The Tepid Take

This list is a work of artifice. It’s a work of artifice in the opposite way to Spotify’s Top Songs. Where that creates significance from without – telling you, this is the music that meant something to you, go on, look at it, didn’t it mean something to you? – this list, anyone doing something like this, creates significance from within . I’ve decided, I’m going to say, unilaterally, these pieces of music were the most important ones, irrespective of how much I actually listened to them in year. 1. THE ABOUT-AS-SENTIMENTAL-AS-YOU'D-EXPECT ONE: Dog Tale by Tugboat Captain      And Tugboat Captain is really pushing the (metaphorical) boat out in that respect, because the first time I listened to this album in full was two days ago.      I’d just been telling The Dutch Girl about Dog Tale, the single, how I thought she’d like it, you know how it is, the dogs and such, and I thought: that album came out this year, why didn’t I give it a go? Why ...

Hullo! A week on from the new year and I thought it the best time to cover off the five books that really did a number in me this year. While I read (some) more, with each of these I finished with the feeling that they'd made some contribution to my way of thinking, be it about politics, people, cities, what happens when you die, why William Morris is really great... You know, relatable stuff like that. So let me take you through each of them now - in no particular order. 1. Soft City by Jonathan Raban      This one proved to be shockingly perceptive on themes of place and what makes a city a habitable space to live (or not). Raban writes about London with an affection that's couched in realism. He knows that it has its problems, but he knows those problems aren't necessarily caused by the citizens. He sees scarps of capital but the lived experience made within them is always what shines through. And that seems to be the point Raban is making, that there's somethin...