AS 14

Well, well, well. Here we are again. There's still an ongoing global pandemic, we're all still living through some sort of quasi-limbo and everything is all so... the same, but different. That did not stop us pouring over music, however, and so we are pleased to release our fourteenth playlist: AS 14.

We say this a lot, but we truly do feel this is our best playlist yet. We open with Prince's Purple Rain outtake, Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden, a beautiful pair of songs married together in melody that should help your anxiety-laden brain take it easy for a minute amidst all the chaos around us. It will forever remain a mystery why this song was not included on any official Prince release.

In the meantime, we were fans of Jessie Ware's latest release, and of Remember Where You Are, in particular, which is very evocative of The 5th Dimension's Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In. Snobbery favourites, Perel and Anderson .Paak, meanwhile, knocked it out the park with Gold & Silber and the aptly-titled (and very relevant) Lockdown, respectively.

Also on repeat this month was Paper Thin from Lianne La Havas' latest album, which, Weird Fishes cover aside, provided some dulcet melancholia for isolation-induced introspection. ex-Interpol frontman Paul Banks' Muzz also demonstrated a surprising capacity to create more gentle, beautiful music than we may have thought possible in Patchouli.

The playlist also features a fair few heroes in the form of – yes – David Bowie, who finally gained some proper recognition from the collective Snobs via the inclusion of The Next Day's excellent Boss Of Me, and Talking Heads, whose track The Great Curve from 1980's Remain in Light remains (ha ha...) one of the all-time classics.

As ever, more oft-overlooked Brazilian gems crept into Audio Snobbery's record collection in the form of Seu Jorge's bold and brash Mangueira, O Terno's Atrás / Além, Jorge Ben Jor's delightful Olha a Pipa, and Os Incríveis' playful and catchy Vendedor de Bananas.

There is more on this playlist we haven't mentioned, and we of course encourage you to discover your favourite tracks yourself, but we would be remiss if we didn't tell you to drop everything right now and listen to La Femme's It's Time To Wake Up (2023) (a song that we couldn't believe had not appeared on an Audio Snobbery release before – better late than never), or the enigmatic SAULT's Pray up Stay Up from their excellent release, Untitled (Black Is).

Keep enjoying yourselves out there, dear readers. Try to have as much sensible fun as you can, and rest in peace, Ennio Morricone. A truly historic loss to the world of Music on so many levels.

With love, as ever.
The Snobs

The Snobs' Top Tracks

Jessie Ware – Remember Where You Are
La Femme – It's Time To Wake Up (2023)
Prince – Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden
SAULT – Pray up Stay Up
Talking Heads – The Great Curve