy the track. Eat Your Heart Up is taken from The Blow’s third album, Paper Television. It sounds like this: take Squarepusher’s Tom Jenkinson and ply him with much alcohol. Then, when he’s swaggering sufficiently, throw him into a music store and force him to write pop songs with Suzanne Vega, but without using his jazz influences.

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I remember the first time that music really challenged me. Not the Throwing Muses epiphany which just swept into my soul like it was always meant to belong there. Rather the time I saw My Bloody Valentine supporting Pixies at one of the International clubs in Manchester during the late 1980s. I’d never heard their queasy drug-influenced love songs before, thus I was pretty repulsed by the sound, as were my flat mates. However, three days after the gig, I was longing to hear more. And, yes, after buying Isn’t Anything, I continued to be repulsed but intrigued for weeks, until all the conflicts and ambiguities resolved themselves in my head. I’ve been told by some that the Throwing Muses experience can be much the same.

Shara Worden’s solo project My Brightest Diamond isn’t anything like that. She’s a classically trained opera vocalist, bringing those skills and range to artful indie rock. This debut album, Bring Me the Workhorse (as My Brightest Diamond) reminded me of that first encounter with My Bloody Valentine. “Oh yes, this is going to be fun,” I thought, because I know where the journey will take me. Every listen generates more Tetris blocks for me to assemble, with bonuses along the way for each completed row.

You can put your hand down now.

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There’s a song from Thursday which has still has its hand up, waiting to be written about. No amount of “please sir”ing will get you posted – you’ll just have to wait your turn. It will come. I promise.

Meanwhile, teacher’s favourite is up the front of the class again. 16 years in the making, Take Me With You, comes from A Piano: The Collection. Listen carefully class and note which parts of the verses are distinctly chorused. Always the same ones, except for one additional line near the close. Why do you think that might be?

On the fourth and last track from her new In Shock EP, Kristin continues her habit of covering obscure or traditional songs. Poor Wayfaring Stranger is a traditional folk spiritual first recorded by Burl Ives in 1944. Kristin’s cover has superb dynamics musically and vocally which perfectly build to match the triumphant denouement of the song.

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