Year end routine continues with my favorite international EPs. Same story here. There’s some sort of vague order, but it’s kind of arbitrary. Might as well be alphabetical. Playlist on Tidal, Apple and Spotify. Bandcamp/youtube embeds only on top three, because the page slows down if there’s a million embeds. At least Finnish EPs still to come. We’ll see if I manage to do song lists.
It’s the time of the season. The year end routine starts with the albums of the year. A good year of music again and even though the list is ridiculously long, I still would have loved to be able to squeeze in another 50 or so. If you are not on this, it doesn’t mean I don’t like your album. There’s just a few hundred excellent albums out there and I listen to a lot of music. I did put the numbers there this time around, but it’s totally arbitrary. Music is love, not a competition. Maybe half a dozen at the top were somewhat obvious and my biggest favorites this year. After that it could have been alphabetical order just as well. I could move these albums up or down 30 spots and be just as happy with it. So the numbers are only there to give you a vague idea of what I loved the most, because everyone isn’t a music addict and willing to investigate 100 albums.
I left out a lot of the bigger names, because I just didn’t listen to them all that much. Some of them I know I would like, but there’s just not enough time for everything. So that’s why there’s some surprise absence of albums that most likely would be here if I had listened them enough. I still haven’t even really given a proper spin even to that Sufjan Stevens albums and I know I’m going to love it. Tyler Childers was a tricky one too, because there’s a couple of songs that I really love, but it almost felt like an EP with some covers and fairly short length. So yeah love parts of that for sure, but I think he will be alright even if I don’t include it. Many others would fall into this category too. This whole list is also entirely subjective. I never try do any kind of objective best of the year. It’s just about albums/songs that I personally love.
There’s a playlist link with one song from each, if you are into such things. Apple, Tidal and Spotify. I made it on Spotify and transferred to the other ones. Therefore it seems to sometimes take the single instead of the album cut, but I’m sure you’ll find the correct albums from Tidal and Apple too. I only added Bandcamp/youtube embeds to top three. The page just seem to load forever, if there’s a hundred embed on it. So sorry about that. Most of these can be found on bandcamp (and well record stores).
I’m not gonna start posting concert news regularly, but I’m gonna do an exception this time around due to the magnitude of this. One of my favorite songwriters Courtney Marie Andrews will be playing in Helsinki on the 26th of March. Leuven Letters was an EP of the year here years back and since then she has been one of my most listened artists. Big thanks to Silmien Takana for bringing such a great songwriter to Finland. I hope I see you all in Helsinki next week. The concert will probably focus on the material of the wonderful 2022 album Loose Future, but here’s also some personal favorites from the older releases. Listen them below, grap a ticket from Tiketti and let’s meet in Helsinki on the 26th.
Loose Future (Loose Future 2022)
Burlap String (Old Flowers 2020)
May Your Kindness Remain (May Your Kindness Remain, 2018)
Another quick blog entry of songs and albums that I love. Starting with a Steady Holiday appreciation. Listening to LA-based Dre Babinski makes me immensely happy. There’s some kind of magic here, because that happens even during the darker moments of the songs. Somehow that warmth and empathy just shines through all the time. New album Newfound Oxygen came out on the 17th of February and it’s again filled with beautiful dreamy indie pop songs. Here’s a couple of fabulous music videos/singles along with one of my favorite songs Asleep.
Another early favorite of the year comes from Norway. Songwriter Juni Habel has made a really beautiful, gentle and fragile folk album. Carvings came out in January on Basin Rock and Ba Da Bing Records. I’m more than mildly addicted to the the song I Went Out and Sought for Your Name.
And more gems from the Ba Da Bing vaults. Eva Louise Goodman’s Nighttime released a magical new album Keeper Is the Heart in January. Here’s a couple of favorites from this beautiful album.
Let’s wrap this little blog entry with a timeless and charming single Time from the forthcoming self-titled Nico Paulo album. This debut album by this Portuguese-Canadian songwriter will come out April 7th on Forward Music Group. I’ve marked that date on my calendar ever since I heard this song.
¨
