Here comes the sun

OK, I can't leave you in grumpy mood. Here's a fine track by Emma Pollock, once of that mighty (and mightily underrated) Scottish band The Delgados. It's called 'The Optimist'. (Sorry about the sappy visuals).



And while I'm feeling uplifted, here's the Delgados' Peel Session cover of 'Mr Blue Sky', which is truly stunning (unlike the original).



And if I'm going to give you one insanely upbeat indie Peel Session cover of a pop track, I may as well go the whole hog and play you Th' Faith Healers' wall of sound version of Abba's heartbreaking S.O.S. Some of them became Quickspace (or Quickspace Supersport), who were krautrock monsters. I saw Th' Faith Healers at All Tomorrow's Parties not long ago. Mighty.

Brief notes

Doonesbury has another go at the terrible diversion that is Twitter. His line is that it's appallingly narcissistic.

Got some proper twee in the post today: God Help The Girl's 'Come Monday Night' 7" single. They're a Belle and Sebastian side project.

I've also discovered pitchfork.com, for all your indie needs (farewell, Word and other magazines for aging losers), and Jim Carroll's On The Record blog at the Irish Times, which Anita assures me is highly reliable for hot indie tips.

Here's some Th' Faith Healers - there's not a lot out there, probably because they split in 94.