Nearing, as we are, the end of the calendar year, thoughts begin to turn to the traditional “Best of…” Spotify playlist.

Normally, this is a fairly simple process: I keep a running list of good things I hear during the year, I scan through the “best of” playlists on a few websites in early December to ensure there’s nothing too excellent that I missed, and – sure enough – 20 tracks magically present themselves as the period’s finest.

2022, however, is proving something of an exception. Put simply: my longlist is too long, and I am already struggling to reduce it to the requisite 20 without landing firmly in “kill your darlings” territory (and I rather like my darlings). Plus! There’s still about a month to go.

Obviously, this is good news: lots of exciting new music, which is what we like (right?). But it’s also an awful lot of pressure – as seasoned blog observers will no doubt be aware, my end of year playlist is such a feature of the holiday season that many have come to rely on it in order to maintain the fragile balance of their emotional inner lives. Heavy hangs the head that picks » Continue Reading.