2024 End of Year Roundup

 

Photo by Ankhesenamun on Unsplash

Welcome to my 2024 end of year roundup. It's been a funny year for several reasons, and this is going to be a shorter post than usual, but rest assured that my annual songs of the year series of posts will be coming soon.

Gigs

I didn't go to many gigs this year, in fact, the only gig I did get to was Helen Mccookerybook and David Lance Callahan at the Tallyrand in Levenshulme in April. I could have gone to see Allie X play at Gorilla and, while I did consider going, in the end I ruled it out because I wasn't that keen on the new album. 

Album of the year

The Last Dinner Party, Prelude To Ecstasy

Perhaps the most hotly anticipated debut album of the year, nay decade. And they did not in any way disappoint. 

A tight, highly atmospheric album of glam rock inspired melodramas and anthems which satisfies on every level. 

Event of the year

Florence + The Machine, Symphony of Lungs at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall.

It goes without saying that I would have loved to have attended this concert, but as it was taking place in the early days of September on a weekday, I had absolutely zero chance of getting the time off work. I'm not sure I could have afforded the ticket, hotel and coach or train fares anyway. Luckily the BBC broadcast it twice, once live on Radio 3 and secondly about a month later on BBC2, where this unique 'Symphony of Lungs' could be appreciated in its full sumptuous sonic and visual splendour. It's being released on vinyl and CD in March, so naturally I have it on pre order. 

Books I've read and loved this year

Tamora Pierce, Tortall: A Spy's Guide

Tim Mohr, Burning Down The Haus

Paul Hanley, Sixteen Again

Oliver Postgate, Seeing Things

Kirk Field, Rave New World

Lizzy Stewart, Alison

Chris and Jenn Sugden, High Vaultage

DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little

John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

Top 5 Detective TV Show themes 

5) Sister Boniface Mysteries

4) Death in Paradise

3) Mrs Sidhu Investigates

2) Whitstable Pearl

1) The Turkish Detective

Articles I've found interesting/enjoyable this year

How the rental crisis is threatening the UK's music scenes by Laura Molloy (NME)

I am facing my second no-fault eviction in two years. Renting is broken by Ruby Lott-Lavigna (Open Democracy)

The Death of Shame by Jonn Elledge (The Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything)

After 14 years of dead ends, here are three ways Labour can rejuvenate UK public transport by Jonn Elledge (The Guardian)

295 Days Gone by Jonn Elledge (The Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything)

Fad's Army by Jonn Elledge (The Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything)

I, for one, will mourn Twitter by Jonn Elledge (The New Statesman)

multi-storied #36: The idyll by Samanth Subramanian (multi-storied)

Memoir Draft: Chapter 1. Going into Care by Matt Taylor (Underclass Hero)

'Blue Plaque' at Walthamstow Tesco honours lettuce that outlasted Liz Truss by Martin Belam (The Guardian)

Songs of the year will begin on the 10th of December

The Big End Of Year Roundup Post: 2021

Hello and welcome to my annual end of the year roundup post!

I'm sticking to the format I used last year as it seemed to work well and seemed a good structure to use when trying to sum up what had been a mind boggling year. 

Needless to say, 2021 has been similarly mind boggling, hence clinging to the security blanket provided by my 2020 end of year roundup post structure.

Hopefully you will discover in these lists some interesting reads and listens, and some food for thought. 

As has been the case in previous years, I will be running a countdown of my favourite songs of the year on a one track per day basis, starting on the 2nd of December and continuing until the 31st of December. For those of you who use Spotify, a playlist of my Top 30 songs will also be compiled in real time. As usual, a disclaimer: For me, when it comes to compiling the Songs of the Year list, the year runs from November to November. This means I can include any songs I just missed out on including on the previous years list.

Albums of the year

12) Delilah Bon, Delilah Bon

11) Courtney Barnett, Things Take Time Take Time

10) Lana Del Rey, Blue Bannisters

9) Self Esteem, Prioritise Pleasure

8) Noga Erez, KIDS

7) Ruby Fields, Been Doin' It For A Bit

6) Sleater-Kinney, Path of Wellness

5) Olivia Rodrigo, SOUR

4) Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever

3) Penfriend, Exotic Monsters

2) Albertine Sarges, The Sticky Fingers

1) Pom Pom Squad, Death of a Cheerleader

12 books I've read and loved this year 

Philip Pullman, La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust vol 1)

Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

Emma Glass, Rest and be thankful

Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Mother Country: Real stories of the Windrush children

Dr. Phil Hammond, Dr Hammond's Covid Casebook

Helen Reddington, She's At The Controls

Elif Shafak, 10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world

Kiley Reid, Such a fun age

Sosuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

Ellis Peters, A Morbid Taste For Bones

Adam MacQueen, The Prime Minister's Ironing Board

Podcasts and Radio from 2021

To be honest, I haven't listened to as many podcasts this year as I have in the past. Over in radio land, the highlight of the year was definitely the ninth series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, which treated the restrictions of lockdown as a chance to experiment with form and, in doing so, created something very special indeed. 

Long term film podcast Best Pick reached the end of its initial odyssey and, having survived both the project itself and the confines of lockdown, elected to carry on with a different and evolving film related mission. The exit interview episode is worth a listen, as is the (fairly) recent episode on The Taking of Pelham 123.

I hadn't expected to enjoy (and 'enjoy' is perhaps the wrong word anyway for this podcast...) Pandora Sykes' most recent project Pieces of Britney, but I found myself getting sucked in despite myself. The final episode raises some intelligent and thought provoking points about the nature of fame in the late 90s and early 2000's, and now, and has the advantage of being less reliant on the dramatised scenes used in earlier episodes. 

One of the highlights of the Private Eye calendar is the magazines annual Paul Foot Award, which is awarded for high quality investigative journalism work. Every year the Private Eye Podcast, Page 94, introduces listeners to the journalists nominated and their investigations before announcing the winner. It's always a really interesting, inspiring and thought provoking listen that leaves you feeling positive about the future of investigative journalism. You can listen to this years episode here. 

12 articles I've found interesting/enjoyable this year [Non Covid articles] 

The Masked Vigilantes Coming for Your Horrible Boss (Alessio Perrone, Narratively)

Writers are scared. How could they not be? (Eleanor Halls, Pass The Aux)

The country rejecting throwaway culture (Peter Yeung, BBC)

Meet the womxn bus driver baddies of TikTok (Ashley Tan, ID)

Young, male and anti-feminist - The Gen-Z Boys Who Hate Women (Hannah Ewens, Vice)

Bristol bus stop to nowhere installed as a joke 15 years ago is still there (Tristan Cork, Bristol Live)

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme might just be a work of radio genius (Jonn Elledge, The Big Issue)

This will end with President Tucker Carlson (Helen Lewis, The Atlantic)

What I learned working in a public library (Sam Parker, Penguin Books blog)

A place to sit down (Tom Taylor, Salt)

Life after the bomb (Susan Griffin, The Big Issue North)

How two BBC journalists risked their jobs to reveal the truth about Jimmy Savile (Poppy Sebag-Montefiore, The Guardian)

8 articles I've found interesting/enjoyable this year [Covid articles]

Would you climb a mountain for internet access? (Alizah Kohari, Rest of World)

Dr Feel Good? The NHS DJ helping lift Covid gloom for millions (Jessica Murray, The Guardian)

Pandemic lessons from the North (Jennifer Williams, Manchester Evening News)

'I've learned the importance of hope' - how North Manchester General's Victorian infirmary got through a 21st Century pandemic (Jennifer Williams, Manchester Evening News)

The Argument for Everyone Taking This Entire Summer Off (Amelia Tait, Vice)

Life on the door (Jack Dulhanty, The Mill)

London council worker's bus odyssey sparks Twitter storm (Sam Francis, BBC)

She was studying during lockdown. Then she fell into a virtual world (Jack Dulhanty, The Mill)

Image one by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Image two by Shunya Koide on Unsplash

Image three by Catalin Pop on Unsplash

Image four by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

Image five by CDC on Unsplash

The big end of year roundup post

Hello and welcome to this years end of year roundup post! 

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a very weird and frequently upsetting year, and it is because of Covid that there's no gigs category in this years lists. When I looked back at last years list I realised that I didn't include a gigs list last year either,  but that this was due to the opposite problem: An abundance of riches rather than the desert of live there's been this year. 

I'd have to be more than optimistic to be thinking about what might or might not happen to live music in 2021, so I won't make any promises about a best gigs list for next year either. We will have to see. 

Hopefully you'll find some interesting things to listen to and read amongst what follows. As has been the case over the past couple of years, I will be running my songs of the year as individual blog posts counting down over the next few weeks, starting from tomorrow.

Albums of the year 

12) Half Waif, The Caretaker

11) Katy J Pearson, Return

10) Nadine Shah, Kitchen Sink

9) Emmy The Great, April / 月音

8) Laura Marling, Song For Our Daughter

7) North Americans, Roped In

6) Fiona Apple, Fetch The Bolt Cutters

5) Kelly Lee Owens, Inner Song

4) Jess Williamson, Sorceress

3) Overcoats, The Fight

2) Harkin, Harkin

1) Allie X, Cape God

12 books I've read and loved this year

Pierce, Tamora, Tortall and other lands

Hillis, Marjorie, Orchids on your budget

Ben Moor, More Trees To Climb

Davis, Caitlin, Bad Girls: a history of rebels and renegades

Collins, Bridget, The Binding

Fisher, Carrie, The Princess Diarist

Shafak, Elif, Black milk: on motherhood and writing

Rubenhold, Hallie, The Five: the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper

Peters, Ellis, Dead Man's Ransom

Haynes, Natalie, A Thousand Ships

Ribchester, Lucy, The Hourglass Factory

Banine, Days in the Caucasus

12 classic podcast serials and episodes from 2020

Podcasts have really come into their own this year, with audio production seemingly proving easier to finesse in a lockdown environment than audio-visual productions. As such, it goes without saying that there's been some really good podcasts this year, and that many of them have some kind of Covid related link. The BBC World Service's, Coronavirus Global Update was established in March 2020 with the specific intention of processing and distributing information about the pandemic, and while rarely included in lists of Covid podcasts, has been quietly punching above its weight ever since.

Similarly, the existing US design podcast 99% Invisible made some great pandemic related content this year, including their episode about China and East Asia's relationship with face masks ('Masking for a friend') and a delightfully quirky episode about the history of toilet paper in the form of their 'Wipe Out' episode.

Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast did a good summary of their print Covid coverage in their 'COVID-19' episode, while work podcast Is This Working? looked at redundancy and unemployment in their episode  'At risk: Our job loss stories'. Ideas podcast Reasons To Be Cheerful looked at a number of pandemic related issues throughout the year but their episode on the current parlous state of the music industry, 'Sweet streams aren't made of this', was particularly strong. 

Tech podcast Reply All devoted an episode to the QAnon conspiracy in 'Country of liars' [If you'd like to pair this with another good podcast covering a related story, you could do worse than listen to Page 94's episode 'US Election Fake News Special'] and the BBC ran a series, Two Minutes Past Nine, that looked at the long shadow of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The BBC also gave us the highly compelling investigative podcast series Girl Taken, which revisited a well reported case that emerged during the 2015 refugee crisis and revealed a very different picture to what was originally thought.  

At the more quirky end of history, new podcast We Are History gave us an episode on 'The British Invasion of Iceland 1940', which is well worth a listen. I can also heartily recommend the episode on the Suez Crisis, if only for the opportunity to hear one of the key political players being described as "Off his tits on amphetamines". I think that tells you what kind of history podcast you're dealing with. 

Film wise, there's been nothing to touch Best Pick this year, even on the episodes they had to record over Zoom from three different locations. Their episodes on  'The Apartment' and 'Tom Jones' were particularly fine. 

12 articles I've enjoyed this year [Non-Covid stories]

The Invisible Boy Who Became Mr Invincible (Aram Balakjian, Narratively)

The tragedy of the climate dildos (Emily Atkin, Heated)

The children with no voice, the women who spoke up for them and those in power who wouldn't listen (Jennifer Williams, Manchester Evening News)

My secret life tracking down debtors (Angela Lundberg, Narratively)

The pied piper is a victim of the gig economy (Sentimental Garbage)

The infinite heartbreak of loving Hong Kong (Wilfred Chan, The Nation)

Good Teens With Guns (Hengtee Lim (Snippets), Medium)

We Need To Rethink Our 'Pics Or It Didn't Happen' Approach To Activism (Yomi Adegoke, Vogue)

What Happened In Bethel, Ohio? (Anne Helen Petersen, Buzzfeed News)

Taiwanese laundry-modelling grandparents are surprise Instagram hit (Cindy Sui, BBC News)

Food for thought: Change, The Clash and clootie dumplings as Murray focuses on a reboot (Murray Chalmers, The Courier)

The Writers Who Want to Get Americans to Talk to Each Other Again (Julia Métraux, Narratively)

12 articles I've enjoyed this year [Covid stories]

Coronavirus: Miss England returning to her job as an NHS junior doctor (BBC News)

The coronavirus cruise: onboard the Diamond Princess (Joshua Hunt, 1843)

The last days of school (Charlotte Lastoweckyi, Charlottes World)

Where you're out of work makes all the difference in the world (Clio Chang, Vice)

'The way we get through this is together' The rise of mutual aid under coronavirus (Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian)

The Quarantined Hippies Trapped in a Jungle Paradise (Alden Wicker, Narratively)

The inside story of Britain's fight against covid-19 (Simon Akam, 1843)

How to be punk in a pandemic (Dawson Barrett, Waging Non Violence)

Tune in, drop out (Ann Babe, Rest Of World)

Stolen bodies, a conspiracy theory and riots that gripped Liverpool in the time of cholera (The Mill)

'By May I'd made over £1,000': teen entrepreneurs defy the Covid slump (Lily Canter, The Guardian)

The inside story of how students took on the University of Manchester - and won (Mollie Simpson, The Mill)

First picture by Denise Karis on Unsplash

Second picture by Fallon Michael on Unsplash

Third picture by Mehrnegar Dolatmand on Unsplash

Fourth photo by Florian Wehde on Unsplash

Fifth photo by Pavel Nekoranec on Unsplash

The big end of year round up post

Welcome to my annual end of year round up!

Rather than write a long, epic post, I've decided to slim things down a bit this year. As such, I'm not doing a list of gigs of the year (because there were too many good ones...) and, having given the matter some thought, I'm not providing a list of pieces I've written this year. There was some discussion on Twitter about this custom last year and I can see why people find the practice a bit obnoxious, so I'm sacking it off.

Also, because it seemed to go down well last year, I will be posting my songs of the year list in a series of day-by-day posts again. There will be 25 this year, and number 25 will be up online tomorrow.

12 albums of the year

12) Starcrawler - Devour You
11) Helen McCookerybook - Green
10) Honeyblood - In Plain Sight
9) The Regrettes - How Do You Love?
8) Hatchie - Keepsake
7) Miss June - Bad Luck Party
6) Ioanna Gika - Thalassa
5) Siobhan Wilson - The Departure
4) Billie Eilish - When we fall asleep where do we go?
3) Bat For Lashes - Lost Girls
2) Gazel - Gazel's Book Of Souls
1) Self Esteem - Compliments Please

12 books I've read and loved this year

Yrsa Daley Ward - The Terrible
Molly Bloom - Molly's Game
Hannah Ewens - Fangirls
Amy Raphael - A seat at the table
Stella Gibbons - Pure Juliet
Hilary McKay - The Skylarks War
Taylor Jenkins Reid - Daisy Jones & The Six
Amy Engel - The Roanoke Girls
Lucy O'Brien - Dusty
Nick Rennison - Bohemian London
Celeste Bell and Zoë Howe - Dayglo
Jordan Mooney and Cathi Unsworth - Defying Gravity

12 classic Podcast episodes from 2019

I think my overall favourite podcast this year has been Best Pick, the podcast that watches and discusses every single Oscar winning movie in random order. While every episode is riveting in scope and detail, it's worth noting that they're just as entertaining when the film disappoints as when it exceeds expectations. As such, listening to them eviscerating Gladiator is just as much fun as hearing them get excited about It Happened One Night. Their recent take on Gigi was a good one, but a favourite episode for me this year has been their take on Casablanca.

The BBC's Brexitcast has obviously had a lot of good material to work with this year, and while I can't remember which episode it was that featured the Dutch mascot for the Netherlands Brexit preparations, I did find their Saturday Night Leaver episode to be particularly hilarious. On a more serious note, the international collaboration with the World Service's Global News Podcast was particularly powerful. 

There's been some really good takes on work in podcast land in 2019, particularly in the areas of women and work, freelancing, and finances. Is This Working? was launched this year by Tiffany Philippou and Anna Codrea-Rado, and it featured a particularly powerful episode about class with Vicky Spratt, plus a very useful mediation on getting fired. There was also An Honest Account, Rachael Revesz' podcast, which covers the finance end of things, and included an episode with Anna Codrea-Rado about freelancing and finances, plus a powerful take on debt and being working class with Jasmine Andersson.

At the music end of things, Canadian punk DJ Siobhan Woodrow launched her podcast, She's A Punk this year, which included many powerful portraits of punk women around the world, including this episode with War On Women's Shawna Potter. Woodrow has recently announced she's taking a break from the podcast until the start of 2020, but she certainly doesn't sound like she's done yet. Far from it.

There was also a fascinating discussion about the ten year legacy of Florence + The Machine's Lungs over on Never Marry A Mitford, a searingly powerful in depth discussion about the state of music education in UK schools on Reasons To Be Cheerful, and a fascinating, and frequently very funny, epic discussion about music and literature between Florence Welch and Rebecca Lucy Taylor over on The YourShelf Podcast.

In the realm of politics and related matters, The Next Episode discussed what happens when you effectively no longer have an MP and The North Poll provided a refreshingly non London centric take on politics. In the US, Reply All explained why that viral tweet about feral hogs wasn't all it seemed, and the TFGM Podcast provided a suitably sober take on the second anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing. 

13 articles I've enjoyed reading this year

Catching up with the women who were expelled from school (Precious Adesina, Refinery 29)

The uninhabitable city: What happens when heatwaves become the new normal? (Hettie O'Brien, The New Statesman)

Work isn't working: The real reason more women are going freelance (Anna Codrea-Rado, Refinery 29)

Peterloo 200 years on: The Manchester bloodbath which left 18 dead and changed the course of British history (Dan Thompson & Damon Wilkinson, Manchester Evening News)

"We need this film now more than ever" (Nic Crosara, The Overtake)

Secret life of a fashion week peon (Lacy Warner, Narratively)

The 11-year-old girl taking skateboarding by storm (Joe Henley, Narratively)

The diver who brings up the bodies (Sunaina Kumar and Farah Mohammed, Narratively)

How more than 12 students at one university ended up dead by suicide (Hannah Ewens, Vice)

How communism prepared me for a no-deal Brexit (Joanna Hosa, Financial Times)

How to feed a protest movement: Cooking with Extinction Rebellion (Dan Hancox, 1843)

'I'd rather see a white doctor, if you don't mind' How patients can hurt doctors too (Neha Maqsood, Rife Magazine)

The four huge issues being overlooked in the General Election debate so far (Jennifer Williams, Manchester Evening News)

First image by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

Second image by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash

Third image by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

Fourth image by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Songs of the year: Number 1

It was very tough deciding my song of the year for 2018. It was also very tough deciding my favourite Florence + The Machine track of the year. Was it going to be the incredibly brave, self exposing anthem that is 'Hunger'? The June 2016 swan song 'June'? the breathtaking 'The End Of Love'? 'Sky Full of Song' was a contender for a while, mainly because it was the soundtrack to a particularly tumultuous period in my life but, in the end, I settled on '100 Years'.

'100 Years' is one of the tracks on High As Hope that Florence Welch wrote on her own. It's got a very interesting, idiosyncratic approach to melody and rhythm, which only adds to it's charm. There's also that intriguing contrast between the sections describing a burgeoning relationship and those describing the horrors of the wider world outside.

When it was performed live, both here on Jools Holland but also on the High As Hope tour, it took on a life of it's own, with a greater clarity and sense of purpose perhaps than the recorded version. This one will endure I think, and will stand the test of time.

Songs of the year: Number 2

Let's Eat Grandma's 'Falling into me' has come very, very close to being my number one song of the year. It felt like such an exciting, refreshing listen when it was released.

The product of two teenage geniuses from Norwich, already releasing their second album, 'Falling into me' combines everything that is good about pop music, electro, and creativity. It's a sprawling sonic landscape of possibility that seems to take in and reinterpret every possible aspect of dance music possible. It's an exhilarating ride.

Great things continue to be expected of this duo.

Songs of the year: Number 3

Self Esteem is the new project of Slow Club's Rebecca Taylor. Every song has been a winner so far, with irresistible hooks and hypnotic beats. She seems to be on a mission to recreate R&B into something altogether more arch and knowing while not losing the danceability of the thing.

'Rollout' is the standout track in a run of incredibly high quality tunes, and it will absolutely make your dancefloor this party season.

Songs of the year: Number 4

In many ways, 'Deadbody' was the perfect anthem for the #MeToo era. It seemed to be about everything that that particular movement was fighting against.

Folick's rage is apparent from the start, but it's a thoroughly controlled performance, albeit one with a blistering delivery. She has been equipped with a voice that can travel to the higher octaves and bewitch just as she has been given the gift of roaring with the best of them and, in this case, she is choosing to roar. It's an exhilarating listen.

Songs of the year: Number 5

Tancred's album, Nightstand, is a slick, interrogative record underpinned by fine observational songwriting on the part of Jess Abbott.

'Underwear', with it's swaggering sense of lust coupled with self loathing, harks right back to the glory days of artist such as Juliana Hatfield, Mary Lou Lord and Liz Phair. It swings in all the right places, and stuns with it's impeccable riffs and frankness.

Songs of the year: Number 6

Laura Gibson's 'Domestication' came as something of a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have done. Last year's single 'The Cause' showed a definite tilt towards feminism and, while 'Domestication' is a very different song, it does share that sense of observation if not a campaigning spirit. This song is so very 2018, and the video was pitch perfect as well.

Songs of the year: Number 7

We started 2018 with Mint Field's bewitching Sophia Coppola esque video for 'Ojos En El Carro', and it's remained a favourite of mine throughout the year. There's a dreamy quality to the post rock soundscape they create here, and the soaring vocals perfectly compliment the thrash of the guitars. It is beautiful.

Songs of the year: Number 8

North London streetwise edge meets crunchy electro beats and a post party weariness in a young up and coming voice.

'Taken care of' was blessed with a catchy hook, and Wu has been similarly blessed with the kind of rough edges that create charm rather than caution. She's been picked up by BBC Introducing in 2018 and should go on to do well thanks to the laconic and imaginative nature of her songwriting.

Songs of the year: Number 9

SOAK's 'Everybody Loves You' has the easy charm of a great slice of pop, coupled with a fragility of vocal that puts her more on the post twee indie pop spectrum. There are swirling strings, lovely melodies, a bit of sweariness, and the result is utterly beguiling and bewitching. 6music fell in love with it as soon as it came out, and many a critic did too.

Songs of the year: Number 10

Lydmor has been a comparatively recent discovery for me. Her song 'Vild' is blessed with a catchy melody, pounding drums, and a kind of fierce intensity of vocal to keep you listening. I think she's a lot bigger in her native Denmark than she is in the UK, but that could change.

Songs of the year: Number 11

Santigold seems to have been quiet for a while. 2015's 99 cents didn't engage me, and I felt rather disappointed by it. I've been longing for a return to the days of her 2009 debut and it's 2012 follow up, Master of My Make Believe, ever since and I don't want: The Gold Fire sessions seemed to hit the spot. 'Run the road' stood out as a favourite for me right from the first listen, with it's loping reggae charm, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Songs of the year: Number 12

It seems impossible to sonically describe The Orielles. There are so many different influences going on in there that they sound like they could burst. Imagine a post punk inspired Pigbag esque global rave and you're some way to imagining what 'It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)' sounds like. This will be a good track for any parties you might have planned this month.

Songs of the year: Number 13

Ruston Kelly has that real world weary tone to his voice, the voice of experience, the troubadour on the road. He makes me think of a young Bruce Springsteen and, of the songs released this year, 'Big Brown Bus' was my favourite slice of his particular brand of Americana. It's a tough life on the road.

Songs of the year: Number 14

Another slice of beguiling and slightly woozy electro pop. This time courtesy of Becky and the Birds. 'Concept Store' was the standout track from the self titled E.P, it was also a chapter in the accompanying film which, in itself, challenged the perceptions of what you can do with a piece of promo footage.

On this track she comes across like a more jazz tinged FKA Twigs, which is not her usual sound, so it will be interesting to see what develops. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Songs of the year: Number 15

Farao's 'The Ghost Ship' has a similar beguiling and dreamy quality to it as Jenny Hval's 'Spells'. In both cases, the songs in question transport you to a different world, a sonic landscape you can inhabit and live within for the duration of the song.

'The Ghost Ship' starts modestly enough but it's soon spiralling off into ever dizzying landscapes of sound, so that it almost feels like a surprise when the song ends.

Of the other songs she's released this year, I don't think any of them came close to touching this one for me, but I am ever hopeful.

Songs of the year: Number 16

While I did enjoy Tracey Thorn's solo album, Record, I didn't like it enough to buy. I suspect I probably just need to listen to it more though. This song, 'Dancefloor', is one of the tracks I did particularly like.

Thorn's voice works well with electro, just as it did in the 90s with drum 'n' bass and jungle. There's a sort of wistful nostalgia to this track that contrasts well with the bass and slightly chilly melodies. It feels like 80s period Dusty Springfield, vocally speaking, but is bang up to date, ultimately transcending categories.