1) Colours by The Avalanches. After sixteen years in the wierderness, Australian DJ collective The Avalanches emerge with new music. Colours is lush, backwards chanting return to their classic sound and much preferable to their annoying Frank Sinatra comeback single.
2) Wow by Beck. It's a fantastic stab at day-glow cowboy pop and together with last year's Dreams single lead me to speculate that he is about to release his album of the decade in the near future.
3) Shakedown Street by Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It's an irresistible feel-good cover of The Grateful Dead's original.
4) Cinnamon by Cullen Omori. I loved the indie band The Smith Westerns who produced some great singles and a classic album Dye It Blonde in 2011. Their follow up was disappointing and they broke up in 2014. Happily the former vocalist has gone solo with a great album called New Misery.
5) Dave's Song by Whitney. The guitarist from The Smith Westerns teamed up with a former singer from Unknown Mortal Orchestra and formed Whitney who just released their debut album Light Upon The Lake. So two excellent albums from the ashes of a great band. Happy days!
6) Parachute by Kaiser Chiefs. The Kaiser Chiefs have traded their guitars for synths and have a forthcoming album in the same vein.
7) Bulls by The Cat Empire. Aussie Legends.
"The Bull's inside my head and the flag I wave is red".
8) I Never Get Old by Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats. It's a modern soul classic!
9) Beautiful Thing by The Stone Roses. This Is (More Like) The One. Backwards loops, reverb, drums, guitar licks, blasphemy "There was no Crucifixion, just lies to steal your mind...", seven minutes long, room to breathe and a looser funkier jam. This resets the expectations for the third album which is, after all, What The World Is Waiting For.
10) Theme From Likely Stories by Jarvis Cocker. Why has Jarvis never been chosen to write the James Bond theme tune? I can just hear him whispering "Casino chips, and gravy stains, it's not all fast cars and beautiful women, it's dirtier than that".
11) Hype by Dizzy Rascal and Calvin Harris. Unhinged dance floor lunacy and great rhymes.
12) Dune Wind by Palace Winter. Now this is more like it - in fact I'm playing noodling air guitar between typing words in this sentence.
13) Open Wound by Bob Evans. Bob Evans a.k.a. Kevin Mitchell of Perth band Jebediah singing what feels like an album closer from a Crowded House album.
14) Since You Been Gone by The Heavy. They sound very American but actually hail from Bath, England. This is their first single from their new album Hurt and The Merciless.
15) Spinning Away by John Cale. I thought this was a cover of Sugar Ray's classic Spinning Away which graced The Beach Soundtrack. John Cale is of course the Welsh musician and founding member of the Velvet Underground. It appears that actually John Cale's version was the original.
16) Freedom by The Shimmer Band. A new British band tearing up the festival circuits. This is one to watch.
17) Surgery Of Love by The Delta Riggs. Ah the psychedelic pop return of Australia's Delta Riggs. Life is better already.
18) Drag by Cat's Eyes. A Canadian singer Rachel Zeffira and Faris Badwan of The Horrors have teamed up to become Cat's Eyes and produced the wonderfully lush 60's influenced string laden album called Treasure House.
19) Feasting On The Flowers by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm enjoying the 11th studio album by the RHCPs. It's as rock n roll as a comfy pair of Ugg Boots but just as pleasing.
20) True Love Waits by Radiohead. It certainly does and so do fans of Radiohead who have been waiting two decades for this song since it was first performed. It was previously released as a live recording in 2001.
Update - actually Jarvis did do a cover of All Time High the theme from 1983's Bond film Octopussy.
