02/19 - I Wouldn't Do This On My Own

I haven't found love, don't be silly. But it's nice to imagine isn't it?

Julia Holter - I Shall Love 2

The sheets are creased, crumpled, miscoloured, like an old man's face. Emptied painkiller maps are on the bedtable and on the floor, together with orange peels and empty cups. The fever has subsided for a little bit and I close my eyes in blessed exhaustion. I decide to fantasise about being in love.

Jens Lekman - Your Arms Around Me

The smallest, everyday things become magnified. What in the middle of the night seemed to have lost all meaning, all coherence, suddenly regains beauty and the power to comfort, with the dawn chorus, the warmth of a radiator, the crunch of a piece of toast. The very thought of someone putting their arm around someone else suddenly touches me to the core. Illness made me weak and soppy, but I allow myself to be.

Vashti Bunyan - Rainbow River

The parakeet couple that comes to the garden every day are sitting on a branch, preening and kissing each other in the morning backlight. This is the central London version of a Vashti Bunyan rural idyll.

James Blake - I'll Come Too

The melody moves like a model train through an exquisitely built miniature landscape, weaving in and out through tunnels and valleys, taking each turn gracefully, never speeding up or coming to a stop. Despite being almost too saccarine, I get transfixed, sucked in, until its felt mountains, picturesque details and romantic reassurances make me almost dizzy. Or maybe that's just my fever flaring up again, I don't know...

Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall

I'm so fucking sick of this flu now. Get me out of this bed!! I don't wanna live like this...

01/19 - 4, 3, 2, Ow!

Time to kick off another year of Top 5s!
I added some festive colours to the blog, because – fun fact – this year will be the 10-year anniversary of me making "weekly" Top 5 lists! (it started on another blog in 2009, together with six Swedish friends). There are currently 1,994 songs, totalling more than 155 hours, in the archive-playlist of former Top 5s! (If anyone wonders why that is not an even number, it's beacuse Spotify have at various points taken part of their catalogue down from the service, including quite a few songs that I had listed in the past) Last year I posted 27 lists, which is at least more than one every second week. Not bad for a completely unasked for, and largely ignored, endeavour of crafting miniature playlists for the masses!

So here goes, my first five tracks of 2019. As per usual, a labour of love:

Gidge - Norrland

It was the second day of the year, and five of us, crammed into a small car, meandered along the gentle glacial curves of Southern Scottish hills. As Jo was the driver, she served up the music, and when the glen opened up its most majestic embrace, she pinpointed peak synergy with this gorgeous piece of expansive electronica from the north of Sweden. My native country and my favourite part of the UK merged in a reverb-laden landscape in the winter sun. If you listen closely around 2:40 - 3:00 you can hear the cranes calling...

Kelis - Aww S***!

Are those still cranes I hear? Nah mate, those are motors revving up as we prepare to roll with the realest in the new year. Aaww shhhhhhhhhiit...

Lizzo - Boys

2019 motto: Take everything that's been misused, and use it right again. Like Lizzo does.

Vince Staples - FUN!

Also 2019 motto: We just wanna have fun!

Radiohead - Ill Wind

Reality check: not everything will be fun. An ill wind will continue to blow. But as we learnt in the Dumfries ravines at the beginning; the glacial will still leave beauty in its tracks.



There we go, we're on the road again. I've already got more goodies lined up for next list...