23/20 - Letting The Days Go By

So I'm ending this year in the most fitting way: in quarantine with mild symptoms, awaiting a Covid test result. Already a month ago I started basically shutting down my ambitions and expectations until brighter times arrive, and now I've reached some kind of apotheotis of lethargy. I'm unwell, bored, lonely, and somehow also taking a perverse pleasure in pushing through with stoic inactivity through the last hours of 2020. Anything that happens next will be a kind of revving up again. I doubt it will be a kickstart, but compared to this, even walking out the door seems a wonder of proactivity.

 

Aphex Twin - Fingerbib

The sound of being shut up with myself and playing whack-a-mole with negative thoughts.
 

 

Theon Cross - Radiation

Letting the hours and the virus march through me like.

 

 

Riot Jazz Brass Band - I've Got a Sousamaphone

I am catching up on multiple tv shows, among them the fourth season of Fargo. A bit messier than earlier seasons, but the Cannon gang has the best action music.

 

Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - Too Late To Turn Back Now

Another thing I watched was BlacKkKlansman and it was awesome, and it had a fantastic music and dance number courtesy of this tune. Remember dancing?

 

 

Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (live)

After having listend to this great episode of Soul Music I realised the only way to end this year with dignity is with one of the best songs ever.

 

TIME ISN'T HOLDING US.

 

TIME ISN'T AFTER US.

 

 

HAPPY

 

NEW 

 

Year

 

22/20 - I Misread The Rules and Made My Own Like A Pagan

Went on christmas break today, therefore leaving the mopey music behind to enter a twisted but exciting world full of magic and fairytale creatures.

 

Holly Herndon - Frontier

This album was made in collaboration with AI, and by the sounds of it we're about ready to automate the music industry.
 

 

Nicki Minaj - Four Door Aventador

The Pinkprint was ahead of its time.

If you feeling like a ninja, I got a machete

 

 

Dis Fantasy - She Magical

An absolutely perfect piece of pop, with toy instruments filtered through retro sci-fi production.

 

Aesop Rock - The Four Winds

Forget Santa, Aesop is here with a bag full of neatly wrapped lyrical treats and some supernatural fables to tell round the fireplace. I'll be opening these gifts for months to come.

Pulled to the flames while pushed to the rope
I get the hooks in, I hold the helm down
I stand the hell up, I see myself out

 

 

Yugen Blakrok ft. Bravestarr - Monatomic Mushroom

The darker the days to come, the more radical the stories we'll need.

In basements where dungeon-dwellers cultivate patience
Initiated, illuminated, I sanctify spaces
With myrrh and frankincense and incandescent incantations
My spirit moves like ley-lines, connects the chosen nations
of the great wolf and the lion

 

 

21/20 - You Fight The Stillness, The Quiet

I'm not saying I'm lonely, but this is what I listen to.

 

Bill Callahan & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy ft. Matt Sweeney - OD'd in Denver

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has been releasing singles with Bill Callahan and with Matt Sweeney. And this one with both of them, is probably my favourite of them all. Such a great combination of voices.
 

 

Bon Iver - Naeem

This sounds like an isolation crescendo.

What's there to pontificate on now?

 

King Midas Sound - The Lonely

Ok, I am saying I feel lonely. It has been an unusually lonely year, what with social distancing, having left my UK art community, moving to an island, et al. I've been pretty lucky as regards the pandemic over all, but this dark season I allow myself to wallow in a tiny tiny pool of self pity anyway. 

 

 

Purple Mountains - Maybe I'm The Only One For Me

Best way to deal with pathetic feelings is to take the piss out of oneself.

 

 

Belle & Sebastian - We Rule The School

To the untrained ear, this might appear as B&S at their most twee, but to the trained ear – which I have, as I have this track on my morning playlist and get to hear it a few times a week – it is a masterpiece. It is the mundanity combined with elevating small, creative gestures to heroic acts of resistance that does it. I crave that sentiment.

20/20 - Clear Water Flows From My Pen

A couple of weeks into a residency, I've been battling anxiety and trying to remember how to be an artist with the help of the following:

 

Zarelli ft. Leonard Nimoy - The Children's Hour

Always a starting point to get creatively enchanted again, this album gets to baptize every studio I settle into. A one-of-a-kind meeting of a brilliant chapter from Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, the sensitive, stately voice of Spock, and fantasy-igniting electronic soundscapes by a Welsh genre-hopper. Sitting down to doodle in my notebook while listening to this is my portal to another mindset.
 

 

Tierra Whack - Dora

Speaking of uncontained, nonconforming, childlike creativity, Tierra Whack continues to play a glorious game unbothered by others' rules.

 

 

 

Run The Jewels ft. 2 Chainz - out of sight

Gig of the year of no gigs. This performance would have been in a class of its own even in a normal concert year. Just another evidence that RTJ are the greatest rap group alive. Killer Mike's verse in walking in the snow and Mavis Staples belting in pulling the pin both made me tear up, but the hyper-inventive tongue-twisters in out of sight got me fired up.

 

 

Andrew Bird - Scythian Empires

Last weekend I took the most beautiful busride of my life, from Jokkmokk to Kvikkjokk. The sky was high and pink, the land was vast and white, and Andrew Bird sang of ephemeral civilizations in my earphones.

 

 

Bill Callahan - Writing

I think I'm getting there. I've started some drawings, I can feel the inklings of sculptural ideas take form in the winding backroom synapses in my head. It feels good to feel the fickle flame of inspiration again, as Bill knows.

19/20 - I Spread Like Strawberries

Posting a list from a hotel in Luleå, because it's snowing like crazy outside and I'm staying in with familiar tunes, old and new.

 

Norma Tanega - You're Dead

Just watched the final episode of What We Do In The Shadows the other day, and I need more! More Nadja! More Colin Robinson! Until season 3, I can at least have more Norma Tanega.
 

 

Laurent Garnier - The Man With the Red Face

I miss dancing. Dancing by yourself in a hotel room doesn't quite count. I want to be at a massive party with a bouncing dance floor and throw shapes to this stone cold, red hot classic.

 

 

Grizzly Bear - Three Rings

When it comes to unravelling, developing, enveloping song structures, Grizzly Bear are in a class of their own, and Three Rings is a masterclass. The intricate journey towards that insisting, hopeful finale:

Don't you be so easy

Don't you know that I can make it better

Don't you ever leave me

Don't you feel it all come together

 

 

Fiona Apple - Heavy Balloon

I know I'm late to this – deliberately so, because I hate being swept up in hype – but if this isn't one of the smartest songwriters of our time riding the pinnacle of her craft I don't know what it is. And her voice! So good.

 

 

 

dEUS - The Real Sugar

Starting to feel a bit isolated now. Gonna head out to look at a UNESCO World Heritage...

Everybody's ever felt lonely...

18/20 - The Ship Is Sinking

Wordsmiths and moodswings in an autumn potpourri. 

 

Tom Waits - God's Away On Business

Some days you're ready to give in to the pessimistic view that this is what societal collapse looks like. A gradual disintegration, a layering of calamities, antagonism on every front. And who's left in charge?

Killers, thieves and lawyers

 

 

Nicki Minaj - Want Some More

At least someone is counterbalancing the proliferation of awful people. Congratulations to Nicki on her first child! Want some more! 

 

 

Pusha T - Come Back Baby

Now, I don't have much to do with drugdealing. Not my game really. Nevertheless I find almost everything Pusha T does musically impossibly appealing. A meeting of worlds that is. A sign of hope.

 

 

Marwan Pablo - Abu Mecca

They were playing this in a food truck where I bought a falafel a few weeks ago. I did a quick google for the lyric "I feel like Tupac, all eyes on me", found the song and left the tab open on my phone. Much later I found the tab again and remembered to listen to it, and was a bit surprised by how much I still liked it.

 

 

Low Motion Disco - Things Are Gonna Get Easier

The world is going to shit right now, but soon the worst must be over, right? Soon things are gonna get easier, and then we'll finally be on our way to socialism! Yay!

17/20 - The Truth Is Sold, The Deal Is Done

Personally I shouldn't have much to complain about. Things are chugging along as well as they could this cursed year. But still there's that constant undercurrent of frustration and anger, that comes from following politics and the ways of the world. So, songs to exorcise some tension and outrage to at the end of the day:

 

Sleigh Bells - Crown On The Ground

Confrontation distilled.

PJ Harvey - Long Snake Moan

Surely one of the finest albums ever. It's just pure power.

Mm-hmm...

Angel Olsen - New Love Cassette

Blows of strings like chest compressions making your eyes tear up.

Portishead - Cowboys

The mighty mighty voice of Beth Gibbons, here at its most venomous and vulnerable almost simultaneously. And an beat kick in that will never ever grow old. 

FKA twigs - Fallen Alien

In this age of Satan

I am searching for a light to take me home and guide me out

16/20 - The Wind Will Change Direction

A list for when you're overwhelmed with the shittiness churning on and on in the world.

 

Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name

Fuck the Kenosha Police Department. Defund, disarm, disband. 

Some of those that work forces

are the same that burn crosses

Run The Jewels ft. Mavis Staples & Josh Homme - pulling the pin

Fuck the Trump family and the Republican party. Fuck MBS and MBZ. Fuck Netanyahu and Lukashenko. I don't believe in evil as an absolute force, but when you close your ears to suffering and turn off your empathy for the sake of power and money, you have made an evil choice.

These filthy criminals sit at the pinnacle

Doing the typical, keeping us miserable

Taking the most and providing the minimal

Jamila Woods ft. Saba - BASQUIAT

Fuck the both-sidesing. Fuck the conspiracy theories. Fuck the systems of denial. Look this shit into its eyes, call it out, deal with it.

These teeth are not employed

You can't police my joy

CHAI - GREAT JOB

Fuck neoliberalism and its fucked up priorities. The economy should work for us, not the other way around.

Olle Nyman - Don't Let Those Bastards Reel You In

Sorry. Just needed to get that out of my system to make room for to mix the rage with joy, so that I can go out into the world and hopefully do more good than harm. Solidarity with the people of Lebanon, Belarus, Hong Kong and Palestine. RIP David Graeber.

Don't let them fill your heart with sin

Cause they would only win

15/20 - I'll Watch You Melt

The weather has turned again. It is now very warm. But the gulls and terns have left, the wind has died down, the summer guests have returned to their offices, and I can't figure out what to focus my mind on. We are lumbering around in a daze, avoiding efforts and stressful sounds. Soothing songs for a sunny weekend it is then:

Bedouine - Bird

This is probably the song I've listened to most times during the past month or so. And for each time it just gets better and better. My favourite part is when she sings "Rikki... Tikki... Tavi". It jots out of the song structure and makes such a significant grounding, and it makes me remember when I watched Rikki Tıkki Tavi at my neighbour's as a child.

Aldous Harding - Weight of the Planets

I detect slight whiffs of Serge Gainsbourg in those stabs of strings over that lovely fat bassline. But then the backing vocals dip in and steal the show. It's a delicious mood.

Nilüfer Yanya - Melt

This song perfectly captures that moment when you've been out in the sun for too long and the warmth turns from comfortable to dizzying. The luscious, dreamy instrumental backdrop start to contrast with increasingly paranoid/threatening lyrics.

I bet your brain cells won't last 

I bet they cling to the trash 

I hope you melt on the way 

Back to your place

Jessica Pratt - Back, Baby

You're back at the house. You cool down again. You think of the autumn ahead while lounging in the shade. It's all very, very relaxing.

Sharon van Etten - Seventeen

Back when this was on BBC6 all the time I didn't quite get into it. But now, suddenly, that jump into pure belting at 3:00 absolutely jolts my entire being. Even as you settle in to time passing and everyone being grown up and life being quite pleasant after all, there's always, still, that ghost of youth and all its freedom and ambitions...

14/20 - When You Leave The House Of Judgement

First day back at work after holidays today. Let's pretend this summer is a smorgasbord of fun, with no social distancing and amazing times at the beach...

Caroline Polachek - Door

New favourite sing-along chorus. Very simple, but somehow syllabically super satisfying. Also, anything that makes me feel like me and Caroline Polachek is a team.... I'm in. As one of the YouTube commentators put it "Can't believe she invented doors. So cool."

Neon Indian - Toyota Man

Yes! Finally another hit song smuggling in anti-racist politics under cover of a children's choir!

Conchita Velasco - Calor

How good was the third season of Killing Eve? Plot-wise: not as good as the first two. In terms of style, cinematography, fun, and soundtrack: another level.

La ropa llega a molestar. Let's throw them off and por la playa caminar!

Jean Grae & Quelle Chris - My Contribution To This Scam

Been hip hop since Kriss Kross was turnin' pants 'round

< This is a reference I deeply appreciate. As well as dozens of other clever lines in this wry, strange commentary on the state of rap and culture.

CHAI - Future

So, at 37 years of age I have found my new drug of choice. Quite surprisingly, it is japanese punk band CHAI. And what exquisite highs I get! If you should be feeling down and low, I prescribe queuing up all of CHAI's videos on YouTube. If you don't feel significantly happier after that, I don't think our bodies contain the same basic chemical compounds.

13/20 - This A New Vanguard

I don't know what happened. The world ran away from listmaking. I made a list, but didn't get around to posting it, and then suddenly, a month had passed and there was still no new Top 5. But I'm not ready to let go of this hobby just yet. To restart, here is a list with music of the moment, with hopes that the moment keeps turning towards a full revolution.

Run The Jewels - walking in the snow

Of course I knew that RTJ4 was gonna be the album of the year, but I did not expect it to be that in such an emotional, gut-wrenching way. A shit-talking hard rap album that actually makes me tear up along the way is a rare and beautiful thing.

Beyoncé - BLACK PARADE

There is always a lot of purity politics and snide remarks about virtue-signalling (possibly applying to this top 5-list) and talk of people only making statements while something is trending. But surely social equity trending is still a net positive? We just have to keep the trend going, that's all...

https://www.beyonce.com/black-parade-route/?q=&page=1&category=all

Paris ft. Dead Prez and Public Enemy - Freedom (The Last Cell remix)

Breonna Taylor's murderers are still free and uncharged.

https://www.standwithbre.com/

noname - Song 33

noname's twitter-feed is such a treat. Makes me hopeful to live in an age where artists taking political stands based in political theory and difficult, informed debates rather than just grandstanding gestures.

Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... the reaping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)

Losing some privilege is a win-win the way I see it. There's a potential more beautiful world beyond this convulsion and self-examination.

To a girl that make me say, "Bang my heel to that"

And there's no need to oppose or appeal to that

12/20 - Now We're Swallowing The Shine of the Summer

This is a list that represents the split vision of living on a summer-fragrant island while the world is coming apart at its seams.

The National - Runaway

Feels like I've escaped here. But I'm not an escapist. I won't be no runaway. Cause I won't run.

We've got another thing coming undone

Amen Dunes - Miki Dora

A song about a criminal surfer that feels as blue and hazy and contradictory as this final day of May.

Purple Mountains - Storyline Fever

This album might be the happiest-sounding super-depressed album I've heard. Fits with the message. Don't get caught up in the narrative...

...'cause defeat is where your demons lurk

Sleigh Bells - Riot Rhythm

Yeah, I know, we're all righteously quoting MLK now, but still, "a riot is the language of the unheard" is what needs to be said. Solidarity with the protestors.

David Byrne - Hell You Talmbout

George Floyd. Say his name.

(Yes, this is a cover version, and it is a bit of a shame having to use a version by a white man - no matter how much I adore him - but it's the one that's on Spotify. See below for the original by Janelle Monáe & Wondaland)

11/20 - Standing In Pajamas With Bananas and Candid Cameras

It's time for a Sunday kitchen party, and here are the five bangers I've lined up for us to bob our heads to.

Erykah Badu - Danger

Quite often I reminisce about Erykah Badu's gig at Way Out West last year. One of the best in a long time.

Tyler, The Creator - I Ain't Got Time

I'm not the first to note that the experience of time is taking strange turns during this pandemic. My four-day weekends go by like gusts of wind, and I always end up feeling like I didn't get to the stuff I meant to do, even though I should logically have more time than ever, seeing as my calendar is virtually empty. But I've always got time for Tyler's inventive productions.

A$AP Rocky ft. Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T. - 1Train

A behemoth of all-star posse cuts. The transition between each rapper is thrilling, but the moment Danny Brown jumps in is my favourite. I don't know what it is about his voice and flow that just gets me pumped every time I hear him...

Non Prophets - Damage

A blast from the past. I used to listen to a lot of Sage Francis back in the day. Saw him live some time in the early 00's. It was just him, a CD-player and furious non-conformist energy, best summed up in the immortal line:

I go to Fugazi shows requesting Minor Threat songs

Run The Jewels - Yankee and the Brave (ep. 4)

What brought this rap party on, you might ask? Why, Run the Jewels announced that RTJ4 will be released on June 5! That's less than two weeks away. I have pre-ordered what will undoubtedly be the album of the year, and if you're reading this, so should you.

10/20 - We Can All Pull On Through

Some oldies goldies, some newbies:

Mohammed Rafi, Shamshad Begum - O Gaadiwale

I watched Mother India (1957) the other week, and now I feel like doing a deepdive into classic bollywood films. How can you make an epic tragedy about poverty, debt and tilling the earth and then have the main characters and a bunch of dancers suddenly break into this song in a field of wheat, without it being corny? I don't know, but they did.

U.S. Girls - Pearly Gates

OMG what a song! Where has this been all my life? In a way it feels like it's always been there; it's that instantly unevadable. Angry, sacrilegious, witty and catchy. This verse about St Peter's sexual misdeeds is just something else:

Peter bragged he was good at pulling out 
He always knew the right time to take a bow 
He practiced it every single night 
It hadn't failed him yet 
He'd been doing it a long, long time 
And Peter just does whatever Peter likes

David Bowie - It Ain't Easy

Nothing should go back to normal.

When you climb to the top of the mountain 
Look out over the sea 
Think about the places perhaps, where a young man could be 
Then you jump back down to the rooftops 
Look out over the town 
Think about all of the strange things circulating round

The White Stripes - Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine

Don't drink bleach. Fill in the waiting time for a vaccine with some Jack White guitarwork.

Nick Drake - Magic

When a tune makes me cry, it ends up on the list. Such are the rules. I've listened to this so many times, but suddenly there comes a time of extra receptiveness. I had just finished one of the last chapters of Selma Lagerlöf's gorgeous debut novel, and was already welling up a bit when Nick's melancholy tale of wonder ambushed me and pushed me over. The world is gorgeous.

09/20 - At Night In My Sleep, I Hear Voices

Here's some serene music for those lovely mornings when the sea lies heaving in purple swells.

King Crimson - Cadence and Cascade

King Crimson is a surprising band. I never gave them much thought, but every now and then they pop up on my random iTunes because of some time when I decided to download some of their stuff, and I never know it's them, because the tracks might as well be quintessential 70s prog, hypnotic rhythmic stuff, or, like here, gorgeous little serenades. Fascinating.

Rokia Traoré - Mouneïssa

In the absence of a DAB radio in my kitchen, I have made a breakfast playlist, and this hidden gem from one of my favourite Malian singers is on it, because it makes me feel really good about starting the day.

múm - Weeping Rock, Rock

Every day that I'm not working and the weather is decent I get up early and take a walk around the island before breakfast, because it's still an absolute wonder to me to be alone with the birds and deer on the rocks.

Nina Ramsby & Martin Hederos - Fredrik Åkares Morgonpsalm

On the aforementioned breakfast playlist there are three versions of this song (because it has the word 'morgon = morning' in the title, which is how I first started the playlist), and it's well worth it, because there's something about these lyrics that just gets deep down in me.

Oscar Brown, Jr. - World of Grey

I know nothing of this. It's from a record my uncle left behind. But it's a moody and poignant song, isn't it?

08/20 - I Just Might Have A Problem That You'll Understand

I feel like the last list, while musically excellent, maybe leaned in a bit too much to the anxiety and claustrophobia of the moment. So here's the antidote; five feathery light and uplifting songs to remind ourselves that it is, despite the world's best efforts, spring. Happy easter!

Da∂i Freyr - Skiptir Ekki Máli

My teammate Renee has instigated a tradition: Every day after work when we drive home from Halland in her van we listen to this year's Eurovision contribution from Iceland – aka the only Eurovision song ever worth listening to twice – and when it's ended we let the 'up next' function lead us in to this, even better, song by the same Icelandic charm troll. Sexy porn bass ftw!

Taeko Onuki - Tokai

Japanese 70s-pop with ingenious backing vocals ("bah.... bah, bah, bah....") is the sound of spring 2020.

Jeanette - ¿Por qué te vas?

I watched the beautifully sad movie Cría Cuervos, and in it, this irresistible song reappears in several exquisite scenes, with Ana (of Spirit of the Beehive fame) dancing and singing along. I haven't been able to stop humming it since.

LCD Soundsystem - change yr mind

James Murphy channelling Talking Heads to speak about the shedding of old skin.

Bill Withers - Lean On Me

As sad as it was losing Bill Withers, it was also a perfect time to have this song of comfort and solidarity reappearing on radio and tv. He doesn't mean physical leaning of course!! Also, I can recommend looking through the live performances Pitchfork collated, not least for his smooth af drummer...

07/20 - I Had A Dream About Deleting And Killer Whales

Well, this isn't going very well is it? Passed a million cases and 50000 deaths worldwide and Sweden's in the top 10 for death rate in relation to population while continuing to diverge from WHO guidelines. I'm not sure where we're heading but here's some music to make the uncertainty bearable.

Run The Jewels ft. Greg Nice & DJ Premier - Ooh LA LA

To start with we need to get out of bed. A new RTJ track is the single best way to do that. Will they ever misstep? No, no they won't.

I'm afraid of nothing
But nothingness, ain't it something?

Low - Always Trying To Work It Out

Then we need to remember that we are in this together and we are all trying to work this out. Except for scummy autocrats and risk capitalists who see this as an opportunity. Fuck them. Fuck them very much. On the other side of this there'll be changes. Big changes. Here's to making sure they're for the better.

Everybody says that the war is over
It isn't something you forget so easily

James Blake - Digital Lion

Don't sit too much in front of the computer. Information is important, but can be overwhelming, like this layered crescendo, and there's a lot of digital lyin going on...

For what feels like months
But really, it's days

London Grammar - Hell To The Liars

See former points about liars and fascists. But beauty remains in care and solidarity.

Here's to the things you love
Here's to those you fight enough

The Knife - From Off To On

Isolation. Domestic claustrophobia. Media overload. Lack of control. Have you tried turning it off and on again? Don't forget to turn it from off to on. Tomorrow.

We can not wait much longer
We want happiness back
We want control of our bodies
Everything we've lacked

 

06/20 - Just To Keep Feta And Stay Dipped

Social distancing, asocial diss-dancing.

Ana Tijoux - Antifa Dance

Let's not fall into the trap of thinking national isolation and closed borders is the lesson to draw from this crisis. International cooperation and solidarity is what pandemics call for. And fighting fascism is, as always, crucial. Also let's not forget that Ana Tijoux absolutely rules.

KAYTRANADA ft. Anderson .Paak - Glowed Up

Some very good vibes in here. Sunny-days-by-the-water's-edge vibes. I feel a bit guilty saying it while the world is in dire straits, but... I'm glowed up.

The Beatnuts ft. Big Pun & Cuban Linx - Off the Books

Threw in an old school 90s cut for the infectious beat. Only later did I realise there's a Corona mention in the lyrics. Infects everything, it does.

We're night thieves, roll up on you like sleeves 
We light trees, bust these and stack cheese

Danger Doom ft. Ghostface Killah - The Mask

Cheese links this and the previous track together. And Doom and Ghostface on the same track means pure wordplay joy.

My money green like my nickname was celery

Jay Electronica ft. The-Dream - Shiny Suit Theory

Jay Electronica finally released his first album the other day and it's one of those which you know you'll keep finding new things in years from now. True complex genious stuff. This might be the most trad-hip hop track, it's got Jay-Z together with Jay-E, and you truly do get blessed with every line.

In the land before time 
A land before altar boys, synagogues, and shrines, man was in his prime 
Look how far I go in time just to start a rhyme 
The method is sublime, you get blessed with every line

05/20 - Carefully We Will Come Through

OK, so I've now lived two weeks in my new home on a little island. So far it's an enchanted existence.

Marianne Faithfull - Yesterday

Last week I had one of those extra moments. I was on the bus on the way to work, crossing over Göta Älv on the Älvsborg bridge a short while after sunrise. Rolling along, 100 meters above the estuary, a V-formation of geese suddenly came flying, crossing just over the bus, at the exact same time that the choir enters at 0:27 into this here song which I was listening to in my headphones. It was cinematic, in that over-the-top, sentimental way that is cliche but still so straightforward and right that you just can't help but feel it in your soul. Just like this cover version.

Christine and the Queens ft. Caroline Polachek - La vita nuova

Dream meeting of amazing women. When Caroline Polachek showed up without prior warning in this EP-long video, the electricity tingled throughout my body.

Helado Negro - Todo Lo Que Me Falta

All that's missing in my home is a guest. Come visit. I'll play you this lovely laidback song about what was missing and make us coffee.

Disclosure ft. London Grammar - Help Me Lose My Mind

Didn't get in on it when it was hot back in 2013, but now I get it. It's music that makes you light.

Moses Sumney - Lonely World

In times of social distancing and self quarantines, I can think of few better places to ride out the storm than this island. It's a lonely world, but out on the barnacle-rimmed cliffs it's a delicious loneliness, which you can turn over and over in your mouth to suck out the taste of the word, just like Moses does.

04/20 - You'll Have To Learn To Live A Different Way

Things are shifting. Small steps taken start to add up to a critical mass. Change comes rumbling. It should be good, it could be bad. Things are nervous.

Billie Eilish - No Time To Die

I have not caught up with the Billie Eilish hype. I have yet to form an opinion on her, and it might even be that this song will have lost its luster a couple of months' heavy commercial rotation from now. But just at this moment it definitely feels like the best Bond song – except for Radiohead's discarded Spectre contribution of course – since the 1970s. It's gutsy, because it's so subtle: Billie holds back, quavers and doesn't go full throttle until the dramatic crescendo in the final 40 seconds. It's got nerve and it sends a chill down my spine.

Dave - Black

Maybe it looks like I'm desperate to stay hip and contemporary by including two performances from last week's Brit Awards, but how can you look over a performance like this? Between Dave and Stormzy it feels like there's at least a cultural antidote to the Tory Brexit. Just wish that extra verse was on the record.

Tirzah - Go Now

We spend a lifetime trying to learn when's the right time to leave.

Low - Disarray

Did a bit of catching up with this album. It's a near perfect distillation of zeitgeist. Stunning humanity in the midst of distortion and... total disarray.

Melanie - Mr. Tambourine Man

The richness of a Bob Dylan song still has few matches. There are always at least two sides to every verse. You could do a Byrds-like take of Mr Tambourine Man and make it into a paean to delirious freedom and escape. Or you could do like Melanie, and pick out the sleep-deprived anxiety and indecision, to sing with tense, anguished voice:

Please let me forget about today until tomorrow

And because I forgot it last week; here's Goat (Japan). They're not on Spotify, but they're absolutely extraordinarily awesome live.

03/20 - Leave Your Bad News For A While

Bleurgh. What a dismal season. One has to look for shimmering distractions.

Nina Simone - You've Got To Learn

Continuing last week's resilience theme with one of the best. Can anyone listen to this without clenching something? A fist, a chest, some legs...

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Mr. Brown

The economy of early Wailers tracks is what puts them up and above. You have an absolute killer bit like the "From Mandeville to Sligoville, coffin running around..."-chorus, used once, and then a second time only for the fade out. Because that's all a backbeat ghost story needs to utterly slay.

The Weeknd - The Birds Pt. 1

Uncut Gems prompted me to look into The Weeknd a bit more, and would you know? I found uncut gems. Always a fan of heavy marching drums. And a timely warning: Don't make me make you fall in love!

Jessica Pratt - Jacquelyn in the Background

Rainy days have always been the ones most urgently calling out for a soundtrack, and now I've found a new rainy day favourite. That disorienting tape warp effect at 2:45 makes it sound just wrong enough to make it absoutely right for a pissy February Thursday.

Bon Iver - 00000 Million

This is for after the rain. Whenever that is.

Where the days have no numbers...

02/20 - Don't Mean You're Beaten Now

Sheets of rain are attacking my windowpane from highly imaginative angles. This playlist is a mood.

Angel Olsen - Impasse

Saw Angel live on Tuesday, and now I'm trying to figure out what overused clichés could be employed to liken the force of the performance with. Some kind of storm perhaps? Or something geological, like an eruption/explosion? Best perhaps to sidestep the similes all together and simply imply that a live reindition of this and other recent songs is something one better braze oneself for. Above the larm of the full-fledged band, her voice adds a sort of pummelling punch coming for the audience's sternum.

Sharon van Etten - Beaten Down

This was released just the other day. It's subtle, creeping and cleverly persuasive. By the time the chorus comes around for a third time, the jump from that low gurgle "it ain't.." to the high soaring "...beaten down" has become an addiction. And Sharon looks hella cool.

Bill Callahan - One Fine Morning

The doom and gloom will be met with a stoic, beauty-loving mind.

When the earth turns cold, and the earth turns black
Will I feel you riding on my back?
For I am a part of the road
The hardest part

The Smashing Pumpkins - Soma

The teenager inside jumps out and wants to listen to angsty Smashing Pumpkins from when they were still great, had the best guitar solos, and wrote songs about Brave New World-drugs, anger and loneliness.

Scott Walker - Phrasing

Angst in a different, more artful guise, with some dissonant samba thrown in for good measure.

Did ya spot the die-cut crosses?

...

Did ya?

01/20 - We Can Make Our Bad Dreams Come True

2020 has had a slow start. Or rather, it has had no start. It feels like time has been standing still since December. Sweden is grey, visually and mentally. But, January skimmed through and done with, now it's February, and I'm ready to shake the dust off and give this new decade a chance to redeem itself. New colours on the blog, new tunes in the play queue. Let's start the year here.

LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean

Waking up, furtively. Warming to it, warming to it... until BLAM you throw the blanket off and jump up into the cold dark dawn. This winter malaise does not wash off; you have to dance yourself clean.

Tierra Whack - Unemployed

One of the best things that happened in 2019 was this song and video, and I didn't even catch it til this year. Luckily we live in a culture where everything lives forever on the internet. And soon I intend to be unemployed with gusto, preferably with this as my recurring soundtrack.

"Are you ok?" Please don't ask that.

Fattaru - Hörde Jag Skål

I'm frustrated, lethargic, disappointed with myself, but in the long run I'm fucking determined not to accept a boring life. Did I hear 'cheers to that!'?

Lars Hollmer - Boeves Psalm

A melody for starting on a new page.

Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton - Baby, It's Cold Outside

I'm now feeling like I've defrosted a bit. One way to keep the temperature up is with old school, jocular, innuendo. With mutual consent and understanding like with Louis and Velma of course.