The Last Mixed Tape

Ten years after David Bowie’s death, Blackstar remains one of the most haunting and deliberate final works in modern music.Often framed as a farewell album, Blackstar feels closer to something far more intentional: an artist confronting not just mortality, but the loss of authorship over his own legacy.In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, Stephen White explores how Bowie used Blackstar to design his own disappearance, refusing nostalgia, embracing abstraction, and choosing new musical languages at the very end.Placing Bowie alongside artists like Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath, and Francis Bacon, this episode examines how creators across music, poetry, and art have turned toward death not as an ending, but as material.

Phil Lynott didn’t just write one of Dublin’s most beautiful songs, he revealed something deeper about identity, belonging, and culture.In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, Stephen White explores Old Town, Phil Lynott’s tender 1982 solo track, and why it remains one of the most intimate love letters ever written to Dublin.Moving through Lynott’s life, his work with Thin Lizzy, Irish mythology, and his legacy as a Black Irish icon, this episode reflects on what it means to truly belong to a place not through bloodlines or permission, but through presence, love, and lived experience.Forty years after his death, Phil Lynott’s music still speaks to modern Ireland, offering a quiet but powerful counterpoint to rigid ideas of identity.This is a story about a song, a city, and a way of being Irish that is felt, lived, and heard.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) doesn’t sound like a protest song and that’s exactly the point.In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, we explore how John Lennon used Christmas, tradition, and familiarity to deliver one of the most quietly radical political messages in popular music.Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, this episode traces Lennon’s shift from confrontation to persuasion — from the bed-ins for peace and Give Peace a Chance, to Imagine, Yoko Ono’s influence, and the belief that political ideas endure best when they’re delivered “with a little honey.”More than a seasonal standard, Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is a protest song designed to be lived with — not argued against — and its legacy reveals how music can change culture without raising its voice.

CMAT’s Euro Country is the standout Irish album of 2025 and a cultural moment. In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, Stephen explores how CMAT’s songwriting, humour, and hyperreal pop persona captured the realities of modern Ireland: the housing crisis, post–Celtic Tiger disillusionment, political theatre, and the strange mix of chaos and hope that defines life in 2025.We unpack the album’s themes of escapism, rural identity, emotional honesty, and ambition, and examine why Euro Country resonated so deeply with a generation navigating uncertainty.This album is a portrait of Ireland right now, seen through one of its most important artists.

In 2025, Irish musicians stepped into the political frontline. From Fontaines D.C. and Kneecap tartists across Ireland and the UK are taking a stand against the rise of far-right extremism, violence, and organised disinformation.With the launch of the TOGETHER Against The Far Right Alliance, more than 50 civil-society groups and hundreds of cultural workers are uniting to push back and 2026 could become the most important year yet.