The playlist-with-a-theme guessing game!
This is an easy one.
Last week’s playlist theme was: sandwich. It was a BLT! Bread, lettuce (Let Us Love), Mayo, Raphael Saadiq featuring Rob Bacon, tomato, and then more Bread.
More next week.
The playlist-with-a-theme guessing game!
The idea is simple: there’s a theme running through this playlist. There could be clues in the lyrics, song titles, artists, albums, or some other kind of trivia: one playlist in the past was, “Songs covered by Lake Street Dive” (I’ll try to do less obscure ones in future!).
Answer for “Playlist of the week: 12th January 2020”: this was an unusually topical one! It was all about Harry and Meghan announcing they’ll step back from their royal engagements. Rejected songs included We Don’t Talk Any More by Sir Cliff Richard.
And now onto this week’s list!
The playlist-with-a-theme guessing game!
The idea is simple: there’s a theme running through this playlist. There could be clues in the lyrics, song titles, artists, albums, or some other kind of trivia: one playlist in the past was, “Songs covered by Lake Street Dive” (I’ll try to do less obscure ones in future!).
See if you can guess what this week’s songs are about.
The answer will come with the next playlist.
I love to buy clothes, and I realised that’s caused a problem: I have more outfits than I can wear in a lifetime.
(More…)
I’ve created one of these “best of the year” playlists almost every year since 2014 (something seems to have gone wrong with 2015’s playlist, which is just two rather mismatched songs — Transient by Synkro and Our Own House by Misterwives). Sometimes it’s been part of our New Year’s Eve programme, others it accompanies us on our travels. This year we listened to it while playing Codenames at home.
Best of 2019 playlist
Groovy is such an outdated word, but it fits this album and track especially. Dripping cool, name-dropping Egyptian gods, great dynamics: it’s not what I expected from someone from Devon, that’s for sure.
I failed to finish this album many times last year, a shame given this assured opener which features a bizarre but sometimes brilliant guest spot from desperately romantic animal activist, André 3000.
This or Strawberry Kisses, this or Strawberry Kisses… tough call. Good little EP this.
Hey, this was on the playlist last year!
Yes it was: it was a single in 2018, and on the album in 2019, and deserved its place both times.
I haven’t listened to III much at all, but often enough for this to catch my ear. Midnight city synths beneath a booty-call (“I let you lick it from the ground, ground/’Cause I’ve been drippin’ for your love, love”, and, because it’s a BANKS song, hooks everywhere.
Well, this one launched in 2016, but I discovered it in 2019 so it counts. It was hard to pick a single song from the album, as it’s all very much a muchness, but this was a standout.
The Impossibly music video features Paige’s parents and wedding videos. It’s cute. Bonus fun fact: In a September 2019 interview with Lock Mag, Paige named her biggest current musical inspiration as Rosie Lowe (from the beginning of this playlist!)
I would have liked to have chosen one of the songs with a spoken word intro by Aja Monet, but felt this fit better. Great horns in the chorus.
Neil Hannon’s best album in about ten years: I completely skipped Foreverland, Bang Goes the Knighthood was inconsistent so 2006’s Victory… wins out. This song isn’t reflective of the album’s overall cheeky, eccentric tone (one song repeats “Philip and Steve’s furniture removal company” for about five minutes), but the piano Divine Comedy songs are often my favourites.
Beth, I’m really sorry. I honestly meant to listen to this a lot in 2019, but I forgot it came out, honestly. I’ve listened to it a lot over the last few days. I can hear the pain in this one, and the candour is gripping. Best vocal of the year.
Ah, 2019; the year I discovered how amazing CRJ is. Overall Dedicated is a little below Emotion, but here’s a banger, with by far the most fun chorus of 2019.
The falling keys in the pre-chorus get me every time. And for a bit of ‘fun’ history: track one on my first “best of the year” playlist was Postpartum, the opening track from Taylor’s debut album, Early Riser.
I could have had a couple of Maggie tracks on this list, but this one – about presence, fear, alienation – always reached me.
Closing thoughts
It’s interesting to me that in past years, there’s been a single song that I’ve clung to, usually twisting the lyrics to represent whatever’s happening in my life. In 2018 it was I Can Change by Lake Street Dive, and later on, Rainbow by Kacey Musgraves. But in 2019, I evaded that behaviour, despite it not being a great year overall.
Music, I love you.
My name is James Newton, and this is my website - a collection of my writings about
videogames, music and all my other thoughts.