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Cascade Theory by LYR
Songs of the Day: On this, the shortest day of 2021, the winter solstice, a poetic pair of songs older and recent by the group composed of poet laureate Simon Armitage and musicians Patrick Pearson and Richard Walters, with Rozi Plain as guest on the second
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Hull’s Jodie Langford
Song of the Day: A punchy, bouncy spoken word number expressing a witty double-edged perspective on lockdown and afterwards by the Hull poet, here joined by the electronica artist, DJ and producer and taken from an album by local young persons’ mental health charity The Warren Youth Project
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On the button: Earth Scum by FYI Chris
Song of the Day: The final track on the album Earth Scum by the Yorkshire and Macclesfield duo of Chris Coupe and Chris Watson features viscerally acerbic, self-deprecating gallows humorous delivery by Mancunian poet and performer Thick Richard
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For Those I Love, aka David Balfe
Song of the Day: A powerful autobiographical number about the aftermath of witnessing a death as a child, building from a soulful sample intro into a spoken-word narrative, this new track by Dublin producer, poet and songwriter David Balfe comes from his forthcoming self-titled album
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Howling, growling, tenderly looming: Tom Waits is a moon poet
Song of the Day: On this day of this rare astronomical eclipse event, and after a series of other lunar-related songs, we come to an artist who has, across the course of his career, described this celestial body in around 100 different ways
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Moondog in Manhattan
Song of the Day: After Captain Beefheart, could there be any musical figure more influential, eccentric, strange and innovative? Louis Thomas Hardin, aka the Viking figure who for years silently stalked New York's 6th Avenue, is a strong contender
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Lili La Scala
Song of the Day: Continuing a current thread of songs about the deadly seas, this exquisite song tells the tragic tale of a ship captain's daughter in a storm, based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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The rare five-member Pink Floyd of 1968, including Dave Gilmour (front) and Syd Barrett (second left)
Song of the Day: A darkly humorous choice for the current political climate. It is when there were briefly five members of the band, and a setting that inspired a passage in Douglas Adams's famous book
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Sufjan Stevens
Song of the Day: All things go! Our journey moves from Paul Simon's bus to another landmark of hope and adventure by Stevens from his groundbreaking Illinois album
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Dennis Brown
Song of the Day: To reflect on the triggering of Article 50 and the beginning of Brexit, a message in music much embraced by the best of Britain from a Jamaican, and inspired by an English poet
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Michael Franti on the cover of The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy's 1992 album
Song of the Day: From Kate Tempest dystopia we highlight a natural forbear by Michael Franti and Rono Tse, where television's effect of ignorance still resonates, only perhaps more smaller screens and via social media
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Kate Tempest
Song of the Day: From PJ Harvey's war-torn English rose we move to a passionate post-Brexit poem-song with an industrial, urban edge that captures an isolated, confused, dystopian Britain and beyond
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PJ Harvey performing from Let England Shake
Song of the Day: From Nick Cave's bloody rose of murder, deep connections come with PJ Harvey and her witheringly beautiful song about war, history and so-called past British glory from her album Let England Shake
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