Mr Brown by Bob Marley

Sun is shining, time to crack out some easy-going reggae right? Well, almost. Mr Brown is, like pretty much everything Marley recorded, a primary colours, sun-dappled groove, guaranteed to put a smile on your face, but in many ways this is closer to the Lee Scratch Perry school of reggae - in fact it's no surprise to find that he's the producer. It doesn't quite summon the spirits to burn down your studio, but the maniacal laughter, heavy bass and bizarre imagery reveal something darker than Marley's normal oeuvre. Is it a Jamaican ghost story? Is it a cautionary tale about heroin? It's mysterious subject matter coupled with its soul-gone-dub blast puts it a cut above Bob's mainstream hits. Best served with a slight chill.

Mr Brown by Bob Marley - listen on Spotify here.

From: Bob Marley and Friends (2007)

Simple Song by The Shins

Every season needs an anthem - a song you will associate with a certain time and place until the day you die - and I've already earmarked Simple Song for Spring / Summer 2012. The lead single off The Shins' long-awaited longplayer Port Of Morrow, it takes the 80s power-pop template that Noah And The Whale dabbled with on last year's Last Night On Earth and pushes the melody-factor skyward. It's joyously radio-friendly, sunny-of-chorus and showcases James Mercer's typically idiosyncratic way with a lovesick lyric. A big-hearted bid for the big time.

Simple Song by The Shins - listen on Spotify here.

From: Port Of Morrow (2012)

I Could Be A Saint by Emma Pollock

Continuing yesterday's Scottish theme, here's a sumptuous pop song from one of indie's true heroines. In her former role as vocalist and co-songwriter with The Delgados, Pollock was the dreamy voice behind many a granite-edged symphonic beauty. I Could Be A Saint is from her second solo album but could easily have slipped from a Delgados album - although it's a degree or two more strident than her former band, a defiant kiss-off to a useless lover  - "How you gonna break my heart? When you've never even made my day?" - and replete a chorus that swoons and sweeps in all the right places. Bitterness has rarely sounded so sugar sweet.

I Could Be A Saint by Emma Pollock - listen on Spotify here.

From: The Law Of Large Numbers (2010)

Life In A Scotch Sittingroom #2 Episode 11 by Ivor Cutler

In search of summer songs to play in our mini-heatwave, I came across this curiosity from the 1970s. Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet and songwriter who found fame late in life. Loved by John Peel, The Beatles (he stars in Magical Mystery Tour) and the brilliant Neil Innes (Monty Python, The Rutles etc), his finest work seems to be Life In A Scotch Sittingroom #2, an affectionately satirical take on his childhood in the slums of Glasgow. Episode 11 tells the story of Ivor and his unfortunate siblings being dragged out into the countryside for a walk, Ivor's mock-Burns poetry hypnotically delivered over woozy instrumentation. It's strange atmosphere recalls the lulling, mid-summer drowsiness of Elbow's Lippy Kids, whilst conjuring images of a place and time that feels so separate from the chaotic world we live in, it's pretty much a guaranteed four minutes of calm. A little pool of tranquility from the tenements.

Life In A Scotch Sittingroom #2, Episode 11 by Ivor Cutler - listen on Spotify here.

From: Jammy Smears (1976)

Ruby by Cheap Girls

Never having been to Michigan, I sadly have no idea what it's like, but in my head it's a city of dark blues bars populated by tattoo-emblazoned brawlers, bourbon-soaked women and bands like Cheap Girls slogging their guts and hearts out every night on tiny stages for three blind men and a dog. And that view is pretty much solely based on this song. Thankfully not a cover of the Kaiser Chiefs' rather turgid hit, but a song that topples over with melody, staggers over its drums and vomits out another guitar line just when you least expect it. On a par with other brilliantly down-trodden American bar bands like The Hold Steady and The Gaslight Anthem, it pretty much demands repeated listens. As Paul Simon rightly sang, Michigan seems like a dream to me now.

Ruby by Cheap Girls - listen on Spotify here.

From: Giant Orange (2012)

Muask by Trisco (Eddie Halliwell Remix)

It's time for everyone to report to the dance floor. Now my expertise in dance music is rather like my knowledge of art. I don't know a lot but I know what I like. And when this came on in the office the other day it was like we'd temporarily shifted our sterile London office to an Iberian club with pogo dancers, glowsticks and a gigantic glitterball. Smiles and head nodding all round. If dance music is about escapism then this certainly does the trick over six minutes of propulsive techno which hits a heightened groove just at the moment you think it's falling away. Indeed, it's a masterclass of delayed dance floor satisfaction. Turn it up loud and get your colleagues in the mood for a messy night out.

Musak by Trisco (Eddie Halliwell Remix) - listen on Spotify here.

From: Musak (2011)

Cadillac by Andrew W.K.

For anyone familiar with Andrew WK's debut I Get Wet, his 2009 album 55 Cadillac was a bit of a jolt. Gone (well, almost gone) was the party-hard 80s rock posturing, replaced by improvised piano interludes in tribute to his favourite car. The title track is its finest example, a night time cruise of delicate major chords which plunges back into some pleasing soft-rock riffage at its destination. A spiritual cousin of Richard Hawley's Lowedges, it's a quiet rumination on the freedom of the road and the dangerous beauty of a machine that can kill pretty youth. A vintage slice of modern Americana. 

Cadillac by Andrew W.K. - listen on Spotify here.

From: 55 Cadillac (2009)

The Night by School Of Seven Bells

Feeling a bit of a chill? Lights flickering all of a sudden? That would probably by the icy presence of School Of Seven Bells whose new album Ghostory is an ever-so-slightly ridiculous concept LP, based around a "young girl called Lafaye and the ghosts in her life". Well let's put that nonsense to one side for a moment and enjoy the rather wondrous album opener, The Night. Glacial, sensual and anything but dead in the water, its propulsive slinkiness is as compelling as the sweet, sweeping vocals of Alejandra Deheza, a woman who could make a shopping list sound dreamy. Things that go bump in the night have rarely sounded this enticing.

The Night by School Of Seven Bells - listen on Spotify here.

From: Ghostory (2012)

Let Her Go by Sissy And The Blisters

I'm a big fan of songs that don't overstay their welcome. If you can say all you need to in two minutes 44 seconds (as Guildford four-piece Sissy And The Blisters do here), then I'm all for it. Don't go widdling on for ten minutes about how rubbish your life is unless you're Jason Pierce (see my Spiritualized post from last week) or Bob Dylan. Raucous, garage rock 'n' roll of the highest order, Let Her Go sounds like a lost Clash single fronted by Ian Curtis, intent on battering you around the head before leaving you in a mess on the dance floor at about two minutes 30. Pretty much everything you need from a pop song about having to split up with someone because all you wanted to do is go out and get drunk. It's economy, stupid.

Let Her Go by Sissy And The Blisters - listen on Spotify here.

From: The Let Her Go EP (2011)

To The Sky by Maps

As refreshing as a shimmery March morning, To The Sky is the perfect pick-me-up for a stultifying March afternoon. Sculpted from the clouds by one-man electro-shoe-gazer James Chapman, a.k.a. Maps, it's from his debut album, the wonderful We Can Create, which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize back in the days when the Klaxons were being all shouty, bleepy and generally annoying. They might have carried off the award but this four minutes of sky-scraping dream pop lives longer in the memory. A briefly-lost classic.

To The Sky by Maps - listen on Spotify here.

From: We Can Create (2007)

Anyway That You Want Me by Spiritualized

Friday should be party tune day shouldn't it? Well, how about a seven minute chemically-stimulated ode to unrequited lust, first recorded by rattling 60s popsters The Troggs (them who did Wild Thing), here reimagined  in the addled but brilliant mind of Jason Pierce as an orchestral suite aiming for the stars. You might not hear it down Ritzys at Happy Hour but there's a similar sense of ecstatic teen longing that lingers beneath the strings and drones. This was Spiritualized's first single way back in 1990 when the world was baggy-shaped and pilled to the heavens and I can only imagine this sounded like it had been beamed from another planet. As us converts count down the days to their new album Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, it's a compelling reminder of what a very special band they are.

Anyway That You Want Me by Spiritualized - listen on Spotify here.

From: The Complete Works of Spitualized Vol 1 (2003)

Publish My Love by Rogue Wave

I owe this one to an ex girlfriend who raved about it many years ago after Lauren Laverne played it on her XFM Breakfast Show (before the Alex Zane salad days of commercial indie radio), and she was bloody right. It's an absolute cracker. Oddly distinct from the rest of Rogue Wave's idiosyncratic back catalogue, its soaring, cloud-bursting guitars are up there with the Roses' Ten Storey Love Song, which it always reminds me of - a kind of Californian cousin with a shimmery sun-baked glow. God only knows what the chorus, "You could never publish my love", actually means - is she planning some Mills and Boon bonk-a-thon novel? Is his love so unremittingly perverted it could never be put into print? Who knows. A mysterious message from a mysterious band but this is pretty much the sound of falling in love for the first time, times ten. A nice keepsake from an otherwise wonky relationship.

Publish My Love by Rogue Wave - listen on Spotify here.

From: Descended Like Vultures (2005)

Hold On by Alabama Shakes

Clearly a musician's background shouldn't matter a jot when rating their output (requisite punk posh boy Joe Strummer is often rolled out as an example and here he is again - poor Joe), but when your drummer used to check radiation leaks at a nuclear power plant and your incredible singer used to be a postwoman, then it does tend to make your thrilling rock 'n' roll 'n' blues rather more authentic. And so it is with Alabama Shakes. Firstly they are actually from Alabama and not Surrey, which helps. And secondly Hold On is a rollicking, yearning blast of southern-fried faith in oneself ("Bless my heart, bless my soul, I didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old"), coupled with rolling, sunshine-speckled Americana riffs. An afternoon wake up call from the other side of the tracks.

Hold On by Alabama Shakes - listen on Spotify here.

Amoureuse by Kiki Dee

That towering national treasure, Jarvis Cocker, played this on his 6 Music radio show a while ago and I had to sit down for a minute it was that good. Poor Kiki Dee will be forever remembered, of course, for Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Elton John - great pop song and everything but it barely scratches the surface of Kiki's talents - lest we forget she was signed to Motown and this song shows you why. A cover of a song written by French artist Veronique Sanson (no, me neither), it's a devastating account of the aftermath of a girl losing her virginity to some unfeeling cove. Beautiful vocals, whooshing brass and strings and a knock out of a chorus ("I should have told him, I'd do anything if I could hold him"), it's fragile white-girl soul at its finest. A real heart breaker.

Amoureuse by Kiki Dee - listen on Spotify here.

From: The Best Of Kiki Dee (2009)

Friend Crush by Friends

Almost daily now I wonder if I should just up sticks and move to Brooklyn such is the quality of new music which courses through the veins of that New York borough. Friends are another fine NYC export, and fit neatly into the slew of bands producing precision-cut electro pop that sounds like it was made by machines but still feels like it has the heart of a human behind it (see also Class Actress). Dreamy and impossibly glamorous, Friend Crush is all about making that hip person you find intimidating your mate (kind of stalker-ish but just go with it) and even if they don't stick with you, this song certainly will. You have been warned.

Friend Crush by Friends - listen on Spotify here.

PS The video's great too! Take a look here.

Leaving On The 5th by Voxhaul Broadcast

It's Friday night. You're in a strange city for a few more hours and you meet someone who knocks you sideways. You know you have to leave in the morning but for a few heady hours you can pretend you're not. Think Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise. This is the premise of the glorious three minutes that make up Leaving On The 5th by Voxhaul Broadcast, a band formed on the golden shores of Orange County (yes, I assume they live in a pool house, funded by a mysteriously benevolent family). A mix of sunny surf-rock and pop-production polish, it rattles along with an abandon perfectly suited to its subject matter. It's like Katy Perry with a good tune and a bit of soul. In other words, the perfect song for a Friday afternoon.

Leaving On The 5th by Voxhaul Broadcast - listen on Spotify here.

From: Timing Is Everything (2011)

I am The Lion King - Papa

The sun is shining (almost), the world is lightening and thawing for Spring and the finest soundtrack I've found so far this year is Papa's glistening, riff-laden I am The Lion King. Coming on like Modest Mouse's brilliant Float On, I am The Lion King oozes Californian insouciance (Papa are indeed Californian and are led by Girls drummer Darren Weiss), and romantic intent ("I want to give you my number..."), all blasted out in a strident Springsteen FM radio sheen. A shaft of sunlight in a dreary old week.

I Am The Lion King by Papa - listen on Spotify here.

PS - I've been told the St Lucia remix of this song is excellent. It doesn't seem to be on Spotify yet but hunt it down!

Genesis - Grimes

This has been rolling around my cranium for days now - it's one of those songs that has an insidious quality that makes you love it more with each listen. So Grimes is another deliciously dreamy electro outfit (actually a girl called Claire Boucher, someone who endearingly claims not to own a mobile phone), to file alongside the wonderful Tycho and M83. That incommunicado isolation seeps into Genesis (nowt to do with Phil Collins by the way), a song to get lost in, all built around an undulating, bass-y riff, crackly beats and ravishing vocals from la Boucher. Absorbing stuff for days when the phone doesn't ring.

Genesis by Grimes - listen on Spotify here.

From: Visions (2012)

The Sea - Exitmusic

Not content with being in the cast of hit US TV series Boardwalk Empire, Aleksa Palladino is also one half of brooding NYC duo Exitmusic. Alongside her wonderfully-monikered hubby, Devon Church, she provides the billowy vocals to their atmospheric, electronically-tinged squall. The Sea, as the title suggests, is a swelling mass of moroseness, cut from the same stormy clouds as Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief, perfectly befitting a day of leaden skies and furrowed brows. A comfortingly beautiful wave of misery.

The Sea by Exitmusic - listen on Spotify here.

From: From Silence (2011)

Don’t Cut It Off – Soft Swells

From the warm shores of California via the quaint town of Lewes near Brighton, this track from LA / Brooklyn duo Soft Swells gently unwraps its transatlantic birth over three gorgeous minutes of West Coast harmony and underplayed English indie. Produced by Dave Lynch (Ed Harcourt and the criminally underrated Clearlake) in the rolling Sussex countryside, Don’t Cut It Off will appeal to anyone who loves the bucolic fuzziness of Band Of Horses or the long forgotten Lowgold. All sun, shade and a nagging undertow of a guitar refrain, it builds to a strident, melody-flecked plea for time and understanding from a lover. Heart grabbing stuff.

Don't Cut It Off by Soft Swells - listen on Spotify here.

From: Soft Swells (2012)