Bear's Den - isaac, 2013

"I believe Bear’s Den is so amazing because after listening to their songs on repeat for a few days, as one does when they discover new music that they love, I started finding connections between a few of their songs. Their songs are a bit ambiguous so I could just be making up connections and shaping them to fit with the music but if not, this band has managed to tell a complete story through at least four different songs which is so cool."

The Durutti Column - the rest of my life, 1994

"Despite being issued additionally on CDRom (in a sandpaper sleeve again) and garnering favourable reviews, the album sank without trace. I think it is one of DCs best 5 albums, but in an age of Brit-pop, Blur and Oasis, no-one cared. Many songs remain the equal of his key early material - "The Rest of My Life" and "Beautiful Lies" being the stand-outs. Also once again, the instrumental tracks strengthened Reilly's reputation as a masterly guitarist - "Blue Period", "My Irascible Friend" and "For Colette" are all utterly wonderful and still timeless."

Fait-divers on dreaming

Dare to dream. You will wake up, but at least you got some sleep.

Black Marigolds quoted in Cannery Row of John Steinbeck

When the record had
finished, Doc wiped his hands and turned it off. He saw a book lying half
under his bed and picked it up and he sat down on the bed. For a moment he
read to himself but then his lips began to move and in a moment he read
aloud—slowly, pausing at the end of each line.
Even now
I mind the coming and talking of wise men from
towers
Where they had thought away their youth. And I,
listening,
Found not the salt of the whispers of my girl,
Murmur of confused colors, as we lay near sleep;
Little wise words and little witty words,
Wanton as water, honied with eagerness.
In the sink the high white foam cooled and ticked as the bubbles burst.
Under the piers it was very high tide and the waves splashed on rocks they
had not reached in a long time.
Even now
I mind that I loved cypress and roses, clear,
The great blue mountains and the small gray hills,
The sounding of the sea. Upon a day
I saw strange eyes and hands like butterflies;
For me at morning larks flew from the thyme
And children came to bathe in little streams.
Doc closed the book. He could hear the waves beat under the piles and he
could hear the scampering of white rats against the wire. He went into the
kitchen and felt the cooling water in the sink. He ran hot water into it. He
spoke aloud to the sink and the white rats, and to himself:
Even now,
I know that I have savored the hot taste of life
Lifting green cups and gold at the great feast.
Just for a small and a forgotten time
I have had full in my eyes from off my girl
The whitest pouring of eternal light—
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. And the white rats
scampered and scrambled in their cages. And behind the glass the
rattlesnakes lay still and stared into space with their dusty frowning eyes.

Fait-divers on books

Finishing a good book feels like losing a friend. Finishing a great book feels like gaining one for life.

Fait-divers on metaphors by Susanne Katherina Langer

"a metaphor is apt to be more revealing than a literal statement... In the history of language, in the growth of human understanding, the principle of metaphorical expression plays a vastly greater role than most people realize. For it is the natural instrument of our greatest mental achievement — abstract thinking." (Susanne Katherina Langer)

Neil Young - the emperor of wyoming, 1969

"Being the opening track on Neil Young's self-titled solo debut album, "The Emperor of Wyoming" is in some ways the song that first introduced the general public to Neil Young as a solo artist (he'd already achieved a degree of notoriety with Buffalo Springfield)."

Club 8 - staying alive, 2025

"Since Club 8 began submitting their music to us, we have eagerly covered their work on a regular basis. They have become one of my favorite discoveries on the blog in recent years, despite the fact that they have been a significant part of the Swedish music scene for much longer. Their songs always transport me back to the times when I was captivated by the dreamy, hazy sounds of Radio Dept., with that enchanting blend of shoegaze and indie pop that is so hard to define yet so easy to fall in love with."

Sufjan Stevens - goodbye to all that, 2020

"He takes us on a sonic journey through anxiety, questioning his steadfast embracement of religion, and, in total Stevens fashion, death, and though none of it is particularly joyful, it’s beautiful from start to finish."

Saint Etienne - alone together, 2024

"For an amazingly long time, Saint Etienne have deftly blended and updated the cool bits of past forms with the sounds of now. Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, and Pete Wiggs have made music that's danceable, joyous, peppy, and sometimes mournful. Now, in 2024, they've turned their sights on years gone by, with a release that is heavy with a sense of time spent, and regrets weighed and assessed. That said, it's also quite possibly their loveliest record to date."

Fait-divers by Jean Baudrillard on information and meaning

"We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning." (Jean Baudrillard)

Fait-divers

Life is dark. Enjoy the stars.

Outros olhares: Bruxelas, Dezembro de 2016

Bear's Den - agape, 2013

"The opening title track tells of the horror of contemplating life without this 'agape'."

Fazerdaze - last to sleep, 2017

"Side one kicks off with ‘Last to Sleep’, which sets the bar inordinately high. It begins with a deceptively simple drum, bass, guitar construction with Amelia trademark vocal stamping its mark from the outset. It is a vocal style at once relaxed but emphatic, laid back but precise, relaxed but urgent. The song has its own precise internal momentum and builds as keyboard layers are added."

Beach House - space song, 2015

"I don't need to analyze it because I'm grateful for it. I don’t think it's just that song, but if that is the gateway, then I'm happy about it. We both feel lucky that younger people keep discovering us and we're able to keep making records."

Fait-divers on attitude

Dear humans: You are all born of and will end up as star stuff. There's no need to be cruel to each other during the transition.

Fait-divers on parables by Yann Martel

“A parable is an allegory in the form of a simple story. It is a suitcase that we open and unpack to see its contents.” (Yann Martel)

REM - every day is yours to win, 2011

"I feel like this song is about trying to make someone understand that despite the many struggles they’ll have to face in their life, the world is theirs to make great and everyday is theirs to win. It’s about being hopeful and optimistic for the future. The title of the song is also the message of the song. It’s advice that I’m sure a lot of parents give to their children." 

Such a great song!

The Moody Blues - the land of make believe, 1972

"It sounds like people who have a feeling of happiness, are very optimistic and only see the good things in life. Still, it feels a bit sad for me."

My Morning Jacket - x-mas curtain, 2001

"That song was about a time when we were very poor and our old drummer and myself would go into various departments stores and steal things [laughs] and give 'em to people, kind of in a Robin Hood way. Give 'em to people including ourselves, 'cause we didn't have any money and we thought it was okay to steal [laughs] like VCRs and stuff from [more laughs] departments stores. We thought we were being like vigilantes for justice. Uhm, we'd take like a VCR and a couple of Walkmens and some batteries and stuff and put them on the bottom of the cart and then put a big bag on dog food on top of 'em all and then have the cashier woman scan the dog food and usually they wouldn't see all the [laughs] hundreds of dollars of electronics underneath. That's why the song kind of references being a criminal that doesn't break the law at Christmas time."

The Smiths - oscillate wildly, 1987

"Initially the very notion of instrumentals was motivated by me. I suggested that 'Oscillate Wildly' should be an instrumental; up until that point Johnny had very little interest in non-vocal tracks. There was never any political heave-hoing about should we - shouldn't we have an instrumental and it was never a battle of powers between Johnny and myself. The very assumption that a Smiths instrumental track left Morrissey upstairs in his bedroom stamping his feet and kicking the furniture was untrue! I totally approved but, obviously, I didn't physically contribute."

Fait-divers by John Rawls

The best way to measure a just society is whether you'd be willing to be thrown into it at random. (John Rawls)

Fait-divers on fake news

Outrage about "fake news" comes from the wrong assumption that readers base their opinions on the news and not the news on their opinions.

Fait-divers on hologram

"Space-time and the matter within it are treated as a hologram that arises from an underlying network of quantum bits"

Sintra, pôr do sol, ontem, 26 de Maio de 2025

Outros olhares: Madrid, Espanha, pôr do sol, ontem, 26 de Maio de 2025

The Cranberries - they long to be close to you cover, 2002

"when "Close To You" just dominated the summer of 1970 was how different it was from everything it was surrounded"

Beach Fossils - birthday, 2013

"The New York City dream pop band's second album sees them introduce a darker, more socially aware edge, though it trades their former instrumental rigidity for amiable, mid-fi college rock jangle."

Sufjan Stevens - the ascension, 2020

"The big moment, the big climax that the album has been leading up to since the offer given to Sufjan at the very beginning. And this is gonna be long. So let's just the key concepts out of the way first: change, moving on, self reflection, religious self doubt, the list goes on."

The Jesus And Mary Chain - happy when it rains, 1987

"Happy When It Rains" is a song by Scottish alternative rock group the Jesus and Mary Chain, released as the second single from their second studio album, Darklands."

The Moody Blues - our guessing game, 1971

"Based in a typical Moody Blues motif, this piece has both folk and progressive rock elements to it. It gets more involved and intense as it continues."

REM - walk it back, 2011

"This ballad was written during studio sessions in New Orleans, the city clearly inspiring the hymnal tones of the song's piano. Instead of following their usual procedure of penning a batch of tunes and recording them in one long session, R.E.M. laid down Collapse Into Now in three different cities — Berlin, Nashville and New Orleans — with breaks in between for writing sessions."

The Go-Betweens - old mexico, 2003

"Even the Velvets inspired ‘Mrs Morgan’ has a muted sparkle to it. Forster’s ‘In Her Diary’ is particularly outstanding, the guitar lines and orchestration having a great resonance, while ‘Too Much of One Thing’ has quite a rush to it. The sound has rounded out, exemplified by ‘Old Mexico’ with its spiky guitar and keyboard intro together with its chorus’s melodic shift and Pickavance’s backing vocals adding an extra layer. ‘Something For Myself’ has Forster’s most enigmatic and unlikely observation, “want to get out folk and get into rare groove."

Fait-divers on attitude by Pope Francis

“Beneath rigidity there is something else, there is often wickedness” (Pope Francis)

Fait-divers on silence by Thomas Merton

There is a greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. (Thomas Merton)

The Lightning Seeds - like you do, 1996

"Perhaps best representing the sunny, joyous elements of the album, though, is Like You Do."

My Morning Jacket - golden, 2003

"Golden" has all the touchstones of the Jim James school of songwriting. There is a pure love song tucked between the cracks, but "Golden" is also a sort of Yim Yamesian universal love song – a song about the meaning and mysteries of life."

Fait-divers on Love by Thomas Merton

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. (Thomas Merton)

Fait-divers on Love by the Dalai Lama"

"What is Love? Love is the absence of judgement." (Dalai Lama)

Portico Quartet - ruins, 2011

"an album which grabs the zeitgeist but still stays true to its roots: callipygously shuffling, painlessly segueing, mingling the darkest rags ‘n’ bones of dubstep, d ‘n’b and off-kilter jazz, all the while interweaving heck loads of new-found textures and electronics. It’s a forward-thinking game-change which feels rich, warm and – quite simply – astounding”.

Fait-divers on attitude by Lao Tzu

“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” (Lao Tzu)

Fait-divers on narcissism

Despair is the worst form of narcissism because it seems entirely justified.

Saint Etienne - slow down at the castle, 2005

"The exact setting of the stories told by the album's setting is somewhat amorphous. The real Turnpike House is a high-rise block of flats in Goswell Road, EC1, an area of ex-council blocks between Clerkenwell and Upper Street. The band had spent a lot of time in Turnpike House, as filmmaker Paul Kelly lived there during the period in which they were collaborating on What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day?. However, Sarah Cracknell has said that the building imagined in the album is "not nearly as smart" as the real Turnpike House. Bob Stanley has said that he imagined the album's setting to be more suburban, "probably somewhere like Croydon or possibly Ponders End". Pete Wiggs has said that his experience of living in Croydon was the inspiration for "Side Streets" and "Slow Down at the Castle" (the Castle is a water tower in Park Hill Recreation Ground). However, the title of "The Birdman of EC1" refers to the postal district in which the real Turnpike House is located."

Electronic - how long, 1996

"By the time Electronic's long-delayed second album appeared in 1996, the zeitgeist in Britain had completely shifted from its members' parent bands to a new generation of groups, with Oasis, who shared management with Sumner and Marr's project, standing forth out of a horde of newer Brit-pop acts. Electronic itself chose not to try and compete, following its own low-key path while working with a variety of guest musicians, including returning singer Denise Johnson. The intriguing surprise came courtesy of an additional keyboardist - none other than Kraftwerk veteran Karl Bartos, who also co-wrote nearly half the release with Sumner and Marr. In the same way that the group's debut promised more than it delivered, though, Raise the Pressure - theoretically a dream collaboration between key members of three groundbreaking bands - ends up being more pleasant than necessary."

The Moody Blues - the best way to travel, 1968

"Keyboard player Mike Pinder’s (Thinking is) The Best Way to Travel on the In Search of a Lost Chord album is one of the great “show me the universe and get me home for tea” acid songs, and that quintet of late 60s albums is liberally peppered with memorable psychedelic moments."

Fait-divers on decoherence

decoherence: things that might have happened, but didn’t, might still affect the future (https://aeon.co/essays/does-knowledge-of-the-past-and-present-determine-the-future)

Fait-divers: a story with a meaning

"The friends nodded appreciatively, for they liked a story with a meaning." (John Steinbeck, "Tortilla Flat")

Bill Ryder-Jones - wild roses live, 2016

"During End of the Road Festival this year, the English songwriter took up the piano and played a short secret set for the punters that happened to walk past."

Fait-divers on Gratitude

The antidote to entitlement is the constant demonstration of gratitude. (Vala Afshar)

Fait-divers on criticism

The worst criticism seeks to have the last word and leave the rest of us in silence.

The Go-Betweens - make her day, 2003

"It's not every day that a reunion becomes a full-blown second phase for a band's career, but that seems to be what's happening with this old Australian outfit, even if principle songwriters Grant McLennan and Robert Forster are the only original members back in the fold. 2000's Friends of Rachel Worth found the duo picking up pretty much where the Go-Betweens left off in 1988, back when they were a steady five-piece operating far from their Brisbane home, in London, to massive critical acclaim and microscopic album sales. The post-punk charge that found its way into some of the band's early recordings is all but gone; the band focuses almost all of Bright Yellow Bright Orange (their eighth full-length) on their acoustic, folk-inflected side."

Neil Young - throw your hatred down, 1995

"We're sympathetic. They're definitely old souls—they've been around. Musically there's youthful energy, but without the sound of inexperience. And our musical styles are compatible; it's like a big wall of sound with a lot of nuances in there."

Elton John - song for guy, 1978

"As I was writing this song one Sunday, I imagined myself floating into space and looking down at my own body. I was imagining myself dying. Morbidly obsessed with these thoughts, I wrote this song about death. The next day I was told that Guy [Burchett], our 17-year-old messenger boy, had been tragically killed on his motorcycle the day before. Guy died on the day I wrote this song."

The Moody Blues - a simple game, 1968

"A Simple Game" is a 1968 song by the progressive rock band the Moody Blues. Written and sung by Mike Pinder, it was released as a non-album B-side to "Ride My See-Saw", a track from the album In Search of the Lost Chord. The song was produced by Tony Clarke and arranged by Arthur Greenslade. The track was included in the band's 1974 compilation, This Is The Moody Blues, remixed and with an earlier fade than on the single. It was also included, with its original mix and length, in the 1987 compilation Prelude."

William Fitzsimmons - took acoustic live, 2013

"This version of “Took” was recorded live at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles and Fitzsimmons conveys these dark sentiments in gentle fashion – but despite the song’s tenderness, the brutality of it all still comes across."

Fait-divers on the neutrino

"there’s one particle that seems not to show up in the mirror at all. The neutrino has only ever been observed in its left-handed form. Particle physicists are investigating whether the right-handed neutrino exists or if neutrinos’ mirror images are simply identical, which could help explain why the universe contains something rather than nothing."

Fait-divers on spiritual life by Thomas Merton

The spiritual life is, then, first of all a matter of keeping awake. (Thomas Merton)

Belle And Sebastian - we are the sleepyheads, 2006

"Here, Belle & Sebastian dabble in glam rock, lazy lounge jazz, and ersatz blues, enhancing their swinging '60s pop fixation with horn charts, the occasional flute, and Motown rhythms, while even rocking harder than ever before (but that's on a relative scale, of course). This results in a fresh, lively listen, but a rich one too, since there's more to hear in the music as well as the words upon repeated listens."

REM - the lifting, 2001

"Matt LeMay of Pitchfork gave the album a rating of 5.0 out of 10, stating he found the album's electronic elements to be "superficial" and felt they created an overly busy sound. He also found many of its songs to be repetitive, without stronger melodies or more variation to improve the tracks. LeMay does state that despite some "terrible lyrics", "Imitation of Life" possesses "a catchy hook, and a sufficient degree of sonic variety", while "The Lifting" contains "an undeniably great melody."

Fait-divers on contradictions by Thomas Merton

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of man. It is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a insoluble problem. (Thomas Merton)

Fait-divers on cynicism by Maya Angelou

"There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing" (Maya Angelou)

Fait-divers on Niels Bohr's coat of arms

Contraria sunt complementa (Niels Bohr's coat of arms)

Fait-divers on information and wisdom

"We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely." (E. O. Wilson)

The New Pornographers - go places, 2007

"on their fourth album, 2007's Challengers, they turn inward, tempering their hooks and muting their colors, winding up with an album that emphasizes their admirable qualities first, with their endearing ones revealing themselves only after repeated plays. It's true that the New Pornographers' albums have always been growers, records that unveiled their gifts over time, but Challengers is their biggest grower yet, a dense collection of carefully constructed and brain-power pop"

The Cranberries - stars, 2003

"Stars" is a song by the Cranberries from the compilation album Stars: The Best of 1992–2002, and was released in October 2002. It is the band's last single released before their six-year hiatus."

Club 8 - we're all going to die, 2010

"This album is by far their most danceable, utilizing syncopation and driving beats that suggest influences from Latin and African music. It is no coincidence that this is their first record Johan didn’t produce. Enlisting the help of Jari Haapalainen in the control room, they sought inspiration with a trip to Brazil and built up a record collection of 1970s Western African classics. To flesh out their new direction, the teamed up with percussionist, Jouni Haapala, a fellow Nordic musician whose spent time learning the heart of the beats on a spell in Cuba. To balance all these cheerful aesthetics, Club 8’s lyrical tendencies still veer down the paths of dour and forlorn. With titles like, “Dancing with the Mentally Ill,” “My Pessimistic Heart,” “Be Mad, Get Ill, Be Still,” and “We’re All Going to Die,” Club 8 may be taking their tunes to the discothèques, but they haven’t checked their problems at the door. They are in fact celebrating these dark feelings, which very well may be the mark of maturity that has guided their artistic progression so effectively."

The Moody Blues - have you heard part two, 1969

“Now you know how nice it feels.” This is the first line in “Have You Heard part 2,” and much like the opening line in part 1, this works a calming reset. The voyage and its excitement are over, time to relax once more; and relax we should. It is real mellow experience sitting back and listening to “On the Threshold of a Dream.” Everyone knows The Moody Blues, and every knows “Nights in White Satin,” but have you heard of “On the Threshold of a Dream?” Mike Pinder is a genius."

The Jesus And Mary Chain - cherry came too, 1987

"Time has proven Darklands itself to be underrated. Across its modest 10 songs the now-increasingly-shared vocal performances of brothers Jim and William Reid gained a smoothness and warmth not always captured in the group’s more overt Lou Reedisms, while songs like “Cherry Came Too” elevate gorgeous guitar work to the status of a major plot point. Meanwhile, “April Skies” laid the rumbling-rocker template JAMC would ride into the sunset on later albums."

Saint Etienne - glad, 2025

"There’s a ton of news coming this Friday so be sure to stay tuned!"

Johnny Cash - folsom prison blues live at folsom state prison, 1968

"While his live At Folsom Prison album and performance is one of Cash's most well-known, it wasn't the only penitentiary where Cash played for inmates during his career. Cash played San Quentin State Prison in 1958, which included amongst its audience, Merle Haggard. Haggard was inspired by the concert and post his release, went on to pursue music of his own. During the show, Cash performed the song "San Quentin," about an inmate's hatred of prison. The song received such an enthusiastic response from the audience that Cash immediately played an encore."

Fait-divers. Un seul devoir: aimer.

"Je ne connais qu'un seul devoir, et c'est celui d'aimer"
"Ma tentation la plus constante, celle contre  laquelle je n'ai jamais cessé de mener un exténuant combat: le cynisme"
(Albert Camus)

Fait-divers on attention

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.” (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

Neil Young - comes a time, 1978

"The song "Comes a Time" is one of my all-time favorite recordings because it just has a great feeling. The song and the performance are a total mesh. Nicolette's singing is beautiful. I can see all the pictures. That is as close to a perfect recording as I ever have gotten. Karl Himmel laid down a unique groove on drums, and the band was locked in. Karl has the ability to play two grooves at once, which I have never heard anyone else do as well as he does. He is a completely unique musician."

My Morning Jacket - the day is coming, 2011

"The album cover is a close-up shot of a Magic eye tube fitted onto vintage radio receivers from the 1930s. The purpose of tuning eyes in these radio sets was to help tune a station in at its strongest point on the dial. So when the perfect frequency was found, the Magic Tuning Eye would be lit up all the way (like the album cover's). The percentage of light shown signified the strength of the signal."

The Beatles - devil in her heart cover, 1963

"The song was originally recorded as "Devil in His Heart" in Detroit by the Donays for Correc-tone Records. It was later picked up by the New York City label Brent and re-released in August 1962 as "(There's a) Devil in His Heart", the B-side of "Bad Boy". This pairing also appeared in the United Kingdom on the Oriole label in 1962. The record was not a hit on either side of the Atlantic. The Donays only made one recording but their lead singer, Yvonne Vernee (real name Yvonne Symington) also recorded solo, and later joined the Elgins at Motown."

Quarto banho de mar do ano, Praia do Magoito, manhã do dia 22 de Maio de 2025

The Go-Betweens - right here, 1987

"the song is about two friends of his, who worked in a funeral parlour and the constant exposure to the chemicals used in the preparation of the bodies turned them into addicts. Stating "I thought this would be a good subject to write about in a pop song." The song's title is derived from the chorus of Forster's song "You've Never Lived" (Spring Hill Fair 1984)."

REM - star me kitten, 1992

"Bassist-keyboardist Mike Mills wanted to achieve an effect similar to the English group’s ethereal, layered backing vocals on the ’70s hit. He told Scott Litt about his thoughts, and the producer came up with the idea of recording Mills as he sang different notes, then playing them back on a mixing board, with each fader controlling a separate note. The musician could then create a weird choral backing by positioning the faders."

The Moody Blues - out and in, 1969

"'Out and In' looks beyond the planets as part of the journey toward the total view where inside and outside become one"

Fait-divers on faith by Thomas Merton

"A faith that is afraid of other people is not faith at all." (Thomas Merton)

Fait-divers on immigration

"No European country has ever been destroyed by immigration. Several have though been destroyed by the xenophobic right. See the 1940s." (Owen Jones)

Fait-divers: David Bohm on dialogue

"Discussion is almost like a ping-pong game, where people are batting the ideas back and forth and the object of the game is to win or to get points for yourself... In a dialogue, however, nobody is trying to win. Everybody wins if anybody wins. There is a different sort of spirit to it. In a dialogue, there is no attempt to gain points, or to make your particular view prevail. Rather, whenever any mistake is discovered on the part of anybody, everybody gains. It’s a situation called win-win, whereas the other game is win-lose — if I win, you lose. But a dialogue is something more of a common participation, in which we are not playing a game against each other, but with each other. In a dialogue, everybody wins." (David Bohm)

Fait-divers on Catholicism

Catholics have always been very comfortable, even if subconsciously, with the notion of supranational governance.

Saint Etienne - some place else, 1993

"Devotees might insist on 1993’s You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone, collecting their early nineties singles and B-sides, including essentials like “Paper” and “Some Place Else”

Moby - mistake, 2009

"In making this record, I wanted to focus on making something that I loved, without really being concerned about how it might be received by the marketplace. As a result, it's a quieter and more melodic and more mournful and more personal record than some of the records I've made in the past."

Coldplay - talk, 2005

"The band received permission from the electronic music German band Kraftwerk to use the main riff from their song "Computer Love", from its 1981 studio album Computer World, for "Talk", replacing Kraftwerk's synthesizers with guitars. In a track-by-track interview given by the band on X&Y, bassist Guy Berryman reported that in response to the band's request, Kraftwerk founding member Ralf Hütter "said something like, 'Yes, you can use it, and thank you very much for asking my permission, unlike that bastard Jay-Z'" (a reference to the latter's "(Always Be My) Sunshine", which uses a Kraftwerk sample). Martin also recalled in a 2007 article in Q magazine the process of requesting permission to use the melody: He sent a letter through the lawyers of the respective parties and several weeks later received an envelope containing a handwritten reply that simply said "yes". That riff was originally written by former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos."

Car Seat Headrest - times to die, 2012

"an astute sense of self-awareness, backing up his meditations with intricate philosophies and theologies. It’s a gorgeous and thoughtful meditation on the life of a struggling artist."

Club 8 - baby i'm not sure if this is love, 2002

"Baby, I'm Not Sure If This Is Love" is a song by Club 8, a Swedish indie-pop band known for their dreamy, introspective sound. It’s a track from their 2002 album "Spring Came, Rain Fell", released under Labrador Records. The song encapsulates the band’s signature style, blending melancholy with optimism through soft melodies and thoughtful lyrics."

The Jesus And Mary Chain - never understand, 1985

"The effect is striking, but it has no depth and doesn't go anywhere after the first few seconds. In Hüsker Dü's music, the buzzing guitar and pop hooks enhance one another; Jesus and Mary Chain never puts the two together."

Fait-divers on consciousness and reality

"consciousness as an intrinsic, fundamental property of reality"

Fait-divers on spacetime and gravity

"Emergent Gravity and the Dark Universe"

Fait-divers on quantum entanglement and superdeterminism

"between quantum entanglement and superdeterminism, most scientists favor entanglement — and with it, freedom"

The Go-Betweens - quiet heart, 1988

"Grant in particular didn’t want to be part of a group any more. His three-year relationship with Amanda Brown had ended and he felt like making a clean break. Robert happily agreed."

Acabei agora mesmo de tomar aqui o terceiro banho de mar do ano, Praia do Magoito, manhã do dia 21 de Maio de 2025

REM - summer turns to high, 2001

"It’s one of those songs where the verse are more lo-key musically, and then the chorus hits and the room is filled with these lush soundscapes of textures. It’s like the band is trying make another Beach Boys song without sounding too much like one (aka At My Most Beautiful). Michael continues to sing (in a mostly soft tone) about childhood things like sandals, candy, dragonflies, candles and caramel. These images definitely give you summer vibes, so I’m curious on what he means by “summer turns to high”

The Moody Blues - lovely to see you, 1969

"Lovely to See You" opens the album. With its welcoming lyrics, the song later served as a concert opener during the later part of the group's career."

Neil Young - wonderin, 1983

"Young wrote the song "Wonderin'" long before the sessions for Everybody's Rockin'. It dates from at least the After the Gold Rush era, and was part of his setlist at solo acoustic shows in 1970, as well as at Woodstock with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young in 1969."

REM - find the river, 1992

"Harborcoat" from Reckoning has got me and Michael and Bill all doing completely unrelated things, and yet it works together. Because of the production we insisted on from Mitch and Don, which I know must have been incredibly frustrating for them, it's hard to pick out exactly what's going on. We tried it again on "Find the River". I had the idea that Bill and I would go in and do some harmonies without listening to each other. It's great because mine is this incredibly angst-ridden emotional thing, and Bill's is this really low-key sort of ambling part. They're two opposite ends of the spectrum but they're both on there, and it's a beautiful thing."

Sambassadeur - forward is all, 2010

"The Swedish quartet may not have reinvented the wheel with their third album, but it is safe to say that European is a pop-bombshell. Full to the brim with infectious hooks, clever word play, danceable beats and lush melodies backed by glorious horns and gorgeous strings. All the while, Anna Persson, again, showcasing herself as a formidable vocalist, and a with a strong case against Tracyanne Campbell for most badass twee chick on the block. If you enjoy your melodies sweet, your instrumentation lush and your lyrics jaded but personal, there will probably be much to love on European. It certainly would easily find it’s place in your car, blasting from speakers on the way to the beach, or on your headphones as you fall asleep. Yeah, it’s that kind of album."