The Moody Blues - nice to be here, 1971

"Nice to Be Here" is a whimsical Ray Thomas song where he imagines witnessing a concert performed by woodland creatures on makeshift instruments. The song was inspired by Thomas' lifelong admiration of nature with additional inspiration from the children's books by Beatrix Potter. Thomas recalls, "I've loved fishing ever since I was a little kid. I used to camp out by a lake a week at a time fishing. At first all the wildlife buggers off but after you've been there for a few days they realise that you're not any threat to them. They run all over your feet, I've even had kingfishers landing on the end of my rod. So I got a great kick out of writing 'Lovely weather must climb a tree.' I was a little kid again. And I just went through a band really, 'Silver minnows were devising water ballets so surprising'." He remembers the session fondly: "The song was great fun to record. Particularly trying to get Justin to play a guitar solo using only one string, like the frog in the lyrics. He actually managed to get it down to two strings!"

Saint Etienne - leafhound, 1993

"Middle-Eastern accented melody creates a big enough hook for even the casual listener to hang on to. “Leafhound” is a playful whirlwind of Balearic guitar, orchestral synths and Cracknell’s sweet, conversational tone as she revisits a strangely familiar locale. She reminisces in the chorus, “Something about this place makes me lose a grip on time and space,” phonetically spelling out each syllable as if in awe. The tonal polar opposite of “Hobart Paving”, “Leafhound” cultivates a sense of return and renewal, with Cracknell concluding, “Yes, I know it’s strange / that you could be here with me now,” that last word neatly spiked with exuberance as if sung by the young girl on the album cover (who is actually Cracknell herself)."

Pet Shop Boys - love etc, 2009

"What most stands out in my mind is its bouncy but highly syncopated rhythm, halfway between a backbeat and a march. Interestingly, Neil's vocal and the background instrumentation place the emphasis on contrasting beats. The song's chanting call-and-response chorus further distinguishes it among PSB tracks."

Voxtrot - the future part one, 2007

"Voxtrot hail from Austin, Texas and peddle lush anthemic indie pop. I’ve fallen in love with the opening bars of_ ‘Introduction’_ and could happily listen to it all day. The soft guitars and strings and the gentle way the song builds to a crescendo is fairly American-indie-by-numbers, but that’s no bad thing in my book."

Damien Jurado - cinco de tomorrow, 2016

"Visions of Us on the Land is the exquisite period at the end of Damien Jurado’s wonderful musical sentence he started back in 2012. I’m sad to see this extended, trippy vision end, but excited to see where Damien Jurado takes us next."

Sam And Dave - hold on i'm coming, 1966

"Like many soul acts of their era, Sam & Dave faded after the 1960s. But Soul Man hit the charts again in the late 1970s when the Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, recorded it with many of the same musicians. Moore had mixed feelings about the hit becoming associated with the Saturday Night Live stars, remembering how young people believed it originated with the Blues Brothers."

Crystal Castles - knights, 2008

"Both on the Toronto music scene and in the blog house community to which they kind of got (wrongly if you ask me) associated, Crystal Castles are an oddity. For instance, there is a definite clash between the way songwriter Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass portray themselves (Emo-tinged half punk, half Goth kids) and the way they sound (bitter-sweet electro pop with a sometimes noisy edge)."

The Go-Betweens - bow down, 1986

"The shimmering “Bow Down” is Forster at his most gracious (“don’t you ever slow down”)"

The Housemartins - bow down, 1987

"In the mid-80s, The Housemartins were extremely important to me, combining jingly-jangly indie-pop records with leftie lyrics. Even more importantly, I was able to include loads of their songs on the mix-tapes I used to lovingly compile to be played in the 6th Form Common Room."

The Beatles - pepperland, 1969

‘Pepperland’ is the nearest Martin’s score gets to a theme tune for the film, with a strong melody repeated a number of times. The tune contains, uniquely among the Yellow Submarine compositions, a brief piano interlude. It is also notable for the absence of novelty sounds and musical experimentation, which Martin wove into his other pieces to compliment the visual effects in the film. ‘Pepperland’ was the opening track on the second side of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack LP, which was released in January 1969."

Aimee Mann - ghost world, 2000

"Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo is the third album by the American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, released on May 2, 2000. Some songs were previously released on the Magnolia soundtrack (1999), which Mann wrote in the same period. "The Fall of the World's Own Optimist" was co-written with the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello."

The Weather Station - parking lot, 2021

"‘Parking Lot’ is a nimble and careful reflection on the intensity of emotions that the natural world can inspire in us. The song’s context is the degradation of the natural world that is so commonplace that we barely notice it any more. That outline makes the song sound hefty, and OK it is, but it has a lightness of touch that is irresistible — think peak Fleetwood Mac, or The Blue Nile doing Blue Monday. ‘Parking Lot’ is a reflection too on ineffability, on the mystery of emotions that we feel intensely and just can’t account for, like, say, when we pay particularly close attention to a particularly well-loved tree."

Wild Nothing - nocturne, 2012

"Maybe it's the way in which Tatum takes these different styles and creates a wonderfully unified album that makes it difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what it is that I find so appealing. But Nocturne is one of those rare albums that works well both as background music – there aren't any jarring shifts or songs that don't fit – and as something that rewards critical listening."

Belle And Sebastian - dog on wheels, 1997

"Dog on Wheels is the debut EP by Belle & Sebastian, released in 1997 on Jeepster Records. The four recordings on the EP actually pre-date the band's début album Tigermilk, produced whilst bandmembers Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David were on the Beatbox music course at Stow College, Glasgow. Murdoch, David and Mick Cooke are the only long-term members to play on the songs, though Cooke only appears on the title track."

Pat Metheny - red sky, 1995

"The band uses "contemporary" pop rhythms on many of their selections but in creative ways and without watering down the popular group's musical identity. In addition Metheny for the first time in his recording career sounds a bit like his early influence Wes Montgomery on a few of the songs."

The Cranberries - analyse, 2001

"Analyse" is a song by Irish rock band the Cranberries. It was the first single released from their fifth studio album, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001), on 27 August 2001."

Saint Etienne - urban clearway, 1994

“Urban Clearway”, the opening salvo of London trio Saint Etienne’s third album suggests that it will be a very different beast from the first two. Granted, Fox Base Alpha and So Tough had their share of atmospheric, pulsating electronic instrumentals, but they were hidden behind simpler pleasures like a dance cover of a Neil Young song or a neighborhood café narrative that unambiguously invited listeners into its world. Tiger Bay, on the other hand, introduces itself via a barrage of mechanical rhythms straight out of the Kraftwerk songbook (or Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”).

Enya - orinoco flow, 1988

"In a 2015 interview with The Irish Times, Enya said: “Longevity is all any artist dreams of”, rather than to dwell on how her songs are remembered. She credits "Orinoco Flow" for some of her cross-generational appeal, saying: "people who used to like Orinoco Flow are now playing my music to their children". In another interview, when asked whether people bring up "Orinoco Flow", she responded: "people say 'sail away' to me or whistle bits of it back to me. I think it’s wonderful—I never tire of it."

Scorpions - when the smoke is going down, 1982

"His work is concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. His subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, particularly the wounded child, scarred physically and emotionally from within."

Pet Shop Boys - did you see me coming, 2009

"The song opens with Johnny Marr's strummed guitar, which quickly gets overwhelmed by other instruments while still providing the song's rhythmic underpinning."

The Moody Blues - never comes the day, 1969

"Never Comes the Day" is a 1969 single by the progressive rock band the Moody Blues. It was written by band member Justin Hayward, and was the only single released from their 1969 album On the Threshold of a Dream."

Sambassadeur - falling in love, 2007

"I found Sambassadeur a few weeks ago only after searching for some post rock Swedish bands that aren’t just The Mary Onettes and The Radio Dept. They have a Cranberries/The Sundays feel, this was the only track I picked up but after a few listens I definitely want more."

Fleet Foxes - drops in the river, 2008

"Drops in the River possesses an intriguingly blunt concision, as though Fleet Foxes have no time for the luxury of long, slow crescendos or meandering jams."

Bruce Springsteen - the river, 1980

"The 2012 biography Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin includes an interview with Springsteen's sister Ginny, in which she plainly states that the song is a precise description of her early life with her husband Mickey, to whom she is still married. In his 2016 autobiography Springsteen confirmed that he wrote the song as a tribute to his sister and his brother-in-law."

The Cure - plainsong, 1989

"It took me years to finally understand the complex beauty in The Cure’s Disintegration. I always felt from the opening “Plainsong” that Disintegration was an evocative funeral procession for someone who was already contemplated eternal sleep. But in 1989, I was a scared, confused and lonely teenager who avoided anything I believed had to do with death. What I didn’t realize is that within the dark seas of Disintegration lay pools of illumination, radiating truths of fear and premonition that appear from time to time in our ever changing lives. Boy did I misread the magic of Disintegration as Robert Smith explained when he said, “The essence of this album is the disgust concerning the loss of the ability to feel profound feelings when you grow older. That’s the disintegration I mean. I’m concerned about it, just as about everybody else I know of my age.”

Etienne Daho - week-end à rome live, 1992

"Last year, at the age of 44, I visited Paris for the very first time. Quite how it took me so long to get there is frankly inexplicable, but the problem with leaving it until middle age is that your entire vision of a place is composed entirely of all the famous good bits and you run the risk of being hugely disappointed."

Stars - sleep tonight, 2004

"this song is so beautiful that you should never listen to it while going through a breakup. it will just break your heart."

Marillion - white feather, 1985

"The superstition goes that a white feather plucked from a game cock and placed in the clothing of a person marked a poor or cowardly fighter. This is because a pure-bred gamecock wouldn't have white tail feathers. This term was first used in the eighteenth century."

Enya - only if, 1997

"Only If" is as peaceful and memorably melodic as any other of her inspirational, soul-purifying songs, which traditionally are etched with a unique combination of background voices with drums and violin lines. It's a combination that makes all her songs seem antique, almost, if not angelic."

Aimee Mann - video, 2005

"Aimee Mann has been at this rock and roll game a long, long time. She got a big profile boost at the turn of the century when her soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia lead to an Oscar nomination for her song Save Me. She might not be a superstar, but Mann seems to have carved out a solid and manageable level of fame and success."

AC Newman - encyclopedia of classic takedowns, 2012

"Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns is the song where I’m talking about how self-conscious I am and how being in a band just seems absurd. When I sing the big chorus, “I didn’t mean to live that many lies,” I think that’s what I’m talking about."

Pet Shop Boys - dreaming of the queen, 1993

"This song of course references two real-life figures: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and her one-time daughter-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, who was popularly known as "Lady Di." It was of course recorded and released several years before the latter's untimely accidental death—an event that has since lent the song even greater poignancy. It's worth noting in the context of the song that Diana was known for her support for AIDS-related charities; she was, in fact, one of the first high-profile U.K. public figures outside the entertainment industry to be actively involved in the fight against AIDS."

Saint Etienne - lightning strikes twice, 2005

"In the vast world of music, certain songs have the power to captivate us, leaving us wondering about their deeper meaning and significance. One such song is “Lightning Strikes Twice”

The Jesus And Mary Chain - never understood, 1998

"Never Understood is aimed less at the general public than at interested parties; this is an oral history with no contextualisation. Nonetheless, it provides a little bit of everything that anyone with a grasp of this extraordinary band, or their era, could want: candour, trivia (an early single and one of their guitars features Jackson Pollock-inspired paint spatters, possibly influencing the Stone Roses). There are cringe-inducing cameos from the Reids’ idols – Iggy Pop, David Bowie."

Demis Roussos - my reason, 1972

"My Reason" is a song by Greek singer Demis Roussos. It was released as a single in 1972. The song was included on Roussos' 1973 album Forever and Ever."

Sufjan Stevens - blue bucket of gold, 2015

"Stevens’ mother – the Carrie of the album’s title – was a strange presence in his family. She left him and his siblings early in their lives, and from then on contact was allegedly sporadic, and smudged with tension. Her own life was pockmarked with troubles of her own, including depression, substance abuse schizophrenia, and biopolar disorder: issues which left their scars throughout Stevens’ family. Carrie & Lowell indicates that Stevens spent a lot of time following his mother’s death trawling through this muddy past in the hopes of finding closure. However, anyone hoping for a record of hard-earned catharsis is out of luck: Stevens’ emotions are too complex to be reduced to crystal-clear wisdoms."

High School - colt, 2023

"uplifting transient sound that invokes a feeling is what we’re trying to do with HighSchool. The lyrics are often the last thing."

Saturday Looks Good To Me - invisible friend, 2013

"A tuneful blend of watery reverb, shuffling Charlie Brown piano riff and bittersweet pop vocals, "Invisible Friend" is a fresh variation on what Thomas & Co. do best."

Cocteau Twins - for phoebe still a baby, 1988

“There was an element of freedom about the whole thing. It really felt like a period of creativity and freedom, we were all getting on great musically and socially, Liz and Robin were about to have a baby, I was about to get married, there was lots of joy around. Very productive! It was a really fun record to make.”

The Go-Betweens - born to a family, 2005

"Born to a Family is the B side off the Go-Betweens single Finding You taken from their 9th studio album Oceans Apart (see image above). Finding You peaked at Number 17 on the Australian music charts and will feature later in this music project. Grant McLennan described Born to a Family as a “sort of knees-up, 2/4 kind of jump song.” It has a chanty, jangly chime. I can’t help but think of The Smiths when I hear it."

Dido - stoned, 2003

"stoned. Not sure what to make out of this one. Seems she wants more out of the relationship besides making love while drunk and stoned. The intro music is pretty long,but it is catchy."

The Cranberries - never grow old, 2001

“Never Grow Old is a song I wrote with no music whatsoever. I was walking outside here, with my little baby in a pram and my son with me and I started singing. I have a dream / Strange it may seem / This is my perfect day. So I ran home and tried to get down the chords on the piano but didn’t because I was distracted. The baby was crying! So I lost it. But the next day I woke up and it came back to me so I wrote it at the piano, then played it with the lads”

Mike Oldfield - north point, 1987

"The superior Hegland-sung piece follows, however, with “North Point.” Here the guitar is more prominent and Hegland’s voice becomes a choir, similar to the multi-tracking methods used by Enya, among others."

Wild Nothing - this chain won't break, 2012

"Songs like "The Chain Won't Break", will effortlessly delve the listener into the world of "Dream-pop", turning the listen into a fascinating hazy and bewildering escapade."

The Radio Dept - the idle urban contemporaries, 2009

"A Radio Dept. top ten wouldn’t be complete without one of the band’s gorgeous instrumentals. There are so many good ones to choose from (including a few album openers), but I ultimately went with B-side The Idle Urban Contemporaries. The city sounds of sirens and loudspeakers melt away to reveal a beautiful melody that builds up to a sweeping finish."

Peter, Paul And Mary - puff the magic dragon, 1963

"The song tells the story of an ageless dragon named Puff and his playmate, Jackie Paper, as they embark on adventures in the imaginary land of Honalee. As time passes, Jackie matures and abandons his childhood games, leaving Puff alone and saddened. Lipton, who was acquainted with Peter Yarrow through a mutual friend at Cornell, used Yarrow's typewriter to commit his poem to paper. He forgot about it until years later, when a friend informed him that Yarrow was seeking him to properly credit him for the lyrics. Upon reconnecting, Yarrow shared half of the songwriting credit with Lipton, who received royalties for the song until his death in 2022. Yarrow later died in 2025. Yarrow now sings the line "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" as "A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys", to be more inclusive. The original poem included a stanza about Puff finding a new playmate, but this was not incorporated into the song. The paper left in Yarrow's typewriter in 1959 has since been lost."

REM - beachball, 2001

"The song starts off very uniquely, especially for a R.E.M. track. The first sound you hear is this electronic drum beat that almost sounds 8-bit like it’s from a Casio keyboard. It’s soon contrasted by this huge sounding chorus of strings and horns. The melody is straight up Burt Bacharach with shades of the Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds when it comes to the guitar riff panned to the left. This orchestration sounds big but at the same time sounds very relaxed which might have the do with the song’s slower tempo."

Stars - through the mines, 2012

"The album's cover shows the Habitat 67 complex, an experimental housing development as well as architectural landmark in Montreal, the band's home city."

Saint Etienne - california snow story, 1993

"So Tough is easy to identify with while still managing to transcend the ordinary. With songs sandwiched between spoken-word interludes, the album has an air of quiet narrative intensity—not unlike Woody Allen’s output-circa Interiors. From the beautifully intense “Hobart Paving” (a Van Dyke Parks arranged version of the song closes out the bonus disc), to the darkly mysterious “Junk the Morgue,” to the Beach Boys pop of “You’re in a Bad Way,” So Tough provides a moment of introspection for almost every mood—without once compromising Saint Etienne’s core sound."

The Mary Onettes - evil coast, 2013

"The Mary Onettes went full beach vibes for their video for “Evil Coast,” an almost cruel visual for those of us longing for warmer climes in the middle of still-snowy March. Now that we’re dangling our legs into the pool of summer, the Swedish indie-pop group have flipped the script and dropped a barren, black and white clip for their comfortingly beautiful" 

Such a great song!

The National - eucalyptus, 2023

"It’s too painful to think about who gets that tree, who gets that plant? And that’s why I tried to make a fun song out of it….This one I wrote really fast. It’s one of the darker songs on it [the record] but I was having more fun writing this one."

Micheál And Eilish - skibbereen cover, 1990

"Skibbereen", also known as "Dear Old Skibbereen", "Farewell to Skibbereen", or "Revenge For Skibbereen", is an Irish folk song, in the form of a dialogue wherein a father tells his son about the Irish famine, being evicted from their home, and the need to flee as a result of the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848."

AC Newman - i'm not talking, 2012

"Like all of Newman’s best tracks, the single is an instantly lovable melodic gem with a great arrangement and nostalgic, relatable lyrics. I love the bleep-bloopy synth arpeggio that anchors this track, along with the breezy, full bodied acoustic guitars and the arching horn melody, which appears in the intro and returns valiantly in the chorus. Sonically, it’s not far off from what the New Pornographers were doing on their last album Together, but Newman clearly works well with that aesthetic."

The Go-Betweens - surfing magazines, 2000

"Forster is still reliving that summer feeling in his sixties. Audiences still join in the wistful wordless chorus. And old folk smile in their cars and hum along while zipping past Australian farmhouses on forty degree days, wondering what happened to their fourteen year old selves."

Elton John - japanese hands, 1988

"I’ve been wanting to write about this song – Japanese Hands – for a while. It is one of my favorites from Reg Strikes Back. And given the tragic events of the last few days, I felt compelled to write about it tonight. The song exemplifies the beauty and grace of Japan in a way that (I think) so many westerners perceive it. (Is that too broad of a generalization)? As I see the images of destruction and devastation, my heart is broken – as I’m sure everyone’s is."

The Triffids - the seabirds, 1986

"Born Sandy has possibly the best opening moment of any record I've heard as Dave's vocal comes straight in on the first lines of The Seabirds - No foreign pair of dark sunglasses could ever shield you from/ the light that pierces your eyelids the screaming of the gulls... This is no ordinary song and this is so because Dave took a stand against the ordinary. He didn't care that we were recording a song that couldn't be easily reproduced on stage, he didn't care that it took him six months or more to write the defining couplet in the song - She said what's the matter now lover boy has the cat run off with your tongue Are you drinking to get maudlin or are you drinking to get numb? He didn't care that that couplet kept him awake at nights, but he cared that, once it was in place, he had an extraordinary song to open an extraordinary record."

The Lightning Seeds - the nearly man, 1990

"a reality where dreams are both tempting and frustrating"

Moby - lift me up, 2005

"the song is about the dangerous and disturbing global rise of intolerance and fundamentalism"

Club 8 - cold hearts, 2003

"Karolina Komstedt's air-brushed voice becomes a small chorus of angels"

The House Of Love - hannah, 1990

"During the slow and argumentative recording process, The House of Love's rhythm section Chris Groothuizen and Pete Evans would moonlight as members of a separate band, My White Bedroom.[citation needed] More seriously affected was lead guitarist Terry Bickers, an introverted character who was already unhappy with the implications of the band's deal with Fontana. Bickers would retreat into manic depression as his relationship with Chadwick deteriorated into a non-speaking one in which the two were more likely to communicate by post rather than have a face-to-face conversation. Following the completion of the album, Bickers would acrimoniously quit The House of Love during the early days of the sixty-date promotional tour. A couple of years later he would comment "I just found at the time that I didn't have the same aspirations as the rest of the band. I was more into exploring music than exploring the exploitation of markets around the globe. They were really into crusading. And winning. I wasn't."

The Radio Dept - you stopped making sense, 2010

“You forgot all about us” I think he means both their relationship and the human nature at the same time. It makes so much sense. I love this song"

Kaoma - lambada, 1989

"Lambada", also known as "Chorando Se Foi (Lambada)", or "Llorando Se Fue (Lambada)" (both meaning "crying, he/she went away" in Portuguese and Spanish, respectively), is a song by French-Brazilian pop group Kaoma. It features guest vocals by Brazilian vocalist Loalwa Braz and was released as the first single from Kaoma's 1989 debut album, Worldbeat."

The Go-Betweens - poison in the walls, 2003

"Where Rachel Worth sounded like an experiment gone right, Bright Yellow exudes confidence. It doesn’t hurt that the songs are uniformly solid. On “Caroline and I,” Forster muses about being “born in the very same year” as Monaco’s Princess Caroline, with typically witty, intriguing results: “It gave me something small that I could feel.” McLennan provides two further highlights in the wistful “Poison in the Walls” and the inspiring “Old Mexico,” which takes a jaunty verse and pours it into a beautiful chorus in which McLennan encourages the subject to “turn the lights off…you’ll be blinded.” Bright Yellow features some of the barbed guitar lines that punctuated the Go-Betweens’ first few albums, while an occasional organ adds color to the clean, uncluttered production. More than conclusive proof that McLennan’s and Forster’s reunion was a good idea, the album is a career high-point for both men."

Etienne Daho - la mémoire vive, 2000

"Etienne Daho follows the steps of his favorite artist in picturesque central Soho. And how not embrace minds and make up stories in the adored Bacon’s bar, the French House? I am not sure about what is really French in this bar, except for the Sans Culotte signs."

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - too late, 1996

"I'd abandoned techno/house; it was like an old man dying his hair jet-black: ridiculous. I decided to follow the current trend of getting more acoustic, using real drums and bass."