Welcome back to the blog for another year - and decade! I hope 2020 is finding you content and well. If not – well, music is a great elixir, and there are a ton of beautiful tunes in this post to help soothe what ails you :).
As has become tradition, my first post of the new year is a look back at my favourite records of the previous year, with a playlist for you to sample songs from each. As a bonus, I've added a playlist of my favourite releases of 2018 as well, since I wasn't blogging this time last year, but had been saving a list of records I loved.
Wow, there were some killer albums that came out in both 2019 and 2018. Once again, I'm extremely heartened by the state of new music – it just takes a little digging to find the good stuff ;). Here are my lists of top 10 albums for each year (in no real order, except for the top 3 in each list):
2019
- Jenny Lewis - On The Line
- Rose Elinor Dougall - A New Illusion
- WOW - Come La Notte
- Altin Gün - Gece
- Vanishing Twin - The Age Of Immunology
- Prudence - Growing Closer
- Noël Wells - It's So Nice!
- Carla dal Forno - Look Up Sharp
- Vendredi sur mer - Premiers émois
- Le SuperHomard - Meadow Lane Park
2018
- Gwenno - Le Kov
- Lake Ruth - Birds of America
- La Luz - Floating Features
- Green Seagull - Scarlet Fever
- Us & Them - On Shipless Ocean
- Olden Yolk - Olden Yolk
- Beautify Junkyards - The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards
- Adrian Younge - Presents Voices Of Gemma
- Rita Braga - Bird on the Moon
- Kadhja Bonet - Childqueen
Now onto the fun stuff - the playlists! These represent what ended up being a fairly random number of my favourite releases. For the 2019 playlist, I was ready to go with a nice, neat 25 albums and 5 EPs and singles, but discovered I'd forgotten a couple of essential inclusions, and struggled to cut anything further. Then I realised one of the benefits of running my own blog is I can do whatever the fuck I want! So, 27 albums it is! (or 32 releases including EPs and singles).
If you are new to my contemporary music tastes, what you can expect is lots of neo-psych, avant-pop, shimmery dream pop, pop noir, and otherwise songs with irresistible melodies and strong songwriting, usually in a retro or classic vein. My playlists tend to be female-dominated - it's not by design, it's just that somehow my tastes lead me to more women making the type of music I love. I've never liked to make a statement of it; in some way, I think it's more interesting and powerful not to point it out, because why should it be unusual? That said, I am pleased to celebrate some extremely talented, sometimes overlooked female artists and present them to an audience who may not yet know them.
These were made on Spotify (RIP my fave playlisting service, 8tracks), but if you have another preferred streaming platform, visit the Soundsgood Soundiiz link beneath the playlist artwork for more listening options (the playlists, however, may be incomplete on some platforms).
2019 Tracklist
The link in the release title will take you to a Bandcamp page or the artist's/label's site for that release, where available. If you are looking to buy these elsewhere, you may like to try my Music Search page, where you can search a number of physical and digital music stores worldwide.
- Vendredi sur Mer - L'histoire sans fin (Premiers émois)
- Altin Gün - Yolcu (Gece)
- WOW - Come La Notte (Come La Notte)
- Jonathan Personne - Larry (Histoire naturelle)
- Jenny Lewis - Wasted Youth (On The Line)
- Charlène Darling - Je t'aimerai toujours (Saint-Guidon)
- Noël Wells - Sad Girl Blues (It's So Nice!)
- Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Only Lovers (Sacred Dreams)
- Bleached - Heartbeat Away (Don't You Think You've Had Enough?)
- Business of Dreams - Ripe for Anarchy (Ripe for Anarchy)
- Olympia - Star City (Flamingo)
- Prudence - Ride (Growing Closer)
- Carla dal Forno - No Trace (Look Up Sharp)
- Laure Briard - Changer d'avis (Un peu plus d'amour s'il vous plaît)
- Jeanines - Winter in the Dark (Jeanines)
- Green Seagull - Belladonna (Simeon Brown single)
- Tracy Bryant - Nightmare (Hush)
- Cate le Bon - Here It Comes Again (Reward)
- Rose Elinor Dougall - Echoes (A New Illusion)
- Peter Perrett - I Want Your Dreams (Humanworld)
- Piroshka - Hated By The Powers That Be (Brickbat)
- Olden Yolk - Blue Paradigm (Living Theatre)
- The Babe Rainbow - Morning Song (Today)
- Le SuperHomard - Door After Door (Meadow Lane Park)
- The Last Detail (A Girl Called Eddy + Fugu) - Killing Time (Places EP)
- Johnathan Rice - The Long Game (The Long Game)
- Satellite Jockey - You Can't Go On (Modern Life, Vol. 3 EP)
- La Féline - La Terre entière (Vie future)
- Lake Ruth - Extended Leave (Extended Leave single)
- Death and Vanilla - Wallpaper Pattern (Are You A Dreamer?)
- Vanishing Twin - Magician's Success (The Age Of Immunology)
- Single - El Roce (El Roce single)
The 2018 playlist is a little longer – 36 albums, and 8 EPs and singles – since I had more time to discover lots of great records.
2018 Tracklist
- Lake Ruth - One of Your Own (Birds of America)
- Gwenno - Tir Ha Mor (Le Kov)
- Gaye Su Akyol - Bir Yaralı Kuştum (İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir)
- Kadhja Bonet - Wings (Childqueen)
- La Luz - My Golden One (Floating Features)
- Slowgold - Vad är kärlek (Mörkare)
- Beautify Junkyards - Aquarius (The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards)
- Moon Age - Black Widow's Kiss (Distant Horizons EP)
- Shannon Shaw - Bring Her the Mirror (Shannon In Nashville)
- Adrian Younge Presents Voices of Gemma - Stranger by the Sea (Adrian Younge Presents Voices of Gemma)
- Green Seagull - Scarlet (Scarlet Fever)
- Lia Pamina & Dario Persi - So Far Tonight (So Far Tonight EP)
- The Yearning - How Do You Make Somebody Fall In Love? (Take Me All Over The World EP)
- The Shacks - Sand Song (Haze)
- Belle & Sebastian - A Plague On Other Boys (How to Solve Our Human Problems (Part 2) EP)
- The Rebels Of Tijuana - Lydie s (Asile)
- Barbara Carlotti - Radio mentale sentimentale (Magnétique)
- Em Burrows - Melt Away (Invisible Seams)
- Olden Yolk - Cut to the Quick (Olden Yolk)
- Altin Gün - Cemalım (On)
- El Michels Affair & Piya Malik - Zaharila (Unathi / Zaharila single)
- Bon Voyage Organisation - Soleil Dieu (Jungle ? Quelle jungle ?)
- Rita Braga - Grãos de Arroz (Bird on the Moon)
- En Attendant Ana - Tinkle Twinkle (Lost and Found)
- Gloria - Dancehall N°3 (Hey Gyp EP)
- The Essex Green - The 710 (Hardly Electronic)
- Le SuperHomard - Under A Charm (Springtime)
- Triptides - Flashing Before Your Eyes (Visitors)
- Samara Lubelski - Black Dots (Flickers at the Station)
- Halo Maud - Tu Sais Comme Je Suis (Je Suis Une île)
- Cobalt Chapel - Mountain (Mountain EP)
- Exploded View - Raven Raven (Obey)
- Pram - Electra (Across The Meridian)
- Jacco Gardner - Levania (Somnium)
- Jonathan Bree - Plucking Petals (Sleepwalking)
- Melody's Echo Chamber - Desert Horse (Bon Voyage)
- Us & Them - Lady Rachel (On Shipless Ocean)
- The Advisory Circle - The Soft Dissolve (Ways of Seeing)
- Still Corners - Black Lagoon (Slow Air)
- Gulp - I Dream Of Your Song (All Good Wishes)
- Mitski - Blue Light (Be the Cowboy)
- COTE - Older (Cote)
- Amaya Laucirica - Let It Happen (Rituals)
- Françoise Hardy - À cache-cache (Personne d'autre)
I know there are many excellent releases I've missed or have yet to give a good listen. I did originally plan to to publish a 'further listening' playlist of honourable mentions and other things of interest, as I did for 2017, but it got a little long and unruly!
Finally, I thought I'd mention some services I've starting using to keep up with new releases from artists I like, for anyone else who may be interested. I found that the last couple of times I did these end-of-year lists, I was trying frantically to play catch-up, as I'd missed many new releases throughout the year. In theory, social media should be good for this, but it's now just an endless stream of information and nonsense and whatever random stuff the algorithms deem you want to see that I find much of what is shared by music artists slips through.
So here are some useful services I found, specifically for keeping up with new music from artists you already know. (For finding new artists, there are endless options like music blogs (ahem!), similar artist recommendations on Spotify, etc., and Last.fm). I really like Swarm.fm, which shows you new releases from artists you follow on Spotify. While Spotify's Release Radar is quite good for this, Swarm.fm is better in that it displays an organised list of latest releases, from most recent to months or even years ago. I also like Muspy, a no-frills site which allows you to enter artists you like, and then creates a list of their upcoming and recent releases. It can also notify you by email when a new release is out. And then there's Musicbee, a free music player and library that I highly recommend, which has a service that shows you upcoming releases from any artists in your collection.
As always, I love hearing what your favourite records were, especially things I might have missed, so please let me know in the comments. Happy listening!
Paul D
Great stuff, thank you. I love the Vendredi Sur Mer album. I also should give Vanishing Twin more time as it seems like a grower.
Other new acts I have discovered that may fit in with your lists are Men I Trust and Weyes Blood.