Hot off the presses, Nancy has finally locked down her 2018 selections of easy-listening favorites. As is usually the case on Nancy's annual edition, it starts with the crazy fun stuff and then progressively gets more thoughtful and intimate.
Write-up will get finished over next few weeks but wanted friends to have access to the mix for the Labor Day Holiday.
Here's the Spotify Link! Enjoy.
About The Artists/Albums/Songs on This Mix:
1. Nina Cried Power - Hozier (feat: Mavis Staples): Nancy opens her 2018 mix (most appropriately for her) with Irish blue-eyed-soul troubadour Hozier's gospel-tinged celebration of some of the most socially conscious singers of the past fifty years and the power their music had to change the world. Originally the title track to Hozier's 2018 four song EP, Nina Cried Power is now also the opener for his 2019 second full-length Wasteland, Baby!
2. You Worry Me - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: Staying in an R&B mode, next up is Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats' bluesy number one adult alternative charter from their 2018 sophomore release Tearing At The Seams.
3. Lost In The Game - Public Access T.V.: One of the most intriguing under-the-radar power-pop acts out there, New York City's Public Access T.V. feels like they are on the verge of a major, Franz Ferdinand-styled breakout sometime here soon, as this rollicking cut from their super infectious 2018 album Street Safari clearly implies.
4. Make Me Feel - Janelle Monae: From the similarity in album titles, to the lattice work pattern that quietly dominates each cover, to the emphasis on sexual frankness, virtually every moment from Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer seems to be drawing from Prince's 1980 release Dirty Mind for inspiration, but never do comparisons between the two records feel more musically apt than with this huge hit here, easily one of the best songs of 2018.
5. New Birth In New England - Phosphorescent: One of the more charmingly relaxed indie artists of the last ten years, shaggy-dog alt-country troubadour Matthew Houck (aka Phosphorescent) landed another irresistible, light-as-air number in 2018 with New Birth In New England, taken from his seventh studio album C'est La Vie.
6. Not Running - The Beths: Committing fully, warts and all, to a budding romantic relationship is the optimistic focus here on this propulsive indie-pop number from Auckland-natives The Beths' ridiculously catchy full-length debut Future Me Hates Me.
7. Everybody's Coming To My House - David Byrne: Nancy has always been a huge David Byrne / Talking Heads fan, so it was zero surprise that Everybody's Coming To My House, the best track from his 2018 album American Utopia, ended up on her mix here.
8. It's A Shame - First Aid Kit: Following four non-stop years of touring and recording, Swedish sister's Klara and Johanna Soderberg had reached the breaking point, and mutually agreed to shut things down for a spell. After a near-year long hiatus in which the two barely spoke and the sister's romantic relationships collapsed, they finally reconvened in Los Angeles in 2016 to start anew, but this time thematically focused on exploring what exists after things have fallen apart. That view point informs just about every moment of the album that came from those LA sessions, 2018's Ruins, as on lead single It's A Shame here, where the Soderberg's wonder how they could still feel so down when enveloped in So Cal sunshine.
9. One That Suits Me - Hop Along: As I wrote about Hop Along's 2018 release Bark Your Head Off, Dog for our Indie Gals Get 'Er Done mix, most of the album's song drift charmingly in out of moments of awkward musical inscrutability and sharp, potent focus, but on Dog's best track One That Suits Me here, once that first moment of clarity hits, the song never lets go of the reins, delivering a final four minutes of classic rock euphoria.
10. See You At The Movies - J Mascis: Since the reformation of Dinosaur Jr.'s original line up a decade ago, J Mascis has reserved his softer folk-rock predilections for his solo albums, but thankfully he keeps making them, as See You At The Movies from his 2018 album Elastic Days was one of the year's best shaggy-dog light rockers.
11. New Light - John Mayer: Staying the in the soft rock camp, here's a new 2018 single from one of the entertainment industry's most notorious bedroom tattletales.
12. Slow Burn - Kacey Musgraves: Though highly reminiscent in feel/structure to Beck's Golden Age off of his 2002 release Sea Change, Golden Hour opener Slow Burn is nonetheless one of the most striking songs of 2018, a hauntingly gorgeous acoustic ballad that perfectly sets the table for the cross-over country feast that follows on the album.
13. Leave It Alone - Amanda Shires: Jason Isbell's better half and fiddler extraordinaire Amanda Shires returned to the spotlight on her own in 2018 with her sixth solo effort To The Sunset.
14. Bite The Hand - Boygenius: Lucy Dacus takes over lead vocal reigns from Phoebe Bridger and Julien Baker on this number from 2018's fantastic indie supergroup EP Boygenius.
15. Love Is A Wild Thing - Kacey Musgraves: Here's one more gentle number from Texas-native Kacey Musgraves' wonderful 2018 release Golden Hour, only the sixth album in history to complete the Grammy, Country Music Awards, and American Country Music country album of the year trifecta, and only the second album in history to do that and also win the Grammy's overall album of the year award.
16. My Wild Sweet Love - First Aid Kit: Nancy's second selection from indie-folkers First Aid Kit's fourth studio release Ruins is actually the oldest track on the album, originally written for but rejected as a soundtrack option for the film adaptation of the teen romance The Fault In Our Stars.
17. Mystery Of Love - Sufjan Stevens: Crafted specifically, along with companion piece Visions Of Gideon, for the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack at the request of the film's director Luca Guadagnino, Mystery Of Love would go on to receive a nomination for best song at the 2018 Academy Awards.
18. Waste - Rhye: Here's another cut from bedroom R&B outfit Rhye's sophomore full-length Blood. You can catch another cut from the album on our Vol 4 - Newer Things.
19. The Songwriter - Father John Misty: Taking a less savage tack than on 2016's barbed political diatribe Pure Comedy, Father John Misty's fourth release God's Favorite Customer finds the troubadour showing a more empathetic side, as on this song, where he considers his life if the creative roles with his wife, photographer Emma Elizabeth Tilman, whom he's written about extensively in past songs, were reversed.
20. Souvenir - boygenius: Julien Baker takes the vocal lead on this poignant number from Boygenius's self-titled 2018 EP.
21. Summer's End - John Prine: Knocking out a top flight album at the age of 82! You've definitely earned closing track status for our entire 2018 collection John Prine! Way to keep going! From the 2018 album The Tree Of Forgiveness.
Write-up will get finished over next few weeks but wanted friends to have access to the mix for the Labor Day Holiday.
Here's the Spotify Link! Enjoy.
About The Artists/Albums/Songs on This Mix:
1. Nina Cried Power - Hozier (feat: Mavis Staples): Nancy opens her 2018 mix (most appropriately for her) with Irish blue-eyed-soul troubadour Hozier's gospel-tinged celebration of some of the most socially conscious singers of the past fifty years and the power their music had to change the world. Originally the title track to Hozier's 2018 four song EP, Nina Cried Power is now also the opener for his 2019 second full-length Wasteland, Baby!
2. You Worry Me - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: Staying in an R&B mode, next up is Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats' bluesy number one adult alternative charter from their 2018 sophomore release Tearing At The Seams.
3. Lost In The Game - Public Access T.V.: One of the most intriguing under-the-radar power-pop acts out there, New York City's Public Access T.V. feels like they are on the verge of a major, Franz Ferdinand-styled breakout sometime here soon, as this rollicking cut from their super infectious 2018 album Street Safari clearly implies.
4. Make Me Feel - Janelle Monae: From the similarity in album titles, to the lattice work pattern that quietly dominates each cover, to the emphasis on sexual frankness, virtually every moment from Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer seems to be drawing from Prince's 1980 release Dirty Mind for inspiration, but never do comparisons between the two records feel more musically apt than with this huge hit here, easily one of the best songs of 2018.
5. New Birth In New England - Phosphorescent: One of the more charmingly relaxed indie artists of the last ten years, shaggy-dog alt-country troubadour Matthew Houck (aka Phosphorescent) landed another irresistible, light-as-air number in 2018 with New Birth In New England, taken from his seventh studio album C'est La Vie.
6. Not Running - The Beths: Committing fully, warts and all, to a budding romantic relationship is the optimistic focus here on this propulsive indie-pop number from Auckland-natives The Beths' ridiculously catchy full-length debut Future Me Hates Me.
7. Everybody's Coming To My House - David Byrne: Nancy has always been a huge David Byrne / Talking Heads fan, so it was zero surprise that Everybody's Coming To My House, the best track from his 2018 album American Utopia, ended up on her mix here.
8. It's A Shame - First Aid Kit: Following four non-stop years of touring and recording, Swedish sister's Klara and Johanna Soderberg had reached the breaking point, and mutually agreed to shut things down for a spell. After a near-year long hiatus in which the two barely spoke and the sister's romantic relationships collapsed, they finally reconvened in Los Angeles in 2016 to start anew, but this time thematically focused on exploring what exists after things have fallen apart. That view point informs just about every moment of the album that came from those LA sessions, 2018's Ruins, as on lead single It's A Shame here, where the Soderberg's wonder how they could still feel so down when enveloped in So Cal sunshine.
9. One That Suits Me - Hop Along: As I wrote about Hop Along's 2018 release Bark Your Head Off, Dog for our Indie Gals Get 'Er Done mix, most of the album's song drift charmingly in out of moments of awkward musical inscrutability and sharp, potent focus, but on Dog's best track One That Suits Me here, once that first moment of clarity hits, the song never lets go of the reins, delivering a final four minutes of classic rock euphoria.
10. See You At The Movies - J Mascis: Since the reformation of Dinosaur Jr.'s original line up a decade ago, J Mascis has reserved his softer folk-rock predilections for his solo albums, but thankfully he keeps making them, as See You At The Movies from his 2018 album Elastic Days was one of the year's best shaggy-dog light rockers.
11. New Light - John Mayer: Staying the in the soft rock camp, here's a new 2018 single from one of the entertainment industry's most notorious bedroom tattletales.
12. Slow Burn - Kacey Musgraves: Though highly reminiscent in feel/structure to Beck's Golden Age off of his 2002 release Sea Change, Golden Hour opener Slow Burn is nonetheless one of the most striking songs of 2018, a hauntingly gorgeous acoustic ballad that perfectly sets the table for the cross-over country feast that follows on the album.
13. Leave It Alone - Amanda Shires: Jason Isbell's better half and fiddler extraordinaire Amanda Shires returned to the spotlight on her own in 2018 with her sixth solo effort To The Sunset.
14. Bite The Hand - Boygenius: Lucy Dacus takes over lead vocal reigns from Phoebe Bridger and Julien Baker on this number from 2018's fantastic indie supergroup EP Boygenius.
15. Love Is A Wild Thing - Kacey Musgraves: Here's one more gentle number from Texas-native Kacey Musgraves' wonderful 2018 release Golden Hour, only the sixth album in history to complete the Grammy, Country Music Awards, and American Country Music country album of the year trifecta, and only the second album in history to do that and also win the Grammy's overall album of the year award.
16. My Wild Sweet Love - First Aid Kit: Nancy's second selection from indie-folkers First Aid Kit's fourth studio release Ruins is actually the oldest track on the album, originally written for but rejected as a soundtrack option for the film adaptation of the teen romance The Fault In Our Stars.
17. Mystery Of Love - Sufjan Stevens: Crafted specifically, along with companion piece Visions Of Gideon, for the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack at the request of the film's director Luca Guadagnino, Mystery Of Love would go on to receive a nomination for best song at the 2018 Academy Awards.
18. Waste - Rhye: Here's another cut from bedroom R&B outfit Rhye's sophomore full-length Blood. You can catch another cut from the album on our Vol 4 - Newer Things.
19. The Songwriter - Father John Misty: Taking a less savage tack than on 2016's barbed political diatribe Pure Comedy, Father John Misty's fourth release God's Favorite Customer finds the troubadour showing a more empathetic side, as on this song, where he considers his life if the creative roles with his wife, photographer Emma Elizabeth Tilman, whom he's written about extensively in past songs, were reversed.
20. Souvenir - boygenius: Julien Baker takes the vocal lead on this poignant number from Boygenius's self-titled 2018 EP.
21. Summer's End - John Prine: Knocking out a top flight album at the age of 82! You've definitely earned closing track status for our entire 2018 collection John Prine! Way to keep going! From the 2018 album The Tree Of Forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment