Songs of 2018 and Other Stories...

At this point in the year, with only 4 days remaining before 2019 begins, it seems like the perfect place to look back on my favourite music of 2018.  The list is slightly complicated because, as I write this, I still have something like 11 albums from the year I've not listened to fully. Thank you, Santa.  Or rather thank you to my wonderful family who are happy to indulge my addiction.

Soon - but not before I've listened to the 11 (or maybe more) albums from 2018 I've not fully heard - I'll do a favourite albums of 2018 (I am pretty certain I know what will be number one, unless there are surprises) but for now, I'm doing songs.

Friendly warning: At this point, reader, you may wish to scroll forwards to my 2018 favourite song playlists, thus avoiding a load of waffle, or - if you want to know why there are two lists (and a whole lot more besides) - read on...

There's another complication of my own making: it arises because of my relationship with music.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels this way, but equally I'm not aware of anyone else who does.  I'm fairly certain that most people who like music (does anyone NOT like music? Avoid anyone who says they don't 😇) will have songs, tunes, extended pieces of music which evoke a particular place or time, give rise to particular emotions or simply remind them of something memorable. I have songs like that - 'My Cherie Amour' by Stevie Wonder takes me back to a hotel in Southsea, in my late childhood - at a time when hormones were seriously kicking in - and there the story must end.  Let's just say I cannot hear that song without being reminded of a specific place and specific feelings and emotions. Equally the song has resonances for me today, both for the recent past and the present: songs can continue to acquire memories that sit beside their original associations.

I think that's pretty common experience that most people can relate to. My relationship with music, however, especially with song lyrics, goes way beyond that level of involvement. It doesn't apply to all the music I like - I  think I relate to instrumental music purely on the basis of it evoking a mood, or generating some level of excitement, amusement or the need to dance (let me get back to you on that one.) But songs, sometimes with the most minimal of lyrics, and voices - they are affecting in a much deeper way.  My day-to-day life is inextricably linked with songs: sometimes I love them because they reflect some part of my life back to me, maybe in an affirmative way or maybe in a way that suggests an alternative way of thinking about something; other times they just relate to the mood and changing things.  Hmmm, this is starting to sound too confessional, so I'm pulling up the mental drawbridge.

Just a couple more things, now I've opened the lid a little...

Voices. I don't hold with all this bullshit about 'good' singers. There are singers who have 'perfect' singing voices, or so I'm told by people I trust who have an ear or some other expertise for such things. Trouble is, for me, that counts for nothing. Many sing without expressing real emotion or feeling, they can just carry a tune. I have no interest in that: rightly or wrongly, I want to believe the singer feels the emotion or statement that the song lyric expresses.  It's more believable when you know that the singer wrote the lyric, I cite Amy Winehouse as an example, but some people can take another person's song and bring their own experience to it.

Lyrics.  Sometimes a line or a verse is the only bit of the song that hits home, but, equally, good lyrics work well as a whole, with maybe the odd duff line that annoys. The only thing that counts for me is that the words resonate: they might reflect how I feel; what I feel about someone or something; they might highlight something I'm doing wrong; they might suggest I have seen something only from a warped perspective; maybe they remind me that I am being foolish and should change what I'm thinking or doing.

So, finally, to my favourite songs of 2018, yes that's where this started, almost there, except for one more thing.  The impact of the other complication.  My 2018 can be viewed as a year of two extremes, let's call them the dark side and the light side (and also partly in honour of the album 'Hermit of Mink Hollow' having 'The Easy Side' and 'The Difficult Side' in LP form), so my best songs of 2018 are organised in the same way. For reasons that make sense to me at least, songs could, in theory, appear in both lists.

[Not that it makes a difference, but neither list is in order of preference, though I'm sure if push came to shove I could pick out songs I couldn't be without]

2018 - The Dark Side

2018 - The Light Side