Play me. Play this. Or my Spotify playlists compiled...

This year I have mostly been making playlists. Over on the DiS site we've done a weekly Spotifriday playlist. However, these 'ere playlists come in all shapes and sizes, with various themes and wotnot. I thought compiling them in one place might be useful for anyone looking for some musical guidance or simply for anyone wanting to save time making a playlist by slinging on one of mine.

If you haven't yet installed Spotify, it's free (if you don't mind a few ads) and available most places now (Americans I think can pay to use it but I might be wrong?!). 

2009
- My Top 40 Songs of the Year
- My Top 10 Albums of the Year (plus Grizzly Bear which isn't available)
- Drowned in Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2009 (or if that's overwhelming, try the 2 tracks-from-each sampler)
- Drowned in Sound's Albums of 2009 - longlist
- Best compilations of 2009

The Noughties
- My 123 mixtape adventure
- DrownedinSound's 00s - a long list of recommended albums
- DrownedinSound's songs of the Noughties (to be completed for our 10th Anniversary in October 2010)

Misc
- A playlist of some of my favourite songs
- Drowned in Sound Recordings (my label)
- Best of/Introduction to... Elliott Smith
- Best of/Introduction to... Kraftwerk (part of Kraftwerk week)
- Best of Fierce Panda records
- Drowned in... the year 2000
- My 15 favourite albums
- My songs of the 90s
- DrownedinShoegaze (for DiS' special shoegaze week)  
- DrownedinAltCountry (for DiS' special alt country week)
- SeaninSummer
- Drownedin... covers (created from a thread on our boards)
- The Nepture Music Prize (DiS' alternative to the Mercury nominated albums)
- Fear & Birthday (a emo/rock-filled mixtape I made for a friend's birthday)
- Drowned in I Heart Studios (an electronic mixtape I made for a friend's studio)
- Drowned in... Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
- Reading Festival - Greatest Hits
- Glastonbury 2009 - 4 preview playlists
- This is Thamesbeat Or An Ode to Eel Pie Sunsets
- DiSssmaaasss!! - festive playlist
- DiS' Hallowe'en playlist

And a few playlists I really like created or compiled by friends of mine...
- John Peel's Festive 50s compiled
- Ollie Russian's Britpop Massive
- Emily Haines' mixtape for DiS readers (which ran as part of Metric week)
- Thrash Hits' Sonisphere 2009 slaylist
- Field Day 2009
- P2K: Pitchfork's songs of 00s
- NME's albums of the 00s
- Rough Trade's albums of 2009
- Whiskas (forward russia's) 2009 favourite albums and songs 
- Christian Ward's 50 songs of 00s

If for any reason you need an invite to use Spotify email me sean [atttt] drownedinsound [dottt] com, as I have 22 left. 

So, which of your playlists should I be listening to? Share links below... for more playlists check out Spotifriday every Friday over on DrownedinSound.com.

 

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

Elliott Smith would have been 40 Today

The above cover, posted today on Anti- Records' blog, is just one of a trillion reasons why Elliott's unique talent, silken voice and his own joyous melancholy-cum-music means/meant so much to me. Few musicians have reached, touched and tickled these parts of my emotions. Few other musicians come close. At first it was because his music felt cat-like, it was aloof and didn't seem to care if you were listening to the outpouring but the more I listened, the more I paid attention and the more it pummelled its way somewhere deep.

His honesty empathized with millions (sounds big but he hit with Grammy nominations etc just as p2p hit, so not a crazy assertion) and, for me at least, he made nearly all other music seem insipid and banal. He set the bar so high, whilst making it all sound incredibly simple but having asked questions to those who knew and met him, as well as read a lot about him since his death, it was far from easy for this humble life-broken soul to wrestle these soul-crushingly intense yet seemingly near feather-light feelings into balls of melodious wonder. Drugs and/or booze helped and hindered, in equal measure.

I love the way his records feature some of the most epic orchestral walls of sound to the slightest acoustic fireside songs and the fact that both embossed themselves upon my life with a similarly powerful impact is testament to his song-writing and his obsession with the emotional impact and texture of sound. His music could be the softest snowflake or the most dizzying Disney explosion but his genius is how it goes far beyond some instruments and vocals.

Essentially, his scuffed and ornate music nuzzles you and deep down you discover it's hungry for your love and reciprocates, in kind - just like a cat.

This is my Best of.../Introduction to Elliott Smith playlist

Elliott Smith – Bye
Elliott Smith – Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands
Elliott Smith – Everything Means Nothing to Me
Elliott Smith – Thirteen
Elliott Smith – Ballad of Big Nothing
Elliott Smith – Between the Bars
Elliott Smith – St. Ides Heaven
Elliott Smith – A Fond Farewell
Elliott Smith – Angeles
Elliott Smith – Shooting Star
Elliott Smith – Baby Britain
Elliott Smith – LA
Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay
Elliott Smith – Last Call

Listen to it on Spotify here.

Rest in Peace Mr Smith.