The playlist-with-a-theme guessing game!
Back to more standard fare this week, i.e. you don’t need access to my calendar to guess the theme.
Last week’s playlist theme was: Sascha is gone. Yes, after our beloved black-and-white friend left, I was feeling a bit blue at first, so some classic break-up songs helped.
The playlist-with-a-theme guessing game!
If you guessed last week’s correctly, this one will be a piece of cake.
Last week’s playlist theme was: Sascha. Over the past week we’ve been looking after our friends’ dog, Sascha, who:
See if you can guess this week’s theme, then.
The playlist-with-a-theme guessing game!
I didn’t plan this theme, it just sort of came to me.
Last week’s playlist theme was: self-pleasure. Yep, great pop songs all about a bit of alone time. Any excuse to use Carly Rae Jepsen and Hailee Steinfeld in a playlist!
More next week.
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’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.
2018 was not a banner year for me. But musically it had everything: bangers, sadbangers, and the return of Craig David.
Best of 2018 playlist
Magic – Craig David, from the album The Time is Now
Love the slight chiptune groove to the intro, the chorus is catchy as anything, but it’s the bridge that elevates it into genius:
M for the way you make me feel
A ‘cos you always keep it real
G for the girl that got me good
I C the world the way I should
God bless him for sticking with it when it got tricky at “IC”.
Missing U – Robyn, from the album Honey
Oh Robyn, you magnificent articulate disco elk. Your absence hurt, but now you’re back and this is what we wanted. Production, performance, arrangement, all on point. And it’s fun! But sad. It’s possible to be both.
Atletico (The Only One) – Rae Morris, from the album Someone Out There
Sad songs about regretfully watching other people dance are my very specific niche (Dancing On My Own by Robyn is my most listened-to song ever, remember) and here’s another cracker. Rhythmically wavy, a biscuit tin full of mini-melodies, bittersweet; really good.
I Like That – Janelle Monáe, from the album Dirty Computer
Not the most common favourite from this superb album, but one of Monáe’s best vocals, and the most luscious “ooohs” of the year (previous winners include You Go Down Smooth by Lake Street Dive in 2014).
Remind Me – Emily King, from the album Scenery (out 1st February 2019)
I forgot to add this to the list last year, which is quite an oversight considering I really like Emily King. When the beat comes in around 3:23 it’s great. I’m really excited about her new album and wish I could go see her in concert, but Berlin is too far. Sorry, Emily!
Still Cold – Cleo Sol, from the EP Winter Songs
Here we move away from the up beats and towards the down beats. If this playlist was a year, we’d be in late May, early June now, so it’s hardly lyrically apt but it is a real beauty: delicately orchestrated, sensitively performed,
I Can Change – Lake Street Dive, from the album Free Yourself Up
Down down down, but light still falls down here. Lyrically malleable enough to apply to probably any hardship you’ve had (“Escaping an old battle that clings on like a vine to me, and whispers dirty lies in my ear”). Important to hear at the end – or beginning – of any year.
Rainbow – Kasey Musgraves, from the album Golden Hour
Here’s an album that did not deliver on the hype for me, but you know what? After listening to it a few more times, I started to see the appeal. Here’s another addition to my long-running mental catalogue of “girl with piano” tracks (joining Sara Bareilles, A Fine Frenzy, et al). Recommended way to listen: on a slow train on 2nd January, as the clouds part, feeling you’re leaving a city and a whole year behind.
Roll Back – George FitzGerald, from the album All That Must Be
Filler, this, but good filler. Forms a bit of a bridge to…
PS2 – Litany, from the 4 Track EP
Bit of an abrupt transition between George and Litany, because on the EP this has its own intro track with the artists saying nice things about each other (“I would have crumbled without her”), but we haven’t time for retaining integral emotional presentation here. A purposeful beat, simple evocative childhood memory (“Remember when we met after school, and all my friends were making fun of you?”) and, second-best of all, it’s named after a night spent playing on a PlayStation 2. (Best of all is that Litany are from Harrogate in Yorkshire).
Honey – Robyn, from the album Honey
High on pretty much everyone’s end of year list, I would hope, so should need no justification. All I’ll say is, like all the best songs, getting to know this song felt like falling in love.
Every year I create a “Best of the year” playlist on Spotify, which usually starts on 30th December with me looking back at my Last.fm scrobbles and trying to remember what I liked in the year. This year I decided to get a bit nerdy with it.
I love a good spreadsheet, and a good statistic, despite the fact that numbers hate me (ask anyone at work: if ever I make a mistake, it always involves numbers!) So rather than just put together an emotive list of what I liked, I wanted to reduce a year of music into stats. For instance: My top 50 most listened-to songs in 2018 accounted for almost 30% of my total listening my scrobbles, but only 12% by duration (I surmise that I listened to the same songs a lot, but they’re not as long as some songs I listened to more rarely.)
All this data is pulled from Last.fm, which is linked to my Spotify account, which my wife and I share. But only a few of the tracks that made it into the top 100 are hers, not mine: this is because I listen to music a lot more.
Only two artists made it into the top 10: Lake Street Dive, one of my discoveries of 2014, and this year’s biggest find for me, Rae Morris. Her album Someone Out There came out in February and stuck with me all year, racking up 341 scrobbles, a third more than Lake Street Dive’s latest Free Yourself Up, which launched in April.
Here’s the full table. I pulled data from Last.fm and Spotify, and added a few comments where things occurred to me.
It’s been an interesting year.
| Song name | Artist | Album | Scrobbles | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wait for the Rain | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 42 | When the drums kick in at 1:19; nice middle-eight ("I don't want no ice, I'm already cold enough now"; the synth outro - textbook pop, and very pleasing too. | |
| 2 | Push Me to My Limit | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 40 | First track on the album I started more than any other, in a year that certainly pushed me to my limits. | |
| 3 | Atletico (The Only One) | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 36 | Like track one, this is total pop with more sad disco ("From the back of the room you were holding my glance, I was trying to be cool, but I can't really dance") | |
| 4 | Do It | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 32 | Slightly above 10% drop-off rate from track three to four. The clever bit is punning "do it" with "duet". | |
| 5 | Reborn | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 32 | 20% drop-off from track 1 to two - obviously not my favourite. | |
| 6 | You Are Free | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 32 | New challenger! Track 8 on this album. Glorious harmonies on the chorus and outro. | |
| 7 | I Can Change | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 30 | A song for tough times. Happy to say I've listened to it less in the last few weeks. | |
| 8 | Shame, Shame, Shame | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 30 | More great harmonies: "Change is coming, oh yeah" | |
| 9 | Lower the Tone | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 29 | And back to Rae. Extra points for "idly chit-chatting away" as a lyric. | |
| 10 | Physical Form | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 28 | By the way - and this is going a bit TOTP2 now - Someone Out There is her second album, after 2014's "Unguarded". | |
| 11 | Rose Garden | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 28 | That one didn't grab me though: none of its songs appear in the top 100. | |
| 12 | The Inconsistency Principle | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 28 | Change of pace: Above & Beyond are a British trance act - not a genre I like, but ideal distraction music for working. | |
| 13 | Moving On | Anna of the North | Lovers | 27 | Starting to get more varied now, isn't it? Anna of the North was on The Guardian's playlist of overlooked artists from 2017. A pleasing find. | |
| 14 | My Own Hymn | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 27 | In 2016, Above & Beyond took 70% of my most listened-to songs of the year. Happy to see that's changed. | |
| 15 | Good Kisser | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 26 | A chorus built to belt out. Video is a little disappointing. | |
| 16 | Northern Soul | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 26 | Even though I've scrobbled them so often, I can't remember what any of these Above & Beyond songs sound like. | |
| 17 | Baby Don't Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 25 | Despite making up a good proportion of my top 100, the album was a little disappointing. | |
| 18 | Dancing with Character | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 25 | From an album opener to an album closer. Pretty song, good rhythm, and a video filmed at Blackpool Tower with the singer's nana. 10/10. | |
| 19 | Dip My Toe | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 25 | One of the three songs from this album I "Loved" on Last.fm. | |
| 20 | Drown the Lovers | R I T U A L | No Escape Out of Time | 25 | Wild card! Mellow and macabre: just what you need at this time of year. | |
| 21 | Musta Been Something | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 25 | "You said I didn't do anything wrong, but there must have been something I could have done better". I felt that this year. | |
| 22 | Someone Out There | Rae Morris | Someone Out There | 25 | Not the best: bit of a maudlin by-the-numbers piano ballad (and that's from someone whose main genre over the past few years have been "woman with piano pop") | |
| 23 | Finders Keepers | Mabel | Ivy to Roses (Mixtape) | 24 | Where's Roses? Where is Roses in this top 100? This is good, but Roses is awesome. I'm disappointed. | |
| 24 | Hang On | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 24 | I'm going to see Lake Street Dive in April. I saw them once before and they were good. | |
| 25 | Honey | Robyn | Honey | 24 | Robyn's back! This song is amazing. I'm going to see her live next year too. | |
| 26 | Lost Colony | Saori Kobayashi | Crimson Dragon OST | 24 | I'm surprised I listened to this - a track from a game I haven't played - more than any other game music track. | |
| 27 | Naked | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 24 | OK I won't make comments on all 100 songs, just the interesting ones. | |
| 28 | No Love | Lyves | Like Water | 24 | I listened to a lot of Synkro a few years ago, and found Lyves via that route. Also good working music. | |
| 29 | Darkest Hour | Lyves | Like Water | 23 | ||
| 30 | Dude | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 23 | ||
| 31 | Doesn't Even Matter Now | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 22 | ||
| 32 | Someone | Anna of the North | Lovers | 22 | ||
| 33 | Bang Bang | Jessie J | Bang Bang | 21 | It feels like I've heard this song every single day for this year: it's on a lot of playlists and Daily Mixes. New Year's Resolution: don't listen to it again. | |
| 34 | History | Kina Grannis | In the Waiting | 21 | Kina! Hi Kina. This is a nice album of soothing songs with acoustic guitars, and takes me back to my A Fine Frenzy period. | |
| 35 | Love Myself | Hailee Steinfeld | Love Myself | 21 | Absolute banger, genuine contender for best pop song of the decade, guaranteed to get me dancing every time. | |
| 36 | Red Light Kisses | Lake Street Dive | Free Yourself Up | 21 | ||
| 37 | The Weather | Lyves | Like Water | 21 | ||
| 38 | Dancing on My Own | Robyn | Body Talk, pt 1 | 20 | Absolute banger, actual best pop song of the decade, guaranteed to get me dancing every time. | |
| 39 | Lovers | Anna of the North | Lovers | 20 | ||
| 40 | Come Over | Mabel | Ivy to Roses (Mixtape) | 19 | ||
| 41 | Is It Love? (1001) | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 19 | ||
| 42 | Jessie's Girl | Rick Springfield | Jessie's Girl | 19 | Hannah loves this song - it's on one of my cheesy pop party playlists. "I'm looking in the mirror all the time, wondering what she don't see in me". Poor Rick. | |
| 43 | Missing U | Robyn | Honey | 19 | Opening track to the album, and sounded exactly right for Robyn's return. But then the title track wins the crown for best song of the year (probably) | |
| 44 | Sahara Love | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 19 | ||
| 45 | When Will I Learn | Kina Grannis | In the Waiting | 19 | ||
| 46 | Burns | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 18 | More good working music. "Roll Back" (further down) is much better; so is the track with Tracy Thorn. | |
| 47 | Ecce valde generous ale (Mark! The Precious Wings) | Saori Kobayashi | Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga | 18 | I was on a real Panzer Dragoon kick at the start of the year, even basically buying an Xbox One to play Panzer Dragoon Orta (which I played twice and haven't gone back to) | |
| 48 | Free | Lyves | Like Water | 18 | ||
| 49 | Frieda | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 18 | Surprising that "Roll Back" didn't make it as it's the best song on the album (in at 53, just above track 1 from this album, weirdly) | |
| 50 | Happiness Amplified | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 18 | ||
| 51 | In the Waiting | Kina Grannis | In the Waiting | 18 | ||
| 52 | PS2 | Litany | 4 Track EP | 18 | Litany were a great find this year, and this song mentions "we stayed up all night playing on the PS2", so is automatically better. | |
| 53 | Roll Back | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 18 | ||
| 54 | Two Moons Under | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 18 | ||
| 55 | Bedroom | Litany | 4 Track EP | 17 | ||
| 56 | Brain | BANKS | Goddess | 17 | A throwback to 2016, when I remember listening to this a lot in San Francisco just before Christmas. Those were different times. | |
| 57 | Draco | Saori Kobayashi | Crimson Dragon OST | 17 | ||
| 58 | Noble Rebel Army | Saori Kobayashi | Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga | 17 | ||
| 59 | Off Center | Emily King | The Switch | 17 | This song's been a constant in my life over the last few years. This year's focus was the intro: "Little flower of summer, once your seasons pass, do you ever wonder, why your petals fall so fast?" | |
| 60 | Outgrown | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 17 | ||
| 61 | Siren Calls | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 17 | ||
| 62 | Sunrise | Saori Kobayashi | Crimson Dragon OST | 17 | ||
| 63 | Tough Love | Jessie Ware | Tough Love | 17 | ||
| 64 | Why Don't You | Cleo Sol | Winter Songs | 17 | EP dropped in 2018 but the song is 2017 | |
| 65 | Always | Anna of the North | Lovers | 16 | ||
| 66 | Children's Festival | Saori Kobayashi | Terra Magica | 16 | ||
| 67 | Cold Feet | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 16 | ||
| 68 | Ex-Factor | Lauryn Hill | The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill | 16 | One of the greatest songs ever. What a sound. | |
| 69 | Labasa | Chad Valley | Entirely New Blue | 16 | ||
| 70 | Money | Anna of the North | Lovers | 16 | ||
| 71 | Postpartum | Taylor McFerrin | Early Riser | 16 | I had this on one of my "best of the year" playlists that I go back to every now and again. | |
| 72 | Because It's in the Music | Robyn | Honey | 16 | ||
| 73 | Baby Forgive Me | Robyn | Honey | 16 | ||
| 74 | Human Being | Robyn | Honey | 16 | ||
| 75 | A Premonition of Battle | Saori Kobayashi | Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga | 15 | ||
| 76 | Alright Now | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 15 | ||
| 77 | Crazy, Classic, Life | Janelle Monáe | Dirty Computer | 15 | I'm really surprised Janelle Monáe isn't higher up - I felt like I was listening to this album all summer. And this isn't even my favourite song! What an injustice. | |
| 78 | Don't Kill My Vibe | Sigrid | Don't Kill My Vibe - EP | 15 | ||
| 79 | Feels | Anna of the North | Lovers | 15 | ||
| 80 | Nobody But You | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 15 | ||
| 81 | Skyborne | Saori Kobayashi | Crimson Dragon OST | 15 | ||
| 82 | The Lichfield | Jeremy Garren | Crimson Dragon OST | 15 | ||
| 83 | Tightrope | Above & Beyond | Common Ground | 15 | ||
| 84 | V. 3005 | Childish Gambino | because the internet | 15 | From another playlist, but always a good one to listen to. I don't know the rest of the album at all. | |
| 85 | Send to Robyn Immediately | Robyn | Honey | 15 | ||
| 86 | Baby | Anna of the North | Lovers | 14 | ||
| 87 | Birdsong | Kina Grannis | In the Waiting | 14 | ||
| 88 | Criminal | Miguel | War & Leisure | 14 | I actually got into War & Leisure this year after telling myself it wasn't as good as Wildheart. It's not, but it is damn good. | |
| 89 | Dawn | Saori Kobayashi | Terra Magica | 14 | ||
| 90 | Godawful Things | Lake Street Dive | Side Pony | 14 | The first track on Lake Street Dive's predecessor to Free Yourself Up. Probably snuck in as I was comparing the two albums. | |
| 91 | Green Light | Lorde | Melodrama | 14 | ||
| 92 | Half-Light - Night Version | George Fitzgerald | All That Must Be | 14 | ||
| 93 | I | Litany | 4 Track EP | 14 | Opening track, mostly talking, not really a song. | |
| 94 | Let's Go Crazy | Prince | Purple Rain | 14 | One of the best songs of all time, opening one of the greatest albums, and a real pleasure. Would be higher if Last.fm could track how many times I listened to the record. | |
| 95 | Make Me Feel | Janelle Monáe | Dirty Computer | 14 | Hannah's favourite song off the album, because it's so much like the guy above this. | |
| 96 | Mother | Saori Kobayashi | Terra Magica | 14 | ||
| 97 | Mutant Species 1 | Saori Kobayashi | Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga | 14 | ||
| 98 | Not That Man | Chad Valley | Entirely New Blue | 14 | ||
| 99 | Real Feels | R I T U A L | No Escape Out of Time | 14 | ||
| 100 | Rock Bottom | Hailee Steinfeld | HAIZ | 14 | How apt! A song called Rock Bottom at the bottom of my top 100! You couldn't make it up (and, for the record, I didn't) |
For the past three years, I’ve put together a short Spotify playlist of some of my favourite tracks of the year. Looking back on those playlists, they tell their own story.
Best of 2014
Kicking off with the most varied playlist, this has everything from soul to rap to big belting ballads. It also shows I made a lot of musical discoveries in 2014; probably the last year I did.
Best of 2015
I struggled a lot with this one, a meagre two tracks on the playlist. Maybe the move to a different job had impacted it, or maybe I was more concerned with making it personal finds and not ‘obvious’ ones.
Looking back at the official charts’ top songs of 2015, maybe it was just a tough year. Standouts on a revised playlist would be Uptown Funk and Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld (a favourite of mine in the years since).
Best of 2016
I made more of an effort this year, with 15 songs on the list, though admittedly I bent my own “must have been released this year” rule by allowing favourite tracks from previous years into the latter half of the playlist.
Best of 2017
Short (only 7 tracks) but managing to cram in everything from road trip pop to low-fi pop and even some R&B pop as well. Totally varied! And only two outdated songs, including 2015’s Off Center by Emily King, which had me falling in love again and again.
My name is James Newton, and this is my website - a collection of my writings about
videogames, music and all my other thoughts.