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All down together … English Teacher from Leeds
Song of the Day: Dry wit and powerful irony by the Leeds indie band, with an apocalyptic monologue about what happens when people listen to the likes of Wallace Hartley, the bandleader of the Titanic, as a distraction to the sinking of the ship
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Regressive Left
Song of the Day: Sharp, angry quirky post-punk with keyboards and semi-spoken delivery by the London trio, their second single, which “is about how neoliberalism acts as a shield for irresponsible politicians and greedy profiteers”
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Moderate Rebels
Song of the Day: This track from the first part of the London collective’s new 30-track trilogy album If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right is a heavily deadpan ironic list song about political, social and cultural trends of a slow-creep malaise
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Tactics, the EP by Soccer96
Song of the Day: This synth-krautrock fusion of wonderfully droll apathetic humour comes via the synth-drums duo Danalogue and Betamax from The Comet Is Coming, with the dry delivery vocals of jazz experimentalist Alabaster dePlume
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2020 sees the very welcome return of Stevie Wonder
Song of the Day: While both began as love songs, these first new numbers in four years by the soul great have a strong multi-layered political element, calling for solidarity in times of rising racism, an election and an epidemic
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Janelle Monáe in the video for Turntables
Song of the Day: Is change coming? A punchy, funky, powerful new number by the American star that has a weighty political element, and part of the soundtrack to a new documentary out now before the US elections – All In: The Fight For Democracy
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Ranking Roger from The Beat, 1963-2019
Song of the Day: A short musical tribute after the sad loss of Ranking Roger, co-lead singer and MC with the Birmingham ska band that along with Specials became a cornerstone of British and Jamaican music at its best
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Alice Cooper waves the election banner
Song of the Day: In the wake of the most vital mid-term US elections in a generation, the 1972 rock song that is often wheeled out on these occasions, but less known is that it is a reworking of an earlier song, Reflected
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That's the Fela
Song of the Day: As the heatwave continues let's enjoy a double from Nigeria's prolific genius, one about our most precious resource, the other in relation to a police confrontation involving a planted cannabis joint
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When things get out of hand in politics …
Song of the Day: In the heat of farcical parliamentary Brexit manoeuvrings and Trump trampling through the ruins of international relations, here's a clever reimagining of a white-collar high-level meeting if it was a street-gang brawl
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Putin takes Trump for a ride
Song of the Day: After Rocky Mountain Mike's humour take on Donald Trump and the far right, another great satirist focuses on the Russian leader's ego through the prism of musical hall and ragtime
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Go home, you fuckwit
Song of the Day: To mark the unwelcome visit of the current US president to the UK, two ironic versions of the famous Bob Dylan song that capture the falsehood, narcissism, hypocrisy and divisive racism of the Donald
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Tom Waits – always in business
Song of the Day: After some sleep and dream songs, a lugubrious song by the inimitable raspy-voiced one is somewhere between surreal dream and nightmare, except it matches the chaos of recent events
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The Beat in 1980
Song of the Day: A political, but prescient number from their debut 1980 album I Just Can't Stop It, this wonderful Birmingham ska-reggae outfit, best known for their hit Mirror In The Bathroom, was among the 2 Tone label's finest
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A Tribe Called Quest's original quartet
Song of the Day: Two superb tracks that span the career one of the genre's most revered groups, from 1991's album The Low End Theory to 2016's We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service
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Prophets of Rage - a protest supergroup
Song of the Day: To accompany Donald Trump's continuing controversies, two powerful tracks from the new album made by as potent a protest force in music imaginable – a supergroup of three members of Rage Against The Machine along with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and DJ Lord, and frontman B-Real of Cypress Hill
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Nadine Shah
Song of the Day: With a rich, full voice and truly original sound, from one of the best albums of 2017, two powerful songs from the intelligent South Tyneside singer-songwriter with a Norwegian/Pakistani heritage. This cuts deep into one of the burning issues of modern times, the plight and treatment of war-torn immigrants in the UK, and the divisions in our state. Think PJ Harvey and Anna Calvi with a new, contemporary, edgy twist
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Mercury Rev in 1995
Song of the Day: Sometimes, out of the blue, change and upheaval can suddenly, and surprisingly be afoot, and with that comes hope. This transitional work from 1995 captures that mood in musical form
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Only the wind is keeping these two up …
Song of the Day: To reflect on the farcical talks over Brexit and other poor political communication, we turn to a 2011 song from the Seattle artist, with answers as to why this sort thing so often goes wrong …
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Father John Misty, aka Josh Tillman
Song of the Day: We focus on the title track of Josh Tillman's latest and much acclaimed new album, capturing the absurdity of the human condition with powerful music and acerbic, yet melancholy wit
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