Five things you must listen to

Enjoy the sunshine with this weekend playlist!


Paolo Nutini – Iron Sky

Five years after his last album ‘Sunny Side Up’, Paolo Nutini is FINALLY back with his new album ‘Caustic Love’, which was released last week. It’s been too long. I’m such a fan of any music that comes out of Scotland, and Nutini is one of my favourites. Nutini’s voice is incredible and is shown off in this track with his Paisley accent shining through just as it should. Running the risk of being extremely cheesy, the addition of a section of a speech from ‘The Great Dictator’ actually really works and creates a very powerful moment in the song. This whole album is definitely a lot more mature than Nutini’s previous two. It’s been interesting to see his development from ‘These Street’s, which was clearly the product of a young hopeful musician. This live version of ‘Iron Sky’ is pretty much the most perfect thing in the world.

Don Henley – The Boys of Summer

A classic. With the sun finally arriving in St Andrews, this song is a necessity this week. I never got into the Eagles, despite my mum’s love for them. This song by one of their founding members is pretty much on every playlist I have ever made. Plus, the video is one of the most 80s things that has ever been produced. If you’re more into your alternative boy bands, listen to The Ataris’ cover of this song which was on repeat for me circa 2009. Nothing beats Don, though.

Lana del Rey – West Coast

Last week, the world was graced with a new Lana del Rey song that sounds…like a Lana Del Rey song. Yes, I think you should listen to this, but you can probably guess that I’m not the biggest fan. ‘West Coast’ is actually not too bad: its stripped back texture is refreshing after some of the songs from ‘Born to Die’. It’ll definitely be a good summer song, especially once another remix DJ gets his hands on it. One thing I do like about Lana del Rey is her unique approach to being a solo female artist. Her songs are very different from the normal belty, poppy female singers which I admire. For some reason, I keep listening to this even though I don’t want to like it, so it might be a grower.

Sigma – Nobody to Love

This week’s guilty pleasure. Normally I don’t like when people take amazing songs and make them into dance tunes but in this case, Kanye West’s ‘Bound 2’, is an exception. Another future summer hit. It’s everything you could want in a dancing/driving/lying around in the sun song. The two London-based university friends that make up Sigma originally released the song as a free download, but it quickly gained radio air time from Radio 1 and took off. Of course, you should also listen to Kanye West’s original if you haven’t already (how could you not after THAT video?).

Augustines – Don’t You Look Back

Hailing from Brooklyn, Augustines burst onto the scene in 2012 with, ‘Rise Ye Sunken Ships’ and this year came out with their self-titled second album. After an incredibly heart-felt, debut album influenced greatly by the suicides of front man, Billy McCarthy’s mother and brother, their second album was lacking in some of the depth of the first. It is still a great album that definitely deserves more credit and air time than it gets. So, despite the average NME album ratings, definitely have a listen to all of Augustines’ stuff and appreciate McCarthy’s stunningly rugged voice and the band’s incredibly catchy choruses.

Image courtesy of vibe.com