The Style Council - long hot summer, 1983

"On March 1, 1983, Weller gave this new project a name: The Style Council. And over the next six years, Weller and his new musical foil, keyboard whiz Mick Talbot, would blaze trails that would alternately thrill and puzzle his huge following. They emerged with a strong and purposeful European image, shunning Weller’s working-class mod image and replacing it with Italian loafers and photo shoots at Paris sidewalk cafes sipping cappuccinos in full-length raincoats. Politics were embraced, as were French lyrics and polka-dot scarves. Weller from Woking was now a bona-fide European Son."

REM - it's the end of the world as we know it and i feel fine, 1987

"The words come from everywhere. I'm extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life. There's a part in 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It' that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs' birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren't L.B. So there was Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, Leonard Bernstein... So that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I'd seen when I was flipping TV channels. It's a collection of streams of consciousness."

Portugal. The Man - live in the moment, 2017

“Live in the Moment” is such a common, well-known phrase…everybody’s heard that before. I love the idea of trying to give something like that new life. It looks easy until you hear it in your context, and you see the bigger picture."

Discovery Zone - pair a dice, 2023

"Pair a Dice has perky synthpop bobbing in an empty sea of minor chords, the perfect musical analogue for the lyrics: “How can you leave when you’re living in somebody else’s dream?” The innate melancholy of nostalgia, plus the comforting commercialism of 80s nostalgia in particular, is teased out by the album’s strongest melody on Mall of Luv – “Take me back to the Mall of Luv / I wanna buy it, I wanna live inside of it” – which will sate anyone who set their John Maus albums aside after he attended the 6 January Capitol riot."

Fazerdaze - lucky girl, 2017

"There are a lot of things to love about this song. From the lo-fi dream pop aesthetic, to the catchy chorus, to the melancholic and nostalgic atmosphere instilled to the song in part by the retro-ish instrumentation, but especially by Fazerdaze’s vocal delivery. All of these aspects combined, together with the music video, which uses images often associated with summer, like fields of flowers in bloom, blue skies, sea waves, make this song feel like it’s the soundtrack to a lazy summer day."

The Mary Onettes - henry, 2007

"The songs are catchy, the atmosphere is pleasantly foggy, and Philip Ekström is a subtle and versatile vocalist to boot."

Death Cab For Cutie - here to forever, 2022

“It’s also about wanting to believe in something bigger even when it feels like nothing is out there.”

Bob Dylan - blowing in the wind live, 1963

"There ain't too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain't in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it's in the wind – and it's blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won't believe that. I still say it's in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some ... But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know ... and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars ... You people over 21, you're older and smarter."

Michael Stipe And Big Red Machine - no time for love like now, 2020

“I’ve looked up to Michael and R.E.M. for so long; they were really such a huge influence on us and we became friends on tour, but I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to make a song with him”

Such a great song! 

Elton John And Dua Lipa - cold heart pnau remix, 2021

"It traces the adventure of John and Lipa together with four other animated characters as they explore the colorful and nature-filled psychedelic landscapes."

Noah And The Whale - shape of my heart ukulele version, 2008

"I don't think with our songs where we come from really comes into it, because it's rare that we write about it"

The Beautiful South - life vs the lifeless, 2003

"I think the person who loves their country the most would be the most critical. You want to keep it good. There are not many people who would go around on a bicycle trip to support their local pubs. I think that’s just another thing that shows that I’m proud of the English countryside, the culture and the people. There are parts of it I hate. I hate the way things are going, silly language changes imported from America and Australia, other things that drive me mad about the place. I’d never leave here, and I’ll always pay my tax here."

Ambrose Akinmusire - launchpad, 2023

"Ambrose Akinmusire’s musical gifts developed rapidly. He grew up in Oakland, California, and while in high school he caught the attention of saxophonist Steve Coleman. Akinmusire joined Coleman’s Five Elements at age nineteen, touring while also a student at Manhattan School of Music. He then pursued further study—earning a master’s degree at the University of Southern California, then attending the Thelonius Monk Institute in Los Angeles, where his mentors included Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Hancock Institute."

The Mary Onettes - what i feel in some places, 2022

“What I Feel In Some Places” was one of the first songs we experimented with when we wanted to explore the direction for the new album. We had some idea to take inspiration from Peter Gabriel”s typical 80s rhythms and let it blend with the more dreamy The Mary Onettes landscapes. The song is about always being a bit unsure about your surroundings. Having the feeling that you take in everything. That the room eats you up. Buildings fall over you. That the world constantly points at you like a spear.”

Beach House - myth, 2012

"On a surface level, there's no mistaking Myth for a Beach House song. All the sonic elements that have travelled with the Baltimore dream-pop duo during their steady ascent over the last five years are intact: Alex Scally's narcotic guitar, a steady backbeat, and Victoria Legrand's smoky ache of a voice. What sets 'Myth' as another sonic evolution for Beach House, then, is all in the details."

Outros olhares: Tailândia, Bangkok, 7 de Março de 2024

The Triffids - falling over you, 1989

"often been considered a stylistic mess but we thought it just our kind of mess. What's the matter with mess anyway? I've gone out on a limb with this one, at Dave's request. He had hoped this record could be a double album when it was recorded - he knew it was so varied that it sounded like nothing else anyone was doing at the time and he thought you shouldn't do things by halves."

Sufjan Stevens - john my beloved, 2015

“It's something that was necessary for me to do in the wake of my mother's death—to pursue a sense of peace and serenity in spite of suffering. It's not really trying to say anything new, or prove anything, or innovate. It feels artless, which is a good thing. This is not my art project; this is my life.”

The National - the system only dreams in total darkness, 2017

“We’re in a different kind of thing now,” Matt Berninger notes in the chorus of the National’s new song, “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness.” It could be his way of addressing the dark turn things have taken in the four years since the band’s last album, Trouble Will Find Me. But “The System” is also a different kind of thing for the National. While many of their songs, records, and even the trajectory of their nearly 20-year career could be described as a slow build, now they’re not wasting any time. “The System” sounds heavy and urgent and surprisingly aggressive—and not just because of Aaron Dessner’s gnarly guitar solo in the middle."

Bob Dylan And Johnny Cash - girl from the north country, 1969

"Girl from the North Country" (occasionally known as "Girl of the North Country") is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City in April 1963, and released the following month as the second track on Dylan's second studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Dylan re-recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash in February 1969. That recording became the opening track on Nashville Skyline, Dylan's ninth studio album."