I was really dreading this whole top album selections process this year but it was surprisingly pretty easy for me in the end.
Spotify’s “2019 Wrapped” was actually really insightful; it showed me all of the artists that I have in-fact been smashing this year, and it even introduced me to a whole new genre I’ve never heard of called “Vapour soul” which was apparently my top genre of the year.
Full disclosure; my list features a bunch of artists that I actually work with, for example three of my management artists, Golden Vessel, cln and Midnight Pool Party released incredible albums this year, and I know first-hand just how much blood, sweat & tears went into creating & releasing those ones. My record label, Mammal Sounds Records, also released its first album with a trio from the Gold Coast who go by the name daste. (you better keep your eye on these guys), which was one of those life-goal moments for me.
In amongst those you’ll find a few other albums that I didn’t work on, so when I wasn’t listening to my artists I was listening to people like Rhye, Toro Y Moi, Carl Louis, Timsters, Instupendo and Akurei (well I did actually do the publicity for this one), alongside a bunch of other albums from previous years by the likes of Baths, Roosevelt, Junior Boys and Sufjan Stevens which all played a big part in keeping me sane.
2019 was an exciting year of music for me and I think 2020 is going to take it all to a whole new level again – bring it on I say!