Bands & Songs of the year

Partly as a result of making playlists (and perhaps a little subconsciously from seeing regular reminders for the Dandelion Radio festive 50 which I still have to vote in!!) I've been considering what my favourite bands and songs have been this year, and am rapidly realising that the answer seems to vary quite dramatically from day to day. It also seems a little hasty to make any decisions quite yet as I have just received the new Ace Bushy Striptease album in the post and haven't had a proper chance to listen to it yet... It can safely be said however that Evans the Death, the School, the Spook School, Martha, Jeffrey Lewis, Horse Thief, the Lovely Eggs, the History of Apple Pie, Dirty Beaches, Methodist Centre, Standard Fare, One Happy Island, Allo Darlin' will be right up there somewhere, even if some of them haven't strictly released anything this year, and by that logic I might have to include Roky Erickson as well for having written my favourite song right now!! In fact, now that I think about it there are clearly far too many names on the list (which will continue to grow as I remember stuff that was released earlier in the year) so a complex system will have to be concocted to narrow down a top three or possibly five popular bands and songs...

Better get started.