A good song stays with you forever, imprinting some feeling or memory into it's melody that when triggered is as vivid as the moment you felt or lived it. These are songs I discovered in 2013, not necessarily songs from 2013.
5. Thames Soup - The Phoenix Foundation
From Fandango released in April 2013, Phoenix Foundation's new album where you questioned whether you were high or transported back to the 80s (or both), came Thames Soup. Sam Scott vocals and lyrics as strong as ever and the song is proof that The Phoenix Foundation are still at top of their game. A self declared song about London, there was something I related to in this song with the reiteration of I don't live here that summed up both my detachment and disconnection from the big city I live in every day but sometimes feel no part of it. Piano, thumping bassline and a spacey outro. Perfect.
4. Leak at the Disco - Baxter Dury
A 2011 release that a tiny wee online radio station London Burning introduced me to and an Amazon MP3 special for £2.49 lead me blindly to download. The sound of birds in the night is a gentle introduction to one of my absolute favourite basslines not just of the year, but ever. Baxter's spoken word verses heavy with accent and metaphors (I was a sexual forest fire, but my flame had been dampened by the monsoons of fear and age) a melancholy organ and a sweet womanly chorus - She borrowed all this from your heart. And no one can be inside your heart.. The song followed me through the end of something I didn't think would stomp all over my heart so much, transforming into that song to turn up and drown thoughts in bass and then by the end of 2013, like the end of the song with the flutter of a helicopter, that reminder that bad feelings mean that the good ones feel even better.
3. Amsterdam - Yesyou
Another song discovery that falls at the feet of London Burning as I beavered away at work. This Australian duo bring a song that has 80s cop show vibes with it's racing drum beat and soft vocals that progress into a chorus that resonated so much for me in 2013 - And what's the difference if I throw it away in Amsterdam? Think with my mouth and I talk with my hands. That constant battle in my head to want to throw caution to the wind and play with sexual fire than listen to my head telling me that it is a bad idea to get involved. The song concludes in perfect fashion dottering out with wailing vocals and a clicky keyboard, leaving me to wonder the decisions I made and the things I talked myself out of doing throughout the year.
2. I Already Forgot Everything You Said - The Dig
Released May 2012, again London Burning was the one who introduced me to The Dig and yet another song where the first basis of my adoration was a rolling bassline. A song that in the handful of early listens could easily be pegholed to just another bitter breakup song, progresses into something a bit more meaningful. I could have let 2013 be ruined by some bad events (L, rogue kidney, the mugging) but there was something more freeing about the refrain that also gives the song it's name. This song was there when I was sad. This song was there when I wanted to groove along to a banging bassline with brilliant ringing guitar. This song was there when I wanted ooooh along. We do and say things and experience things that could stay with us forever and taint the way we act or continue onwards (or backwards). But sometimes it's best just to forget. Well you can ease your heart, you can ease your mind. And you can save your thoughts for another time. Because the sun is rising on your bed. And I already forgot everything you said
1. Don't Swallow The Cap - The National
Having not fallen in love with Demons, their first release from their 2013 release Trouble Will Find Me, I was anxious to whether my anticipation for new The Naional music was bound to be dampened. Then during a tedious day at work, The National tweeted a link to this song and the moment those drums and piano kicked in - I was in love again. Matt's familiar baritone echoed with his own backing vocals like a dark whisper in your ear that epitomises the vulnerability and insecurities that those lyrics embody. The song travels and builds through it's verses in a way that I can't help but involuntarily touch at my chest and my eyes flicker to the sky at the line When they ask what do I see, I say a bright white beautiful heaven hanging over me. There's desperation, there's hope, there's that dark feeling that never quite lets go with a drumline that pushes through reminiscence of their (and a personal favourite) song Guest Room. And there it crescendos, especially live, Matt's voice dropping away to leave you stripped back to that piano, those strings, the bass and drums. This song is 2013 for me. There was awful moments. There were great moments. And then there was every minute where I knew just how much I was loved and how many people I loved in return.
Everything I love is on the table. Everything I love is out to sea. I'm not alone. I'll never be.
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