Nine Feet Underground

The best new music I've heard recently has either been from solo female artists or originates from Scandinavia. This post sticks to former though there is one track that fits into both categories... Here's the first three songs: It took a couple of listens find the heart of Julia Holter's new single 'Feel You' but it repays the effort - the sadness and longing at core of this song make it really moving. The phrasing is exquisite and the chorus that begins after the line "Are you mythological?" is like toppling of a cliff, but in a pleasant way :-) In stark contrast 'Dragged Out' - the first song I've heard by Chelsea Wolfe, though this is by no means her first album - has a much darker melancholy at its centre. It sounds like the soundtrack to a soul's descent into hell, a thing of obsidian beauty and is hypnotically compelling. On a slightly lighter note - though perhaps only at the surface - is Roisin Murphy's ...

It's been a while since my last playlist so this time there are five songs rather than the customary three.  At least one of these songs has been bouncing round my brain for several weeks now - more on that below. There's one older track too - though not that old - the title track from Saint Etienne's 2002 album 'Finisterre'. 'Let it Happen' by Tame Impala has been playing in this brain for quite a while now, so much so that I've decided to adopt the title as my new approach to life :-J  This track is one of those restless Tame Impala tracks that seem to start off as one song, go through some changes and finish as a different song. Really can't say much about 'Fool' by Nadine Shah, other than I'm totally hooked. Album's good too.. The second track from Tame Impala's forthcoming album is ''Cause I'm a Man'. Not restless like the first track, it has been a slow burner that's insinuated its way into my b...

I've been entranced by the Father John Misty track since I first heard it on the radio ahead of the album’s release. ‘Chateau Lobby #4’ is a beautiful song of striking imagery written to (or for, or about) his (new) wife.  The album is equally powerful and joyous collection of songs largely on or around the same theme. Metaphysical concerns link the titles of other two tracks for this week: firstly Dragons’ ‘Food for My Soul’ was first released by Ninja Tune in 2007 though had allegedly remained on a shelf since its recording in the late 1960’s – how it failed to see the light of day for so long is a mystery.  In contrast Stereolab’s ‘Tickertape of the Unconscious’ is from their 1997 album ‘Dots and Loops’ – one of the best albums in their extensive recorded career.  This features thanks to a train journey combined with an MP3 player on set to random. As always the playlist is available through YouTube or Spotify…

Every waking moment there’s some tune or other sinuously snaking between, through and round my thoughts, frequently bubbling to the surface like…well, like bubbles surfacing. Three songs have been chasing their tails through my neural pathways this week and they’ve now broken out and surfaced in this playlist…