As readers of my accompanying piece for the December playlist are aware, I have no shortage of available archive / vintage music to explore in my daily life and often a new obsession can lead to months of ongoing discovery and musical joy. Many people my age seem to have suspended their listening habits around their teenage years and much beyond their twenties they do not keep up with (not a statement that applies to my close music listening friends I should add). I even know a few serious record collectors who are perfectly happy just sticking to a past genre like Northern Soul or Acid Jazz or Seventies Prog and letting that journey uncover their thrills. I occasionally ponder whether I would be capable of going through a new release dry spell, all too aware that there is now more than enough already recorded music that I am going to love waiting for me to hear.

The problem with that would be that I do not appreciate just one or two styles of music. I would still be riding the genre waves, not anchored to one specific stream. And that being the case, I would invariably come across new present-day music. And as this latest playlist reveals in clarity, I am going to hear music that I will love and need to find out more about. I cannot imagine hearing any of the tracks on this playlist and turning a deaf ear to them because I am not interested in contemporary music. It is unthinkable. That means I would not be alert and alive to the sensational Cleo Sol, that alone is a circumstance that I cannot give any consideration to. Not only that but to deny myself recent music would be to also miss out on the live experience. As much as that remains an outlet rife with its own annoyances (over loud gig chatter, people not in the moment as they pointlessly capture mobile phone footage) in the average year there will be more than enough soul stirring performances to easily outweigh the negatives. Every once in a while, you catch something life changing.

So, I do not see a time when I will ever be indifferent to new music. Every January for a while now I have used the first monthly playlist of the year to round up my top tracks from the previous twelve months that escaped inclusion. And every year I end up pleasantly surprised at how easy the selection process is, I am simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of contenders to pick from. If there ever comes a year when there are a lack of choices or getting up to seventy-five tracks is like arduous work, then maybe that will be the right moment to step back from the fresh juice. But I do not see that happening. I do not regard my tastes as representing anything remotely mainstream however, if my favourites were so ridiculously niche then there would not be so much of this stuff around. It is good to cast your net wide and it can be rewarding when you uncover something that is outside the popular consciousness. Just as much though, it is vital to have no rules and be ready to be excited by the unexpected. That is why you see an Olivia Rodrigo song in this list, that red alert explosion when you hear something for the first time and shout “bloody hell that’s brilliant” is so important.

Without that penetrative moment, I doubt any of us music obsessives would exist, we would all be satisfied with sticking on a supermarket CD at Christmas and partying annually like it’s 1994 (or whatever your peak younger year might be). For me I could never lock music away in a cupboard like that. It is not a background to other activities; it is not something I only need at parties and neither is it my nostalgia shelf. It is my primary artform, a vessel that lights up my life every single day. It is more important than movies, more accessible than books, more of a life crutch than my favourite football and cricket teams. Simply, it is the only thing that makes me feel happy, sad, blue, ecstatic, nostalgic, thrilled, amused and delighted; that moves me both emotively and physically; that can simultaneously induce tears of sadness and delight; the art form than can bring the past vividly back into the present moment or paint a clearer vision of the future. It is everything and the way it works its powers on the human emotions are mystical, it has a power that is almost magical. It is hard to imagine this ride ever losing momentum while I breathe. Let 2024 commence…