{"id":5450,"date":"2019-12-19T07:11:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=5450"},"modified":"2019-12-19T07:11:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:11:56","slug":"the-best-album-ive-heard-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2019\/12\/19\/the-best-album-ive-heard-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The best album I\u2019ve heard this year"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Warning: The songs in this blog post contain a significant amount of swearing and other adult material. It\u2019s best not to play them out loud if there are little ears around.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I first heard Marika Hackman<\/a> in early 2019 through my Spotify Discover Weekly<\/em> playlist<\/a>. I tend to stick Discover Weekly<\/em> on in the background as I commute to and from work on the train. The playlist has been consistently excellent at introducing me to new music. As my brain is unfamiliar with the songs, it stops me from getting distracted \u2014 if I don\u2019t know what comes next I find I can concentrate more. Occasionally, a song will break through into the foreground of my consciousness for a bit; I tend to \u2018like\u2019 them to explore them later, and then carry on with my work.<\/p>\n

Marika Hackman\u2019s Time\u2019s Been Reckless<\/a><\/em> was a different beast. It demanded to be listened to and made me completely stop what I was doing in order to pay attention. After a couple of plays of the album that this song came from, 2017\u2019s I\u2019m Not Your Man<\/a><\/em>, I found myself becoming obsessed. It\u2019s very rare for me to go back and start an album again as soon as it finished, but for weeks I just didn\u2019t want to listen to anything else.<\/p>\n

When I heard that Marika had new music coming out in 2019 I felt as though I had found her at just the right time<\/a>. But how could the new album be anywhere near as good as I\u2019m Not Your Man<\/em>? The first single, I\u2019m Not Where You Are<\/a><\/em>, was very catchy but more electronic and poppy than what I had fallen in love with. I played it a few times, enjoyed it, but was worried that I wasn\u2019t going to like the new stuff as much.<\/p>\n