Tancred - Underwear [OFFICIAL AUDIO]

I am working on the next F-Word playlist at the moment. It's going to be a bit of a hedonistic dance fest to coincide with Manchester Pride.

I think this one will make the cut.

New F-Word music playlist now up!

The latest F-Word music playlist is now up on the site!

As I hand the music section back to Jo Whitehead in July, this will (probably?) be my last music playlist for the site.

As such, I had intended to go out with a bit of a bang, playlist wise, and didn't really have any other ideas or themes aside from that. Oh, apart from a thought that festival season is nearly upon us and, as such, maybe it would be nice to include that cover version of Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock'.

Then, as I was working away putting the tracks together in Spotify (the Miya Folick version of 'Woodstock' did make the grade, you may or may not be interested to know), I realised that, quite unconsciously, a theme had developed.

It was all about youth and being young.

As I say in my post over on the site:

I've tried to include songs by artists at, or near, the start of their careers as this felt like a good way of getting a sense of freshness and, on occasion, rage as well as innovation. I'd been doing this, to an extent, anyway in that I'd been trying out a lot of new songs by new artists, but I also realised that I'd been adding in songs from more established artists from the beginning of their careers, and that this worked well with the new stuff.

I'm really pleased with how it all worked out and, unlike February's playlist, there is a bit more light with the shade this time.

You can read the blog post, and listen to the playlist, on the F-Word website.

Endings are as important as beginnings with playlists and, quite early on, I knew two things:

1) I wanted to make a feature of/draw attention to Let's Eat Grandma and their excellent track 'Falling Into Me' because it felt like the most exciting thing I'd heard in ages.

2) I wanted to finish with Florence + The Machine's 'Dog Days Are Over' because it would be a good way to get a big finish and, besides, reflected the position of the song in their live set (if you discount the encores that is).

Not sure if 'Dog Days Are Over' will remain in the same place, set wise, as F+TM head out for their live dates this year, but I can't imagine them not playing it.

For an example of the joy that is 'Dog Days...' live, check out this clip from Bonneroo in 2011:

The Sunday's track was originally going to be 'Here's Where The Story Ends', for a similar sense of closure, but it didn't work as well as I expected so it got switched for my favourite Sundays song 'Can't Be Sure' instead.

Let's Eat Grandma are also out on the road this summer, and are playing some festivals. There isn't a video for 'Falling Into Me' but the video for 'It's Not Just Me' is out now and I have been enjoying their video for 'Sax In The City' recently.

Gaptooth (feat. Sisters Uncut) - They Cut We Bleed

This incendiary device of a song has a starring role in this months F-Word playlist.

I hadn't actually planned to do another political/agit prop type playlist after the last two as I sometimes wonder (despite the F-Word being a UK feminist website) if people perhaps get a bit fed up with all my stroppy music selections. In the end though, the finished playlist is a bit agit prop-y (initially at least) and this can be seen to be a reflection of where we are at the moment, society and feminism wise.

My original themes/touchstones for the February playlist were going to be love and winter weather (well, it is February after all...) but it ended up being more the sinister/realistic end of the love song oevre, including Florence + The Machine's 'Various Storms & Saints', which neatly covers both the love and weather angle and is one of my favourite tracks from the How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful album.

You can read more, and listen to the playlist (if you have Spotify), over on The F-Word.

Playlisting

It's been a bit of a hectic few months here.

Back in late July I agreed to take on my old job of editing the music section over at The F-Word. It will be for six months initially while regular music editor Jo Whitehead takes her turn as the F-Word's rotating editor, then we'll see what happens.

I've already had the pleasure of commissioning some very talented writers, have been showered with promo emails, and have now compiled two playlists for the site.

Given that I have a strong tendency to deploy music (and books, and films, and radio...) to try and make sense of what feels like an increasingly horrific world, it should come as no surprise to discover that I used this approach when compiling both the August playlist and the November playlist.

This approach goes beyond music as a form of protest (though I have used some of the music in both playlists in that context) and more towards music as an intelligent and therapeutic soundtrack to the distressing realities of everyday life.

I hope you enjoy both playlists, as I feel they can be listened to without being aware of the wider socio-political context in which they were created, even though there is that extra dimension to them as well.

Making a playlist will never change the world, but if it helps people to try and make sense of things, and draw strength, inspiration and courage from music, then it's a good thing.