Stop Holding Back: Jan-Apr '14 Playlist

A couple of weeks ago (i.e. around the end of April), I created a playlist containing my favourite songs of the year so far. I've decided to share it here - not only are the songs really good, I'm also really pleased with how it flows as a playlist.

See, this isn't a bumper-sized free-for-all like my summer playlist. That was one to shuffle and enjoy for an entire afternoon; this is a tight, ten-track affair that was carefully sequenced for the best possible listening experience.

So sit back and feast your ears on the 10 best songs of (the first four months of) 2014. I'll put the songs here without comment for now, and add some more details tomorrow.

(N.B. I would have embedded this as a Spotify playlist but My Name is Ian hasn't put his bloomin' album on Spotify. Thanks for that, Ian - now I have to embed ten things instead of one. Yeesh.)

1) Cult of Love by Dum Dum Girls (from Too True)

Too True isn't a particularly spectacular album, but it does boast the best opening track of the year so far. Cult of Love is a charging krautrock bull of a song, recalling the best parts of goth music among other things.

The First Quarter of 2014

I've been pretty lazy with new releases thus far in 2014. In fact, of all the presumably brilliant albums to have seen release since New Year's Day, I've only bought three. They're all good albums, mind, even if none of them feel like 'Album of the Year' material; I just feel like I should be paying closer attention to the stuff in the window of Spillers.

Still, with three months of the year already down, I thought I'd better do some kind of Q1 review. Here's what I think of the three new albums I've bought this year...

Rave Tapes by Mogwai

It's a solid album, this, although I don't feel that it's quite up there with Mogwai's best. Quite a few tracks seem not to go anywhere (e.g. Simon Ferocious, whose most interesting feature is the completely unrelated synth fanfare that introduces it); that said, songs like Blues Hour and Remurdered more than make up for that issue. The former is a particular highlight - Mogwai don't often do songs with singing in them, but when they do materialise, they are always absolute treasures, and Blues Hour is no exception:

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