Deerhoof – Come Down Here & Say That / The Devil and his Anarchic Surrealist Retinue

Our continuing theme certainly behooves a song or two from this wonderfully quirky band hailing from San Francisco. It's clever offbeat indie that continuously changes pace with brilliant drumming from founder Greg Saunier with bassist and distinctively gentle-voiced Japanese singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and current guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez, their work is never without innovation and musical humour. The first track comes from their latest and 14th studio album this year, Mountain Moves, and features guest vocals from Stereolab's Lætitia Sadier. The second comes from 2016's album Magic.

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Jan 18, 2019

New albums: Toro y Moi, The Twilight Sad, Steve Mason, Steve Gunn, James Blake, Juliana Hatfield, Lost Under Heaven, Be Svendsen

Our latest roundup of new releases includes an emotional return for The Twilight Sad and Steve Gunn, catchy quirkiness from Toro Y Moi, solid alt-rock from Juliana Hatfield, cosmic pop from Steve Mason, and dire warnings from Lost Under Heaven

Jan 11, 2019

New albums: Deerhunter, Sharon Van Etten, You Tell Me, Jeffrey Lewis, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, Tallies, The Silver Field

Getting ahead with the forthcoming releases over mid-January, melancholy, dystopian beauty is a predominant trend from Deerhunter, Sharon Van Etten, You Tell Me and more, with a dash of joy from Jeffrey Lewis covering The Fall

Dec 30, 2018

Gazelle Twin to Villagers: favourite albums of 2018 – part 2

The second part of our roundup of outstanding albums of 2018, in alphabetical order by title, marked by a number of great debuts from young bands, as well as more established artists releasing their best work to date

Dec 29, 2018

Anna Calvi to Idles: favourite albums of 2018 – part 1

The first part of our annual roundup of notable albums includes several great debuts by young bands, plus work that reflects dystopian political turmoil, gender issues and growing human relationship with technology

Jan 15, 2019

Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning

Song of the Day: After Miss Otis Regrets, another songs about a women who decided to stop taking abuse from a man, this time by the band from Brixton whose song eventually became synonymous with the Sopranos

Jan 14, 2019

Ella Fitzgerald / Ethel Waters – Miss Otis Regrets (She's Unable To Lunch Today)

Song of the Day: After yesterday’s She Drew The Gun songs, let’s go back to an original Cole Porter number from 1934, which contains that shot line of defiance and revenge, a tragic tale about a society woman who simply would not take it anymore

Jan 13, 2019

She Drew The Gun – Something For The Pain / Resister

Song of the Day: A pair of finely crafted and powerful songs addressing pain and ongoing social problems from the Liverpool indie pop band fronted by singer and songwriter Louisa Roach from the 2018 album Revolution of Mind

Jan 8, 2019

David Bowie – Blackstar

Song of the Day: Exactly three years ago Bowie released his final album, on his birthday, and two days before he died. Was that opening track a coda for a stellar career, referencing a life’s work, his demons and impending death?

Jan 6, 2019

3rd Bass – Problem Child

Song of the Day: After R.E.M.’s The Wrong Child, a more discursive number about teenage problems, ranging from drugs, gangs, sexual abuse, to depression and suicide by one of the finest New York rap outfits from the golden age of early 90s hip hop

Jan 5, 2019

R.E.M. – The Wrong Child

Song of the Day: After yesterday’s Problem Child by Hed Ogledd, a rarely played, but beautiful, pathos-rich song from the perspective of an outsider, perhaps with a physical or mental disability, looking at other children playing

Jan 4, 2019

Hen Ogledd – Problem Child

Song of the Day: It’s impossible to categorise this brilliant, heady mixture of folk and electronica with thudding bass, and oddball vocals, except it has an echo of late-70s Peter Gabriel about it

Jan 1, 2019

The Zombies – This Will Be Our Year

Song of the Day: A positive start to 2019, with a simple and gorgeous piano-based melody and love song from the pioneering British psych rock and pop band formed in St Albans in 1961 from their classic album of 1968, Odessey and Oracle

Jan 16, 2019

Word of the week: jabberwock

Word of the week: It’s best known as the mythical monster in Lewis Carroll’s poem from Through The Looking Glass (1871), but the word also means nonsense or gibberish, something that continues to be very much at large

Word of the week: kismet

Word of the week: It’s originally from an Arabic word, qisma, meaning portion or lot, and taken from Turkey in the 19th century, meaning fate, but where has in turned up in song lyrics since the 20th century?

Dec 22, 2018

Word of the week: lux

Word of the week: It’s not all doom and gloom right now. With the winter solstice just gone by, days will slowly lengthen, allowing us to perceive more lux, that unit of illuminance and luminous flux. It’s a beautiful word, but where does it appear in lyrics?

Dec 11, 2018

Word of the week: malarkey

Word of the week: It means utter nonsense talk, and there’s no shortage of that – at work, home, in law, and especially in politics right now, but where does the word come from and how is it used in song lyrics?

Dec 4, 2018

Word of the week: nebula, nebulous, nebulist, nebbich

Word of the week: It’s a cloudy cluster of related words as we play with lovely sounding space dust, a haziness or vagueness and more, but where can it be found song lyrics?