The Moody Blues - evening, 1967

"It's really about, if you can achieve something every day, it doesn't matter how small it is, it just gives you that energy to carry on and have an enjoyable life. Concerning "The Sun Set" and "Twilight Time", Lodge remembers, "We were trying to make sure that every song on the album had a different aspect. That was the most important thing. That every song on the album, no one could say, 'Oh, that sounds like that.'"

Saint Etienne - shower scene, 2002

"Saint Etienne have always believed in having an aesthetic. On their 1991 debut, Foxbase Alpha, the trio finessed 1960s pop, 1990s dance and an encyclopaedia's worth of cultural references into a celebratory vision of Englishness three years before Britpop. Though that vision later became blurred, their sixth album, titled after a recently renamed outpost of the shipping forecast, revisits Foxbase Alpha's terrain, a decade older, wiser and angrier. On the single, Action, singer Sarah Cracknell is once again the bored suburbanite looking for the in-crowd but this time she fears she may not find it. On the title track, Cosmetique's Sarah Churchill defiantly restates Saint Etienne's manifesto, from muso battleline-drawing ("Donovan over Dylan") to poignant urban utopianism ("this house believes in skyscrapers") while Cracknell breathes "tear it down and start again" like the world's most mild-mannered revolutionary. The familiar soft-focus genre-blending, now with added electro, is peppered with deadpan aphorisms from actor Michael Jayston; though hit-and-miss, they enhance the peculiarly English ambience. Finisterre is the work of a band who have remembered what they're here for."

Moby - natural blues, 2000

"Natural Blues" is a song by American electronic musician Moby. It was released on March 6, 2000, as the fifth single from his fifth studio album, Play (1999). The song is built around vocals sampled from "Trouble So Hard" by American folk singer Vera Hall (1937). "Natural Blues" was one of several songs on Play produced by Moby based on samples obtained from albums of American folk music originally compiled by field collector Alan Lomax. In the United Kingdom, "Natural Blues" peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. In Iceland, it peaked at number one."

Pet Shop Boys - a face like that, 2012

"a Chris-dominated, techno/dance-oriented, largely instrumental affair, with only the occasional vocal interjection by Neil."

Coldplay - swallowed in the sea, 2005

"Coldplay has a knack for weaving poignancy into melodies, and ‘Swallowed in the Sea’ from their 2005 album ‘X&Y’ is no exception. At first listen, this track seems like a beautiful, yet straightforward love lament. However, a deeper dive suggests a multifaceted tapestry of emotions, entwining loss, redemption, self-realization, and an ephemeral hope that hovers over the sometimes tragic human condition."

Saint Motel - fine wine, 2023

"Like a punch in the gut and a slap on the back at the same time. Find peace in the chaos, see beauty in the impermanence, and cherish these moments that slip through your fingers like sand. Life’s a bottle you keep coming back to, savoring the taste of joy and heartache, knowing damn well it won’t last, but you keep raisin’ that glass anyway. Embrace the mess, ’cause it’s all we got.”

Elton John - blessed, 1995

"The first listening of Elton John's 32nd album, ``Made in England,'' makes this writer feel that he's heard a piece of every new song once before. That's not bad. In fact, it's good. I like what I've heard before, and I'm not alone."

Alvvays - many mirrors, 2022

"The whole album is fantastic, but the song ‘Many Mirrors’ had a pure, adventurous energy to it that really resonated with me."

REM - electrolite, 1996

"Mulholland represents to me the iconic 'from on high' vantage point looking down at L.A. and the valley at night when the lights are all sparkling and the city looks, like it does from a plane, like a blanket of fine lights all shimmering and solid. I really wanted to write a farewell song to the 20th century...And nowhere seemed more perfect than the city that came into its own throughout the 20th century, but always looking forward and driven by ideas of a greater future, at whatever cost."

Superocean - best thing, 2023

"It's an incorporation of indie rock, shoegaze, and Far East dance music; beautifully woven into one elegantly flowing track. If you've ever awoken from a deep sleep, unable to tell if you were still dreaming or awake – that's the feeling you'll get from listening to Superocean. Kind of like being pulled simultaneously between two different planes of consciousness."

Neil Young - i'm the ocean live from coastal, 2025

“Coastal offers a glimpse behind the curtain of this unguarded iconoclast, as he navigates a return to the stage post-Covid — from his everyday observations on the bus to his candid, wry banter with his audience,” a description of the video reads. “The illuminating film also features songs rarely, if ever played live, performed in breathtakingly beautiful theaters.”

Barry Ryan - eloise, 1968

"Eloise" is a song first released in 1968 on the MGM label. It was sung by Barry Ryan, and written by his twin brother Paul Ryan. Running for over five minutes, it features strong orchestration, melodramatic vocals, and a brief slow interlude. It sold three million copies worldwide, and reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart as published by Record Retailer, but hit No. 1 in the NME and Melody Maker charts. It topped the chart in 17 countries, including Italy, the Netherlands and Australia."

Sparklehorse - listening to the higsons cover, 2023

"From the time that Mark began working on these songs to the record’s imminent release, 14 years have passed, a long time for a collection of tracks that were already well advanced at the time of Mark’s death. But there’s something too in the album’s long and complex gestation - the chaos of old tapes, the love and care that Mark’s family and his close musician friends have shown to every detail - that makes this so distinctively a Sparklehorse record."

Half Moon Run - everyone's moving out east, 2023

"While making this record, it felt as if we were boiling down a huge cauldron of musical ideas, trying to reduce it to something elemental. What we were left with was Salt”

Saturday Looks Good To Me - ambulance, 2000

"Saturday Looks Good To Me's self-released debut album from 2000 was a lo-fi four track take on reinterpreting Motown and oldies radio through a murky crust of noise. Though the recording finds the project in it's most experimental larval stages, the sparkle and excitement of these earliest basement incantations comes through loud and clear, and many of the songs here became fan favorites as the band grew."

REM - the ascent of man, 2004

"This always felt like a bridge type of song to me, a way to get from one part of an album to another, but here it's just trying to get to the end. For this album the song could be considered a strong closer, but on its own it's an easy song to overlook. In fact, when I started this album I wouldn't have been able to hum it to you if asked - which is a shame because it's a lovely song. The literary references spill over to the structure of the song which is has a bookend style verse, an allusion to unrequited love because of metaphors--all very cool, plus the overlapping verse is so well done."

The Project - flags, 2023

"In today's musical climate, people aren't required to be masters of an instrument; if you have a decent computer and a keyboard, you can make something wonderful. (That's not a bad thing - it's just an observant fact.) Long gone are the days of one-track recordings and having vocals with perfect pitch, but there are some who've still got it. The duo that makes up The Project , Michael Glen Bell and Duane W.H. Arnold, are an example of artists that truly do have skill intact; and with their latest release, Mystic Chapel , it is justly on display."

Metric - nothing is perfect, 2023

“Nothing Is Perfect” stands out on Formentera II as the lone track that is carried by only acoustic guitar and vocals. We explored many renditions of this song during the recording process, but in the end found that everything we tried adding seemed to detract from the essence of it."

Joan Baez - hello in there cover, 1975

 

"I delivered to a Baptist old people’s home where we’d have to go room-to-room... and some of the patients would kind of pretend that you were a grandchild or nephew that had come to visit, instead of the guy delivering papers. That always stuck in my head."

Wild Nothing - headlights on, 2023

"You might not think it to listen to it but "Headlights On," the euphoric new single from Wild Nothing, was written during a particularly delicate moment in Jack Tatum's life. The birth of their first child had left Tatum and his wife both sleep-deprived and distant from one another."