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LYR’s Blossomise EP
Song of the Day: To mark a special project in conjunction with The National Trust, marking the first day of spring, and also World Poetry Day, two beautifully evocative tracks from a new EP by the trio of poet laureate Simon Armitage, with music from singer Richard Walters, and producer Patrick J Pearson
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Phone addiction: Arab Strap’s Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat
Song of the Day: One of two recent singles heralding the forthcoming new album by Scotland’s Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, a witty, articulate, deadpan lament about online hate, mixing a disco beat with guitar line
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Peacey - Culture Bandit (featuring Vanessa Hidary)
Song of the Day: Punchy, pacy, catchy and exclamatory, a super smart talky-dance track by the Edinburgh-based DJ and electronica artist David Peace joined by New York spoken-word artist celebratory multiculturalism
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Fire Up The Sun - Between A Nail And A Sharp Place
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s Belfast rap entry, now some sharp Scottish cross-genre spoken word / hip-hop, this time from lyricist MC Burnoot and Sweden-based producer ArrCee, with a combination of compelling beats and cleverly constructed, phrases
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Jacana People & Antony Szmierek - Twist Forever
Song of the Day: With array of twinkly electronics and dance beats by the British production duo of Aaron Miller and Robert Wheatley, an uplifting, reflective number featuring the Mancunian poet about making the most of your time when life is short
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From the video for Celebrate Me by Baxter Dury
Song of the Day: From his forthcoming seventh album, I Thought I Was Better Than You, the latest alternative hip-hop single by the London artist and son of the famous Ian is poetic, caustic, provocative and strangely beautiful, channelling new “faux-confrontational” character
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Kae Tempest with Fraser T Smith aka Future Utopia
Song of the Day: “We built this city on what we stole, and then it ate us whole..” With brilliant lyrics and delivery by Kae Tempest, a fabulous surf-style guitar and beats, the title track from the forthcoming EP by the British super-producer Fraser T Smith
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From Antony Szmierek’s video for Rock and a Calm Place
Song of the Day: Wonderfully wry, witty, catchy and uplifting fusion of disco and hop hop by the Manchester poet in this upbeat interpretation of the Myth of Sisyphus, in which pushing that eternal metaphorical rock up the hill can have benefits
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The beautifully vivid Short Stories EP by Francis Lung
Song of the Day: Taken from the new EP, Short Stories, this beautifully intimate, vivid, narrative-spoken number that builds powerfully into a dreamy climax by the Manchester artist tells of a widow transported back in time by an onion soup
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The Cool Greenhouse forthcoming album Sod’s Toastie
Song of the Day: “It’s like Windows 98 in here.” From the forthcoming second album Sod’s Toastie, a brilliant blend of Bowie-esque post-punk and superbly droll, witty paradox-filled, absurdist spoken lyrics by the British band fronted by Tom Greenhouse
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Kae Tempest’s upcoming new album The Line Is A Curve
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s Brexit-themed beach setting by DC Gore, a different style and tone, but with a connection, with the poet’s recent number expressing a melancholy love song to Britain, tasting its vulnerability and change with many vivid, nuanced, emotional lines
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Ishmael Ensemble
Song of the Day: “I keep questioning this war …. Whose fight is this? Who wrote the rules? I struggle to understand the reasons. Where was my right to choose?” A powerful, prescient but also timelessly relevant new version of the song by the Bristol jazz collective featuring words by the Gloucester poet, rapper and MC
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Cascade Theory by LYR
Songs of the Day: On this, the shortest day of 2021, the winter solstice, a poetic pair of songs older and recent by the group composed of poet laureate Simon Armitage and musicians Patrick Pearson and Richard Walters, with Rozi Plain as guest on the second
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Jarvis Cocker - sticking around in the video
Song of the Day: Released to highlight issues around Cop26, a catchy, dancey new club anthem combined with the poignant, profound, whispering delivery of the Pulp frontman seeking a path to a unified way to address climate change
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When the chips are down …
Song of the Day: ‘I like to participate in life’s edge. From time to time I take a little ride over that edge’. Heart-racing, breathless spoken word packed with images of hedonism, pubs and fast, frantic living in this debut single by the quintessentially British MC who is a mixture of Sleaford Mods, Slowthai and the Streets
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Figure of Speech’s debut album
Song of the Day: Taken from the recent, excellent debut eponymous album, the Bristol-based Mancunian poet joins forces with producer Boca 45 on a 70s-style funk track delivering sharp hip-hop lyrics that have an anti-racist theme inspired by the George Floyd murder
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Odd Morris’s Silhouette, from their EP Cityscape The Ballet
Song of the Day: This evocative poem-song by the Dublin quartet builds beautifully, skipping the traditional chorus structure but with an ongoing, atmospheric guitar riff, restless percussion and powerful words, and comes from their EP Cityscape The Ballet
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Hull’s Jodie Langford
Song of the Day: A punchy, bouncy spoken word number expressing a witty double-edged perspective on lockdown and afterwards by the Hull poet, here joined by the electronica artist, DJ and producer and taken from an album by local young persons’ mental health charity The Warren Youth Project
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