Another week, another weekly playlist.
Not a whole lot of release action this week, but there was some really special ones. The new Leah Senior album was the highlight of the week for me. She continues to impress and I love her songwriting. A pop treasure is the new double album release from The Explorers Club. One is full of originals and one is full of covers. Both are gorgeous. Tommy Alexander released his new record this week. The whole thing is only available on Bandcamp at the moment (which is perfectly fine, because Bandcamp > Spotify), so I reshared a single on this list. There’s also new albums from Michelle Billingsley, John Craigie, Andrea and Mud, El Obo, Larkin Poe, Dougie Poole, Norah Jones, Sammy Brue and Scott Orr. There’s also great EPs from Abby Hamilton (Change Things is one of my favorite songs of the week, I watched a live youtube version several times) and Goldish (well this came out a week ago, but missed it then).
The big Finnish release of the week is the new Veli album. I’ve loved his songs since the Red Carpet days and it’s superb to get a full solo debut. There’s also fabulous new singles from Nightbird, Matti Jasu, Treemer, Maustetytöt, Isse and an album cut from Karstein Volle & The Telomeres (this came out over a month ago, but I missed it back then).
The song of the week is of course the last song from John Prine. The powerful new singles from Thee Sacred Souls and India Ramey are also wonderful, relevant and important. There’s also new singles from Arlo McKinley, Margo Price, Kyle Nix and so forth. Everything would be worthy of a namedrop too, but you’ll find them below.
That’s all for this week. Love from a distance.
1. Leah Senior – Dress Up a Heart (The Passing Scene, Flightless Records, 2020)
2. The Explorers Club – Dawn (The Explorers Club, Goldstar Recordings, 2020)
3. Veli – (I Don’t Want To) Hurt You (I Am Changing, Evil Veli Recordings, 2020)
4. Abby Hamilton – Change Things (Afraid of the Dark EP, 2020)
5. Tommy Alexander – End of the World (Waves, 2020)
6. John Prine – I Remember Everything (single, Oh Boy Records, 2020)
7. Michelle Billingsley – Portia (Not the Marrying Kind, Western Myth Records, 2020)
8. Nightbird – Travelin’ Baby (single, Ella Ruth Institutet, 2020)
9. Arlo McKinley – Walking Shoes (single, Oh Boy Records, 2020)
10. Thee Sacred Souls – Give Us Justice (single, Daptone Records, 2020)
11. India Ramey – King of the Ashes (single, 2020)
12. Paul Cauthen – America (single, 2020)
13. Larkin Poe – Holy Ghost Fire (Self Made Man, Tricki-Woo Records, 2020)
14. John Craigie – Don’t Deny (Asterisk the Universe, Zabriskie Point Records, 2020)
15. Margo Price – Letting Me Down (single, Loma Vista Recordings, 2020)
16. Kyle Nix – Shelby’65 (single, 2020)
17. Andrea and Mud – Lines (Bad News Darlin’, 2020)
18. Dogwood Tales – Truck Stop Town (single, WarHen Records, 2020)
19. El Obo – Grit N Grin (Reach Into the Dark & Pull It Closer, Favorite Gentleman, 2020)
20. Bedouine – All My Trials (single, Mexican Summer, 2020)
21. The Wild Reeds – Don’t Pretend (single, Dualtone, 2020)
22. Karstein Volle & The Telomeres – Don’t Tell Me I’m Wrong (Never Better, 2020)
23. Matti Jasu – Swimming (single, 2020)
24. Treemer – Weathers (single, Soft Monsters, 2020)
25. Maustetytöt – Tee se itse (single, Is This Art! 2020)
26. Isse – Loimii (single, Helmi Levyt, 2020)
27. Norah Jones – Flame Twin (Pick Me Up Off the Floor, Capitol Records, 2020)
28. Dojo Cuts feat Carlton Jumel Smith – Here We Are (single, Colemine Records, 2020)
29. Black Pumas – Fast Car (single, ATO Records, 2020)
30. Dougie Poole – Natural Touch (The Freelancer’s Blues, Wharf Cat Records, 2020)
31. Goldish – Saturday Song (Reverie EP, 2020)
32. Mukiss – Switzerland (single, Coyote Hand Puppet Records, 2020)
33. Scott Orr – By the Way (Tape Demo) (Tape Demos, Other Songs, 2020)
34. Matthew Ryan – Farewell (single, 2020)
35. Lori McKenna – Good Fight (single, CN Records, 2020)
36. Sammy Brue – Skatepark Doomsday Blues (Crash Test Kid, New West Records, 2020)
37. The Jayhawks – Dogtown Days (single, SHAM, 2020)
38. The Remittance Men – Lila Page 8 (single, 2020)
39. The Northern Belle – Late Bloomer (single, Die With Your Boots On, 2020)
40. Philippe Bronchtein – Nothing More than a Memory (single, 2020)
41. Thanya Iyer – Please Don’t Hold Me Hostage For Who I Am, For Who I Was (single, Topshelf Records, 2020)
42. Leon Bridges feat Terrace Martin – Sweeter (single, Columbia, 2020)
43. The Explorers Club – Maybe After He’s Gone (To Sing and Be Born Again, Goldstar Recordings, 2020)
44. The Cactus Blossoms – Happy Man (single, Walkie Talkie Records, 2020)
45. Ben Mason – The Land Where the Sun Sets (Kanandah, BMR, 2020)
46. Simon Linsteadt – Glass Beach (single, Stormy Deep Records, 2020)
47. Dan Reeder – A Place on the River (Every Which Way, Oh Boy Records, 2020)
48. Camille Delean – What I Lost in the Snow (Cold House Burning, New Habitat Records, 2020)
49. Brigid Mae Power – Head Above Water (Head Above Water, Fire Records, 2020)
50. Lucy Langlas – Open (single, Early Hearts, 2020)
Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you
If you are looking this after a week has gone, the embedded Spotify will show the latest playlist. I’ll just update the same playlist because a) if someone wants to follow it, they can just follow that one list and will get a new set of songs each Sunday b) so that I don’t have a trillion of different playlists on my Spotify account.