Hey everyone - it's December! But before you break out the Christmas hits, here are 10 non-Yuletide tracks that I really enjoyed listening to in November and that I hope you'll enjoy listening to right now.
1. Holy Hell It's Cold by Quiet Marauder
(from MEN)
I tend to revisit MEN (originally released in 2013 - read my three-year-old review of it here) every year at around this time, and this rib-tickling but also slightly sobering cut seemed like an appropriate choice given the current temperature outside.
2. Treaty by Leonard Cohen
(from You Want it Darker)
You Want it Darker - which it's probably safe to assume was written and recorded by a Leonard Cohen who knew that he would soon be dead - has a certain duality to it. Many of its songs make it sound like Len had made his peace with the world and was ready to go, but a couple of songs (including Seemed the Better Way and this beautiful number) suggest a certain amount of regret, a desire to go back and change something. More thoughts on You Want it Darker here.
Perhaps it's just because I've lived in Wales for most of my life, but Week of Pines (Georgia Ruth's Welsh Music Prize-winning debut album, released in 2013) doesn't sound like anything so much as it sounds like home. Listening to Week of Pines is like putting on an old jumper that's so familiar it feels like hugging an old friend, and so well-worn you can stick your thumbs through the sleeves as if they were a pair of fingerless gloves.
pictured: me wearing my Week of Pines jumper
Conversely, Fossil Scale (Georgia Ruth's second album, released just last month) sounds like an album that's very far from home indeed. Week of Pines wasn't unadventurous by any stretch of the imagination, but its overall sound - harp strings, brushed drums, a purring electric guitar - felt very cosy and comfortable, whereas Fossil Scale is exploratory and experimental by comparison. The album covers a colourful range of genres, displaying an almost restless quality as it wanders from the funky Fossil Scale to the proggy climax of Grand Tour. Suhail Yusaf Khan’s sārangī playing lends a far-flung Eastern flavour to songs like The Doldrums and China, while new single Cloudbroke sounds like a track that was cut from some chillout compilation for sounding just a smidge too anxious about things.
I love autumn, and I especially love listening to music when it's autumn. The crisp, cold air, the changing colours around me, the fact that I'm wearing a jumper that's I've had since I was in secondary school...all of this stuff serves to enhance the sounds I'm hearing and up the general feeling of warmth and nostalgia. This is my time of year, people.
Yesterday (the 22nd of September 2016) was the autumnal equinox and the official beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere. To mark the occasion, I asked my Twitter followers to suggest some of their favourite autumnal albums - the following playlist is made up of songs from the records they chose (plus a few favourites of my own).
About a month ago, I shared my ten favourite albums of the first half of 2016. The big question now, of course, is how many of those albums will stick with me long enough to make my proper end-of-year list in December.
To be fair, I've already heard some albums that would've made my halfway list in June had I heard them in time - Mitski's superb Puberty 2, for one. But today, I'd like to look ahead to the coming months and focus on a trio of forthcoming albums that I'm very excited to hear. Don't be surprised if all of these end up in my final countdown come December - if the ten artists who made the list last month are wondering who they ought to be worried about, I'd suggest that these are the top three contenders:
Away by Okkervil River
Release Date: 9th of September
I love Okkervil River. I have loved them since my first year of university, but I've fallen even deeper even love with them recently, mostly thanks to the release of The Silver Gymnasium (which I spent a whole week blogging about)in 2013 and my belated discovery of the even better Down the River of Golden Dreams early last year. Now they've got a new record on the way - I already adore it for its gorgeous cover art (above), and the two songs they've released so far are very promising indeed. Check out nostalgic heartstring-tugger The Industry below.
First, some news: I recently broke up with Sarah, my girlfriend of five years. There was no massive, explosive argument, no unforgivable betrayal from which the relationship couldn't possibly recover; we just agreed that things had run their course and that, while it had been a wonderful experience for both of us, it was time to call it a day.
Obviously, the last week or so has been somewhat stressful (breaking it to my parents was the hardest part), but I was also a little bit excited - believe it or not, this is the first and only break-up I've ever been through, and once things were set in stone (that is, once I'd changed my Facebook status from 'In a Relationship' to 'Single), I was perversely thrilled to finally have an excuse to listen to all of the horribly depressing break-up albums I've accrued over the last decade or so.
"Wait, is that R.E.M.'s Out of Time? Is this idiot trying to tell us that the album with Shiny Happy People on it is 'horribly depressing'?"
Autumn is my favourite time of year, and while I talk a lot of romantic talk about the smell of the air as you scrunch through the leaves, my love for this season is largely music-related. Okay, so autumn's relatively close proximity to Christmas certainly doesn't hurt, but even if I didn't have some presents and a roast turkey to look forward to, this would still feel like the perfect time to revisit my favourite albums.
Yes, I'm one of those insufferable wankers who genuinely believe that music sounds better in autumn, to the point where many of my favourite albums are totally contraband during the warmer months. I fear that listening to them when the sun is out may spoil them somehow, and so I save them for the dark nights and the crisp days that make up much of October and November.
The nominees for the 2013 Welsh Music Prize were announced back in September, and since I'd only heard one of the albums on the shortlist, I resolved that I would listen to all of them before the award ceremony in mid-October. And I did - you can see the blogs I wrote for each album by clicking here.
Exactly three months have passed since (SPOILER ALERT!) Georgia Ruth took home the prize for her album, Week of Pines. I thought that today would be a good opportunity to look back on those twelve albums, and to see if my feelings towards them have changed. Let's go:
Fist of the First Man by Fist of the First Man
I'm still not overly keen on this, with one important exception: once I'd listened to all twelve albums on the shortlist, I made a playlist of the best songs from each one, and Volta Regulat made an excellent opener. The rest, well...I can take it or leave it. See them live if you can, but don't shed too many tears if you can't get your hands on their CD.
It feels weird doing another blog post about Georgia Ruth so soon, but this was the risk I took when I left Week of Pines 'til last. Still, I don't want to use the album cover as my main image again, so here instead is a Georgia Ruth selfie:
So Week of Pines has won its creator the 2013 Welsh Music Prize. And actually, I'm pretty pleased with this result. I was rooting for Furniture, of course, but WoP is certainly a worthy winner in itself, boasting at least two stone-cold classics (Week of Pines and A Slow Parade) and a whole host of other lovely songs., like Old Blue and In Luna. As I mentioned on Twitter the other day, it's a very nostalgic album - she's trying to "get back to the week of pines", she's singing about her old dog, she's thinking about relationships that have long since ended. True to the title, the album is full of longing - or pining - for things past.
I was looking for Old Blue on YouTube, and guess what? It's a cover! I couldn't find Georgia Ruth's version, so here's a slightly less modern rendition...
And if that lot doesn't make Georgia Ruth a deserving winner, consider that, with a sprinkling of harp and a smattering of Cymraeg, Week of Pines was probably the Welsh-est album on the shortlist. If the WMP is supposed to show off what this country has to offer, music-wise, then this album was a fine choice for the prize.
At the end of the day, though, it's not about who won or who lost. The whole shortlist was full of amazing stuff, and I'm glad that I made myself listen to it all. Even when I was disappointed, irritated, or downright baffled, I was still having fun. Oh, and it's Swn Festival now, which means that I get to see a bunch of these bands I've discovered in person. I caught Trwbador at the Angel Hotel last night, and they were awesome, like Kate Bush with a laptop.
Thank you all for joining me on this Welsh Music Prize journey - you can relive the whole thing here. Normal service resumes on Monday, but in the meantime...who do you think should have won?
Last one, you guys! Since early September, I've been listening to the albums that make up this year's Welsh Music Prize shortlist. The winner is announced tomorrow, but before I can start thinking about that, I've one more album to tackle...
So why have I left Georgia Ruth 'til last? I'd like to say that it wasn't planned, that it was just the way the chips fell; one of those twelve recordswould have to wait around until the very end, and Week of Pines just so happened to be the one album on the shortlist that I hadn't bought, listened to and blogged about yet.
But that would be a bit of a porkie. In truth, I've kind of been putting off Week of Pines because, well, I thought it would be a bit boring. I'm aware that it probably wouldn't have been nominated for a national prize if it was Dullsville, Tennessee, and I'm equally aware that the softer side of this shortlist has often been the better side, having already thrown up splendid surprises like Februaryand The Diary of Me. Heck, in retrospect, I was even aware that this album's title track was a rousing, kraut-flavoured epic, worlds away from the blandness I was braced for.
In spite of all that, I had convinced myself that Week of Pines would be one of the less gripping listens on the list, and that, rather pathetically, is why I did all the other albums first: I basically just wanted to avoid this one for as long as possible. Solo singer-songwriter, trees in the album title, boring artwork (which, now that I look at it properly, actually has a mild Dawn of the Dead vibe to it)...to my mind, the signs weren't great, and this review is not one that I've been looking forward to writing.
But Week of Pines has actually given my Welsh Music Prize story a pretty good ending. Expectations have been a recurring theme throughout this little marathon, insofar as whatever I've expected from an album has consistently failed to transpire. It's almost like a running gag; Summer Specialwas hardly summery at all, Fist of the First Mansounded nothing like the Fist of the First Man I thought I remembered, the aforementioned February turned out to be far less rubbish than the month for which it was named...pretty much everything I presumed was wrong.
And so what better way to round things off than by closing my eyes and listening to the familiar, crunchy sound of my expectations getting curb-stomped yet again?
Week of Pines is a surprisingly varied album, bearing no relation at all to the hour of gruelling, Celtic-flavoured tedium I've been hiding from for the last few weeks. You've got the toasty, laid-back goodbye song (Seeing You Around); you've got the solemn Welsh-language squeezebox hymn (Codi Angor); and you've got the lolloping slice of electric Americana that sound like it might pop up towards the end of a free Uncut CD (A Slow Parade).
You still get the occasional quiet'un, but when songs like Dovecote are side-by-side with songs like Seeing You Around, it doesn't create a problem. Instead, it creates a wonderful mix of stuff that stays fresh throughout.
So...is it as good as Furniture?
No, which I suppose means that Furnitureis my favourite album on the shortlist and that Race Horses are the artist that I'm backing to wintomorrow night. Week of Pines is great, for sure, and when the lilting bass guitar brings Winter to a close you do feel like you've come to the end of a great journey.
But unlike Furniture (and Praxis Makes Perfect, for that matter), it's not a journey that I'm immediately itching to retrace. Where Race Horses and Neon Neon leave me hungry for more and perfectly happy to go back to track one and listen again, Week of Pines leaves me full up, and that's why I don't feel quite so enthusiastic about Georgia Ruth as I do about those other two acts.
Also, as good as the various tracks are, nothing quite equals the motorik magnificence of the eponymous opener. Putting your best track first is no way to win me over, I'm afraid.
So that's it - that's the whole list, done! Keep your eyes peeled for the big reveal, and come back here on Friday to find out what I thought of the result. Furniture may be my favourite - if you spread those twelve CDs out on a table right now and asked me which one I wanted to hear, I'd plump for the Race Horses - but to be honest, there are at least five other potential winners I'd be pretty happy with.
