Happens to the Heart is a song from the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen‘s last studio album, Thanks for the Dance. Cohen, gifted with a golden voice, is notably famous for his songs Suzanne and Hallelujah. But all his albums are really worth discovering, and I’d choose his discography if I could take only one on a desert island! He was also a poet and novelist, hence the quality of the lyrics.
Amy Taylor is an Australian girl worth listening at the moment. Singer in her band Amyl and the Sniffers, she also sang with Sebastian Murphy from the Viagra Boys for In spite of Ourselves, and with Sleaford Mods in the acclaimed song Nudge It.
When he discovered punk in the 1970s, Shane MacGowan decided that he had a mission: promote the Irish culture with his band The Pogues against the British oppressor. He notably popularized the song Dirty Old Town written in 1949. He also wrote very good personal songs.
1979 is about youth’s carefreeness. A song from the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness released in 1995. The Smashing Pumpkins were then on tour and I was lucky enough to see them in Brixton, even though I didn’t have any ticket…
The lyrics
I was then a French assistant in Croydon College in London when Oasis released the album (What’s the story?) Morning Glory, with notably this song Wonderwall. It was like a revival of pop music, so British!
The lyrics here
The kind of song you could listen to a hundred times and that still give you the shivers – to be listened to very loud, in the dark. Thom Yorke from Radiohead first sang Fake Plastic Trees in 1995.
Here are the lyrics
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Sonic Youth released the album Dirty in 1992, in which appears the song Sugar Kane. Sugar Kane Kowalczyk is the name of Marilyn Monroe’s character in 1959’s “Some Like it Hot”, one of her most recognizable roles.
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One of my favourite bands as a student in the 1990s, and still today, Pixies is a band from Boston. They made few albums before their separation in 1993, but they are simply excellent. They then started playing again and it’s still good today, though they are not so young (neither am I). Gouge away, a title difficult to translate, is the kind of song that may remain in your head for hours!
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The Cure is one of the emblematic new wave / cold wave bands of the 80s. The Forest, from the excellent album Seventeen Seconds released in 1980, is here sung by a Robert Smith not yet famous for his makeup and dishevelled hair.
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Black Old Sun by the American rock band Soundgarden was released in 1994. Chris Cornell confessed that he had written the lyrics in just a few minutes and that he didn’t himself know what they really were about – but that the title sounded nice.
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A revelation in 2019, the post-punk rock Irish band Fontaines DC is hitting the charts. Good music, good lyrics, alternating punk riffs and ballads with the energy of youth! Too real is taken from their first album Dogrel.
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Two shots to the head appears on folk artist Emily Jane White‘s first album Dark Undercoat, released in 2008. A melancholy song on a melancholy album, here played acoustic.
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God Save the Queen was released in 1977, twenty-five years after Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne. It appears on Never mind the bollocks, the only album by The Sex Pistols, becoming an anthem for punk music (noooooo fuuuuture…)
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Punk crooner Nick Cave‘s songs are haunting. Higgs Boson Blues from the album Push the sky away and opening Live from KCRW is but one example of his pure talent, as a song writer and singer.
Click here for the lyrics
Fade Into You (1993) is Mazzy Star‘s most famous song. The singer Hope Sandoval then formed her own band and collaborated with such great bands as Jesus and Mary Chain and Massive Attack. I don’t really know what the song is about, but Hope Sandoval’s voice sounds mournful and melancholy.
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Joe Strummer and Mick Jones from The Clash wrote the song London Calling in 1979. The song is about what characterised London in the 70s : the conservative Margaret Thatcher, floods, police violence… As often with The Clash, it brilliantly mixes punk and reggae. An essential song!
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After the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed went on a solo career. In 1972, he sang Perfect Day, a beautiful song produced by David Bowie. As most Lou Reed’s songs, the lyrics deal with love and/or drugs.
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Formed in the 1960s in New York city, the Velvet Undergound was mainly composed of Lou Reed, John Cale, Moe Tucker and Sterling Morrison. Nico also sang on their first banana album, produced by Andy Warhol. They performed many shows, notably at the pop art artist’s factory. They would have a major influence on rock and roll, punk and new wave in the following years.
Click here for the explicit lyrics of the song Venus in Furs
The DØ is a French band. Dan Levy and Olivia Merilahti met in Paris 2005 and created a few albums. I particularly like this live recording of Despair, Hangover and Ecstasy in what they call a « take away show ».
Click here for the lyrics
Portishead is a band from Bristol who formed in 1991. They made few albums, but their songs are haunting, thanks to the hip-hop beats, synth sounds, and Beth Gibbons’ bewitching voice. One of my favourites is Humming (1997).
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Hostiles is a quiet song from Damon Albarn‘s great album, Everyday Robots (2014). Albarn is also the singer in the English pop band Blur, and in Gorillaz.
Click here for the lyrics.
First song of P.J. Harvey‘s eighth album, Let England Shake (title of the song and of the album released in 2011) seems to offer a bleak view of the country’s history and present days.
Click here for the lyrics
The song War first appeared on Bob Marley and the Wailers‘ album Rastaman Vibration in 1976. It is a song calling for world peace, based on a speech pronounced by the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I at a UN conference.
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Space Oddity, by the flamboyant David Bowie, was first released in 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
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First a cover by Leonard Cohen in 1969, The Partisan is here covered by 16 Horsepower and Bertrand Cantat (Noir Désir). The lyrics were written in London during the second world war.
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Thom Yorke recorded Creep with his band Radiohead in1992. It made them famous all over the world.
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My Friends, by the amazing band Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was 23 years old and living in London when it was released – great time!
Click here for the lyrics
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A song about love and jealousy, first sung in 1971, Jealous Guy. As often with John Lennon, the lyrics are quite simple. But it’s so beautiful!
Click here for the lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lLs2dC9NaE
Strange Fruit was first sung by Billie Holiday in 1939. It is a very moving song about the lynching of African Americans. The strange fruit refers to black men hanging from trees.
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Johnny Cash‘s cover version of Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode) was recorded in 2002 for the album American IV. A good song, and a great cover!
Click here for the lyrics
