Desh/Sounds Of Isha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XJF56WrFoM

Raga Desh, accompanied by a beautiful acoustic riff! A hat tip to Vinayak for introducing me to this wonderful piece.

Transience/Steven Wilson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4v8BwTH7gQ

With his back-catalog of virtuosic prog rock classics, it's easy to forget that Wilson is an absolutely divine vocalist. Then songs like this come along...

The Floating World/Soft Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CpN8TtFVOE

They were the original rock minimalists. Wait till the flutes come in about a minute into the song.

Judith (Renholder Remix)/A Perfect Circle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQlxg7Zkr-A

I have nothing to write... Except that this song is kicking my ass hard right now.

Bluebird/Buffalo Springfield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki5KVZ5RQuM

That bassline!

Midnight In Harlem/Tedeschi Trucks Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1J04ugcdi8

Smooth, free-flowing track off their Grammy-winning album Revelator. Trucks is a masterful slide guitarist.

Rattler/Seekers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5xbQmTnxdM

They always made singing seem so effortless.

Love Will Find A Way/Yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOr0ipW4jvY

I don't care what the purists say. I love their music from the eighties. RIP Chris Squire.

Stone, Spirit/May Island

https://soundcloud.com/mayislandmusic/stonespirit/s-FUD9k

Tight instrumental track from Delhi-based alt rockers May Island. A hat tip to my friend and colleague Vishnu, the band's guitarist and co-creator of this wonderful music.

Six Strings Down/Jimmie Vaughan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myrcSyLMowE

"Heaven done called another blues stringer back home." RIP BB.

Romanticize/Chela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxthXRAyOhI

This '80s-style dance track has been on loop in my house all weekend. Her voice has that rare mix of power and abandon to complement one of the most catchy melodies I've heard in a long time.

Oracle/Michael Hedges

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOyomEX8nwU

The flute lends a magical eastern touch to this glorious title track off Hedges' 1998 Grammy winning album.

Live With Me/Humble Pie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLBZG1mz4cs

The slow groove makes the perfect playground for the bass, guitar, organ and vocals.

One Brown Mouse/Jethro Tull

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMnNAGLAc_w

Glorious vocal harmonies characterise this song off Jethro Tull's exquisitely produced album Heavy Horses (1978). Barlow's drumming is the icing on the cake.

Great Albums (Thinking In Textures/Chet Faker)

Year: 2012

The debut EP by Australian electronica artist Chet Faker, Thinking In Textures combines R&B inspired vocals with downtempo backing tracks to deliver thirty minutes of sheer groove-laden bliss. The melodies are catchy but not intrusive, and you can probably play the album on loop while going about your work.

Personal Picks: "No Diggity (cover)" and "Cigarettes And Chocolate"

Slow Blues/Thin Lizzy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1NLVVKU5Vk

Blues and funk make for a mean combo.

No Prayer For The Dying/Iron Maiden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns7tbK544Cw

Althought the album received a lukewarm reception, this song stands out (for me at least) thanks to Dickinson's particularly soulful vocals.

Great Albums (Illinois/Sufjan Stevens)

Year: 2005

Delightfully quirky and sombre at the same time, Illinois typifies what I have come to love about Stevens' songwriting. Many of the songs on the album have been given the (almost trademark) "baroque" treatment, with lush musical arrangements reminiscent of the '70s Canterbury scene, albeit with simpler melodic and lyrical structures. However, venture beyond this grandiose landscape, and you can't help being disarmed by the melancholic undertones prevalent throughout the album. It is this subtlety that makes Illinois stand apart in the ocean of contemporary indie pop music.

Personal Picks: "Chicago", "The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" and "The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders"

Lorelei/Cocteau Twins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF7P_k3hHnw

I don't care what the lyrics are. I could hear her voice all day.

Horizons/Genesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjSuEh-T9fw


Steve Hackett's classical guitar solo on the brilliant Foxtrot album provides the ideal prologue to the 22-minute "Supper's Ready".

Nothing At All/Gentle Giant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM6qM-VjiQQ

I've really started to like the music from the Canterbury scene of the early '70s. This song has one of the most killer guitar riffs ever (2:27 onwards).

Heavy Metal (All Of You)/Don Felder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqALZ2fMcic

Some serious groove from the guitarist who gave us 'Hotel California'.

Hurt In Your Heart/John Martyn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTsrobaw7g8

What a voice. And that guitar delay! Masterpiece.