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.

(more…)

The Bee Gees song written for Otis Redding but redone as a hippie country-soul heartbreaker. Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, give it a country twang replete with pedal steel guitar that was entirely absent from the original.

(more…)

Full disclosure: not being a jazz buff, I had never heard of Lou Donaldson who died this week at the ripe old age of 98. This is his masterpiece. (more…)

If there’s one artist I wish I’d seen live more than any other, it’s probably Nina Simone. Especially when she was a regular at Ronnie Scott’s in the 1980s. Except I had probably not heard of her back then.

(more…)

The second single by The Bee Gees back in 1967 was originally written for their mentor Robert Stigwood and intended for Otis Redding to record.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

Here’s a tune from the early days of reggae by Nora Dean, who earned herself a place in the niche genre of “naughty” reggae, best known for her saucy hit Barbwire (In His Underpants).

(more…)

I think it’s that gorgeous melody played on a harpsichord – or is it a hammered dulcimer? – that makes this Four Tet track so special. It lends the tune, from his 2017 album New Energy, a kind of medieval madrigal vibe that chimes so well with the sleepy beats.

(more…)

What would happen if you mixed The Smiths, New Order and Pet Shop Boys together to form a supergroup? You’d come up with Getting Away With It because Electronic’s debut single really does sound exactly like the confluence of its components.

(more…)

Nick Cave’s chilling account of a man awaiting execution in the electric chair remains a highlight of his huge arena shows more than 30 years later.

(more…)