Sufjan Stevens - it's christmas let's be glad, 2006

"A concise one minute and fifty-five seconds long, “It’s Christmas! Let’s Be Glad!” is at once catchy and uplifting with a more somber undertone, done with true Sufjan zest. It even rhymes. I’m not going to analyze the lyrics, as I don’t think it lends itself to that, but what I get out of the song is that Sufjan is telling us that no matter how badly our lives are going, stop and take a moment to appreciate all that we have to be grateful for, saccharine as that may sound."

The Beatles - with a little help from my friends, 1967

"With a Little Help from My Friends" is a song recorded by English rock band the Beatles for their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney with contributions from John Lennon, and is sung by drummer Ringo Starr (as Sgt. Pepper singer Billy Shears), his lead vocal for the album. As the second track on the album, it segues from the applause on the title track."

Bee Gees - new york mining disaster nineteen forty-one, 1967

"Barry and Robin Gibb wrote "New York Mining Disaster" while sitting in a darkened stairway at Polydor Records following a power outage. The song recounts the story of a miner trapped in a cave-in. He is sharing a photo of his wife with a colleague ("Mr. Jones") while they hopelessly wait to be rescued. According to the liner notes for the box set Tales from the Brothers Gibb (1990), the song was inspired by the October 1966 Aberfan disaster in Wales. According to Robin, there actually had been a mining disaster in New York in 1939, but not in 1941, and he thought "New York" sounded more "glamorous". In the second and third verses, the narrative becomes slower and slower, as if to indicate that life is about to end for the miners. On the second chorus, the drums get louder. On the second verse, when Robin sings the line "I keep straining my ears to hear a sound," a violin is heard in response."

My Morning Jacket - touch me i'm going to scream part two, 2008

"this song is near perfect to me, it's so groovy and with a studio runtime of over eight minutes, it never drags or feels too repetitive"

The Alan Parsons Project - day after day the show must go on, 1977

"The album was intended to be based on the I, Robot stories written by Asimov, and Eric Woolfson spoke with Asimov himself, who was enthusiastic about the idea. As the rights already had been granted to a TV/movie company, the album's title was altered slightly by removing the comma in "I," and the theme and lyrics were made to be more generically about robots rather than to be specific to the Asimov universe. The cover inlay reads: "I Robot... The story of the rise of the machine and the decline of man, which paradoxically coincided with his discovery of the wheel... and a warning that his brief dominance of this planet will probably end, because man tried to create robot in his own image." The title of the final track, "Genesis Ch.1 v.32", follows this theme by implying a continuation to the story of Creation, since the first chapter of Genesis only has 31 verses. According to the band's website, Paul McCartney unintentionally helped to inspire the song "Some Other Time". When Parsons had asked if McCartney could read a line of poetry for the band's first album in exchange for a favor Parsons had previously done him, McCartney replied by saying; "Some other time Alan, some other time". This gave the band an idea for a song title."

The Mamas And The Papas - dedicated to the one i love cover, 1967

"In 1967, a subsequent and slightly more popular cover version by the Mamas & the Papas released on the Dunhill label went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, kept from number 1 by "Happy Together" by The Turtles. This version also reached number 2 on the UK's Record Retailer chart. The lead singer on the Mamas & the Papas version was Michelle Phillips. It was the first time that Phillips was given the lead over Cass Elliot. The song was also included on the group's 1967 album The Mamas & The Papas Deliver."

The Radio Dept - i wanted you to feel the same devolves marble house edit, 2009

"Over the years there have been many songs written by the band, some appear on records, some were discarded and some are only played at certain live shows. This, is a collection of songs by the band & remixes by others that have never made it onto official releases."

The Beach Boys - sloop john b, 1966

"Sloop John B" (originally published as "The John B. Sails") is a Bahamian folk song from Nassau. A transcription was published in 1916 by Richard Le Gallienne, and Carl Sandburg included a version in his The American Songbag in 1927. There have been many recordings of the song since the early 1950s, with variant titles including "I Want to Go Home" and "Wreck of the John B".

The Zephyrs - blue in the face, 2023

"Scottish alt pop legends The Zephyrs blow away the January blues with this sunshine inducing, psych tinged, jangly guitared, harmony laden belter from their latest album For Sapphire Needle."

Rachel Love - primrose hill, 2021

"Rachel was guitarist and singer in the seminal 70/80’s band Dolly Mixture who were signed to Paul Wellers' ‘Respond’ label and championed by The Undertones & John Peel. She was the singer in the band ‘Spelt’ and has released her first solo album ‘Picture in Mind’ in 2021."

Barclay James Harvest - the song they love to sing, 1979

"I can imagine it is set in a dystopian landscape as Lees’ guitar sets up grey clouds in the sky, as if the chance of seeing a ray of light is never going to happen. Woolly’s vocals send up emotional vibes as he and the band follow suit."

Guillemots - cats eyes, 2006

"There’s no screaming guitar, no complex rhythms, no brain-numbing thump, thump, thump of bass-and-drums. There’s nothing outlandish, weird, or off-the-wonderwall; no one thing that makes Guillemots stand out. It’s simply a dish of the finest ingredients, expertly blended, beautifully cooked and superbly presented. Not too little of this, not too much of that. Everything just deliciously right. That, I think, is the secret."

The Durutti Column - without mercy stanzas four to seven valuable passages, 1987

"Without Mercy :1: Stanzas 4 to 7 :2: Stanzas 10 to 12 from the album "Without Mercy", produced by Anthony Wilson and Michael Johnson at Strawberry Studios, Stockport. Musicians: Vini Reilly, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Piano and DMX. Bruce Mitchell, Percussion, Congas and DMX. Tim Kellett, Trumpet. Richard Henry, Trombone. Blaine Reininger, Violin and Viola. Caroline Lavelle, Cello. Mervyn Fletcher, Saxaphone. Maunagh Fleming, Cor Anglais and Oboe. Fact 84. June 1984."

Easterhouse - lenin in zurich, 1986

 

"As he did every morning, on 15 March 1917, Russian refugee Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, put on his threadbare coat and the sturdy shoes that cobbler Titus Kammerer had made for him. He and his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, were living in Kammerer’s home at Spiegelgasse 14, Zurich, as lodgers in a small second-floor room." 

 

In this Lonely Place
You could sink without a trace
Just another face
In a crowd of faceless people
Such a lonely man
Difficult to get along with
All the hours that he spends
Sitting in the Dark Library

Endless arguments
And the endless separations
There's no other way
You must fight until you get it right
When the fight for survival
Is the fight for a principle
If the principle dies
You don't have a chance

Pet Shop Boys - home and dry blank and jones remix, 2002

"We're going home" – These words uttered by Chris near the end of the song are a homage to and quotation from the 1969 Beatles song "Two of Us," written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon-McCartney), for which they serve as the concluding line of the refrain."

Belle And Sebastian - put the book back on the shelf, 1997

"3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light was Belle & Sebastian's third EP, released in 1997 on Jeepster Records. The lead track on the EP, "A Century of Fakers," uses the same backing track as "A Century of Elvis" from Lazy Line Painter Jane. Another song, "Songs for Children" (sometimes known as "On the Radio") plays directly after "Put the Book Back on the Shelf" (on the same track) on both the CD and 12" versions of this release. The front cover features band member Stuart Murdoch with Victoria Morton. The EP was later re-packaged as part of the Lazy Line Painter Jane box-set, and all four tracks were collected on the Push Barman to Open Old Wounds compilation. Both NME and Melody Maker made the release their Single of the Week, and the EP became the band's first to reach the UK top 40 singles chart, peaking at #32."

New Order - nineteen sixty-three ninety-five arthur baker remix, 1995

"the legend goes that when the band recorded True Faith and 1963 with producer Stephen Hague in 1987 in order to have a shot at "breaking" the American charts it was a close run thing between which song would end up as the A side as the band felt both songs were of the same calibre. Rob Gretton allegedly wanted to put both tracks out on the same release rather than saving one for another single in order to give fans a decent b-side and thus value for money; the legendary FAC 183 appeared shortly afterwards. Fast forward seven years, Factory's toast and London Records are preparing a nice few cash-in releases to celebrate acquiring the Joy Division and New Order catalogues. One of the compilations as we all know was (The Best Of) which spawned two singles: a "cleaned up" version of True Faith dubbed "-94" and a number of new versions of 1963 or "Nineteen63" as it was duly titled. So in the end, 1963 finally got its day in the sun as an A-side with both a cleaned up (-94) version of the original Hague mix and a spruced up Arthur Baker (-95) remix with a brand new approach to the song. Another legend from around the same time concerns "Let's Go" where Bernard and Arthur Baker were on holiday together and rediscovered the instrumental the band recorded back in the day I.e. the demo-ish Salvation! version and possibly the "Waiting For So Long" vocal demo from the mid-80s. They subsequently went into the studio, pulled apart existing multi-tracks with Bernard recording brand new vocals and a guitar track. It was allegedly a Sumner/Baker only project and I don't think the rest of the band were even involved due to their estrangement post-Reading 93. The new "Let's Go (Nothing For Me)" took pride of place as track 1 on the US Qwest pressing of (The Best Of) but was relegated to the limited edition CD single of the newly remixed "Nineteen63" in the UK. Even then two mixes of the new "Let's Go" exist with one having a clean ending (US) and the other fading out (UK). So I would surmise it's highly likely Bernard recorded the new acoustic guitar track for the Arthur Baker remix of 1963 at the same time they both decided to complete the new "Let's Go (Nothing For Me)" project. The rest of "1963-95" as far as I'm aware was derived from the original 1987 multi-tracks; notably the significantly louder Hooky bass which I'm sure we all agree enhances the remix. Baker obviously thought it was a decent opportunity to raise the faders on his contribution and let us hear the riffs."

The Radio Dept - your father, 2003

"The Radio Dept. come across as sensitive, fragile and melancholy types when you consider the lyrics and the understated arrangements on some of the tracks (‘Bus’, ‘Strange Things Will Happen’, ‘Lost and Found’, ‘Your Father’ particularly). But for every such contemplatively serene and reflective moment here, there are also a few absolute slammers which tear along at a cracking, relentless pace with all loose components left hanging on for dear life: witness the ferociously unhinged and cacophonously crashing drums that anchor ‘Where Damage Isn’t Already Done’. If there was ever a close relative to the exhilarating Flaming Lips single ‘Race For The Prize’ from ‘The Soft Bulletin’ it is this one. It really does sound like its lo-fi cousin, right down to the arrangement – the huge rushing percussive intro (tinny buzzing guitars instead of whooshing string synths), the quieter sung verses where things drop back a bit, then the repeated crank-up all-guns-blazing of the guitar/drums refrain again."

Damien Jurado - silver timothy, 2014

“Silver Timothy,” the album’s lead single, perfectly balances Swift’s propensity for lush psychedelics and Jurado’s typically intimate but elliptical narratives. Jurado practically whispers through this jaunt, his voice made bigger by a web of echo and effects. He lets the arrangement and production ferry the song forward—the Latin percussion and proper rock drums, the rubbery bassline and refracted keyboards, the distant harmonies and howling guitars. The net effect pulls the listener closer to Jurado’s daydream tone, a circuitous way to push the singer-songwriter into his own spotlight."

Heather Nova - always christmas, 2008

"there is so much abundance and celebration and that makes me all the more acutely aware of how much sadness and suffering there still is in the world; How much we still need to fix, and how much we still need to grow as a human race."