Mutya Keisha Siobhan - Mutya Keisha Siobhan - Flatline [Preview]

And so it begins. 

Missy Higgins - Where I Stood (2008)

I recently became reacquainted with the music of Missy Higgins.

This song still resonates. An utter gem.

Billy Bragg - Handyman Blues (2013)

Stewart Lee singing Billy Bragg. Enjoy. 

Sad Day For Puppets - Cold Hand (2013)

Still find it odd that this brilliant Swedish band has such a low web profile. Their official site forwards to their MySpace profile. MySpace!

You can however acquire their back catalogue at bandcamp and this new track is on the iTunes. It's from their new album, which is so far only available in Japan. Like I said, odd.

KT Tunstall - Feel It All (Later, 2013)

2010's Tiger Suit is my favourite Tunstall album.

This track from her new album is out within a couple of weeks.

Belinda Carlisle - Sun (2013)

Her first new material in 6 years. Recorded for a US best of compilation.

Taylor Swift - 22 (Billboard Awards 2013)

From last night. 

Pop music is still very much alive and well.

Kathleen Edwards - For The Record (Cologne,2012)

Merlin Mann, on this song:

...it’s amazing, and it’s just completely haunting, and hey here’s Kathleen making some serious magic playing it live in 2012.

Jesus Christ, what a terrific song.

It's nearly 18 months since Voyageur was released. Still regularly played. Still magnificent.

After 18 months I allow evaluation for entry into my top 10 albums of all time. Because, you know, you have to have a list. One that you think other people are interested in but really they don't give a toss. But you still have to have it.

Voyageur is going to make it, but what will it replace? That's the real excitement. Like a relegation battle.

As you were.

Call Me Jolene - May EP

Debut EP from Call Me Jolene.

Track 2 - Good Morning, Midnight is my favourite.

Sophie Pointer, Martin Rossiter, Chris Wright and Travis Oliver.

Get it here.

Tegan and Sara - I Was A Fool (2013)

Every single track on Heartthrob is superb and a potential single but if I had to pick just one standout track, it would be this.

How we made: Heart of Glass | Music | The Guardian

Deborah Harry:

Then, in 1978, we got this producer, Mike Chapman, who asked us to play all the songs we had. At the end, he said: "Have you got anything else?" We sheepishly said: "Well, there is this old one." He liked it – he thought it was very pretty and started to pull it into focus. The boys in the band had got their hands on a new toy: this little Roland drum machine. One day, we were fiddling around with it and Chapman said: "That's a great sound." So we used it.

If you listen to the early versions of Once I Had A Love aka The Disco Song it's quite a transformation.

I love how bands have classic songs on their hands by accident.

Lazyitis - Super Morrissey Bros

Lazyitis:

So this is a cover of "This Charming Man" by The Smiths done in the style of Super Mario Bros.. I'm planning on doing a video as soon as I can figure out how to work with Flash. The sound effects are only there to help the listener visualize the "game". I'm looking to do other 80s songs in this style as well (with accompanying videos). Enjoy!

Junip - Line Of Fire (2013)

See. I don't always post female singers.

Album Review: Bill Janovitz, "Walt Whitman Mall" | Popdose

Unlike Arcade Fire, he’s not looking to make a grand statement about the ambivalences of the suburbs, nor is he mocking them, like Fountains of Wayne. Instead he accepts the reality of what it was like to grow up there. Sure, it’s boring, potentially soul-crushing (to the point where, in the title track, a neighbor dying in Hawaii seems more romantic than working at Sears), and the focal point is a shopping center named after one of the defining American literary voices. But it wasn’t a bad way to go, and it all came with the endless optimism that comes from growing up comfortably middle-class and being told you can be anything if you put your mind to it.

Bill's new album Walt Whitman Mall is out now.

Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Coachella, April 2013)

I loved watching bits of Coachella last weekend.

Poliça - Wandering Star (Coachella, April 2013)

The best band in the world. 

Charli XCX - What I Like (2013)

The catchiest, if not particularly representative track from True Romance - Charli XCX's debut album. 

The most popular YouTube comments are:

this video is so tumblr

and

i see nothing wrong with one dancing around in their undies

"Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs..." - Popjustice

Popjustice:

Who would have guessed that Avril Lavigne would deliver one of the 2013′s most incredible choruses? Yet here we are, with ‘Here’s To Never Growing Up’, which has just appeared in full. We were big fans of the songtitle as soon as we first saw the single artwork. Artists like Avril Lavigne are often stuck in pop’s perpetual teenager role and ‘Here’s To Never Growing Up’ felt like a slightly meta joke regarding Lavigne, as a singer, giving up on any attempt to mature as an artist. We love it even more now we’ve heard the song, which is not exactly light on the tune front.

Mrs Justice Thirlwall: The one woman Philpott couldn't defeat - Comment - Voices - The Independent

Grace Dent:

I mention West because the summing-up by Mrs Justice Thirlwall – whom you may have noticed to be a female judge – raised in my mind several stomach-churning similarities between the two cases. Thirlwall issued a judgement so razor-sharp that when I read the full transcript I felt like punching the air. Because while the nation bickered about Philpott’s access to housing benefit, Thirlwall spelled out the true matter at hand about Philpott’s systematic campaigns reaching back over 40 years of violence, mental abuse, manipulation and blackmail against  vulnerable women. She spelled out why many men like Philpott – regardless of class – have multitudes of  children. Thirlwall was determined there would be no neat summations of Philpott’s unfortunate “mistake” in 2012, because this was a far longer, detailed story that needed telling.

The best article I've read on the Philpott case.