luno/music

some of my albums of all time (by year i listened to them most/the year they remind me of), my favourite tracks on the album, things they make me feel/remind me of
in no particular order, forever a wip


live music

so i don't forget

2024: boa

2023: lana del rey, father john misty, hozier, chase atlantic, central cee, the killers, bakar, ethel cain, steve lacy, declan mckenna, billie eilish

2022: the 1975, halsey, willow, ashnikko, arrdee, lovejoy

current live music wishlist: muse, grimes, sufjan stevens, chappell roan


timeless

Carrie & Lowell [Sufjan Stevens, 2015]

favourite tracks:

1. fourth of july
2. death with dignity
3. should have known better
4. the only thing

best when/for:

overawareness of the delicate nature of life, reading through genius annotations, transcendence and questioning, minimalistically raw and beautiful instrumentals and vocals

other:

a dreamlike performance of carrie & lowell i discovered: https://youtu.be/9FX34TjJe-c?si=zClZQbQpij2Pv7YZ

Illinois [Sufjan Stevens, 2005]

favourite tracks:

1. Casimir Pulaski Day
2. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
3. John Wayne Gacy Jr.
4. Chicago

best when/for:

the same minimalistically raw and beautiful instrumentals and vocals of carrie & lowell but perhaps a bit lighter and happier, young love, a gentle sense of hopefulness

Tidal [Fiona Apple, 1996]

favourite tracks:

1. never is a promise
2. sleep to dream
3. criminal
4. sullen girl

best when/for:

the most powerful soulful vocals, learning every lyric akin to learning the bible, perfectly esoteric mix of jazz rock and a touch of pop, sweet sweet unapologetic misandry

Figure 8 [Elliott Smith, 2000]

favourite tracks:

1. Everything Means Nothing To Me
2. Easy Way Out
3. Somebody That I Used To Know
4. Son Of Sam

best when/for:

first introduced me to elliott smith so perhaps a touch of nostalgia, used to be able to study to it but not anymore, bittersweet love and hopelessness, gentle whispery vocals that make every lyric feel like a personal confession

Miss Anthropocene [Grimes, 2020]

favourite tracks:

1. 4AM
2. We Appreciate Power
3. Violence
4. New Gods

best when/for:

being camp, telling yourself you're a robot, being like the modern day happier higher energy version of cocteau twins, ethereal vocals

Visions [Grimes, 2012]

favourite tracks:

1. Kill V Maim
2. Artangels
3. Venus Fly
4. Flesh Without Blood

best when/for:

being camp, a slight touch of delusion and recklessness, walking through the streets feeling like a teenage girl without a care in the world, i feel like this album would look like a kaleidoscope

The Queen Is Dead [The Smiths, 1986]

favourite tracks:

1. the queen is dead
2. bigmouth strikes again
3. frankly, mr shankly
4. there is a light that never goes out

best when/for:

having the realest title ever, having the best dry & witty lyrics, sprightliness, having some utterly miserable songs but i can't imagine being miserable listening to them, vivid memories of singing "there is a light that never goes out" with my friends in the streets "if a double decker bus crashes into us"

Ok Computer [Radiohead, 1997]

favourite tracks:

1. No Surprises
2. Paranoid Android
3. Karma Police
4. Subterranean Homesick Alien

best when/for:

what can i say, it's literally radiohead ok computer it's perfect and a masterpiece

2024

BRAT [Charli xcx, 2024]

favourite tracks:

1. 365
2. Everything is romantic
3. Club classics
4. Girl, so confusing

best when/for:

i will not let the commercialisation of BRAT outside the original intended audience ruin this. this album was exactly what i needed at the right time by getting me through the end of exam season using a sort of anticipation for the upcoming summer and start of uni

Chelsea Girl [Nico, 1967]

favourite tracks:

1. The Fairest Of The Seasons
2. These Days
3. Chelsea Girls
4. I'll Keep It With Mine

best when/for:

that one scene in the royal tenenbaums, meeting old friends, sitting on a delayed busy plane on the way home from a holiday that you know you'll keep on thinking about later

Vespertine [Bjork, 2001]

favourite tracks:

1. Pagan Poetry
2. Hidden Place
3. It's Not Up To You
4. Cocoon

best when/for:

staying awake during exam season, richness and beautiful thick layers of detail

Blue [Joni Mitchell, 1971]

favourite tracks:

1. All I Want
2. Little Green
3. California
4. Blue

best when/for:

being introspective, walking through fields with tall grass

2023

In Rainbows [Radiohead, 2007]

favourite tracks:

1. all i need
2. faust arp
3. 15 step
4. weird fishes/arpeggi

best when/for:

studying, finishing assignments the night before they're due, but also getting ready to go on a night out with friends, beautiful underapperciated almost glorious instrumentals, i think this is such a versatile album hence why it was my most listened in 2023 and i think it encapsulates my 2023 pretty well as a year

The Libertines [The Libertines, 2004]

favourite tracks:

1. Music When The Lights Go Out
2. Can't Stand Me Now
3. What Katie Did
4. Arbeit Macht Frei

best when/for:

walking down the street at 2x speed overtaking every single person, would be amazing live, would also be amazing at a houseparty, kind of radiates the quintessential getting drunk in a field british experience talking to new people and not caring about anything else but the moment you're living in

Thank Your Lucky Stars [Beach House, 2015]

favourite tracks:

1. She's So Lovely
2. Elegy to the Void
3. Somewhere Tonight
4. Majorette

best when/for:

slow breaths, small soft moments held in stasis, slow motion, spiralling/spinning, "Sons and daughters/ Bending at the altar/ Disappearing in the mirror", but better things are to come, current listening on repeat whilst studying for a subject i enjoy during break under a lack of particular stress

The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We [Mitski, 2023]

favourite tracks:

1. Bug Like an Angel
2. My Love Mine All Mine
3. The Deal
4. When Memories Snow

best when/for:

beautifully conveying the idea that we are on this planet to love, warmth and intimacy, open but comfortable vunerability, i think this is my favourite mitski album; i love every song & they each add something slightly different creating a perfect mix w no skips

Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd [Lana Del Rey, 2023]

favourite tracks:

1. ocean blvd
2. A&W
3. Candy Necklace
4. Let the Light In

best when/for:

hauntingly beautiful muted piano, long quiet walks through the streets, deep breaths, quintessential lana del rey lyrics

other:

saw live summer 2023, incredible experience

The Best of Sade [Sade, 1994]

favourite tracks:

1. Paradise
2. Kiss of Life
3. Smooth Operator
4. The Sweetest Taboo

best when/for:

silky smooth vocals, floating light jazz tones, small intimate house parties

Heaven or Las Vegas [Cocteau Twins, 1990]

favourite tracks:

1. Heaven or Las Vegas
2. Cherry-coloured Funk
3. Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
4. Pitch the Baby

best when/for:

a cacophony of shimmery instrumental atmosphere, metamorphosis, soundtrack to downing but drowning in a flowery koi fish pond perhaps painted by van gogh but a little bit more psychedelic, soft and overwhelming at the same time

Various Positions [Leonard Cohen, 1984]

favourite tracks:

1. Dance Me to the End of Love
2. The Law
3. Hallelujah
4. Hunter's Lullaby

best when/for:

feeling your soul, feeling comforted & completely at rest, long slow relationships

Dummy [Portishead, 1994]

favourite tracks:

1. Sour Times
2. Glory Box
3. Mysterons
4. Roads

best when/for:

mesmerising soundscapes, feeling beautiful and mysterious on a foggy dark night, clean breathy vocals with a slight sense of fragility, intricate attention to detail

2022

Science Will Figure You Out [Soltero, 2001]

favourite tracks:

1. communist love song
2. the priest
3. laundrydaydreams
4. i am sitting in a room

best when/for:

"i will be your berlin wall and i will never fall", gentle and simple hopelessness, things coming to an end, yearning

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars [David Bowie, 1972]

favourite tracks:

1. Starman
2. Moonage Daydream
3. Five Years
4. Suffragette City

best when/for:

david bowie, i love david bowie, feeling like a real person, smiling grinning being happy and carefree with friends singing along to the music, being culturally revolutionary as i think his work will forever be unparalleled

Krystal [Matt Maltese, 2019]

favourite tracks:

1. Jupiter
2. Curl up & Die
3. When You Wash Your Hair
4. Krystal

best when/for:

rotting in your room, "curl up and die" in a warm bed, desolation, gentle homely comfortable instrumentation, a sense of conclusion or perhaps indicating a new chapter

The Bends [Radiohead, 1995]

favourite tracks:

1. Just
2. Fake Plastic Trees
3. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
4. Black Star

best when/for:

"YOU DO IT TO YOURSELF", walking down the street at 2x speed overtaking every single person but in self hatred at the same time, getting ready to go out, incredible guitar work to be intricately appreciated

Ask Me Tomorrow [Mojave 3, 1995]

favourite tracks:

1. Love Songs On The Radio
2. Mercy
3. Where Is The Love
4. Tomorrow's Taken

best when/for:

being sad but a warm lonely type of sad, studying in that aforementioned sadness, no longer being sad and just feeling warm and at home, autumn

2021 & pre 2021

ultraviolence [Lana Del Rey, 2014]

favourite tracks:

1. Ultraviolence
2. Pretty When You Cry
3. Old Money
4. Cruel World

best when/for:

theatrical melancholy, "I'm churning out novels like Beat poetry on amphetamines", new york city (i've never been to new york city)

Lush [Mitski, 2012]

favourite tracks:

1. Liquid Smooth
2. Pearl Diver
3. Brand New City
4. Bag Of Bones

best when/for:

i remember listening to liquid smooth for the first time and being in utter awe, simply sitting and appreciating in tortured anguish (in a beautiful way), gorgeous raw vocals, heartbreakingly beautiful, probably the most impressive debut album ever

Diamond Eyes [Deftones, 2008]

favourite tracks:

1. Sextape
2. Beauty School
3. 967-Evil
4. Risk

best when/for:

first introduced me to ... metal? deftones-esque rock? wikipedia says shoegaze but ??? i don't think so, getting ready for a party, feelings of power

Hozier [Hozier, 2014]

favourite tracks:

1. take me to church
2. angel of small death and the codeine scene
3. like real people do
4. cherry wine

best when/for:

godliness, meaningful and devastatingly gorgeous lyricism, feeling like your soul is physically open and in another world

other:

saw live summer 2023
saw with my best friend and i think it was one of the most incredible and beautiful nights of my life