Tag: calling marian

  • Most-listened to albums during 2024

    Most-listened to albums during 2024

    In a time where everyone shares their year-in-music as a Spotify Wrapped screenshot on Instagram Stories, only to be glanced through because nobody is really interested, I’ve written this blog post. Besides, I’m not active on Spotify or Instagram.

    I’m going to presume you are more interested in discovering album recommendations and that will be the focus here. This is my most-listened to albums of 2024 according to Last.fm, with maybe a few extra thrown in for good measure. Let’s crack on:

    10.
    This Is Why

    by Paramore

    Released 2023post-punk, new wave
    Apple MusicSpotifyMusicBrainzMore

    Considering I was into a lot of emo music ‘back in the day’ I didn’t get on board with Paramore until quite late on. Manchester band Dutch Uncles went on tour as support to Paramore when they came to Oslo. One of the band members from Dutch Uncles put me on the guest list and it was only then, after seeing Paramore live, that I figured I should give them a chance. I really like Paramore now and there’s a whole back catalogue to catch up on.


    9.
    NO THANK YOU

    by Little Simz

    Released 2022hip-hop, neo-soul
    Apple MusicSpotifyMusicBrainzMore

    Keen readers of the blog will already know that I am a fan of Little Simz and it always makes me happy to get a notification from Last.fm saying that she made it into my Top Artists for the month.

    NO THANK YOU was an album that dropped just before I saw Little Simz play live last year and it’s been a favourite of mine since. If I am ever scrolling through my music library and see this artwork, I’m ready to hit play.


    8.
    AM

    by Arctic Monkeys

    Released 2013indie, rock
    Apple MusicSpotifyMusicBrainzMore

    When I was an indie-kid bopping around in the music scene in Manchester, Arctic Monkeys were on the scene as a bunch of Sheffield bands broke through. I have always liked Arctic Monkeys. This album is a strong one in the band’s catalogue.


    7.
    OK Go

    by OK Go

    Released 2002indie, rock
    Apple MusicSpotifyMusicBrainzMore

    This album I bought in 2002 after hearing the debut single ‘Get Over It‘ on the radio and I really loved the album – but the band fell off my radar a little and I didn’t really listen to anything OK Go produced until they became popular for the viral treadmill thing.

    They are a good band with a few good albums, but this will always be my favourite. Clearly. Over 20 years later and it’s still appearing in my Top Albums of the Year.


    6.
    Collapsed in Sunbeams

    by Arlo Parks

    Released 2021bedroom pop, neo-soul
    BandcampMusicBrainz – More

    Arlo Parks is great. The music is pretty chill and always a good one to go to when you want some downbeat vibes. The songs are sad, but also happy at the same time.

    I think when I first got this album I played it on repeat a lot and it was my most-listened to album of 2022, dropping to 9th place in 2023 and now bumping back up to 6th in 2024.

    Do I need to say more than that? It charted in my Top 10 every year since it was released.


    5.
    LaGuardia

    by Stars

    Released 2019indie pop
    BandcampMusicBrainzMore

    The song that really sold me on Stars was ‘Your Ex-Lover Is Dead‘ which has all the beauty and whimsy and magic of a romantic story told with all the pomp of ‘Fairytale of New York‘. And weirdly, I bought the single on vinyl when it came out and never listened to it until years later.

    Stars have many albums with many great songs and a good way to get into them is to listen to LaGuardia, which is a ‘Best of…’ release.


    4.
    Florist

    by Florist

    Released 2022ambient, indie-folk
    BandcampMusicBrainzMore

    Do you have an artist that feels like your “go-to” when you just want to listen to something chill and relaxing as you lounge and potter around the house? For me, this is Florist.

    I saw Florist live in Seattle a few years back and it didn’t disappoint. They came to Norway recently, but played in Bergen – a whole 8+ hour train journey away from Oslo.

    If asked I probably wouldn’t say this is my favourite album from the artist, so a bit surprised that of all the Florist releases that I own, it turned up before the others in my top albums this year.


    3.
    Cast of Thousands

    by Elbow

    Released 2013indie, indie rock
    Apple MusicSpotifyMusicBrainzMore

    Even though it’s not the most quiet and calming album, Cast of Thousands by Elbow is my go-to album when I can’t sleep and I am lay in bed desperately trying to fall asleep.

    By no means does this mean it is a boring album; quite the opposite. It’s very intricate and if you listen closely there are many layers of sounds that you might not consider on a first listen.

    If this album is appearing in my Top 3, then it means I have had a lot of sleepless nights this past year – but Elbow calms my mind, helps me focus, and takes me to a place where I am able to drift off. And sometimes that is just what you need.


    2.
    Hyper Opus

    by Calling Marian

    Released 2023techno, electronic
    Apple MusicSpotifyMusicBrainzMore

    Marian and I met through Tumblr many moons ago. We first followed each other, then started chatting and became online friends, and then I flew to her home town in France to visit her and her family. This was before she made techno music and now she’s a really good DJ working the techno scene in France and has her own record label.

    If you are into techno, you should listen to this and everything that Calling Marian released on her Soundcloud and Bandcamp for CVNT Records.


    1.
    All Hell

    by Los Campesinos!

    Released 2024indie pop, emo
    BandcampMusicBrainzMore

    Well. No surprise here for me. Los Campesinos! are possibly my favourite band of all and so if they release new music it’s bound to be something special.

    If you haven’t really heard the Welsh indie-emo band Los Campesinos! then this release is a good place to start.

    It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s All Hell.


    So, that’s the list! You made it! Thanks for scrolling all the way down from ten-to-one and checking out my most listened to albums of the past year.

    I hope you found something above that you have not heard of before and I hope for a “most played of 2024” list that you weren’t too disappointed that the list contained a grand total of one (1) album released 2024.

    If you were looking for albums released in 2024 then here’s two bonus ones for you that didn’t get as much airtime as the ones listed above, but that I did purchase:

    Letter To Self
    by SPRINTS

    Released 2024 garage punk, alt. rock
    BandcampMusicBrainzMore

    Beer Baby
    by Drunk Mums

    Released 2024 garage rock, punk
    BandcampMusicBrainzMore

    ✌️

    Bye!

  • Links of the week

    Links of the week

    This week, where highlights include playing Android: Netrunner with my friend Tor for four hours straight and carefully positioning a drinking glass between my cat’s bottom and the litter tray in order to catch some pee, I read some news online.

    I don’t even know if I need to explain any more. Everyone has hobbies, right?


    Before everyone started to rely on Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of the Facebook-Instagram-WhatsApp trio, to drip-feed biased news into their online filter bubble, geeks used these things called RSS readers to choose what news they wanted to read themselves.

    Imagine that?! Well, no need to. RSS readers still exist. If you want to subscribe to this blog, you need an RSS reader. Even if you don’t want to subscribe to this blog, you might want to get one anyway. Or not. Do what you want. It’s your life.

    I am using and paying for Feedbin. They recently released some new things.

    A series of three iPhone device mock ups with various screenshots of the Feedbin app shown in each one.

    Feedbin for iOS • Feedbin

    Everyone loves a good app, apparently. Even if the website can do exactly the same. I get it; some apps are good and just feel smoother. Mmm, smooth apps.

    An animation showing the process of marking a news article to "read it later" via a button on the web browser window. On pressing the button, the article then appears in the Feedbin website.

    Save webpages to read later • Feedbin

    Generally, I am saving stuff to Pocket when I want to read it later, but now Feedbin does the same. Huzzah!

    This post is not sponsored by Feedbin. I don’t have any sponsors. I am not popular.


    Before I had my own blog on my own website, I used Tumblr. If you haven’t heard of Tumblr before, it was the LiveJournal of the mid-2010s. If you haven’t heard of LiveJournal, then it was the Geocities of the mid-2010s. Probably.

    Anyway, Tumblr was great because you could have a blog on there and tag it with words, like #cats or #dinosaurs and then literally tens of people could find your post. Sometimes tens of thousands if it was a good post. Sometimes hundreds of thousands.

    I met my French friend Calling Marian through Tumblr and seem to recall a few of the first messages between my now-wife and I were sent through Tumblr. Then Yahoo! bought it and made it worse before selling it to US-mega-corp Verizon who really fucked it all up and I stopped using it.

    The same tumblr logo set against four various background colours.

    Verizon agrees to sell Tumblr to owner of WordPress • axios.com

    Apparently, Verizon are losing money on Tumblr, selling the site at a loss to a good company. WordPress do good work. They make blogs.


    In other news, the UK Advertising Standards Authority introduced some new rules to say “NO!” to gender stereotyping in adverts that broadcast on your TV screens and presumably your YouTube pre-rolls. Good stuff.

    Well, technically they made the rules a long time ago, but they came into action recently and, this week, the ASA threw down that ban-hammer on two companies.

    A picture of an old tv showing static - Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

    The Advertising Standards Authority has banned its first ads for “harmful” gender stereotyping • It’s Nice That

    Car brand Volkswagen and soft cheese brand Philadelphia have had their ads banned in their current form for “perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes”.

    One ad implied that men can’t look after children after some lads lost their babies and followed it up by commenting “Let’s not tell mum”. The other advert implied gender-specific job roles by featuring two male astronauts, a group of male athletes, and a woman looking after a baby.

    Call me a snowflake (ha!), but I approve of these new rules.


    Finally, because we live on a planet that we are destroying, here is some relevant environmental news. It’s relevant because we are all going to die when Mother Nature has had enough of our consuming ways and sets off a chain reaction of forest fires, earthquakes, volcanoes… then tsunami come to wipe us out.

    That’s one theory that I just made up. I hope you enjoyed it.

    A ceremony to mark the passing of Okjokull, Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change. It once covered 16sq km but has melted to a fraction. Photograph: Jeremie Richard

    Iceland holds funeral for first glacier lost to climate change • The Guardian

    Around 100 people walked up a mountain with Iceland’s prime minister to stick a bit of metal on a rock. Funny, but also sad.

    Scientists collect snow samples above the Arctic circle. Photograph: Melanie Bergmann/Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Science Advances

    Microplastics ‘significantly contaminating the air’, scientists warn • The Guardian

    Snow captures particles from the air as it falls and some scientists analysed the snow. It turns out the air is full of bits of plastic.

    I wonder if Leo Baekeland – “The Father of the Plastics Industry” – knew what he was bestowing on the world all those years ago. And I also wonder why governments don’t outlaw plastics as toxic materials the same way asbestos was.


    Anyway…

    If you read this post, leave a comment. Say hello. The only comments I get a spam, and they aren’t as uplifting as comments from real people.

    For more links of the week, see previous Links of the Week posts or stay tuned for future updates. You can also read this blog post about cryptocurrency that I recently wrote.

    Bye.