Well what a shit year this has been ay? I'm not sure what I was expecting when I was last in here at the end of 2019 but it probably wasn't this. And now I'm stuck in Tier 4 for Christmas with a lot of time to reflect so in the interests of my sanity, it may be best just to reflect on the good moments from the year.

 

This year it's pretty simple, I'm too exhausted from this year to do too much else - I will go through top 20 of my favourite songs from the year, it's not been the most fruitful year for music and I have continued to act like an old person with the charts so I'm not really able to compile much else (indeed my own focus was on music not from this year, which I somehow have forgotten to take out of my sig x) but there was enough that I can do a short list on.

 

I will also talk a little bit about the very few movies, TV shows, albums and books that have kept me entertained, I know those aren't of massive interest here so it'll just be a little x

 

I certainly need the distraction and I hope you guys can enjoy this too, will start very soon x

 

TV SHOWS

 

So Lockdown did bring quite a lot of these and a whole lot more time to watch them (despite the fact I continue with my various procrastination projects ensuring I never finish them :kink:), some old, some new and some I've always meant to get around to, almost all of these will be Netflix as it's just how I watch shows and I can't . I have had a rediscovery of old British sitcoms like The Office and Peep Show, they're both short enough and have (as well as incredible lead performances from comedy legends) a uniquely bleak sense of humour and sometimes out and out dour outlook (I'm glad the Office had that Christmas special!) that just makes for the best viewing. I suppose it's not the best if you want something more upbeat and optimistic, but we're not really living in those times tbf~

 

So for the slightly lower tier stuff we have The Stranger which was your standard thriller and had a distinctly underwhelming and a tad unrealistic payoff. Alien Worlds, a documentary series which is BEAUTIFUL to look at and very easy to watch and has a really cool concept of looking at what life might look like on other worlds using what we know on Earth, but the science is just total bullshit, they compare how falcons stay in the air on Earth to how the grazers would stay on the world on the planet Atlas, but why exactly is this relevant to Atlas in particular??? I did enjoy it, like I said it's beautiful, but they definitely should've marketed it in a similar way to Walking with Dinosaurs rather than trying to justify the science with what happens on Earth!

 

Some other slightly short one season shows - Into the Night is a Lost-like mysterious sci-fi type show that is very tense and suspenseful if a little bit silly at times, I Am Not Okay With This, an End of the F***ing World style show about an angsty teenager with superpowers in a challenging world with a fantastic lead performance, it sadly wasn't renewed.

 

Some shows I was already watching and finally got to the end of or concluded this year had a mixed bag. The Good Place had a lovely ending, but SO SACCHARINE I almost needed to get my grill to clean the melted cheese. It was cute and was a great show overall, though I wish it had only had two seasons looking back. Doctor Who well....at this point I'm honestly losing interest in this when it's days of great writing and innovative sci-fi are clearly behind it and I keep waiting for that great highlight that never comes, but as my favourite show growing up, I still have a soft spot. This season was at least an improvement with some good plot threads set up and improved sense of dread, just a shame about the bad pay off and overload of preachiness. You, a psychological thriller about a morally ambiguous stalker had a much stronger second season, going much deeper into the clearly fucked up psyches of it's lead characters and making for great viewing. His Dark Materials second series has continued to impress, they already got the first book much more right than the film did and I think they've continued being very faithful but also adding their own touches, I really hope it can conclude well and we can get a third series confirmed. I FINALLY finished Mr Robot Season 4 as I got Prime this year and it was wonderful - so many excellent experimental episodes as well as generally moving away from hacking and focusing more on Elliot's own inner psyche to fascinating results, I can't describe it without it not making sense, so watch the show x Though I think my favourite returning show of the year is Dark, a German Sci-fi/thriller series that further entangled itself in it's intensely woven plot threads and went straight off-world yet somehow got straight to the heart of what made it and concluded beautifully, it was so poetic and wonderful a way to end. Another one I'd highly recommend if you want a complex and deep dive.

 

Probably the best new series I started and finished this year is The Haunting of Bly Manor, follow-up to the Haunting of Hill House which, despite faltering at the end, had a terrifying and heartbreaking premise and really made the most of innovative adaptations and the concept of horror starting at home. This one adapting The Turn of the Screw (which I have read but barely recall), it took a more gothic romance tone than horror and was definitely a hell of a lot less scary than the first season but got the tone just right and ended on a suitably sad note that added a new dimension to the very thin original story. Then we have the many I started but haven't yet finished lol - The Boys, I finished Season 1 and it's quite an effective superhero parody with some pretty great and up to date commentary, Lovecraft Country which DEFINITELY started out better as my progress has been sluggish through the last half as it's plot has been all over the place with a lot of detours, but some beautiful and bizarre moments that pay tribute to Lovecraft's horror masterpieces yet also cautioning the overt racism of his works and I did make a start on Avatar: The Last Airbender after hearing so many good things about it, I'm almost done with it and I have to agree, it's a beautifully animated and very maturely told tale for it's target market with plenty for older people to enjoy. It has it's slower moments hence why I've not yet finished it, but I'd definitely recommend for any fans of good quality animated shows.

 

I think that's everything~ (Oh and Tiger King can f*** off :))

 

MOVIES

 

What a sad year this has been for film :( And with it hardly looking any better over the next few months, we could genuinely be looking at a turning point in the future of films, in which online streaming will gradually become more dominant. I truly hope that next year can at least be a little bit better for this. My biggest disappointment ultimately was Dune being pushed back to October 2021. I was reading the book in preparation for that and it was so awesome and now I so want to see it on screen.

 

However, I did attend the cinema quite a bit at the start of the year thanks to Oscar season so did see as much as I can - Little Women was a fantastic adaptation of the book, which I felt surpassed that as it altered that really disappointing ending and framing it in a contemporary way. Jojo Rabbit was pleasingly bizarre, tonally all over the place film about Nazi Germany and 1917 was absolutely gloriously filmed even if the story had been told many times before. The absolute standout though as the Best Picture winner, Parasite, truly a film that I think anyone can enjoy, surpassing genres so easily, a contemporary, up to date story that is relevant to anyone, some smart dialogue and excellent characters and some truly excellent camera work and visual metaphors. It's a surefire candidate for future best of all time lists.

 

The last film I saw before lockdown was The Invisible Man, and despite having an absolutely awful time at the theatre - remind me never to go to a newly released popular horror film at the weekend which is a 15, f***ing kids - the film was great, Elizabeth Moss definitely anchored the film and it had some very suspenseful sequences where it played a lot with the concept of a horror you can't see and was a good contemporary update to the novel, it lost me a little bit in the second half and became a bit too much of an action movie, but worth seeing. Since then, months later, I saw Tenet which was one of the most confusing and needlessly complex films I've seen, I'm not sure even the film knew what it was talking about sometimes, it was ultimately a dumb film pretending to be smart BUT the backwards sequences, the action scenes, sound and everything was incredible and it was a great time, so I'm very glad it was the film to start cinemas up again, well, even though it didn't perform as expected. Saint Maud has been the only one I've seen since and it was a pretty wonderful, subtle British horror about a nurse who gets too attached to her patient and showed the dangers of having too much faith. Watch it for the final shot alone.

 

So I guess that just leaves the streaming films - Sooo His House was a really good independent horror that links supernatural horror with the pain of settling into a new country and leaving your identity behind and is a wonderfully timely film with some great lead performances. The Social Dilemma is an eye opening documentary that really highlights how much social media has contributed to this toxic atmosphere of discourse, it made me really want to delete my Facebook page. Cuties...yes I watched this, I just couldn't really ignore it seeing how much controversy it caused and I debated starting a thread here but wasn't sure how it would go down :kink: The film is actually pretty good? It's very uncomfortable to watch no doubt, the subject matter of how pre-teen girls can be sexualised will tell you as much, but that's sometimes necessary to get a message across and it provides a very good insight into the place of women in a traditional Muslim family and can be quite heartbreaking. I'd never watch it again (believe me it is uncomfortable), but I'm quite sad Netflix completely botched any chance of this becoming more accepted with it's awful campaign and opening the floodgates for a million Karens claiming the film's sexualising children etc. I do hope the director can recover as she clearly had the best intentions here and it's the sort of challenging work that is needed. Uncut Gems was a great film that showed Adam Sandler in a rare good performance and is an extremely anxiety building and cleverly staged film, even if it does always have people shouting in it.

 

My favourite probably is I'm Thinking of Ending Things though, Charlie Kauffman's most recent film and at it's basis, it seems to chart a day where a boy takes his girlfriend to meet his parents who appears to be having some strange thoughts, but nothing is as it seems and as the film unravels, it becomes a fascinating and tragic portrait, you'll wonder what on Earth you're watching at times but it's so worth it, I can't do it justice through words and it's not a film you should read a lot about before watching, so watch it x

 

 

Oh wow, you started watching Avatar before even I got around to it! Most American anime fans I interact with have nothing but praise for it (as an honorary anime).

 

That looks like a good list of TV shows from the few I've seen, I've heard good things about 'You' and 'The Boys' and I need to continue with 'Dark' and 'Mr Robot' some time, though might need to start from the beginning again with how long it's been since I started.

 

I know way more of the films, unusually:

 

I ended up watching most of the Best Picture nominees at the start of the year too, though I never got around to watching Little Women. Jojo Rabbit/1917 were both excellent war films and Parasite was in another league, absolutely my favourite film I've watched in 2020 (which I'll say as I'm not really doing movies in my thread).

 

Tenet, I did think it was a mess but at least it was a cinema experience, the only one I've had this year and I feel lucky I was able to get that. And The Social Dilemma: very good documentary, absolutely agreed that it gave me a feeling of 'wanting to get off the internet briefly' even if I always pretty much knew that that was how these things worked.

I watched Avatar TLA for the 2nd time this year when it arrived on Netflix (having seen it through another site a few years ago), it is so good even with it being a kids show (shame that it passed me by when I actually was one)

I have seen 1917 and Jojo Rabbit which were both rather interesting. I still need to watch Parasite at some point however.

Doctor Who I am very much losing patience with. I'll continue to give it a go but if this next season is like the last one, then I'll be very tempted to give it up.

The Good Place and His Dark Materials I enjoy too and I started watching Mr Robot from S1 as a recommendation from my dad, not sure if I'll make it to S4 but it's quite good so far.

Oh wow, you started watching Avatar before even I got around to it! Most American anime fans I interact with have nothing but praise for it (as an honorary anime).

 

That looks like a good list of TV shows from the few I've seen, I've heard good things about 'You' and 'The Boys' and I need to continue with 'Dark' and 'Mr Robot' some time, though might need to start from the beginning again with how long it's been since I started.

 

I know way more of the films, unusually:

 

I ended up watching most of the Best Picture nominees at the start of the year too, though I never got around to watching Little Women. Jojo Rabbit/1917 were both excellent war films and Parasite was in another league, absolutely my favourite film I've watched in 2020 (which I'll say as I'm not really doing movies in my thread).

 

Tenet, I did think it was a mess but at least it was a cinema experience, the only one I've had this year and I feel lucky I was able to get that. And The Social Dilemma: very good documentary, absolutely agreed that it gave me a feeling of 'wanting to get off the internet briefly' even if I always pretty much knew that that was how these things worked.

 

I finished Avatar last night, and I would definitely highly recommend it. It's only three seasons and the animation, action, characters and narrative is so well done for a show aimed at children, and while it isn't technically an anime, it does take a lot of Eastern influences and does it very well, I certainly think you'd find a lot to enjoy in it.

 

If you do get around to Dark and Mr Robot, I'd recommend it even if yeah, you may need a recap video for Dark in particular :kink: They are super confusing, but with the former in particular it wraps up so excellently. They both clearly had a plan right from the start and you can tell that in the endings as they just make perfect sense and aren't rushed or hasitly put together at all.

 

Parasite is indeed probably my favourite film overall of the year too (close between that and I'm Thinking of Ending Things), it really didn't seem to put much wrong. Asides from the obvious internet messages, I found The Social Dilemma particularly engaging because it really put into perspective how divided the current political and social climate is because of social media!

 

I watched Avatar TLA for the 2nd time this year when it arrived on Netflix (having seen it through another site a few years ago), it is so good even with it being a kids show (shame that it passed me by when I actually was one)

I have seen 1917 and Jojo Rabbit which were both rather interesting. I still need to watch Parasite at some point however.

Doctor Who I am very much losing patience with. I'll continue to give it a go but if this next season is like the last one, then I'll be very tempted to give it up.

The Good Place and His Dark Materials I enjoy too and I started watching Mr Robot from S1 as a recommendation from my dad, not sure if I'll make it to S4 but it's quite good so far.

 

I'd never heard of Avatar as a kid either, and I watched Nickelodeon a lot! It's one of those rare kids shows where there's plenty for both kids and adults to enjoy.

 

I'm in the same boat re: Doctor Who, hopefully with it just being one companion (pray to God) it can be better, but gone are the day where I'll watch it live.

 

Do finish Mr Robot if you can, I don't know if you're familiar with David Fincher's work but it's very like that and is very experimental and complex that always makes it stand out, it does slow down a lot sometimes and I needed quite a break from it, but it is worth it for Season 4.

 

-x-

 

Next bit coming up!

I barely saw any films this year so made up for it by watching '1917' twice :magic: :lol: I agree that the cinematography was incredible, same with the score.

 

Looking forward to seeing what your music picks are!

If you liked that one, I'd definitely recommend the rest of the Best Picture 2020 films if you have time! ;o

 

-x-

 

 

ALBUMS

 

I wrote many, many words about albums in this part of the forum this year, but none from this year so I suppose better do a little bit on them. In truth, I still listen to albums very rarely even though doing the 100 bucket list challenge did open my eyes to how good the art form can be. I guess I spend more time watching stuff than I do music, but I will aim to check more out in 2021...here's hoping I can actually fulfill this ay?

 

So there were three main choices that at least a fair section of you will know about which I'll highlight below (they do all have songs in my top 20 so I'll be brief)

 

Taylor Swift - folklore - Probably the one that most of you will know. Taylor took the quarantined world by surprise by doing a Beyonce and dropping an album completely out of the blue, and what an album it was. I haven't actually listened to any Taylor album since I kind of became a fan in 2014 after the fantastic 1989, as the singles just haven't been that good quality enough, but I was intrigued by word of mouth that this was very different and more experimental so took a listen and yes, this is probably on par with 1989 overall. It can't be overstated how immaculately and beautifully raw and fresh this album sounds, you could be forgiven for thinking there wasn't much behind her super ego and tabloid gossip over the last few years, but this shows the true songwriting and vocal talent and that she is still very much a credible musician. Her vocal delivery and personal songwriting stand out, but it's enhanced from her early country days by not only a greater maturity but the atmosphere and range of instruments that are used. It all sounds so gloriously...natural for want of a better word. It's actually hard to pick a favourite as they're all sort of on the same level and this was clearly meant to be taken as a whole piece of work rather than focus being on an individual song, but this is me trying, exile and epiphany do come close. 2020 was bad for a lot of us, but in this case, it clearly pushed her in a new artistic direction that was a truly masterful move.

 

Haim - Women in Music Part III - I've always loved these girls and their string of singles last year of Summer Girl, Now I'm In It and Hallelujah were sadly demoted to just bonus tracks here which I was a little disappointed in as they all still sound great, but that aside, this album was excellent. I did enjoy their first album, but never checked out their second cos the singles were sadly quite underwhelming and a bit of a retread of their previous highs. This showed the artistic progression I really wanted from them and the track by track notes they put in the Apple Music stream helped contextualise the material for me too, so it was a well written album too. They take on a variety of genres here, some familiar takes, but also experiments with country, R&B, lo-fi and even UK garage. It has some great lyrical themes as well of the main struggles they've faced including deaths of their friends and relationships and health conditions, and as the title suggests, their stand point as women in music, the track Man from the Magazine is particularly effective, showcasing the casually sexist questions they were asked and doubtless many other women have to go through. Worth the one year wait and then some overall.

 

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension - I've been painfully late on the Sufjan train, I'm only now discovering some of his excellent 2000s material and his masterful work for Call Me By Your Name really got me into him. America popped up on Apple Music, a 12 minute choral and electronic epic, and...it took me a few months, but I got round to streaming the album too and it was worth it. It's much more sparse and electronic than other work I'm aware of from him, with lyrical themes of faith and the rather abstract sounds giving off a feel of disarray from that and this theme is carried off to the whole album. The title track is particularly one where this can be seen, but the main moments come from his beautiful voice, Run Away With Me particularly is gorgeous. It was an eclectic and serene album that I suppose I expected nothing less from listening to him, I guess I should now get around to his earlier work!

 

I would also recommend some lesser known ones recommended/directed to me by BJSC. LAAKE's O, coming at a good time that I discovered his beautiful 2017 piano-led track, Introspective, this is an album full of minimalist and neo-classical piano and low synth led atmosphere, but also has some surprising detours into hip hop and is an interesting listen. and Rein's REINCARNATION which I didn't realise was the same artist that was sent to BJSC a while back as this sound is very different, industrial with shouty, firm vocals and themes of dystopia and violence throughout, it's an intriguing (and quick) listen.

 

Singles coming next B-)

 

 

 

I've heard songs from all three of those albums but not heard any of the albums in full! I would definitely say folklore is much more to my taste (from what I've heard) than most of Taylor's other albums though, and what I've heard from The Ascension is certianly a little more melodic than what I'd heard from Sufjan Stevens before.

I actually think you'd like all three quite a lot, from what I know of your taste anyway. I would definitely recommend Folklore in particular!

 

-x-

 

OK, let's make a start with the singles, before we begin, these were songs I quite liked in 2020, but not quite enough to write stuff about basically.

 

Billie Eilish – No Time to Die

Billie Eilish – Therefore I Am

Brother Sun Sister Moon – I Said

Doja Cat – Say So

Glass Animals - Dreamland

Grimes – You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around

HAIM – The Steps

Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure

Jutro - Substancja

Keleketla! & Coldcut – Papua Merdeka

La Belle Vie - Emma

Lola Marsh – Darkest Hour

Mentrix – If

The Midnight – Seventeen

Neev – Staring Through

Oh Wonder – Lonely Star

Rein – Bodyhammer

Theophilius London feat. Tame Impala – Only You

Trivecta feat. Rico & Miella - Everyday

TTRRUUCES – Stranger Now Forever

WOLFCLUB - Rebels

 

20. Tiga & Hudson Mohawke - Love Minus Zero

 

A lot of how well I took in new music this year came as how well they fit my exercise playlist as that was largely the times where I was just alone with music this year. When this came up, I happened to be on a run and it couldn't have been a better choice. I know some stuff from Hudson Mohawke and I like his slightly quirky and mismatched style of electronic music, here, in a collaboration with Tiga (can't tell you much about their work), he goes for a classic 90s rave sound, and like most music from that decade, it still sounds wonderful. While you could argue it could change up a little bit more, it's still packed with relentless energy, an easy hook, throbbing synths and and feeling of euphoria that I may not have been able to experience this year, it certainly made me feel like I could for a little bit. Highly recommended if you want a classic throwback club track or something for your exercise playlists x

Lonely Star was my favourite of the songs you've mentioned in that list, I've taken a lot more notice of Oh Wonder this year, they've released a lot of good stuff.

 

Giving Love Minus Zero a listen now, probably not something that's completely my taste but it is sounding quite nice! Could grow on me.

 

19. Clock Opera - I Surrender

 

Probably not one many will know, it was another random one that came up on my New Music playlist and it made a pretty instant connection due to the ethereal vocals and consistently evolving murky, electronic production. I know very little about this band (I feel they might have been in a song contest on here before once, Unknown Pleasures? Idk), but this is truly wonderful stuff. The vocal is sombre and defeated and it works incredible if you take it as surrendering to the colourful and eclectic production which grows more ominous and loud as the track intensifies, for a song that's just three and a half minutes, it really packs a lot in. It's stuck with me through the year, and I'd recommend it to anyone that would like a different kind of British indie sound x

Lonely Star was my favourite of the songs you've mentioned in that list, I've taken a lot more notice of Oh Wonder this year, they've released a lot of good stuff.

 

Giving Love Minus Zero a listen now, probably not something that's completely my taste but it is sounding quite nice! Could grow on me.

 

Appreciate you listening to the ones you don't know you're making me look bad with my scanning threads to see ones I know, Clock Opera would very much be to your taste ^_^

 

Apparently even a 20 song countdown can't keep my attention for long, let's resume!

 

18. Amnesia Scanner – AS Tearless

 

It took me a while when I heard this to connect this back to the same group that did that

I heard in BJSC from ages ago, so I naturally did the honourable thing and sent them myself to get some justice for the last entry's low finish. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at this being just like that and then some, but weirdness and trippiness has always been my thing and so I was into this one too. This time with more discernible (well slightly, not a lot) vocals, this is an acid fuelled, distortion heavy trip complete with spooky Spanish vocals in the chorus, that coupled with this absolute nightmare fuel of a video, if the thumbnail doesn't tell you enough, believe me there's a lot more where that came from, makes it a very unconventional, but extremely unique listen, it's not for everyone, but I reject being whatever bland music 'everyone' clams xx I never quite got around to the parent album, but they describe it as their 'breakup album with the planet' and honestly with how insane and frantic the general feel of the song is, it doesn't surprise me. The best work singing at the state of things truly captures the bizarre zeitgeist of what is going on, and this does that and a half.

 

17. Miley Cyrus - Midnight Sky

 

Srsly, what are you doing Miley?! With this and Mother's Daughter last year, she has pretty much undergone a full musical renaissance. I associate Miley with either forgettable teen pop or trying just a bit too hard to get attention (and it's not aged well), and I did enjoy Malibu and Younger Now, but they did feel a bit neutered for want of a better word. Younger Now was defiant and striking in the best of ways, and Midnight Sky truly feels like a triumph, sounding straight out of the 80s (yeah I won't lie, all the 80s-like chart hits have been a massive highlight for me), with some rather marvellous synthy production and an extremely infectious chorus. It's much more accessible, yet it doesn't destroy her identity and as the lyrics clearly state, she stands on her own and owns who she is, which even in her Disney days, you could see and it really feels like after many years in dabbling in loads of genres, she has found who she is as an artist. So WD Miley I guess, feels like the days of We Can't Stop hurting my ears are long behind us now. B-)

 

16. DANCE WITH THE DEAD - Scars

 

Oh gosh, I found out about this right at the start of the year and it became an absolute essential for my running playlists and it really spurred me on to be the best this year and that this was going to be THE YEAR....wow that turned out bleak, but I still have a lot of love for this song for it's relentless energy, thrashing guitars and synths complete with chanting, and also for reminding me of DANCE WITH THE DEAD's existence after they did one of my favourite BJSC discoveries with Waves. I have heard of a handful of their songs since that, but none have quite come close to the sheer energy of this. I should really check out an album by them soon, they clearly have so much material it's difficult to know where to start and if it's too samey, but they've pretty much picked the best sound to have so I doubt I'll get bored of them soon.

This era from Miley has been really impressive - I wasn't actually that into 'Midnight Sky' on first listen but it did grow on me a lot, and I have really loved both 'Prisoner' and 'Angels Like You', plus 'Night Crawling' is a banger too. Meaning to check out the rest of the album at some point.

 

'Scar' was actually my least favourite of the songs from that EP DANCE WITH THE DEAD dropped this year but I do recall it still being a good tune, just liked the other 2 a bit more! Feels like forever since that EP came out now though and to my knowledge they still haven't dropped anything else since then, boo.

 

Really like both 'Love Minus Zero' and 'AS Tearless' as well (the latter I definitely appreciated more after you sent it to BJSC), I haven't heard the Clock Opera song but I think I do remember an older song of theirs being played on nighttime Radio 1 a while back that I liked - will try and make sure to belatedly check this song out at some point!

This era from Miley has been really impressive - I wasn't actually that into 'Midnight Sky' on first listen but it did grow on me a lot, and I have really loved both 'Prisoner' and 'Angels Like You', plus 'Night Crawling' is a banger too. Meaning to check out the rest of the album at some point.

 

'Scar' was actually my least favourite of the songs from that EP DANCE WITH THE DEAD dropped this year but I do recall it still being a good tune, just liked the other 2 a bit more! Feels like forever since that EP came out now though and to my knowledge they still haven't dropped anything else since then, boo.

 

Really like both 'Love Minus Zero' and 'AS Tearless' as well (the latter I definitely appreciated more after you sent it to BJSC), I haven't heard the Clock Opera song but I think I do remember an older song of theirs being played on nighttime Radio 1 a while back that I liked - will try and make sure to belatedly check this song out at some point!

 

Well oops, I had no idea DANCE WITH THE DEAD had dropped more songs (why didn't Apple Music recommend me this? :arrr:), I should check those out! (and the other Miley songs as well as having your approval usually means it's worth checking out x)

 

15. Sub Focus & Wilkinson feat. Pawws - Ray of Sun

 

This is a fairly recent discovery actually, I've liked assorted songs from both artists (not sure I know Pawws, think they might have been in BJSC) and while this doesn't sound like a particularly drastic departure from their normal sound, it's very infectious and it is almost a relief to have something sound so familiar just to know these simple yet effective drum'n'bass songs are still out there. I found this stood out because of it's a beautiful dreamy atmosphere that shrouds the song in the introduction and outro, and Pawws has a great tone to her vocals and sells the song really well, and the drop does it's job well as the proverbial ray of sun alluded breaking through the gloom. It's a great track to have in a winter like this, and I've already played it a lot, would highly recommend to any drum'n'bass nuts out there~