Coldplay - paradise, 2011

"another slice of hug-warm ecstasy"

Oh Wonder - better now, 2019

"‘Better Now’ is an emotional track that reflects on the band hearing the sad news of a family member going through an incredibly tough and emotional first birth of their child. With a lot of complications involved, there was a lot of emotional trauma that the duo wanted to dissect and turn into a song of hope and understanding."

Saint Etienne - last days of disco beat connection remix, 2012

"The album refers to the “strange magic” of pop. About the special alchemy that transforms even the most mundane of experiences – walking home with the headphones on at night, sitting in a bedroom with your friends in the day, getting ready to go out on the weekend – into a lingering moment of seamless enchantment, one that resonates for the rest of your life. It is about how music affects your life. How it defines the way you see the world as a child, how it can get you through bad times in unexpected ways, and how songs you’ve known all your life can suddenly develop a new attachment, and hurt every time you hear them. More than how it affects and reflects your life though, the album is about believing in music, living your life by its rules."

Sparks - the girl is crying in her latte, 2023

"AI could never replicate the unique balance between deranged imagination and supreme sanity that is the mark of a great Sparks record like this"

The National - brainy, 2007

"That song has a lot of weird details like keeping fingerprints in folders as though you’re collecting information about someone. But not just about someone in an investigative sense."

Stars - one more night, 2004

"The band make no effort to avoid the inevitable charges of over-sentimentality; in fact, they indulge the calls: "The cold is a vindictive bride," reads their website bio, "she'll trap you between her thighs and turn your heart to ice if you're not careful." Despite overblown romanticism run rampant, Stars somehow remain understated. It's the "Soft Revolution", as the terrific penultimate track declaims. Hop aboard."

Franz Ferdinand - well that was easy, 2005

"A really good sound that compliment the desperate nature of the lyrics."

Genesis - the lady lies, 1978

"The Lady Lies" is the tenth track on the Genesis 1978 album …And Then There Were Three…, with music and lyrics written by Tony Banks. The lyrics tell the story of a man who rescues a woman from the mouth of a monster, but is later seduced by the woman, or as the band refer to her during the song, a demon, and led into an unknown fate."

The Housemartins - we're not going back, 1987

"The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death was ranked number nine among "Albums of the Year" for 1987 in the annual NME critics' poll."

AC Newman - young atlantis, 2009

"It’s a strange thing, I used to think that getting reviewed in Rolling Stone or Spin would be amazing and when that happened I was like, “Holy shit, we’ve arrived!” and now, as things change through the years, it’s not whether or not you’ll get reviewed, it’s “I wonder what they’re gonna say in their review.” That’s still very surreal when I think of things like that. Knowing that your record is going to get some attention, it’s just what are people going to say. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about,” as Oscar Wilde would say."

Paul McCartney - bluebird, 1973

“a metaphor for the transcendent power of love and the liberation of the human spirit from mental and physical bondage”

The Lightning Seeds - happy satellite, 1999

"Overall, the Lightning Seeds might be a bit too sugary for some, but Ian Broudie mined that pop vein very well. Most of the albums sound quite similar. Lots of pop and fairly slick arrangements."

REM - the outsiders, 2004

"The Outsiders” is an interesting song for multiple reasons. One of them is the fact that this is a song that a lot of hardcore fans seem to respect despite it being on most people’s least favorite R.E.M. album. Another noteworthy fact about the song is that it features a rap from A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip. If I had a nickel for everytime this band had a rap featured in one of their songs, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it’s happened twice."

Fine Young Cannibals - ever fallen in love cover, 1986

"In 1986, Fine Young Cannibals had a No. 9 UK hit with their version, recorded for the soundtrack of the 1986 film Something Wild. It was later included on the band's album The Raw & the Cooked, released in January 1989. The song was also a top 20 hit in Australia and Germany and a No. 10 hit in Ireland, with its biggest success in South Africa, where it reached number one."

Le Fil Bleu, 1/1/2025

Morrissey - hairdresser on fire, 1988

"it is Morrissey looking at society and ashamed at how much people are concerned with their looks"

The Cranberries - the sweetest thing, 1999

"It all came to a head in February or March, 1990. Noel called up to the house to let me know about this whole realm of gigs he'd arranged and I had to tell him, 'sorry but my heart's not in it'. It had gotten to the stage where they were giving it 100%, and I was just doing it as a hobby which wasn't fair on them."

My Sad Captains - orienteers, 2011

"A sumptuous synthesis of epiphanic pop and Krautrock–inflected drift and diffusion… Few British bands since Spiritualized in their ‘90s imperial phase have been as proficient at inducing a beatific state of drift"

STRFKR - armatron, 2023

"This was one of the songs that started as a demo of Keil’s that I kind of re/deconstructed. The second section was made mostly with the sh-2 mono synth building the chords one note at a time, which is a trick I love doing with that thing. It kind of lets you move around in ways that wouldn’t happen using a poly synth. Plus it makes the notes all move around in a slightly different pattern. Lyrically, for me, it has the feeling of a couple having a fight and being in that crazy intense space, and then cooling off."

Saint Etienne - archway people, 1993

"They're like Indie/electronic Pop with a huge swinging sixties influence. They're one of the artists who wear their labels with pride and haven't changed their sound to suit others, which is what I really admire about them. It's meant they've flown under the radar all their career, however."