Saturday 12 December 2015

Tracks of My Year



We will take a short break from the Boy's Own Twelves for my annual self indulgent (I do realise the whole blog is a rather self indulgent affair anyway) look at my favourite tracks of the year and what a year it has been. I have a new found love of pop and Taylor Swift in particular, if 1989 had been released this year then I reckon at least three tracks would have made the list but you will be glad to hear that she is disqualified due to the album being released in 2014 but we do have Ryan Adams covering T Swizzle. Even more disturbing than my new found love of Taylor Swift is the fact that Noel Gallagher has made the list, now there is something I never thought I would be typing, albeit in a bastardised remix  form.

This year has also seen another Fall album containing at least two absolute belters of tracks. I thought that Jamie xx had featured in every end of year list either as part of the xx or solo on this blog but after looking back apparently not, probably because I didn't really take any notice of The xx until VCR and that was in 2010. The only person to have the dubious honour of featuring every year is,  and you've probably guessed it  Lord Sabre himself although not as many times as in The Bagging Area I suspect.

There is nearly an even balance of electronic and more traditionally guitar, drum and bass based music. The song at number two really surprised me with the effect it has had on me and that initial feeling hasn't dulled with frequent plays, there hasn't been a week when the record hasn't been on the turntable at least a couple of times so much so that even Leo knows most of the lyrics, the Weatherall mix on the other side is great too. As for the top track, for me Dedication Not Medication is the best Fall track since the mighty  Blindness a decade ago, although the cd version is too short and the vinyl version is wasted by the inclusion of the chatter in the middle, what the fuck is that all about? The prospect of the monster that this track could be live has made me lift my embargo on Fall gigs although the contrary fuck decided not to come to Scotland on the recent tour!


  1. The Fall - Dedication Not Medication 
  2. Mike Garry & Joe Duddell - St Anthony: An Ode To Anthony H Wilson
  3. Jamie xx - Gosh
  4. FourTet - Morning Side
  5. LeThug - Pals
  6. Laura Marling - Short Movie
  7. Kid Wave - Sway
  8. Ryan Adams - Shake It Off
  9. Sexwitch - Kassidat El Hakka
  10. New Street Adventure - The Big A.C.
  11. Melanie De Basio - The Flow (Hex mix)
  12. Boca 45 - Mr Big Sun
  13. Fold - Detroit Red
  14. Lapsley - Station
  15. Mia Dora - Un Sub
  16. Teen Canteen - You're Still Mine
  17. Red Elastic Band - Velvets In The Dark
  18. The Orb - Moon Scapes 2703 BC
  19. Tee Mango - Throw
  20. The Fall - Auto Chip 2014-2016
  21. Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit (Claptone remix)
  22. Jamie xx - Loud Places (John Talabot's Higher dub)
  23. Sarah Cracknell - Nothing Left To Talk About
  24. Slow Club - The Prophet
  25. Free School - Hudson's Whistle
  26. Unloved - Guilty of Love (Weatherall dub)
  27. Sydney Eloise & The Palms - I Like You
  28. Comet Gain - Breaking Open The Head pt 2
  29. Plastikman - Exhale (Dixon's Just A Different mix)
  30. Jon Hopkins - I Remember (Original cover)
  31. Nina Kraviz - Ghetto Kraviz (Regal 303 mix)
  32. Fews - Ill
  33. Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight
  34. Children of Lear - Drowned In Fear
  35. Svreca - Motion Splitter (Surgeon remix)
  36. The School - Do I Love You
  37. Floating Points - Silhouettes
  38. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - In The Heat of The Moment (Weathersll mix)
  39. Timothy J Fairplay - Night Witch
  40. Puma Rosa - Priestess

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

fascinating list. Taylor Swift has been known to appear on Acid Ted as well.

Swiss Adam said...

Good list Drew- some cross over with my list (currently in my head), especially near the top end. I can live with T Swizzle too.

Anto said...

good manDrew. Haven't the foggiest who most of these folks but thats the point right?

Was at the Happy Mondays last night in Dublin. Fuckin hilarious. The band seemed remarkably together and unlike the crowd. Dads on doves. The music was quite average but good laugh. The memories of the madness were great though

Echorich said...

Great list Drew! I'm whittling mine down from 55 to 40 right now and trying to come up with a sufficient number of albums as well. We crossover on a few artists, but it's interesting that some of the songs are very different for those same artists. No surprise, my list skews quite towards bands with some 30 years under their belts. Now where's that red biro...

Jake Sniper said...

As usual some great choices on your list. In particular Ode To Anthony H Wilson I have to totally agree, it made me homesick for the north west. The Dads on doves from an earlier comment made me chuckle

George said...

Played Sub-Lingual Tablet today. and it's got some veryy goos tracks, as you say. The ten-minute piece, Auto-Chip, great Fall song

Brian said...

Fascinated by this list. Funny, you read someone's blog every day and you think you know him. I couldn't have guessed many of these. I don't have my list done yet, but I see no more than four or five of your choices that will make mine. In other words, as Alto said, I must have missed a lot of great music, but that's what's so fun about this time of year. Thanks for taking the time, Drew. I have a lot of listening to do.

Walter said...

Great list Drew! Many of them would be on my list too, especially the top three. Some more are totally new to me and I've to investigate when I'm back in the cold.