Tag Archives: favorite songs

2024 Year in Review: February

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While February may not have been as exciting or mind-blowing as January, it did contain its own stellar releases that I often returned to over the course of the year. I was still kind of getting my head back on straight around this time, spending most of my mental focus on reworking Theadia into a much better novel and prepping Queen Ophelia’s War for eventual release.

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The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy, released 2 February. I’d heard many critics giving this one a very positive review, and having only heard the teaser single “Nothing Matters” (on KEXP, natch), I was pleasantly surprised by this record. I was kind of expecting one of those MTV-ish alternapop bands (and this single is very much in that style) but there’s so much more going on that I found myself intrigued.

J Mascis, What Do We Do Now, 2 February. He’s definitely channeling his early 90s Dinosaur Jr sound here, the lighter and more radio-friendly stuff that made them so popular in the first place, but that’s what makes this album so fun! Regarding the above video, I admit I’m not a big fan of AI per se, but I do appreciate the few artists who have been using it to create freakishly weird and possibly drug-influenced images like this, and somehow it makes sense to have J singing over it!

Brittany Howard, What Now, released 9 February. The Alabama Shakes singer’s latest solo record is full of blues and funk dialed up to 11 this time out, and it’s a great listen. Yet another record I got into via KEXP, of course.

IDLES, TANGK, released 16 February. I’ve been a fan of this band for quite a while now, and it’s all due to their full embrace of loud and relentless punk rock in the old school sense. They’re not about the speed, however, but the power behind their songs. Even with a ridiculously fun and light-hearted track like the single “Dancer”, they reel you in and take you for a wild ride.

Geographer, A Mirror Brightly, released 23 February. I’ve been embracing a lot more local groups over the last few years, including this quirky synthpop one-man band. We got to see them a few years ago at Outside Lands and really enjoyed them. His songs are mostly quiet and contemplative yet still full of danceable grooves.

Whitelands, Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day, released 23 February. I’ve also been listening to a lot of shoegaze pop lately as well (no big surprise there), and this band definitely has that drenched-in-reverb sound I love so much. As expected, this is another great album to listen to while writing.

The Dream Academy, Religion, Revolution and Railways: The Complete Recordings, released 23 February. The first of several reissues this year that captured my attention. If you loved “Life in a Northern Town” as much as I have, this collection is definitely worth checking out. It features not just their three albums but several b-sides and rarities as well. Highly recommended.

Curve, Unreadable Communication: Anxious Recordings 1991-1993, released 23 February. Recently someone on Threads asked about trying out different shoegaze bands, and I suggested they sample this band. They lean more towards the My Bloody Valentine style of wall-of-guitar sound than the dreamlike reverb of Slowdive, but they remain one of my favorite bands of the early 90s. This is an excellent collection of their first two albums, the first EPs, and several remixes and b-sides. Highly recommend this one as well.

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More to come with March releases!

Coming up: end of year review!

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I’ll admit I never got around to doing an end of year review for 2023 for varying reasons — mainly a major PC issue and some personal stuff going on — and when I finally had the time to focus, it was already late January and I felt it was better to just move on. Embrace the new year and see where it took me.

This past year has been one of dusting out the cobwebs, raising the windows and letting fresh air in, so to speak. I’ve spoken about the various personal choices and journeys over the last few years, making peace with some things, moving on, and looking forward. The resultant clarity has been much needed and welcomed.

So on that note, I’ll be revisiting some of this year’s releases over the next several weeks here at Walk in Silence. Some of these albums were merely entertainment, but some resonated deeply enough to become heavy rotation favorites. Which albums and singles will we see? Stay tuned!

It’s been awhile, but…

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…I realize I haven’t done a ‘what I’ve been listening to’ post in ages! Not sure why I let that fall by the wayside, but maybe it’s time to pick it up again. I’ll probably create a few posts this weekend for that.

In the meantime, right now I’m listening to Public Service Broadcasting’s latest, The Last Flight, which is an album about Amelia Earhart’s final flight and disappearance. Which, I should add, is not the first time this year she’s the subject of an album! [Laurie Anderson released Amelia just a month and a half ago, her first album in over a decade.]

More to come!

New Mixtape — Re:Defined 2404

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Making the new Re:Defined mixtapes have definitely been an interesting experience, as I’ve given myself a reason to work not just with tracks that are getting a decent amount of play on KEXP but deep cuts that catch my attention when I’m listening to the albums at other times. I think I’ve finally hit a groove with this mix, as there’s a certain vibe that I hadn’t reached in quite some time. Have fun and give it a listen!

Track listing:

SIDE ONE
1. Hinds, “Boom Boom Back” (feat. Beck)
2. Mavis Staples, “Worthy”
3. Orcas, “Under the Milky Way” (a lovely cover!)
4. Cassandra Jenkins, “Delphinium Blue”
5. Liam Gallagher & John Squire, “Just Another Rainbow”
6. DAIISTAR, “Tracemaker”
7. The Softies, “23rd Birthday”
8. Jane Weaver, “Love in Constant Spectacle”
9. GIFT, “Going in Circles”
10. Bastille, “Emily & Her Penthouse in the Sky”
11. Ride, “I Came to See the Wreck”

SIDE TWO
1. Orville Peck & Beck, “Death Valley High”
2. deary, “Selene”
3. BADBADNOTGOOD, “Last Laugh”
4. GIFT, “Later”
5. Quivers, “Apparition”
6. Yannis & the Yaw with Tony Allen, “Rain Can’t Reach Us”
7. Wand, “Mistletoe”
8. Glass Animals, “Wonderful Nothing”
9. The Softies, “I Said What I Said”
10. beabadoobee, “Take a Bite”
11. Iress, “Mercy”

Favorite songs: Isolation

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Every now and again I think about this EP, and how it’s affected me over the years. It’s Mark Pritchard of Global Communication and Kirsty Hawkshaw (formerly of Opus III, you know her from two covers: Jane’s “It’s a Fine Day” King Crimson’s “I Talk to the Wind“). I first discovered them on a quirky seasonal compilation called Invocation — the same album that introduced me to Jocelyn Pook. I listened to that album constantly during the final months of 1997 and into 1998, using it as a soundtrack to my writing at the time.

The song itself (Part 1 lasts a bit over eleven minutes, and Part 2 a bit over eight) is what I imagined as the best example of ambient electronic music: there was melody, but there was also mood and atmosphere. It was like the culmination of everything I loved about 4AD bands like Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. It also felt widescreen in my mind. Cinematic in its own way, telling a story with its weavings of highs, lows, bursts and quietness. There was something about it that somehow hit me viscerally, and it felt almost like…a spiritual leaving.

I used that feeling some years later when I wrote a pivotal scene in The Balance of Light with the final moments between Denni and Saisshalé.

This track was actually what got me into Global Communication soon after, picking up both their brilliant 76:14 (highly recommended) and their album of Chapterhouse remixes, Pentamerous Metamorphosis, both of which had recently been reissued in the US. Those two albums, along with Invocation, became some of my favorite go-to albums when writing the Bridgetown Trilogy, especially when I needed something deeply atmospheric.

When I think about the pandemic…

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…I often think about this particular song by The Clockworks, which remains one of my top favorite songs of the last five years.

Why does this song remind me of the pandemic? Actually it’s the video.

There’s a day-end drone shot of the Bay Bridge here in San Francisco at around the 2:20 mark (and again at 3:05) that brings up the memory of my thirty-mile commute to and from Concord in the East Bay, and whenever I see it in this video, I wonder if my car is somewhere in that shot, heading westward into the city at the end of yet another hellish day. Even though the band released this track in late 2021, at least a year after I’d quit that particular job, the song perfectly encapsulates what that job had been doing to me over the last decade.

This was also around the time I’d been listening to KEXP almost religiously at this point, already an Amplifier (I still donate to them on a monthly basis!), and this track had gotten some major airplay, and I don’t blame them for putting it on heavy rotation as it’s still a hell of a banger. That station got me through a hell of a lot over the last five or so years.

It’s been over four years since I left that job in March 2020 (and I’m still glad I did), and a few years since the peak of that particular pandemic wave (and I’m still wearing a mask to work and still Covid-free) (knock on wood), so this song definitely emulates a feeling of weariness and uneasiness for me, reminding me that none of us really know what the hell was going on at the time, or how long it would last.

TFW a new band you like does a cover of your favorite song

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Ooh, this is lovely! This was a teaser single dropped a few months previously by the band Orcas before they released their new album How to Color a Thousand Mistakes this past week. [This is also their first album in over ten years!] They’ve got that dreamlike echo-heavy electro sound similar to Washed Out and Beach House, but lean a little more towards post-rock instead, so doing this Church cover in that style is quite unexpected yet intriguing. I’ve been listening to their new album on Bandcamp lately (and it’s in the cart to be purchased soon), so now I really want to check out what their other albums sound like!

All you do to me is talk talk

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When every choice that I make is yours
Keep telling me what’s right and what’s wrong
Don’t you ever stop to think about me?
I’m not that blind to see that you’ve been cheating on me

Every now and again I think about this song, especially during tense political climates. Sure, it’s a song about a failing relationship, but sometimes you can read lyrics different ways. Sometimes this particular lyric pops into my head whenever I hear conservatives go on about how much they know what I need. Despite never asking ahead of time for my input.

Which is why I’ve stopped listening to that party quite some time ago.

[And as an aside, I absolutely love the piano work on this track. One of my all-time favorites.]