As we suddenly approach 21st June again, it’s time to explore concept and imaginative meaning of life's perceived halfway points, from the solstice to geographical centres to middles, the axis mundi, the half moons, to the half-times …

Jigsaws to crosswords, Rubik’s Cubes to riddles, they are not only fun stimulators to our brains, but in song lyrics can also be metaphor for life. Guest playlister Marco den Ouden presents his pick of puzzles from last week’s topic

This very fertile music decade was the last of the millennium, and was filled with fear but also hope. Guest DiscoMonster summons memories with a tremendous time-travelling selection, partying like it’s 1999, and inspired by last week’s theme

In a decade that saw a huge expansion of sub-genres and production technology, including sampling, it’s time to suggest alternative singles and remixes creative and innovative, as opposed to repetitive and exploitative

New album: Beautiful, evocative, darkly visceral and elegiac, thi folk-based soundtrack by the Sheffield singer-singer and composer captures the deeply unromantic and violent new feature film depicting Hood as a criminal non-hero from writer/director Michael Sarnoski and starring Hugh Jackman, very much stands on its own as album

New album: With delightful echoes of the The Jam, The Kinks, The Bees, Small Faces and other classic 60s pop and mod influences, the Blur guitarist’s resurfaced and unreleased solo LP was actually recorded in 2011 at the time of his 2012 album A+E, and made with producer Ben Hillie

New album: Written as usual with his first-thing-in-the-morning, stream-of-consciousness technique, the singer-songwriter Eric D. Johnson, also one-third of the folk trio Bonny Light Horseman, returns with a new collection of melodic, often beautiful, and profound, reflective, gentle, folky rock now 30 years since the first album

New album: The Berlin-based, Baltimore quartet return with their special brand of mesmeric, experimental rock, weaving a rich maze of African polyrhythmic patterns and fascinating tessellations of percussion, guitar, bass, saxophone, microtones, electronic and voice loops

New album: Deliciously gentle-paced and languid, warmly twangy and romantically nostalgic, poetic indie-country-rock by the New York band of spouses vocalist Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas, with delicate musical echoes of Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, REM, Neil Young, Yo La Tengo and Cat Power in this finely crafted seventh LP

Song of the Day: Moving away from of their post-punk sound into more of a meaty, guitar-driven melodic rock, the New York band return with a catchy, witty, singalong title track, , an existential anthem influenced by Jane’s Addiction, from their upcoming album, out on 9 October via Chrysalis Records

Song of the Day: A pointed, subtle but also catchy number about making mistakes, regret and social division, US artist Mark Oliver Everett and band return with the lead single from the upcoming album out on 16 October via E Works / Play It Again Sam

Song of the Day: Gorgeously delicate, finger-picking folk by the British singer-songwriter from York, heralding her upcoming debut album The Knife, The Needle, out on 21 August via Merge Records

Song of the Day: Themed around his favourite subject of food, but also going to many other places, American jazz trumpeter, composer and vocalist Leron Thomas returns with the New York composer and visual artist in an eclectic, eccentric fusion of jazz and hip-hop

Song of the Day: A cleverly nuanced, emotionally ambiguous beautifully stirring indie-pop love song by the Australian singer-songwriter, in this first single heralding her upcoming fourth album The Gem, out on 25 September via 4AD