I used to post my music choices to Twitter and, for a short time, to Threads and now BlueSky. Here is a list of my musical explorations on Spotify, and elsewhere, in the second half of 2024. My main source is friends online (you know who you are) and Discover Weekly and Release Radar. These direct to new sounds and, often, new releases from some familiar artists. I read The i Paper and The Guardian reviews or overviews (see a good example at the end of this post). This list is a bit random (aka eclectic) but you might find something to refresh your own listening habits. Let me know what you think and follow me at:
anguswillson.bsky.social [opens in new tab]
Tinita Tikaram compilation, 2024. The WEA/EastWest Albums 1988-1995
https://open.spotify.com/album/53DKUHQCzoQWVXMQakDlSE?si=FxUbv1EfQAybMZDEig_u3A
Rick Wakeman piano-playing for while working. Yessonata, 2024 open.spotify.com/album/3xHkNl…
America Live from the Hollywood Bowl, 1975. Released 2024.
How does this live recording remain virtually hidden for 50 years? to America an under-rated band in a crowded early-70s field. open.spotify.com/album/7sHsPX…
This is cool. Crowded House, Gravity Stairs, 2024
open.spotify.com/album/1Fy7fM…
Deeply unfashionable but I quite enjoyed these tunes from U2.
open.spotify.com/album/5v40oo…
Cool music from Joan Armatrading. First saw her supporting Supertramp in the 1970s. We’ve both aged well!
open.spotify.com/album/2jB6cM…
Mellow afternoon sounds. Great voice. Joanne Shaw Taylor, Heavy Soul, 2024
open.spotify.com/album/5aB8PF…
A Winter Union, Sooner After Solstice, 2023
Another album of the best Christmas you will not hear distorted in shopping arcades
open.spotify.com/album/51tuFo…
Bryan Ferry, Retrospective, 2024. 5.5 hours. I might be gone some time.
open.spotify.com/album/2V1Mbu…
Not an endorsement of his political views.
Instrumental music by Tim Edey open.spotify.com/album/1wHiWE…
Derek and The Dominoes, Live at the Fillmore, 1970. Lovely version of “Little Wing” just three weeks after Jimi Hendrix died. open.spotify.com/album/4dYhBX…
My Spotify Unwrapped 2024. No surprises there! open.spotify.com/wrapped/shar…
Too horrible to venture outside so I can’t put off writing the analogue Christmas cards. Soundtrack of music with St Agnes Fountain before the concert in on Tueday. open.spotify.com/album/3eu8cH…
At first I didn’t get the sense of ‘sampler’. I thought it would be ‘Before The Flood’ out-takes. No, it is from a 27-CD set of recordings from Jan and Feb 1974! Bob Dylan and The Band, The 1974 Live Recordings Sampler. Released September 2024.
open.spotify.com/album/5x6WnU…
A bit of 2024 prog-rock. Hat-tip: Alan Parkinson @GeoBlogs
Frost*, Life In The Wires, 2024
open.spotify.com/album/3s1DQq…
#Music for the afternoon. New release. Through That Sound (My Secret Was Made Known, Eliza Carthy and Ben Seal, 2024. The very best from modern #folk royalty.
open.spotify.com/album/22vmvq…
Muisc in the morning. I can thank Discover Weekly for this find, and so can you… Lindsey Buckingham, Solo Anthology. Fine guitar-playing and songs. open.spotify.com/album/7plpJ2…
Love live-playing and Bruce does the rise and fall so well. Turn it up! Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Road Diary, Live at various locations, 2023. open.spotify.com/album/68vmTr…
A rainy day is for…
#BBCSounds catch-up. My go to #music programmes are Sounds of the 70s (now with Bob Harris), The Blues Show with Cerys Matthews, The #Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe and The Country Show with Bob Harris. Also Cerys Matthews, Radio 6 on Sunday, and Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour.
The start of BlueSky (August 2024) (this list is in reverse order, most recent at the top.
Music Threads Excellent “Discover weekly”. I must have good taste! LOL open.spotify.com/playl…
Cregan & Co. Spreading Rumours
Preparation for concert in Canterbury on Friday. Love live music! open.spotify.com/album…
The Carpenters. Gold, indeed. What a superb voice!
open.spotify.com/album…
Watched a Michael Parkinson re-run which played out with Norah Jones – it was a delight, so I went in search of recent music and… Norah Jones, Visions, 2024
open.spotify.com/album…
Here’s a gem I’ve not heard for many years. This sits deep in my teenage soul. It was played loud in a darkened room. Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath, 1970
Now Playing open.spotify.com/album…
Sandy Denny, Sandy, 1972. Perfect evening music. Now Playing Such a great voice and superb guitar by Richard Thompson.
open.spotify.com/album…
Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, In Session, 1993 (Remastered 2024) Sublime blues
open.spotify.com/album…
Katie Gavin, What A Relief, 2024 Because I read about her in The i Paper
open.spotify.com/album…
Eric Clapton, Meanwhile, 2024 Sometime controversialist, excellent guitarist.
open.spotify.com/album…
Beth Hart, You Still Got Me, 2024
open.spotify.com/album…
What was I saying about finding an album by an old ‘friend’? I love Jeff Beck‘s Truth, Blow by Blow and Wired. nowplaying Live at the Hollywood Bowl from 2016 #musicthreads
open.spotify.com/album…
There are faves or ‘go to’ albums. There are delightful new albums to be found. And there are long-forgotten albums which are a true delight to rediscover: Mountain, Nantucket Sleighride, 1971. musicthreads #nowplaying #1970s
open.spotify.com/album…
David Gilmour, Luck and Strange, 2024 Now Playing The sounds of morning music…
open.spotify.com/album…
Terry Marshall, Living the Blues, 2024. I like a bit of sax. (see what I did there?)
open.spotify.com/album…
Humble Pie, Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore, 1971 A magnificent live album. Steve Marriot and Peter Frampton together. Turn it up!open.spotify.com/album…
Fabulous live sounds from Chris While and Julie Matthews in the modern Godmersham and Crundale Village Hall. Promoted by Folk in the Barn Great new album
open.spotify.com/album…
Coldplay, Moon Music, 2024. Not bad, actually.
open.spotify.com/album…
Alison Moyet, Key, 2024 open.spotify.com/album…
David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars,
OH, who *never* sings, is currently singing this word for word 🙂 open.spotify.com/album…
Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb. If I could live my life again I would wish to play the guitar like this… youtu.be/7kWl…
Jez Lowe, as we heard him at Broadstairs Folk Week, youtu.be/LPp5x…
Lauren South, heard at Broadstairs Folk Week, Tiny Boat, 2024 open.spotify.com/album…
I wouldn’t have listened to this in 1985 NowListening Kris Kristofferson RIP open.spotify.com/album…
Note to self: gq-magazine.co.uk/artic…10 best instrumental albums that are much more than background noise
I just caught up with the fact that Al Stewart has been playing live his songs from the 70s. nowplaying a clip from YT and a double album on Spotify youtu.be/pyj6i…
open.spotify.com/album…
Musical tributes are in the news nowplaying Pink As Floyd, Josh Stone, 2023. Interesting. open.spotify.com/album…
And on the theme of tributes… nowplaying Purple Haze, Cactus and Melanie (yes, that Melanie), 2024 open.spotify.com/album…
Neil Young, Early Daze, 2024. 47th studio album nowplaying open.spotify.com/album…
open.spotify.com/track… We should each have our own song. Here’s mine in a new version, Dream Angus.
Sway, The Best of Carla Olson and Mick Taylor. open.spotify.com/album… Love to find new-to-me old albums
Threads, for me, started in July 2024. This list is in reverse calendar order: most revtn at the top.
Back catalogue
One delight is finding an artist you once appreciated continued to make good music, or release a live album, after you lost interest or moved on. See this article on the sometimes over-looked “late era albums”. I haven’t heard all of them so there is plenty of #NowListening ahead.
“From Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder: the best late-era albums by musical greats
When pop stars are deemed ‘past their peak’, it’s easy to dismiss their work. But do that and you might miss out on hidden treasure. Here our critics celebrate unexpected gems from the likes of Aretha Franklin and The Fall.”
www.theguardian.com/music/2024/dec/17/must-listen-late-albums-bob-dylan-aretha-franklin-bruce-springsteen