Spotify told me the artist I listened to the most this year is an artist called Loscil, along with several other ambient artists, like Brian Eno, who actually should be listened to on a regular basis. Just my opinion though. Anyway. Here’s the thing. Like most “intelligent” algorithms these days, they only understand quantity. Quality, or a meaningfulness, doesn’t figure into it. Honestly, I did listen to a lot of ambient this year and it is probably my favorite style of music. However, as the classic analogy goes, ambient music is like furniture. It’s part of the environment of the room. The function of it is that it is just there and doesn’t always need to be used. I often would turn it on and let it play repeatedly as I read or did other stuff. Moral of the story: be conscious of the algorithm and find opportunities to use physical media (at least that’s the idea).

Below is a list of music that I discovered and listened to this year and found something meaningful. I wouldn’t call it the best, but it’s my favorite musical highlights from a bewildering year. Don’t (necessarily) call it a soundtrack. Not all of it is new music. Some of it is incredibly old. I often returned to it throughout the year though, despite what the algorithm said.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

I finally delved deeper into (traditional) country music this year. It started with Will Oldham, for some reason. “Funtown Comedown” is a live album that hooked me. His voice may be a grower for some, but I find it suitably weary.

New Orleans Jazz

This summer, I finally watched David Simon’s Treme about New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The show is not nearly as good as The Wire but, damn, the music is infectiously buoyant and joyous. It’s a good contrast to the government incompetence and corruption that runs through the show and isn’t unfamiliar in the current moment.

Sault – Untitled (Rise) & Untitled (Black Is)

I believe most critics would say Run The Jewels 4 was one the most politically and socially relevant albums of this year. I prefer the two albums by Sault as it is an anger mixed with some incredible dance music that draws from a far more eclectic field of music. It sticks more, too. I love “I Just Want To Dance”. One of my favorite tracks of the year.

Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer (Nick Cave Alone At Alexandra Palace)

Pretty self-explanatory and indicative of how the year went, especially for musicians. Nick Cave showed up by himself to an empty music venue that was supposed to have an audience. He had a piano and played some songs. As can be expected, it’s beautifully lonesome and comforting, if you can say that about Nick Cave. “Palace Of Montezuma” is the standout.

David Byrne – American Utopia

Spike Lee directed what I call the sequel to Stop Making Sense. Beautifully arranged, choreographed and filmed. It’s incredibly fun to sit through this. A truly good experience. I was smiling at the end.

Voices Of Mississippi/Dust-To-Digital

I discovered and fell in love with Dust To Digital and archival reissues of music this year. The above set is, by far, my favorite music this year. I went down the rabbit hole after going through this. For a good amount of time this spring and summer, my mind was in Mississippi and other parts of the American South. A solo spiritual track in this set called “What Could I Do?” by a fella named Liddie Hines really captured me. It’s not difficult to imagine someone changing a few words to demonstrate the transition from spiritual to pop music. That is just one song though. There are so many other songs and performances that should be considered classics on this box set.

Smithsonian Folkways

Dust To Digital was just the beginning for me. This is a record label that not many are aware of, I think? Yes, the Smithsonian has a (nonprofit) record label and it’s stacked deep. I spent countless hours trawling through their catalog and couldn’t get to all of it.

Benoit Pioulard

Hazy, and often warm, ambient sounds from a Michigan native. He has often released his music through the legendary Kranky record label. His discography is relatively large and worth exploring. A particularly good release to recommend is Avocationals, an album dedicated to shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, which is, appropriately, one of his chillier releases.

Richard Skelton

I’m not sure if Lancashire, England is a cold, dreary and moody place, but this music is. Skelton’s music often makes me think of Godspeed You Black Emperor’s quieter and drone-y tracks, but better composed. It’s an enveloping sound though and was terrific earlier this year as I had arrived home from China during what was an untypically warm and wet winter.

Colleen “Geometria del Universo”

Although I enjoy Colleen’s music, this one instrumental track really does it for me. It’s lyrically whimsical and jaunty. It’s also short, but long enough to pick you up and leave you elsewhere.

Mary Lattimore

Lattimore’s Silver Ladders album is a great album to welcome the seasons of autumn and winter. It has a wonderfully cold, but warm feel to it. I often imagine watching the snow fall outside from the indoors as it plays. Produced by Slowdive’s Neil Halstead, it is also sounds gorgeous.

Burial

Burial made my list last year. So, lazily and uncreatively, I will just repeat some of what I said then: “It’s uncertain, hard to grasp and understand. It’s music about how things end. How you may have missed out on something really great (or at least imagined it).” Besides Sault, I can’t think of a more relevant artist and music now.

Ghost Box Records

I have a very good friend from Ireland who I met in China (and still keep in touch with). He bangs on about music that should be listened to, at times belligerently. He’s an evangelist, in a way, in some situations. In the past, he would enthusiastically expound on some artist or album. Unfortunately, my reply would often be the equivalent of “yeah, yeah, yeah…I will check it out,” and then I would forget about it until the next time he mentioned it. Thing is, I would eventually get to what he was going on about. The Go-Betweens were a good example of that. This year, I finally caught onto to Ghost Box Records, and hauntology, after years of my friend’s excitable enthusiasm for the music on the label. I’m still catching up on and exploring their artists and music. I find it tricky to explain what this music is all about as it is its own style or subgenre even. A lot has been written about it elsewhere. For years – see Mark Fisher and Simon Reynolds. “A nostalgia for a future that never came to pass,” is one of the better ways to describe it that I have come across. I recommend starting with a band called Broadcast (who were actually not on the label, but were related to it). Then go from there and enjoy.