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):

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 link beneath the playlist artwork for more listening options (the playlists, however, may be incomplete on some platforms).

Best of 2019: Spotify playlist | Soundsgood (more listening options)

Spiked Candy kicked off with a France Gall video and a Quebecoise France Gall cover, so for old times' sake, I thought I'd start again the same way:

This is a clip from an episode of a music show called Au risque de vous plaire which originally aired on the 10th of January, 1969. The episode, directed by Jean-Christophe Averty, is creative and colourful, making the most of the relatively new colour format. They've gone a bit nuts with the technique of using graphics to frame the footage, with fun results like those seen here. (The video may take a few moments to load).

Claire Lepage - Le Premier Chagrin d'amour

I love Canadian girl Claire Lepage's take on France Gall's 1964 single, 'Le Premier Chagrin d'amour', which has lyrics by France's father, Robert Gall, and music by Claude Henri-Vic. In her slowed-down, more grown-up-sounding version, the 'first heartbreak' of the title sounds like it's about something that had more at stake than France Gall's lost teen love. Claire's version comes two year later, in 1966, which is a little unusual as international covers tended to appear soon after the original.

I've also made a playlist* of France Gall covers - 30 of them!

This is one of the prettiest Eurovision entries I've heard before:

The Hearts Of Soul - Waterman (1970)

Bianca, Patricia and Stella Maessen, three sisters from Harderwijk, did a lot of session work (a.o with Dusty Springfield and Rika Zarai), performed regularly at nightclubs across the country and participated in 1970 in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1973, they left for Belgium,where they formed a new group, Dream Express, with Luc Smets (ex-Pebbles). Stella released a solo single under the name Stella Mason. In 1977, the group participated for the second time in Eurovision, this time representing Belgium. Two years later, the Dream Express split up. In the meantime, Bianca got married to Luc, and Patricia went on to join Passenger. Luc, Stella and Bianca formed L.B.S. in 1979. — Nederpop Encyclopedia)

'Waterman' only came 7th that year. Bah!

Coming soon: a video of this performance (hopefully!).

Links: Nederpop Encyclopedia, Wikipedia - Eurovision 1970, Eurovision 1970 @ eurovision.tv
Buy: The Hearts of Soul on Ebay, The Hearts of Soul on CDandLP.com

Brenda Lee - Is It True (1964)

Don't be misled by that very pink and prim photo of Brenda Lee - this is one rockin' track. From dustbury.com:

Brenda Lee had already chalked up two dozen Top 40 hits by September of '64, generally produced by Decca's main man in Nashville, Owen Bradley, but nothing she'd ever done was anything quite like this. While on tour in England — a tour which included a Royal Command Performance, yet — Brenda met up with record producer Mickie Most, who had scored a major hit with the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" for EMI. Most got her into the studio, assembled a team of studio pros, and instead of a ballad of the sort she'd been doing for the past couple of years, gave her this bouncy Carter-Lewis number. One of those studio pros was the young Jimmy Page, whose contribution is a biting guitar lick that falls somewhere between staccato and Morse code. "Is It True" was rushed into the stores, and was a fair-sized hit in the US, a bigger one in the UK, but it set no precedents for Brenda's career.

And I would just like to add, this song is too unbelievably good for words.

From One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found.

And if the brilliance of this track hasn't yet made you pass out, then this will do it:

1. Triks and The Paramounts - Doe Maar Net Zoals Ik (1966)
2. Karin Kent - Als Ik Een Jongen Was (1964)

According to the Liner Notes translations page on the excellent Cutie Morning Moon site:

After winning a talent contest singer Triks Boelen started her career as vocalist for the very popular Maskers. When Bob Bouber joined this band she had to leave. The band she started next was called the Paramounts, but was later re-christened Triks & the Paramounts. The band came from Amstelveen and was fairly popular in the Amsterdam area but had no nationwide fame. This changed a bit when they (with the Fouryo’s and Andre van Duin) opened for the Rolling Stones on August 8th, 1964 at the Scheveningen Kurhaus. On that occasion the band consisted of: Triks Boelen (voc), Ronald Fens (guit), Rob Gerrand (bass), Hans Keijser (org) and Wim v. Taarling (drums). The Paramounts only released one official singles (for Delta) and some recordings for commercial records like Lion Tops and Oko.

From the liner notes to Beat Express #2 - Amsterdam. There's a bit of interesting background on the 60s Amsterdam beat scene on that page too.

More on Triks & The Paramounts here.

I had no luck finding anything in English on Karin, but there's a biography and discography in Dutch here.

EDIT: Please check the comments for Bruno's very helpful translation of the biography above.

Both tracks are from Biet Het Volume 3: From the Kitchen To The Garage.

Shocking Blue - Never Marry A Railroad Man (1970)

Buy: Singles A's & B's