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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LCD Soundsystem made their debut in 2005 with this satirical send-up of the cool kids and what they were listening to over an electronic dance rhythm blending punk and disco.

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Bill Callahan has been plying his lo-fi trade for more than 35 years. I caught him at one of his first UK gigs when he still went by Smog.

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This song came out when my kids were at primary school and we used to sing it every day as they were about to leave the house, with one minor lyrical change – “Get your fleece on.”

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Not many people liked Happy Mondays’ fifth album Uncle Dysfunctional when it came out in 2007. I’m not sure I even heard it at the time; I may not even have known (or cared) that they had reunited two years earlier.

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M. Ward – Let’s Dance

24th September 2023 · 2000s, 2005, Music

M. Ward takes Bowie’s banger Let’s Dance and wrings every ounce of emotion out of it in this intense acoustic interpretation.

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The Last Town Chorus cover David Bowie’s upbeat single Modern Love and improve it by turning it into a melancholy country ballad.

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Sometimes music can soothe the soul and the Polish composer Michal Janaszek somehow reflects the sorrows of the world while simultaneously trying to take them away.

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It seems like only the other day that The Hives burst into our consciousness with their matching black-and-white outfits and their revved-up 1960s garage rock. In fact it was 23 years ago, at the start of the century.

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It’s 50 years since the release of that landmark album Dark Side Of The Moon. I think I first came across this in LA. It goes well with the sunshine and relaxed pace of life in SoCal.

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