November and December are a busy time. There are hundreds of tracks to listen to in order to arrive at a judicious list of the best 40 tracks of the year – and it’s truly humbling that another month of deep diving would yield an alternative list by unknown artists (to me, at least) of a parallel quality.
In advertising when a client asked whether we were showing them the best possible ad, someone would be sure to embark on a story with the central message of whether your partner (it was nearly always a wife back then) was the best wife you could have married. The idea being that if you conducted a rigorous investigation, maybe there was a better option lurking in Buenos Aires or Tangiers.
Sure, we get it. But, come on. There’s the law of diminishing returns. Somewhere there’s an ur-Festive Forthy. But perhaps the flaws in this one make it better?
Some old FF favourites, such as Honeyglaze and Mount Eerie, put in an appearance , but there’s plenty of fresh thinking here too. One theme I liked this year was the experimental nature of bands like Still House Plants and Cindy Lee – in particular their refusal to provide the predicted catharsis. More of that to come further down the chart.
Let me say upfront that such is the width of options available, some tracks by more established artists, such as Billie Eilish for example, I’ve omitted on the basis that I’m sure you’re familiar already. That said, I have included later on some deep cuts from fairly popular albums this year which were in danger of getting overlooked and present a different face of a more mainstream artist I rather liked. Spoiler alert though, ‘Espresso’ by Sabrina Carpenter does not in fact feature. Sorry.
Here we go.
