Blog: The World's Greatest Music

Joe writes: I feel like Rhye could be the artist I've been looking for for five years or so. Echoes of Sade but the singer is male apparently.

Joe writes: The Music Alliance Pact is a monthly collaboration where blogs from around 35 numerous countries each pick one track to represent their country. I wish someone would launch a pop version of this where the biggest local track from each country is represented, but in the meantime, there are usually one or two interesting tracks amongst the Music Alliance Pact zip file. This month the interesting track comes from Indonesia's Belkastrelka, "an eccentric electronic duo who sample sounds from various sources – windows, the library, television, nature and everything else. Combined with the tiny but [...]

• Belkastrelka - Pujian Expatriat feat. Fraya

Phil writes: It would be very hard to write a Valentine's song as great as Steve Earle's sublime 'Valentine's Day' but this effort of Paul's shows he can still turn out a very good song: There's a decent version of 'I'm going to sit right down and write myself a letter' on the album 'Kisses on the bottom' which takes its title from the Fats Waller song. I think, though, that the original has even more to offer:

Joe writes: The BBC make such great trailers advertising themselves, especially when they draw on the songwriting of Lou Reed. The current trailer for BBC Radio features a man moved to tears firstly by The Velvet Underground's Pale Blue Eyes, and then by a football commentary as Blackpool gain promotion to the Premier League. For the original underground band, The Velvet Underground sure had some great tunes.

Joe writes: It's a choice of Lana Del Rey who is being interviewed. It sounds amazing on Radio 1 (as it does everywhere else one might hear it). Bob Dylan is so great he even inspires other artists' finest work. Also here is Lana Del Rey's second best track National Anthem:

Joe writes: I listened to all the Etta James tracks that Richard Williams wrote about in The Guardian , but I have to say I don't think any of them are as good as her two biggest hits. At Last is a hit in the UK for the first this week: and I Just Wanna Make Love To You was a hit in the nineties of the back off a Diet Coke advert:

Joe writes: Just heard Laura J Martin for the first time. This is an instrumental flute track but very infectious and quite unlike anything else I've heard recently. Different instrument, different vibe but I was reminded of Devil In The Kitchen by nineties Canadian fiddler Ashley MacIsaac: And this hypnotic track The Diamond Mountain by Sharon Shannon & Friends:

Joe writes: Dance track from Africa that could be a hit in the UK and elsewhere.

Joe writes: Legendary American record label boss Steve Greenberg has once again published his best of the year list , containing many of my favourite tracks of 2011 plus quite a few I'd never heard before. It also contains one track I've been meaning to blog, the new Chiddy Bang single Ray Charles which has a chorus that lights up the radio every time it's played.

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I could understand someone feeling this is over-sentimental, particularly with the dodgy video, but I think it's a real gem. There's no doubt that he's written a number of truly memorable songs.

I could understand someone feeling this is over-sentimental, particularly with the dodgy video, but I think it's a real gem. There's no doubt that he's written a number of truly memorable songs.

Phil writes: As this is currently being celebrated, it seems appropriate to pay tribute to an innovative and very influential artist. Not so long ago, Joe and I were saying what a great album 'Ziggy Stardust' is. I believe it has a higher proportion of great songs than almost any album you can think of. I'll just concentrate on three. The opening track, 'Five Years' is, like so many Bowie songs, quite unlike any other song you can think of and some of the lines and images live on in your brain for many years (believe me!). [...]

Phil writes: I've been listening to a lot of Carpenters stuff recently - another favourite of my wife Sue's. Karen Carpenter does have a unique, and wonderful, voice (Rumer sounds a bit like her, as everyone remarks). This Leon Russell song is maybe not the greatest they ever recorded but it does show off her voice superbly and it contains the killer lines: 'We tried to talk it over but the words got in the way'.

Phil writes: I caught a bit of an extended Radio 2 interview with Sting. I was reminded of this version of possibly his best song, surely one of the greatest covers ever.

Joe writes: Thanks to MrBedosey for drawing my attention to this track via a comment on my YouTube channel . Like Nongqongqo (To Those We Love) , it's from the album An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba, but this version was is from a 1966 Swedish TV show and is followed by a moving interview and another track.

Joe writes: I recent saw the film In Bruges which features the song On Raglan Road over a key scene. The version used on the film is by Luke Kelly of The Dubliners who first set the Patrick Kavanagh poem to the tune of the traditional song The Dawning Of The Day. I prefer Van Morrison & The Chieftains' take, from the album Irish Heartbeat which my dad has written about before . I love the bit where Van whispers. In fact, the entire vocal performance is incredible. Here [...]

Joe writes: Obviously the best Christmas record ever is Fairytale of New York and the best Christmas album ever is the Phil Spector one . Here are three less obvious choices 3) Christmas Song - Dave Matthews Band. From the Platinum Christmas album which also contains two other really good Christmas originals by Dido and R Kelly. Maybe I'll post those next year. 2) O Tannenbaum - The Vince Guaraldi Trio. An essential purchase at this time of year is the [...]

Joe writes: The song is better known in its Boney M version. Marvin is better known for many other songs. But it's a great song and a great vocal performance which survives this re-edit. Marvin Gaye - Sunny - Mercury Edit II by Mercury (Switzerland)

Joe writes: The song is better known in its Boney M version. Marvin is better known for many other songs. But it's a great song and a great vocal performance which survives this re-edit. <object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundclo ud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A% 2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftrac ks%2F31047181"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud .com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F %2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks %2F31047181" type="application/x-shockwave- flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <span><a href=" http://soundcloud.com/worldofm ercury/marvin-gaye-sunny-mercu ry-edit">Marvin Gaye - Sunny - Mercury Edit II</a> by <a href=" http://soundcloud.com/worldofm ercury">Mercury (Switzerland)</a></span>