Parov Stelar - Dust in the Summer Rain, Feat. Lilja Bloom, The Princess

With his new album, Marcus Füreder (better known as Parov Stelar) hasn’t grown up, exactly - his music has always had a darker side - but something about The Princess comes across as more mature than previous records. Of course there’s the fantastic jazz/house dancefloor fillers that make up his previous work, but still - there’s something deeper there too. 

Lilja is, of course, fantastic (did you know that she did the artwork too?) but it’s the little touches - the guitar riffs, the almost imperceptible basslines, the odd vocal sample here and there - that lift this song above the rest.

(Also worth checking out: With You.)

I left the place that you call home
I left the place that you go home
Don’t you know that I died for you
Like the dust in the summer rain? 

Haim - Go Slow, Forever EP

It would be easy to write Haim off as a straightforward 80’s revival band (which is no bad thing, by the way) with elements of modern R&B, but look beyond the basslines and drum machine beats and there’s something deeper and more intimate; maybe it’s the soft growl of a guitar, or maybe the interplay of harmonies between the three sisters, but there’s something there, lurking just at the edge of your hearing that puts them beyond categorizing.

Worth listening to over and over, just to make sure you catch it all -and since the entire EP is available free to download you have no excuse not to really, do you?

(Also, well worth checking out is this acoustic version of the song).

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

O where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?

It’s easy to nostalgize the 60’s: a time of swingin’ teens, free love, and a soundtrack to die for. But the truth is, like any decade or generation there were struggles, trials and tribulations. People stood up for - died for - their basic human rights; to be happy, to feel secure, and above all, to feel equal.

Bob Dylan was certainly not the first person to pick up a guitar and sing for social justice, but it was arguably him more than anyone else who came to define a generation of artists, musicians and other assorted misfits that refused to stay silent: that would not be the silent majority, and who made their voices be heard.

“Every line in it is actually the start of a whole new song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn’t have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one.”

It’s been 50 years since Dylan put his pen to paper and wrote A Hard Rain: a lifetime of songs. But personally, I find that none of them will ever be as painful, as true, and as relevant as this one. So long as there is injustice in this world, there will be protest; so long as there is protest, there will be protest songs; and so long as there are protest songs, the ghost of Dylan’s songwriting will be there, reaching down through the ages.

So tell me: has the rain stopped yet?

Oh, who did you meet my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow.
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded in hatred:
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

The Black Keys - Tighten Up, Brothers

I’m going on a blues/rock binge at the moment. I have no regrets.

I wanted love, I needed love,
Most of all, most of all,
Someone said true love was dead
And I’m bound to fall, bound to fall
For you,
Oh, what can I do?
Yeah

Jack White - Love Interruption, Blunderbuss

Only Jack White could tell you that he wants “love to/murder my own mother” and make your feet stomp while he does it. (Also worth a look - “I’m Shakin’”. It’ll make you downright noivous.)

I want love
To roll me over slowly,
stick a knife inside me,
and twist it all around:

I want love to
grab my fingers gently,
slam them in a doorway,
put my face into the ground!