This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Stop Calling - JACOTÉNE

2. Cutthroat - shame

3. Velveteen - She’s In Parties

4. Picture Window - Japanese Breakfast

5. WOMEN WHO LOVE TOO MUCH - Sofia and the Antoinettes

6. Hey - Scotch & Water

7. Projections - José Junior

8. 12 Blown Tires - Tennis

9. Born To Dream - Young Gun Silver Fox

10. Peace Piece - Bill Evans

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Heaven - mercury

2. Icarus - Alex Amor

3. SANTA MONICA PIER - Sofia and the Antoinettes

4. When the Sun Hits - Slowdive

5. God Only Knows - The Beach Boys

6. Two Cents - Big Sleep

7. Nosebleed - NewDad

8. Camera - Suzan Köcher’s Suprafon

9. Narcissist - Tallulah Argue

10. Call U Back - TTSSFU

Stay Put Sunshine is the 2024 EP by Dublin-based indie band, Big Sleep. It is a mellow album of just six songs that relaxes the listener from start to finish, making them feel at ease after a long day.

One of the strongest aspects of the album is its ability to blend old and new indie influences, taking inspiration from bands such as Big Thief and The Strokes.

The vocals carry 2000s indie confidence, bringing charisma that is Alex Turner-esque. The arrangement of the instruments are more similar to other, newer indie artists, giving the music a fresh and contemporary edge.

Top Songs

1. Two Cents

2. Daisy

3. Pianoland

4. Ms Misery

5. All My Friends

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

When listening to Stay Put Sunshine, it is the bass work that stands out to me. It is far from a background instrument, instead guiding the music, filling much of the space in the songs and providing a strong foundation for everything else to work around it.

The album demonstrates the difference between a good bassist and a really great one. Whilst a good bassist is able to support the band and 'do a job', a great one adds real movement to the songs, and is able to separate their sound from the other instruments.

This movement of the bass on Stay Put Sunshine allows the guitar to shine. The guitar has a clean, jangly tone that adds brightness to the songs, something that is a key part to the albums identity.

There is no need for the guitars to fill the space thanks to the bass doing much of the heavy lifting. This allows it to lean into their clean tone without fear of losing the songs strength.

Combined with upbeat drumming rhythms, the result is a sound that is light and inviting, perfectly suited to the laid-back mood the album is designed to deliver.

Even when the energy levels rise, Big Sleep never abandon their core sound. The drums and guitars largely retain their clean nature, ensuring every track remains smooth and easy to listen to.

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Overall, Stay Put Sunshine is a beautifully crafted album that combines mellow rhythms with relaxing tones.

Rather than relying on big dramatic moments, Big Sleep focus on creating an atmosphere that relaxes the listener, guides them through the album and eases them off on a warm summers evening.

If you like what you’ve read today, please consider sharing as I try to grow this channel even further.

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Pianoland - Big Sleep

2. Truth Lies Low - Andrew Bird

3. Special - mercury

4. Hunnybee - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

5. Fine - After Louise

6. If You Want My Love - WILSN

7. Hi My Love - Sofia and the Antoinettes

8. Two Fools - The Something Specials, Taylor Olin

9. Replace - Carmody

10. For What It’s Worth - Cara Rose

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Astral Projection - Yumi Zouma

2. The Way - WILSN

3. All My Friends Are Sluts - Begum

4. SEEIN' STARS - Turnstile

5. In The Middle - White Lies

6. Could Have Been Me - The Struts

7. Caramel Clouds - Gecko Club

8. Buried In This Room - Sofia and the Antoinettes

9. Knocking At The Sky - The Last Dinner Party

10. Bad Situation - Richie Kotzen

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Limelight - XTC

2. OVERWHELMING FEAR - Sofia and the Antoinettes

3. Are You Dreaming? - She’s In Parties

4. I Have A Moon - Lush

5. You’re Mine - Sex Brain

6. Home - Flo Naegeli

7. Things We Left Unsaid - Young Gun Silver Fox

8. Killer Whale - Boyscott

9. Cry, Cry - Mazzy Star

10. Love Is The Law - The Seahorses

Disclaimer: the description below is not able to do justice to how wonderful an album this is.

If you are someone who always dreams of the 1970s or constantly says modern music sucks, then listen up. Pleasure is the 2025 album by Young Gun Silver Fox and proves there is still plenty of life left in yacht rock.

Young Gun Silver Fox consists of the duo Andy Platts and Shawn Lee. They began working together in 2012 after hearing each other's music and deciding they must collaborate.

Top Songs

1. Put Up YourDukes

2. Stealing Time

3. Stevie & Sly

4. Born To Dream

5. Just For Pleasure

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

Pleasure is an album that instils a deep sense of nostalgia in the listener. It is full of warm, bright tones that bring comfort and creates an uplifting feeling that is almost euphoric.

The album is built on vocal harmonies that create blissful moments throughout that are dreamy by nature. They evoke imagery of sunshine and summer road trips as you live out your free life.

Throughout the album, there are clear influences from artists such as The Eagles, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. However, the production is crisp and modern, making it perfect for showcasing yacht rock to a new generation.

When I first heard this album, I couldn’t believe it was a post‑Covid release. It feels like a forgotten 70s classic we all suddenly remembered one sunny morning in 2025.

It captures everything music should be: joyful to listen to, evokes emotions and is impossible not to share with friends.

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If you liked what you read today, please consider sharing as I try to grow this channel even further.

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Bells Ring - Mazzy Star

2. PPP- Beach House

3. Know Who You Are At Every Age - Cocteau Twins

4. Here’s Where The Story Ends - The Sundays

5. The Trip - Still Corners

6. Radio Song - Rose City Band

7. Love Guarantee - Young Gun Silver Fox

8. Winner’s Eyes - Mamas Gun

9. Visions of You - Tomode

10. kisses - Slowdive

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Forever - The Flashcubes

2. On The Wire - Mamas Gun

3. In The Moment - JONES

4. No Fun - After Louise

5. I Don’t Know What I’m Doing On Earth, I Don’t Know What On Earth I’m Doing - Sofia and the Antoinettes

6. Born To Dream - Young Gun Silver Fox

7. Key to Life - Kauf

8. Little Black Sandals - Sia

9. Lights on the Way - Rose City Band

10. Cortez the Killer - Neil Young and Crazy Horse

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Risky Business - Tommy Newport, Baby Nova

2. Angeline - Keyside

3. Drift Away - The Horn

4. Down the Line - Beach Fossils

5. Don’t Try This At Home - Future Utopia

6. Heat - Kraak & Smaak, Butter Bath

7. Nothing’s Accidental - After Louise

8. Mirror In A Gold Mine - MAXN

9. Criminal Behavior - WHALES•TALK

10. Faded Rose - Georgia Gets By

Note: the opening text highlighted below will remain the same throughout this series. Feel free to skip over if you have already read it before.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

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Check out our last ‘What Does Led Zeppelin Mean to You?’ where we discuss Led Zeppelin II.

Buy Me A Coffee

Today, we discuss Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin’s fifth studio album, released in March 1973.

It was released four years after their debut and by this point in time, Led Zeppelin and its four members were megastars. They had just come of the back of Led Zeppelin IV, an album so popular it still draws in new fans today.

Houses of the Holy was another commercial triumph, although it did receive mixed views from critics upon release. Overtime however, appreciation for the album has increased and it even managed to appear on The Rolling Stones list of top albums of all time.

But moving on from the journalists of the time, let’s see what our three participants today think.

Steve Bradley of ‘Musical Chairs’

Musical Chairs

I trained to be a priest for five years, so Houses of the Holy really resonated with me - the name obviously, but also the sense of mystery and otherness conjured by the cover.

In truth though, it's probably my least favourite of their studio albums, I'm not including Coda, and in many ways it would have been a better name for their next album, Physical Graffiti, where the song Houses of the Holy actually appears, having been left off the album of the same name.

For perhaps the only time in their career, the experimentation wasn't always convincing, notably “D'yer M'aker” and “Dancing Days”. Having said that, “No Quarter” and “The Rain Song” are spectacular, the latter being a stunning riposte to George Harrison's suggestion that Zep didn't write ballads, there’s even a cheeky nod to Something in the opening chords.

Tom’s Thoughts

I’d never thought about how House of the Holy compares to other Led Zeppelin albums before and I’d always thought it sounded great. But where you’ve said it’s probably your least favourite album, it got me thinking.

Maybe it is in fact one of their less inspirational albums, an album that doesn’t quite hit the core in the same way some of their others do. Maybe it doesn’t have that killer song or two that absolutely blows you away.

My favourite from the album is The Ocean, but compared to “Black Dog”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “Immigrant Song” or “Kashmir”, it’s just not the same. Houses of the Holy is great, but if you are to compare it to other work by Led Zeppelin, maybe it’s just not quite there.

Definitely something I’m curious to see what other people have to say about it.

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KKS of ‘KKS Handmade Guitar's’

KKS Handmade Guitar's

First of all, I’d like to put to bed the way a specific song called ‘D’Yer Ma’ker’ is miss pronounced. It is obviously a reggae sound and should be said like this, ‘Jamaica’.

Now onto the music.

Houses of the Holy was a slight turn away from their more blues rooted music and took them into a brave new direction, but was still instantly recognisable as Led Zeppelin.

By the time this and later albums were recorded, they were using new riffs, phrases and patterns they would come up with during their live performances and later be mould into the songs we know and love today.

Led Zeppelin showed more restraint on this album than before, but without losing any of their powerhouse of talents. Being able to send you to various parts of the world from song to song was a part of their mastery.

Like their previous albums, they put such thought into the running order of the songs, which really makes a deeper impact which only got better with each album. JPJ was an amazing musical arranger, and along with Page’s production there didn’t seem like anything could stop them.

This one struck a greater chord with me as I was brought up on them and seemed to hear things that others just didn’t, which only grew my affinity for them.

Tom’s Thoughts

Absolutely JPJ was an amazing musical arranger. He was arguably the most musically trained member of the band and had a great command of orchestration and harmony.

You only have to look as far as “Kashmir”, one of Led Zeppelin’s most successful songs that has managed to remain popular across generations, where he brings the song to life with a sweeping orchestral scale - although uncredited for it.

I think it’s fair to say, his ability to arrange a song is something that really helped set Led Zeppelin apart from their competition and got them to where they are today.

Nuno Babo of ‘Needle in a Substack’

Needle In A Substack

The first album to feature only compositions by the band members demonstrates just how the band had progressed.

From the opening chords of “The Song Remains the Same,” we can sense a newfound confidence and invigorating intensity. The orchestral experiments of “The Rain Song” and even the weird synthesiser experiments of “The Crunge” seem to work.

Rockabilly, reggae, blues, hard rock, and Celtic sensibilities are all thrown into this melting pot, and the outcome is nothing short of amazing.

The only shortcoming, if we can call it that, is that there’s no “Immigrant Song”, “Black Dog”, or “Whole Lotta Love”. But that’s a very small quibble when a band is operating at this level.

Tom’s Thoughts

As you’ve said, this album has a big range of influences and they really lean into them all to create something unique.

This ability to experiment and their confidence to realise it, is what made Led Zeppelin so great and so loved. This is the reason I have always seen them as a better comparison to The Beatles than The Beatles vs The Stones.

They are composers who really think through their music and understand all of its subtleties. They don’t just have a vision but they have the talent and mind to go and pull it off.

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This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. White Horses - Wolf Alice

2. Roleplay - Tallulah Argue

3. Track X - Black Country, New Road

4. Crybaby - After Louise

5. davina mccall - Wet Leg

6. Private Universe - Crowded House

7. I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)- Westside Cowboy

8. OVERWHELMING FEAR - Sofia and the Antoinettes

9. Stevie & Sly - Young Gun Silver Fox

10. Bug - Fontaines D.C.

Tallulah Argue is a Toronto-born, London-based singer-songwriter who has built a name for herself on both the local London scene and across Europe. She released a string of singles from 2023 onwards and more recently released her debut EP, Deer In The Headlights, in February 2026.

She has a small catalogue of just five songs, making my top 5 below more a reshuffle of her EP. Over these five songs, Argue has gradually moved away from her country routes towards alt-pop influenced music, a sound self-coined as 'Country Sleaze'.

Top Songs

1. Narcissist

2. Tough-As-They-Make-Em

3. Roleplay

4. I Think I’m Gonna Love You Forever

5. Hot Stuff!

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

The music has a skip to it, taking from her country influence, giving it a sultry feel. She uses clean instruments and sings with excellent clarity, creating a refined sound that comes across as very well thought through.

Argue’s music isn’t just about telling a story but creating cinematic imagery in the listener’s mind. She is excellent at describing a scene and making us live the moment with her, supporting the overall narrative of the music.

Argue writes as often from the viewpoint of the subject of her songs, as she does her own. She is playful with her voice and layers twangy, glam-country instrumentation, to give her music its signature wit.

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Tallulah Argue is an exciting up-and-coming artist who’s unique selling point is her ability to build a whole world of character and drama around a three-minute alt-pop song.

During an era that has a growing saturation of indie-pop artists, Tallulah Argue stands out by turning her romantic missteps into satire.

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) - Neil Young and Crazy Horse

2. Sleeping with Ghosts - Cliffords

3. Through the Mirror - Tennis

4. Cold Heart - Nilüfer Yanya

5. It Won’t Always Be Like This - Inhaler

6. Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You) - Bombay Bicycle Club

7. Desire Line - Lush

8. Welcome to the DCC - Nothing But Thieves

9. Runaway - Keyside

10. Shit Talk - Sufjan Stevens

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. Norm - Tarantula Bill

2. Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah) - Inhaler

3. A Cowboy Song - Kean Kavanagh

4. Tired Boy - Sunday (1994)

5. Coming Home - Leon Bridges

6. Summertime - Jackie DeShannon

7. Underneath It All - No Doubts, Lady Saw

8. Moves - Suki Waterhouse

9. Go Solo - Tom Rosenthal

10. Utopia - Common Saints

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

1. The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth - Clap Your Hands Say Yes

2. R.E.M - She’s In Parties

3. Walk Through Fire - Poise

4. Good Looking (Stripped) - Suki Waterhouse

5. Miserable Man - David Kushner

6. Rock The Casbah - The Clash

7. The Wrong Man - Suzanne Santo

8. The Cedar Room - Doves

9. Dope & Smoke - Dope Lemon

10. Overdue - Tyla, DJ Lag KOOLDRINK

Big thanks this week to for the great recommendation!

She’s In Parties are a London-based indie-rock band, led by Irish-born singer Katie Dilon. Although they are yet to release a full-length album, She’s In Parties have produced three EPs since 2023, each to growing success.

They cite music of the 80s as a big influence on them, naming Tears for Fears, Cocteau Twins and The Cure as artists who shaped their sound. However, the music they create offers a hazy, modern twist that epitomises dreampop, taking them far away from 80s wannabees.

Top Songs

1. Same Old Story

2. Are You Dreaming?

3. L Word

4. Fallen

5. The Times

For access to some of my favourite guitar & music gear, follow the link here

She’s In Parties are a band that do not just fill a room with their sound, but create an atmosphere of emotion. This is a skill they have developed over time, starting out as a traditional indie-rock band, before moving towards shoegaze and dreampop influences.

Reverb is evident from the opening notes of any of their songs, providing a longing feeling to the music and creating imagery of clear, cold skies and old, abandoned buildings.

Importantly, tension is at the heart of everything. Whilst the reverb is turned up to ten, the guitars are steeped in post-punk patterns, an influence that provides their signature sound and stands them out from other bands circuiting the London scene.

The vocals and lyrics are excellently written, with the phrasing perfectly placing each syllable to give full emphasis. This, coupled with dynamics that are able to build and recede, creates a romantic melancholy to their music.

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She’s In Parties are exciting to listen to, their music is well-written and they create ampules of emotion in the listener.

During an era when post-punk revivalism has become something of an overcrowded market, She’s In Parties standout by very subtly incorporating their gothic influence into modern shoegaze.

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

Read more

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

Read more

This playlist will update every weekend with 10 new songs in a random order (also listed below for those of you who don’t use Spotify).

Listen at your own leisure throughout the week and let me know any songs that standout to you.

Read more