The Beatles - a hard day's night, 1964

"We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day …' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '… night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"

Beirut - the penalty, 2007

"I was immediately drawn to Beirut when I first heard them in college. After spending many years obsessed with Wes Anderson, I was already captivated by any artistic opportunity to escape the drudgery of real life for stories of a more beautiful and poignant world. Beirut’s cinematic grandeur of multi-instrument melodies paralleled the movies I had come to love for illustrating basic human experiences of love and loss in a fresh and more contemplative way."

The Cure - just like heaven acoustic version, 2001

"I feel more natural in the company of people who are mentally unbalanced because you're always more alert, wondering what they're going to do next."

The Reds Pinks And Purples - the world doesn't need another band, 2024

"Puede parecer que Glenn Donaldson edita discos The Reds, Pinks and Purples sin ton ni son y solo porque tiene un grupo de canciones que le sobran. Pero el de San Francisco sabe muy bien lo que se hace. Porque, a pesar de que lleva más de veinte discos y EPS editados desde 2019, cada uno tiene su coherencia y no son simples “Mr. Sobras”. La prueba la tenemos en su nuevo trabajo, donde aparece una faceta más sucia de lo habitual. Algo que ha conseguido reuniendo alguno de los singles que ha ido editando a lo largo de estos años, una nueva mezcla de un tema ya conocido, y varias canciones nuevas. Y, como no podría ser de otra manera, le funciona bastante bien."

Saint Etienne - swim swan swim, 1998

"We used to be called ironic all the time. We didn’t like things that suggested we were using reference points because we thought they were funny, rather than because we liked them. I remember in that interview he refused to believe we liked Dazzle Ships by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, which these days is accepted as a great record. That album was a huge influence on us – a massive pop group putting together two or three recognisable pop songs and loads of found sounds."

Barclay James Harvest - harbour, 1978

"Harbour" is a tuneful close harmony piece and "In Search For England" sounds like classical Genesis."

Ozark Henry - this one's for you, 2010

"Ozark Henry is one of many alter egos of Belgian artist/producer/composer/pioneer in immersive sound Piet Goddaer. Over the years Ozark Henry has produced music ranging from pop, to avant-garde electronica, to a symphonic album with the National Orchestra of Belgium. Considered one of the most influential “voices” in immersive sound, Henry’s universe is defined by a blending of craft with experiment, audio with visual and heritage with technology. His ground-breaking work in 3D immersive sound has been featured in TEDx and Google NY talks. Ozark Henry is a united Nations Goodwill ambassador against human trafficking for the United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime."

Damien Jurado - and loraine, 2016

"a story of finding some sort of inner peace"

Hibou - glow, 2015

"His name is Peter Michel, he is only 20 years old.. yet he makes some of the finest dreamy pop sounds I've heard lately. Known as Hibou, he talks about craft spells, yummy cheesecakes and his forthcoming debut album."

Club 8 - left behind, 2024

"They must be among the most prolific acts out there and this after decades in the industry so it seems like Club 8 collective fire (Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård) shows no sign of abating. ‘Left Behind’ is fulsome of arrangement, heavy percussion/light harmonies and all scuttling along at the speed of knots. Yep, we’re afforded an aural view to lift us free from daily blandom and into a world where the sweet smelling sound of dreampop comes in bountiful supplies."

The Cure - closedown, 1989

"The album's third track, "Closedown", contains layers of keyboard texture complemented with a slow, gloomy guitar line. The track was written by Smith as a means to list his physical and artistic shortcomings."

Laurent Voulzy - dans le vent qui va, 2009

"It has its roots firmly in the Sixties, with “Mary Quant” coming across as a Beatles/Hollies hybrid, just brought somewhat up to date. Laurent has a pleasant voice and the album is middle of the road singer songwriter with some rock and pop elements, along with those Sixties influences, and even some ELO-style orchestration. This may not be an absolutely essential album to my ears, but at the same time it is also something I enjoyed listening to, and sometimes that is all we want from our music. It doesn’t rely on my concentrating or thinking hard about what is going on, but instead just flows over the listener in a relaxed and pleasant manner."

The Style Council - with everything to lose, 1985

"I had a total belief in the Style Council. I was obsessed in the early years. I lived and breathed it all. I meant every word, and felt every action. Our Favourite Shop was its culmination."

Monaco - marine, 2000

"When New Order went on hiatus after 1993's Republic, bassist Peter Hook took the group's sound and spirit with him. After his previous side project Revenge was shredded by critics and snubbed by record buyers, Hook returned to the New Order formula - one he helped shape - when he collaborated with David Potts (guitar, vocals) as Monaco in 1996."

Azure Ray - for the sake of the song, 2002

"Azure Ray is extremely pretty, soft, easy-on-the-tympanum pop music built around acoustic guitar strumming. If you were silly enough to try to delineate an 'indie music aesthetic,' this would fall many city blocks outside of it. No fuzz, no feedback, no indigestible chords, and all with polished production and solid arrangements."

Monaco - what do you want from me, 1997

"Sounding like New Order with smiling faces, this first offering from Peter Hook and guitarist David Potts' partnership is a bright pop affair with those unmistakable Hook bass lines."

The Beatles - and your bird can sing, 1966

"Aside from dismissing it as a substandard work, John Lennon never discussed "And Your Bird Can Sing". His first wife Cynthia recalled that the song was inspired by her presenting Lennon with a clockwork bird inside a gilded cage, wrapped in gift paper, apart from the wind-up mechanism. She wound up the bird as she handed the present to Lennon so that it sang, leaving him with "an expression of sheer disbelief on his face" as he removed the wrapping paper."

Sintra, agora mesmo, 25 de Setembro de 2024

The Polyphonic Spree - galloping seas, 2023

“We’re all galloping through rough waters. I tried to describe the process as well as I could and encourage people to keep their heads above the storm and the waves. Ride it out. It’s going to be okay. It starts off very calm and introspective, and you can envision where it’s going.”

Blur - the ballad, 2023

"The album's songs were written by frontman Damon Albarn in 2022 while on tour with Gorillaz, and composed by Albarn and the rest of the band. It was produced by James Ford at Studio 13 in London and Devon. It is Blur's first album since The Magic Whip (2015), and their shortest album, with a runtime under 40 minutes."

Architecture In Helsinki - scissor paper rock, 2003

"Can an Australian band that calls itself «Architecture In Helsinki» be any good? It probably can, but it better be real good, then, since it takes an awful lot of goodness to redeem the original sin of calling oneself «Architecture In Helsinki» when not only do you not live in Helsinki, but you live so far away from Helsinki, you might as well call yourself «Architecture In Eldorado» and get away with it on a much firmer basis. In other words, these guys are so ferociously «indie-indie» even before you hear them play a single note, they have to work double hard to earn our pardon, and triple hard to earn our admiration."

Saint Etienne - like a motorway, 1994

"Pete wrote this short-story lyric while we were on a writing trip (drinking holiday) in the Forest Of Dean. Kids in the local pub always put Exterminate by Snap on the jukebox when we were there, which subtly influenced our writing on this. It was once described as sounding like “a row of fridges”."

Barclay James Harvest - nova lepidoptera, 1978

"The morse code at the beginning of the song spells out "U.F.O.", and the lyrics are made up from cut-up titles and phrases from John's collection of science-fiction novels."

The Radio Dept - let me have this, 2005

“It’s extremely important to us to do what we think is right, what we think is fun, what we think is worthwhile,” the unexpectedly affable and very agreeable Duncanson explains"

Neil Young - what happened yesterday, 1995

"I really like how between the distortion and rock moments, there is time to do some slow, calm pieces. There’s two and they re-use musical motifs from the album, but in a minimalistic approach: it’s only an organ and Neil Young‘s brittle voice, doing a little segue (‘What happened yesterday’) and a epilogue (‘Fallen angel’). Anger and frustration paired with reflectiveness and acceptance. It’s a couple of beautiful moments in an already stunning album. If you like how this sounds, I really gotta recommend you check Neil Young‘s unplugged: he deconstructs ‘Like a hurricane’ into a haunting piece (again, only organ and voice)."

The Style Council - why i went missing, 1988

"I put a lot of time into it, and there was a better vibe when we recorded it than The Cost of Loving, which was a real rough time for us. It wasn't particularly inspiring and I felt we'd got back on track. I thought, lyrically, the songs were really good. Again, some of the performances were lacking."

Saint Etienne - marcie dreams of deptford, 2008

"At their 2003 Xmas show (which I was lucky enough to attend) they gave out a CD with a track called 'Marcie Dreams of Deptford'."

Blonde Redhead - twenty-three, 2007

"The 23rd hexagram of the I Ching is commonly known as "Splitting Apart", the point in a cycle where upheaval and disintegration enters in. The number 23, heralded by many an occultist and rag-tag philosopher is often considered a magical number associated with change, the point in a series where new energy comes in to transform the pre-existing condition and change the trajectory. A pop example of these esoteric notions, sadly, may be beloved New York indie rockers Blonde Redhead's seventh full-length, 23."

Asobi Seksu - coming up, 2011

"for a band labelled “shoegaze”, has all the uplift of a balloon taking flight, ditching My Bloody Valentine wah-wah ballast as it goes"

Nation Of Language - stumbling still, 2023

"themes of hopeless devotion, infatuation and overwhelming obsession, presented as the ideal soundtrack for long walks through city streets"

Bee Gees - irresistible force, 1997

"It was written in 1995, and was recorded in 1996 as a demo and then this song was recorded with "Miracles Happen." This track was one of the highlights in that album with its guitar and synth rock sound."

Destroyer - song for america, 2011

"It was within the album’s title track — and first single — that Bejar identifies that maybe this shift in approach would bring him the attention in the U.S that he believed he deserved. As the song enters its coda he muses to himself “I wrote a song for America….who knew?”. Due to his habit of self-referencing, this line would return towards the end of the album in a song simply called Song for America."

Bob Dylan - if not for you, 1971

"If Not for You" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his October 1970 album New Morning. It was issued as the A-side of a single in Europe in early 1971."

Sintra, Praia Pequena, 23 de Setembro de 2024 de manhã

Franz Ferdinand - walk away, 2005

"Walk Away" is a song by Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand and is featured on their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better. It was released 5 December 2005 as the second single from that album in the United Kingdom, entering the UK Singles Chart at number 13 a week later."