Clare Maguire - "The Last Time I Saw Richard". It was hard for me to imagine loving a faithful cover of Joni Mitchell's "The Last Time I Saw Richard". What was there to improve upon? But Clare Maguire has recorded an interpretation that glows with its care and feeling. Slow as clocks, fragile and deliberate. A long line of still & precarious thoughts.

Clare Maguire - "Half Hearted Love". Then this completely other things, Maguire summoning a different voice from deep in her chest. A tinny 60s sound, Phil Spector-sized, ten million miles from Maguire's terrible electropop debut. But it doesn't feel gimmicky or over-considered - it feels authentic, lived, loved. A song the singer wanted to sing, in a way that she daydreamed, rendered in adoring tape-hiss, in woodblock and piano, in the rose and sepia of a thrilled demo.

[website / soundcloud / thanks eoin]

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Elsewhere:

A very sincere farewell and godspeed to Herohill. This was one of the most carefully-written music blogs on the internet, and one of the oldest, and a pillar for the Canadian scene. Thank you.

In Montreal, out friends at Eyesteelfilm are premiering Jingle Bell Rocks on Friday. A documentary about obsessive collectors of Christmas records, featuring the likes of Rev Run and John Waters. View the trailer here.