Sounds of 2020
Published Dec 20, 2020
What a crazy year. As I write this Sydney is heading into a strict lockdown after a major COVID-19 outbreak centered around Avalon on Sydney’s Northern Beaches (just down the road). After things were just starting to stabilise into our new normal, we’re headed to another period of lockdown over summer. But I’m not here to talk about the weather.
This past year I’ve found myself listening to more music than usual. Home alone, sitting at my desk, missing the hum of an office, I have instead played a couple of albums on repeat over and over again at a low volume. For deep work, I have stuck with just two albums that I now know back to front and inside out. So here we go…
After Hours by The Weeknd
This one just works for me. Chuck it on in the background and things just. get. done. On repeat for much of the early days of working from home in our previous house, working from the small home office that I built over the previous Christmas break in what was once a small upstairs(?) laundry room.
folklore by Taylor Swift
And then there is “folklore”. What an album. I’m not a massive fan of Swift’s last studio album, “Lover”, but this one knocks it out of the park. And then some. Don’t get me wrong, I am partial to a bit of pop tay-tay, but this nice edgey folky stuff is bloody brilliant.
I could listen to “Exile” on repeat all day long and not ever get tired of it. But then I’d be missing out on all of the other gems included on this amazing tribute to getting shit done while in lockdown and doing things remote and using whatever resources you have availale to you. If you’re a Disney+ subscriber, do yourself a favour and go watch “taylor swift - folklore - the long pond studio sessions” special. If not, just track down the “long pond sessions” version of folklore.
This is the album of our new home. Working in the garage, getting stuff done and with mad positive vibes, trying to make a difference in everything I work on. It’s just one of those rare albums that comes together and tells a complete story. Listening to it on shuffle does it an injustice, played in order it tells a story.
Not content with releasing one album, now there’s “evermore” that continues the story from “folklore” and it set to be my album for summer 2021. It’s going to a great summer…
