Tag Archives: favorite songs

2024 Year in Review: March

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March has become an interesting month for me, as it signals not just the anniversary of the COVID pandemic in 2020 but also the month I quit the Former Day Job…and also the month I started the Current Day Job two years later! Hard to believe I’ve been at the store for almost three years now, having gone from register jockey to interim front end manager to assistant bookkeeper and more. It’s a physically exhausting job sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else right now.

As expected, there was an avalanche of great releases in March, and that meant I suddenly had quite the playlist to listen to. Let’s check some out!

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Kaiser Chiefs, Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album, released 1 March. This seemed like the year for unexpected and unannounced album releases, and this one popped up without being on my radar at all. It does what it says on the tin — it’s not mindblowing like Employment or epic like The Future Is Medieval but just as fun — and the KCs have pretty much settled down in their niche of quirky British alternapop. An easy and fun listen.

Liam Gallagher & John Squire, Liam Gallagher & John Squire, released 1 March. The Oasis singer and the Stone Roses guitarist doing an album together? Admittedly the stakes were ridiculously high on this one because of that, and while it’s not the best of each band, nonetheless it’s a fun Britpop romp worth checking out.

Paula Cole, Lo, released 1 March. Yes, she’s been putting out consistently excellent music since we were pummeled by “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” way back in the day, and each album has been a corker. This one’s a bit on the dark side and kind of reminds me of Cowboy Junkies in a way, leaning a bit more on the alternative folk side.

Yard Act, Where’s My Utopia?, released 1 March. This oddball band continues to entertain, amuse and confuse, sometimes within the course of a single song. You’re never quite sure where they’re headed, but the ride is certainly worth paying attention to.

The BV’s, taking pictures of taking pictures, released 8 March. I’d heard “Breakdown” on KEXP and was instantly transported to those songs you’d hear on progressive and college radio in the 80s; not quite post-punk and not quite bedroom pop but somewhere in between. Something like early Go-Betweens, I think.

crushed, extra life, released 15 March. One of many shoegaze albums that came out this year that got a lot of repeat play, this one’s more of a mini-album but it still manages to move and inspire me in my writing. Hoping to hear more from this band!

Four Tet, Three, released 15 March. This band has been around for quite some time but it’s only recently that I’ve gotten into their alternative-jazz-electronic fusion style. This album got a hell of a lot of play during my writing sessions for a few months, and it still gets a few repeat plays now and again. One of my favorite albums of the year!

Hooverphonic, Fake Is the New Dope, released 21 March. This too was an album that popped up without warning for me, and I’m usually on top of things when it comes to my favorite bands! They’re certainly showing their age a bit and leaning more towards European lounge pop than ever, but then again that’s always been their best style. Worth checking out.

Elbow, AUDIO VERTIGO, released 22 March. After the somewhat disjointed Flying Dream 1 in 2021 (which had been written remotely and recorded ‘spaciously’ during the height of the COVID pandemic), this album is a return to their quirky form of slightly off-kilter British songwriting. This time out the songs are shorter, tighter and noisier. I love that it starts off with “Things I’ve Been Telling Myself for Years”, in which Guy Garvey projects what he thinks his bandmates thought of him during their time spent away during the pandemic. [Also, I love that its bass line is sung, not played!]

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Glasgow Eyes, released 22 March. The Reid brothers continue to play their unique brand of noise-rock that’s sometimes infused in blues, rockabilly and even a bit of bright pop. This album would fit perfectly between Automatic and Reverence.

The Church, Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars, released 29 March. This long-running and much beloved band is essentially just singer Steve Kilbey and whoever’s around these days — and the band name fits considering his solo work is more on the contemplative and lighter side. This album continues on his latest wave of heading deep into experimental territory. While 2023’s The Hypnogogue felt proggy yet still radio friendly, this one ventures much deeper into prog territory with its nonstop waves of dreamlike melodies. Weird yet fascinating.

Ride, Interplay, released 29 March. This excellent Britpop/shoegaze band’s second wave hasn’t let up since 2017’s comeback Weather Diaries, and this new one is absolutely amazing. Their strength has always been in their phenomenal deep cuts (like, say, Going Blank Again‘s “Chrome Waves”), and powerful songs like “I Came to See the Wreck” showcase just how locked in their sound is. Another year-end favorite and highly recommended.

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More to come with April releases!

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!