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unwrittenarticles · 5 years ago

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Top 50 Songs of 2019

1. Julia Jacklin - Head Alone

Lyricism, pace, snowballing, power, catchiness. Pure catchy and melodic, angelic, lovely, lusty.

2. Cate le Bon - Sad Nudes

Her voice, always, a thing of intelligent beauty.

Interesting subject matter. Reclaiming nudes? Is it sad to take nudes? I feel like it’s empowering but not also. I hate the thought of men requesting nudes. My sister and her peers get this a lot and I don’t like it. It confers power to the voyeur (often deeply unattractive comparatively!)

But then it could be seen as empowering also, if it’s just for yourself taking it. For centuries, people want to see themselves depicted in narrative and photo form - is this what makes us human? Fascinating.

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As a tenuous link between Cate’s track and Julia Jacklin, Julia also has a track named ‘Body’ which explores a past relationship. It reflects on a relationship that ends. These next lines are powerful:-

‘I’m not a good woman, when you’re around’ (Cat Power’s - Good Woman also explores this, what defines this? Why do people make us feel like we need to perform the role of a ‘good woman’ - why do we feel bad, if we are angry or negative or depressed? I think says a lot about the social construction of femininity being tied to ‘goodness’ I think it harms us sometimes, comparing ourselves to these ‘selfless’, good women that are also beautiful, hard-working, intellectual, but not too intellectual, and always sensitive to men’s needs over their own.

Back to Julia’s perfect lyrics:-

That’s when the sound came in. I could finally see.

I felt the changing of the seasons // All of my senses, rushing back to me.

Go your own way // Watch me turn my own head.

Eyes on the driver, hands in my lap, heading to the city to get my body back.

I remembered early days // when you took my camera

Turned to me, 23, naked on your bed. Looking straight at ya.

Do you still have that photograph? Would you use it to hurt me? Well I guess it’s just my life and it’s just my body.

I guess it’s just my life, and it’s just my body.

That feeling of intrusion, I can relate to massively. Sometimes you feel alienated by your own body and that it is “just a body”, and that you’re not really valued for anything but your body. I think it’s more of a female experience.

3. Sharon van Etten - Seventeen

Strength, defiance, powerful, connectivity, ageing. Ace lyricss, “I used to be 17, now you’re just like me”. There is such beauty and wisdom in this song, “i see you so uncomfortably alone / I wish I could show you how much you’ve grown” “I used to be 17, I used to be 17.” Love the way she signs “la la la” oh gorgeous simplicity but with this intelligence and edge. “I know what you’re gonna be, I know that you're gonna be” “Afraid you’ll be just like meeeeeeeeee” (Och, sad/sweet/reflection, feeling old but with the responsibility and confidence that comes with it. Sounds a wee bit like Patti Smith on the extended high notes on “meeeeeeeeee” so feisty. How we are all basically that under confident, anxious 17 year old, even when we’ve grown and learnt all these life lessons.

4. Sault - Up All Night

Opening bongo drums and bass, slick and classy, draw you in. Such a catchy tune. “no time for sleep”. Such an exciting weekend song, makes you feel excited. I like the kind of declarative “shut up you need to shut up” entwined with “don’t stop the beat again” I can’t work out if the male vocals are referencing vulvas, if so, hell yes. “And I will walk alone” Such feistiness and catchiness. At around 2 minute 32, it picks up volume into some kind of psychedelic and calediscospic drop that just keeps building and I feel like I am in a 70s movie walking along the pavement, euphoric and bombastic. Then drums again. The drums, vocals and bass are the strength of this track.

5. Faye Webster - Room Temperature

Wonky, sassy, hubby, intelligent, sarcastic, bittersweet breakup sass.

6. Buzzy Lee - Sundown Queen

Purely for the most gorgeous, romantic voiced line of the year:-

“In the seventies, we’d be in love”.

7. Ada Lea - The Party

Another brilliant female vocalist. “Ditch the party, in your beat up truck. You’re always leaving when the night starts”.

Fave line - And the moon was a strange shade of green, orange, was i wrong cause I couldn’t tell the difference at all?

At all, at all, at all.

Stood on the porch, watching you get away.

Second fave line:-

And the night, that night was a pure shade of honest, or something Was I wrong? 'Cause I couldn't tell the difference At all, at all, at all, at all

So it’s kind of like the moon and the night verses, are similar, in tone of voice or enunciation and I really really like this.

8. Grace Ives - Anything

Lovesong, post-modernity. Like a future scape, electronic, tinny, flimsy but with a depth to the writing, also a boom boxy 90s feel.

Rhyming.

Electronic. “Holding hands, silence sigh” “I can’t think of any way to move, I look you in the eye”.

“I’m right here, I wanna love you. I wanna fight”.

“I would do anything, anything, anything to keep you in my life”. (Oh my life)

“That’s the way it’s got to be from now on”.

“I’m gonna talk, I’m trying harder, I’m sleeping less”.

“I would do anything, anything to keep everything above my chest”.

“Chest” it’s the way she says it. Dark, light, sarcastic. Kind of reminds me of Cher or someone with a deeper vocal range.

“That’s the way it’s got to be from now on”.

“Oh that’s the way it’s got to be” (highness, lightness)

That is the way, it’s just the way it’s gotta be (guaranteed to get in your brain all day).

Also, a mention for her song Mirror which is brilliant. It’s like a song we might have heard when we were 13, but so much better and sassier. It has this 90s r+b feel, but is smart and weird, “I think I think about it too much right now, I didn’t know what I was about, I think I finally got it f- figured out”.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Money, move me along

Heart, in the air

Baby, I don’t care

Also another mention for Butterfly

It’s so sexy and her high range is amazing.

9. Ztella - Samba

Do I like samba songs because I spent my late childhood/early adolescence in a dance hall in Bolton doing the samba with various girls from places in Bolton I didn’t know. Yes, I am pre-disposed.

But this song is fine. It’s fit as. Exuberant. Classy. Mid summer evenings. Breezy holidays, sun sea air catching your neck, and making you want to dance.

10. Brijean - Show and Tell

Those hazy female Californian vocals I like so much like Mama Cass. So slick and lovely, also a few 70s funk whistles and synths as the drop comes in.

11. Babii - Seizure

12. Jorge Albrecht - Only Gonna Break Your Heart

Those male/female vocals, laced, layered with back and forth woozy bass, similar to some other songs I like such as Marilyn by Them are Us Two and Soft as snow (but warm inside) by MBV.

13. SASAMI - Pacify my Heart

Classy, sad, melancholic, fresh, zen, neutral, complexity.

14. Weyes Blood - Picture be Better

All the Joni vibes on this record. Sad sad reflection on wanting to be redeemed and seen in a better light. I love her voice, production, depth to the lyrics. I like how her voice is in a lower key than most, lyrics flowing with such intricacy yet also stripped back and melodic.

15. Noname - Song 32

Sweet rhyming style, super feminine and confident flow, so slick tho, could be any male rapper. “I am the Kennedy’s out for lunch” nice reference to history. “Diddy money” oh yes, talking about this commercialisation of rap backed by big business (1 person monopoly). Also, what I like about this track is that it reminds me of being younger and in the summer listening to pop and rap and r&b in the garden, only it’s a kickass female rapper who is smart and funny.

16. Big Thief - Not

So fulfilling to listen to, belting it out and feeling angst.

17. Planet 1999 - Spell

Dream like 90s vibes, lush harmonies are so light and airy and then the bass and drums kick in. So melodic, I feel like I am feminist Barbie listening to this. Beautiful vocals.

18. Lightning Bug - Vision Scraps

Distortion opening, reminiscent of MBV. Sweet hummingbird vocals, laced with distorted guitars. Nice drums. Having to really listen to the words. Break in the distortion at approx 2 minute

19. Carla dal Forno - Dont Follow Me

20. Teen Body - Dreamo

Twin peaks synths and guitars open the song. Lovely MBV drone guitars on the 2 count, lovely, dreamy. Then vocals begin so angelic and beatific, i love it. Could be a much clearer Blinda Butcher vocal. Hazy, woozy, wavey and repeat. Male/Female vox interplay I like, so reminiscent of MBV. MBV being the best archetype. Male vocals, a little too high in pitch to be as good as Kevin Shields, however, still this track is very pleasing. “I could have told you that”

Nice wee break in the track at 3 minute 34 secs.

21. James Massiah - Natural Born Killers (Ride for Me)

Trippy, bubbly, spaceagey, acid vibes, dystopia/utopia cityscapes. Danceable, intelligent and jocular.

22. Sandy - Not There

23. Mount Eerie - Love Without Possession

24. Easter - Muscle

It’s no wonder to me that Easter is a novelist because her word play engulfs you in these romantic, callous, cruel, visceral, trippy, sexual double entendres and European flaneur narratives.

While the (heart) beats are 90s Euro beats but with a finesse and style no one rivals. Also, about the drums and electronic synths - they really punctuate the spoken word lyrics, it feels like a marching band or something - so taut and percussive.

I’m going to eventually write a list of my favourite Easter lyrics and this is such catharsis, they bring me joy. Smart and critical but trippy and fun. Decidedly adult.

“Back to the studio. Holding my crotch. Laying it down”.

“Sadness is an evil gas inside of me”. (I can totally relate).

“like a pack of miniature Russian figure skaters on a suicide mission across the frozen lakes of the world to find true love” Oh my, the imagery, startling and beautiful. Think about also trafficking of Russian women? Is this what she is referring to? Or Russian athletes? Intriguing.

“A future where each pussy gets a puppy when she hits the floor”. What does this even mean? Cats reigning supreme. Women/femininity to be rewarded for action or inaction? Fascinating.

“I fall asleep on these sticky sheets to dream of you and how we’ll meet, again one day to fuck, and eat, and drink and kiss and never sleep”. Holy cow!! Gut punching eroticism and obsession.

25. Okay Kaya - Ascend and Try Again

Great guitar, slow melancholic and then the singing starts which is just gorgeous and reflective.

“Ascend and try again” (I like the lyrics, I want to ascend to be honest).

Her voice feels so comforting with this depth and clarity that shines through.

Definite ear worm you can’t stop singing.

26. Sandy (Alex G) - In My Arms

27. American Football - Every Wave to Every Rise

28. Sleep Over - I don't want to hide

29. Molina - Venus

30. EDDYEVVY - All for Me

31. Fauness - Soon There Will Be No Summer

32. Infinite Bisous - Island

33. Aldous Harding - The Barrel

This song is catchy, but slightly off beat, you don’t know where she’s going to go with it, left-field, jarring. I wasn’t sure about the vocals initially, but each time I listen, I enjoy it.

34. Free Love - Everyone

35. Eartheater - Concealer

36. Hand Habits - Placeholder

37. Erika de Casier - Good Time

38. Aya Gloomy - vs Reality

39. Fee Lion - Re(Visit)

“I love you but I cannot think about you anymore”. Pulsating bass and catchy distorted synths. Vocals are beautiful. “Time to erase our time”. Breakup contemplation. Becomes more intimate yet intense, picks up tempo but vocals are more stripped “I am walking alone, feeling fine on my own”. REPEAT. Pertinent. More explained. “I knew you, oh how I knew you, oh. I kne-ew you (lovely enunciation” Can we really stake claim to having known someone once?

“All I have is time, time to erase our time”. When you just want to erase someone so much and it takes a long time because the way you think is so merged with that person.

Ultimate power track. Deriving power. Gaining strength.

“Feeling fine”. One last declaration of strength.

40. Equip - Shop (New Inventory!)

This is the song I want to soundtrack my weekly shop so I can imagine being a vaporwave, nintendo or anime character going about the shops, similar to kick ass Negative Gemini, but instead I will reconcile I am a boring nerd (while listening to sick beats, yo!)

41. Pearly - Too me

Self-composed/self-control

Post-rock with Julee Cruise angel vocals I love.

42. Mount Kismet - Teenage Fantasy

43. Prince Rama - F.A.T.E. bought us together

44. Space Drum Machine - The Mauskovic Dance Band

Infectious, brilliant sitar sounds and synths, makes me want to dance. Light, breezy, melodic holiday song that sweeps along at pace.

45. Ariana Grande - Ghosting

Such a sad melody and lyricism, that sounds cinematic its perfection. Woozy synths and sirens, that engage the listener straight away.

“I know you hear me when I cry

I try to hold in the night”

Sadness, her voice is stunning.

“Baby you’re doing so well” Her voice. Oh so beautiful.

“We’ll get through this, we’ll get past this, I’m a girl with - a whole lot of baggage” (I can identify).

I dunno what this song is about - a couple becoming stronger

The strings, the synths becoming more orchestral.

‘I know that it breaks your heart when I cry again”.

46. Lana del Rey - California

I could have put any track off Normal Fucking Rockwell to be fair as her songs are ace.

47. Elena Setien/Mary Lattimore - Wreckage of the hunt

Beautiful harp offsets beautiful vocals. Lovely and classy.

48 Blue Hawaii - All that Blue

“Give me sunshine too, oh yeah”.

49. Xavibo and Aleesha - Last Call

Best line “some drunk cop might pull me over’. I like how American people are contextualising this in regards to people of colour being pulled over by inept cops. Worrying it still happens though. I guess as well, you wouldn’t really expect a hyper feminine female pop track to be referring to this though - which is great.

50. Automatic - Calling It.

Nice drums and guitars, kind of 60s sounding, building and building. Then female sass vocals, loud and joyous. “Emotions always out of reach”. The guitars have this throbbing kind of swagger I also like on a track by Maraudeur named ‘Computer Dreams’.

“A picture of your changing face / To hold it all together”.

What I like is the merging of guitars with synths to make these future/retro narratives that are existential and narrative based.

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