James - born of frustration live, 2022

"Born of Frustration was the second single off the Seven album released a couple of weeks before the album itself. Weighing in at over five minutes and containing Tim yodelling and a “la, la, la, la” refrain that brought comparisons with Simple Minds “Don’t You Forget About Me”, it was the one song that the critics felt justified all the stadium-rock accusations thrown at the band at the time. It was for sure a bigger more ambitious wide-screen sound that James had never previously achieved and that in many quarters was seen as a crime against indie music."

Coldplay - crests of waves, 2002

"Crests of Waves" is arguably one of the best songs in the unreleased section. Their rock influences show most clearly here, relying heavily on the guitar-driven ballad to power through the lyrics. In a way, love is drowning the singer, who laments about being oppressed and lost in the middle of everything - it could be worse, it could be better, but he is going nowhere."

Moby - hey! hey!, 2016

"Hey! Hey!" kicks off These Systems Are Failing with a crack of thunder. Ten seconds in, we have the most infectious Moby hook of the last half decade, and the time the crescendo builds to the chorus, you'll find it hard to keep your feet tethered to the ground. Moby paints a vivid picture with his exposition, an urgent and anxious world plagued with information above and beyond the saturation point."

Car Seat Headrest - oh! starving, 2015

"Originally the final track on Car Seat Headrest’s 2010 release ‘3’ (featuring slightly different lyrics), this track has been rerecorded twice, for the 2012 EP Starving While Living as well as this version, at the close of Teens of Style. The name is an allusion to and play on the Beatles' song “Oh! Darling”

Pet Shop Boys - always on my mind cover single discography, 1991

"Discography: The Complete Singles Collection is the first greatest hits album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 4 November 1991 by Parlophone."

Fait-divers by Buddha

"Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world." (Buddha)

Fait-divers by Wayne Dyer

"When the choice is to be right or to be kind, always make the choice that brings peace." (Wayne Dyer)

Fait-divers on purpose

Live today on purpose, and there is no need for thinking of changing yesterday and worrying about tomorrow.

Neil Young - tell me why live at massey hall, 1971

"Live at Massey Hall 1971 is a live album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. Released in 2007, the album features a solo acoustic performance by Young at Massey Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 19 January 1971 during his Journey Through the Past Solo Tour. It is the second release in Young's Archives Performance Series."

Saint Etienne - swedish radio theme, 2022

"A collection of hot dishes and cold cuts from late period Saint Etienne. Some were one-off projects, others are gems that were ruthlessly tossed aside from reasons no one can quite remember. And so, for your enjoyment, we have the theme from a scandalous show called Luuk & Lokko (Swedish Radio Theme)"

Nada Surf - popular, 1996

"Popular" is the debut single by American alternative rock band Nada Surf, released in May 1996 from their debut album High/Low, released the following month. Each verse in "Popular" presents, in spoken-word format, sarcastic advice to teenagers taken from the book Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity by American actress Gloria Winters."

Pet Shop Boys - integral, 2006

"The single criticises the Identity Cards Act 2006. A statement from the band cited the issue as the reason that Neil Tennant ceased his well-publicized support of Tony Blair's Labour party. Some wording, such as 'sterile, immaculate', is drawn from Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian novel We, although Tennant hadn't read it when he wrote the lyrics. In the book, the inhabitants of the future One State try to build The Integral, a glass spaceship, in order to solve the cosmic equation and resolve all the problems in their One State."

Saturday Looks Good To Me - if you ask, 2004

"With its reverbed guitars and stop/start pacing, Keep Walking reminds me of the better songs off the most recent album by Atlanta's The White Lights. This similarity is brought home on one of the later tracks called If You Ask. With an organ, a vibraphone and some dominant drumming, that song has that haunted prom feel that characterizes the work of so many Atlanta-based bands. However, to the credit of Saturday Looks Good to Me, unlike other bands, they manage to make each song different enough that I'm not left thinking that everything sounds the same."

Coldplay - hymn for the weekend, 2016

"The song was debuted on Annie Mac's BBC radio show on 30 November 2015. According to Berryman, lead singer Chris Martin originally wanted the song to be a party song with the lyrics "drinks on me, drinks on me", but his bandmates didn't think that would go well with their fans."

Ride - cali, 2017

"My favourite song is Cali. I love the optimistic, summer like feel of the track, with the little guitar flourishes and loose beat. There is also an insanely wonderful bit towards the end where there is a double tap on the snare that leads into the joyous second half of the song, where the band let rip and fly, playing with the melody of the song and taking it to new levels."

The Go-Betweens - draining the pool for you, 1984

"The album was named after an annual fair in Spring Hill, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane Grammar School, Robert Forster's high school. Some of the band had also lived there in the early eighties. Grant McLennan said of the title, "It was generally not that we were home sick, I think we just wanted to have, after Before Hollywood, which was so obviously an American kind of thing, a regional home-town thing." In another interview McLennan stated "we all lived there and the main reason was that in September, October of every year in Brisbane, there is, in Spring Hill, a fair, and as the album came out around then we thought it would be nice to have a parochial mention in a title because we hadn't done that for a long time."

The Cure - lovesong live, 1993

"for die-hard Cure fans it's a gorgeous treat and for other acolytes of the lukewarm or lapsed variety it might well re-recruit them back into Bob Smith's sometimes wacky, ofttimes gloomy and always idiosyncratic world."

Fleet Foxes - kept woman, 2017

"Crack-Up is enveloping enough to get lost in, and it doesn't always offer easy entry points. For every contained and elegantly pretty ballad like "Kept Woman," there's a byzantine engine of ambition like the title track, which closes Crack-Up with a burst of energy worthy of its title. But the point never gets lost that these songs chronicle the pursuit of contentment, however frustrated — and take great care to linger in the beauty that crops up along the way."

James - walk like you, 2014

"The tracks on La Petite Mort were influenced by the deaths of frontman Tim Booth's mother and his best friend Gabrielle Roth. It included more pianos and keyboards, drawing comparison to Elbow and Coldplay, with some of the guitar parts were compared to Muse."

Car Seat Headrest - joe gets kicked out of school for using drugs with friends but says this isn't a problem, 2016

"This whole record is one that I associate very heavily with a specific time and place. It was the only CD I played in my car for virtually that entire summer. Was living by myself for the first time, partying more than I should have been..."

Neil Young - a man needs a maid, 1972

"Bob Dylan had told him he liked the arrangement."

Sarah Cracknell - taxi, 1997

"For a decade, U.K.’s Saint Etienne have been keeping the ’60s pop flame lit; here, sublime vocalist Sarah Cracknell picks up the torch. Like her band’s efforts, her previous solo CD and countless contemporaries — notably Stereolab — Lipslide injects the sunny melodies of the ’60s into the dreamy, hypnotizing netherworld of ’90s trip-hop to create soothing, post-modern disco lullabys."

Devine And Statton - in the rain, 1989

"The second and last Devine & Statton album was even more concerned with the Welsh backgrounds of its two members, specifically the city the two called home. Aiming at what Ian Devine later called creating "a paean to Cardiff," the two, again supported with several side performers -- notably including New Order's Peter Hook on bass and regular Tom Waits collaborator Marc Ribot on guitar -- created another excellent effort showcasing (mostly) acoustic guitar/vocal-led numbers that carried both precision and sharp lyrical heft."

Car Seat Headrest - overexposed enjoy, 2012

"Car Seat Headrest frontman Will Toledo was offended when a friend pointed out the weak chorus in an early version of “Overexposed.” He had kind of asked for it, though; back in CSH’s fledgling days, Toledo would often post songs online as soon as they were done, asking for feedback — back then, he was testing out tracks for what would become 2013’s Monomania."

Echo And The Bunnymen - bring on the dancing horses extended mix, 1987

"Bring On the Dancing Horses" is a single by the English rock band Echo & the Bunnymen, released on 7 October 1985. It was the only single from their compilation album Songs to Learn & Sing (1985) and was recorded for the John Hughes teen romantic comedy-drama film Pretty in Pink (1986). The song reached number 21 on the UK singles chart and number 15 on the Irish Singles Chart."

Bright Eyes And Neva Dinova - get back, 2004

"in 2004, Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst and Neva frontman Jake Bellows decided to take their friendship to the next level, lock themselves in a basement, and crank out some tunes."

Moby - the ceremony of innocence, 2018

"despite its relentlessly downbeat content, Moby's music is just too satisfying to be depressing."

Deerhunter - fountain stairs, 2010

"The album's title is a reference to a collection of fond memories and even invented ones, like my friendship with Ricky Wilson or the fact that I live in an abandoned victorian autoharp factory. The way that we write and rewrite and edit our memories to be a digest version of what we want to remember, and how that's kind of sad."

Mojave 3 - pictures, 1995

"Mojave 3's debut, Ask Me Tomorrow, was a refreshingly stripped down collection that changed little from the original demos. Halstead's melodic, folk- and country-tinged songs stood alone in a sea of Britpop anthems, drawing favourable (if lazy) comparisons to Nick Drake, Cowboy Junkies and Bob Dylan."

Sarah Cracknell - taking off for france, 1997

"Sarah’s father, Derek Cracknell – who died a few months before Foxbase Alpha’s release, and to whom her 1997 debut solo LP, Lipslide, was dedicated – had a distinguished film career, more than 50 assistant director credits ranging from the Boulting Brothers’ Heavens Above to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, Bond movies Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun, through to 1989’s Batman. He also took that iconic photograph of six-year-old Sarah used on the cover of So Tough."

Bright Eyes And Neva Dinova - i'll be your friend, 2004

"Conor Oberst began his musical career in his early teens, issuing self-recorded solo albums and founding Saddle Creek Records with his brother, which helped to kick-start a burgeoning Omaha, Nebraska scene. Propelled by a powerful collaborative spirit, the label and its bands grew significantly over the next 15 or so years, especially Oberst’s career. Setting his neurotic insecurities, mental instabilities and melancholy romanticism to equally fraught – and, for his age, mature and ambitious – music, he released his first record as Bright Eyes in 1998 and burned brightly. 2000’s Fevers & Mirrors is one of the great albums of the last decade."

The Goon Sax - strange light, 2018

"the slow loneliness of ‘Strange Light’ is soundtracking the views from the train I’m commuting home on"

Shout Out Louds - go sadness, 2003

"Shout Out Louds' debut record, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, is a blast of sparkling energy from start to finish and a contender for best out-of-the-blue debut of 2005. Coming from the angle of the pure pop sound of the '60s filtered through the indie pop of the '80s and '90s and the Beach Boys-worshiping chamber pop of the early 2000s, the Swedish quintet has crafted an album loaded with great songs, exciting performances, and an unerring ear for arrangements. In fact, a better combination of arrangement, emotion, and melody is hard to find anywhere in the early 2000s to date. Saturday Looks Good to Me, for sure."

Damien Jurado - lou-jean, 2018

"The one-two combo of “Lou-Jean” and “Florence-Jean” are both love songs, but each carries its own feel. “Lou-Jean” is a more traditional folksy ballad, and before the listener can fully process the end of the song Jurado launches into “Florence-Jean,” with a much faster tempo and a more lively acoustic track as Jurado comes the closest to belting as any track on the album."

Car Seat Headrest - los borrachos i don't have any hope left but the weather is nice, 2012

"the wall of sound effect he builds at the end is perfect, plus it overlaps into souls. thats one of my favaorite points on the album"

Seapony - i really do, 2011

"The music of Seapony is refreshing in its simplicity. Most songs on Go With Me use no more than three chords, with an average running time around two-and-a-half minutes. In lieu of a human drummer, the Seattle trio entrusts time-keeping to a vintage gizmo the size of a desktop calculator. The lyrics to “Dreaming,” the track that catapulted them into the spotlight, are just six lines long. Like Young Marble Giants and Beat Happening before them, this young three-piece has generated excitement that belies their music’s modest means. And their back story is just as no-nonsense."

Bright Eyes And Neva Dinova - i know you, 2004

"This song right here just does something to my brain. It’s like a lucid dream."

Saint Etienne - dj muddyloop remix, 2012

"I grew up in Croydon, and Brighton trips were a special treat. I’ve got three brothers, and to mark if someone passed an exam, or did something, we’d have a trip to Brighton, and I always loved it. It hasn’t really changed, well it has but it’s still got the same appeal. And it doesn’t have that thing like many seaside towns of shutting down and getting scary when it’s not summer."

Shout Out Louds - circles, 2013

"I’ve got my big hair on, my fluorescent spandex ensemble, and my rubber bracelets. The year is 2013, but when I listen to Shout Out Louds it’s the 1980’s all over again and that makes me very happy. I am going to get on my 80’s kick and I’m going to enjoy it. It is so refreshing, uplifting, a soaring feeling of “ahhhhhh” to hear good old straightforward pop-rock music, with beats and a melody, it’s that simple. Shout Out Louds are a new wave blend of Boy George, The Cure, and The Thompson Twins and I couldn’t love it more."

James - getting away with It live, 2001

"Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) is the twelfth track on the 2001 James album Pleased To Meet You and was the first and only single to be released from that album. It was previewed on the 2000 Autumn tour under the title Daniel’s Saving Grace and in press pre-release promos as just Saving Grace. It started life as an upbeat romp and is apparently one of Tim’s favourites on the Pleased To Meet You album and very similar in style to 80s classic unreleased track Gregory’s Town. It was slowed down and was released as the first single reaching number 22. It has been a stalwart of James’ live shows over the years and according to Tim their ‘unofficial theme’ song."

Damien Jurado - percy faith, 2018

"Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian–American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of instrumental ballads and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizing the "easy listening" or "mood music" format. He became a staple of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into the 1960s. Although his professional orchestra-leading career began at the height of the swing era, he refined and rethought orchestration techniques, including use of large string sections, to soften and fill out the brass-dominated popular music of the 1940s."

The Big Moon - barcelona, 2020

"Barcelona is the long-player’s new single. It starts with a flute, followed by a melody as sunny as the capital city of Catalonia itself. Lyrically however, it’s about Jackson’s anxiety to grow older. A wonderful pop song and a great step forward."

Shout Out Louds - my companion, 2022

"Sometimes it’s easy to get fooled by the youthful spirit of the Shout Out Louds songs … but yes, the Swedish indie rock formation has indeed been active for two decades now and have also crossed the magical age-mark of 40 by now. But once you fall into new music by the four-piece these things become quite relative anyway because there’s a certain timelessness that surrouns their music anyway. The sweet indie pop gems of the Swedes are carried by a certain longing, warm melancholia and a reflective notion that just gets better and better with age."

Coldplay - a sky full of stars, 2014

"Quite honestly it sounds more like a Zedd or Avicii offering than a Coldplay one, and it's certainly the loudest and most joyful cut we've heard from the album so far"

Belle And Sebastian - sister buddha, 2019

"Days of the Bagnold Summer encapsulates the best of Belle and Sebastian whist simultaneously narrating the key themes of the film. The gentle approach of the album and the complementary nature of the band’s rerecording’s and the new tracks are hard to fault. Belle and Sebastian have truly found a beautiful sweet spot on Days of the Bagnold Summer between a film soundtrack and a signature sounding album."

The Shadows - atlantis, 1963

"Atlantis" is a rock music instrumental by British group the Shadows, released as a single in May 1963. It spent 17 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number two for two weeks."

Jome - mountains, 2017

"Jome's 'Mountains' conveys a message of redemption and growth, using the metaphor of transforming a city into gold and rising above obstacles to signify overcoming past mistakes and achieving greatness together."

James - sometimes live, 1993

"Vocalist Tim Booth left the band after their December UK tour; the final show of which was released as the Getting Away with It...Live live/video album in early 2002."

The Coral - something inside of me, 2005

"Singer James Skelly - now 24 - still resembles a schoolboy given detention. Their fans come for their musical spells, haunting melodies that have survived a re-alignment further left-of-field. She Brings the Mourning perhaps over-references Can; Something Inside Me sounds like Madness and madness. The night's highlight, Late Afternoon, is an affecting slice of regret for lives left behind. "The place where we meet, tears in our eyes," sings Skelly, and the band leave the stage to be whisked off by Tardis, or tour bus."

Belle And Sebastian - jill pole, 2019

"Cave has the more challenging role. Rejected by his father, Daniel’s character is an unapproachable combination of rage and inertia. But gradually we realise that he’s a child who is plunged into depression without the vocabulary or the life experience to navigate it."

Mojave 3 - after all, 1995

"Ask Me Tomorrow starts and ends with its best songs; "Love Songs on the Radio," also the band's debut single, sets the tone perfectly, Goswell's sweet but strong voice and Halstead's guitar in perfect balance. "Mercy," meanwhile, concludes things on a dramatic, powerful note; without completely exploding, it's the most fiery song hands down, with Andrews' steady, doom-laden piano and the ever more strung-out guitar the bed for an at once soothing and warning vocal duet, Goswell and Halstead closing the album with a final a cappella singing sigh."

Coldplay - lost+ jay z, 2008

"Lost!" is a song by the British rock band Coldplay. It was co-produced with Brian Eno and Markus Dravs for the band's fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. The song was released on 10 November 2008 as the third official single from the album to generally positive critical reviews. A live version was released via download following a performance of the band and Jay-Z at the 2009 Grammy Awards, spurring high digital sales and giving "Lost!" a new peak at number 40 in the United States. There are several versions of the song, including a piano recording (known as "Lost?") and a remix featuring Jay-Z (known as "Lost+"), which appears on Prospekt's March (2008)."

Shout Out Louds - jumbo jet, 2017

"Shout Out Louds is a Swedish indie rock band from Stockholm. The band formed in 2001 and five years after its inception, it played many festivals throughout Europe and slowly gained quite a following."

Club 8 - i give up too, 2002

"The second U.S. release by the Swedish duo Club 8 is more of the same kind of floaty dream pop that predominated on their self-titled American debut. Only this time, the floaty/dreamy aspects are emphasized, largely to the exclusion of the Saint Etienne-like electronic dance pop that lurked around the edges of the first album. Multi-instrumentalist Johan Angergard doesn't forgo his synths and drum machines entirely ("The Chance I Deserve," right down to its processed vocals, is pure late-'70s Eurodisco), but the songs are mostly based on subtle layers of acoustic guitars, hand percussion, and rubbery, surprisingly melodic electric bass. However, the real appeal of the album comes from Karolina Komstedt's pillow-soft, slightly accented vocals, which have the kitschy allure of Claudine Longet, only with better enunciation and much less tendency to go off-key. (As on the debut, the two songs sung by Angergard are the weakest on the album.) The songs are melodic, sweet, melancholy - the duo ended their romantic relationship during the writing of the album - and just this side of twee. Club 8 do the warm'n'fuzzy indie pop thing as well as anybody."

Cliff Richard And The Shadows - please don't tease, 1960

"To decide upon the release of this track as a single, Richard's record company recruited a teenage panel to listen to and vote on a selection of his unreleased tracks. "Please Don't Tease" won the vote and was duly released, "Nine Times Out of Ten" came second and was the follow-up single."

Belle And Sebastian - there is an everlasting song, 2018

"This track is about the folksiest that Belle & Sebastian get on this project – it’s laid-back, toe-tapping acoustic music with a vaguely bluegrassy bass line and a little bit of finger-picking to sweeten the deal, but nothing too show-offy about it. Stuart and Stevie are singing close enough harmony vocals hear that I mostly just hear Stuart, except for an odd little part in the last verse where Stevie splits off to sing a few beat behind Stuart, who kindly stops to let him catch up. That sort of hints at a bigger finish to come than what the final few seconds of the song end up delivering, but it’s still an interesting way to think outside of the box in terms of how their vocalists can play off of each other."

Jome - thread, 2017

"a dreamy, atmospheric track with a runtime of 2:42, blending indie pop and electronic elements"

John Murry - southern sky, 2012

"Before his death, Albert Camus sent a letter to his wife – the remembered portion being when he wrote, “ I cannot find a comfortable place to lie in this bed.” This was at the height of French disdain for him and continued attacks on his insistence that we ought give a damn about one another and do away with ideologies that “fix” the world in some psychotic Hegelian way (Sartre, in all his stardom, didn’t agree – because he was the fraud Camus understood too well – the Cartesian in sheep’s clothing). His work wasn’t well loved in France at the time. He was despised by most. Not Faulkner, removed from the world of intellect-as-weaponry, who wept when he heard of Camus’ death."

Cat Stevens - hard headed woman, 1970

"Mona Bone Jakon had been full of references to death, but Tea for the Tillerman was not about dying; it was about living in the modern world while rejecting it in favor of spiritual fulfillment. It began with a statement of purpose, "Where Do the Children Play?," in which Stevens questioned the value of technology and progress."

Belle And Sebastian - poor boy, 2018

"One of the characters in the Rear Window-inspired music video for Belle & Sebastian’s “Poor Boy” (2018) has a nice wall and boards. Her apartment is the left-most on the second floor."

Nightbus - ascension, 2025

"Manchester-based duo Nightbus have returned with their brand new single Ascension - the first to be taken from their forthcoming debut album Passenger, released 10th October on Melodic. Driven by surging electronic beats and hypnotic melodies, the track’s shadowy pop sensibility emerges in vivid detail. Hazy vocals and atmospheric soundscapes offer a nuanced, dreamlike glimpse into what’s to come."

Choir Of Young Believers - next summer, 2008

"Choir of Young Believers was the musical project of singer, writer and guitarist Jannis Noya Makrigiannis from Copenhagen, Denmark. The band, which consisted of Makrigiannis along with a rotating cast of supporting players, has had multiple No 1 hits in their home country of Denmark and was named the "Best New Act" at the 2009 Danish Music Awards. COYB’s music combines folk melodies, orchestral instrumentation, and dark lyrics."

The Clientele - i wonder who we are, 2009

"Burt Bacharach-style horns blare over a disco-tinged rhythm while guitarist/songwriter Alasdair MacLean lets fly with the "oohs" and the "buh-bah-da-das," adding lines like "Friday night and I don't have a clue" and "We're dreaming as we move." A few years ago, when MacLean looked to the past, he found doubt and disappointment, penning lyrics like, "I've got so much fear inside me/ Nothing's true." But now a backward glance just helps him to remember how much he loved the Monkees, whose sunshine-pop vibes are practically radiating off of "I Wonder Who We Are". This isn't the Clientele at their most profound or even at their best. But for the moment, feeling good is good enough."

Slowdive - brighter, 1991

“one of the lushest and most layered sounds of the shoegazer movement.”

James - waltzing along live, 2019

"Shortly after their last album release, James reached the end of their contract, and Tim Booth announced he was leaving the band to concentrate on other projects of his own. They played a farewell tour of the UK at the end of the year. Their final hometown gig, at the Manchester Evening News arena on 7 December, was recorded for a live CD and DVD, Getting Away With It... Live. Past members Larry Gott and Andy Diagram rejoined them for the tour, and Brian Eno also joined them onstage at London's Wembley Arena during the tour. The albums Gold Mother, Laid, and Whiplash (each containing bonus tracks) were re-released by Mercury Records the following year, as well as a B-sides compilation entitled B-Sides Ultra."

Mojave 3 - tomorrow's taken, 1995

"The band's name 'Mojave' was suggested by a friend who thought the music had "a wide-open, desert quality", but since there was already a German band called Mojave, they added the '3' in reference to the band being a trio."

Belle And Sebastian - everything is now part one, 2018

"The song begins with a brief instrumental opening, but it transitions quickly into vocals within the first 10-15 seconds, featuring Stuart Murdoch’s voice over a lush arrangement of strings, synths, and percussion."

Slowdive - forty days, 1993

"In the past I always skipped that song. I did not like this slightly out-of-tune intro and therefore only very rarely listened further into the song. But recently at their Hamburg gig I was blown away from that song. It was so dreamy yet so sad. For the rest of the past week I almost exclusively listened to that very song when I was listening to music. I delved into the meaning of the song and learned about its origins. It broke my heart to think about how painful it must have been for Rachel and Neil to have to constantly spend time together after their breakup. Somehow I've rarely felt so intense about a song. When I went through a bad breakup many years ago, I felt the exact same feelings that come back now when I listen to "40 Days." But strangely enough, I can't stop listening to this song."

James - i know what i'm here for live, 1999

"It's about the meaning of life. It's also about the nature of being in a band: the fulfilment of adolescent fantasies of endless drugs, drink and sex. But unless there's self-discipline, it can easily become a nightmare… Initially we did it almost as a blues song, but [producer] Brian Eno came up with the wacky, space-funk hookline. It became the album's first single, to make an announcement that we'e gone into a new musical area."

Ford Chastain - only you, 2025

"Romance lingers from start to finish in Ford Chastain’s new single, “Only You.” This calming slice of dream-pop is an ode to lovers and a celebration of having someone to care for. Chastain’s whispering, gravelly vocals add a relatable intimacy, while the melancholic guitar layers amplify the feeling of yearning."

Belle And Sebastian - the same star, 2018

"Sarah gets to front one song per EP, though in the latter two examples she gets a pretty heavy assist from Stuart, and that’s fine, because I love how these two play off of each other, with a lot of the songs they collaborate on feeling like two sides of a conversation."

Fait-divers by Einstein

"Wondering appears to occur when an experience comes into conflict with a world of concepts already sufficiently fixed within us" (Einstein)

Fait-divers by Nancy Andreasen

"All human beings (and their brains) have to cope with the fact that their five senses gather more information than even the magnificent human brain is able to process. To put this another way: we need to be able to ignore a lot of what is happening around us — the smell of pizza baking, the sound of the cat meowing, or the sight of birds flying outside the window — if we are going to focus our attention and concentrate on what we are doing (in your case, for example, reading this book). Our ability to filter out unnecessary stimuli and focus our attention is mediated by brain mechanisms in regions known as the thalamus and the reticular activating system." (Nancy Andreasen)

Fait-divers on ambiguity

“If there’s any takeaway, it’s that we’re programmed to get rid of ambiguity, and yet if we engage with it we can make better decisions, we can be more creative, and we can even be a little more empathetic.”

Isobel Campbell And Mark Lanegan - cool water, 2010

"With Belle and Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell, he cut three albums that brilliantly inverted the paradigm set by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra decades earlier (“I write the songs and he’s the eye-candy,” Campbell told me. “Sometimes, we’ll be on stage, and he’s singing The Circus Is Leaving Town, and it sounds so sad, so true, I want to cry”). With longtime friend and kindred spirit Greg Dulli, he recorded a sublime album of soulful regret as the Gutter Twins. He worked alongside PJ Harvey and Slash, and undertook projects with lesser-known talents including Duke Garwood, Soulsavers and Joe Cardamone. His energy was fearsome, his approach fearless; his later albums embraced electronic music (2012’s Blues Funeral) and icy post-punk (2019’s Somebody’s Knocking), his final album, 2020’s Straight Songs of Sorrow, inspired by the experience of writing his memoir."

Fait-divers by Niels Bohr

“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.” (Niels Bohr)

Fait-divers by Jung

"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order." (C. G. Jung)

Gorillaz - andromeda, 2017

"It was the only place in the whole of the town that played soul music, so there's a connection between the music I used to hear there and the feeling and spirit of the music I was trying to evoke."

The Coral - undercover of the night, 2018

"Now with a whimsical sense of melancholy and romantic melodies, The Coral return with their ninth studio album, ‘Move Through The Dawn’, a mix of big sounds that somehow manages to weave a perfectly crafted sense of innocence deep within each track."

Fait-divers by John Steinbeck on books

"It's almost impossible to read a fine thing without wanting to do a fine thing." John Steinbeck, The Pastures of Heaven

Fait-divers by Paul Kalanithi

"I woke up in pain, facing another day — no project beyond breakfast seemed tenable. I can’t go on, I thought, and immediately, its antiphon responded, completing Samuel Beckett’s seven words, words I had learned long ago as an undergraduate: I’ll go on. I got out of bed and took a step forward, repeating the phrase over and over: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” (Paul Kalanithi)

Slowdive - when the sun hits, 1993

"When the Sun Hits" is a complex and evocative song that captures the essence of the shoegaze sound. It's a song that rewards repeated listening and invites the listener to create their own interpretation of its meaning."

Belle And Sebastian - everything is now part two, 2018

"Two months after the December 2017 release of EP 1, we finally got the payoff promised by its (mostly) instrumental closing track. This time, we’ve got lyrics all the way through, and there’s a sort of satisfaction to finally filling in those blanks and finding out what sort of existential crisis the phrase “Everything is different now” (or alternatively, “Everything’s indifferent now”) was actually referring to. Calm and collected as this song is, Stuart actually seems to be trying to talk someone down from a ledge, where they’re feeling completely hopeless and hemmed in by a cruel fate, ready to call it quits on life altogether."

Fait-divers by Annie Dillard

"The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less." (Annie Dillard)

Fait-divers by Niels Bohr

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” (Niels Bohr)

My Morning Jacket - it beats for you, 2005

"In 2004, a dreamy cover of "Rocket Man" concluded My Morning Jacket's first volume of rarities. Which was prescient, because it's Elton John that Jim James' songs for 2005's Z first bring to mind."

Fait-divers by Thomas Merton

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” (Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island)

Fait-divers by Richard Ford

“If you lose all hope, you can always find it again.” Richard Ford, The Sportswriter

Fait-divers on music and nature

"Our work indicates a consonance between patterns in music and in nature, but how to interpret this is more of a philosophical question"

Fait-divers by Tony Schwartz

"Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox." (Tony Schwartz)

Fait-divers by Kurt Vonnegut

“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC” (Kurt Vonnegut)

Slowdive - some velvet morning cover, 1993

"Some Velvet Morning" is a song written by Lee Hazlewood and originally recorded by Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in late 1967. It first appeared on Sinatra's album Movin' with Nancy, the soundtrack to her 1967 television special of the same name, which also featured a performance of the song. It was subsequently released as a single before appearing on the 1968 album Nancy & Lee."

Fait-divers on attention and awareness

The earlier you catch your bad mood, the easier it will be to do something about it.

Fait-divers by Wendell Berry

"A society wishing to endure must speak the language of care-taking, faith-keeping, kindness, neighborliness, and peace." (Wendell Berry)

Fait-divers by John Steinbeck

“Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.” (John Steinbeck)

Belle And Sebastian - the girl doesn't get it, 2018

"The band’s palette might be far broader than it was 20 years ago – the bouncing disco of The Girl Doesn’t Get It contrasting nicely with the stripped-back balladry of There Is an Everlasting Song."

Fait-divers by John Horton Conway

"That’s a curious thing about the nature of mathematical existence. This rule hasn’t physically existed in any sense in the world before a month ago, before I invented it, but it sort of intellectually existed forever. There is this abstract world which in some strange sense has existed throughout eternity. Imagine an uninhabited planet, full of interesting things. You land on it, and it existed for a million years, but no people have ever been there, no sentient beings. There are such places, I’m sure. Go to some remote star and there will be something. But you don’t have to go there. You can sit in this very chair and find something that has existed throughout all of eternity and be the first person to explore it." (John Horton Conway)

Fait-divers on black holes

"as a black hole radiates Hawking radiation, it slowly evaporates until it eventually vanishes. So what happens to all the information encoded on its horizon? Does it disappear, which would violate quantum mechanics? Or is it preserved, as quantum mechanics would predict? One theory is that the Hawking radiation contains all of that information. When the black hole evaporates and disappears, it has already preserved the information of everything that fell into it, radiating it out into the universe."

Fait-divers on storytelling

Stories are our user manuals for life.

Fait-divers by Susan Sontag

"Books are not only the arbitrary sum of our dreams, and our memory. They also give us the model of self-transcendence. Some people think of reading only as a kind of escape: an escape from the “real” everyday world to an imaginary world, the world of books. Books are much more. They are a way of being fully human." (Susan Sontag)