Everything But The Girl - Nothing Left To Lose

What gives anyone the right to drop a track so perfect after 20+ gd years? The song feels of a spirit with the legendary “Missing” and indeed does nod to it, but the past here is an object of reflection, not revival. The refrain of the bridge so perfectly fits the anxieties of the moment we’re living in, a desperate outcry for the love that alone makes this world bearable. Link since not on BC: 

Tammo Hesselink - Eraser

This is like the platonic ideal of modern minimal techno to me. It does that amazing thing where there are so few elements, and almost nothing happens or changes during the track, but somehow seven minutes just vanish like a gd magic trick. The perfectly balanced sensations of floating and pulsation and that godly chord progression make this something I could just sit in for an hour.

Jessie Ware - Begin Again

Despite my reputation in some circles as a Jessie Ware hater, I actually do like her music - but I do think the towering heights she hits here solidifies my frustration with a lot of her other music. This goes so far beyond the (imo) disco pastiche you sometimes get from her, into a genuinely epic, big band, exultant disco anthem that makes you excited for tomorrow.

Parannoul - Into the Endless Night (live)

This sticks out like a bit of a sore thumb on the list, being a 46-minute rendition of a previously released track…but whatever, it’s my list! The whole record is worth your time, as the live setting and additional contributors on stage add an intense rawness and life to the songs that are quite a lot more crafted and meticulous sounding on the studio recordings. But this performance is undoubtedly the crowning moment that elevates the whole thing into that pantheon of legendary live records - it starts simply as a  of the song, before veering off on a sprawling psychic journey that brings you as close to ego death and rebirth as you will get without good drugs (lay on couch, close eyes, blast on speakers for full effect).

Nikki Nair - Can’t Wait

It’s kind of funny, Nikki Nair is known (well, sort of) for the bangers, like the biggish track he did with Hudson Mohawke this year. But this is the one I fell in love with, this weird little glitched out pop number about the banality of workaday life and its most powerful tonic, getting fucked up with your friends. 

Kara Jackson - why does the earth give us people to love?

Geez, this song just burrows so deep into my heart. It’s been almost fifteen years since I lost one of my closest childhood friends, and this song sort of unlocked a new perspective on that grief, made me feel it in a new way after all those years. That’s not something I was ever really expecting, after living nearly half of my life without him. It’s both painful to listen to and something I’ll always feel thankful to her for. 

James Blake - Loading

Dollar store Arthur Russell returned to his roots this year, though he brought those years of experience writing more intimate and plainly emotive music along with him. Loading is the pinnacle of that marriage in my opinion, his best asset (voice) deployed in a bewildering variety of guises, from his now familiar achingly beautiful harmonies to the pitched up/down unpredictably processed vocals of CMYK days. Link since not on BC: 

claire rousay - Sigh In My Ear

Remarkably beautiful, haunting foray into more pop-structured music for claire rousay, who is mostly known for her ambient stuff. Not to detract by way of comparison, but it reminds me a lot of MBV’s “Sometimes” in that at its core, it is a passionate but simply composed pop song, elevated by the aesthetic sensibility and genius of the artist to the point it pierces your heart. 

Lunch Money Life & Nabihah Iqbal - Love Won’t Hide Your Fears Away

I think this was a bonus track on the Lunch Money Life album, which overall is a little hit or miss for me, but bloody hell this song. It actually takes an incendiary instrumental from the album proper and brings it into perfect balance with the addition of Nabihah Iqbal’s understated, spoken word vocals. I just can’t get enough of this one - the horror movie synth stabs, the massive riffs, the crushing rhythms, the gut twisting vision of love it presents. Every time I find myself a little shocked to realize this song is only 3m30s because of the way it leaves you feeling so spent.

Tele Novella - Eggs in one Basket

Okay, not every song on my list is some deeply probing emotional bomb. The album is a little inconsistent in my opinion but when they hit, as they do most squarely here, it is out of the park. Delightfully charming melodies arranged with sometimes country western aesthetics/ sometimes baroque medieval sounding shit. It’s very odd on the face of it but pulled off so effortlessly it just sounds awesome. Indie pop ain’t totally dead!

Jurgen Paape - In Time

No one does this sentimental, timeless, end-of-the-night thing quite like Jurgen Paape. When that whistle hits you want to just be drunkenly swaying eyes closed with a close friend or two. Sublime, simple as.