Hi all,
I hope everyone is having a great Christmas break, as has become customary at this time of year I thought I would post my 3 top albums of the year, I know we spend a lot of time throughout the year listening to the Classics that have come through the years with us but every year there are always some stand out albums that I will certainly be listening to for the rest of my time on this planet so it is a great reminder to look back through the year to remember that great music is still being released all the time.
This year for me it was quite easy to pick my top 3 but really hard to put them all in order as listening to music is so mood dependant but on any given day any of these 3 albums I would thoroughly enjoy but if we really pushed they would be as below.
I have to say that I saw all these artists live this year, 3 very different gigs but in their own way 3 of the best shows I have seen in recent years.
So here we go, I’ll choose 3 favourites from each album so you can try them on the streaming service of your choice, this is actually really hard as all 3 albums are so strong I could choose every track but give them a listen and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Number 3
Tom McRae – Étrange Hiver
I have been a Tom McRae fan ever since his brilliant first album in 2000 and in my view he has never released a bad album and this really is up there with the best.
It is a beautiful album of duets, some in French, some in English, but all of them are just gorgeous, Tom has one of the best voices I know and these duets really show this off.
We saw Tom do a one man show at the Stables a few months ago which was just fantastic, got to say Hi afterwards and it turns out he is a big Springsteen fan too so I like him even more now.
My favourite tracks –
- Speeding Cars
- For My Confessor
- Habit Of You
Number 2
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
Yet another top class album from Nick Cave, this guy really is pure class, I didn’t think he’d ever to be able to compete with his last album ‘Ghosteen’ as that is one of the best albums of all time in my view but this does get really close following a similar haunting approach but again it is a stunning collection of songs showing he is still at the top of his game.
Saw him at Birmingham a couple of months ago with the Bad Seeds and Colin from Radiohead on bass and it was a spectacular show which made me think why have I only seen him a few times live when I have seen Springsteen over 100 time now, makes no sense, just wish he was still on tour so I could go again.
My Favourite Tracks
- Wild God
- Conversion
- Cinnamon Horses
Number 1 –
Zach Bryan – The Great American Bar Scene
Well for anyone who has met me this year this will be no surprise as I have been recommending anyone that will listen to give Zach a try, he has been a revelation to me, I never thought I would find an artist nowadays that I like this much, especially as he is only 28 and writing such incredible songs, he is pretty much all I have listened to this year so when I heard he had a new album due July I couldn’t wait and it really didn’t disappoint.
I think it is fair to say his routes are in country music but I would say he is more of a traditional singer songwriter really, I find it incredible the amount of top drawer songs he has released over the last 4-5 years and I firmly believe in years to come he will go down in history as one of the best songwriters we’ve seen, even Bruce Springsteen appears on the new album and is a huge Zach fan so that says a lot to me.
I’ve been so caught up in a Zach rabbit hole this year I took a week off work to fly out to Tulsa, Oklahoma in December to see him play 3 shows in his home area and what incredible shows they were, such a young crowd which was great to see, mostly girls it has to be said, never known screaming like it, made me think this must have been what it was like going to see the Beatles back in the day as half the time you couldn’t hear the music through all the screaming.
I shot some video on my phone and we have collated it an uploaded to YouTube, please find link below –
As for choosing only 3 songs, this is so hard as really not one bad song on the album but here we go, sorry, looks like I forgot how to count –
- Oak Island
- The Way Back
- Bass Boat
- Sandpaper (featuring Mr Springsteen)
https://youtu.be/Teccwc3jzao?si=_K6jkG3ucnz0sWFS
So there we go another great year for new music, hope you enjoy the above, looks forward to seeing what 2025 has in store for us music wise.
All the best for the New Year everyone,
Regards,
Paul.
