This week the theme is all about the beach. Or in some cases more tenuously linked to the beach. My reason for this is that at the weekend I was in Thailand for a bachelors party and placing to one side the large sack full of clichés which may or may not have been linked to the events that may or may not have taken place, we found ourselves on the final afternoon by a rather select stretch of coastline so some of these tunes came to mind.Firstly Lana Del Rey. I have a bit of a soft spot for Lana – her whole musical demeanour seems to be straight out of a Brett Easton Ellis novel. The languid, slightly sinister undertones of troubled youth at play. This is track High by the Beach is clearly about getting away from everyone and smashing down a couple of cans of super strong cider whilst the cold East Sussex wind chaffs your face round your wind cheater. Or something like that…

Martha and the Muffins is probably the name of a hipster bakery in Toronto now. I don’t know anything else this band did, other than Echo Beach but then do you need two new-wave classics in your back catalogue? Nice work Marthas’.

Now for something tenuous. On Melancholy Hill is from the Gorillaz 3rd album Plastic Beach. I threw it in here for two reasons: 1.) it would be perfectly acceptable on any beach. 2.) Gorillaz have made some cracking tunes but they seem to age pretty quickly and I forget how good they were. Maybe its Damon Albarn’s voice and that direct lineage back to 90’s Brit Pop. Maybe its just my own opinion. I promise to give them more airtime later this year.

Finally the Beach Fossils with Down the Line. I remember in the summers of my youth, down on the south coast of England, the sandstone rocks at the back of the beach were often abundant with salty bearded men in kagools, shorts and leather sandals. Armed with tiny hammers and flasks of weak tea, they battled the elements to search for and exhume tiny ancient ammonites from their sandy graves. To what end no one is really sure. I wonder if they are still there.

I’ll leave you with that thought…