Feel good hits of the 15th October

1. 'Distant Sky' - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Skeleton Tree (and indeed Nick Cave himself) may have polarised opinion on the most recent episode of Sounding Bored, but I stand by my assessment, perhaps largely because of its penultimate track, a duet between Cave and Danish vocalist Else Torp, which is utterly spellbinding even without knowledge of the weight behind the words.

2. 'Don't Fall In' - Kate Tempest
These days, it's not often I hear anything on the radio, and when I do, it's even less often that I hear something that completely stops me in my tracks. 'Don't Fall In' - with its apocalyptic visions and admonishments/shaming of the likes of me (middle class, rapidly approaching middle age, myopically and self-interestedly preoccupied with house-hunting and school places) - is pretty extraordinary.

3. 'Silva & Grimes' - Holy Fuck
Having not listened to Latin (or the band, in fact) in a long time, this did indeed provoke the exclamation they've taken for their name. Maximalist krautrock, powered by one of the best drummers around.

4. 'You Are, You Are' - October Drift
In case you're wondering whether they sound so fucking massive at 2pm in a near-empty Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea, the answer is yes, yes they do.

5. 'The Coast' - PUP
Taken from The Dream Is Over (as reviewed in Episode 8 of Sounding Bored), 'The Coast' is one of the songs that suggests there might be rather more to the Torontonians than brainless, aggressive skate-punk/emo.

6. 'Masterclash' - Kid Kin
According to the man himself (in the interests of full disclosure, a friend of SWSL), new single 'Masterclash' took a bloody long time (18 months, to be precise) to put together and finalise. Time extremely well spent, I think you'll agree. All he needs now is to pip Mogwai with a soundtrack pitch...

7. 'Drugs On The Bus' - Crystal Fairy
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez in league with Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover? Why, yes please! Perhaps by weight of numbers, 'Drugs On The Bus' sounds rather less like The Mars Volta and rather more like Melvins. No bad thing, if you're a fan of, y'know, songs. According to one YouTube commenter, the riff has "the viscosity of refrigerated tar".

8. 'Sentient' - Gone Is Gone
Did someone say "Supergroup featuring member of At The Drive In"? Here's another: Gone Is Gone, who see drummer Tony Hajjar joining forces with Mastodon's Troy Sanders and Queens Of The Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen. Portentous, super-heavy prog.

9. 'Family Man' - Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS?
If the end times are coming, then we could all do much worse than locking ourselves in a nuclear bunker and listening to this week's best-named band. The Finnish-based bubblegum garage outfit HYESTJFAV (cheers!) pay a visit to this parish on 25th October.

10. 'Demagogue' - Franz Ferdinand
I lost all interest in Franz Ferdinand some time ago - certainly long before Nick McCarthy left. 'Demagogue' - the band's first release without their founder-member guitarist - isn't earth-shattering, but as an explicit indictment of Donald Trump that's been put out as part of Dave Eggers' 30 Days, 30 Songs project, it's a case of every little helps.