Over the past few months, we've been getting in touch with bands, celebrities and more to ask them to create eight-song-long mixtapes for YOU. So crack out your Walkman and enjoy...
Scottish singer-songwriter Panda Su has been garnering fans over the last couple of years through gigging, having her song Eric is Dead featured in the Skins series 4 finale, and most recently when Alphabet Song was featured in the film House at the End of the Street, which stars Jennifer Lawrence. She makes lovely acoustic-pop music and really likes panda bears. Let's see what she likes to listen to.
Death Cab for Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan
When I was 15 I
stumbled across an episode of The OC. Pool parties and puberty spurts aside,
it had a fairly decent soundtrack and that’s how I first discovered Death Cab
For Cutie. Benjamin Gibbard is still one of my favourite lyricists today. Marching
Bands of Manhattan is the opening song to their 2005 album Plans.
Warpaint - Billie Holiday
Four girls who can
play their instruments and look that good at the same time? If I was quitting
Panda Su and Warpaint were recruiting, I’d be first in line. Not because I fit
the credentials, more because I want to date them. Plural. If I’m having a bad
day, I’ll pop this on and breathe. Check out the video for this song from their
Rough Trade session.
School of Seven Bells - Face To Face on High Places
Taken from their
album Alpinisms, Face to Face on High Places is full of tribal beats and lush
vocal harmonies from the Deheza twins. Perfect train music, especially when
you’re journeying through the Scottish Highlands.
Volcano Choir - Island, IS
A collaboration
between Bon Iver main man, Justin Vernon, and members of Collections of
Colonies of Bees, Island, IS is all drum loops and tambourine shakes, with no
cardigans in sight.
M.I.A. - Bad Girls
If I was organising a
disco at my local, I’d definitely be playing this - and I’d definitely be
turning up to said disco riding on the side of a car whilst filing my nails and
wearing a bright yella (sic) anorak.
Sufjan Stevens - I Want To Be Well
Whenever someone asks
me for a list of my favourite tracks, it’s a given that a Sufjan Stevens song
is going to feature somewhere on the list. Today’s choice is I Want To Be
Well, taken from The Age of Adz; an album said to be inspired by
self-proclaimed prophet Royal Robertson, who began scribbling pictures of
mythical creatures and intergalactic beings after his wife left him. If drawing
doesn’t help vent your anger try charging round the house chanting the lyric ‘I’M NOT
FUCKING AROUND!!’ instead and you’ll feel better in minutes.
The XX - Reunion
"Did I see you, see
me, in a new light?" is a lyric I wish I’d written. There’s something so
painfully simple about the songs that The XX write. Effortless beauty. Reunion
is taken from their new album Co-exist.
Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Formed in 2006, Land of Talk hail from Montreal, Canada. Front woman Elizabeth Powell is one of my favourite
female vocalists. She once told an interviewer that she’d turn up to shows on
her bicycle if she had a choice as she couldn’t really afford fuel prices for
the minivan every time her band were out on the road. Consequently, this song
reminds me of summer. And bicycles.
You can find out more about Panda Su on her website, listen to her music on Last FM, or watch the video for Alphabet Song here.
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