February 2021

2021, the year that isn’t 2020, is in actual fact just more 2020. Covid still about? Yep. Here have some snow to deal with. Christmas out of the way? Yep. Don’t worry, work will carry on just as busy. Everything is still a bag of shit and there’s no sight of that light at the end of the tunnel.

On the plus side I’ve found a whole heap of new music (and revisited some old new music) – more than enough for 10 fresh hits this month and probably already enough to get by for a few months to come.

Happy – bdrmm

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“I hope that you’re happy
Because I’m happy
If you’re happy”

I had the bdrmm album in my list of albums to listen to (one day) and I think I did and I can’t say it grabbed me initially. Then it got recommended to me elsewhere, with the caveat that it needed to be listened to in the right head space. So, of a Sunday morning, while doing some Sudoku, I revisited. And this time, it hit the spot.

Sports – Beach Bunny

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“It always feels like
I need more
Jesus Christ you’re so confusing
If we keep score
Bet my money that I’m losing”

I love Beach Bunny, their album Honeymoon was my favourite from last year. This is a track that predates that. There’s a really nice video on YouTube of this being performed live, solo and all the crowd are signing along and it makes me feel nice inside. Also we have tickets to see them in London in April, probably won’t be happening mind. Urgh.

Life Magazine – Cold Cave

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“I climb clouds to the bluest of the sky
And all i saw was air (was air, was air, was air)
I rain my love to the heads that breathe below (low, low, low)
But none of them cared (cared, carad, cared)
I’m not going back”

This is one from back in the MySpace days. Back then I’d download torrents with GBs worth of new music (basically what you’d get on a Spotify playlist these days) and then I’d have to trawl through to find the gold. This resurfaced as I started jogging again recently. It was short lived as my calves basically broke, but it was on a playlist I use on my old trusty ipod shuffle. I love that thing.

Left You – Color Of Clouds

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“And even though it’s my fault in the end
Never meant to lose you, my old friend
Now it’s too late for that
But I wonder where you’re at”

This too is an old favourite from back in the day. In fact I’m fairly certain it was from the very same months torrent as Cold Cave. Anyway, it reminds me of a simpler time – when I still lived at home with my folks and life was a piece of piss.

Good & Right – Dizzy

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“You smile then you take a pull
From the beer I bought
Even though you drove and you’re
Off to the states tomorrow
In the eye of the bird
On the wing of the plane
Well I hope it’s good and right”

One from last years albums. The Sun & Her Scorch is a decent effort, this being my favourite song from it. I’m basically a sucker for a nice voice.

Ultrasound – Empty Country

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“Between depressive episodes
We’re living in the golden zone
Just fleshy things
Electric lives
A universe expands inside us
Body horror
Realized
The million things that all went right
To lead me here
We’re side by side
Let’s leave this house
Let’s take a ride”

Apparently this is the guy from Cymbals Eat Guitars? I can’t say I’ve ever given them much of a listen. It also features or is produced or has something to do with someone from The Wrens, and I love the Wrens. And when The Wrens haven’t released an album for 15+ years and then there’s a song that basically is The Wrens then it’s a good reason to get excited.

Misread – Fazerdaze

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“I like the way you talk about yourself
As if you’re someone else
I like the way you smile when you’re so proud
Of something you did yourself
Today your head is down
Your mind is somewhere else
I hate the way you talk about yourself
When you’re feeling down
I hate the way you talk
About me to your friends
They tell me everything
You may as well tell to my face
I love the way we talk
To try to fill the space
I hate the way we try to hide the things
We really want to say
Have I misread?
The way I feel about you “

This reminds me of a holiday down to Cornwall a couple of years back, it was swell. Also got a speeding ticket on that holiday, that wasn’t.

Burn – Slow Worries

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“I don’t like it when we burn, I’m getting ready for this scorched life without you
Why do two wrongs never make a right?
I fell asleep in the sun and now I’m sweating it out”

I think Slow Worries are Dutch. I don’t know of many Dutch bands. Their album, Careful Climb is in the list to listen to. This song though stood out from a very quick flick through.

Fire – Waxahatchee

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“I take it for granted
If I could love you unconditionally
I could iron out the edges of the darkest sky
For some of us it ain’t enough
It ain’t enough”

A few Christmas ago, while working on nights I’d downloaded a Waxahatchee album, maybe her first, and it was great – listening to it in a fancy new hire van while delivering parcels at 7am and everyone was always in and you could see so because they had the lights on. Anyway, her latest album is on everyone’s best of year lists and that always makes me worry (because other people just don’t know, right?). This is good though.

Another Face – Wingtip

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“I guess I thought I’d win you back somehow
String words together just to keep you around
So strange to lose something that I just found
I guess you’re just another face to me now”

Wingtips album from last year is really good, this is the opening track from it. I say it’s really good but in theory it shouldn’t – it sounds like a James Arthur or whoever it was that was on X Factor – sometimes though a good song is just a good song.