Sufjan Stevens 'Come On! Feel the Illinoise!'

American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Detroit, Sufjan Stevens varies his styles from indie folk to baroque pop to electronica. This is the introductory song to the 2005 album 'Illinoise,'
which invites you to feel the music. This off beat, polyphonic number with varied time signatures bring surprising little shocks and twitches to the ears and a pleasant tweedle dee to the mind.

► Come on! Feel the Illinoise!

John Lee Hooker 'This Is Hip'

John Lee Hooker, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist from Mississippi, uniquely blended blues, folk, stomp, a lot of rhythm, and piano boogie-woogie. His lyrics and style of playing were completely free and unpredictable, as he rarely stuck to a standard beat. This song is about messin' around with a pretty lady and accidentally falling in love, which when it happens like that, is pretty hip. 

► This is Hip

Gary Moore & Phil Lynott 'Parisienne Walkways'

Guitarist Gary Moore and Thin Lizzy's frontman Phil Lynott co-wrote this back in the seventies. The guitar and lyrics have such a sense of nostalgia and together with Lynott's vocals, who died at the age of 36, there is also a sense of mourning: "Looking back at the photographs..." In his lifetime, Lynott also published two books of poetry, which are now combined as one, and called by its echoing name 'Songs for while I'm Away.'

► Parisienne Walkways

Princess Chelsea 'The Cigarette Duet'

As the cover and title suggests, Princess Chelsea's album 'Little Golden Book' seems to be fixed on four and twenty fairytales, each track with a new message. The wondrous melodies and the reappearing xylophone take you on a fantastical journey. The Cigarette Duet deals with issues of smoking addiction in a fun and mocking way, while the video cannot be taken seriously at all. As they 'la-la-la' they're almost saying 'bla-bla-bla... yes we've heard it all before.'

► The Cigarette Duet

Melanie 'Beautiful People'

American singer-songwriter Melanie Safka singing about 'Beautiful People,' live in London in 1971. In that same year she performed at the first ever Glastonbury Festival, which headlined David Bowie, and she performed there again last year on the festival's 40th Anniversary. Her folky style with guitar in hand, accompanied by those raspy vocals, is so authentic and beautifully potent that she makes you want to sway in a cornfield making daisy chains surrounded by all those beautiful people

► Beautiful People

Kate Bush 'Babooshka'

What a fantastic image to sum up the character of this English baroque-pop-and-progressive-rock star! She was a woman before her time when she began in the seventies, challenging the masculine world of rock, and her music is still as fresh today as it was then. She is also a great performer: so animated that you can't tear your eyes away from hers. Babooshka tells the ironic tale of a woman who decides to test her husband's loyalty and somehow it all completely backfires.

                                             ► Babooshka

Jeff Buckley 'Lover, You Should've Come Over'

Here lies some of the most beautiful and tragic lyrics written by Jeff Buckley for his early 1990's album Grace. His sorrowful tenor voice, which could range over four octaves, almost mirrors his own tragedy, having later drowned in the river at the young age of 30. It is as if he knew what was to come and his story seems to linger now in his own words like 'a tear that hangs inside my soul forever.'

► Lover, You Should've Come Over

Beirut 'Postcards from Italy'

The American group Beirut is heavily influenced by foreign styles such as French chanson, Mexican mariachi, Balkan folk, and Sicilian funeral brass. Frontman Zach Condon from Sante Fe loves nothing more than to explore world music, literally. He dropped out of school at the age of 16 and went to travel Europe, and here's what happened.

PJ Harvey 'The Words that Maketh Murder'

I'd like to call her Polly Jean but this English rock musician goes by PJ. This music video starts with acoustic scenes of Harvey strumming her autoharp alone in her living room, to random film footage of war and everyday life with full-on accompaniment and backing vocals. Amongst the many instruments are featured a saxophone and a trambone also played by the multi-talented instrumentalist and composer. 

► The Words that Maketh Murder

Soap & Skin 'Marché Funebre'

Austrian musician Anja Plaschg has a talent for creating deathly and dreamlike sensations through her experimental music project Soap & Skin. Here the track 'Marché Funebre' is the perfect background music for this frightening clip from Samuel Fuller's1963 film Shock Corridor.

► Marché Funebre

Lisa O'Neill 'I Painted My Nails So Pretty'

One of the quirkiest musicians hanging about Dublin these days. Her lyrics are simply hilarious and witty and they never grow old. With fantastic harmonies hither and plucking of strings thither, there isn't a dull moment. Lisa O'Neill's distinct voice and spirited music is deliciously fresh. Traditional with a twist. Yum!

► I've Painted My Nails So Pretty

Jesca Hoop 'Four Dreams'

'Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night,' said Tom Waits about this little gem from California. The jazzy harmonies, plucky chords, and funky lyrics make up for a fun and jittery tune. She's a delight to all the senses, even her name brings joy to my ears. Hoop! 

► Four Dreams

Villagers 'I Saw The Dead'

This first track of Villagers 'Becoming A Jackal' is darkly wistful, very haunting, and extremely enticing. One is simply not enough. And the good news is the rest of the album succeeds to meet its standards. The strings and percussion prepare you for what is to come, the piano lures you in, the lyrics take you on a strange journey until you find yourself walking hesitantly down a long dark corridor towards the 'back room,' when it all suddenly ends with a thud like you've woken from a lucid dream. A beautiful introduction to a fantastic and thought provoking piece of work. 

► I Saw The Dead

Lisa Hannigan 'Little Bird'

One of my favourite musicians is Dublin singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan. She is, herself, as delicate and slight as a little bird. Her lyrics are poetic and enchanting and she sings so gently that everything about her is magical. Resembling something otherworldly, she's like an old Irish myth brought to life. Her music is a reminder of the beauty in the world and she brings about such feelings of kindness and joy that I think her listeners should want to be better people.

► Little Bird

Nina Simone 'You Can Have Him'

This renowned jazz musician from North Carolina had the remarkable ability to transmit her intense emotions to her listeners through the power of her voice, her lyrics, her character and her exquisite piano playing. This number mirrors the inner thoughts of a woman who desperately wants to appear strong and independent, while trying to deny the fact that she is hopelessly in love with another woman's man.

► You Can Have Him

Karen Dalton 'Something on your Mind'

1960s American folk singer Karen Dalton was one of Bob Dylan's favourite musicians. Her bluesy vocals are so weary they are almost rustic. You can even picture the vinyl spinning on the record player as you listen to her. This track makes me think about walsing around the living room floor in somebody's arms with a lonely but comforting sense of nostalgia between us.

► Something On Your Mind

CocoRosie 'The Moon Asked the Crow'

This Paris-based sisterly duo are torn in two on so many levels with contrasts of darkness and light, beauty and imperfection, life and death, innocence and corruption, to name but a few. One sister's vocals are operatic while the other is somewhat similar to a child, and together with their array of unusually manipulated instruments, their music echoes a sensuously dark and poignant tale.

► The Moon Asked The Crow

Camille 'Wet Boy'

This track from Paris-born singer Camille Dalmais is both seductive and melancholic, and the lyrics are fun, fresh and mischievous. Her voice is piercingly good as it immediately sinks into your mind. How someone can sing so beautifully lying in a horizontal position like is beyond me. In reponse to her music and to her question: I think I now know what it feels like to be wet.

► Wet Boy

Nico & The Velvet Underground 'Femme Fatale'

When Andy Warhol washed his hands clean of Edie Sedgewick, his attentions turned towards Nico, vocal collaborator with his experimental rock band The Velvet Underground. Warhol asked Lou Reed to write a song about Edie, adding, 'Don't you think she's a femme fatale Lou?' and so he wrote this and Nico took the lead.



► Femme Fatale

Lykke Li & Bon Iver 'Dance Dance Dance'

Don't you just love it when great musicians collide? Let's join American folk band Bon Iver and Swedish singer Lykke Li for a shindig in the park in LA. All that percussing just drives me crazy and her voice is so sweet it's almost sticky. It literally commands you to dance: and I for one cannot resist.

► Dance Dance Dance

The Staves 'Mexico'

So you might have guessed by now that I like my female vocalists. Well these three little ladies are sisters from Watford, England who sing beautiful harmonies together. There is a certain sense of innocence that surrounds them. This video is very simple yet magical as is the song and the sisters themselves.

► Mexico

Dillon 'Tip Tapping'

This is a fun little tip tapping tune from the Berlin based artist, Dillon. I imagine an elephant plodding along to the sound of the brass. Can elephants tip tap? That would be fun to see.

► Tip Tapping

Joanna Newsom 'Sprout and the Bean'

A harpist, pianist, singer-songwriter from California. Her voice is as strange and wonderful as her lyrics, and her style is often just as erratic. She recorded her first two EPs on a Fisher Price tape recorder. Here's a nice gentle number to wake up to on a lazy, sunny evening in June.

► Sprout and the Bean

Joni Mitchell 'A Case of You'

 

Part of Joni pours into me in these lines from time to time...

Camille O'Sullivan 'Misery is the River of the World'

A night with Camille is as invigorating as jumping into the Atlantic in November. Her Irish sense of humour combined with her French cabaret-chic sense of style (and her many random props upon stage) will always ensure a tremendously entertaining performance. Sometimes known as The Dark Angel, Camille's voice is at once gently husky and extremely powerful with the ability to take you on a complete high and thrash you back down into a deep melancholy.

► Misery is the River of the World