Music of 2013

Another track from the Anna Calvi album appeared online last night.

Epic/preposterous (delete as appropriate) Kanye West interview with Radio 1's Zane Lowe. Example quote: 'My Truman Show boat has hit the painting'.

Yeah, I saw her about 18 months ago when she was touring the last album. Easily one of my top 10 gigs of all time.

 

A guy called Nick Mulvey is supporting this time around, so I'm guessing that means no Marika. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he's a singer/songwriter of the alt-folk variety, though I can't claim to be familiar with his work.

^It got off to a bit of a rocky start, she was onstage solo and one of her two acoustic guitars cut out completely towards the end of the first number - which wouldn't normally be that big of a deal, except that her tuner pedal gave up the ghost shortly afterwards too. Thus, she ended up playing a partially improvised and slightly haphazard set, with extended breaks for emergency tunings between songs. Her voice always shines through though, it's absolutely timeless. I won't hesitate to go and see her for a third time should the chance arise.

Pixies, Janelle Monae and Chvrches on this week's Jools show.

^One of my favourite songs of the year, that Chvrches one. Can't wait to see them at Laneway next year along with Haim and Lorde

^It got off to a bit of a rocky start, she was onstage solo and one of her two acoustic guitars cut out completely towards the end of the first number - which wouldn't normally be that big of a deal, except that her tuner pedal gave up the ghost shortly afterwards too. Thus, she ended up playing a partially improvised and slightly haphazard set, with extended breaks for emergency tunings between songs. Her voice always shines through though, it's absolutely timeless. I won't hesitate to go and see her for a third time should the chance arise.

^I like the sound of that.

^It got off to a bit of a rocky start, she was onstage solo and one of her two acoustic guitars cut out completely towards the end of the first number - which wouldn't normally be that big of a deal, except that her tuner pedal gave up the ghost shortly afterwards too. Thus, she ended up playing a partially improvised and slightly haphazard set, with extended breaks for emergency tunings between songs. Her voice always shines through though, it's absolutely timeless. I won't hesitate to go and see her for a third time should the chance arise.

I like how her stage banter is charmingly awkward too

I meant to mention that actually, she told a rather long winded story about an allergic reaction she'd had in an Edinburgh restaurant the day before, that ended with 'they glutened me, the bastards!'

New one from Best Coast. Mini-album 'Fade Away' due later this month.

Another track by Chelsea Wolfe.

And here's some more new Anna Calvi. This one's the b-side for the forthcoming single release of 'Eliza'.

Latest one-off effort by Beck. He's spent most of his life working his way through the genres, I suppose it was only a matter of time before he arrived at xylophone electronica.

This week's Jools show was a right old mix-up. Here's James Blake, Goldfrapp, Franz Ferdinand and Radkey.

Just came across this. Hope it wasn't posted before

^I like that one a lot. Major old school Black Keys sound.

Jon Hopkins is back, this time with Purity Ring's Megan James on board.

(Nudity)

I'm aware that I say this every time, but this may be my favourite MØ track yet. Rather like Lykke Li at her most Ronettes-ish.

^Very nice

That Goldfrapp performance on Jools was exquisite.

I've been listening to Tales of Us a lot lately - it's a really beautiful album, and one of their most mellow yet

This has been a long time coming, new material from Warpaint! Here's a preview of new song 'Love Is To Die'.

They've also announced details of a documentary project with Chris Cunningham, which I'm assuming will coincide with the new album.

Video for Anna Calvi's 'Sing To Me'. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've had 'One Breath' on heavy rotation all week.