John Richards

Good morning and happy Friday! Sinead O'Connor has just shared her first release since 2016. It's a cover of "Trouble of the World," a traditional song made famous by exalted gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Sinead O'Connor said the song wasn’t “about death or dying” to her. “More akin, a message of certainty that the human race is on a journey toward making this world a paradise and that we will get there,” she explained. All profits from the track’s sales will be donated to Black Lives Matter charities. You can buy it here.: heavenlyrecordings.bandcamp.com

Watch the spellbinding video for this song about destructive and poisonous love: www.youtube.com

“‘Hurt’ surrounds the possibility of healing from pain and the temporary nature of suffering,” London-based poet and musician Arlo Parks said. “It is supposed to uplift and comfort those going through hard times.” You can have "Hurt" for free, since it was selected as a KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org

Curtis Harding was born in Saginaw, Michigan, but he traveled around the country for much of his childhood with his mother, a touring gospel singer. He was raised in the Mennonite church, and that continues to affect his outlook on the world. “It taught me that people are just people, and the only thing that makes them different are circumstances,” he said. You can support Harding by purchasing music directly from his bandcamp: curtisharding.bandcamp.com

Just three months after releasing the powerful "Untitled (Black Is)," UK mystery collective SAULT returned with their second album of 2020, "Untitled (Rise)." This new record imparts a more exuberant sound through upbeat disco, funk and even house elements, but the topics remain just as poignant—exploring race, resilience and rebellion. You can purchase this second great album of 2020 by SAULT here: saultglobal.bandcamp.com

Citizen Cope (aka Clarence Greenwood) performed this song live during the Austin City Limits Festival in 2010: www.youtube.com

The video is the result of a collaboration between the artist and the Detroit School of Arts. Radio and TV Department students from the school had a hand in the filming of the video, while the clip also stars the Vocal Jazz Ensemble singing ‘Everybody’s Coming to My House’. Speaking about the video, Byrne said: “When I saw what the DSA students did with my song, it completely changed the way I thought of the song. In face, it changed the meaning of the song — I realised it was about inclusion, welcoming and not being alone.”: www.youtube.com

"With Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kanneberg’s guitars scraping against each other as well as harmonizing to the lyrics while drummer Steve West is all over his f**king snare drum, “Unfair” leaps out of the starting gates at a full gallop, but somehow builds to a whole new level while Malkmus holds the last syllable of “Beverleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” enjoy this tribute to "Unfair.": medialoper.com

No request today, just a shout out to Henry, who made my Friday morning. Thanks John & Henry, you're keeping my spirits lifted against all the odds! -Kiera, Pittsburgh -- Henry, thanks for the wake up, you're better than coffee! 😀 - Bob -- Wow that was awesome. Hi Henry! - Mike from Toronto -- Friday song! Early!!!!! Henry is cool!!! 🦄💕🙂 - Megan -- Ahhh....the Friday song! Today, Friday, October 16th, KEXP will celebrate the release of the long-awaited Deep Sea Diver album — titled Impossible Weight — by playing a track from the new release every hour, starting at 9 AM PT on The Morning Show and ending at 6 PM PT on Drive Time with Kevin Cole.

Thanks, Elaine, for this request. She wrote, "I don’t think I’ve ever been this ready to fill out a voter’s ballot as I am for this one. I’m not a religious person, but man I have been having some conversations with whatever being might be up there, trying to make sense of the s**tshow that 2020 has become."

The new video for the (unfortunately) still-relevant "Fight the Power" includes group founders Chuck D and Flavor Flav along with many images and scenes from recent Black Lives Matter protests, as well as guest verses or appearances from Nas, Rapsody, YG, Jahi and the Roots’ Black Thought and Questlove.: www.youtube.com

Read how this overtly political song gave Living Colour its greatest hit.: www.loudersound.com

"Natural One,” written by Folk Implosion's lead member Lou Barlow and Orbit bassist Wally Gagel, became a hit after the release of the soundtrack to the 1995 independent film "Kids," though it wasn’t featured in the film itself. Here are the lyrics to this song that "references uneasy hedonism, sex, and drugs.": genius.com

This second single of the year is described pithily by Costello in a statement as “the tale of a tattler who outlives her time”. Don't miss the video that accompanies the pulsating song: www.youtube.com

“'Gong of Catastrophe' pictures a society in collapse, describing crumbling spires, immoral and duplicitous leadership, and swinging truncheons." Read a review of Oh Sees just-released "Protean Threat": www.undertheradarmag.com

This new release comes out 15 years after the debut album from this Staten Island band.: thebudosband.bandcamp.com

This is a Dusty Springfield cover. Later this month, Daptone Records will release Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In), a new compilation album filled with previously unreleased cover songs by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. The second posthumous Sharon Jones album after 2017’s Soul of a Woman, Just Dropped In… will land on digital streaming platforms on October 23rd, with a physical release to follow on November 29th, a.k.a. Record Store Day Black Friday.

British producer, musician and DJ Will Holland is aka Quantic. Called a "one man music factory" by Billboard, Will has released over 20 albums under various pseudonyms since 2001.: driftrecords.com

There's a David Berman (Silver Jews, Purple Mountains) homage in the middle of this song, "a solemn reading of lines from the late, great Berman’s “Darkness and Cold." The video for this new one from The Avalanches is dedicated to Berman, who passed away on August 7, 2019, too.: www.youtube.com

Can you wish my friend Linda in Takoma Park MD a happy birthday? She's a regular listener, and amplifier, and an ex-Bellinghamite. She'd love it if you played some Warpaint, I expect. Or some Michael Kiwanuka - that was the last show we went to together before everything shut down. -Scott Michael Kiwanuka's self-titled third album explores his experience as a first generation Briton, the son of Ugandan immigrants who fled the Idi Amin regime. He spoke with KEXP's Sound & Vision about race and music earlier this year: www.kexp.org

“We wanted to make a positive, life-affirming video that captures politicians at their election-year best,” DJ Shadow wrote in the video’s YouTube description. “We got this instead.”: www.youtube.com

Thanks for the request, Guy! -- The Guardian calls this British group "one to watch": www.theguardian.com Here's the official video for "Valleys": www.youtube.com

"I'm relying on your common decency...So far it hasn't surfaced...But I'm sure it exists...It just takes a while to travel...From your head to your fists." According to songwriter Martin Gore, the song is about racism.: genius.com

The song was the band's breakthrough hit, peaking at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, number two in New Zealand, and number one in Australia for three weeks. They played it live at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, Holland in 2015: www.youtube.com

People can email us at thisisdeepseadiver@gmail.com with the subject line “pay it forward” and give their address... we will send them a free album. Additional info is also on our bandcamp site. thedeepseadiver.bandcamp.com

Happy birthday to INXS' third album, released on this date in 1982: www.agitreader.com

My first KEXP donation was years ago when you played INXS during a pledge drive and told a story about trying to impress your babysitter imitating Michael Hutchence. I had to donate twice this year, once at the start of your pledge drive and a second time when you brought out another INXS song. I didn't have the best childhood but the music of INXS was one of the things that I found happiness in. I'll always have a soft spot for their music. Thanks! Paul -- Awesome documentary if you haven't seen it. I *may* love INXS a (swear word that rhymes with "ducking") lot. Liz in Madison -- You didn't think we would play only ONE song from this classic album, did you? "Shabooh Shoobah" opened with this song, "The One Thing." Regarding the video, INXS bass player Tim Farriss said in the book I Want My MTV: "We fed Valium to a few cats and had them running around a table while we had a feast with sexy models and Playboy centerfolds, ripping apart a turkey. Next thing we knew, we had a Top 40 hit in America.": www.youtube.com

Joe Talbot sees people at a food bank near his home. “It’s savage,” says Joe. “To have people going to charities for food – it’s not government subsidiaries, they’re charities – is dark.” IDLES’ frontman wrote the song "Carcinogenic" about these struggles, and how they’re compounded by advertisers telling these same people to eat better, look better, be better – leading to what Joe describes as “a cycle of blame, shame, and oppression”. “Why are they being pummelled with the idea they’re not good enough?” he asks, shaking his head.: www.kerrang.com