Tracey Thorn - Sister (Official Video) ft. Corinne Bailey Rae

Despite releasing her solo album, Record, in 2018, I don't think Tracey did a lot of gigs that year. If she did, they weren't filmed, so I'm going with the excellent promo video for 'Sister' instead. That said, there's a lot of Everything But The Girl live stuff on YouTube, and this clip of 'Temperamental' from November 1999 is a good one.

Fantasy Festival number 12: The Lineup

Emma Back: Emma Back is a singer, songwriter, violinist, teacher and community musician from Vermont. Her music is strongly influenced by Greek and Balkan traditions, and I interviewed her for The F-Word back in 2018, shortly before the release of her debut album Little World. You can find out more here.

Julia Jacklin: Australian singer and songwriter Julia Jacklin is two albums into a steadily building career. She seems to lean towards the Throwing Muses end of indie rock, and as with fellow compatriot Hatchie, her songwriting is drenched in sunshine and makes for great feel good music. You can find out more here.

Half Waif: Nandi Rose Plunkett's fourth album, The Caretaker, the follow up to the critically acclaimed Lavender, was released back in March. Seemingly more electronic and textured than her previous album, it builds on the success of it's earlier sibling and should see a steady return in terms of more people hearing her and being aware of her sophisticated songwriting and voice, which is reminiscent of early Laura Nyro at times. You can find her on Bandcamp.

Laura Gibson: Singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist Laura Gibson has been a staple of the US underground for some time now. Whereas 2012's La Grande had overtones of gothic Americana, her most recent album, 2018's Goners, showcased a spikiness and an anger that hadn't been as apparent in her earlier writing. She will continue to surprise us. You can find out more here.

Cat Power: From underground star to overground star, to well respected singer, songwriter and musician, an influence and touchstone to many of the current generation of musicians,  Chan Marshall has more than earned her place. You can find out more here.

Tracey Thorn: The legend that is Tracey Thorn first came to the public's attention in post punk band the Marine Girls back in 1980. She and Ben Watt formed Everything But The Girl as students in Hull in 1982. Since EBTG finished in 2000, she's become a writer, and her return to music in 2018 with the album Record, marked a new exciting direction. You can find out more here.

Regina Spektor: Russian American singer, songwriter and pianist Regina Spektor has been making delightfully clever, slightly off kilter records since 2001. She's one of those artists who just gets better and better, making music that is straightforward enough to not be out of place on Radio 2 ('Samson') to complex pop baroque's such as 'Small Bill$'. You can find out more here.

PJ Harvey: Polly Jean Harvey's debut album Dry was released 28 years ago this year. It is being re-released, along with her entire back catalogue of albums, over the next twelve months. As influenced by Captain Beefheart as she is compared to Patti Smith, she has twice won the Mercury Music Prize and she is one of UK music's quieter stateswomen. You can find out more here.

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.

Everything But The Girl - Driving (Acoustic Live)

This has been living in my musical brain as a particularly friendly ear worm for most of the past year, on and off.