AS17

Curated by Humans.
Designed to be played in order, not shuffled.

Well dear readers, somehow we’ve made it through 2020, even if just barely so. Hopefully these playlists have been a bright spot in your year. With Christmas knocking on the door, we hope you deck the halls with our final playlist of the year: AS17.

The playlist opens with a song off Kali Uchis’ recent release. The Colombian-American singer is no stranger to tributes. Last year when The Snobs caught her at Primavera she did a stunning, sensual cover of Radiohead’s Creep. As part of her first Spanish language release, Kali Uchis performed a beautiful rendition of La Lupe’s soulful 1965 hit, Qué te Pedí. Our only complaint is that clocking in at only 1’22”, we really wish the song was a bit longer.

AS17 marks DARKSIDE’s second appearance with their hit Paper Trails. While 2020 has been a pretty shit year to say the least, one piece of good news was the chance uncovering of a recording of one DARKSIDE’s final shows from Belgium’s Dour Festival back in 2014. Who knows if this is just a one-off or maybe there is some hope of Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington bringing back their much beloved, critically acclaimed side project. In his Tripping On Nicolas Jaar piece, Cuzomano touched on the early days of the group and how he was lucky enough to catch them before the band went on hiatus.

On to some geographically-themed songs. Earlier this year our dear Otacon traded in the Patagonia vests and tech bros of San Francisco for the beaches and beautiful people of Los Angeles. What better fitting songs than Gabor Szabor’s cover of San Franciscan Nights and Snob favourite, Amen Dunes’ L.A..

Lastly, what with the Christmas season in full swing, we’d be remiss not to have a few festive tracks included in the playlist. In the year of a global pandemic, what song could be more fitting than Santa Stay Home. Though the U.S. Girls may have ended up on Santa’s naughty list what with frontwoman Meg Remy’s comment that “when one stops to really think about this, Santa is creepy and Christmas makes no sense.” On the other hand, we have U.K. classic I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. Do yourself a favor and check out the music video, complete with Roy Wood and the members of Wizzard in psychedelic holiday costumes along with a bunch of school children who look like they don’t have a clue why they’re there.

While we don’t usually make it a point of commenting on songs from the B playlist, it would be a crime not to specifically call notice to Science Fair. What with their second appearance in one of our playlists, the up-and-coming Black Country, New Road have been putting out some amazing post-punk music out of the U.K. as of late and we can’t wait for their upcoming full-length, due in 2021.

As always dear readers, we encourage you to explore the playlist for yourselves, especially during the year end shutdown fast approaching.

With love, as ever,
The Snobs