Lucius’ debut record Wildewoman is one of the finest pop albums you’ll hear all year: one minute skewing vintage Shirelles-esque lead harmonies with thrashed out riffs that’d have Josh Homme howling affirmation. The next it’s all whispered folk lullabies cute enough to take down the Easter bunny.

They are out touring Europe in April, and the shows are all set to be off the chart. Here’s the tunes Pete and Dan (not pictured!) from the band reckon will keep them going between pre-packaged sarnies and Olympic Breakfasts.

 

Doe Paoro- ’New Lows’
I love this song.  Weird and wonderful soul music.  -PL

John Parish- ‘Choice’
I love how delicate this song sounds.  A little broken and bittersweet.  It matches the lyrics perfectly.  A man who is growing to accept that he’s growing old.    -PL

Susanne Sundfør- ‘White Foxes’
Unbelievable voice, melody and synths in this song.  I can’t stop listening to it.  -PL

 

The Curtains - ‘Go Lucky’
My love of Chris Cohen grows everyday.  I’m always amazed at how simple his music presented but how beautiful and complex it all is.  -PL

Kilby Snow - ‘Wind and Rain’
Kilby Snow is a wizard of the auto-harp.  It’s pretty mind blowing to hear what he was able to do with such a seemingly simple-to-play instrument.  This is a classic murder ballad song about two sisters that lose their minds over a two-timing guy who they both fall in love with.  One sister kills the other and throws her in a river.  There are a few variations of this story.  In this version the sister’s body floats into a miller’s pond and he fishes her out and makes a fiddle out of her bones and strings it and the bow with her hair.  The fiddle can only play one sad song that tells the story of her death.  This version of the song ends here but in others the miller ends up finding himself at the deceased girls house and he plays a song for her family.  They assume he killed her and he is put to death, while the evil sister lives.  The moral of the story seems a little confusing.   -PL

Cate le Bon - ‘Are You With Me Now’
This is one of the bands favorite records of 2013. Such a beautiful understated tone to both her songs and the production of this record. The hook of this song has been stuck in my head for WEEKS. - DM

Charlotte Gainsbourg - ‘Le Chat du Café des Artistes’
This Frenchie whispers as good if not better than her Pops (Serge Gainsbourg) on this track. But the string arrangements by Beck’s Pops David Campbell are what really make this track shine. - DM

Zeus - ‘One Line Written’
A Canadian supergroup if there ever was one. Perfectly arranged, perfectly performed. Be sure to watch some live videos of these guys. They are the real deal. - DM

Via Audio - ‘Reservoir’
A little over a year ago I began producing Via Audio’s new record Natural Language. Jess Martins and Tom Deis are some of my favorite songwriters around. This song is hands down Lucius’ favorite track off of this record. -DM

Lapland - ‘Where Did it Go?’
This is our dear friend Josh Mease’s latest and (in my humble opinion) his greatest. Been a fan of this guy since before I was playing in bands. His record just came out in the UK/Ire to critical acclaim. So happy he is getting the recognition he has long deserved. - DM

 

Wildewoman is out on 31st March, and the band are on tour in April.  All info about these is available here