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This refreshingly primitive punk nugget by The Innocent Vicars is one of those lost gems that you unearth by chance. Or in this case because I’m reading the singer’s newly published memoir, Strange Things Are Happening (Adventures In Music).

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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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Black Uhuru were everywhere in the late ’70s. It seemed they would step into Bob Marley’s shoes after his death in 1981 – only for their lead singer, Michael Rose, to leave the group.

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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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Plan B – Kidz

24th March 2024 · 2000s, 2006, Hip-Hop, Music

Before he became a pop star singing sweet soul pastiches, Plan B was a hardcore rapper tackling social issues like the death of Damilola Taylor.

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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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Here’s a slice of smooth summery jazz-funk from Southern California’s so-called Inland Empire – the area south-east of LA that includes Palm Springs and San Bernadino.

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The final Talking Heads album, Naked, is so underrated it’s almost been forgotten compared to the majesty of Remain In Light and (my favourite) Fear Of Music.

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If you’re after a killer chorus, look no further than this song – Cryin’ My Eyes Out (Lyin’ Beside You). Shannon Shaw is a soulful and swaggering garage rock diva with one foot in the ’50s and ’60s and the other in a sweaty underground bar.

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