Lorde - Perfect Places (Glastonbury 2017)

This is Lorde performing the anthemic 'Perfect Places' at Glastonbury 2017. Other songs from the set are available on YouTube, but only as individual clips. You can watch Lorde's full set from Life is Beautiful Festival in 2017 here.

Fantasy Festival number 15: The Lineup

Becky and The Birds: Becky and The Birds is the nom de plume of Swedish singer, songwriter and producer Thea Gustafsson. She released a self titled EP in 2018 and, since signing to 4AD, has released three singles. Were it not for the pandemic, she would be touring now. You can find out more here.

Birch: Birch, aka Michelle Birsky (not to be confused with the singer/songwriter Diane Birch or Gina Birch of the Raincoats) is an NYC based singer and songwriter who makes quietly political observational guitar and synth based music. Her debut album, femme.one, was released in 2019 and included the single 'Spelling Lessons'. You can find out more here.

Connie Constance: Watford singer songwriter and poet Connie Constance released her debut album, English Rose, last year. She has been described as 'indie soul' and early single 'Clouds' certainly promised much. She has been steadily building up her sound since then, as well as gigging and writing extensively. One to watch. You can find her on Insta.

Overcoats: NYC based synth pop/soul duo Overcoats released their second album, The Fight, back in March. Even they recognised it wasn't a great moment to be bringing a new album into the world, but they decided to go ahead anyway in the hope that the album might provide comfort for a few people in an uncertain world. They have a knack for bending genres and singing the unsayable. You can find out more about them here.

Phoebe Bridgers: Los Angeles Singer songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, as well as being an accomplished artist in her own right, has worked extensively with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus (as Boygenius) and with Conor Oberst (as Better Oblivion Community Center). Solo single 'Kyoto' has been something of an indie rock summer hit, and it's taken from her new album Punisher. You can find out more here.

Basia Bulat: Canadian singer songwriter Basis Bulat has her roots in folk but she's also highly capable of making sparkling classic pop as well, as her 2016 album Good Advice will attest. Her most recent album, Are You In Love? was a more sprawling affair, but well received nonetheless. You can find out more here.

Chvrches: Glasgow's Chvrches make sometimes dreamy, often beautiful, many times frenetic, synth pop. Their most recent album, Love Is Dead, was released in 2018. You can find out more here.

Lorde: Auckland's premier electro pop star seemed recently to be gently teasing us by changing her Twitter handle to 'Did Lorde release an album today?' the answer, so far, is No. On the basis of her previous two albums, Pure Heroine, and Melodrama, album number three should be worth the wait. You can find out more here.

Lorde - Team

Lorde's debut album, Pure Heroine, is still an absolute pop classic. I remember hearing 'Team' in the supermarket last year, and being annoyed by teenage boys going 'oooooh!' to take the piss out of the high notes, which spoiled things a bit. Heaven forbid their shopping should be tainted by a girl singer with a good song. 'Team' feels like a good song to revisit right now as it conveys a real sense of camaraderie and solidarity, which I think we could do with at the moment.

LORDE - Royals

It seems an apt moment in time to revisit this song.

End of year list with a difference

I thought I'd try taking a departure from the usual end of year lists format this year, having not done one since 2014 because:

A.) Florence + The Machine would have won everything in 2015, and that would have made for a pretty repetitive blog post

B.) 2016 was such a weird year it required a different approach.

So, 2017... 

I remember writing in my diary at the end of 2015 'Well, thank God that's over' or words to that effect, little knowing the horrors 2016 would bring, and indeed, 2017...

One last thing:

Because I didn't do a list in 2016, the rule I'm working to is: If it was released in 2017, or if it was released in 2016 but I didn't hear it until 2017 then it's OK to include it. 

Favourite article of the year to write (By me): Women and music festivals, again (The F-Word)

Perhaps this is a little misleading... It wasn't so much a case of 'enjoying' it as being gripped by a hurricane that wouldn't let me go until I'd finished it, 48 hours later. And it led to a whole series of posts on here as well, plus 7 fantasy festival bills I'd like to see.

Expect to read more on this issue, and related issues, in 2018.

Favourite article of the year (Not by me): What I learned from a year of dumpster diving in Australia (Medium)

You will be staggered by this... really staggered, and possibly inspired as well.

Favourite tattoo of the year: This one from The Studio in Manchester

Such a collision of difference reference points, and no one else will have one like it. Genius.

Favourite disclaimer of the year: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Duke of York Theatre, London

Favourite foul mouthed ear worm of the year:

A tie between St Vincent's 'New York' and Peking Duk/Icona Pop's 'Let You Down', both of which feature copious and enthusiastic use of the f word.


Favourite anti-Donald Trump song of the year:

Grace Mitchell 'Kids (Ain't Alright)' did it for me in the end, conveying as it does a real sense of bewilderment and 'What the fuck just happened?!'. That said, favourable mention (obviously) goes to Arcade Fire and Mavis Staples for 'I Give You Power', which they had the foresight to release on inauguration day.


Favourite double edged single of the year:

Natasha Kmeto, 'Pour Down/Free For Tonight'

Side A: Full on rainbow coloured lust on the dance floor

Side B: An equally killer dance anthem but with the underlying razorblade in the floss that it was a song pointing to the fragility of LGBTQI spaces

Favourite breaking artist of the year:

Overcoats.

The New York duo more than punched above their weight this year, with an impeccable debut album and strong singles. Their tours in the US are now headliner tours and are getting longer and longer. Let's hope we see them in the UK soon.

Most fully realised psychogeographic album of the year:

EMA, Exile in the outer ring

A dystopian postcard from the US mid west. 

Most eerily prescient album of the year:

This is a tie between Kate Tempest's Let Them Eat Chaos and Father John Misty's Pure Comedy. The former hinted, in various ways, at a number of societal factors that were all about to converge in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, whereas the latter clearly signposted the warning signs of a US that had just elected Trump president.


Favourite video of the year:

Georgia, 'Feel It'

Favourite 'Where the hell did that come from?!?' album of the year:

Kelly Lee Owens, Kelly Lee Owens, as signposted by Piccadilly Records.


Favourite gig of the year:

A tie between Gothic Tropic at The Castle Hotel as part of the Manchester leg of Dot To Dot, 26th May 2017 and Honeyblood at Gorilla, 21st December 2017 (review currently in progress, stymied by Christmas...)

Band to watch in 2018:

Pearl City

They provided strong support to Honeyblood at Gorilla on 21st December and are a Manchester duo who used to be known as Bernard & Edith and now appear to have renamed themselves after a mancunian Chinese restaurant. They sound a bit like Kate Bush fronting a dark wave band... Am expecting good things. 'Flames' is out now.

Albums of the year:

15) Wolf Alice, Visions Of A Life
14) Jesca Hoop, Memories Are Now
13) Bully, Losing
12) Rews, Pyro
11) Pink Milk, Purple
10) Zola Jesus, Okovi
9) Kelly Lee Owens, Kelly Lee Owens
8) Noga Erez, Off The Radar
7) Honeyblood, Babes Never Die
6) Wild Ones, Mirror Touch
5) Helen McCookerybook, The Sea
4) Gothic Tropic, Fast or Feast
3) St Vincent, MASSEDUCTION
2) Overcoats, Young
1) XX, I See You 

Songs of the year:

I have made a Spotify playlist of these songs, but Helen McCookerybook's most recent album is not available on Spotify so I have included a link to the song on YouTube instead.

20) Grace Mitchell, 'French Becky'
19) Halsey and Lauren Jauregui, 'Strangers'
18) London Grammar, 'Truth Is A Beautiful Thing'
17) Rews, 'Miss you in the dark'
16) Daughter, 'Burn It Down'
15) Beth Ditto, 'Savoir Faire'
14) Wolf Alice, 'Beautifully Unconventional'
13) Bipolar Sunshine, 'The Scientist'
12) Noga Erez, 'Noisy'
11) Georgia, 'Feel It'
10) Honeyblood, 'Sea Hearts'
9) Lorde, 'Liability'
8) Wild Ones, 'Parathesia'
7) Helen McCookerybook, 'Big Brother'
6) XX, 'Replica'
5) Overcoats, 'Nighttime Hunger'
4) Gothic Tropic, 'Stronger'
3) Natasha Kmeto, 'Pour Down'
2) St Vincent, 'Los Ageless'
1) Miya Folick, 'God Is A Woman'

Lorde - Sober (Vevo x Lorde)

It's been a good year for Lorde, who is currently partway through a massive international tour to promote her Melodrama album.

This is a nice, brooding take on 'Sober' that feels just right for Boxing Day.

Lorde - Liability (Radio 1's Big Weekend 2017)

This is Lorde performing 'Liability' live at Radio 1's Big Weekend this summer. You can watch the full set online. 

Fantasy Festival #6: The Pop Festival - Lineup

Grace Mitchell: Grace Mitchell is a singer/songwriter from Portland, Oregon. Paul Lester as The Guardian's New Band Of The Day/Week guru got very excited about her song, 'Jitter' in 2015. She's signed to Taylor Swift and Lorde's label, and makes what I'd call smart pop that takes from a number of genres, but mainly R&B, electronica and rock. Grace has been touring the US and Canada throughout August.

Marika Hackman: Marika Hackman is a British singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist whose second album, I'm Not Your Man, was released in June.  The lead single, 'Boyfriend' is a swaggering indie pop tale of a female/female/male love triangle becoming increasingly complicated. She will be playing at Leeds Festival on the 25th August and will be touring the UK into the autumn.

Jane Weaver: Jane Weaver first appeared on the Manchester music scene in the mid nineties with her band Kill Laura, a scouse indie pop outfit signed to Rob Gretton's Manchester Records. She later popped up as one of Misty Dixon on the Twisted Nerve label, but it's been her solo work that has won her, at long last, critical acclaim, with its exploration of psych and space pop. Her album Modern Kosmology was released in May, and she is playing the Liverpool Psych Festival at the end of September. She is currently touring the UK.

Stealing Sheep: Liverpool band Stealing Sheep started life as a folk troubadour outfit, releasing two albums of curiously mediaeval sounding folk, Noah and the Paper Moon and Into The Diamond Sun. Their third album, Not Real, released in 2015, revealed their smooth transition to psych pop. The band are not currently touring.

Santigold: Santigold, aka Santi White, is a singer/songwriter and producer from Philadelphia. She has released three albums of immaculate electro pop, of which 2016's 99cents is the most recent. The glitchyness of some of her work, and her sometimes vocal delivery, have led to comparisons with MIA, but her music is ultimately a collage of all sorts of sonic sources: Everything from modern dance music to post punk samples, to ska and Two Tone. She is not currently touring.

Solange: Solange Knowles' 2016 album A Seat At The Table was one of the standout albums of 2016, a poetic mediation on what it is to be a black woman in the US, but also a lively, imaginative, danceable and moving work of art. She played Glastonbury in June and  is currently touring the US.

Lorde: Auckland pop star Lorde, real name Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, first began to garner attention in 2012, with her self released EP, The Love Club. A year later she released her second, immaculately written and produced, EP, Tennis Court, and debut album Pure Heroine, which featured the single 'White Teeth Teens'. An exponent of knowing, smart, observational minimalist pop, there is a world weariness to her voice and lyrics that contrasts sharply with her age: She is 21 this year. Her second album, Melodrama, was released in 2016. She is in the middle of a huge international tour at the moment, which will bring her to the UK in September.