Selected by Out There, Thataway co-curator, art writer and academic Francis Halsall, this compilation is the second in a series of commissioned playlists coordinated by Dublin based artist Jonathan Mayhew accompanying the exhibition ‘Out There, Thataway‘ (8 August – 26 September, 2015), released on CCA’s website during the run of the exhibition.
‘The very best pop is about both belonging and transcendence. Through songs a sense of belonging is felt perhaps to a lover, a friend, a place, or a gang. Lovers can make their own cosmos around themselves, but so too can the partisan, tribal and alien worlds of fans. Pop is also about yearning to escape: leaving the suburbs; escaping into love; running to somewhere beyond the prickly restrictions of youth. But pop also struggles to transcend the limits of its genre. It seeks out those places and feelings that lie beyond the constrictions of its format; to articulate those emotions that will always remain sweetly unrequited and un-expressible in the forms of its flimsy medium.’ – Francis Halsall
Songs:
Miguel: Beautiful Exit
The Blue Nile: Over the Hillside
Throbbing Gristle: Walkabout
The Dream Academy: The Edge of Forever
Galaxie 500: Leave the Planet
Rah Band: Clouds Across the Moon
Japancakes: To Here Knows When
John Grant: Outer Space
Robert Wyatt: At Last I am Free
Ivor Cutler: Beautiful Cosmos
Edwin Starr: 25 Miles