I was a bit worried about getting to June and having had no contenders for album of the year (I’ve decided that’s a thing until I get bored of it), well not just that, but no new music that has really grabbed me. I get to worry about this now as I’m legitimately of that age where it’s ok just to listen to music you already like, although I don’t want to yet. I suppose that’s not completely true, there have been individual tracks: Sigrid’s Don’t kill my vibe is rightfully awesome, I really like Amber Arcades’ It Changes and Noga Erez’s Off the Radar and Pity have probably been the biggest ear openers of the year (and Pity is desperately sad).
DBFC also released their long anticipated album, Jenks, and Eddy TM had a fantastic album playback show where he espoused how great it was not to be disappointed that the album didn’t live up to the expectations, but, if I’m honest, I probably did feel like that on first listen. That feels like it’s changing after a few more listens, but Autonomic is still by far the standout track; I mean, it’s that good this was close to being album of the year anyway, but then there was…
Nadia Rose’s Highly Flammable. Is. Just. Amazing. It actually came out in January, but unsurprisingly wasn’t on my radar since I’m 100% not her target audience, but it is just great. She’s a fantastic lyricst and uses her name to full effect: “Guess who’s back, but you never left. Yes I did, I rose from the dead” and “They try to put me down but Nadia Rose, yeah, Nadia Rose” (full marks awarded for that one). Skwod is my favourite, but I really like them all. And Crank It has to be one of the best closers on an album ever (and I’d heard this before - who knew?!). It’s a pretty short album, but you can just do what I’ve been doing: stick it on repeat.
I’d originally chickened out of calling it so soon, what with half the year left, and had just worded this post with Highly Flammable as my front runner so far, but I’ve since decided to just be brave and make the decision now.