Any conversation about the twenty twenties has to start with the horrors of the pandemic. Was it really only in March 2020 that we were told to stay indoors, the pubs closed, live shows were cancelled, football was postponed and somewhere beyond the sanctuary of our homes tens of thousands were left to die a hard fought, miserable death? In fact, it would actually be two more years, 252 days in lockdown and more than 232,000 deaths before the last coronavirus related legal restriction in the UK was lifted and life returned to something resembling normality. And ‘resembling’ was the operative word, because along the way a new phrase would emerge; the dreaded ‘new normal’.
Maybe we were being naïve, but at the end of the pandemic proper, when all the lockdowns and restrictions were over, there was a vain hope that following months of paralysing fear and untold misery, we would emerge into a brighter, better, brave new world, the thought being that with societies oppressive model so profoundly shattered, radical change of some sort might just be possible. Except as we would soon discover, the exact opposite was true as the lies got bigger, the kickback got harder, the rich got richer and mass protests about institutional racism and murder, climate change and economic inflation gave way to the ideological terror of far right fascism and the shitstorm of a world we live in today!
And yet, as uncaring as humanity would become, with infinite stretches of time to fill, it was during those lockdown years that I listened to more music than I ever had before which meant that I became increasingly aware of the impact of digital first creation, discovery and consumption. I also couldn’t fail to notice that while the twenty tens witnessed the rise of streaming, the twenty twenties were being completely shaped by it, with a proliferation of short, hook laden songs designed to be played immediately and often. Constructed by committees of producers, writers, consultants and specialists, as likeable as some of them were, there was nothing to suggest that they hadn’t all been extensively researched and audience tested resulting in a glut of bland, inoffensive tunes reductively moulded together.
There was also an argument to be had about the continued reliance on the genres of the past for inspiration and their quintessential songs being stripped for parts by producers and artists alike, not to mention the influence of TikTok, Instagram and the thirty second soundbite or the emerging threat to authenticity artificial intelligence could bring. Having said that, as someone who has always believed in the underground and the experimental, while streaming platform algorithms and social media may nudge you gently towards the safety of the commercial mainstream or the latest AI generated composition for maximum profit, it remains within your power to resist. I should know, I’ve been doing it for years, the artists of my twenty twenties like Baxter Dury, Greentea Peng, Idles, Lorde and Oliver Sim as distinct, varied and uncompromising as those from any other decade.
As for this soundtrack, listening to literally thousands of songs to end up with just ten per year has, through necessity, proved an occasionally bewildering process littered with self-doubt and inner debate, especially if you agree with the theory that you need at least two years to judge if a song truly stands the test of time. But mostly it has been about remembering all those extraordinary moments of musical joy and the unexplainable magic of inadvertently stumbling across something bewildering yet wonderful. Ranging from the revelatory to the mystifying and from the hushed to the sweary, the songs here barely scratch the surface. But they do represent the spine of my twenty twenties so far, etched as they are into the musical consciousness of my memory. Whether they stay there or not, only time will tell!
Chris Green
March 2026
2020
1. POWFU & BEABADOOBEE ‘Death Bed’ (Single A Side February 2020)
A number four chart hit loved and loathed in equal measure, even I was surprised that my twenty twenties began with a twenty year old, Canadian rappers, lo-fi, sing song rap about impending death, aided and abetted by British songwriter Beabadoobee’s sweet acoustic ballad. A global YouTube and TikTok phenomenon, at the time of writing ‘Death Bed’ has accumulated almost two billion streams on Spotify alone and become the epitome of a DIY bedroom hit. And remember, this was before the pandemic when death was, well, just about everywhere.
2. GREENTEA PENG ‘Ghost Town’ (Single A Side March 2020)
Inspired by Jerry Dammers 1981 Special’s song of the same name, Greentea Peng’s ‘Ghost Town’ was a mellow, dub infused lament against the rapid gentrification, social cleansing and rising inequality in London and the ineffectiveness of a Tory government who in fourteen years struggled to resolve their own leadership issues let alone a worldwide pandemic.
3. THE 1975 FEAT. PHOEBE BRIDGERS ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’ (Single A Side April 2020)
The more artful than thou Matt Healey has always been a privileged twat of the highest order, his groups music so considered and bereft that I’ve had no trouble ignoring just about anything they’ve ever done. However, ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’ struck me as being somewhat different, if only because Phoebe Bridgers voice added a melancholy yearning and depth that made a lot more sense of Healey’s words than he could ever have done himself.
4. RUN THE JEWELS FEAT. GREG NICE & DJ PREMIER ‘Ooh La La’ (RTJ4 LP June 2020)
I’ve heard Run The Jewels described as direct descendants of punk many times, or rather the ‘fuck off’ punk ideal as opposed to the carefully cultivated marketable and homogenised version. As such RTJ4, despite being their major label debut, was not so very different to its predecessors, apart from the catchy as hell ‘Ooh La La’ which cleverly transformed the iconic verse from Gang Starr’s 1994 ‘DWYCK’ street anthem into a generational shout for the new decade.
5. ANDERSON. PAAK ‘Lockdown’ (Single A Side June 2020)
As reflective and as relevant as it gets, Brandon Anderson’s ‘Lockdown’ was less a song and more a conversation about what had been as surreal and brutal a six months as the world had ever seen. Disarming the racist dismissal of ‘the angry black man’ and painting a painful picture of an America at war with its own sense of selective hearing, his trademark smooth vocal and languid jazz production allowed his words to shine, conveying his frustration about the murder of George Floyd on 25th May 2020 in a manner that felt smart, considered and deeply resonant. In a moment that held onto hope in a sea of hurt, ‘Lockdown’ was the essential song for the times.
6. J. CHAMBERS ‘Kill The Noise’ (Single A Side June 2020)
In 2020, living inside a failed nation state governed by psychopathic toffs and social murderers propped up by a right wing media of forelock tugging cunts was not anyone’s idea of fun. But when the shock and fear gradually began to subside, I was shocked by the lack of artists willing to stick their head above the parapet and actually say something. Following in the revolutionary lineage of his Manchester background, dub poet and reggae hip hop artist J. Chambers was one of the few who did.
Ambitious and commanding, ‘Kill The Noise’ laid bare a litany of thoughts and emotions most rappers would have kept to themselves while drawing on a spectrum of influences from Afrobeat to dancehall. Providing a uniquely British perspective on the frustration of lockdown, mass unemployment, Black Lives Matter protests and George Floyd, it was a reminder that despite social distancing and masks becoming the new normal that was no excuse to distance ourselves from the injustices and uncomfortable truths of the past.
7. JARV IS ‘Save The Whale’ (Beyond The Pale LP July 2020)
At the ripe old age of 57, Jarvis Cocker flipped his stylistic approach on its head and dived headlong into baroque art pop with a touch of the experimental and ambient thrown in. Bringing together an amalgam of influences and era’s from Serge Gainsbourg to synth pop and eighties house, Beyond The Pale and songs like ‘Swanky Modes’, ‘Sometimes I Am Pharaoh’ and ‘Save The Whale’ were a phenomenal display of his skills, punctuated with the insight he had earned in more than four decades of making music.
8. IDLES ‘A Hymn’ (Ultra Mono LP September 2020)
Coming late to Idles through their appearances on the Peaky Blinders soundtracks meant I had no expectation of what they should sound like, something that was particularly advantageous when it came to Ultra Mono and ‘Hymn’. Like no Idles song before it, Joe Talbot’s ‘I wanna be loved / Everybody does’ and the atmospheric, five minute build-up of tension that ultimately failed to explode proved there was a lot more to them than just three minute onslaughts of righteous fury.
9. ROMY ‘Lifetime’ (Single A Side September 2020)
Written for someone stuck in the horror of the daily grind trying to find some peace amongst the madness, ‘Lifetime’ did what all great pop songs do by soaring in it’s delicious, Abba-like way above the dull, grim reality of 2020 Britain to take you anywhere you wanted to go.
10. PA SALIEU ‘B***k’ (Single A Side October 2020)
The complete opposite of ‘Lifetime’s escapism, Pa Salieu’s ‘B***k’ was both an indictment of anti-Blackness and an expression of Black pride that plunged deep into dancehall with an underlying West African folk melody floating through it. A reflection of living in Hillfields, the deprived area of Coventry he grew up in after an early childhood in Gambia, it was the latest missive documenting the depressingly long line of racism and discrimination polluting British history no matter how much we like to believe it’s not.
2021
11. SLEAFORD MODS & BILLY NOMATES ‘Mork n Mindy’ (Spare Ribs LP January 2021)
In the strange, all too brief interlude between lockdowns, Zoom calls and baking banana bread, Sleaford Mods chose to record their eleventh album Spare Ribs. With Andrew Fearn’s familiar electronic backbeat clicking and clacking away behind him, James Williamson’s local dialect raps laid into the Tory government, Dominic Cummings, class tourism and music industry types before the relatively easy going ‘Mork n Mindy’ appeared as a reminder, as Williamson himself put it, of ‘the dying smells of Sunday dinner in a house on an estate in 1982 where beauty mainly existed in small cracks on the shell of your imagination’.
12. EASY LIFE ‘Have A Great Day’ (Life’s A Beach LP May 2021)
If Sleaford Mods were an uncomfortable reminder of arguing with someone as they played the fruit machine in a rundown pub near Nottingham, 28 miles and 45 minutes south in Leicester, Easy Life’s debut was fuelled by mid-afternoon cans in the park with an illicit lover. Unlike the full frontal assault of Spare Ribs, Life’s A Beach was an album of wonderfully wonky pop, lyrical daydreams and finding the courage to discover a way forward after twelve months of being cooped up at home.
13. WET LEG ‘Chaise Longue’ (Single A Side June 2021)
While I can appreciate that ‘Chaise Longue’ may not be Wet Leg’s best song, cruising along on its slightly twitchy groove with Rhian Teasdale’s coy yet slightly menacing voice muttering ‘Is your muffin buttered / Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?’, it took on a life of its own and invariably bewitched everyone who heard it.
14. JAMES BLAKE ‘Say What You Will’ (Single A Side July 2021)
Now firmly established as a Green family favourite, James Blake’s ‘Say What You Will’ was one of his quietly affecting, more traditional songs that caught me slightly unawares with its emotional intensity. A plaintive and softly beautiful ballad drawing inspiration from the folk artists of old whose influence can be heard at the outer limits of his work, the songs exploration of self-acceptance, finding peace and overcoming the burden of comparison and criticism was exactly what I needed to hear as my middle-age receded fast and old age beckoned.
15. MR JUKES & BARNEY ARTIST ‘Vibrate’ (The Locket LP August 2021)
Sometimes music doesn’t have to mean a thing. After all, where is it written that every song has to have something deep and meaningful to say? Sometimes music can be as simple and effective as Bombay Bicycle Club member Jack Steadman’s Mr Jukes project, his partnership with East London rapper Barney Artist and a song like the wonderfully infectious ‘Vibrate’ which sounded just as cathartic to make as it was to listen to.
16. LORDE ‘Stoned At The Nail Salon’ (Solar Power LP August 2021)
When David Bowie talked about his love and admiration for other artists in the early seventies my generation listened. Otherwise how would we have discovered Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Iggy & The Stooges or Kraftwerk to name just a few. So when he spoke about Lorde in the years before his death and described her as ‘the future of music’ I listened once more, albeit that it was only when I saw her performing ‘Life On Mars’ at the 2016 Brit awards that I truly believed him.
Being inextricably linked to an artist who single-handedly changed the musical and cultural map of the twentieth century could have been an unbearable burden, yet Lorde continued to unravel and explore, a quest she confirmed on Solar Power. Her valiant attempt to bid farewell to the mainstream, it was an album designed to be listened to as a complete work, retreating as it did from the committee led, manufacturing processes of twenty first century pop. Unabashedly blissful and intriguingly carefree, the albums twelve songs offered a quieter, more contemplative Lorde and were a necessary, creative leap forward.
17. MOONCHILD SANELLY & SAD NIGHT DYNAMITE ‘Demon’ (Single A Side October 2021)
Known as South African dance music’s enfant terrible, you didn’t have to know anything about Moonchild Sanelly to appreciate her remotely recorded, lockdown collaboration with Glastonbury duo Sad Night Dynamite. A world away from her starring role on Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for the live action remake of The Lion King, ‘Demon’s dark energy had more in common with Archie Blagden and Josh Greacen’s closer to home influence of Bristol trip hop.
18. BAXTER DURY ‘D.O.A.’ (Single A Side October 2021)
In the early eighties, if anyone had told the twenty something me that forty years later one of my favourite artists would be the son of notorious arsehole Ian Dury I would have told them where to go. But that’s exactly how it’s worked out, largely because of songs like the fantastic ‘D.O.A.’, written by Baxter and his own son Kosmo to reflect the Frank Ocean, Tyler The Creator and Kendrick Lamar albums he listened to during lockdown. Combining his regular, hard-edged, laconic vocals with experimental, ethereal glimmers of instrumentation and a nod to the spirit of gospel found all over contemporary R&B and rap, it was his first step in an invigorating new direction.
19. LET’S EAT GRANDMA ‘Two Ribbons’ (Single A Side November 2021)
A raw, heart rending lament written by Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth after the latter’s 22 year old boyfriend died of bone cancer, ‘Two Ribbons’ was a compelling song, written in part about the fact that no amount of love can prevent death or a relationship gradually fading (‘like two ribbons, still woven, although we’re fraying’). In some ways hopeful, in other ways devastating, whatever it was its beauty made me feel uneasy in a way that only great music can.
20. DAMON ALBARN ‘The Tower Of Montevideo’ (The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows LP November 2021)
Damon Albarn often comes across as a mad professor type who spends every waking hour rattling around his South Devon mansion composing songs for whatever project he has on the go, whether it’s The Good, The Bad & The Queen, another Blur reunion, Gorillaz or in 2021 his emotionally dark, second solo album. In fact, so dark and murky was it that there were moments when the songs sounded so crushed by the sheer weight of Damon’s demons that they began to unravel. Noel Gallagher’s high flying whatsits it most definitely was not. Instead, The Nearer The Fountain was an album of rare beauty and experimentation, songs like the title track, ‘Polaris’ and ‘The Tower Of Montevideo’ doing their utmost to provide the occasional flicker of optimism to lighten the gloom.
2022
21. PETER DOHERTY & FREDERIC LO ‘The Epidemiologist’ (The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime LP March 2022)
My love for resolute English troubadours has resulted in a fair amount of ridicule coming my way from the kind of middle-aged fools who prefer their music on vinyl and proclaim The Killers to be the fulcrum of modern music culture. And there have been none more ridiculed than Pete Doherty. Not that I cared because The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime was as good as he’d been for quite some time, ‘The Epidemiologist’ the best song he’d written in more than a decade.
22. BLACK MIDI ‘Love Story’ (Cavalcovers EP March 2022)
Black Midi’s Cavalcade album gathered the critical plaudits but I found it unnecessarily complicated, the elaborate chord changes and twisted rhythms leaving me cold. Alternatively, the Cavalcovers EP on which they served up their versions of King Crimson’s ’21st Century Schizoid Man’, ‘Captain Beefheart’s ‘Moonlight On Vermont’ and an overhaul of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ was far more enjoyable.
23. FONTAINES D.C. ‘I Love You’ (Skinty Fia LP April 2022)
A sweeping, wondrous album, Skinty Fia was the point where Fontaines D.C. swapped their scrappy, post punk urgency for searing honesty and adventure. Written and recorded while they were living in London, that scenario led to a collection of songs infused with the idea of Irish identity, heritage and displacement. More ambitious than anything they’d done previously, it was a record defined by the long awaited return of maximalist guitars and Grian Chatten’s thoughtful lyrics, the sheer power, intensity and poetry of a song like ‘I Love You’ stirring my emotions in a way I hadn’t been expecting.
24. KENDRICK LAMAR & BETH GIBBONS ‘Mother I Sober’ (Mr Morale & The Big Steppers LP May 2022)
Mr Morale & The Big Steppers was crammed with lyrical and musical ideas but has become known for its extraordinary final track. An undeniably brilliant work, ‘Mother I Sober’ detailed the complex, multi-faceted story of a sexual assault on Kendrick Lamar’s mother, his own childhood denial that his cousin had abused him, the consequences of not being believed and the inability of Black American’s to escape the generational trauma they hold within that goes all the way back to slavery.
As I’ve written a number of times before, I’ve never felt completely comfortable listening to Kendrick Lamar. Not surprisingly, the painfully personal and somewhat disturbing ‘Mother I Sober’ took that unease to whole new level, if anything Beth Gibbon’s singing ‘I wish I was somebody / Anybody but myself’ making it infinitely worse. But it did make me think and ultimately that’s what makes great art great!
25. OLIVER SIM FEAT. JIMMY SOMERVILLE ‘Hideous’ (Single A Side May 2022)
In 2022 it wasn’t just mid-thirty something American rappers baring their souls, ex XX bassist and singer Oliver Sim did something similar on his incredibly moving ‘Hideous’ by singing about issues surrounding his sexuality, his HIV positive diagnosis and his body image. Devastatingly intimate, it was a gorgeous song capped by an unexpected, goosebump raising cameo from Jimmy Somerville.
26. MURKAGE DAVE ‘Sadness Is On His Way’ (The City Needs A Hero LP May 2022)
A pillar of the Manchester club scene throughout the noughties, East London DJ and promoter Murkage Dave’s eponymous club night and collective operated as a hub of underground garage, R&B and house for more than a decade. Stepping out of the shadows, his second album The City Needs A Hero reflected on the troubled and turbulent streets of post Covid Britain, ‘Sadness Is On His Way’ underlining the idea that learning to ride the wave’s life hits us with is a universal, inevitable and ultimately enriching experience. Now that’s a message you don’t hear often.
27. YARD ACT ‘100% Endurance’ [Elton John Version] (Single A Side July 2022)
A song about enlightenment, purpose and chasing the big questions about our existence, Yard Act’s single version of ‘100% Endurance’ paired the minimalist Leeds post punkers with one of their biggest fans, none other than the grand old dame of British pop Elton John. And you know what, by highlighting the melody and emotion of the original and chucking in a string section and of course Elton’s trademark piano flourishes, the end result was a poignant triumph and proof that mad, spontaneous shit really can happen occasionally!
28. EASTER ‘Some In The Nude’ (Single A Side July 2022)
A chance meeting between a Norwegian art student Stix Omar and German producer Max Boss in Berlin led to Easter, the unusual circumstances of their acquaintance resonating with the abstract nature of their sound. Reminiscent of the kind of experimental electronica found in early eighties, DIY, cassette culture, ‘Some In The Nude’ was made to sound intentionally like random people making random music in a room, the songs poignant harmony and hypnotic undercurrent overlaid with matter of fact lyrics striking a balance between the disconnect and affection found in any long term relationship.
29. YOUNG FATHERS ‘I Saw’ (Single A Side October 2022)
In the early twenty twenties, Young Fathers still meant something even if they didn’t always believe it themselves. Living in a world where change is constant and long term equates to a couple of months, a group who had been around for more than a decade but had met with limited commercial success should have been struggling to hold anyone’s attention. Yet somehow, a stomping rhythmic song like ‘I Saw’, with voices switching back and forth between furious, unhinged ranting and deadpan, melodic chants, still did the trick.
30. LOYLE CARNER ‘Blood On My Nikes‘ (Hugo LP October 2022)
Loyle Carner is one of the few British rappers not afraid to dissect controversial subjects in the same way as artists like Young Fathers or Hak Baker while still appealing to the mainstream and appearing on Saturday morning TV. And ‘Blood On My Nikes’ firm message about knife crime really did tell it like it is, whether you wanted to hear it or not.
2023
31. GINA BIRCH ‘I Play My Bass Loud’ (Single A Side January 2023)
One of my most unexpected experiences of 2023 was being woken up one cold, January morning by Gina Birch’s ‘I Play My Bass Loud’ pumping out of the radio. The first solo single from the 67 year old bassist once of the legendary Raincoats, even more unexpected was how fantastic the song was, a not unsurprisingly bass heavy, genuinely uplifting, feminist celebration of musical freedom and life itself. What could be better than that at 7.15am?
32. HIFI SEAN & DAVID MCALMONT ‘Beautiful’ (Happy Ending LP February 2023)
Ex Soup Dragon mastermind turned superstar DJ and remixer Sean Dickson’s reinvention as HiFi Sean was a move no-one saw coming, his collaboration with David McAlmont even less so. Nonetheless, Happy Ending was a fabulous creation, a mix of the Pet Shop Boys, New Order, torch songs, lavish strings, house music, trip hop and more. With an ear for detail and an innate skill for making literate and intricate music, Dickson’s approach fitted McAlmont’s effusive, soulful voice perfectly, never more so than on ‘Beautiful’, the kind of life affirming pop music we all need to hear on days when getting out of bed barely seems worth the effort.
33. HAK BAKER ‘Windrush Baby’ (Single A Side March 2023)
Hak Baker loves nothing more than to sweep aside the bullshit to get to the truth and the acoustic swing of ‘Windrush Baby’ followed the same blueprint. A bold statement serving as both a celebration of the Windrush generation’s resilience and a critique of black societal and community failures, the final Jamaican voice sample alone was guaranteed to raise a ruckus.
34. YOUTH LAGOON ‘Prizefighter’ (Single A Side April 2023)
The sepia tinted Americana of ‘Prizefighter’ heralded the return of self-confessed Idaho weirdo Trevor Powers Youth Lagoon project. Singing in his fragile, alto voice, it was a strikingly personal document of the bond between him and his brothers and their childhood in smalltown America, although the lyrical detail was largely irrelevant, ‘Prizefighter’ being one of those songs that takes you to a place far away from what the writer originally intended which then allows you to create your own narrative and meaning.
35. BAXTER DURY ‘Celebrate Me’ (I Thought I Was Better Than You LP June 2023)
As post Covid Britain suffered under the most inept government in history, along came my old mate Baxter Dury and I Thought I Was Better Than You to soothe our furrowed brows and put a smile back on our faces. A relatively short album in terms of length if not emotional insight, Baxter's fucked up childhood took centre stage as he looked back in horror at the complete lack of parenting in his childhood, his struggle for parental understanding and on the massively catchy ‘Aylesbury Boy’, the story of growing up in the cultural wasteland of Buckinghamshire before being whisked away to a posh private school in Kensington. Even better was the stupendous ‘Celebrate Me’, a gentle yet utterly brutal tune about ego, being predictably bohemian and attention seeking that was indicative of both his humour (‘he’s a brave man eating hummus in the morning’) and his bleak outlook (‘I’m drowning in those urine lakes’).
36. ANOHNI & THE JOHNSONS ‘Sliver Of Ice’ (My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross LP July 2023)
Occupying a place as an underground artist set to remain on the verge of mainstream success forever, Anohni’s sixth studio album was an unlikely departure from her more experimental past. Advised by her friend Boy George that given the right circumstances she could sell a million, producer Jimmy Hogarth, known for his work with Duffy, Amy Winehouse and (look away now) James Blunt was bought in, presumably to test if such a thing really was possible. The result was My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, Anohni’s most approachable album by far.
Underlining her link to vintage blues, jazz and R&B while continuing to soundtrack oppression, loss and alienation with heartbreaking precision, there was still something deeply uncompromising about the likes of ‘It Must Change’, ‘Can’t’, ‘There Wasn’t Enough’ and ‘Why Am I Alive Now?’. Yet sonically they hinted at the simple arrangements, delicate orchestrations and retro soul flavour of Hogarth’s more commercial work, in particular ‘Sliver Of Ice’, a composition concerned with the last days of Anohni’s friend and mentor Lou Reed on which the tremolo heavy guitar evoked the dreamy doo wop and early rock’n’roll ballads the ex Velvets singer adored.
37. BLUR ‘The Ballad’ (The Ballad Of Darren LP July 2023)
I have nothing much to say about The Ballad Of Darren or Blur apart from the fact that their depiction of middle-age as a minefield of remorse, broken relationships and existential dread was spot on. Oh yeah, and ‘The Ballad’ is up there as one of the loveliest songs they’ve ever released.
38. COURTNEY BARNETT & CHASTITY BELT ‘Different Now’ (Single A Side August 2023)
In the last vestiges of middle-age I shouldn’t have been in the slightest bit interested in anything as guitar driven and trad rock as Courtney Barnett’s version of Chastity Belt’s ‘Different Now', but with lines like ‘You’re hard on yourself / Well, you can’t always be right / All those little things that keep you up at night / You should take some time to figure out your life’ striking a chord, I had no choice.
39. JAMES BLAKE ‘If You Can Hear Me’ (Playing Robots Into Heaven LP September 2023)
Unlike my mother, I loved my father unconditionally. As nice and as easy going a man as there ever was, he died suddenly in April 1999 at 66 years old minutes after a triple heart bypass operation. Consequently, he missed not only the birth of my daughter and the death of my youngest son, but what has turned out to be the most stable and happiest period of my life, something I would dearly have loved him to be a part of after the turmoil of my youth. And yet for some reason, not once in the intervening years between 1999 and 2023 did I stop to grieve or even think about him until I heard James Blake addressing his own father on the plaintive ‘If You Can Hear Me’.
40. IDLES & LCD SOUNDSYSTEM ‘Dancer’ (Single A Side October 2023)
Idles are an angry bunch but one thing I’ve learnt over the course of my life is that no-one remains angry forever. After all, being angry is an exhausting business, so much so that eventually you run the risk of repeating yourself as you run out of things to be angry about. So it was good to hear Joe Talbot lighten up a little on their collaboration with the considerably more laidback LCD Soundsystem. Not that ‘Dancer’ didn’t sound like an Idles song because it did. It’s just that James Murphy & Co transformed it into something unexpectedly groovy, and of course, danceable.
2024
41. BILL RYDER-JONES ‘If Tomorrow Starts Without Me’ (Iechyd Da LP January 2024)
After leaving The Coral due to serious bouts of depression, agoraphobia and panic attacks, Bill Ryder-Jones quietly busied himself in his West Kirby studio mapping out a singular sonic vision that stretched from imaginary orchestral soundtracks to emotionally fucked slowcore. Iechyd Da (Welsh for good health) added some eerie samples, disco inspired arrangements and a children’s choir for good measure, but it was the deceptively simple ‘If Tomorrow Starts Without Me’ that really stood out, an uplifting reminder that there really could be hope within the darkness at the start of what turned out to be yet another turbulent year.
42. LITTLE SIMZ ‘Mood Swings’ (Drop 7 LP February 2024)
Shiny, minimalistic and driven by an unsettling, low and gritty industrial techno beat, the futuristic ‘Mood Swings’ sounded nothing like anything Little Simz had done before. Rapping about the constant, unpredictable changes in her mental state over various blips and beeps, there wasn’t much to it, but then there didn’t need to be!
43. ENGLISH TEACHER ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ (This Could Be Texas LP April 2024)
In the late twenty tens and early twenty twenties it was impossible not to notice the emergence of sprechgesang (literally ‘spoken singing’) amongst the most recent wave of post punk influenced British groups. Best of the lot were Lily Fontaine’s English Teacher who sounded like they would soon be a force to be reckoned with, certainly if the biting semi-rural stories and soundscapes of This Could Be Texas and the brittle guitars, sludgy bass and euphoric chorus of ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ were anything to go by.
44. JOHN GRANT ‘Father’ (The Art Of The Lie LP June 2024)
Over the course of its eleven songs The Art Of The Lie mused on the state of the world and the troubling rise of the right, particularly in America, the album’s title a reference to convicted felon and US president Donald Trump’s book The Art Of The Deal which implied he was a gift from God, brought to Earth to help US citizens (at least those who agreed with him) to become rich. Of more immediate interest were John Grant’s triptych of songs exploring the after effects of his repressed childhood trauma, one of which was ‘Father’. Displaying the raw, suppressed sadness of losing a parent and reminiscing about a seventies childhood governed by religion, it made me consider the death of my own father once more and the lies of my own Methodist upbringing, both of which continue to weigh so heavily.
45. WALT DISCO ‘Jocelyn’ (The Warping LP June 2024)
Despite surviving virtually penniless in the margins with a paltry four figure Spotify following, rather than the questionable virtues of ‘spoken singing’ Glasgow’s Walt Disco could boast of the gloriously deep and rich croon of vocalist Jocelyn Si’ soaring above the lush, sonic grandeur of their early eighties, Simple Minds and Associates influences. A brave direction to take in these uniformly unimaginative musical times, braver still was the singers autobiographical ‘Jocelyn’, a reflection of how alienating gender dysphoria can be and a demonstration of the fragility and strength that can only be found when you search your soul to find your true self.
46. FONTAINES D.C. ‘Starbuster’ (Romance LP August 2024)
From the second I heard the opening title song exploding out of the speakers, I knew instantly that Romance was going to be massive, it’s sprawling splendour immediate and engulfing without a trace of U2 like bombast or bullshit. Effortlessly absorbing an accessible mix of nineties alternative rock and Britpop to form an emotionally full bodied work, songs like the infectious and ubiquitous ‘Starbuster’ looked destined to take Fontaines D.C. from cult status to superstardom almost literally overnight.
47. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS ‘Wild God’ (Wild God LP August 2024)
Throughout my adult life a new Nick Cave album has always been something to look forward to, although after his brilliant but exhausting exploration of loss, grief and redemption on 2019’s Ghosteen I wasn’t quite so sure. And yet I needn’t have worried because despite such a long period of devastation following the death of sons Arthur and Jethro the man himself opted for a little joy instead, something I’ve found to be essential in the face of monumental pain and suffering to maintain your sanity.
And Wild God certainly was joyful, the title song a lyrically oblique, sardonic self-portrait of an artist in his late sixties (‘It was rape and pillage in the retirement village’) building to an explosive, cathartic climax that reaffirmed his faith in the transformative power of music and community (‘Well, if you’re feeling lonely, and if you’re feeling blue / And if you just don’t know what to do / Bring your spirit down’). Writing as someone who’s followed a similar path, it was a remarkable statement on an album that unlike most Nick Cave albums made me feel a whole lot better after hearing it than I did before.
48. JAMIE XX & THE AVALANCHES ‘All You Children’ (In Waves LP September 2024)
Sandwiched between the two major Princes of Darkness from my youth, Jamie xx’s In Waves acted as the eye of the storm, 45 minutes of light relief within the surrounding gloom. Picking up more or less where his debut In Colour left off with a couple of recognisable vintage, UK garage samples, it was an album preoccupied with rapture rather than misery, it’s vibrant mood designed to be enjoyed anywhere other than at home.
49. THE CURE ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ (Songs Of A Lost World LP November 2024)
Sparked into existence by the death of Robert Smith’s older brother and most of his remaining relatives, Songs Of A Lost World was anchored in the same kind of existential angst that’s hung over The Cure from the start. A songwriter capable of transforming his fear of turning thirty into the cavernous despair of 1989’s Disintegration suddenly found himself in his mid-sixties staring down his own mortality and ruminating on a past that felt more appealing than the forbidding atmosphere of the present.
Pared down to eight songs, the album was infused with an abundance of beautifully bleak moments, from the opening ‘Alone’ to the remorseless and self-explanatory ‘Endsong’. The most direct was ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’, Smith’s sad paean to his brother, the grief struck tremble in his voice hitting the reality of death full on to give the song its fragile humanity. Imposing and enthralling, Songs Of A Lost World was as close to perfection as anyone could have hoped for. Whether or not its The Cure’s final album remains to be seen, but as a potential full stop on an illustrious career, it couldn’t be better.
50. FATHER JOHN MISTY ‘I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All’ (Mahashmashana LP November 2024)
‘I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All’ was where this soundtrack for the twenty twenties was originally scheduled to end, but as ever time slipped by and I had no option but to add another year. But what a brilliant and prophetic ending it would have been, a full on, eight and a half minute, seventies, showbiz treatise on everything from the futility and finality at the heart of our existence to Father John turning down the opportunity to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and being told he was the least famous person to refuse it.
2025
51. EVERYTHING IS RECORDED FEAT. SAMPHA ‘Never Felt Better’ (Single A Side January 2025)
Richard Russell’s Everything Is Recorded project has always taken a fascinating amalgam of collaborations, genres and voices and turned them into something far greater than the sum of their parts. Showcasing the wonderful Sampha, ‘Never Felt Better’ was a hugely emotional song, a lyric like ‘I thought I was in so much pain / Never felt better’ blurring the line between suffering and euphoria, something we seem to spend most of our lives trying to traverse.
52. LAMBRINI GIRLS ‘Cuntology 101’ (Who Let The Dogs Out LP January 2025)
Everyone needs a bit of punk fuck off-ness every so often just to remind us that we’re still alive and I’m the same, my 2025 model being ‘Cuntology 101’, the anarchic Lambrini Girls tribute to LCD Soundsystem at their ugliest and Le Tigre at their most melodic. Spouting forth on the theory that there’s a cunt in all of us, what they were really saying was that if being yourself is being a cunt, you’d better go ahead and be a cunt, to which there really is no answer!
53. SORRY ‘Jetplane’ (Single A Side April 2025)
North Londoner’s with a blatant disregard for genre rules, Sorry’s ‘Jetplane’ played up to the absurdity of their music, lines like ‘I’m bombastique / I’m making modern music in Spain / I’m on a jet plane’ spilling out over a frantic, skittering beat and ending with a shout nicked from Guided By Voices ‘Hot Freaks’ for no other reason than someone played it in the group van on their way to a show and they all liked it.
54. BON IVER ‘Awards Season’ (Sable, Fable LP April 2025)
Divided into two distinct halves, the darker, introspective and sparse Sable and the lighter, more upbeat and soulful Fable, Justin Vernon’s fifth album as Bon Iver was a fascinatingly unpredictable project that encompassed a captivating menagerie of instrumentation and influences best exemplified by the haunting acapella of ‘Awards Season’. A unique addition to the Bon Iver catalogue as a vocal led tour de force capturing the very essence of emotion that sparked the songs conception in the first place, like a message from God, it was the most soulful thing he’d ever done.
55. SELF ESTEEM ‘Mother’ (A Complicated Woman LP April 2025)
I knew nothing of Rebecca Lucy Taylor or her recording of A Complicated Woman being blighted by her self-doubt and fear that at 38 she was too old to be a pop star. I didn’t care about any of that. All I cared about was ‘Mother’, a song I saw her perform live on TV with ten extra’s in their Handmaids Tale garb that gave me the shivers and said more about men and their unhealthy relationship issues in three and a half minutes than Taylor Swift’s entire catalogue.
56. LORDE ‘Shapeshifter’ (Virgin LP June 2025)
When the sixteen year old Lorde emerged fully formed as an old soul immersed in youth culture, her skill for putting the right words to growing up in the twenty first century earned her a mass following of those trying to make sense of their own lives. Even when she rejected that devotion on Solar Power she was still someone speaking from a place of self-assuredness, so was able to pass on her wisdom to her followers. Virgin however sent a very different kind of message.
One of those albums that demands serious attention before giving up its riches, it contained no obvious anthems. Instead the music’s purpose seemed mostly to not get in the way. Incredibly personal and private and feeling almost invasive to listen to, it was still pop music, maybe even music to dance to. And yet, completely removed from current trends, songs like ‘Shapeshifter’ appeared determined to go their own low key and muted way while setting the tone for the piercingly direct lyrical content to come.
57. GETDOWN SERVICES ‘God Bless M&S’ (Primordial Slot Machine EP June 2025)
My parents were never what you’d call fashionable. A draughtsman and a primary school teacher, what they wore reflected their slightly boring, slightly dull professions perfectly. And what they wore came from M&S. Not so long ago, even the thought of walking into my local M&S made me feel physically sick, nevermind actually wearing their clothes. But now I’m a middle-aged, slightly boring parent, I wear M&S too. ‘God bless M&S’.
58. BARRY CAN’T SWIM ‘The Person You’d Like To Be’ (Loner LP July 2025)
Encapsulating Loner’s loose theme of separating the artist from the person, ‘The Person You’d Like To Be’ featured Joshua Mainnie aka Barry Can’t Swim’s best friend and poet Seamus. A suitably disconcerting and powerful opening with Seamus’s Scottish burr framed by blaring synths, it felt wonderfully abstract while seemingly throwaway lines like ‘Can you sit down with me for a moment please? / Can you hold my hand / I am frightened’ took on an almost devastating significance.
59. OLIVER SIM ‘Obsession’ (Single A Side August 2025)
I thought Oliver Sim had bared enough of his soul on ‘Hideous’ but ‘Obsession’ forced me to reconsider. Doubling down on the theatrical flair, it wasn’t so much a song as a confession, it’s brooding, danceable nod to Depeche Mode’s darker corners and Sim’s magnetic baritone making it the kind of song that forces you to check over your shoulder, half-expecting someone to catch you enjoying it just a little too much.
60. BAXTER DURY ‘Return Of The Sharp Heads’ (Allbarone LP September 2025)
I began this soundtrack for the decades back in January 1970 with worn out film star Lee Marvin talking his way through ‘Wandrin’ Star’ and 560 songs later finish with something that carries the same weary, resigned sentiment, albeit that it’s also hilarious. Indeed, ‘Return Of The Sharp Heads’ has the honour of being not only a crucible for Baxter Dury’s razor sharp wit and crude attention to detail but also the funniest lyrics he’s ever written.
A scathing monologue of ‘You’re just a bunch of soul fuckers / Who rate themselves / You’re just a bunch of soul fuckers / In beige lapels / I’ll sit back and admire how much you hate yourself / You’re just a bunch of soul fuckers / You total cunts’ taking aim at what he originally intended to be the humble folk of Shoreditch but ultimately included himself and the entire western world, I couldn’t have said it better if I’d tried. Set to a toe tappingly catchy groove, was everything I ever wanted in a song and the best possible place to end this odyssey.
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