2019 Music Round-up

There have been some wonderful releases this year. Without any further ado, here are twenty songs in (mostly) no particular order that I loved from 2019, along with some miscellaneous recommendations for particularly good albums and artists. Enjoy!

20: Peaches - Milk and Bone
Guilty as charged: my ears poke up in a Pavlovian manner any time I hear a single note synth bass line. With a bouncy melody and Grimes-like vocals, this was a lovely tune.

19: No Geography - Chemical Brothers
They just keep ticking along and producing euphoric, catchy dance music. I heard this on a Netflix Christmas movie of all places, and was blown away by how euphoric and fresh it sounded. Perenial.

18: Peace to All Freaks - Of Montreal
This is the kind of song that my wife hears and says "oh, this is so your kind of music". Perky, earnest synth pop with lush vocals.

17: Vagabond - Steve Gunn
A fantastic slice of folk rock that draws you in and takes you on a beguiling little journey. I love to sing along to music whilst on my motorbike, and the outro to this song was a particular favourite this year.

16: Starcourt - Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein
The soundtracks to Stranger Things have been consistently brilliant over the last few years, and this particular track from the season 3 soundtrack was a stand out. Instantly evocative of a time that many us don't even remember, its catchy melody instantly captures the irrepresible bounciness and joy of a misspent 80's youth in shopping malls- albeit one that's really just a front for supernatural monsters.

15: Parachute - Caroline Polachek
This one was a recommendation from NPR's New Music Friday that wouldn't normally float my boat. I absent mindedly added it to my regular playlist and thought little of it at first, but repeated listens revealed a beautiful melody and soaring vocal performance that managed to be simultaneously powerful and ethereal. A grower.

14: Now That I Found You - Carly Rae Jepsen
Ah, CRJ. She continues to make insanely catchy, euphoric pop music with choruses so big they have their own orbits. Irresistable to anyone with a scrap of joy in their soul.

13: Keep on Runnin - Sheer Mag
Singlehandedly redeeming rock music in 2019. Demands your attention from the first bar of the bass all the way to the closing guitar heroics. Grubby and glorious.

12: Summon the Fire - The Comet is Coming
Someone once described ska music as "what a 13 year old hears in his head when he orders mozarella sticks". In the nicest possible way, this is what I imagine. It's an absolute roller coaster of a song- you hold on tight as it throws you this way and that at breakneck speed, and when you do finally make it to the end with a stupefied grin, your first thought is to get back on and do it all again.

11: Curls - Bibio
"And now, for something completely different". Pretty much the complete sonic opposite of The Comet is Coming, Curls is a lovely and delicate folk with beautiful vocal harmonies and instrumentation. It's a timeless, sepia-toned balm of a song.

10: Good as Hell - Lizzo
Absolute BANGER. It's easy to see why Lizzo has been so popular this year when you hear this song, with unapologetically defiant lyrics and an unforgettable piano hook. So infectious that not even an utterly unncessary remix with Ariana Grande could ruin it.

9: Happens to the Heart - Leonard Cohen
Given that You Want it Darker was such a perfect epitaph to Leonard Cohen's life and career, I was understandably concerned when I heard there was to be a posthumous record- what possible scraps could be left? As it turns out, it's an incredibly moving album, perhaps best summed up by Happens to the Heart. It's quintessential Cohen; Spanish guitar, melancholic melodies and a croaky vocal speaking pure, unfiltered poetry. An unexpected triumph.

8: Sad Day - FKA Twigs
I really loved FKA Twigs' brilliant album Magdalene, but couldn't quite put my finger on why. What genre was it, even? Then I heard someone compare her to Kate Bush and everything slotted into place. The record is fantastic and well worth checking out, but this song is a particular stand out. Dark, beguiling, and unforgetable.

8: Paramour - Anna Meredith
In the nicest possible way, this song is NUTS. Much like with Summon the Fire, this song straps you to a rocket and takes you for an indescribable joyride. A delightfully bonkers assault on the senses. Tubas? Wailing guitars? A single-shot music video on a Lego train? Yes, yes, yes.

7: I Said I Wouldn't Write This Song - Black Belt Eagle Scout
A riff that instantly buries itself in your head and a haunting vocal.

6: The Best - Self Esteem
Criminally underrated. I think I discovered this one through a recommendation on Spotify and fell in love with its intriguing take on pop straight away. It was only later that I discovered that Self Esteem is Rebecca Taylor from the lovely folk group Slow Club, who I was absolutely obsessed with way back in the Myspace days; a completely unexpected link which I think shows the depth of her musical talent. The album (Compliments Please) is also well worth your time.

4: I Hope You're Very Happy Together - Art Brut
Don't call it a comeback. Reunions don't always work out for the best (particularly for 00's indie bands), but Art Brut were on top form for Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out! At the centre of the storm is Eddie Argos, as charismatic and hilarious as ever. Besides being an absolute banger, this post-breakup song is full of hilarious, incisive lyrics. From "the past is a different country/and I don't want any postcards reminding me" to the delightfully petty chorus of "I hope you're very happy together/And if you're not, that's even better!" Welcome back.

3: Far From Born Again - Alex Cameron
A delightful slice of pop. The whole Miami Memory album is fantastic, but this is a particular stand-out. The melody will be stuck in your head for days, and if it wasn't for the fact that it's about championing sex workers it'd be playing on every radio in the land.

2: Hole in the Floor - Peakes
I must have listened to this song for about a month straight. A perfect bit of bouncy but dark synthpop. It's my favourite kind of song; simultaneously downbeat and anthemic. Incidentally, they also do an absolutely spellbinding cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill.

1: Queuejumper - The Divine Comedy

Whilst most of the list doesn't have any real order (after all, who's to say that number 9 is *objectively* better than number 12?), this is most certainly a number 1 song of the year for me. I knew almost nothing about The Divine Comedy prior to this track, but from the first bouncing drum beat I was on board. It's both instantly familiar and unashamedly odd- how many other songs are there about being stuck in traffic, or that play the main riff on the marimba? Sung from the perspective of a joyously self-obsessed sociopath negotiating his way through a traffic jam, you can't help but sing along: "I jumped the queue 'cus I'm smarter than you!". If there were any justice in the world, this song would be held in the same pantheon as esoteric pop classics like Mr. Blue Sky or Bohemian Rhapsody. For now, it's ours.

Before I go, some further recommendations:

Album of the Year: Norman Fucking Rockwell by Lana Del Rey

I'm primarily a singles person. A song demands your attention and has three minutes to say what it has to say; while this might be a sacriligious opinion, albums generally don't have the same pull for me. Let's be honest, most decent LPs could be whittled down to stellar EPs if the artists and labels had the cojones. For me to like an album, it's got to be strong from start to finish and build a world for itself that makes it worth more than the sum of its parts. NFR does just that; yes the songs are great one after another, but you're also drawn inside the very particular mise en scene that Lana Del Rey and her collaborators set up for your entertainment. Triumphant.

Honourable mentions: Thanks for the Dance by Leonard Cohen was an unexpected delight and stands shoulder to shoulder with any other record he produced during his lifetime.

I loved Magdalene by FKA Twigs for the same reasons that I loved the Lana Del Rey record- it seized your attention through intriguing songs, but works as a continguous whole due to building and stoking an unforgetable ambience.

I kept coming back to Anne Muller's Heliopause. I'm not generally into cello/classical music, but this one was a really good record to put on and lose yourself.

Similarly, The Undivided Five by A Winged Victory for the Sullen was a wonderful panoramic ambient-ish record that I thought was excellent. At first I would put it on in the background, but it was so good I'd find myself stopping to think "Oh, that's nice. That's lovely. That's great too". Kind of Sigur Ros-ish in places, it's definitely worth checking out.

Artist of the Year: Big Thief

In a world where artists are often on a cycle of releasing an album, touring it for two years, then releasing another album- huzzah for Big Thief. They put out not one but two great albums this year. It's not a case of quantity over quality; both stand up as solid indie rock records with enough more than enough to say. Take the first hook to get me in: the title track of the first record, U.F.O.F.:

What is that melody? What key is this? I could have listened for hours, and I did. There are so many good songs on these two LPs that I'd be here all day recommending tracks, so I'll just leave with one final pick and an exhortation: listen to Big Thief.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I pootled down the highway on my underpowered scooter, my jaw throbbing inside a sweaty full-face helmet. I was going to the hospital. The only problem was that I was practically potless and without a working card; before I could get better, I would need to somehow get money.

Losing Rotherhithe

I woke up, if indeed I’d ever really fallen asleep. I shuffled to the bathroom of the spartan hostel room, strongly reminiscent of student digs from the 90’s. I shuffled on the sides of my feet, treading carefully to avoid trailing blood onto the bathroom floor.

Cabinet Minutes From An Alternative Timeline Where Brexit Was Actually Successful

The Prime Minister

Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Crikey, chaps!
All: Crikey!
BJ: I've called you here today to congratulate you all on the continuing success of Brexit. Who could've guessed that just two years after the referendum, we'd be completely out of the European Union and sending an extra £350 million a week to the NHS. Speaking of which, how are those health care reforms coming along, Jeremy?
Jeremy CHunt: We've set up a Direct Debit with Virgin to run the NHS on our behalf. I'm mostly just sat in my office playing Candy Crush these days, to be honest.

A potentially dangerous bellend (both literally and figuratively)

BJ: Smashing! Foreign secretary, how are those new trade deals coming along?
Nigel Farage: Swimmingly, Prime Minister. As you know, we've been absolutely inundated with trade deals since escaping the tyrannical grip of Brussels. Just yesterday, I personally negotiated a billion pound trade deal with China to export our famously innovative jam.
BJ: Naturally.
NF: As for the subcontinent, India and Pakistan have un-partitioned themselves and are publicly begging us to kickstart the Empire again. As soon as my safari suit comes back from the tailors, I'll head out there on my brand-spanking-new blue passport to hammer out a deal. We should have Empire 2.0 ready to go faster than you can say "East India Company".

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a [Union Jack] boot stepping on a human face- forever." - George Orwell (probably)

BJ: Quite. Any word from North America?
NF: The Americans should be crawling back to the motherland any day now, just as soon as Congress agrees to our terms.
BJ: Could you remind me what those were again?
NF: Three simple demands, Boris: Reinstate Queen Elizabeth as the head of state, pay reparations all British tea destroyed in harbours and waterways, and an official apology for the Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot".
BJ: Splendid. I do feel like I'm forgetting something, though. Is the Minister Without Portfolio here?
Theresa May: *sigh* Yes, Prime Minister.
BJ: Do us a favour and get the kettle on, would you? Mine's milk and two sugars.
TM: *shudders* Of course, Prime Minister.
BJ: And to think that Remoaners like Theresa here were warning that we'd be faced with potential food shortages and have to rope in the army to help keep the country running! What tosh. Speaking of law and order, how are are the repatriations going, Home Secretary?
Michael Gove: Very well, Mein Fuhr...urr...Mr. Prime Minister. As you well know, we've put in years of work to prepare for this moment, what with the "Go Home" vans and deporting British people back to the Caribbean.
BJ: I remember it fondly.

The Home Secretary

MG: I'm happy to announce that the number of successful asylum applications to the UK have now dropped to precisely zero, and we've almost finished converting the Isle of White into the world's largest deportation centre.
BJ: Take that, Australia! Gentlemen, I'd like to finish today by proposing a toast. To Brexit!
All: Hail Hydra To Brexit!

Russia 2018: Ing-er-lurnd (2/2)

Having successfully navigated their way out of the group stage, England now found themselves in an unfamiliar position: confidently heading into the knockouts of a major tournament. But how far would our self-belief carry us? We were about to find out...

Game 4: England 1-1 Colombia (England win 4-3 on penalties)

Getting past Colombia would not be an easy proposition. In addition to a number of quality players (Falcao, James Rodriguez, Cuadrado), Colombia play their football with what is often charitably termed "physicality". I instead will refer to them as the third and final part of the World Cup Shithouse Trilogy. With James ruled out before the game through injury, Colombia clearly made the tactical decision to go with Plan B, which was to shut up shop and kick the crap out of anybody who tried to come in through the door. Yellow cards (6 in total) were shared carefully around the team as they kicked, headbutted and wrestled their way through the game. This actually suited England rather well; Harry Kane was gifted another penalty (which he clinically dispatched once again), and Colombia's goal threat was largely muted as they focused more on bogging the game down rather than coming out and attacking a relatively frail England defence which had failed to keep a clean sheet against Panama just a few days earlier. Staring defeat in the face, the Colombians eventually decided to come out and attack. Uribe's powerful effort brought out a fantastically acrobatic save from Jordan Pickford. It looked as though England were going to see out the game and progress confidently into the quarters. Then, in the 94th minute...

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Having been so effective at scoring from set pieces themselves, England were undone at the death by a header from a corner. It felt like a gut punch. The entire bar I was in let out a collective groan of despair, not just because of the heartbreaking nature of the equaliser but because of what would almost certainly be coming next: penalties. Prior to Russia 2018, England's record in penalty shootouts at major tournaments read "Played 7, Lost 6".

France '98: one of my earliest sporting heartbreaks. "Quickly Kevin, will he score?" [spoiler alert: he did not]

With this in mind, you can perhaps get some idea of the atmosphere once the penalty shootout got underway. The tension was so thick, you could've cut it with a butter knife. Kane and Rashford buried their pens, before it was Jordan Henderson's turn. I should have known something was up when he was doing keepy-uppys on the way to the penalty spot; after 120 minutes of football, you should know what the ball feels like. His penalty was weak and saved without too much trouble by Ospina. "Shit. This is how it ends", a dejected nation thought.

But all was not lost. Pickford had been twanging the bar during previous kicks, and on Colombia's fourth penalty it finally had the desired effect. Uribe blasted his penalty just over the bar instead of just under, and England were suddenly right back in it. The next Colombian pen was even more remarkable. Pickford leaped to his right, only to immediately see that the ball was heading to the center of the goal. With instinctive reflexes, he waved a hand back in the direction he had come and made the stop. Cue absolute bedlam.

A textbook Big Hand

The mathematics were simple: score our next penalty, and we would be through to the quarters. I confess that when I saw Eric Dier trudging forward to take the decisive pen, I was confused. Dier? Really? He was a defensive midfielder and hadn't exactly played that well at the World Cup. Nevertheless, he had the chance to send us into the quarter-finals. As he placed the ball on the spot, time slowed to a crawl. Holy shit holy shit holy shit.

YES!

As the ball nestled in the back of the net, pandemonium erupted. Immediately, a shower of lager misted over our heads, pints cast skywards by jubilant fans. Strangers hugged each other. I'm normally an anxious and timid individual, but I somehow found myself doing chest bumps with every single one of my friends. Several lads climbed on each others' shoulders as the chant went up: "Football's coming home". The party continued long afterwards, eventually spilling out onto the pavement where passing cars honked their horns in celebration. At that moment, it seemed like anything was possible.

Game 5: England 2-0 Sweden

We had done well to win our first World Cup knockout match since 2006, but if we were to avoid going out in the quarters then we'd first have to get past Sweden. They'd traditionally been somewhat of a bogey team for England in the past, leading to stalemates in both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

Although the 2006 game did yield one of my favourite England goals of all time. In the words of 2006-era Andy Gray, WHAT A HIT SON

Many (quite wrongly) saw this fixture as a bit of a freebie for England. Although Sweden might not have been the strongest team left in the tournament, they had more than earned their position in the quarter-finals on merit. In their group, they'd beaten Korea and Mexico, and come within a whisker of nicking a point from Germany too. They'd bested the Netherlands and Italy just to qualify for the tournament in the first place. Let's put it this way: they were no mugs. Would England be their next scalp?

Almost predictably, England opened the scoring with another header from a set-piece. This time it was Harry Maguire, who now had a goal of his own to cap off what had been an excellent tournament. He only had a handful of caps before the World Cup started, but you never would have guessed it from his assured presence on the ball. As well as being a danger from free kicks and corners, he often made great runs out from the back to relieve pressure from our defence and take the game to the opposition. Provided that he maintains his current form, he should be a guaranteed starter in tournaments to come.

Top-drawer bantz, too

Sterling was again in the strange position of simultaneously playing well and badly. His runs put all sorts of pressure on the Swedish defence and he created a number of goal scoring opportunities, only to fluff his lines or surrender possession at crucial moments. This was epitomised during one particular attack when he burst past the Swedish back line, controlled a long ball with a deft touch, and rounded the keeper within moments. However, instead of squaring it back to Kane for a routine finish, he tried to wind his way through covering defenders after his chance had gone, and ended up blazing his effort wide. Sterling had a good tournament overall, but was just missing a bit of extra quality to make him truly a game-changing player.

Frustration personified

Thankfully, Dele Alli made it 2-0 in the second half with a nicely worked move direct from the training ground. After that, England never looked back. We normally hold up to pressure in a World Cup game about as well as a sandcastle in an earthquake, but Southgate had seemed to instill a level-headed calmness in the squad. Though Sweden predictably came forward late in the game to try and fight their way back into it, Pickford was on fine form and produced a number of instinctive saves to keep his first clean sheet of the tournament.

A nation clenched.

Despite Sweden's late attempts, England never truly looked vulnerable. They continued to play their game and push back against the Swedes right up until the end. At the final whistle, there was euphoria. England had advanced to their first semi-final in nearly 30 years in the most unpredictable of fashions: a regulation 2-0 win. Could it really be coming home?

I recieved this meme literally minutes after the final whistle went

Game 6: England 1-2 Croatia

If England were to make it to a final, they'd have to get past Croatia. Perennial dark horses, for years Croatia have been a team that threatened to do something. Their centre midfield pairing of Modric and Rakitic was one of the best in the tournament, and they were surrounded by other brilliant players such as Mandzukic, Perisic, and-er- Dejan Lovren?

They can't all be world beaters, I guess

2018 was the tournament when Croatia finally seemed to realise their frightening potential. They took maximum points from their group, recording a 3-0 demolition of Argentina along the way.

BOSH

After the group stages, the Croatians grafted their way to the semi-finals through sheer hard work. They vanquished both Denmark and Russia after playing extra time and penalties. For lesser teams, this would have been mentally and physically exhausting, but Croatia seemed to approach every game knowing that there were very few countries in the world able to beat them in 90 minutes. Would England manage it?

The game started with a bang, as Trippier scored an absolute beauty of a free kick in the first five minutes.

Beckham-esque

While any goal is better than none, there is something to be said for the old football adage that the goal came 'too early' for England. Having to defend a lead for 85 minutes against a team who were almost guaranteed to create chances was no mean feat. It looked for most of the game we might hold on and do the unthinkable, but once Perisic nodded Croatia level it was difficult to see a way for England to crack on and win. Though Croatia had played 240 minutes of football in the previous week, it was England who seemed to be the more exhausted of the two sides- Harry Kane more so than most. When Mandzukic got goalside of Stones in the second half of extra time, the outcome was inevitable. England were out, and Croatia deserved winners.

There seems to be a false narrative going around (perpetuated mostly by Modric) that England were undone by their own hubris and that we had underestimated Croatia going into the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. For all the memes and chants that football was "Coming Home", the majority of the English fans and media had their tongues wedged firmly in their cheeks. We had almost expected to be absolutely terrible in this tournament, and the fact that had made it so far was nothing short of astonishing. Speaking for myself, there was never an expectation that England would win the World Cup- anything other than a group stage exit would've been fine by me.

An alternative 2014 timeline

Game 7: Belgium 2-0 England

There was only one more thing to do before leaving Russia; fulfill our contractual obligations by appearing in the third-place play-off, a game which Southgate rightfully describe after the final whistle as "not a game any team wants to play in".

Seeing as the match was an absolute afterthought, I shan't go into it in depth. Suffice to say that Belgium showed that they were, in fact, a better team than us (which we knew already), and ran out with a comfortable 2-0 win.

Post-mortem

While things ended on a bit of dampener, it didn't change the fact that England had vastly surpassed expectations. Arguably their biggest achievement wasn't necessarily the results themselves, but changing the mood of the public towards our national team. In prior tournaments, it felt like we were watching Premier League superstars (Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, etc) who were normally world-beaters for their clubs, but always seemed disinterested when they showed up for England and were far less than the sum of their parts. This was perhaps epitomised by the 2006 World Cup, where there seemed to be far more of a national conversation about what the wives and girlfriends of the players were up to rather than how the team themselves were getting on.

If you were wondering, they were busy losing to Portugal on penalties

In contrast, our 2018 squad seemed far more humble and professional, perhaps due to the assertive but understated leadership of Gareth Southgate. I admit that I didn't think he'd be the shot in the arm that England needed, but he more than showed his worth at this tournament.

And rocking a trademark M and S waistcoat while he did it

The mood that overtook the country was one of giddy delirium; England were playing well and winning games. That was all we'd ever wanted at a tournament! Don't get me wrong, the nation would have gone into absolute meltdown if we had somehow won the World Cup, but I think I speak for most fans when I say that we were ecstatic to have gone as far as we did. Unlike other nationalities, the English have never really been about winning at all costs; we're happy to go down in noble failure, just as long as we give a good account of ourselves and do our best. And this time, we actually bloody did.