Winter

A beautiful dream of a song, sitting in the area that Kate Bush and Japan and Billy MacKenzie made their own. An 80s influence, but not the 80s sound that people normally associate with that decade.

Bed Of Nails – Wild Beasts

Gregory Porter

If you have never heard this fella, watch this, taken from a performance on Jools Holland’s Later. One of the best singers I have heard in years.

Our Lips Are Sealed

There will be more MP3s again, but here’s a song I don’t own, at least in this version. Nouvelle Vague have been around for a while, doing their quiet acoustic versions of punk, new wave and 80s classics. I like them, but don’t need them if you know what I mean. But this version of the Go-Gos/Fun Boy Three song is gorgeous. The original is one of my all time favourite songs, one of those that I like regardless of who performs it. It used to be the only song I would always insist on performing in bands over the years too, it translates into all sorts of styles, chameleon style.

Olafur Arnalds

Some of you are going to love this. This is the opening track from Arnalds’ 2010 album “And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness” and it is bloody gorgeous; coming over like the missing link between Eno’s Music For Airports and Sigur Ros’ Takk album. It’s slightly lazy comparison time, Arnalds is from Iceland and has worked with Sigur Ros. It’s dreamy, mostly piano and strings and it sounds like it has been carved from ice. Absolutely beautiful. Really really beautiful.

Olafur Arnalds – Þú ert sólin