Favourite Songs of 2025

1 The Field – Blood Orange (feat. The Durutti Column, Tariq Al-Sabir, Caroline Polachek and Daniel Caesar)

2 Dummy – Lust for Youth and Croatian Amor (feat. Purient)

3 The Deep Blue Okay – Self Esteem

4 Spike Island – Pulp

5 Creepin' – POLIÇA

6 Sky Writing – Fade Evare

7 Crumbling Empire – Sam Fender

8 Ngamaka – BARKAA (feat. Leroy Johnson)

9 Tricky – Floodlights

10 On the Quarter Days – Prolapse

Honourable mentions

Stonefly – Maria Somerville

Strange Love – Bleak Squad

Glad - Saint Etienne

Madeline – Georgia Gets By

Pussy Palace – Lily Allen

d£aler – Lola Young

Iona – Sister Ray Davies

About Time – Cate Le Bon

The Silence That Remains – The Horrors

Dan's Love Song – Agriculture 

Favourite Albums of 2025

1 Blood Orange – Essex Honey

2 Lust for Youth and Croatian Amor – All Worlds

3 Sam Fender – People Watching

4 Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory – Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory

5 Prolapse – I Wonder When They're Going to Destroy Your Face 

6 Bleak Squad – Strange Love

7 Floodlights – Underneath

8 Marie Somerville – Luster

9 POLIÇA – Dreams Go 

10 Fade Evare – Welcome Back

Honourable mentions

Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power 

The Horrors – Night Life

King Creosote – Any Port in a Storm 

Mogwai – Bad Fire

Pulp – More 

Saint Etienne – International 

Self Esteem – A Complicated Woman

Sister Ray Davies – Holy Island 

Favourite Songs of 2024

1 Davey Says – King Hannah

2 Arabian Flight – Public Service Broadcasting 

3 People Watching – Sam Fender 

4 Southerly – King Stingray

5 Greatest Dancer – Nadine Shah

6 Minds a Lie – Hi Vis

7 Tired Angels – Sailor Honeymoon

8 Washed in Blue – She Drew the Gun

9 It's So Good – Jamie xx

10 Afterlife – Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory

Honourable mentions

Loved – Four Tet

The Day You Died – The Folk Implosion

Lagunita – Lizzie No

Kaleidoscope – Sam Morton

Like I Say (I runaway) – Nilüfer Yanya

Ghost – Honeyglaze

Favourite – Fontaines D.C.

Some Kind of Angel – Georgia Gets By

Come Closer – Buffalo Tom

Imouhar – Mdou Moctar 

Favourite Albums of 2024

 

1 Songs of a Lost World – The Cure

2 The Last Flight – Public Service Broadcasting 

3 Big Swimmer – King Hannah

4 Filthy Underneath – Nadine Shah

5 My Method Actor – Nilüfer Yanya

6 Howl – She Drew the Gun

7 Guided Tour – Hi Vis

8 Romance – Fontaines D.C.

9 Sailor Honeymoon – Sailor Honeymoon

10 Warrangu: River Story – Dobby

Honourable mentions

Daffodils and Dirt – Sam Morton

Live Drugs Again – War on Drugs  

my anti-aircraft friend – julie 

Prelude to Ecstasy – The Last Dinner Party

Real Deal – Honeyglaze

Rome (Live) – The National

Three – Four Tet

Favourite Books of 2024

1 Ghost Cities – Siang Lu
2 Burntcoat – Sarah Hall
3 Atlas of AI – Kate Crawford
4 Fire Weather – John Vaillant
5 Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner
6 Horizon – Barry Lopez
7 The Candy House – Jennifer Egan
8 Hidden Potential – Adam Grant
9 Conquest – Nina Allan
10 The Future is History – Masha Gessen

 

Full list of 2024 reading here. And reading stats here.

 

 

2024 listening

Thanks to last.fm. See 2024 playback report and 2024 listening report.

Favourite Songs of 2023

1 Midnight Sun – RVG

2 King Creosote – Blue Marbled Elm Trees

3 Slowdive – kisses

4 Floodlights – Moment of Distraction

5 Nabihah Iqbal – This World Couldn't See Us

6 Gretel Hänlyn – War With America

7 Sumner – Stranded

8 Chosen to Deserve – Wednesday

9 Yo La Tengo – Aselestine

10 Cable Ties – Mum's Caravan

Honourable mentions

The Blue Aeroplanes – Building an Ark for the Anthropocene
Cloth – Never Know
Descartes a Kant – After Destruction
Elisabeth Elektra – Broken Promises
Four Tet – Three Drums
Julia Jacklin – Shivers
London Grammar and SebastiAn – Dancing By Night
The National – Tropic Morning News

Favourite albums of 2023

1 RVG – Brain Worms

2 Slowdive – everything is alive

3 King Creosote – I DES

4 Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World

5 Floodlights – Paintings of My Time

6 Cloth – Secret Measure

7 Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

8 Emma Anderson – Pearlies

9 bdrmm – I Don't Know

10 Blue Aeroplanes – Culture Gun 

Honourable mentions

Blondshell – Blondshell

Blur – The Ballad of Darren

Body Type – Expired Candy

boygenius – the record

Cable Ties – All Her Plans

Descartes a Kant – After Destruction

Nabihah Iqbal – Dreamer

Pia Fraus – Evening Colours

Riel – Percipio del Fin

Dan Sultan – Dan Sultan

Wednesday – Rat Saw God

Favourite books of 2023

1 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin

2 A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M Miller Jr

3 The Wolf Border – Sarah Hall

4 Finding the Heart of the Nation – Thomas Mayor

5 Too Much Lip – Melissa Lucashenko

6 In Ascension – Martin MacInnes

7 Telling Tennant's Story – Dean Ashenden

8 Ducks – Kate Beaton

9 Factfulness – Hans Rosling

10 Spaceships Over Glasgow – Stuart Braithwaite

Full list of 2023 reading here.

Favourite books of 2022

1 Islands of Abandonment – Cal Flyn

2 Free – Lea Ypi

3 The Ministry for the Future – Kim Stanley Robinson

4 The Book of Form and Emptiness – Ruth Ozeki

5 Apeirogon – Colum McCann

6 Luckenbooth – Jenni Fagan

7 Light Perpetual – Francis Spufford

8 A Shock – Keith Ridgway

9 Sea of Tranquility – Emily St John Mandel

10 Twenty-one Nights in July – Ianto Ware

Full list of 2022 reading here.

Favourite albums of 2022

1 Nilüfer Yanya – Painless

2 Adalita – Inland

3 Gretel Hänlyn – Slugeye

4 Sharon Van Etten – We've Been Going About This All Wrong

5 The Big Pink – The Love That's Ours

6 Pale Blue Eyes – Souvenirs

7 Yard Act – The Overload

8 Fontaines D. C. – Skinty Fia

9 Alvvays – Blue Rev

10 caroline – caroline

Honourable mentions

Elisabeth Elektra – Mercurial

Julia Jacklin – Pre Pleasure

Suede – Autofiction

Favourite Songs of 2022

1 Nilüfer Yanya – midnight sun

2 Gretel Hänlyn – Motorbike

3 Ethel Cain – American Teenager

4 Fontaines D.C. – Roman Holiday

5 Yard Act and Elton John – 100% Endurance

6 Young Fathers – Geronimo

7 Sharon Van Etten – Darkness Fades

8 Adalita – Savage Heart

9 Burial – New Love

10 The Big Pink – Lucky One

Honourable mentions

Alvvays – Belinda Says
Dolores Forever – Conversations With Strangers
Elisabeth Elektra – I Am the Love
Fleeting Joys – Something in Your Melody
Mogwai – Boltfor
Carla Morrison – Diamantes
Ruth Radelet – Stranger
Riel – TKM
Talmont – IDATMT
Triple One – Come Over

Favourite Songs of 2021

1 Mogwai – Ritchie Sacramento

2 Caroline Polachek – Bunny Is A Rider

3 Self Esteem – I Do This All The Time

4 Goat Girl – Sad Cowboy

5 Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To

6 Public Service Broadcasting – Blue Heaven (feat. Andreya Casablanca)

7 Sea Power – Folly

8 We Were Promised Jetpacks – Don't Hold Your Breath for Too Long

9 Cassandra Jenkins – Hard Drive

10 Wolf Alice – The Last Man On Earth

Honourable mentions

Julien Baker – Hardline

Big Thief – Little Things

CHVRCHES – How Not To Drown (feat. Robert Smith)

Deafheaven – Great Mass of Color

Dinosaur Jr. – I Ain't

Efterklang – Living Other Lives

El Ten Eleven and Kishi Bashi – Every Day Is a Sunday

Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under

Low – Days Like These

Mitski – The Only Heartbreaker

Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime

Pale Blue Eyes – Chelsea

Sault – Bitter Streets

Sault and Beatrice Burnt – Paper Planes

Softcult – Perfect Blue

The Weather Station – Tried To Tell You

Favourite Songs of 2020

1 Sault – Wildfires

2 Briggs and Tim Minchin – HouseFyre

3 The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (feat. Rosalia)

4 Baxter Dury – I’m Not Your Dog

5 Cable Ties – Lani

6 Bob Mould – American Crisis

7 Gorillaz – Aries (feat. Peter Hook and Georgia)

8 The Avalanches – Wherever You Go

9 Mama Kin & Spender – The Road

10 Matt Berlinger – Holes

Honourable mentions

Arab Strap – The Turning of Our Bones

Annie – The Streets Where I Belong

Buddy Ross – Bored Again! (feat. Gabriel Delicious)

Christine and the Queens – People, I've been sad

Daniel Avery – Lone Swordsman

Night Shop – Waiting

Romy – Lifetime

Southeast Desert Metal – Beds are Burning

Stormzy – Superheroes

Torres – Wandering Star

And the link to playlist – Wildfires (Best of 2020)

Favourite songs of 2019

1 Julia Jacklin – Don't Know How to Keep Loving You

2 Sharon Van Etten – Seventeen

3 Floodlights – Nullarbor

4 Quinn Christopherson – Raedeen

5 Briggs – Life is Incredible (feat. Greg Holden)

6 Billie Eilish – everything i wanted

7 Gus Seyffert – Hold On

8 Freya Riding – Castles

9 Illy – Then What

10 Stormzy – Vossi Bop

Honourable mentions

Clairo – Bags
Richard Dawson – Jogging
Charles Bradley – Lucifer
Michael Kiwanuka – I've Been Dazed
Big Thief – Not
Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber – I Don't Care
Bob Mould – What Do You Want Me To Do
Amy Shark – Mess Her Up
Lucy Dacus – Dancing in the Dark
Tones and I – Dance Monkey

Books of 2012

Been thinking about my favourite books of the year (and records, but more of that later) and realised that I never made a list for 2012. I don't think I did one for 2011 either, but that seems like an eternity away, and for some reason 2012 feels like it just finished. Probably something to do with the speed that 2013 seems to have passed by at.

Anyway, here is the top ten, with basic statistics underneath. Apparent again is a heavy bias towards fiction, male authors and books published in the last three years; although with an interesting peak from the early noughties mainly due to my Russell Hoban obsession.

Top 10
1 That Summer – Andrew Greig
2 Sightlines – Kathleen Jamie
3 Open City – Teju Cole
4 Gods Without Men – Hari Kunzru
5 Hawthorn and Child – Keith Ridgway
6 The Emperor of All Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee
7 The Gone-Away World – Nick Harkaway
8 Not the Last Goodbye – David Servan-Schreiber
9 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson
10 Backroom Boys – Francis Spufford

Statistics
Total: 41 books
Fiction: 29 titles
Non-fiction: 12 titles
Number of authors: 36
Male authors: 31
Female authors: 5
Published in 2012: 6
Published in 2011: 16
Published in 2010: 4
Published in 2009: 2
Published in 2008: 0
Published in 2007: 1
Published in 2006: 1
Published in 2005: 0
Published 2000-04: 8
Published 1990-99: 2
Published 1980-89: 1
Published before 1980: 0

And because I love a good graph, or three, here is the last three year's reading broken down month-by-month:

Which looks all right, not hitting my target of 52 books a year, but still not too bad for someone at my stage of life, with a heavy iPad Scrabble habit.

However, things start to look a little less rosy when you compare this to the number of books acquired over the same timeframe (noting the different scale on the y-axis of course):

And then the really scary one:

Assuming I manage to survive for another 30 years what this tells me is that I need to stop buying any books (or asking for them as Christmas presents) in about 10 years. Either that or start to read quicker.

Best albums of 2012: 10 to 6

10 Lana Del Rey – Born to Die

Mannered, manufactured(?), but soaring, glorious pop melodies. I don't read enough about music anymore to know where Lana came from or how this album came into existence. I watched Video Games on YouTube and as I went to buy it as a single thought I should have a listen to the album just in case there was anything else even close to its sublime, irresistible pure pop hit. Of course the whole album isn't quite that good, but there are another three or four tracks that are close and the rest is pretty wonderful too. Perfectly modern but beautifully timeless, this is the sort of album that burrows deep into your brain with melodies that are all but impossible to dislodge.

9 Human Don't Be Angry – Human Don't Be Angry

Malcolm Middleton's side project may not have the emotional impact of his usual work, but it sounds like he is having a lot of fun here. And if anyone deserves a bit of fun you would hope that Malcolm would be near the top of the list. The last track, Getting Better (At Feeling Like Shit), is the only clue that this record is from the man whose attempt at a Christmas number one was called We're All Going to Die. Highlighting his hitherto unknown love of 80s pop, synthesisers and drum machines it is a wonderful showcase of another side of his amazing talents. 

8 Ghost Society – The Back of His Hands, Then the Palms


If you were going to put together a band designed to cater purely for my tastes you would probably come up with something pretty close to Ghost Society – dreamy female/male vocals, distorted My Bloody Valentine-esque washes of guitar, left field melodies from Scandinavia. The shoegaze inspirations can be picked out if you are looking hard, but the sublime vocals are more Cocteau Twins than Ride. Sparkling and shimmering this is a beautiful collection of songs to lose yourself in.

7 Mystery Jets – Radlands


Earnest indie-boys and their guitars make up surprisingly little of my current listening, but I have made an exception for Radlands. There are one or two cheesy moments, try Greatest Hits for a prime example, but overall this is a good selection of well-written, intelligent and mostly jangly songs that stand up to repeated listening. There is a bit of variety, with the rather lovely ballad Take Me Where the Roses Grow and the lo-fi Luminescence rounding things out and providing a counterpoint to the simpler pleasures.

6 Best Coast – The Only Place
Low slung guitars, songs three minutes or less. Like an Elastica for 2012, only better.

Best albums of 2012: the near misses

Very late, almost embarrasingly so, and slightly less detailed than usual, but for the record here are the Geography of Hope albums of 2012. Starting with the near misses, the top 10 will follow as quickly as I can manage.

Saint Etienne – Words and Music

It doesn't have the subtlety or the charm of earlier albums, but there are still some flashes of brilliance to remind me of the glory days. Lots of shiny big pop numbers, chiming piano chords and pumping drum beats, but Sarah Cracknell's vocals always seem to have an edge of melancholy and Words and Music seems especially nostalgic for those teenage/early adult years of mix-tapes, a music press that mattered and when music was an essential part of defining who you are.

Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky's Edge

His vocal delivery and guitar histrionics remind me a bit of Eric Clapton and that would normally be enough to have me running screaming from the room, but somehow he turns it into something resembling a mythical lost Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood album. Full of swirling, menacing harmonies, the languid vocals are mostly undecipherable and when you can hear them you realise that is probably a good thing. Even so this is a gloriously uplifting and out of time album that sounds immediately recognisable and also like nothing else you have ever heard before.

2011 music by numbers

According to last year's post my last.fm play count was sitting at 92,378 on the thirteenth day of January 2011. As of today I am up to 137,233 or 44,855 songs played in the last year. Or approximately 863 songs a week or 123 a day. Sounds like quite a lot to me, but given that I tend to have music going all the time at work that I don't have to be in a meeting or on the phone (and often it is on if the meeting isn't in my office) it could be feasible.

Anyway, probably of no interest to anyone but myself, here are the lists for the top 50 artists and songs for 2011.

Artists/bands
1 Mogwai (1,386)

2 The National (1,207)

3 Bruce Springsteen (1,033)

4 British Sea Power (834)

5 Malcolm Middleton (829)

6 R.E.M. (699)

7 Frightened Rabbit (551)

8 Idlewild (541)

9 Sigur Rós (533)

10 Saint Etienne (520)

11 Radiohead (517)

12 Tindersticks (501)

13 All India Radio (453)

14 Glasvegas (438)

15 M83 (428)

16 Big Country (396)

17 The Rural Alberta Advantage (390)

18 U2 (377)

19 Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (361)

20 Burial (356)

21 Manic Street Preachers (325)

22 Holly Throsby (324)

23 Low (306)

24 Lucinda Williams (304)

25 Arcade Fire (300)

26 Placebo (290)

27 Suede (280)

27 Dead Letter Chorus (280)

29 Belle and Sebastian (276)

30 Trembling Blue Stars (265)

31 Art of Fighting (264)

32 David Bowie (263)

33 Tanya Donelly (253)

34 Moby (252)

35 For a Minor Reflection (246)

36 Zomby (244)

37 Runrig (237)

38 Portishead (224)

38 Marillion (224)

40 Gorillaz (223)

41 Dot Allison (221)

41 The Blue Aeroplanes (221)

43 Camera Obscura (214)

44 The Cure (211)

45 ABBA (206)

45 Girls (206)

47 Billy Bragg (197)

48 The Very Best (194)

49 The Breeders (192)

50 Gersey (191)

Tracks

1 Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party (113)

2 Frightened Rabbit – Heads Roll Off (108)

3 Big Country – Chance (106)

4 Mogwai – How to Be a Werewolf (103)

5 The National – Terrible Love (97)

6 Mogwai – Death Rays (88)

7 Mogwai – Rano Pano (81)

8 The House Of Love – I Don't Know Why I Love You (76)

9 The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp (74)

10 On Volcano – Acceleration of Heartbeat (72)

11 Robyn – Be Mine (Ballad Version) (68)

11 British Sea Power – We Are Sound (68)

13 All India Radio – Rippled (66)

14 Bent – So Long Without You (63)

15 Mogwai – Mexican Grand Prix (62)

16 Dot Allison – Message Personnel (56)

17 Phosphorescent – I Don't Care If There's Cursing (54)

18 Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off (52)

18 The Airborne Toxic Event – This Is Nowhere (52)

18 Forest City Lovers – Light You Up (52)

18 British Sea Power – Living Is So Easy (52)

18 Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House (52)

23 Malcolm Middleton – Choir (51)

23 Frightened Rabbit – Fast Blood (51)

25 Holly Throsby – What I Thought Of You (49)

26 Röyksopp – Someone Like Me (48)

27 Mogwai – White Noise (46)

27 Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx – I’ll Take Care Of U (46)

29 The Concretes – Lovin' Kind (45)

29 Fulton Lights – Healing Waters (45)

29 Wye Oak – Civilian (45)

29 British Sea Power – Who's In Control? (45)

33 Mogwai – 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong (44)

33 Mogwai – Letters to the Metro (44)

35 Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat (42)

35 Glasvegas – Euphoria, Take My Hand (42)

35 Lowtide – Underneath Tonight (42)

38 Mogwai – Cody (41)

38 Malcolm Middleton – Love Comes in Waves (41)

40 MGMT – Time To Pretend (40)

40 British Sea Power – Cleaning Out The Rooms (40)

40 For a Minor Reflection – Recite (40)

43 Burial – Distant Lights (39)

43 Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here (39)

43 Cat's Eyes – Not A Friend (39)

46 Beth Orton – Stolen Car (38)

47 Maxïmo Park – Limassol (37)

47 Mogwai – San Pedro (37)

49 Suede – Animal Nitrate (36)

49 Ash – Uncle Pat (36)

Best albums of 2011

1 Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

In the past, when people have asked me who my favourite band is they would get a long and quite possibly boring disquisition covering a number of candidates for this honour, but also the difficulties of making a definitive judgement due to variations dependant on mood, selection criteria and associated weighting and how much I am trying to impress the person who asked the question.

But from now on I am just going to say Mogwai.

I can still clearly remember my first encounter with their singular genius in the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. They had Ten Rapid on a listening post on the first floor and something about the striking cover design featuring a small square photo of a freeway bridge with railway lines underneath and a large white m drew me to pick up the headphones. About twenty minutes later my then girlfriend eventually found me and insisted that it was time to leave. Unfortunately there was still another thirteen minutes of the album to go, so she ended up leaving on her own. I am not saying this was the main reason, but the relationship ended quite soon after.

Luckily Mogwai have been a lot more understanding and our relationship is still going strong fourteen years later.

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is their seventh album proper (not counting live albums, EPs and compilations) and it is, it has to be said, a triumph. For a band that deliberately limits their sonic palette they still manage to make the most bold and adventurous music.

From the opening delicate arpeggiated guitar of White Noise to the dying chords of You're Lionel Ritchie every single track is a glorious demonstration of their vision and power as a band. White Noise builds from the delicate beginnings to a swirling crescendo, underpinned by some lovely piano and Martin Bulloch's solid drumming.

Mexican Grand Prix is as close to pop as they are going to get with its hazy vocals, shimmering organ riffs and pumping beat. Back to more familiar Mogwai territory for Rano Pano and its monster distorted guitars and driving percussion.

The delicate and beautiful Letters to the Metro opens out onto the joyous and bouncy George Square Thatcher Death Party. The vocals make a reappearance here and although you can't comprehend the lyrics the sentiments are clear from the title. In my alternative world this would be the Christmas number one this year.

How to be a Werewolf takes a while to get going, but when the drums kick in and the warm tender bass line comes to the front of the mix it irresistibly draws you in and, although joined by a bit of searing guitar and crashing cymbals they remain constant under it all, to be revealed again as the rest of the instrumentation fades away at the end.

The final track, You're Lionel Ritchie, references the classic Mogwai template with almost silent quiet passages interspersed by some of the heaviest and lumbering guitar lines, before dying away in a cloud of distorted chords.

Valhalla Dancehall gave this a good run for their money, but for the sheer exuberance and enjoyment the band have for their music, the way they manage to keep refining and honing their sound to push their boundaries and for their singular vision it had to be Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.