Everyone likes to get stuff without paying for it, and here are 20 excellent tracks you can download from last.fm with a squeaky-clean conscience:
1.
Madredeus - 
Lisboa Rainha Do Mar
Fantastic Portuguese fado group, which has been active for more than twenty years. This song's waltzy rhythm gently rocks you as if you were in a fishing boat just off Lisboa's coast heading back for another glass of vino verde around midnight.
2.
Elbow - The Stops
Anxious, tense, ominous, and very, very beautiful. Sad and melancholy voice somewhere reminiscent of
Stuart Staples of
Tindersticks or the guy from
The National. From the great album
Leaders Of The Free World, which got incredible reviews a couple of years ago and from which several tracks are available for free at last.fm.
3.
Madrugada - Look Away Lucifer
A dark song from the latest, pitch black Madrugada album, which was released just a few months after guitarist Robert Burås' untimely death. This could have been a
Nick Cave-song, filled with Satanic allusions and desperation.
4.
Field Music - Kingston
Indie pop with inventive boy/girl harmonies, melody with surprising twists and a nice string section. Field Music have made their entire, excellent album
Tones Of Town available for free download.
5.
Josh Ritter - Best For The Best
A very folksy and stripped down tune with subtle and careful instrumentation. Dylanesque lyrics about a sailor with a heartache.
6.
Grandaddy - Campershell Dreams
Grandaddy sounds, as usual, like
Beach Boys on valium. Minimalist lyrics about not having to be alone anymore. But what the hell is a campershell? Tried to google it and got very enigmatic results.
7.
Datarock - Fa-Fa-Fa
Norwegian electrorock. Very energetic and danceable track which really stands out as Datarock's best on a very variable album (in my humble opinion).
8.
The Radio Dept. - Sleeping In
One of many nice Swedish indie pop groups, several tracks available for free download.
9.
El Perro del Mar - Sad
Another Swedish indie pop artist. My favourite song of theirs is by far the haunting
This Loneliness, but this is the one she's chosen to give away. Sad, but catchy little tune.
10.
Dan Lyth - Breathe Easy
Virtually unknown artist (as of today, 859 plays!) who deserves a bigger audience. A song about Dan's ambition to become a superhero. A very calm and ambient track, but the melody builds well, his tender voice is impeccable and the instrumentation carefully caresses a gentle melody. I really like this track, hope to hear more from him.
11.
Figurines - The Wonder
More Scandinavian indie, this time from Denmark. This Figurines song is extremely danceable and catchy.
12. Ленинград - Свобода
Russian ska band, one of the greatest successes of the post-Soviet music era (which, I must admit, I don't know very well). This song is full of energy, with husky vocals, all male unison chorus and a catchy instrumental passage which will stick to your brain like glue. Musical (and tuning!) skills leave something to be desired, but plenty of raw energy.
13.
Ugress - Spider-Man Theme
Nice electronica rendition of the theme from the Spiderman movies. The kind of music you would hear at a trendy bar with two-syllable name written in futuristic font circa 2000. But ages fairly well.
14.
Studio - No Comply
According to Pitchfork, this Swedish (again!) track was the 2007's 55th best. Nice "world music" percussion over club beat, but two chords are not quite enough to maintain my attention for the full 5 1/2 minutes.
15.
Magnus Eliassen - Lois Is Happy
Midtempo pop tune - handclaps and all - with a simple, catchy melody that unfortunately loses some of its momentum at the end of each chorus. Has received a lot of airplay on Norwegian radio.
16.
Thom Hell - Don´t pretend
Beautiful melody clearly inspired by
Thomas Dybdahl, although lyrically perhaps not quite in the same league ("please don't pretend/you'll come again"). But well worth more than one listen.
18.
Aberdeen - Florida
All right, if a little lengthy shoegaze-like track from now defunct group.
19.
Readymade - The Fake but No Finish
A hypnotic shoegaze-track from an obscure Canadian band with a medium-sized
Pitchfork hype.
19.
Bound Stems - Andover
Complex stuff, but quite rewarding.
20.
Dag og Sivilarbeiderne - Et slags requiem
I had to include one of my own tracks at the end - not to suggest that I'm in the same league as any of the artists above - but just to make sure you get the message that this entire post was a nasty ploy to boost my own plays and get rich from the royalties. So far I've made close to
50 Cents.
Thom Hell
