"I Buried All The Answers" by Fink

Another gorgeous, moving track from English singer-songwriter Fink (previously here). "I Buried All The Answers" is from his forthcoming ninth studio album "The City Is Coming To Erase It All" available June 5th, 2026.

I should be sorry but I'm not
Now I'm standing on my own two feet
I should be bitter but the memories they taste so sweet

I know I should be richer than I am
But I spent it all like tomorrow isn't real
I should be yearning for more but I'm full to the brim

I should be in a hurry but I'm not
As I watch the sand of the hour glass
I should get ready but the moment has already passed

I should be busy as hell
But sometimes doing nothing is enough
I should be running from myself but I buried all the answers here

I should be sorry but I'm not
Now I'm standing on my own two feet
I should be bitter but the memories they taste so sweet

And here is a beautiful live version...

https://finkmusic.net/

"A Perfect Storm" by José González

It is not random.

"A Perfect Storm" by José González

https://jose-gonzalez.com/

"Against the Dying of the Light " by José González

A new song from José González from a new album to be released March 27th, 2026, both titled "Against the Dying of the Light!" José says of the narrative:

"Against the Dying of the Light is a song reflecting on humanity in 2025; about accepting who we are and what led us here, since the past can’t be changed. Then about refocusing our attention on the challenges ahead, like pervert incentives and algorithms that aren't in line with human flourishing.

And even though we have enormous opportunities with new technology that can eventually design and copy itself, we don’t have to build it right away if it has the potential to make us obsolete. We can rebel against these replicators, rebel against the dying of the light."
- José González

Accept who you have become
Where you're from
All things set,
all things gone

Relax your judging mind
Let what's been just be
There's no reset, no rewind

Embrace who we could be
the future you
The future me

Disconnect from every algorithm
Every perverse incentive
That drags you down

Let's rebel against the replicators
Against the dying of the light
Kill the codes that feed the hate
Keep the codes that make you thrive
Celebrate the fu**ing fact that we're alive

https://jose-gonzalez.com/

ML Buch's "Suntub"

Now it's time for you to meet ML Buch, an amazing Danish musician with beautiful airy vocals who uses electronics to play off her hypnotizing guitar work which sounds a lot like the open tuned, seven string technique Joni Mitchell invented for herself. Here are highlights from her album "Suntub" released in 2023.

https://www.mlbuch.com/

R.I.P. Melanie

Singer-songwriter Melanie has died at 76. She performed at Woodstock and sang some of the most memorable songs of the period. Songs from my youth...

R.I. P. Melanie and thanks for your music. 

https://www.melaniesafka.com/

Currently listening to...

...the absolutely haunting "Hints" by José González (previously here), in honor of the 20th anniversary of the release of his debut album "Veneer."

While the crowd is waiting for the final kiss
The one which allows them to sleep well
We'll walk along our own path
The one which will lead us to our own bliss

But we need hints
Before we get tired
But we need hints
Before we get tired

Now we need hints
Before we lose pace
We need a hint
To know we're on the right track

We need hints
Before we get tired
But we need hints
Before we get tired

Now we need speed
Before we lose pace

We need a hint
To know we're on the right track

http://jose-gonzalez.com/

Currently listening to...

...this utterly simple but profoundly moving song written by English singer-songwriter Lesley Duncan. She sings it here with Elton John on his album "Tumbleweed Connection" from 1971. While the lyrics represent something positive and uplifting, the melody and chord progression give this piece a weight and a plaintive sadness, as though Duncan and John are pleading for this world to have a perspective that probably won't happen...underlined by the addition of the sound of waves and people enjoying themselves but far away, out of reach...

https://www.eltonjohn.com/

Bono and The Edge At The Tiny Desk

On the heels of St. Patrick's Day, let's check in with a pair of very famous Irishmen: Bono and The Edge (if you have been living under a rock, they are part of a little band called U2 who have a had a few hit songs here and there) dropped in to the Tiny Desk at NPR--yesterday, on St. Pat's Day--to perform a low-key, charming set.

Tiny Desk says: "The performance was a preview of U2's new album, Songs Of Surrender, featuring stripped-down versions of songs from across the band's catalog. To help pull off several reimagined songs from the 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, Bono and The Edge invited a teen choir from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., to join them. During rehearsals, Bono told the students to think of 'Beautiful Day' as the kind of 'post-drinking' singalong you'd bellow with friends after leaving a bar. He then quickly realized none of them are old enough to drink, before feigning a heart attack."

"Songs of Surrender," 40 U2 songs reimagined and re-recorded is out now.
https://www.u2.com/

"Swing" by José González

Here is "Swing," a fun, bouncy new song from José González (previously here), taken from the upcoming album "Local Valley" out September 17, 2021.

Video director Mikel Cee Karlsson about  "Swing":
"I was thinking of ideas for ‘Swing’ when I stumbled upon a scientific paper that focused on the behavioral patterns of birds and their movements in the sky. I found the natural choreography of the birds really beautiful. Like a form of dance, shaped for survival.

"That gave me the idea to for an alternative kind of dance video, using everyday scenes and set in a common place, like an average Swedish beach. I wanted to see what natural choreography I could find there. In the basic interaction between people, animals and objects. Trying to highlight specific movements and patterns in order to find some banal, but beautiful and iconic little snapshots from everyday life, and make them dance."

Swing your belly, baby
Move your body, buddy

https://jose-gonzalez.com/

"Head On" by José González

"Head On' by José González (previously here).

 
Yes.

González says, "I'm thrilled to share with you 'Head On'. I wrote it as a combat song or a list of instructions...a manual. I mean both ‘straight ahead’ and head ON - as in switching on your mind. It was inspired by Fela Kuti’s 'Zombie' and the way I used to write lyrics for my hardcore band.

Video director Cee Karlsson says: 'The animations for ‘Head On’ are based on a cellular automaton called ‘Game of Life’ created by mathematician John Horton Conway. ’Game of Life’ has emergent properties, meaning that complex forms can arise, or evolve, through simple individual parts. Without any designer, plan or intent. In the video, we used visuals from ‘Game of Life’ as an analogy for the flow of information; bits of information forming patterns. Adapting. Evolving. Mutating. Like memes, or mind viruses; positive, neutral or negative. Traveling from mind to mind in a never-ending war of ideas that we all participate in and are influenced by.'"

 

Action
Reaction
Stay with it
Hang on
Engage
Disengage
Deal with it head on

Head on

Inhale
Exhale
Wave coming
Undertow
Speed up
Go slow
Put on your new boots and deal with it
While marching on

Head on

Speak up
Stand down
Pick your battles
Look around
Reflect
Update
Pause your intuitions and deal with it head on

Head on

Rent seekers
Value extractors
Corrupt oligarchs
Power snatchers
Pervert incentives
Ludic loops
Nepotism
Tribal troops

Deflate
Escalate
Hit the sweet spot
Ignore the hate
Forget your miracles
Forget your god
Join forces and deal with it head on

Head on

http://jose-gonzalez.com/

The Durutti Column: "The Guitar and Other Machines"

Now it's time for you to meet The Durutti Column. One of the first bands to be signed to the legendary Factory Records in Manchester, The Durutti Column is a musical project fronted by Vini Reilly with a rotating group of support and studio musicians. Reilly plays guitar...well, maybe play is a bit of a misnomer: he plucks, he caresses, he shakes, he stretches, he sculpts the guitar into alternative paradigms of what a guitar can do.

My favorite Durutti Column release is the haunting masterpiece "The Guitar and Other Machines" from 1987 which utilizes Reilly's amazing guitar techniques and textures (and his murmured, shy vocals) but also synthesizers, viola, harmonica, and piano to startling, enigmatic effect. There really is no other band who has made music like this, then or since...

Here are some highlights from the album.

"What Is It To Me (Woman)"

"Don't Think You're Funny"

"Jongleur Grey"

"Red Shoes"

"Bordeaux Sequence"

"Miss Haymes"

"English Landscape Tradition"

http://www.thedurutticolumn.com/index.php

"Visions" by José González

José González (previously here) has treated us to another beautiful, profound song. Watch the earth fly by, but watch out for the spanner in this video for "Visions" from his forthcoming album "Local Valley," due out September 17, 2021.

Visions
Trying to make sense of the now
Trying to make sense of the past
To show us how

Visions
Imagining the worlds that could be
Shaping a mosaic of fates
For all sentient beings

Visions
Cycles of growth and decay
Cascading chains of events
With no one to praise or blame

Visions
Avoidable suffering and pain
We are patiently inching our way
Toward unreachable utopias

Visions
Enslaved by the forces of nature
Elevated by mindless replicators
Challenged to steer our collective destiny

Visions
Look at the magic of reality
While accepting with all honesty
That we can't know for sure what's next

No we can't know for sure what's next

But that we're in this together
We are here together

https://jose-gonzalez.com/

"El Invento" by José González

This one sideswiped me...I was not quite prepared for the brevity and the absolute, tender beauty in such simplicity.

José González (previously here) sings the all-too short "El Invento," his first song in Spanish, inspired by the questions his young daughter asks about the world.

http://jose-gonzalez.com/

"Festival" by Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes

I am totally grooving on this hazy, trippy, jazzy song, "Festival" by guitarist Tom Misch and jazz drummer Yussef Dayes. Beautiful...

https://tommisch.com/

"Career Day" by Keaton Henson

Brand new trembling beauty from Keaton Henson (previously here), just released day before yesterday.

"Career Day."

I am devastated by this. Slain.

I'm an astronaut, baby
I work in the night
I'm a certain kinda crazy
I live in my mind

I'm a deep sea diver
I find ways to breathe
I'm deep undercover
I don't look like me

I'm paper-thin
Just break me in

I'm a part time mortician
I cannot shake death
And I'm an aging physician
Ain't got much healin' left

I'm a character actor
I feed myself wine
But it leaves me pretty good at
Pretending I'm fine

I'm paper-thin
Just break me in

I'm a struggling comedian
I can't find the laughs
I'm a poor mathematician
I do things by halves

I'm a weekday dancer
Can't kick the movement from my shoes
I'm a heartless casino
I win when you lose

I'm paper-thin
Just break me in

http://keatonhenson.com/

"Lake" by The Monk By The Sea

Croatian guitarist Ivan Ujevic goes by the nom de musique The Monk By The Sea, a name which conjures up serene, Zen-like images. And his music is exactly what you would want from such images. Using only an electric guitar and complex signal processing, his ethereal, ambient sounds are soundtracks to dreams or other mystical journeys. This track, "Lake," from his release "Soundscapes V" is one of my favorites.

https://themonkbythesea.bandcamp.com/

"Don't Hate On Me" and "Halfway To Nowhere" by Chelou

Chelou (a mysterious young man from North London) makes some intriguing music. Part acoustic, part electronic, his songs are crafted with a pressing sense of melancholy. Here is "Don't Hate On Me" followed by "Halfway To Nowhere."

https://www.facebook.com/chelouofficial
https://soundcloud.com/chelouofficial

"Perfect World" by Katie Melua

This video for Katie Melua's "Perfect World" touched me deeply. It reminds me of the true, unconditional love I felt from my mom, and the state of innocence of childhood. She has been gone for 14 years now and I miss her still, every single day.

You're precious
I can't stand seeing you cry
It hurts
Watching you get what you don't deserve
I tell myself
You don't belong in this rough life
You should have a perfect world
You should have a perfect world

You're too gentle
And much too quick to forgive
Every slight
And blow you've ever been dealt
Well who knows
If the world will ever deserve you
You should have a perfect world
You should have a perfect world

And who knows
If the world will ever deserve you
You should have a perfect world
You should have a perfect world

http://katiemelua.com/

Exquisite video images by Karni & Saul of the BAFTA-award-winning Sulkybunny:
http://www.sulkybunny.com/

Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us

Yes.
Yesterday was hard on all of us. Those of us with hearts and souls.

Yesterday Was Hard on All of Us
by Fink

Where do we go from here?
Where do we go?
And is it real or just
Something we think we know?

Where are we going now?
Where do we go?
Cause if it's the same as yesterday
You know I'm out, just so you know

Because, because
Our paths, they cross
Yesterday was hard
On all of us
On all of us

Who can we trust from here?
Who can we trust?
And are you real, or just
Something from wanderlust?

Who can you trust my dear sweet flower?
Who can you trust?
From cradle to grave, from ashes to ashes
From dust to dust

Because, because
Our paths, they cross
Yesterday was hard
On all of us
On all of us

Where do we go from here?
Where do we go?
And we got nothing we can trust
And nothing we can't sell, that's for sure

And how do we get out?
How do we move around with all these eyes on us?
Tell you what, you go first
It's almost like it's kind of rehearsed, but it's not

Because, because
Our paths, they cross
Yesterday was hard
On all of us
On all of us

http://www.finkworld.co.uk/

"Sleep" by 'fō

Here is a fantastic live version of "Sleep" by 'fō (the talented Josh Cooke), previously here.
Sounding and looking excellent, my friend!

http://www.hereliesfo.com/