THE BEST MUSIC: NEW & OLD
Happy New Year music fans. As ever I’m pumped to bring you a load of new music this year, but before I do, let’s have one final post on the cursed year that was 2020. Here are my most played tracks of the year courtesy of Spotify. You’ll find some new ones, some old ones, some quick ones and some slow ones. Pop it on shuffle and enjoy.
Quick note – as ever there are a couple of albums on here that I’ve rinsed for chilling out. So expect some abrupt vibe changes. You’ve been warned.
Something a little different for you to dive into today. Song Exploder is a podcast that gets artists to open up about a track they have made. It goes deep on why and how they made it. It will honestly add a whole new layer of appreciation to some of your top tracks and artists.
At the time of writing there are 194 episodes, each at about 20 minutes in length, so plenty to choose from. Scroll through to find your favourites, including: Phantogram, Fleetwood Mac, Tame Impala, Robyn, Bon Iver, Little Gradgon, Gorrilaz, Bonobo, DJ Shadow, Mobb Deep, and whole load of others. The best I’ve listened to so far was Caribou, explaining both the message behind Home, and the techniques he employed in the production.
You can subscribe via your favourite Podcast provider here. Shout out to Ollie Lyth for the recommendation.
What was the song of last Summer? Maybe DJ Koze? Maybe Whole Again by Atomic Kitten, experiencing a Gareth Southgate-related resurgence?
Either way, I think Dan Snaith (Daphni/Caribou) is taking the title for 2019. Sizzling is an upbeat disco house banger and you will hear it a lot. I say bring it on.
This one is hot off the press. Canadian producer Caribou has released a track out of nowhere, and it’s free to download. More upbeat and danceable that his usual fare, I think you will be hearing it a lot in 2019. For extra points, the track samples the original MJ Thriller. Listen and download on this link.
https://caribouband.bandcamp.com/track/thriller
Bonus track album: I’ll never miss an opportunity to post this. Can’t Do Without is 100% likely to get goosebumps going and the rest of the album ain’t bad either.
For more Caribou, check out this post.
This is one from the archives. One of Caribou’s lesser-known early albums, Andorra. It is a lot more vocal-heavy and low-fi than what he is famous for now, with influences from 60s psychedelia. Even so, you can hear hints of the more housey direction he went in later.
It takes you on a journey through a few genres – its variety and subtlety means its the kind of album you can session again and again. It always brings me back to where I was when I first discovered it. My pick from the album is the final track Niobe. Listen to it last!
HARRY'S MUSICAL EMPORIUM 