♫ Life Without Buildings - The Leanover (MP3)

♫ Life Without Buildings - New Town (MP3)

Life Without Buildings are of course waaaayyyy famous - but honestly, I never liked any of their subsequent releases post this, their first 7".  YES, in this rare case, I am one of those pretentious sounding dweebz who bought the band's first release when it came out and never liked the production on any of their subsequent releases.

I heard 'The Leanover' on John Peel and travelled up to London and bought it from a rekkid shop on Berwick Street - got it home and listened to it repeatedly by myself smoking out of my bedroom window. It was so magically emotional and weirdly compelling that I got completely obsessed.

I've bought and lost two copies of this 7 inch since then, and with each time it got rarer and harder to find - and only just recently did it pop up again on eBay for me snatch up. Such is the crazy emotional tie with these songs that when I finally heard them again after nearly 10 years, I actually burst into tears - an amazing first for me!

Of course, it's difficult to pin point exactly what lead singer Sue Tompkins was going on about, such is the seemly surreal non-sensibility of the lyrics, but I always read both as love songs; about first love, nervousness and tentative eye contact, excitement, feeling unloveable, feeling loved, break ups, fun and silliness, fights, nostalgia, relationship difficulties and sweetness, all rolled up into one, like a cut-up style love story where the beginning, the end and the middle are all happening at the same time.

You'll never hear be this mushy over another pair of tracks so please indulge me this once; and I hope you enjoy listening to them, at least a fraction of the amount I clearly do! Ha!