As the days grow shorter and darker, why not fill two hours of them with my latest playlist? From the warm embrace of The Cure to the date-adjacent celebration of The National, there’s soul and disco, reggae and ska, country and jazz, with a bit of an early-Eighties flavour running through it.

This is powerful stuff: it reminds me of when I first heard Linton Kwesi Johnson back in my youth. Like LKJ, Cleeshay uses spoken word, though the music is stripped-back R&B rather than roots reggae.

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Celeste channels her fellow BRIT School alumna Adele in the smoky cinematic theme song of Sky TV’s remake of The Day Of The Jackal.

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I have to confess I’ve been a bit late getting into Michael Kiwanuka. Which is strange, because I saw one of his very first shows.

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Olivia Rodrigo and Elvis Costello share a fondness for the same riff that he used for Pump It Up and she recycled with Brutal.

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Sophie Thatcher not only co-stars in Heretic but contributes this gorgeous cover of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door to the soundtrack.

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Ringo Starr releases the first track from a new album of country songs written and produced with T Bone Burnett at the age of 84.

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October is the mellowest month, said no one in particular. But in a way it is: autumn settling in, the days getting shorter, the leaves beginning to turn, coats and scarves and hats coming out of closets. And here’s a suitably mellow playlist to soundtrack the darkening of the days. (more…)

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Lone Justice tackled The Undertones’ greatest song Teenage Kicks when they kicked off the LA cowpunk scene and paved the way for alt-country.

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