Favourite songs I’ve discovered this year (so far)

The assertion that you lose interest in music in your 20s is something that I have, unbelievably, heard a few times now. Once in a Tumblr posts with several thousand notes, and other times from my mum. At first, I thought this was true - I was just depressed, and not discovering new music - and now, I am back and ready to be annoying about my favourite songs. Here we go. 

1. Most Undo Tomorrow - Headache 

Favourite lyric: I want you to need me so much the world ends / I want to leave a mark / I just need you to be nicer to me / I’d like you to be nicer to me

Link: https://youtu.be/nsulEnvkKVc?si=QjUbsWFHVqi19PVe

Headache is one of my favourite music projects ever. Created by the artist Vegyn, Headache is a poetry project voiced by a text to speech, speaking over melancholic electronic music with some of the most relatable and devastating lyrics I’ve ever heard. If you’re looking to get into them, I’d recommend That Thing with a Rabbit. 

On the 21st of November, I went to his signing event in London. It was located in a Supreme store. I had fallen asleep at 4pm the day before, and woken up at 11am, so I was feeling out of it. It was a bad day, and when I looked at my phone to see that I was one of the few people that had gained access to this small, exclusive event, I wasn’t going to go. My uni is a couple hours away from London, and I was short on money. But, for some reason, I went. And it was perhaps one of the most Kafkaesque experiences of my life. 

I won’t go into details, but I met someone who used to go to my university before. We had never met before, but afterwards, we went out drinking, and drank a little too much. He randomly got interviewed for a Tiktok on why Soho pubs should stay open later. We wandered around, and ended up getting high in an alleyway and he told me how he had cheated on his last girlfriend, and how he was never going to date anyone again. I felt disgusted, but I sat with him, smoked, and talked. I ended up back at uni at around 3am. 

I got my copy of Naked Lunch by William Burroughs signed by Vegyn, which was strange but nice. The event itself was small, but I made friends there, and still speak to the girl I met in the queue outside while I was having a fag, waiting for the doors to open. 

Here are some photos from that day:

My signed copy of Burroughs.

Me on the way back.

A cheeky mirror selfie. I think it was strictly no filming. 

2. MUD - Slow Pulp 

Favourite lyric: Can’t be alone and this alone and stay so clear / Wanna be an astronaut and get out of here / Cos I miss you, dear

Link: https://youtu.be/7qs6-Qi-zPc?si=JVQjANPZ92uMso06

    For some reason, I’ve taken a while to come round to Slow Pulp. Their name always sounded a bit too much like Slowdive to me. Recently, though, this song came up on Shuffle and I was entranced. A haunting melody with gorgeous guitars and vocals, this song crawls into my brain and has its fingers in all its crevices. 

    The lyrics haunt me with their simplicity - “getting older but I still play pretend / I don’t want this to end”, the childish statements contrasted with the devastating accusations - “I can tell there’s someone else / C’mon, tell me, I can take it well”, the lyrics spilling over with unspoken hurt. 

    The lyrics about the astronaut especially stuck out to me as someone who has always wanted to go to space. Every so often I ask my girlfriend if she’d rather go to space or explore the deep sea, and she always answers, “neither”. But I’d love to go to space. I’d bring her back a piece of moonrock that I’d turn into earrings for her. 

Something about the haunting tune and the simple lyrics really squeezes my heart in all the right places. “I don’t want this to end”, indeed. 

3. Nightmares - NewDad 

Favourite lyric: I wish you were everything I hate in the world / Not the best person in it 

Link: https://youtu.be/ebbsPo1PKTg?si=RtEOSxVWQyNFJbLb

    I’d loved NewDad for a while now, when one of their songs (Angel, I believe) came into my YouTube recommendations, and I was like a lot of people, charmed by the album cover. I think this album cover redraw trend on Tumblr for a while too? Cool concept, I’d love to do one sometime soon. Possibly Aradia Megido, she fits the theme. Anyway, I’m off track. 

    This is a sick track! The tune gets stuck in my head all the time, and I find myself spinning this album while I read, as its soft vocals and catchy melodies are perfect to listen to while trying to read my way through Anna Karenina. (It’s great so far, I’m doing my dissertation on George Eliot and Tolstoy, but that’s a topic for another time.)

    This is a very catchy song, with a dance-y sound to it but with haunting lyrics. (I know that’s the fifth time I’ve used the word haunting in this blog post. I’m new to this, sue me.) God bless NewDad. 

    That’s it for now! I’ll probably do more music stuff at some point. One of my projects for the new year is to convert my monthly playlists into CDs, with album covers I design, which I’m looking forward to doing at the end of the month. Anyways, see ya!