My 2015 in Music

Happy almost 2016!

This is a shorter list than usual, because this year, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t put music first. I put books and writing and smiling and yoga first instead. Making playlists lost it’s charm. I also listened to an awful lot of podcasts: Serial, All Songs Considered, New Yorker Fiction, Nerdist…the list goes on.

Still I bought a lot of vinyl and went to a good number of gigs. This is a potted look at what will stay with me from 2015.

Record of the Year: Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell 

An unsurprising choice, I love it as much as the rest of the world.

Gig of the year: Twilight Sad at the Barrowlands 

Watching a band who have come so far do so well was quite something. I also watched two of them do an in-store in February at Vox Box music. It was quite something.

New Discovery of the Year (x2) 

Hector Bizerk

I love this band – Drums. Rap. Yes.

Frazey Ford 

What a lady.

I was also listening to lots of other new and old stuff, which I have decided to bullet point for no particular reason…

• Micah P Hinson (especially the song Patience)
• Low (Drums & Guns & Ones and Sixes)
• David Bazan
• Damien Jurado
• Nada Surf
• The Decemberists
• Sun Kill Moon
• Dark Dark Dark
• John Grant
• Courtney Barnett
• Villagers
• Joanna Gruesome

Peace and happy listening x

 

 

 

Listen up! Anais Mitchell

I saw the beautiful Anais Mitchell live at Summerhall, Edinburgh. She played beautiful songs you can sink right into. I also her love her image – effortlessly cool 90s grunge. Listen to this one from her new album Xoa. It sends shivers.

 

I also recommend Why We Build the Wall

The Ballad of Lou The Welterweight

One winter morning I went round to my new friend’s flat

Four of us: ten hours of beers and records

Afternoon and already dark

I lay upside down on the couch

Asked her for the song she’d most like to share

This is it.

In life there are moments

you want to remember.

Dark Eyes

The goodness of guitar.
Voices rough and sweet.
Discomforting comfort.
A poignant lullaby.

Thank you Dylan, thank you Dawn.

https://vimeo.com/91216999

Bill Callahan is a Genius

Listen to this. That is all.

 

The Month of May

Pinch, punch first of the month! Inspired by the Arcade Fire tune here are some springtime songs…

Sharon Van Etten ‘Everytime the Sun Comes Up’

It’s impossible not to love this lady’s music. This is a lilting, yearning track from her soon to be released new album ‘Are We There’. You can also watch a live session of it with extra glimmers over at NME.com.

San Fermin ‘Sonsick’

I feel in love with this song  on my iPod. Play it loud, on a sunshine day and feel like the world is better.

John Denver ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free’

This week I have been listening to a lot of old vinyl, this is my most favourite song.

Listen Up! Angel Olsen

American singer-songwriter Angel Olsen is an artist I heard of last year through her 2012 release Half Way Home. New album Burn Your Fire For No Witness is one of the best records I’ve stumbled on in a long time: it begs to be listened to all the way through and is wholly addictive. I’ve  listened to it over and over again – it makes you want to even though you know you shouldn’t because  eventually you might ruin it for yourself.

Olsen’s voice goes from honeyed to wild, fierce and rasping, her lyrics project straightforward truths, her musicianship is crafted and poignant. Like all great music emotions –  heartache, loneliness, desperation, anger and serenity – ring right through it.

Burn Your Fire For No Witness a subtly dazzling collection of songs with a rare and beautiful kind of timelessness. Befriend them.

Listen to the album now via NPR, it will be released through Jagjaguwar.

Listen Up! Bill Callahan

I heard this version of Kath Bloom’s song ‘The Breeze’ for the first time this morning, as I was getting ready for the day. The lyrics are strikingly honest, I wrote the line (above) I like best the-book-where-I-write-things. Bill Callahan’s version, which featured on a tribute album to Bloom, is compassionate, thoughtful and shimmers with emotional fragility.  Hope you like it as much as I do.

I Met Up with The King

I Met Up With The King

Yesterday I listened to First Aid Kit‘s album The Black and The Blue all the way through, maybe for the first time. This song caught me on the lyrics. The rest of the Swedish duo’s material is also great, check it out if you haven’t already.

 

Songs of the Year: 2013

Right now it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m up, thinking about all the music that meant a lot to me this year. Personally it’s been a year of flux and over the last few months I haven’t been able to keep up writing as I would have liked, let alone include so many of the great year end releases. So to round things off in a semi-reasonable fashion – and  before we plunge into January – here are a few of the songs I’ve loved along the way…some old, some new, all worth a listen.

Videos included at the bottom and there’s a Spotify playlist here with some more tracks

• Dark Dark Dark ‘Patsy Cline’ 2013 was the year I discovered the stirring, intense folk of US band Dark Dark Dark. Lyrically their songs are stunning. This one resonated on a personal level, it’s poignant without being self-pitying and I’ll always remember it. 
  
• Damien Jurado ‘Yuma Arizona’ I posted this song for my friends on their wedding day, it’s an older track but so incredibly pretty. I think I heard it covered live, one of my favourite ways to discover sometimes overlooked or forgotten tracks. 
• Low ‘So Blue’ The first time I heard this song, from ‘The Invisible Way’, I was sucked in to how insanely powerful it was…for that reason it stayed with me
  
• Frightened Rabbit ‘The Oil Slick’ When it comes to Frabbits I’m a massive fan girl. This is my favourite track on their 2013 release ‘Pedestrian Verse’ 
  
• Melt Yourself Down ‘Fix My Life’ This is song is completely crazy, an erratic blend between gypsy jazz and dance – synths, brass and whoops all the way. It never fails to cheer me.
• James Brown ‘I’ll Go Crazy’ I love James Brown but I’d never heard this song. It is INCREDIBLE. 
• Fleetwood Mac ‘Go Your Own Way’ – Fleetwood Mac are a band I go back to time and time again, I beliver this song to be one of the greats.
• Bob Dylan ‘Hurricane’/Daft Punk ‘Get Lucky’ – An unlikely combination I’ve included both of these because my friend plays them on guitar and we all sing. Those moments are the best, I wish I could bottle them. 
• Mogwai/Explosions in the Sky/Yo La Tengo – I’m not going to choose anything in particular from these three, except to say they make for the best studying/working music I’ve ever found.
• Lau ‘Throwing Pennies’ – Oh how I love Lau. The Scottish folk trio fuse traditional folk influences with an Orcadian beautiful vocal, original melodies and experimentation. 
• Hiss Golden Messenger ‘Drum’ – I got this on my ipod about a month ago, such a sweet and uplifting song.
• Unknown Mortal Orchestra ‘Swim and Sleep Like a Shark’ – Eeeek I like this band a lot.  It reminds me of sitting with my very good friend, saying very little.

That’s what’s in my mind right now…happy new year when it comes!