I don't take many trips back to the 1980s, but in this caex of Fairport Convention) and Linda Thompson - a husband-and-wife duo - had been married for nine years and had released five albums of varying acclaim and success. They had been dropped by Gerry Rafferty, who had financed recordings that generated no interest. Their marriage was struggling - and Linda was pregnant.
So when Joe Boyd signed them to his Hannibal Records, he was taking a serious risk. What he got was a masterpiece of an album that ended up being a pretty big hit, 1982's Shoot Out The Lights. It would be the duo's final album (and their marriage would be over by the time of the album's releasae), but it would reestablish Richard as a songwriting force.
The title song is a masterclass in guitar-driven emotional rock music.
Just because the marriage broke up does not mean Richard did not perform his songs.
By the way, Richard and Linda are both still with us, and Richard even sometimes still performs, as he did in 2014 in this clip.
So, we talk a lot on here about a lot of those big music prizes. From the Mercury Prize, for the UK, to Polaris for Canada, to the Australian Music Prize, there a lot of them.
One I have not talked about much is the Premio Ruido, or the "Noise Prize", given to Spanish artists. shego - named after a character from the TV show Kim Possible, of all places, is a band that is a of women from Madrid who were on the shortlist for the 2025 version of that prize.
Their album No lo volveré a hacer is absolutely amazing, even though it is almost entirely in Spanish - which you won't notice or care about. It is highly recommended and worth a listen!
Raye co-wrote this song with long-time collaborator Mike Sabath, and released as the first single of her 2nd album, This Music May Contain Hope, which has been universally praised and I need to go listen to.
No, she isn't married.
And no, she's not wearing shoes, either. This is something Raye often does live.
The song is currently a top 20 song in the US, and shows no signs of slowing - and is an even bigger hit worldwide.
I wasn't kidding about the barefoot thing. Her performance at Glastonbury last year was similarly sans shoes.
And when she appeared on Jennifer Hudson's show, she was similarly barefoot.
We're not exactly running out of ideas, not by a long shot.
But this song got turfed to Totally Covered..... because it IS a cover, of a song by Ani DiFranco. And yes, those two posts were published on the same day (except I just updated the Ani post).
And it shouldn't have been, because Alana Davis turned the song into something Ani DiFranco did not. And Elektra Records pushed Davis into recording the song.... and to making lyrical changes - something that made both Davis and DiFranco initially uncomfortable, although both came to terms with it. Record companies, right?
But anyway, this song isn't exactly a cover anymore. This version has a chorus - uncredited to but written by Davis. It is its own thing... and that's why it's getting its due here.
Davis is a fantastic performer - STILL - but I chose her Conan performance from 1998 because it showcases her voice so perfectly.
Had I known Angèle had new music coming in March, I wouldn't have posted her in February.
I literally could not wait any additional time to post her newest single today. It's in English and French, and it is just a GREAT pop song. Teaming up with electronic duo Justice, they have made possible the most accessible and obvious hit song for both of them - and since it was written by Angèle herself (with composition contribution by Justice), it's clear she's well in tune with what makes a hit.
The video was shot on iPhone. No joke. And it's completely unhinged.
Indeed, she is Chinese - raised in Hunan province - and got her big break on Korean and Chinese reality TV shows.
She released her new EP Teenage Ramble in 2025, and this song as its lead single. It's superficial, poppy... and an awful lot of fun. Co-written by the artist and producer Yu Zeng, the song is definitely CONSTRUCTED, but also PERFORMED and performed and constructed WELL by Liu.
She's young, yes, but also, she has a hell of a stage presence, as can be seen in this 2024 performance of the song. Even before this song was released as a single, she had the crowd LOVING it.
This is probably the weirdest song I've ever posted.
"But it doesn't sound weird".... well, actually, the entire concept of the album was strange. You see, Ariane Roy, Thierry Larose and Lou-Adriane Cassidy are all popular musicians in the francophone music scene in Quebec. They are also tremendous friends and have regularly appeared on each other's albums.
In 2024, the three of them did a few shows together where they were all the headliners - Le (Ariane) Roy, (Thierry) la Rose, and Lou[p](-Adriane Cassidy) (this structure was a throwback to similar groups like this from the 1970s).... and then they released a live album - called Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p] - where each of them had 1/3 of the songs, and then they all got together and performed a theme song with all of them together.... the title song named after the three performers, written by the performers and Alexandre Martel (songwriting and romantic partner of le Lou[p] (and songwriting partner of la Rose, to be fair)).
