After kicking around in bands most Americans haven’t heard of (like Razorlight, We Are Scientists, and I Am Arrows) British drummer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Andy Burrows offered up his second album as a solo artist, on which he played all instruments.
Company is a beautifully ruminative record but confounding in that none of its four singles charted.
Then again, none of the wonderful songs we include here were among the singles, which is equally confounding.
Nevertheless, guys like Andy Burrows actually get played on UK pop radio. He’d probably never get played on American pop radio.
Yes, we won the Revolutionary War–but at what cost?
Nick Lowe is the type of artist to whom critics like to attach descriptors like “legendary”, but in appraising his discography they’ll frequently use phrases like “released to little success” and “largely went unnoticed”.
His biggest album in America was 1979’s Labour of Lust, mainly on the strength of the single “Cruel to be Kind”, his only US top 40 hit.
But 1979 was the year of The Knack, when New Wave music was breaking. By 1984 Lowe had wisely stopped looking for the follow-up hit that would never come and turned to a rootsier sound.
“Half a Boy and Half a Man”, with its roller rink Farfisa organ arrangement, sounds like Sir Douglas Quintet-brand Tex Mex.
“Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” is a Faaron Young cover.
“L.A.F.S.” is co-produced by Elvis Costello, whose first five albums had been produced by Lowe, and features the same TKO horns that graced Costello’s Punch the Clock of the same year.
The album as a whole is an exuberant affair, and garnered positive reviews from critics.
And fate has a way sometimes of rewarding persistent effort. Curtis Stigers’ recording of Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” appeared on the biggest-selling soundtrack in history, the My Bodyguard soundtrack, and the million dollars he made in songwriting royalties probably made Lowe’s previous sales figures a little easier to live with.
When Finneas and Ashe teamed up in 2025 for the duo project they called The Favors and the album The Dream, the results were pretty much what you’d expect from a Berklee-trained singer-songwriter and a guy with ten Grammys (and a couple Academy Awards for soundtrack work).
Finneas O’Connell is the older brother of Billie Eilish, and co-wrote and produced everything she released between 2019 and 2024. He’s also taken home awards for the Barbie movie and the James Bond film No Time to Die. All in addition to a successful solo career.
Finneas had previously produced and duetted with Ashe on some of her solo work, but The Dream is their first time recording as a proper duo.
The Dream‘s songs tell a linear story of a couple dealing with the aftermath of a breakup neither really wanted. I didn’t include its final song because…spoilers!
The album’s overall sound, recorded simply with electric piano, guitar, bass and drums, has a bit of a 70’s soft rock feel (in a good way) and the songs are well-written and drenched in harmonies.
If you hear a little Fleetwood Mac “Go Your Own Way”-type drama in the album’s subject matter and a little Stevie-Lindsey vibe in the vocal interplay, you’re not the only one.
Heartbreak and harmony are beautiful in combination.
Lead single “The Little Mess You Made” is a standout here, with Finneas and Ashe’s harmonies coming together in a simple but indelible chorus that’ll probably stick to you on first listen. The song blew up with over a million views on TikTok before it was even released.
The duo’s chemistry is on display in a 2025 Chicago Lollapalooza performance of the song:
Fingerpicking guitarists are underrated generally–which is weird because guitars were invented to be picked with fingers. But unless you were Steve Howe wedging an acoustic number into a concert or progressive rock album, as a disciple of Chet Atkins your work has been worshipped in the commercial catacombs for decades.
Pat Donohue is the fingerpicking guitarist’s guitarist. Chet Atkins called Pat “one of the greatest fingerpickers in the world today”.
In the liner notes of one of Donohue’s albums, Leo Kottke said:
“I first heard him on the radio and got upset. Then I heard him in concert somewhere and got more upset. He thinks harmonically, improvises beautifully, and writes. Disgusting.
Enjoy this record, but if you’re a guitar player, it’s going to haunt you.”
And if you’re not a guitar player, it may still haunt you. But in a good way.
If the sound of the strings vibrating in the hollow wood is your idea of real music; if the nimble runs and harmonics are something you appreciate; and if you like songwriting that’s well-crafted, with humor and authenticity, listen here.
The Master himself Mr. Atkins is Donohue’s guest on the mutually self-deprecating, chucklesome homage “Stealin’ from Chet”.
Pat’s facility for internal rhyme is especially evident in the love song “I Don’t Worry ‘Bout the Blues”.
“Touch ‘Em All” is a “touching” tribute to a ballplayer who was (at the time at least) a hero to all Minnesotans.
Things get heavy on the confessional “Love and Desire”, then lighthearted and frivolous on “Nothin'”.
“Stumblin’ Through” is archetypical Pat Donohue songcraft: injecting philosophical wisdom into charmingly rustic, toe-tapping folk music. It’s humorous. It’s chock full of internal rhymes. But it’s clearly real and from the heart of a writer–one with the gift of a relatable humanness.
Finally the instrumental “Summer’s End” showcases Donohue’s gift for a beautiful melody, with guitar harmonics adding a sublime radiance.
Back Roads is Pat Donohue at his best, which means fingerpicking folk guitar at its best.
How to Speak Hip, a 1959 comedy album by Del Close and John Brent, was a satire of foreign language-learning records, with the “foreign language” being the parlance of “hip”.
Its lesson was intended, the introduction explains, “for English-speaking people who want to talk to, and be understood by, jazz musicians, hipsters, beatniks, juvenile delinquents and the criminal fringe”.
And if the record’s primary mission was comedy, it did a fair job of elucidating hip terms and culture.
Del Close
Comedian Del Close was an early member of the St. Louis comedy troupe that, upon moving to Chicago, changed its name to Second City. Close was cited as a mentor and inspiration by the likes of John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and John Candy.
Close plays the “straight”–read “square”–role of host/interviewer while actor John Brent–known for roles in films such as Catch-22 and American Graffiti–plays hipster Geets Romo, who chafes at the rigid, formal structure of Close’s lesson.
John Brent
Geets’ reluctant participation and general disdain for the lesson (“let’s send out for some pizza”) makes for a hilarious listen, even while the objective of teaching the language of hip is actually achieved rather effectively despite.
The cult status of How to Speak Hip was enhanced by Beach Boy Brian Wilson, who was fond of quoting Geet’s “…and then we’ll get, you know, world peace”, from the record’s introduction.
Wilson can be heard referencing it in the Pet Sounds recording sessions:
In fact, the working title of the Pet Sounds track “Let’s Go Away For Awhile” was actually “Let’s Go Away For Awhile (And Then We’ll Have World Peace)”.
How to Speak Hip has been sampled and excerpted by DJ’s, rappers, jazz and electronic music artists over multiple decades.
It’s considered pretty hip.
Listen to: “Introduction”
Listen to: “Basic Hip”
Listen to: “Vocabulary Building”
Listen to: “The Loose Wig”
Listen to: “The Hang Up”
Listen to: “Put On, Put Down, Come On, Come Down, Bring Down”
The Tripwires are survivors of the 1990’s Seattle rock explosion, but don’t expect anything approximate to grunge here.
Instead, it’s lean power pop with smart lyrics and swagger, twin guitars dueling from right and left channels, catchy original melodies, and lots of harmonies.
For folks who like guitars deployed in an ebullient two-and-a-half minute burst rather than a plodding, bluesy dirge, John Ramberg and company have you covered.
One-album wonders Rockpile might be the best comparison, but honestly the Tripwires might do it better–and certainly more prolifically.
Comprised of members of bands such as Screaming Trees, the Minus 5, and Young Fresh Fellows, the Tripwires are that true anomaly: a “super group” that’s actually better than the sum of its parts.
Every Moment Has A Song 