Music on saddle notes

The 1975 and the Courage to Be Sincere

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The most radical thing The 1975 do is refuse the armour of irony. In an era where every artist is required to be arch, detached, and vaguely embarrassed by their own feelings, they keep showing up with their heart fully exposed, singing “I love you” without a wink.

I think about this when I write READMEs.

Ben Howard and the Weather Inside

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ben Howard makes music that sounds like weather. Not the dramatic weather — the kind that makes headlines — but the ordinary weather of a person: the low pressure system, the long grey afternoon, the strange calm that arrives after something ends.

I Forget Where We Were is the record I play when things are breaking and there’s nothing to do but wait. It doesn’t fix anything. That’s the point.

FKA twigs: The Body Is an Interface

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

FKA twigs doesn’t just sing — she is in the music in a way most artists never manage. Trained as a dancer, she treats her body as the primary instrument: every gesture precise, every vocal take physically present. When she performs, you don’t watch a singer; you watch someone inhabit sound like an interface.

I keep coming back to this because it’s the exact quality missing from most software: presence.

Perfume Genius and the Tenderness Protocol

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Perfume Genius — Mike Hadreas — makes records about bodies, survival, and tenderness. The remarkable thing isn’t that the music is gentle; it’s that the gentleness holds. His songs don’t flinch, don’t rush, don’t apologise for their softness. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is a record that treats tenderness as a kind of strength.

I think softness is infrastructure. We just refuse to admit it.

Fiona Apple and the Private Weather

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fiona Apple makes records the way some people keep diaries: in private, for years, at full volume. Fetch the Bolt Cutters arrived after eight years of silence and sounded like someone finally saying the thing they’d been holding — not neatly, not politely, but precisely.

She is the loudest quiet artist I know. This is a love letter to that contradiction.