Coldplay - paradise, 2011

"another slice of hug-warm ecstasy"

Oh Wonder - better now, 2019

"‘Better Now’ is an emotional track that reflects on the band hearing the sad news of a family member going through an incredibly tough and emotional first birth of their child. With a lot of complications involved, there was a lot of emotional trauma that the duo wanted to dissect and turn into a song of hope and understanding."

Saint Etienne - last days of disco beat connection remix, 2012

"The album refers to the “strange magic” of pop. About the special alchemy that transforms even the most mundane of experiences – walking home with the headphones on at night, sitting in a bedroom with your friends in the day, getting ready to go out on the weekend – into a lingering moment of seamless enchantment, one that resonates for the rest of your life. It is about how music affects your life. How it defines the way you see the world as a child, how it can get you through bad times in unexpected ways, and how songs you’ve known all your life can suddenly develop a new attachment, and hurt every time you hear them. More than how it affects and reflects your life though, the album is about believing in music, living your life by its rules."

Sparks - the girl is crying in her latte, 2023

"AI could never replicate the unique balance between deranged imagination and supreme sanity that is the mark of a great Sparks record like this"

The National - brainy, 2007

"That song has a lot of weird details like keeping fingerprints in folders as though you’re collecting information about someone. But not just about someone in an investigative sense."

Stars - one more night, 2004

"The band make no effort to avoid the inevitable charges of over-sentimentality; in fact, they indulge the calls: "The cold is a vindictive bride," reads their website bio, "she'll trap you between her thighs and turn your heart to ice if you're not careful." Despite overblown romanticism run rampant, Stars somehow remain understated. It's the "Soft Revolution", as the terrific penultimate track declaims. Hop aboard."

Franz Ferdinand - well that was easy, 2005

"A really good sound that compliment the desperate nature of the lyrics."

Genesis - the lady lies, 1978

"The Lady Lies" is the tenth track on the Genesis 1978 album …And Then There Were Three…, with music and lyrics written by Tony Banks. The lyrics tell the story of a man who rescues a woman from the mouth of a monster, but is later seduced by the woman, or as the band refer to her during the song, a demon, and led into an unknown fate."

The Housemartins - we're not going back, 1987

"The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death was ranked number nine among "Albums of the Year" for 1987 in the annual NME critics' poll."

AC Newman - young atlantis, 2009

"It’s a strange thing, I used to think that getting reviewed in Rolling Stone or Spin would be amazing and when that happened I was like, “Holy shit, we’ve arrived!” and now, as things change through the years, it’s not whether or not you’ll get reviewed, it’s “I wonder what they’re gonna say in their review.” That’s still very surreal when I think of things like that. Knowing that your record is going to get some attention, it’s just what are people going to say. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about,” as Oscar Wilde would say."

Paul McCartney - bluebird, 1973

“a metaphor for the transcendent power of love and the liberation of the human spirit from mental and physical bondage”

The Lightning Seeds - happy satellite, 1999

"Overall, the Lightning Seeds might be a bit too sugary for some, but Ian Broudie mined that pop vein very well. Most of the albums sound quite similar. Lots of pop and fairly slick arrangements."

REM - the outsiders, 2004

"The Outsiders” is an interesting song for multiple reasons. One of them is the fact that this is a song that a lot of hardcore fans seem to respect despite it being on most people’s least favorite R.E.M. album. Another noteworthy fact about the song is that it features a rap from A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip. If I had a nickel for everytime this band had a rap featured in one of their songs, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it’s happened twice."

Fine Young Cannibals - ever fallen in love cover, 1986

"In 1986, Fine Young Cannibals had a No. 9 UK hit with their version, recorded for the soundtrack of the 1986 film Something Wild. It was later included on the band's album The Raw & the Cooked, released in January 1989. The song was also a top 20 hit in Australia and Germany and a No. 10 hit in Ireland, with its biggest success in South Africa, where it reached number one."

Le Fil Bleu, 1/1/2025

Morrissey - hairdresser on fire, 1988

"it is Morrissey looking at society and ashamed at how much people are concerned with their looks"

The Cranberries - the sweetest thing, 1999

"It all came to a head in February or March, 1990. Noel called up to the house to let me know about this whole realm of gigs he'd arranged and I had to tell him, 'sorry but my heart's not in it'. It had gotten to the stage where they were giving it 100%, and I was just doing it as a hobby which wasn't fair on them."

My Sad Captains - orienteers, 2011

"A sumptuous synthesis of epiphanic pop and Krautrock–inflected drift and diffusion… Few British bands since Spiritualized in their ‘90s imperial phase have been as proficient at inducing a beatific state of drift"

STRFKR - armatron, 2023

"This was one of the songs that started as a demo of Keil’s that I kind of re/deconstructed. The second section was made mostly with the sh-2 mono synth building the chords one note at a time, which is a trick I love doing with that thing. It kind of lets you move around in ways that wouldn’t happen using a poly synth. Plus it makes the notes all move around in a slightly different pattern. Lyrically, for me, it has the feeling of a couple having a fight and being in that crazy intense space, and then cooling off."

Saint Etienne - archway people, 1993

"They're like Indie/electronic Pop with a huge swinging sixties influence. They're one of the artists who wear their labels with pride and haven't changed their sound to suit others, which is what I really admire about them. It's meant they've flown under the radar all their career, however."

The National - conversation sixteen live, 2011

"Aaron and Bryce use some incredible effects on their guitars, coupled with amazing musicianship. and damn, that rhythm section is flawless. and Matt... oh boy, what a perfect band."

The Radio Dept - mad about the boy, 2007

"We just make music. That’s the thing. We never thought about getting a specific community, or, like, feeding the fans or anything like that. We do feel extremely lucky, however, to have them. Of course, there are things we want to get get across from just the chords or just the music, but a lot of music is about politics and aesthetics."

Wild Nothing - rheya, 2012

"Tatum’s biggest accomplishment is that Nocturne can’t really be measured against the high expectations everyone had for his follow-up. He’s adopted a cerebral approach to these songs; simple as they are, they have a directness that people don’t expect from music like this. Platonic almost, like Stephin Merritt’s writing. Living up to his platform’s reputation for insincere dismissals, the reviewer in Vice referred to a “blankness to his vibe,” man."

AC Newman - elemental, 2009

"One issue I have—I don't know if it's a very common thing—but I have so many unfinished songs that I've begun to wonder if I'm going to get them all out before I die. That's an honest thought I'm having. And I thought, if I'm only releasing ten songs every year or two, I'm never going to get them all out before I die. So I thought, I've got to figure something else out here."

Beach House - on the sea, 2012

"I had this song on repeat all day and went through all the theories on songmeaning and genius. Of course, Victoria will say it's whatever you derive from it, but that's just what every artist says"

Praia pequena, hoje, 1 de janeiro de 2025

Tindersticks - the secret of breathing, 2024

"you struggle to find a contemporary artist to compare Tindersticks to in 2024, but then, it was hard to see where they fitted in 30 years ago. They seem content to inhabit a quiet space some distance away from the main action and understandably so: it’s a place that’s a pleasure to visit."

U2 - new year's day, 1983

"It would be stupid to start drawing up battle lines, but I think the fact that 'New Year's Day' made the Top Ten indicated a disillusionment among record buyers. I don't think 'New Year's Day' was a pop single, certainly not in the way that Mickie Most might define a pop single as something that lasts three minutes and three weeks in the chart. I don't think we could have written that kind of song."

Ladytron - all over by xmas, 2023

"They're the kind of band that really only appears in England, with this funny mixture of eccentric art-school dicking around and dressing up, with a full awareness of what's happening everywhere musically, which is kind of knitted together and woven into something quite new." Ladytron described their sound as "electronic pop", while music journalists have also described their sound as synth-pop, electronic rock, post-punk, and new wave, among other genres. Some of the group's songs contain lyrics written by Aroyo in her native Bulgarian."

Fukushima Dolphin - talking with the bears live, 2023

"This excellent!!"

Asobi Seksu - trance out, 2011

"There's an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry quote I'm wont to mention that "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." As we all know, it's easier to change an extant thing than to create something new from scratch. My hunch is that in working on extant things, and doing so with enough distance to gain perspective they were able to distill the essence of their best work and build on it from there."

Neil Young - cortez the killer live, 1979

"Live Rust is a live album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, recorded during their fall 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour. Live Rust is composed of performances recorded at several venues, including the Cow Palace near San Francisco. Young also directed a companion film, Rust Never Sleeps, under a pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", which consisted of footage from the Cow Palace. The CD version of the album was slightly edited to fit on a single compact disc, which were limited to 74 minutes at the time this album was first issued on CD. In 2014, a remastered, high-resolution download was made available on the Pono store, restoring the album to its original length. Between tracks 2 and 3 on side 2 there is a stage announcement calling for people to get off of a tower and comments on an ongoing rainstorm. This is actually taken from Woodstock, almost a decade prior where Young performed as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young."

Riley's Mountain - plead, 2024

"Seattle, Washington"

El Perro Del Mar - how did we forget, 2004

"As we recall from high school Spanish class, El Perro Del Mar translates to “the dog of the sea” and sounds like it should be a quartet of jolly Mexican mariachis, but is actually comprised solely of the the lovely platinum blonde Swede Sarah Assbring. This tune sounds like it’s coming to you on a very old radio, wafting in from another room where it’s been playing all along. There is a timeless quality to the music – the coy bittersweetness of the blues, modern Swedish ambience, and moments where it feels like a gentle lullaby. From The Valley To The Stars is due tomorrow on fellow Swedes The Concretes‘ label Licking Fingers."

Gerry Rafferty - right down the line, 1978

"Rafferty grew up in a council house in the town's Ferguslie Park, in Underwood Lane, and was educated at St Mirin's Academy. His Irish-born father, an alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16. Rafferty learned both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy. He recalled, "My father was Irish, so growing up in Paisley I was hearing all these songs when I was two or three. Songs like 'She Moves Through the Fair', which my mother sings beautifully. And a whole suite of Irish traditional songs and Scots traditional songs". Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, Rafferty started to write his own material."

The National - pink rabbits, 2013

"I don't care how many times I've heard "Pink Rabbits" it's an absolutely beautiful song"

Allo Darlin - wonderland, 2012

"As an Australian based in London, Morris obviously has a traveller’s eye, and it gives a lot of her songs a naturally observant feel, with themes of journeys and distance cropping up often. She goes back to her roots on ‘Capricornia’, double-tracked vocals recalling Kirsty McColl as Morris wistfully remembers the area she grew up, while ‘My Sweet Friend’ closes the album with a reflective tribute to records themselves. It’s a bittersweet nature that’s essential to any music like this, and Allo Darlin’ seem to have captured it on Europe, with wisps of lap steel guitar and hazy harmonies used artfully throughout."

Pet Shop Boys - leaving, 2012

"Despite this song's origins with the passing of Neil's parents, that's not what it's "about." Rather, Neil takes advantage of his recent personal experiences with such great loss to apply what he has learned to another situation altogether: the death not of loved ones but of love itself."