January 2025 Music Playlist Review
This playlist is included in my January 2025 newsletter and here are my candid thoughts on some of the songs.
Propaganda – The Murder of Love
I first came to know the band Propaganda from the song “Strength to Dream” on the Analogue Sequence album. The song was automatically recommended on Spotify off the back of some other 80s music I was listening to. That song’s epic sequence of strings and thunder stood out in a sea of synth songs, especially because thunder and lightning is my favourite weather.
I thought I’d listen to the album in full and found “The Murder of Love” which I bloody love right now. Two parts I am obsessed with on that song – the “on the beat” bass line heard in the chorus at 1:58.
I love how the chord progression alongside the bassline is unusual and goes up and down to notes that you wouldn’t guess naturally. The big surprise in the song was the jazz-like sequence at 3:23 (reminding me of Pat Metheny) – from that part on, it’s my favourite and I love how the sections build up with the punchy bass line and steady beat. Then a retro-inspired arpeggio sequence at 3:57 alongside my favourite “on the beat” bassline sequence. This is finally built up with a shoegaze-style vocal track, followed 32 bars later, with a small synth sound on every off beat culminating in a full sound experience. This was very much a pop technique I used when writing dance music, by building up the song parts using the elements of the song towards the outtro plus a long fade out.
Listening on headphones is a real treat because the parts are well panned and the production is brilliant.
I found it interesting to read that the band were formed of a punk musician and classical one. You can hear the two influences and it’s why I’m really into it at the moment. I’m learning about Dave Grohl’s punk music background in his Autobiography.
Lots of parts of the album sounds very similar to the Art of Noise e.g. on the song “Jewel” – and while writing this I just looked it up and found they share the same record label – ZTT Records Limited.
Japan – Visions of China
Last year I listened to the song Ghosts a lot, as I’ve known about this song and always liked David Sylvian’s singing voice. When I like a song I tend to go and listen to the whole album to see if there are other songs that are good or unusual and I found Visions of China – 2003 Digital Remaster. I think this is such a fun song and has a really interesting and funky drum sequence with nice panning and effects. It makes you want to bob around in your chair 🕺
Rabbit in the Moon – I Wanna Be Adored Remix
This was a random find from an Electro song I liked which led me to quite a cool remix of the Stone Roses. The Spotify description says they are an intense act and live stage performance – what I imagine Shpongle being like. I don’t really like their other songs.
The Buggles – Elstree
I am obsessed with The Age of Plastic album and am planning to do a full album write-up at some point. This is such an important album in music history, not only because of Video Killed the Radio Star/MTV but as Trevor Horn – singer and producer of The Buggles and numerous bands. I picked Elstree because the lyrics are really catchy:
Elstree, remember me?
I had a part in a B movie
I played a man from history.
Elstree, oh look at me,
Now I work for the BBC,
Life is not what it used to be.
I thought it was funny that working at the BBC is the bad thing. The outtro synth sequence and the galloping horse is similar to YES (a band produced by Horn).
Manufacture – As The End Draws Near
This is a new discovery for me and to be honest I only like this song. It’s the Spotify algorithm playing from Propaganda and is a really interesting dance-like song, with film samples (similar to the Command and Conquer PS1 games). It has that on-the-beat bassline that I tend to really like. There must be a name for that style. For once, there’s a blank description in Spotify.
Bonus playlist
Here are 115 songs I liked in 2024: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Cq4Owt4vjwlGCe21njnMn?si=dd9aee28aeb14975