Episode 172 - Festive Forthy 2024, Part 3, #14-1

Many of us will remember the genuine sense of excitement leading up to the unveiling of John Peel’s Festive 50 each year. The FF’s still going, run by Dandelion Radio these days, and it’s still quite a useful barometer of “popular mid-range alternative” music, if you get my drift. However it’s not quite the same.

40 years ago, all we had was the Festive 50, Best Of Year round ups in the inkies (NME and Melody Maker) plus some half-arsed attempts in other mags and papers which never revealed anything new. There was greater crossover between the charts then as 100,000 tracks a day weren’t being released every day onto Spotify.

Now you really have to put the yards in to arrive at the list that works for you. But the effort is worth it. I’ve filed a few tracks away over the year and then listened to hundreds of tracks over November to arrive at this chart.

I’ve tried not to allow it to become dominated by one style. So there’s elements of rap, African, folk, indie, jazz, prog, country, industrial, electronica and psychedelia – in Geordie Greep’s case all in the same song. I think it’s a great list, but I would say that.

Thanks to everyone who’s supported the show over the year. I could do it without you, but I wouldn’t. Sorry if your favourite band missed out (many were called, few served) but hope you enjoy this selection.

Tracklist:

14. Dream job, Yard Act

13. Davey says, King Hannah

12. This was a gift, Florist

11. Funeral for justice, Mdou Moctar

10. Mastermind specialism, English Teacher

9. Holy, holy! Geordie Greep

8. I don’t know you, Mannequin Pussy

7. Perfect hand, This Is Lorelei

6. Keys down if you stay, Cola

5. Liberty print, Camera Obscura

4. Wristwatch, MJ Lenderman

3. Head, Claire Rousay

2. Reckless, Kassie Krut

1. Rain, Nice Biscuit

Episode 172 - Festive Forthy 2024, Part 2, #27-15

Onwards, ever onwards, our oars paddling hard against the current, with this episode, the middle child, so to speak, traditionally struggling to find its identity within the family. But in fact a confident set of tracks of some diversity.

There was justified commentary of the first tranche in the previous episode that it was rather guitar-dominated which, on reflection, it rather was.

So this time round, by way of contrast, there are instrumentals and a fair bit of electronic experimentation.

Some old friends such as Four Tet, but also many artists never featured before on the show, such as M L Buch, Allegra Krieger, Ex Easter Island Head, Packs, Jessica Pratt and Moin. And also a couple of deep cuts from 2024’s more popular albums from Clairo (sounding like Broadcast here) and, of course, Charli XCX with a track of immense vulnerability. It wouldn’t have sounded at all out of place on this year’s Insecurity episode.

Without more ado …

Tracklist:

27. Loved, Four Tet

26. I might say something stupid, CharliXCX

25. Never arriving, Allegra Krieger

24. My God! Tapir

23. Norther, Ex-Easter island Head

22. Clairbourne practice, Julie

21. Earth hater, The Hard Quartet

20. HFCS, Packs

19. The last year, Jessica Pratt

18. Guess it’s wrecked, Moon, Alan Monk

17. High speed calm air tonight, ML Buch

16. Modesto, Pedro the Lion

15, Echo, Clairo

Episode 171 - Festive Forthy 2024, Part 1, #40-28

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.

Tracklist:

40. All my exes live in vortexes, Rosie Tucker

39. Like a painting, Anna McClellan

38. Mon argent, Corridor

37. Uncomfortably happy, Jess Locke

36. Good stuff, Bnny

35. MMM, Still House Plants

34. I saw another bird, Mount Eerie

33. Everything that I write, Mammoth Penguins

32. Killdozer, Midwife

31. Dracula, Cindy Lee

30. Black holes, the stars and you, A Savage

29. Ghost, Honeyglaze

28. Sport, Winksy