Looking back at 2018

In what is, slightly ironically, the 2,019th post on this blog, let’s take a few moments to look back at the last year, a year which included:

• As mentioned above, we passed our 2,000th post in the six-and-a-half year history of this blog. We’ve reviewed over 400 releases during that time!
• Another five Stowaway Heroes
• Detailed looks back at the histories of the NME and Ivor Novello Awards
• Dubstar‘s long-awaited comeback, with their first new material in 18 years
• Another two new albums by Jean-Michel Jarre, who appears to have entered the most prolific period in his career
• Also two albums by Erasure – remix album World Beyond and questionably named live album World Be Live
• Great new albums from The Future Sound of London and Tracey Thorn

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Christmas chart for stowaways 2018

Do you hear the sound of jingle bells? Me neither, apparently. Here’s this year’s none-too-festive Christmas chart:

1. The Future Sound of London – My Kingdom
2. The Radiophonic Workshop – Arrival Home
3. Ladytron – Far from Home
4. Jean-Michel Jarre – Flying Totems
5. Ladytron – The Animals
6. The Beloved – The Sun Rising
7. Jean-Michel Jarre – Coachella Opening
8. Erasure – Make It Wonderful
9. Ladytron – The Island
10. David Bowie – Breaking Glass

Top tracks of 2018 – Ladytron

• 10. Goldfrapp feat. Dave Gahan – Ocean
• 9. Little Boots feat. planningtorock – Eros
• 8. The Presets – Martini
• 7. Simon Mills – Eagle City Nights
• 6. Saint Etienne – Camel Coat
• 5. Tracey Thorn – Dancefloor
• 4. Jean-Michel Jarre – Flying Totems
• 3. The Future Sound of London – My Kingdom (Path 7)
• 2. The Radiophonic Workshop – Arrival Home

Number 1 is this, originally from Ladytron, and brilliantly mixed by the Living God Vince Clarke, here’s The Animals:

Top tracks of 2018 – The Radiophonic Workshop

Number 2 on the chart of the year is The Radiophonic Workshop, with the second track from their soundtrack to Matt Berry‘s film Possum. The track is Arrival Home, which isn’t widely available to share with you today, so please enjoy this instead:

Christmas

Well, I wasn’t really expecting “Christmas New Order” to turn up any results when I searched for it – turns out there’s this – the interesting Rocking Carol:

Probably needs a bit more Peter Hook. Merry Christmas

Top tracks of 2018 – The Future Sound of London

This year appears to have been a year of retrospectives, and so before we look at this one, let’s count down the top ten so far:

• 10. Goldfrapp feat. Dave Gahan – Ocean
• 9. Little Boots feat. planningtorock – Eros
• 8. The Presets – Martini
• 7. Simon Mills – Eagle City Nights
• 6. Saint Etienne – Camel Coat
• 5. Tracey Thorn – Dancefloor
• 4. Jean-Michel Jarre – Flying Totems

At number 3 this year is the brilliant new extended mix of The Future Sound of London‘s My Kingdom – this is Path 7:

Chart for stowaways – 8 December 2018

Here’s the week’s top ten!

1. The Future Sound of London – My Kingdom
2. The Radiophonic Workshop – Arrival Home
3. Ladytron – Far from Home
4. Ladytron – The Animals
5. Jean-Michel Jarre – Flying Totems
6. The Beloved – The Sun Rising
7. Jean-Michel Jarre – Coachella Opening
8. Ladytron – The Island
9. David Bowie – Breaking Glass
10. Gary Numan – It Will End Here

Top tracks of 2018 – Jean-Michel Jarre

Insert joke about waiting for Jean-Michel Jarre albums to come along here. For his twentieth (-ish) album Equinoxe Infinity, he’s come up with some great new material, of which Flying Totems makes it onto our chart at number 4. We’ll move into the top three next week.

Top tracks of 2018 – Tracey Thorn

Tracey Thorn‘s latest album may have been a little disappointing, but it had some great moments nonetheless. Number 5 on our countdown of the year is this, Dancefloor:

Top tracks of 2018 – Saint Etienne

The ancient law that dictates that Saint Etienne shalt come out with something brilliant every year at least did not fail this year – here’s Camel Coat: