This is going to be a shortish post because there is only new one song I actually properly listened to over the weekend and if the title of this post hasn’t given it away, that song was Time by Jack Garratt and the reason it was the only song I listened to is because it is the the only song I will need for the rest of the year.

[OK, I did actually listen to some other ones and I’ll mention them briefly later with a word or two on each and they’ll be in the playlist too]

Happy listening!

Click her for the Spotify Playlist

Jack Garratt – Time

After four years of snippets and teasers of him holed up in the studio, JAck Garratt has finally announced that his second album, Love, Death & Dancing, will be coming in May this year. Ahead of this, he released a 4 song EP [Love, Death and Dancing (Vol. 1)] featuring Time. The EP contains two version of the song Time – the 5.37 uncut version and the 3.43 for-cowards radio edit, the latter a diluted albeit still excellent presentation of the best tune of the year so far. These are the reasons I love this song so much:

• Jack Garratt does so much of it all himself. He can do the vocals, the instruments, the synths, everything. He pays attention to every single second of the song and it shows, cases and points:
  • The song is paced and builds with just enough suspense to build anticipation and when it pays off he doesn’t make a half-assed job of it, that final stretch is killer
  • The guitar riff is genuinely exciting when it comes in the first time
  • The tease of drums at 1.42 is so cruel and perfect
  • Even though it goes on for three more minutes you can feel the teeny tinie rises every time he sings “time is on your side”
  • The final minute of this song is a horns blaring, confetti blasting cacophany of pure musical heroin.
• The lyrics are about feeling pressure to be something massive and feeling overwhelmed but urging you remember that there is no rush, and it’s ok to go at your own pace.
• He always said all he wanted to do was make music that he liked. To prove that he did this, the video is literally just him on his own dancing to it.
• You can tell he’s just really happy and excited to be there doing what he loves.

In short: play this song and feel the energy of it. You will go places you didn’t know even existed.

Ok, here are the other songs I guess – and again, short reviews, I’ve only spun them a couple of times and my head is too caught up in Time.

5 Seconds of Summer – No Shame

Moody pop tune, satisfying key-shifting melody, dark.

Andy Grammer – Best of You (with Elle King)

This is not Ed Sheeran’s the A Team but it is suspiciously similar, a lovely duet from two very distinctive vocalists.

Callum Beattie – Talk About Love

Cute love-filled guitar-pop song that sounds a bit like something James Blunt would do and contains the lyric “flat pack heart attack” which is so nonsensical I’m obsessed with it.

Dagny – Come Over

A soaring Carly-Rae Jepson esque pop tune, excellent use of drums

Diana Rouvas – Can We Make Heaven

An Aus-Eurovision non-selectee. Between this and Physical by Dua Lipa, Bonnie Tyler is proving a big influence on pop music in 2020. Incredible vocal range and runs I had to double check this wasn’t Jessie J. What a finish.

Galantis – Never Felt A Love Like This (with Hook N Sling) [feat. Dotan]

A song that it perfect for running.

Meek Mill – Believe (feat. Justin Timberlake)

JT back doing what he was born to: supplying the guest hook for a rap song. Literal and figurative music to my ears.

Smith & Thell – Goliath

Stomping folk pop. Genre-predictable lyrics but musically glorious in every way.