What better way to kick off a first post than running down my favourite albums of the year! There’s been a lot of strong releases this year and I’ve based my picks on the albums I’ve played the most throughout the year.
TSHA – ‘Sad Girl’
I don’t listen to a lot of curated playlists on streaming but I remember throwing on a dance playlist on Apple Music one night for background noise and ‘Drive’ came on. As you do when you hear a song from an artist you hadn’t heard of before, you go into investigative mode – looking to see if this track is on an album that’s been released. I had to wait a little bit as ‘Sad Girl’ had not been released yet but during the wait, one of the albums highlights ‘Girls’ was there to fill the void.
Featuring Rose Gray (big upcoming dance-pop girlie alert!), ‘Girls’ is fast paced, high energy and reminiscent of the Mason & Princess Superstar track ‘Perfect (Exceeder)’. Not massively but the beat feels familiar. The lyrics are almost like a confidence boost call to action to girls everywhere to “dance like you never tried / love like you’ve never been hurt this time”, live freely and life is better.
Another highlight is ‘In The Night’ that has great build up that kicks into a thumper following a similar mantra as the track previous. A desire to live free and be high (whether it’s literally or metaphorically is a question in itself). The album itself has its slower moments, mostly that kick off the second half of the album. ‘Lonely Girl’ is a short instrumental that feels like a respite from the high energy of the tracks before it and then flits between high and low tempo until the end. ‘Azaleas’ into the techno ‘Take’ into a mid tempo ‘Drive’ to end on ‘Fight’ feels a little disjointed. Perhaps the album track listing could have done with a little reshuffling but overall the album is a step up from her debut ‘Capricorn Sun’ and I’m looking forward to hearing what’s next from TSHA.