Nokia

To me, this is a really beautiful experiment. As if he let the words spill out whilst focusing on some sort of transcendental sense of purity. The whole thing is a compromise. It’s also a game!

This track is a good time. It sounds like a completely blissful journey. It sort of promises movement but maintains an overbearing stillness. It also demonstrates clearly the way that drums should sound in a studio recording.

‘Battered Old Bird’ is such a visual song. To me it is a sort of patchwork quilt of different characters and aspects of human nature. The key change in the middle is so strange; it totally exemplifies the strength of the link between the words and the music, both of which are the work of a master.

I love the mixture and contrast of the ghostly backing vocals with the almost comedic piano lines. I remember learning a lot about song arrangements in this song; about how to create space.

One of the most potent and evocative songs I’ve ever heard. The female backing vocal break my heart. The lyrics are making more sense to me now than they did when I first heard it as a teenager. I cannot wait to listen to it when I’m sixty.

This song is so simple. The lyrics are great, as is the production. It’s a really perfect and bittersweet pop song.

What a wonderful piece of advice.

A chilling and sensitive ode to the ones who’ve been cracked by life. The sound of a singer letting a great weight leave her shoulders. I’ve rarely been so affected by a song on first listen as I was with this.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh your god, oh his god, oh her god, it’s everybody’s god, it’s everybody’s god, it’s everybody’s god it’everybody’s god- the worlds collide, but all that I want is a shady lane”. Need I say more?

I’m finding it hard to explain why I like this song so much. It is so obviously a work of genius that anything I say will just cheapen my true feelings towards it.

This song is breathtakingly good. The lyrics are so open whilst maintaining a controlled directness throughout. It is consistently inspired and colourful. Man, I hate talking about music.. “Your madness fits in neatly with my own / Your lunacy fits neatly with my own; we’re not alone” (cue beautiful chord change) – Enough said.

This song feels like four months and six days inside one minute and forty eight seconds. Totally blissful.

When your head feels like it has been sliced into little pieces, listen to ‘Radio Cure’ by Wilco. Mankind is discovering new levels of communication.