Good riddance 20-fucking-20! A forgettable year for many, that won’t soon be forgotten by us all. Have you heard that the virus may have mutated into another strain? Maybe 2021 will be the same as 2020? Great times! And yeah, the inevitability of that prospect seems especially galling at this time of year, after being locked up together with your family for months, with the only reprieve being going to work (for some), if you’re a key worker (oh, what a privilege), now you get to spend Christmas and New Year with them too. The obligatory formality of the holiday period is usually only made bearable because it occurs over a short period of time once a year, but doubling down after doing it most of the year? I shouldn’t be glib or sarcastic about this, but surely there’s been, or will be, a rise in the suicide and homicide rates caused by family members? So yeah, that’s my message: peace, unity and patience, just for a wee bit longer.
Like many I was placed on furlough for a bit, and that should’ve allowed me more time to listen to more music. But, well, life, yeah, aye. I’ve never felt more unmotivated and enthusiastic than right now. And even if that weren’t the case things seldom work out as ideally as you envision them or how you aim to allocate your time in the moment. Oh, the first-world struggle, it never ends amigos.
Nonetheless, belonging to the last generation with some residue of the capability, I did manage to have the attention span and discipline to listen to some music, and the following tracks are the ones I’ve deemed worthy of repeat listens. I’ll do my albums of the year list next week, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out from the tracks I’ve selected here what one of those albums will be.
As per usual the tracks are in alphabetical order. There’s a random number of selections here, fifteen. I know I’ve pejoratively alluded to a lack of attention span among the yoof, but it does stagger me somewhat that most music websites roll out top fifty or even top hundred album and track of the year lists. Even in lockdown, other than music journalists (and do they even?), who has the time and inclination to forensically go through a list that long? A psychologist would say this is me, in a round-about way, suggesting that my abbreviated list is better. I’ll shut up now.
More importantly, and once again: stay safe, stay sane, and don’t kill anyone this Christmas.
Actress – Turin
From the album ‘Karma & Desire’
Beatrice Dillon – Workaround 2
From the album ‘Workaround’
Bob Dylan – Crossing the Rubicon
From the album ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’
DJ Python – Descanse
From the album ‘Mas Amable’
Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure
From the album ‘What’s Your Pleasure’
Nadine Shah – Buckfast
From the album ‘Kitchen Sink’
Perfume Genius – Describe
From the album ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’
Planet 1999 – Party
From the single ‘Party’
Pregoblin – Anna (Flowers Won’t Grow)
From the single ‘Anna (Flowers Won’t Grow)’
Róisín Murphy – Murphy’s Law
From the album ‘Murphy’s Law’
Róisín Murphy – Shellfish Mademoiselle
From the album ‘Murphy’s Law’
Róisín Murphy – We Got Together
From the album ‘Murphy’s Law’
Shit & Shine – Barbara and Woodrow
From the album ‘Malibu Liquor Store’
Theo Parrish – This Is For You (feat. Maurissa Rose)
From the single ‘This Is For You’
Yves Tumor – Kerosene
From the album ‘Heaven to a Tortured Mind’
Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard 
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