This is very lovely, with a dark undercurrent. Bnny’s previous album, which was a gruelling grief-filled reflection on death. This is about trying to make a fresh start when you’re running from the past… “but the past keeps catching up.”

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Genital mutilation is a subject rarely tackled in popular music; even more rarely, I’d imagine, when it’s the male version under the microscope (so to speak). But here it is, by the Fat White Family.

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Is there a genre called jazz-dub? If there isn’t – or wasn’t – then I think it’s been invented on this tune. I can’t stop playing it.

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This is the best song I’ve ever heard by an artist from Luxembourg – and yes, it may well be the only one. It may also be the most romantic video I’ve seen.

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I’m not entirely sure what I think about these posthumous recordings, where a living artist duets with a dead one. Some work well; others defile the dead artist’s memory. I think this one settles the argument in their favour.

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Fifty years ago Steve Harley’s Cockney Rebel were the second band I ever saw. They were riding high in the charts with Judy Teen and I’d been a huge fan since I first heard this song a year earlier. I thought it was the strangest and most compelling piece of music I had ever heard.

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It’s always dangerous to try messing with perfection but this take on a Gil Scott-Heron classic stands up alongside his tribute to Lady Day and John Coltrane.

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I’ve always loved those Nick Cave songs where he takes the listener on a journey; those long narrative songs like The Mercy Seat and Higgs Bosun Blues. I was sad when he said he’d given up on that kind of songwriting. So I’m overjoyed that he has returned to it for his new song with the Bad Seeds.

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Perfect Days – Film Review

German director Wim Wenders’ almost wordless drama about a Tokyo toilet cleaner is one of the year’s great surprises – a joyfully uplifting film about the small pleasures in life.

This hypnotic slice of desert blues will resonate with anyone who likes the music of Tinariwen or Imarhan. It comes with a powerful back story too.

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