Songs of last year

 

I know that it’s April, I know it is, but I want to take a moment to go through my most played songs from last year (according to Spotify), because Dirty Diamond just came up on a post-album (Blacklisted) autoplay and it was making me ache for the summer of 2018, really ache.

1.            In Heaven

From the Japanese Breakfast album Psychopomp. I don’t listen to individual songs much anymore, mostly just albums, so a lot of the songs on the list are just the first songs of albums I listened to a lot. I listened to Psychopomp mostly during spring and early summer, but it isn’t so entrenched that it’s painful to listen to now; its amazing, actually. I love it to bits. I’m not sure I’ll ever be tired of it.

2.          Queendom

From the AURORA album Infections Of A Different Kind – Step 1. I listened to this loads before the album came out and then listened to the album mostly on YouTube; It Happened Quiet was probably my favourite song, but this is lovely too; calm and centred and cool.

3.          Fluorescent Grey

From the EP of the same name. I’ve tried and mainly failed to get into Deerhunter – I’ve found them a bit underwhelming, if I’m honest, but this EP is visceral, terrifying. It doesn’t sound like anything else. I’m not over it.

4.         Lost Worker Bee

From the EP of the same name. I love all the songs in this collection pretty much equally (with And It Snowed probably edging it). It’s Elbow! What’s not to love! It’s my whole life in sounds! I listened to this mostly in the early months, but I haven’t stopped.

5.          Hell-On

From the album of the same name by Neko Case. Like an out of body experience. Sinister, elegant, beautiful. I’m not straight. This album defined the summer for me, it’s inseparable from myself.

6.          Elephant Stone

The Stone Roses. I’m not sure from where exactly; I was listening to it from an anniversary, complete songs type thing. The line seems like there's a hole in my dreams… or so it seems has not left my head since I first heard it. It’s a lot. We have their first album as a CD so it’s also on my phone, and I listened to it a lot both last autumn and the autumn before. Like Elbow, their music always seems to embody my entire life.

7.          The 1975

From the I like it when you sleep album. Not my favourite song from this album – honours are torn between If I Believe You/The Ballad Of Me And My Brain/the title song – but it’s the first, so it comes up as the most listened to. I love this album, I’ve been listening to it for years and it never gets old. There are so many electrifying moments, I always wait for them breathlessly and want to dance.

8.          Sky Full Of Song

My sister gave me High As Hope for my birthday, so I didn’t listen to the album on Spotify, only the singles beforehand. Such a beautiful song, and a beautiful album, too – my favourite songs ended up being The End of Love and No Choir, although Grace made me cry, South London Forever I’ve been listening to on the train home a lot recently, and Big God is, of course, Big God.

9.          Erla’s Waltz

From the Olafur Arnalds collection Found Songs, again, the first song on the album, though if I had to choose I would say the final song was my favourite. Another autumn album, as with The Stone Roses, I’ve listened to it the last two years. It’s stunning. Emotional without being cloying, really clear and devastating.

10.      Other Side Of The World

I’m surprised this made the list, because I listened to KT Tunstall’s album Eye To The Telescope mostly on the CD in the kitchen. One of the albums (along with International Velvet/Let England Shake/Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea) that defined early 2018 for me.

 

It’s a fairly representative list! Currently, I have gotten into St. Vincent in a big way, have been listening more to Neko Case, and have been completely undone by White Chalk.