Our music team pick the songs or albums, old or new, they just can't turn off
The Wild Swans Glow in the Dark The Merseysiders' 1982 Zoo Records single The Revolutionary Spirit was one of the classic singles of the post-punk era. Founder Paul Simpson has spent much of the intervening period trying to get over the band's subsequent implosion and relocate the "original spirit" of the group. From the forthcoming album, The Coldest Winter for a Hundred Years, this is stunning, swoonsome guitar pop like they never went away. Dave Simpson
Sanford-Townsend Band Smoke From a Distant Fire One of the best examples of the spate of white-soul singles that found their way to the top of the American charts in the mid-70s. This one should ideally be relished on YouTube, where their 'taches and Hawaiian shirts are shown in their full glory. Caroline Sullivan
Ry Cooder and Manuel Galb�n Los Twangueros A gloriously twangy, cheerful electric guitar duet featuring Cooder and Havana's answer to Duane Eddy, who died last week. RIP Manuel Galb�n. Robin Denselow
Louise and the Pins Melancholy The debut single from this London-based trio is the sort of bolt-from-the-blue beauty that makes opening your post in the morning all the more exciting. Louise , Bethan and Sara have supported Laura Marling and have appeared at the excellent Communion label nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club. Their mix of 50s girl group glamour, country wistfulness and folk-pop harmonies is utterly captivating. Their song Bell Jar is also kind of amazing, which bodes well. Rob Fitzpatrick
Dog Is Dead Glockenspiel Song Their name is terrible, but this upcoming Nottingham quintet have quite the knack for making bright, breezy and infectious indie pop. This loose, upbeat stomp makes for a typically catchy entry point. Chris Salmon
The 6ths Rot in the Sun From Obscurities, a collection of Magnetic Fields and other Stephin Merritt offcuts from the 90s which stands up better than his last decade of albums. Synthpop at its most bare-wired, lyrical and imaginative. Tom Ewing
Canibus Master Thesis Until mail-order copies of Lyrical Law, Canibus's third LP in a year, start arriving later this month, gems like this 2002 free-associative tour de force ? in which he claims to have studied geometry in Atlantis's library and turned down an offer to help Buckminster Fuller rebuild Rome ? will more than suffice. Dave Simpson
Minotaurs Horsesshoes I first wrote about this song three years ago, in demo form. The band went on to make a debut album that crept out digitally, with no fanfare ? and now a hard copy has arrived, ahead of another release in September. Three years on and this beautiful song has lost none of its magic ? the male/female harmonies entrance, the folk-pop instrumentation is perfectly judged, and the lyric throws up little sparkles of loveliness, like the perfect and economical a description of wondering about the signals of courtship: "It could mean nothing, oh boy!/ Or it could mean everything, oh boy!" Michael Hann
Jennifer Scholle Tatiana Zavialova Tila Tequila Tamie Sheffield Kelly Monaco
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