Thursday, November 28, 2019

40 From 40 Plus 10: 2014

"That rock'n'roll, eh?" Our documentation of how we see the years of this decade in retrospect continues into 2014, the year Alex Turner made a stand for... something at the Brits. We were somehow unsurprised to find Radio X were still calling it "incredible" and "legendary" last year, and yet even in the wake of that resulting NME cover you'd have been surprised at how quickly the pop world seemed to flee in the opposite direction. That streaming was included into the singles chart from July would be the catalyst for rebuilding that glass ceiling at a much lower level. Strange old year, 2014. Ed Sheeran cemented himself as an A-lister with x, but U2 decided to flex their muscle and arguably ended up spectacularly undermining themselves with the enforced iTunes delivery of Songs of Innocence (Bono three years later: "I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves") The rest of the headlines belonged to Taylor Swift in the year of 1989 (if you see what I mean), mockingly referencing "some indie record that's much cooler than mine" at a time when there were none. Kate Bush made her slight live return while Future Islands briefly proved the old adage that nothing makes you into a true superstar like a good TV appearance. Also, all this.



Perfume Genius - Queen
Wild Beasts - Wanderlust
JUCE - Braindead
LoneLady - Groove It Out
Caribou - Can't Do Without You
Run The Jewels - Blockbuster Night Pt. 1
Flying Lotus feat. Kendrick Lamar - Never Catch Me
FKA twigs - Numbers
Skepta feat. Jme - That's Not Me
Liars - Mess On A Mission
St. Vincent - Birth In Reverse
Trash Kit - Medicine
Cloud Nothings - I'm Not Part Of Me
White Lung - Drown With The Monster
Adebisi Shank - World In Harmony
Sylvan Esso - Coffee
Tune-Yards - Water Fountain
The Drink - Microsleep
Johnny Foreigner - Riff Glitchard
T.O.Y.S - X-Static
September Girls - Black Oil
Nadine Shah - Stealing Cars
Firestations - Never Closer
Martin Carr - The Santa Fe Skyway
The Wind-Up Birds - Two Ambulance Day
Martha - Present, Tense
Spoon - Rent I Pay
Stanley Brinks and The Wave Pictures - Orange Juice
H. Hawkline - Moons In My Mirror
Allo Darlin' - We Come from the Same Place
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
Sharon Van Etten - Every Time the Sun Comes Up
Slow Club - Tears Of Joy
SOAK - B a noBody
Weyes Blood - Some Winters
David Thomas Broughton feat. Juice Vocal Ensemble - In Service
Bastard Mountain - Meadow Ghosts
Gruff Rhys - American Interior
Owen Pallett - In Conflict
Summer Camp - Beyond Clueless



PREVIOUSLY: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

40 From 40 Plus 10: 2013

Onwards in our survey of our favourite stuff that tells the story, or at least a hyper-specific version of it, of each year of the decade just finishing. 2013, then. It doesn't feel like it, either now or reading the contemporary view, but it was Pharrell's year, right? Happy, Get Lucky *and* Blurred Lines! You'd be glad to have a scintilla of a song that colonised the world in the way any of those three did. And yet Williams doesn't feel a very "2013 artist". Not in the year of Miley showing her tongue (and much more), of the multimedia self-consumption of Artpop, of Yeezus and the self-titled Beyonce 'visual album', of the arrival of The 1975 and the stealth return of Bowie. In a year of showiness through straining to stand out - something, of course, that applied to Daft Punk and Robin Thicke's video director too - actually putting your name and vocals to actual indelible hits wasn't enough. Sam Bailey won The X Factor that year and is almost certainly the last X Factor winner you can name. That might not be a coincidence.



Julia Holter - Horns Surrounding Me
Ghostpoet - Them Waters
Benin City - My Love
Youth Lagoon - Dropla
Vampire Weekend - Step
Lorde - Royals
Georgia Ruth - Week Of Pines
Beaty Heart - Lekka Freakout
Public Service Broadcasting - Theme From PSB
Islet - Carlos
Shopping - In Other Words
Hooded Fang - Ode To Subterrania
The Wytches - Beehive Queen
Savages - City’s Full
Telegram - Follow
Joanna Gruesome - Sugarcrush
Fuck Buttons - Brainfreeze
Boards Of Canada - New Seeds
Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels
And So I Watch You From Afar - Big Thinks Do Remarkable
Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege
Los Campesinos! - Avocado, Baby
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Summer Camp - Two Chords
Daft Punk feat. Panda Bear - Doin' it Right
Kiran Leonard - Dear Lincoln
Future Of The Left - Bread, Cheese, Bow And Arrow
Mowbird - Happy Active Horse Organ
Sky Larkin - Motto
Sweet Baboo - If I Died...
Nadine Shah - To Be a Young Man
Marika Hackman - Bath Is Black
Cate Le Bon feat. Perfume Genius - I Think I Knew
David Bowie - Where Are We Now?
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Jubilee Street
Widowspeak - Ballad of the Golden Hour
Daughter - Youth
Bill Callahan - Small Plane
Haiku Salut - Los Elefantes



PREVIOUSLY: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Thursday, November 21, 2019

40 From 40 Plus 10: 2012

2012 was a bit of a weird year. It was the most difficult of these to compile, if that's any judge (not helped by Words And Music By Saint Etienne's absence from Spotify) The London Olympics seemed to be treated as some as an unnecessary distraction from the Spice Girls at the closing ceremony, and then that came and went leaving little trace. We thought Somebody That I Used to Know was going to be the sound of the years ahead; instead it turned out to be Titanium. Ah, we'll always have Call Me Maybe and, well, Gangnam Style, a portent of both virality and Korean overlords ahead. Red made Taylor Swift the centre of everything. Whitney, Donna Summer, Davy Jones and MCA died. So did EMI, after a fashion. Blue Ivy was born and became a brand immediately. LMFAO were a thing for a bit. Frank Ocean came out and Channel Orange became everything. MIA flipped off the Superbowl and as a side consequence set the tone for all of actual performers Madonna's co-opting of cultural change this decade, passing by or being overshadowed. Eurodance evolved into EDM, which became bigger than us all. Adele took over the world. Meanwhile...



Everything Everything - Cough Cough
Breton - Interference
Lone Wolf - The Swan Of Meander
Hooded Fang - ESP
Melody's Echo Chamber - Some Time Alone, Alone
Grizzly Bear - Sleeping Ute
Minotaur Shock - Janet
Public Service Broadcasting - Spitfire
Cheatahs - The Swan
Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built
Internet Forever - Cover The Walls
PINS - LUVU4LYF
Future Of The Left - Beneath The Waves An Ocean
Mission Of Burma - Dust Devil
Ace Bushy Striptease - Long-Term Relationship In Durham...
TOY - Kopter
Savages - Husbands
Tall Ships - Gallop
Solange - Losing You
The Invisible - Protection
Niki & The Dove - The Fox
WHY? - Sod in the Seed
Cat Power - Ruin
David Byrne & St Vincent - Who
Shearwater - Breaking The Yearlings
Bat For Lashes - All Your Gold
Sharon Van Etten - Serpents
First Aid Kit - Emmylou
This Many Boyfriends - Number One
Cats On Fire - My Sense Of Pride
Tigercats - The Vapours
Beth Jeans Houghton - Atlas
Dexys - Nowhere Is Home
Fear of Men - Green Sea
Beach House - Myth
Gulp - Game Love
Perfume Genius - Hood
Daughter - Smother
Tessera Skies - Soliloquy of An Astronaut
Allo Darlin' - Tallulah


PREVIOUSLY: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

40 From 40 Plus 10: 2011

Onwards with our overview of the decade just passing, and today we alight on the year we were confidently repeatedly told that Jessie J was inevitably going to be an enormous international star. She did have a Billboard top ten album in 2014, but when you release an album four years later that fails to chart anywhere, homeland included... In fairness she can't have known that 21 and + (and One Direction's debut) were to come out later in the year and thoroughly change the parameters for international success. Where were you when you found out Amy Winehouse had died? We were at Truck festival, the year that they made it a three day event and lost so much money they had to sell it off to help it become the "Kendal Calling if wet" it is today, and being the early days of the smartphone experience we didn't find out until past midnight that Saturday. 2011! Born This Way, We Found Love and Moves Like Jagger, Beyonce at Glastonbury, Brother hype and Rizzle Kicks everywhere, REM splitting and LCD Soundsystem playing the hits - hey, one of them kept to their promise - and...



The Lovely Eggs - Don't Look at Me (I Don't Like It)
Comet Gain - Working Circle Explosive!
Johnny Foreigner - You vs Everything
Dananananaykroyd - Muscle Memory
WILD FLAG - Romance
TOY - Left Myself Behind
Help Stamp Out Loneliness - Record Shop
Girls Names - Séance On A Wet Afternoon
Fashoda Crisis - The Berry-Brown Face of Robert Kilroy Silk
Three Trapped Tigers - Noise Trade
Maybeshewill - Red Paper Lanterns
Mogwai - Mexican Grand Prix
TV On The Radio - No Future Shock
Clock Opera - Belongings
Chad Valley - Now That I'm Real (How Does It Feel?)
Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
I Break Horses - Winter Beats
Fujiya & Miyagi - Taiwanese Boots
Marques Toliver - Charter Magic
Tune-Yards - Es-so
The Weeknd - House Of Balloons/Glass Table Girls
Slow Club - Two Cousins
St. Vincent - Cheerleader
Lana Del Rey - Video Games
Low - Try To Sleep
Other Lives - For 12
Woodkid - Iron
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Bill Callahan - America!
David Thomas Broughton - Nature
Wild Beasts - Bed Of Nails
Golden Fable - The Chill, Pt. 2
Bibio - K Is For Kelson
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Fixers - Crystals
GIVERS - Up Up Up
Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum
Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness
Standard Fare - Suitcase
Race Horses - Benidorm

PREVIOUSLY: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Thursday, November 14, 2019

40 From 40 Plus 10: 2010

Hi there. Two years ago we ran 40 From 40, in which we made forty track Spotify playlists for every year from 1970 to 2009. Some people liked them. Here, have a look/listen:

1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

So now we're coming towards the end of the following decade, it's time to bring it all up to date chronologically over ten more lists. Obviously for these years we have a lot more of a secure paper trail for what we thought was great - you're reading it - but it does no harm to have another look back at what was going on and put it into fresh context if possible. Such is the passing of time, of course, but looking at a list of 2010 events there are some things that happened - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (which peaked at 16 in Britain), Gaga's meat dress, Robbie rejoining Take That, Plan B's The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, a Biffy Clyro cover being the X Factor winner's Christmas number one, California Gurls, Fuck/Forget You - which feel like they belong to the previous decade, so much has happened since. As for the music - which, as always, is ordered not in qualitative but playlist flow order - well...



These New Puritans - We Want War
Napoleon IIIrd - The Unknown Unknown
Archie Bronson Outfit - Magnetic Warrior
Islet - Jasmine
Liars - Scarecrows On A Killer Slant
No Age - Fever Dreaming
The Walkmen - Angela Surf City
Grinderman - Heathen Child
Japandroids - Heavenward Grand Prix
The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
Twin Shadow - Castles in the Snow
Katy B - Katy On a Mission
Janelle Monáe feat. Saul Williams - Dance Or Die
Robyn - Dancing On My Own
Yeasayer - O.N.E.
Everything Everything - Schoolin’
The Chap - We Work in Bars
Meursault - Crank Resolutions
Laura Marling - Devil's Spoke
Tindersticks - Harmony Around My Table
Los Campesinos! - The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future
Perfume Genius - Lookout, Lookout
The Indelicates - We Love You, Tania
Summer Camp - Ghost Train
Best Coast - Boyfriend
Gruff Rhys - Shark Ridden Waters
Allo Darlin' - Dreaming
Frankie & The Heartstrings - Hunger
Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
Dog Is Dead - Glockenspiel Song
Standard Fare - Love Doesn't Just Stop
Cults - Go Outside
MGMT - Brian Eno
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Rolo Tomassi - Party Wounds
Rose Elinor Dougall - Find Me Out
Let's Buy Happiness - Six Wolves
Warpaint - Undertow
Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
Spoon - Written In Reverse