Mike at Troubled Diva recently released his first podcast , and I just just got around to listening to it last night.

It’s an hour long radio show, essentially. It’s so fabulously English I can barely stand myself. The tracks are quirky and obscure (from an American point of view), and the accent is just wonderful. I’d literally never heard a single track before – so there’s really much fun to be had listening to it. There’s an hysterical Japanese pop thing from the 80’s about Don Quixote you really gotta hear just to say you did. Plus the English accent. Did I mention the accent?

Anyway, despite all that, the first track is Hard To Beat, currently on Brit pop charts, and I’m shamelessly in love with its bouncy pop goodness and the neato distortion on the vocals.

I also recently started to expand my appreciation of Mr. Buckley by adding a CD to my collection and I. Am. In. Love. with the sweeping scope and almost theatrical Frenchness of the (believe it or not) bluesy six-eight waltz called Lover, You Should’ve Come Over.

And so here, for your downloading and listening pleasure, are the two very different songs that are currently fighting to take over my brain.

1. Hard To Beat (Hard Fi)
2. Lover, You Should’ve Come Over (Jeff Buckley)