(The Hold) Steady.

I’m going to try something different here, that feels more appropriate for the way I listen to music nowadays.

Top five live(ish) performances posted on YouTube in 2019.

Because this is genuinely how I consume music now, more than any other way. It’s far more relevant for me than picking best singles or best albums.

The Highwomen – The Chain
Live on The Howard Stern Show
If you’d said to me ‘all-girl modern country supergroup’ I’d already be on board. But when they launched themselves on an unsuspecting world by covering Fleetwood Mac … Well, I was cautious. Covering The Chain doesn’t usually end well. The original is near-perfect. Fuck me though, how great is this? I never thought you’d get Brandi Carlile and Maren Morris in the same room, let alone harmonising together and casually knocking out this sort of beauty.


Miranda Lambert – Fooled Around and Fell in Love
Recorded on the Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars tour (with Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes & Caylee Hammack)
Speaking of all-girl modern country supergroups … The Highwomen are special alright, but this is my group of all-timers. Caylee Hammack was new to me, but I was already a fan of all the others here. And what a song. Another cover, but just fucking listen to it. And who knew that out of this bunch, Elle King would be the girl to vocally slay the others?


Lana Del Rey – Doin’ Time
BBC Live Lounge
Lana always sounds amazing in intimate settings, and I love how she flipped expectations with this Sublime cover. Genuinely subversive.


Halsey – Nightmare
BBC Live Lounge
Halsey’s ‘big single’ as a first release for her next album cycle was a primal scream of young feminist rage … and it only sort of half landed. Nightmare came across more Avril Lavigne than Bikini Kill. But where Halsey really excels is close-up performances, where she can switch between arrogance and vulnerability in a heartbeat. She manages that here, overcoming a crap wig and the BBC swearing filter to deliver the sort of intimacy that forces you to focus on every breath. “I keep a record of the wreckage of my life” is lyric of the year for me, the self-awareness of building a career on baring her soul is an absolute killer.


Missy Elliot – Throw it Back career medley
Live from the American Music Awards
This has got to be one of the all-time great awards performances. Missy is on world-beating form here. All of her hits, all of her looks, all of her moves. People think Beyonce has the monopoly on stage shows that own being a black woman in pop music right now, but she can’t hold a candle to this. The energy is just incredible.

Yola just played my local and I hadn’t made the connection. Missed out on a good one there, I think!

I haven’t heard any of what any of you have listed.

x

https://youtu.be/_KKjBeAfdPg

Raphael sideeq on tiny desk.

Have given new one a couple of listens. I know there's more going on than I give it credit for.

This goes here because being the vet he is, he has no problem bringing out lucky Daye.

36 minutes. Pure neo soul goodness. Those voices are incredible. Couple of new raph tracks, a dangelo cover and a couple of lucky Daye tracks. Then finished with a raph classic.

Amazing.

New one to add to the Albums of the year longlist

CATTLE DECAPTIATION - DEATH ATLAS

Absolutely furious death metal, with a lot of atmospheric - narrative interludes and stuff, actual melodic (yet abrassive) vox, drums that sound like they're manned by a centipede.

Could probably do a great post about all the death metal stuff, but I doubt it would be appreciated by many

I gave 'em a go - they seem pretty good but they are not exactly what I am after, which is hard to quantify.

Anyway I started putting together an end of year playlist here. Just whacked 30 songs on it. 

It's all over the place I feel.

Where does one listen to the eaters of gods?

Still need to listen to Richard Dawson. Tempy recommended it to me.

Tempy and Tin double assault.

Raphael saadiq's Jimmy Lee isn't top 5 material, but defintely glad I revisited properly. Had an hour long drive in passenger seat today so got to crank it with headphones. It deserves a proper attentive listen.

Made me also think of some other music related "of the years" I'm gonna add.

Bass playing of the year: whoever is doing it on Jimmy Lee. May be saadiq. Could be the dude on tiny desk. It's the highlight of the arrangements on Jimmy Lee.

Drummer of the year: aldarian mayes. (tobe nwigwe)

MC of the year: tobe nwigwe obviously.

Lucky Daye for vocals.

Guitar, keys and producer I want to think about.

Albums first then...

Richard Dawson - 2020

Much discussed already, but it's worth saying it again, this is a great record.  Whilst Dawson's previous (equally excellent) album Peasant, reflected the modern world through the prism of medieval England, this entry dispenses with any metaphor, and instead gets firmly to grips with the here and now.  Inspired in part by conversations with audience members at his gigs, Dawson beautifully captures both the pain and the hope of the modern world, then wraps it in tunes which are (mostly) more accessible than those he's proffered before.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen

An incredibly moving meditation on grief, and how to survive it. I found it a surprisingly uplifting record, despite its subject matter. The music is fittingly sparse, but there's a gently assertive through line, which culminates with the nigh on 15 minute epic, Hollywood - in which, finally, the drumbeat that's been missing all album is finally allowed to return.  Hardly easy listening, but essential none the less.

Bonnie Prince Billy - I Have Made a Place

Speaking of surprisingly uplifting records...  This is Bonny Price Billy's first "proper" album in over a decade, and whilst it's very recognisably his, there's also a subtle change. Whilst his preoccupation with death remains, it's firmly presented here as the inevitable frame within which everything that makes life worth living is placed. So we have have This is Far From Over's hopeful apocalypse, the straight up romance of You Know The One, and the frankly magnificent Look Backward on Your Future, Look Forwards to your Past - both a straight up folk/country story song, and a meditation on time, legacy, and the nature of being. Or something.

Our Native Daughters - Songs of Our Native Daughters 

The idea of a black women's ukulele Super Group is an admittedly a hard sell, whilst the fact it's been published by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, may add to the impression that this is a record that's more worthy than actually enjoyable - but you'd be wrong.  Yes, this record consists mainly of old american folksongs being reclaimed and remade in an attempt to rectify their previous bastardisation by minstrel shows, but it's also a damn good record in its own right. From the lilting rebellious joy of Moon Meets the Sun, the straight up stomp of Black Myself, or the undeniable horror of clapping song Mama's Crying Long, it's a brilliant collection.

Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains

Whilst it's tempting to view Purple Mountains as David Berman's final suicide note, a last ditch cry for help, it seems more likely the opposite is true. The songs here are imbued with depression, but also incredible wit. This is music to keep yourself alive, a man laying himself open in an attempt to finally let all that shit out. That he manages to do so, whilst making songs you can merrily hum along to, is all the more remarkable. They may not have been able to keep him going ultimately, but I'm willing to bet that these songs will help others hang in there.

There were lots of other albums that could have been in there - some of which creep into the list of top 5 songs:

Better Oblivion Community Center - Didn't Know What I Was In For.

In stark contrast to the theme of "surprisingly uplifting if bleak" records that made up the album choices, this song is just progressively more depressing.  A stark reminder of our seemingly unending capacity to respond to the worst elements of humanity with token gestures which ultimately achieve nothing and signify only our own inability to do anything of substance. It devastates me every time.

Black Country, New Road - Sunglasses

An 8 minute post-punk jazz spoken word discordant epic. I love it, and struggle to explain why. Is it the escalating sonic tension, giving way to a saxophone freak out?  Is it the lurch from comedic commentary on danish crime dramas, to sunglass wearing arrogance, back down to emotionally vulnerable bedroom failure? Or is it just that it's the most interesting record I've heard all year?

The Divine Comedy - Philip and Steve's Furniture Removal Company

This song is, literally, a joke - but it's a beautifully crafted one. Opening with a badly recorded voice memo, laying out a fictional theme tune for a sitcom based on the (real) story of Philip Glass and Steve Reich running a furniture removal company together, it gradually blossoms into an almost perfectly realised pastiche of the works of both. Hannon's reputation is that of a crafter of throw away pop songs - this serves as a reminder that he's always been more accomplished than that.

The Mountain Goats - Younger

Confession - I could have taken about half of the tracks from their most recent album, and used them here (it narrowly missed the top 5 above). According to Spotify I listened to the album more than anything else this year, and this was the first track to pop into my head when I thought of it. It's the song that most retains the record's original inception as a somewhat unlikely D&D inspired concept album, with explicit nods to gaming and fantasy. (The rest of the album moves more towards exploring powerful figures who are in the twilight of their success.)  Beyond it's incredible geekiness however, it's also just a very fine, atmospheric pop song.

Flight of the Conchords - Seagull

Yes, another comedy song. What can I say, I needed cheering up this year...  Anyway, I loved this the first time I heard it live, and it still makes me grin madly every time I hear it.  Brilliantly put together, both as a joke and a song - the lalalala chorus suddenly revealing itself to be a magnificent punchline.

Favourite song of the year for Muggins:

Oh, I remembered an album I listened to quite a bit that was released this year:

Only Child Tyrant - Time To Run

From the Bandcamp:
"ONLY CHILD TYRANT is the punked up kid brother of Two Fingers.

He’s stroppy
He’s relentless.
He likes the number 6.

He’s been listening to his uncle’s collection of rock (from Beefheart and Zeppelin to Fugazi via Dick Dale and beyond) and stealing his brother’s 90’s mixtapes and it’s all gone to his head.

ONLY CHILD TYRANT is the Artful Dodger of Post-rock meets beats. "



I don't know if all of that's true, but in case you don't know who's Two Fingers, that's Amon Tobin. So this is Amon Tobin as well.


And I remember another one

Thys - Music From Sleeping Beauty Dreams
Soundcloud

It's Thys, from Noisia. He often does the DJ sets when he tours in Noisia's name, and I really like his view on music (he tends to post about it on Twitter every once in a while). This is not like Noisia, but his own project. I liked it.