The Durutti Column - the missing boy live, 1984

"Reilly is incredibly softly spoken. Despite my efforts to catch every word, sometimes the gentle gusts of wind whisk them away. At times he speaks so quietly, it’s as if he has swallowed his words before he can let them out."

Death Cab For Cutie - binary sea, 2015

"Binary Sea in the end is about trying to swim in a "binary sea" of an ever-changing world and about preserving memories."

Lee Scratch Perry - scratch the dub organizer, 1981

"When the stones clash, I hear like the thunder clash... and I hear words... These words send me to Kingston. Kingston means King's Stone, the Son of the King... the stone that I was throwing in Negril send me to King Stone for my graduation."

John Murry - the ballad of the pajama kid, 2012

"There is more than a touch of Cave's brooding darkness about Murry, whose rumbling voice and preoccupation with mortality place him in a genre somewhere between Mark Lanegan and Mark Linkous"

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - talking straight, 2018

“The concept came about when I heard someone talking about the possibility of us, humans, being alone in the universe, and how sad that would be. The idea in this song is that we might be lonely, but we could be lonely together.”

Lee Scratch Perry - autobiography of the upsetter, 2019

"As well as his music, he was known for his eternally youthful and chaotic dress sense, and his mythical statements about himself. “I am an alien from the other world,” he has claimed. “I live in space – I’m only a visitor here.” He was also devoutly religious, telling the Guardian in 2016: “God is the teacher, the high priest, the coach, where we are coming from,” and in 2015: “There is no better teacher than Christ … Christ’s words are perfect.”

The Four Tops - reach out i'll be there, 1966

"Make sure your taxes are taken care of – because we're going to release the biggest record you've ever had."

Beach Novels - home movie, 2024

"The tune first enters your ears with the otherworldly sounds of an oscillating synth, effectively setting an ethereal tempo. Like explosive magic, the full band production begins, complete with lively drums and a bass that tethers down an upbeat foundation."

Bad Lieutenant - sink or swim, 2009

"On 11 March 2011, the group announced that they would be headlining Friends of Mine Festival at Capesthorne Hall on Friday 20 May alongside The Charlatans, The Lightning Seeds, Buzzcocks, The Fall, The Cribs, The Farm, John Cooper Clarke, Mr Scruff and Goldblade. The band are now on an indefinite hiatus since Sumner and Cunningham's return to New Order. Evans is currently working on new solo material and supported New Order on their tour in early 2012."

Beirut - the rip tide, 2011

"During a quiet moment at the beach between shows, a rip tide took me out pretty far — I was struggling to get back in"

Scott Matthews - cinnamon, 2018

"The pain and self revelations that he captures in this single are shared in an incredibly beautiful way with the audience, and the feelings that he sings are shared by way of bittersweet memory. The piano and guitar are slow and played as a ballad, which highlights his empowering vocals."

Isobel Campbell - four three one six, 2024

"Isobel Campbell was partly responsible for many of the best moments on early Belle And Sebastian records. She left that band in 2002, and she’s put together a pretty great solo career, often working with her late collaborator Mark Lanegan."

Real Estate - somebody new, 2024

"The first four songs are absolute vintage RE, with sunny melodies and intricate, polished guitar lines. The lyrics are whimsical ('Flowers inside my head / Everywhere, all the time'), meandering (Water Underground; Somebody New), with just a hint of darkness under the cheery veneer ('The sun is shining through the world / This haunted world is killing me')."

Simon And Garfunkel - america, 1968

"Many other empty, aching, and lost souls are on the highway, each on their own journey alone even if someone is traveling with them."

Fleet Foxes - in the morning solstice version cover live, 2021

"Despite its billing – “a very lonely solstice” – this live stream doesn’t start lonely at all. Dressed all in white, a masked, socially distanced choir fills the pews of this gothic-arched New York church. These angelic figures are members of the Resistance Revival Chorus – female and non-binary singers whose aim is to motivate and uplift."

Mike Oldfield - moonlight shadow, 1983

"It was originally inspired by a film I loved – Houdini, starring Tony Curtis, which was about attempts to contact Houdini after he'd died, through spiritualism... it was originally a song influenced by that, but a lot of other things must have crept in there without me realising it."

Khruangbin - may ninth, 2024

"a funky short story about the circle of life and the interconnectedness of all things"

Bear's Den - hiding bottles, 2019

"Lead singer Andrew Davie spent time at Al-Anon meetings following experiences of addiction within his own family, and needed to speak to others from a similar background. Al-Anon is a charity that helps to support family and friends who have experienced the struggle of addiction, and these meetings form the spine of 'Hiding Bottles'."

Neil Young And Crazy Horse - broken circle over and over, 2024

"In the spirit it’s offered, we made this for the Horse lovers. I can’t stop it. The Horse is runnin’. What a ride we have. I don’t want to mess with the vibe, and I am so happy to have this to share.”

Robert Wyatt - the age of self, 1985

 

"the targets he has chosen are slippery, ambiguous ones; the treacherous duplicity of political language, the lies that democracy depends on, the so-called plurality of thought that Western culture contains and the infectious spread of cultural amnesia. Behind this array of inter-related topics lurks the spirit of Marxist writer Noam Chomsky, that most mischievous disseminator of Western capitalist mores and guiding light in Wyatt's current way of seeing." 

"They say the working class is dead, we're all consumers now

They say that we have moved ahead – we're all just people now

There's people doing 'frightfully well' there's others on the shelf

But never mind the second kind this is the age of self

And it seems to me if we forget our roots and where we stand

The movement will disintegrate like castles built on sand

They say we need new images to help our movement grow

They say that life is broader based as if we didn't know

While Martin Jacques and Robert Maxwell play with printer's ink

The workers 'round the world still die for Rio Tinto zinc

And it seems to me if we forget our roots and where we stand

The movement will disintegrate like castles built on sand

Castles built on sand"