December 3, 2024

I was surprised when I heard this song at the supermarket last week. Is this song now too mainstream for me? Possibly for 17-year-old me, who worried about only listening to alternative or indie music. But I’ve been listening to 2019’s Terms of Surrender since it came out so I think I’m a true fan.

Read More
#17 Hiss Golden Messenger – I Need A Teacher

November 5, 2024

I think I stumbled upon Phil Cook while exploring songs for my Instrumentical playlist. His solo piano album All These Years from 2021 is gorgeous; I was even more impressed when I realised he’d also released a solo guitar album and was a blues, americana and gospel singer-songwriter. My research about Mr Cook for this

Read More
#16 Phil Cook – Gone

October 8, 2024

After September’s newsletter where I raved about the latest Real Estate album, I wanted to visit where my love of the band started, in 2014 with their Atlas album. ‘Crime’ is the first song we played on our stereo when we moved into our house. We both still love it 10 years later. Atlas was

Read More
#15 Real Estate – Crime

September 10, 2024

I consider most songs with a pop sound not to be in my taste profile. But this month’s song is full of synths, 80s-sounding drums, and produced vocals, and it feels very much like the pop songs I usually despise. I first heard this song on a Philosophy Tube video and was struck by its

Read More
#14 Brimheim feat. eee gee – Brand New Woman

August 13, 2024

I love Laura Marling, largely because she reminds me of a certain time in my life in 2009/10. She was rising in the UK indie folk scene, while I was liberally bathing my ears in as much indie folk music as possible, attending gigs and festivals with my buddy Greg.   Listening to ‘Rambling Man’ today,

Read More
#13 Laura Marling – Rambling Man

July 4, 2024

I’ve written before about the importance of listening to new music, keeping your mind open to finding likeable tunes by bands you haven’t heard of. I must admit though, I am drawn to songs with an old-school vibe, reminding me of a time I’ve not lived through. That’s why I love The Murlocs, they style

Read More
#12 The Murlocs – Initiative

May 10, 2024

We’re delving into the early 90s, when I was heading into my teenage years and living at home, under the influence of both commercial radio and my parent’s taste in music. Depending on how you feel about the band INXS and its music will colour how lucky you think I am that my Mum had

Read More
#11 INXS – Not Enough Time

January 21, 2024

Sometimes as a songwriter, I feel like I’m writing about some of the same concepts as I’ve done in the past and I’m using the same words. As a lover of variety, this rankles me a bit. I guess that’s why I appreciate a song that takes a different point of view. “Brendan”, from Ripe’s

Read More
#10 Ripe – Brendan

January 5, 2024

When musicians are asked if they knew a song was going to be a hit when they wrote it, the response is usually 50/50. Some had an inkling they were onto someting, but some had no idea. I remember hearing Kimbra talk about laying down the vocal for Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”,

Read More
#9 Ainslie Wills & Old Sea Brigade – Detour

September 6, 2023

On Friday night, I went to see Paul Dempsey at Freo Social. An old school friend invite me and I met my sister there, who had run into two people I used to hang out with back in the early 2000’s. One of them was in a band with me, the other I met online

Read More
#8 Something for Kate – Situation Room

July 25, 2023

This song came on while I was in the car last week, one of my mix playlists on Spotify. Mr F asked me when this song came out. I said ‘Last year’, to which he replied ‘It’s a good one’. Spotify reminded me how much I loved this song in 2022’s Wrapped as this song

Read More
#7 The Dip – Real Contender

July 11, 2023

Today we’re going back, right back to 1982, a year after I was born. Why so far back? Because I’ve been soaking up music for as long as my ears were open, and Alan Parsons Project is certainly a strong memory when I think of the music my parents listened to. I have a whole

Read More
#6 Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky

April 24, 2023

I stumbled on this tune while listening to a Spotify algorithmic playlist some time ago. After some exploration, I can say not all songs on the 2019 album Holding Onto A Dream by sir Was (a.k.a Joel Wästberg) resonate with me like this one, “No Giving Up” is undoubtedly interesting when you apply your ears

Read More
#5 sir Was – No Giving Up

March 6, 2023

I’ve been a fan of Nerina Pallot for a really long time. I feel fortunate to seen her play during my time in London. I have always loved her songwriting. “Master Builder” is taken from 2022’s I Don’t Know What I’m Doing, which I love as an album title, because I feel in my 40’s

Read More
#4 Nerina Pallot – Master Builder

February 12, 2023

Some people I’ve met say they don’t listen to new music. Apparently, all music produced in the last 20-30 years is rubbish so they’ll stick with the classics. If you can’t tell, this stance really bugs me. This lack of engagement in new music does not help artists to continue to create more and better music.

Read More
#3 Kim Churchill – Fighter

January 17, 2023

This week, I came to the conclusion that probably the best thing about music is that there is so much to learn. You could spend your whole life acquiring musical knowledge and not make much of a dent. Another joy is that new music is produced all the time, so you can always discover a

Read More
#2 Morningsiders – Be Good

January 10, 2023

When I try to think back to where I found the songs I love, I often draw a blank. Following rabbit holes from one playlist to artists and similar artists, it’s impossible to know when and how a song found its way into my heart. I definitely draw a blank with this song which was

Read More
#1 The Barr Brothers – Defibrillation

January 9, 2023

It’s been on my mind for a while now – why do we love the songs we love? Is it the instruments? The sound of the singer’s voice? The melodies and the harmonies? Was this song the soundtrack to some of our fondest memories? Does it help put us in a certain mood? Why does this

Read More
About this blog