The The - slow emotion replay, 1993

"Slow Emotion Replay" was the 94th best-selling single in Iceland."

The Triffids - wide open road, 1986

"I just tried to keep it as blunt and direct as possible, even if the results made myself or the listener squirm"

Bones - rooting for you, 2024

"With its dreamy instrumentals and mesmerizing synths, this song is an absolute treat for the ears."

Jim James - here in spirit live, 2016

"It’s like God or the universe or whatever gave us this gift of a compass. We’ve all got this compass inside of us that says what we should really do, but we fucking ignore it so much of the time."

Car Seat Headrest - beach life-in-death, 2011

"a matryoshka doll of rock tropes: call-and-response vocals cave into winding guitar solos and narratives build and then collapse into desperate monologues"

Peter Bjorn And John - gut feeling, 2018

"There’s a guy throwing a stone on the water and it creates three rings on it. It represents us. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all our titles are two words and three spellings."

Beirut - nantes live, 2019

"The much loved sound incorporating shades of gypsy dance rhythms, swaying romantic vocals, shockingly powerful horn blasts and the all important underlying indie vibe was interspersed with new songs that have built on the already multi-layered music with a more electronic, synthesised edginess."

Ride - last frontier, 2024

"New single ‘Last Frontier’ is out now, a bruising, direct return whose brutal low-end recalls post-punk greats such as Joy Division. There’s also a yearning for beauty, with Andy Bell taking lead vocal, using improvisatory takes to build up the melody."

The Wedding Present - kennedy, 1988

"Bizarro may be The Wedding Present’s defining album."

The Rubens – liquid gold, 2024

"At the core of ‘Liquid Gold’ lies a narrative of self-destruction, cleverly concealed beneath bright, sunny melodies."

Charlie Havenick - overture, 2023

"Longtime drummer and instrumentalist for several LA indie rock outfits, Charlie steps to the forefront in her own band. In the space between conducting and maudlin shoegazing, Havenick’s project is a force to be reckoned with."

Echo And The Bunnymen - bring on the dancing horses live, 2018

"Bring on the Dancing Horses has a dreamily catchy chorus and a nice melody"

The Mountain Goats - rain in soho, 2017

"The lyric "There's a club where you'd like to go / You could meet someone who's lost like you" is a reference to The Smith's song 'How Soon Is Now'. D. B. Cooper is an infamous, anonymous plane hijacker who stole $200,000 and has never been found. The Batcave was a nightclub in London, considered a birthplace of goth subculture. The line "No greater love than to lay my life down for a friend" is derived from John 15:13. The lines "Children piping in the main square / But no one’s dancing / No one’s dancing down there" and "We played for you but you would not sing" recall Matthew 11:16-17 (compare the lyrics of Matthew 11:14-19 from The Life of the World in Flux)."

Beirut - nantes, 2007

"I was listening to a lot of Jacques Brel and French chanson music—pop songs shrouded in big, glorious, over-the-top arrangements and all this drama—and that was in some sense unfamiliar territory to me. So I started buying new instruments and relying on things I wasn't necessarily comfortable with, like French horns and euphoniums, carrying these big, epic big brass parts that I used to do all on trumpets, and working with accordion and organ instead of all ukulele—very much throwing myself in the world of classical pop music, I guess you could say."

Kinnel - locked in heaven this is manchester, 1990

"Various – This Is Manchester (14 Songs From The North West)"

Public Service Broadcasting - go, 2015

"Race is richly entertaining, immersive and evocative, orchestrated with fastidious care and feeling."

Lullatone - still feeling the waves when you go to bed, 2013

"Summer Songs is the rare recording that may make one smile before a single note is played. "

LCD Soundsystem - all my friends, 2007

"The album was dedicated to "the memory of Dr. George Kamen (1942–2006), one of the great minds of his or any generation." The Bulgarian-born doctor was a pioneer of group therapy and had opened a practice in New York City. It is insinuated the loss of 'someone' in the track "Someone Great" is Kamen."

Wim Mertens - prudence, 1988

"The work of art is true and real by its correspondence with the pattern of its prototype in the mind of the artist. In similar fashion, the free activity of man is good by its correspondence with the pattern of prudence."

The Streets - weak become heroes, 2002

"The reference I made to Nicky Holloway, Danny Rampling and all that were because I was intelligent enough to find out that those were the guys that started it."