Nine Feet Underground

Gotta start somewhere, though clearly not with arithmetic, and the start is my top 10 songs of 2019. There's a Spotify playlist imaginatively titled 'Top 10 Songs of 2019' which currently stands at 25 songs, but I've hardly started, so ya know, like all good things, it's gonna grow...oh, and just so as y'know, they're in no particular order, no need to take offence Ed and I really do like your haircut, Julie! Frankly, I can't be arsed to make an equivalent YouTube playlist (the tools! the tools!) but will splatter, smatter and repeatedly batter this post with YT songs from the list, as the urge takes me. The further I delve into 2019, the more songs I find, so I guess I should probably take the advice of the Skints... After the "crowbar-ing" of that song into this thread, I should be a little bit more careful with the next one, or I'll end up Enough of this tomfoolery, heading off in another direction, here's 

Or is it?  Le SuperHomard's 'Meadow Lane Park' could make the top 10, and from it here's the title track... [Le SuperHomard are one of several musically interesting French bands and artists - others include Aquaserge (no new album in 2019?), La Souterraine (too many albums in 2019!!!), Laure Briard and Halo Maud, to mention but a few.]

Another album that won't make my top 10 - 'Free' by Iggy Pop. Not a bad album, probably better than we have any right to expect, and certainly way better than it could have been. Iggy says he's been re-invigorated by his sideline as a BBC Radio 6 Music DJ, specifically by the new bands he's heard and played. It shows. Good on him and, let's face it, it's great that he's still alive after the life he's lived. I'm not sure anyone would have predicted he'd have outlived his friend/mentor/producer, David Bowie. Life, eh? Twists and turns no one can predict. I've chosen 'Loves Missing' from the album - it can speak for itself.

I still haven't finished listening to all the albums that are candidates for my "Best Albums of 2019" review, though I do already know what will be the best re-issue of 2019, that is, unless I decide to make box sets a category of their own. In the meantime, here's a track from an album from 2019 that won't make the top 10:  from Jenny Hval's 'The Practice of Love', here is the hauntingly beautiful, 'High Alice' - shame the rest of the album isn't as good. (I should add it's not a bad album, just that, with the exception of maybe one other track, it doesn't quite work, much as I enjoyed it)

" A sort of release "

" Into the night we all come back to "

" Even if it's only  To light up your life for a little while "

" I feel that lasting moments are coming far and few between "

" How will all this affect me "

" Beautiful people are queuing to drown "

" Burning in the corner is the only one who dreams he had you with him "

" You'll be doing alright with your Christmas of white "

" Rational and poetical, summing up contradictions "

" And in the twisting of two straight lines  Not much changes" This album, 'Yawn', and its piano and voice child, 'Yawny Yawn', have been the backdrop for much of this year and this song is one I've often returned to.

"Man, I think I'm going mad again..."

"I long for you..."

"...what you see is what you get, eh..."

Some of my favourite things in December are the best of the year lists in the music magazines (and also best books of the year, but that's for another blog), mainly to discover things I may have missed -  those hidden gems that passed you by first time around. Thus far, I've seen best of lists from Rough Trade, Uncut, Louder Than War, Shindig!, Mojo, Prog and Record Collector with The Guardian, Wire, NME and maybe a few others still to come. Much as I love these lists they do challenge me - despite all the albums I have  already heard this year - there's always a shed load of albums I must listen to or dip in to, otherwise how will Santa know what to bring me on Christmas Day? Many of these lists have particular bias in line with the magazine's focus or editorial policy: Louder Than War - white women/men with guitars/indie; Prog - pretty self-explanatory; Wire - leftfield/outer limits/anything goes; Shindig! - sounds like '60s or '70s music; and Mojo - ma