#ethereal / chill / dark / indie / synthpop

[jezfletcher]

1000 Albums, 2020: Top Tracks #25-1

Following on from Part 1 of my Top 50 tracks, here are the very top tracks I loved this year. It's been a terrible year, of course, but there has been some truly excellent music released. Read on. />

25. rook&nomie - soft atrocity (hyperpop)

me&you by rook&nomie

Once I fell in love with the music of Ada Rook earlier in the year, I sought out her other work—and being the prolific artist she is, there were several more releases that fell within the ambit of the 2020 music project. This is a beautiful bit of off-kilter pop, complete with synthpop bubblegum riffs and a combination of softly, sweetly sung lyrics and harsh screams. It’s a killer combination.

24. Will Joseph Cook - Something To Feel Good About (indie pop)

Will Joseph Cook has a kind of effortless charm in writing enjoyable pop tracks, and this is the top effort from his (very late) 2020 effort. This is a pleasantly two-gear track, with almost a soft adult-contemporary verse, that somehow ratchets up the energy in the chorus to make you want to groove. It’s a catchy, very agreeable track.

23. Courteeners - Better Man (britpop)

A beautiful piece of oldskool rock n roll, imbued with the melancholy of 90s and 00s indie rock. It makes it feel undeniably modern, despite the fact that all of its influences are at least 20 years old. Courteeners have provided some excellent music this year, but this track is the best. “I’m trying to be a better man/Whatever that is”. Aren’t we all?

22. MOBS - School’s Out (80s pastiche pop)

A really fun bit of pop from Australian outfit MOBS, who are really leaning into the 80s-ness of modern synthpop. This has exactly the synth set you might expect from a 1988 boy band, delivered with a danceable energy that almost makes you visualise the terrible, terrible video clip that would accompany it. But it’s unashamed about what it is—and the energy it brings as a result is great. My only concern with this song (the better of the two MOBS songs on my wider list here) is that unlike Big World, it doesn’t have a horn section. And really, that’s a criminal oversight.

21. Luis Pestana - Sangra (experimental electronica)

Rosa Pano by Luis Pestana

A great, evocative and unnerving piece of music, working through highly edited plainchant, fuzzy noise and a repeated motif of chiming bells. This whole album from Luis Pestana was an outstanding collection of music, but this is the piece of music which first made me realise how momentous it was.

20. Hugo Kant - High Gravity (downtempo nu-jazz)

Far From Home by Hugo Kant

Hugo Kant is an artist that really came from nowhere for me this year (well, not nowhere: I found it on Bandcamp’s weekly “releases you might like” list), but his brim-filled November album was a clear stand-out, and took out my #4 Album of the Year. This is the top song from it, a plunderphonic downtempo soundscape that matches a complex syncopated rhythm to a menacing bassline with jazz flute twiddles over the top. Who doesn’t like that?

19. The Flaming Lips - Mother I’ve Taken LSD (psychedelic rock)

The Flaming Lips’ 2020 album was the best of their music I think I’ve ever heard. This song nicely captures what was so good about it. It has an almost orchestral trajectory to it, evoking a sense of longing and disassociation perfectly for its psychedelic roots. But the overall effect is not mind-opening, but melancholy and introspective. It’s a great piece of music.

18. eleventyseven - Battlecats (synthpop punk)

I really love this track, but it’s undeniably very stupid. As an exercise, it seems to be trying to cram in as many pop culture references as it can. The cynic in me would love to write it off in the way I wrote off Ready Player One, but there’s something undeniably playful and satirical about it. Couple this with a genuine punk energy—filtered through many layers of synths—and you get a song that’s genuinely a huge, huge amount of fun. It’s certainly enough for me to forget that eleventyseven used to be a purely Christian rock band. We all develop over time, don’t we?

17. Igorrr - Lost in Introspection (baroque breakcore)

Igorrr is an absolutely ridiculous artist who in a perfect world would be shunned like a medieval circus freak. But somehow, his bizarre mix of baroque chamber music, thrashing breakcore beats and operatic vocal lines can absolutely take you on a musical journey. Never is this clearer in the jagged, unnerving Lost in Introspection, which pinballs between overdriven guitar, concert piano, tremolo-laden vocals, all with a constantly shifting meter. You can never predict where it’s going. Even as I’ve heard it about 20-30 times this year it still manages to surprise me.

16. Polly Scattergood - In This Moment (spoken word triphop)

There’s something to this track which reminds me a lot of the great Kae Tempest. Scattergood doesn’t spit truth in the same way, but there’s definitely something poetic to her softly delivered spoken word lyrics, while an almost industrial triphop gives a dark synthwave atmosphere underneath. Even better is the way it builds across the track—it gets more urgent, darker, louder, more immediate. Excellent stuff and absolutely the standout from Scattergood’s album.

15. Dent May - Hotel Stationery (indie fuzzpop)

Late Checkout by Dent May

I don’t make up these genres by the way (a lie: I make up a huge number of these genres, but I didn’t make up “fuzzpop”). What is fuzzpop? I still don’t really know, but this is quite a folkish tune, downtempo and melodic, but incorporating some of the more atmospheric ideas of dreampop and folktronica. There’s something hauntingly beautiful about the melody here, coupled with some touchingly banal lines of lyrics (it opens “I’m writing you a note/On hotel stationery/Just to let you know/You’re extraordinary”, which requires some pleasingly acrobatic scansion). It’s definitely one of the melodies of this year’s music project which I get in my head a lot. That’s certainly the kind of thing which can propel a song quite high in this list.

14. Another Sky - Fell In Love With The City (indie prog rock)

A hauntingly beautiful piece of rock, it’s atmospherically created with glissing guitar riff and lead singer Catrin Vincent’s ethereal vocals. She has a beautifully androgynous quality to her voice, jumping between upper tenor and soaring soprano, and it’s mesmerising instrument to put with this captivating piece of music. I love this piece of music and it absolutely elevated the whole album.

13. Lola Marsh - Like In The Movies (Israeli pop rock)

Not the last Lola Marsh we’ll see in this list, which gives you an indication why this album ended up my #5 album of the year. This is a beautifully put together bit of soft, dreamy rock. Underneath everything it has this gently pulsating bass that grooves back and forward, end which eventually leads to a surprisingly exultant climax, perfectly matched with a swell of strings. It’s a great bit of music.

12. Ada Rook - Reverie (JH Ligation Experiment 1) (breakbeat electropop)

There’s a shudder in this track everytime the overdriven bass thumps the first beat of each bar, it absolutely drives the music forward, but captures perfectly the anguish and anger of this song thematically. This is coupled with industrial synths, beautifully edited vocals which showcase both Rook’s vocal delicateness and her heartfelt screams (an absolute trademark of the artist). This was my favourite track from Rook’s 2,020 Knives, my #1 album of the year, and more than anything it encapsulates everything I loved about that extraordinary collection of music.

11. Trixie Mattel - Video Games (country folk cover)

My favourite Drag Race alumna Trixie Mattel had a whole album of music this year, which included the excellent Malibu. But her top track was this surprise cover of Lana Del Rey, done with a wonderfully atmospheric outlaw country vibe. Trixie’s sweetly clear vocals reverberate beautifully over her ubiquitous autoharp, midnight dark whistling, and subtle tympanies drawing out a sense of dark drama from the song. As far as I’m concerned, this is now the canonical version of this song—it has more atmosphere and more emotion than the original.

10. KES - Na let go / (when ah) Jamdong / (with d) Boss Lady (soca)

I’ve spent some amount of effort in the music project trying to find the particular brand of reggae that I like. It’s something that I feel should exist—upbeat, but still chilled, danceable with island rhythms. Dancehall gets a bit closer, but still isn’t quite in the sweet spot. It turns out, what I was looking for all this time was Trinidadian soca. This has calypso rhythms done with a punchy dancehall drive, and a Latin horn section to really exalt the mood. I realised when listening to KES’s album earlier in the year that this style of music is one of the reasons I so like Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, musically often the superior of his shows (or at least certainly the more danceable and upbeat). This track is a medley of three tracks which blend really nicely into each other, and which give you a little journey that never loses its energy. It’s 7 minutes of pure fun.

9. Emerson Hart - Lucky One (heartland rock)

If we’re talking anthemic songs, this has to just about take the prize for the year. This has the kind of song you just want to chant at the top of your lungs with your arm slung around the person next to you in the crowd. Of course, 2020 doesn’t allow for opportunities like that, but I’m glad that Emerson Hart is still providing songs for this purpose anyway. The rollicking 6/8 rhythms perfectly switch between a quietly building verse that smashes into an almost octave-higher swoop at the start of the chorus. The Americana-tinged instrumentation gives it an earthiness that grounds it as well. It’s a great bit of songwriting, and one that I’ll continue singing along to exuberantly. Even if that’s just alone in my room.

8. Uncanny Valley - Beautiful the World (AI dance pop)

You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of this band. This is in fact the Australian entry in this year’s Eurovision-style AI music competition. Melodically and lyrically, this was written by an AI, and this is absolutely and amusingly evident when you listen to it. But there’s something I absolutely love about this as a concept—how an AI parses and reinterprets music gives us fascinating insights into the patterns we find in music written by humans, and while there are moments of this song which are ridiculous, the input from the AI absolutely takes the music in places that it wouldn’t have gone. Of course, to call this a pure AI track is disingenuous, as it’s very much structured with human help, and part of the joy is the oddities nestling in what’s otherwise a very enjoyable bit of upbeat electropop. But so many of the elements just click for me—I certainly don’t think this is the last AI-augmented track that will end up on my end-of-year lists.

7. Villagers - Did You Know? (indie folk)

Villagers are a band who I hold in very high esteem with regards to the music project. They were a band I came across very early in 2016, just as we’d started the very first music project, and they made me realise just what a valuable experience listening to so much music was going to be. Annoyingly, by our official guidelines for the project (which are that it runs from December to December), this is just outside the released dates, as the EP it came from was released in the last week of November 2019, which was the week after we’d stopped last year’s project. So by the rules, it’s ineligible, but by our own actions, there was literally not a year that it fit into. Anyway, I’m including it because it’s obviously a great song, haunting in melody with a pleasant acoustic backing track that still manages to evoke an eerie atmospheric quality. It’s Villagers back in form for sure, and this is an excellent song, well deserving of a high place in this list.

6. Chemtrails - Uncanny Valley (psychedelic garage pop)

The Peculiar Smell of the Inevitable [LP] by Chemtrails

A really fun track, which owes a lot of its schtick to finding more and more outlandish rhymes for “Uncanny Valley” (“we don’t dilly-dally”, "they don't get pally", “dark trash alley”). My favourite line though is “so I fell a few rungs on the social ladder/Things are bad, but they could be badder”, which is *chef’s kiss* to me. It’s beautifully rounded out with a competently driven surf/garage rock riff or two which provide a persistent bounce and almost a pop punk energy. It’s a catchy little tune that just has those little hooks—the humour, the riffs, the rhythmic push—that absolutely elevate it to song of the year status. It constantly puts a smile on my face no matter how many times I’ve heard it this year.

5. Andy Shauf - Try Again (indie pop)

This is such a beautifully simple song. It has a storytelling element, as Shauf recounts a series of lightly amusing anecdotes in his relationship, all prefaced with “somewhere between drunkenness and chivalry/sincerity/honesty/etc…”. But there’s a beautiful light melody driving it forward, pleasantly augmented by a clarinet counterpoint, which also provides part of the iconic riff between chorus and verse (I still haven’t managed to tease out what else is part of that mix). It’s a simple, sweet bit of music which shows that tracks that capture something unique within a straightforward format can absolutely stand apart.

4. Lola Marsh - Echoes (Israeli pop rock)

Here’s the second track from Lola Marsh in this list. These two tracks (this and Like At The Movies) were always high in my mind, and I thought they were likely to drag the album very close to being my Album of the Year. In the end, they stood out individually a bit more than they did in the album as a whole, but a top 5 finish for its top song provides a nice mirroring for the position of the album. This is melodically and harmonically great, and put together with a style that captures some Lana Del Rey style folk pop and a kind of dark country in the guitars. Best is the swirling harmonies of the chorus, which seem to develop modulations into deeper and darker minor tonalities before bursting out into an exultant burst of resolving suspended chords. It gives me shivers. There’s a different version of this track on the album performed as an outro without any percussion, and both versions work so well you can see why they included both.

3. Sea Girls - Do You Really Want To Know? (indie pop rock)

Here’s possibly the best example of chunky, upbeat pop rock of the year. It follows the formula, sure, especially the split between verse and chorus. But there’s moments of truly exaltant fun—subtle steel drums in the chorus, bringing in an off-beat hihat for the chewy rich instrumental section after each chorus, the stomp-and-chant quality of the vocal line. I love it and it constantly provides a mood boost, no matter how many times I’ve heard it this year. It’s a perfectly constructed pop rock track as far as I’m concerned. I also got great joy earlier in the year watching the 4-year-old unabashedly dancing around the living room to this track. I’ll admit that that image promotes this somewhat in my mind.

2. Kishi Bashi - Never Ending Dream (indie pop)

I am a tiny bit conflicted about this track. Because it’s a stunningly awesome bit of chamber pop—it’s a sound that Kishi Bashi has absolutely made his own over the past 5-10 years, and this is honestly probably the best track Kishi Bashi has ever made. That’s saying something for an artist who has made two albums in my top-of-the-year lists in the past 5 years. The conflict comes from the fact that this was written as the theme song for a children’s CG-animated TV show on Apple TV, called Stillwater, about three kids and their friendly neighbour who is an anthropomorphic panda. Obviously, it being a TV theme is not a disqualifier; I mean one of the greatest pieces of music ever written (“Theme to Ducktales”) was a kids’ TV theme. But part of me wants to believe that there’s a purity to the music that transcends the ties to the commercial. I’m probably being naive. And, I am willing to take this song on its own merits, because it has these in abundance. The chorus is exulaltant, filled with Bashi’s trademark pizzicati and delicate falsetto, and the moments of quiet are pierced by fierce percussive moments of syncopated rhythm. Let’s hope that Kishi Bashi is raking in the sweet, sweet TV theme dollars as a result. A song like this deserves it.

1. Dyble Longdon - Obedience (chamber folk)

Between A Breath And A Breath by Dyble Longdon

So we’ve had some instances in the past where I’ve been clearly wrong about a song, or an album, in the week that I’ve heard it. But this is perhaps the most egregious we’ve seen, because this took out neither Track of the Week, nor Runner Up in the week it came out. To some extent, this was because I’d already given Dyble Longdon an album award (I said at the time “I have a feeling that Obedience is actually the best song of the week”)—but it’s still unforgivable that what is now my Song of the Year couldn’t even win its week. This is a sullen song in some parts, with a melody that comes very much from the tradition of English folk music—it evokes thoughts of Scarborough Fair, perhaps—but multi-instrumentalist David Longdon brings an ecstatic crescendo to the music, with a full orchestral swell and complex almost tribal percussion in the second half of the track. It’s a blissful, absolutely thrilling moment when that full sound roars out. In a devastating stroke of cruelty, Julie Dyble, one half of the duo (and formerly of Fairport Convention), died not long before the album was released, meaning this is the one and only collaboration we’re going to have between the two. But let’s celebrate the moment that we get. There you have it. These Top 50 tracks are available as a sorted Spotify playlist if you're so incined. Later this week, when I post the longer list of tracks and albums, I'll post an even more comprehensive playlist of my favourite tracks, including tracks from all of my top albums, and at least my full 100 top tracks. Until then, enjoy your break. Now I have a magnum of Tripel Karmeliet with my name on it waiting for me.

[strawberrytonguemusic]

A Witness

Adwaith

Ask For Joy

Carta

Cesium Swimsuit

Cling

Darto

Fai Baba

Ghostly Beard

James Saunders

Lex Audrey

Legendary Pink Dots

Modus Pony

New Age Healers

Parábolas del Bosque

Stockholm Monsters

Suns of Arqa

The Cravats

The Raft

The Thought Criminals

The Veldt

Vukovar

Walking Misery

White Hex

Wooden Arms

Zola Jesus

Xeresa

Shadows & Mirrors

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the United States, and the official end to summer.  We’ve already dipped into sunny days and cool evenings here in the heartland. Autumn will be here soon, friends. Tonight’s playlist is extra special – featuring tracks from over 25 artists, a mix of both modern and classic, with a heavy emphasis on the experimental side. This summer has felt surreal, so, this playlist matches that overwhelming feeling combining post-punk, dark electronica, jazz fusion and as always, a healthy dose of electronica.

This massive playlist that will air on Friday at 7:00 EDT / 2:00am CEST and randomly regenerates on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at 1:00 EDT / 19:00 CEST. Strawberry Tongue Radio is on-the-air, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, so you can always hear tracks from the artist below and many more!

A Witness is a post-punk band that was active in the mid-to-late 80’s indie rock scene. The band ended in 1989 with the death of guitarist Rick Aitken. In 2014, founding member and bass player, Vince Hunt reignited the snuffed out flame of A Witness marking the 25th anniversary of Aitken’s death. After the reunion, the band continues to tour today.

Adwaith is a Carmarthen based female trio indie rock group that rounds out tonight’s set with a punk-femme anthem that is as catchy as it powerful.

Ask for Joy is a one-man shoegaze project by Aaron Rossetto. Austin, Texas based Rossetto writes, performs and produces all of his own material. His sound is huge, with lush and shimmering layers. He is releasing his 9th EP on September 10th and we have a sneak peek of his new material.

Ghostly Beard is the nom de plume of Canadian visionary Patrick Talbot. Playing a blend of jazz, prog-rock, and pop fusion, tonight’s track adds a totally chill vibe to an otherwise eclectic playlist.

Carta is an ambient dream-pop project that involves a rotating cast of musicians from San Francisco. They describe their sound as being  “paranoid inner-vacuum micro-dub and ruminative post-space hypno-drone,” which is pretty succinct.  Tracks featured come from their fourth album, released earlier this summer.

Cesium Swimsuit and Walrus Tales make an appearance on the playlist with another collaboration that creates a spacey, floating soundscape.

Cling is an electronic duo from the UK with a surreal ethereal twist. The pair has been making noise since 2006 and combines glitchy hip hop and ambient tones. Tonight we are featuring a couple of their latest tracks from this female-fronted project.

Darto is a four-piece project out of Seattle that ranges between electronics and melodic psychedelia. Their new album, Human Giving, will be released on September 8 and we are previewing new tracks from it.

Fai Baba is a Swiss blues-jazz fusion-indie rock group. I had the pleasure of catching one of their live shows last summer while visiting the beautiful city of Basel. Tonight I am featuring a track from their 2016 release, which will make you feel like summer will never end.

James Saunders is a South African artist whose musical range goes between indie folk to ambient electronica creating an alternative folk that is mellow like a cool September evening.

Legendary Pink Dots have been creating ambient, experimental, electronic, indie folk, garage psych for over 30 years. Their back catalog is breath-taking, prolific, and sometimes weird. Tonight we are featuring a track from their newest release, Premonition.

Lex Audrey is a Viennese-based trio that combine euphoria and sadness, shifting musical boundaries between Rock, Pop and Electronica. The band sees the world in red, yellow and blue but when these three primary colors are mixed they turn to black. This band explores the spaces in between light and dark.

Modus Pony is the moniker for the independent experimental musician/ producer Matt Ackerman. Based out of California moduS ponY straddles the line between intellectual and visceral music. Like a modern-day Martin Denny, he creates music that is groovy, catchy, and a little weird.  Tracks tonight come from his latest release Phonogetic Ouch.

New Age Healers is the solo post-punk project of Owen Murphy, who is based in Seattle. He is releasing a new album in 2017 and we are featuring a new track off the upcoming release, Where The Tragic Happens.

Parábolas del Bosque (Parables of the Forest), is a band from Chihuahua, Mexico. We are super excited to introduce them to the Strawberry Tongue family with their dreamy and sad slowcore tracks that transcend language with their devastating beauty.

Shadows and Mirrors is an 80’s-influenced electronic project from Chicago. The project of Brian Diamond, his second release, Summerland, features all the great elements of electropop with a glimmer of dark sparkle. These tracks heat up our fading summer playlist.

Stockholm Monsters were a post-punk band from Manchester. They released one album and a number of singles on the Factory label from 1981 – 87. Discovered and produced by Peter Hook of New Order, their sound combines indie and pop sensibilities.

Suns of Arqa is a project that formed in the late 70s by Michael Wadada. He has continuously investigated the supernatural potential hidden in the Classical Raga structure of the music of India. His mission – to mix the cerebral and illusive cosmological vibrations of Raga, with the mother earth rhythms of Niyabinghi drumming that were surfacing in England in the guise of Dub Reggae. We are featuring one of his groundbreaking tracks.

The Cravats, post-punk sax-inflected surrealists, has released their first new material since the early 80’s. Just as quirky as now as then, I am featuring tracks from their new release. Plus, you can always find their older material in our regular rotation on Strawberry Tongue.

The Raft is a project of Phil Wilson. He resurfaces with a new EP, Lullaby, hot off the heels of his May release, Coming Up For Air. We are featuring one track tonight.

The Thought Criminals are an Electro / New Wave trio from London that play a sleazy and infectious dance-punk. We are featuring a couple of new tracks from these high energy electropoppers.

The Veldt is an indie rock group that combines soul, electronics, drone and ambient elements to create a sound that is gazey and shimmering. With so many layers on this luscious sound cake, you just can’t stop at one bite. We are featuring new tracks from their release earlier this year.

Vukovar is a post-punk project based out of the UK. They make their sophomore debut on the Strawberry Tongue playlist tonight with a sneak peek of a new single off their upcoming release, Puritan, which will be released October 25th.

Walking Misery is a post-punk influenced band based out of Denton, Texas. They make their debut tonight on Strawberry Tongue with a new single released earlier this summer.

White Hex is an Australian based duo that lasted for about four years between 2011 – 2015. The project of Jimi Kritzler and Tara Green, the pair made sexy and sinister synthpop. I am featuring a couple of tracks from their unbelievably great album “Gold Nights.”

Wooden Arms is contemporary quintet from the UK who draw from Trip-hop, Classical, and Alternative music. They are releasing their second album this fall and tonight’s track is the first single from their latest release.

Xeresa makes a surprise appearance with a sumptuous instrumental piece from his latest self-titled release from earlier this summer.

Zola Jesus is the devastatingly ethereal project of Nika Roza Danilova. A Wisconsin native, she summons the spirits of her native terrain to create frosty,  icily pristine soundscapes. She is releasing her sixth album, Okovi, next Friday. We are previewing new material on this weekend’s playlist.

And with that my friends, you have your instant holiday weekend playlist!

This massive Friday Night Faves playlist that will air on September 1, 2017 (Friday) at 7:00 EDT / 2:00am CEST and randomly regenerates on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at 1:00 EDT / 19:00 CEST.

Strawberry Tongue Radio is on-the-air, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Don’t

The button above will bring you to the webplayer, and links for listening on iTunes, Media Player, RealPlayer, Winamp and Quicktime. You can also choose to download our nifty app for your Android, Blackberry or iOS devices.

It's the end of summer. Here's a gazey/wavey/psychedelic playlist to mark the end of a surreal season. It's Labor Day weekend here in the United States, and the official end to summer.  We've already dipped into sunny days and cool evenings here in the heartland.

[jezfletcher]

1000 Albums, 2018: #50-41

50. The Struts - Young & Dangerous

(glam rock) Raucous, entertaining music, done with the abandon of punk, but all the tight theatricality of glam. It’s a great combo. Best track on here is the wailing In Love With A Camera, with its insanely high vaulted falsetto chorus. Cracking stuff.

49. Paul McCartney - Egypt Station

(rock and/or roll) Seriously, Paul McCartney should be spending his days eating caviar in his caviar pool and getting long languid massages in his massage pool. There’s no need for him to still be writing music of this calibre. But I guess its proof that he truly is one of the greatest songwriters of all time when he still cranks out tracks like I Don’t Know and Come On To Me in his twilight years. This was a delightful surprise.

48. Gaelynn Lea - Learning How To Stay

(indie folk) Gaelynn Lea is a fascinating artist, and I find her quite captivating. Here, she’s still banking off her Tiny Desk Concert winning track Someday We’ll Linger In The Sun, but the version here, as with much of the album is considerably more rocky, and introduces a bit of drive to her ethereal vocals and violin. Best track here is not the reworked Someday, but the specifically folk-rock Dark To Light and Dark Again.

47. Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness - Upside Down Flowers

(indie pop) This guy has had a tough run in the Music Project, and in previous years has come across some of the very top albums of the year in the week he released an album. But this year, he managed to shine through, and his captivating indie pop took out a gong. Best track from here is Ohio; one which really stood out from the album for me, and which is firmly in that mould of “Jez is going to like that”.

46. Hellions - Rue

(hardcore punk) The current world of post hardcore punk seems to be really blossoming. I’m honestly not a huge fan of the roots of the genre, but people now (in particular, it seems, the Australian scene) seem to be taking the rhythmic complexity (and overall complexity) to a new level. Best track here is X (Mwah).

45. Lydmor - I Told You I'd Tell Them Our Story

(post-feminist youth-solo-electronica-singer-songwriter-chill-out beat-music) Sam categorised this as some insane genre when it came out—one which was more perplexing rather than elucidating, despite it having about ten descriptors on it. But listening to it, you feel like it both needs and has earned each of those descriptors. This is music that’s hard to classify, skirting, at times, industrial techno, ambient, spoken-word and post rock. It’s very cool though. My favourite track is Claudia, especially the breakdown section at the end.

44. Ben Caplan - Old Stock

(Yiddish folk) This is the recording of Caplan’s show Old Stock, a tale of Jewish refugees which I’m fortunately going to see at Sydney Festival in January. If the album’s anything to go by, it should be a treat. It’s wickedly funny, but poignant, and rewards a listening even without the overarching story, as it mixed klezmer with indie folk and a sharp wit. My favourite track is Truth Doesn’t Live In A Book, which catalogues “always have a little bit of salt with your tequila”, and other tidbits that didn’t make it into the official version of the bible.

43. Saintseneca - Pillar of Na

(indie folk rock) An album that really grew on me, this has some wonderful parts to it, and the variety across the album to reward relistening. Each time I hear it, I think I like something else, although my top song is still the plaintive rock of Ladder To The Sun, and probably will be every time I listen to it in the near future.

42. Vance Joy - Nation of Two

(indie pop) Yeah, I’m a sucker for this kind of music. This is the kind of inoffensive pop rock that just hooks me, for some reason. I love a horn section anyway, and when it’s integrated so well I’m sold. And it’s integrated well here, along with the capable songwriting and enjoyable vocals of Vance himself. I can’t go past I’m Coming Home for top track.

41. Wild Moccasins - Look Together

(indie pop) You might think that inoffensive pop rock is my kryptonite, but you’d be wrong. You have to look at classy synthpop like this instead, and still you’d be wrong, because my kryptonite is pop country. But this is good music still, with a big sound, and a kind of frenetic energy that almost drives it off the rails. It’s not the clinical synthpop where you can feel each dot on the sequencer, this is synthpop’s equivalent of some brash glam-punk. And I like that. My pick of the tracks goes to Boyish Wave.