NUMBER THIRTY

Since I've been a little bit AWOL this year and we're closing in on the "top albums of the year lists" time of the year, instead of the usual 7 or 10 of my favourite records, this year I'm pushing the boat out and doing my top 30 of the year, counting down each day for the rest of the month. Keep an eye out for the rest of my choices as the month goes on but for now, here's my number 30...

It's no secret that I've been a long time fan of Ghostpoet but I have to say, two of the lead singles from Dark Days + Canapes ("Immigrant Boogie" and "Trouble + Me") didn't have me the most excited to listen to it. One thing that I've always loved about Ghostpoet's music is its bittersweet outlook on day to day life and I think when I listened to those first singles and realised how dark and swampy they sounded I just wasn't ready to listen. Even after the album came out, it took a long while for me to listen to it because I just simply wasn't in that frame of mind. Either way, winter came around and this turned out to be the perfect soundtrack.

Just by taking a quick look over the titles of these tracks, you can see that witty worldplay definitely isn't lost on Ghostpoet and this notion only becomes all the more clear as you listen through. One song that really had some lyrics that stuck out for me was "Immigrant Boogie". I always love it when artists tell stories from different points of view on their tracks and listening to Ghostpoet take this story across two different emotions stuck out to me even when I wasn't too excited to listen to the rest of the record.

My favourite tracks on the album so far are "Many Moods At Midnight", "Freakshow", "Dopamine If I Do" and "Live>Leave". There are so many attention grabbing moments interspersed as you listen through this record; like the discordant piano part towards the end of "Blind As A Bat" or the jumpy rhythm and ominous synths on the intro "One More Sip".

I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to get around to listening to this but when I did, it was in the perfect setting and had I listened to it sooner I'm not sure that I would have appreciated it as much as I do now. More than happy to have this start off the top 30 of my 2017.