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

"Cold Hearts" is a track by the Swedish indie pop duo Club 8, consisting of Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård. It appears on their album Strangely Beautiful, which was released in 2003. The song is known for its melancholic yet catchy indie pop sound, with lyrics that explore themes of emotional distance, pride, and the struggle to connect."

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."

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, 2008

"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."