11.
The Unthanks – Here’s the Tender Coming
Last (the name of their newest album) but by no means least. The only other newer band I am really into. Two sisters from Northumberland with voices like clear running water and single malt scotch. Some of the slowest most mournful and lyrical songs ever put to tape or whatever recording method. Also an amazing violinist, drummer and assorted other musicians. The song ‘Here’s the Tender Coming’, about geordies being press-ganged into military service in the Royal Navy is one of the most beautifully elegiac things I have ever been fortunate to hear in my short life. The violin part makes me weep like a small child.
Well, I could go on and on, and if I think about it there would probably be another 13, and another, and another, and another… Ad infinitum. Thanks for reading. Now go listen to something good, and make the world a better place because of it.