and neither one / particularly / appeals to me

Beach House

are you not the same / as you used to be?

These two songs are taken from Beach House's forthcoming third album, Teen Dreams; Norway in particular is an especially blissful track. Teen Dreams is out on the 26th of January next year.

Beach House - Norway

Beach House - Used to Be

DJ Shadow

no wonder / the sound has so much body

Credited as the grandfather of underground hip-hop, this song comes from DJ Shadow's breakthrough album Entroducing. It samples heavily from Giorgio Moroder's Tears, taken from Son of My Father.

DJ Shadow - Organ Donor

The Lovin' Spoonful

back of my neck / getting dirt and gritty

A song for all time. It might just be me, but the guy on the bottom left looks scarily like Michael Palin.

The Lovin' Spoonful - Summer in the City

The Specials

why must you record / my phone calls?

I foolishly ruled out two-tone ska like this from music for next year's play. You're left listening to this and wondering what might have been...

The Specials - Gangsters

The Smiths

and if the day came / when i felt a natural emotion

I realize The Smiths are a bit of a recurring feature here but decided to share my favourite song of theirs regardless; the Peel Session version of Nowhere Fast. 1.50 minute mark...

The Smiths - Nowhere Fast (Peel Session '84)

i've been down so long / it looked like up to me

J Dilla

can't you see / it's me that loves you

Another song from one of J Dilla's 3 Beat Tapes, this track sampling the Supremes heavily for a breathless minute and a half.

Track 04 - 3 Beat Tapes #1

Diva

Diva is one of my favourite films, even if its extremely hard to track down. I won't destroy this film du look classic by a plot synopsis but will prvovide this song, the recording of which drives the plot in absurd and beautiful directions.

La Wally - Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood

she reassured me / with an unfamiliar smile

A reissued vinyl of this duo's LP is one of my prized possessions. I've shared Some Velvet Morning before and after acquiring a more portable mp3 version of the album I've been devoting a lot of my time to Ladybird and Summer Wine.

Nancy Sinatra surely needs no introduction - not only is she the daughter of the ultimate Stranger in the Night, but also the singer on the Billy Strange-arranged Bang Bang. Strange also arranged the songs on this LP, another notch in a belt that has spanned most of the 20th century (most notably including a writing credit on Little Less Conversation). Hazlewood's work with Sinatra is much less maudlin than his profligate solo output but this is every bit as good as what I think is his finest work in isolation, My Autumn's Done Come.

Summer Wine - Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood

Billie Holiday

i long to try / something i never had

Kerouac mentions this beautiful song amongst the coruscating rhythms of jazz and bop that punctuate On the Road and Holiday's truth and sadness stands out, even in such Beatific company.

Lover Man - Billie Holiday

The Smiths

take me out / tonight

I wrote a 3000-word document on music of the period in which Alan Bennett's play The History Boys is set for the director of next year's Autumn Production, accompanied by two cds. On the first The Smiths featured heavily, alongside The Cure, New Order and Joy Division, while the second was a much more ostentatious exercise in showing off the eclectic (Zoolook etc.)

My favourite Smiths song is the John Peel '84 session of Nowhere Fast - the section after 1.50 should be showcased next year - but this is almost as special.

The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out