Cloudy. A Reader.
1. M. Sage (w/ Fuubutsushi band: Chris Jussell, Patrick Shiroishi & Lake Mary) - Lavender
The opener from a gorgeously enveloping winter jazz record. This is the second in this band's seasonal series. They're all worth checking out. They might be one of the best bands I've ever heard.
2. SBTRKT - Hold On feat. Sampha
A classic cold weather London track. Starting work at half 6 in Victoria Park made me think strongly of this; knew it had to slot into a winter playlist somewhere.
3. A.A. Bondy - Killers 3
Alt. Folk goes ambient R&B. Modern folktronica that, in no way, sounds predictably like the last few years of Bon Iver. The harmonies in the chorus that float off into nowhere are absolutely sublime.
4. Simon & Garfunkel - Cloudy
I love a title track.
5. Bon Iver & St. Vincent
Had I never begrudgingly downloaded TikTok, I'd have likely never come across the Twilight soundtrack again. I'd have missed out on this gem. The droning bass note at the start rumbles through like a slow roll of thunder: this track has no place playing on any day other than an impossibly grey one.
6. Marisa Anderson - Sanctuary
Look at the cover. Look at the album title. Listen to how warm this guitar tone is. This belongs in no other playlist.
7. Lambchop - The Lasting Last of You
The most interesting country artist ever. As the LP sticker reads, this is like house through a Talk Talk lens: at its core this track appreciates silence. The break before the words "it's been a fucking lovely day" are warbled through a huge mess of auto-tune is sublime; this might be the most comforting stretch of lyrics ever laid to tape.
8. Drake - Buried Alive Interlude (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
For the last couple of years, I've enjoyed an imagined world in which Lambchop's album "This" was largely inspired by the cold, post-R&B world of Drake's "Take Care". This is the only real reason I included this track, so I could smash these last two tracks back-to-back.
9. Bing & Ruth - And Then It Rained
Whenever it goes grey and rainy I rush to put this on. It works equally well just for clouds. I don't know any of B&R's other music, however, if this was the only song they had ever recorded, it would still have been a career well spent.
10. Sigur Ros - Olsen Olsen
You need the crowdpleasers. You also need SOME upbeat, even in what's meant to be an hour of subdued bliss. Although try and tell me that the opening bass isn't still one of the most enveloping musical hugs of all time.
11. Simon & Garfunkel - Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall
I just love the way these tracks go together on the album they come from. I can never hear one without the other coming some way down the line.
12. Lavender Country - I Can't Shake the Stranger Out of You
Got to have one heartbroken ballad on a cloudy day. But seriously overlooked, "Van Morrison if he was openly gay and had a southern twang" vibes here. One of the best songs EVER written and rarely heard.
13. Bring Me the Horizon - Fifteen Fathoms, Counting
I love a good curveball.
14. Adrianne Lenker - Dragon Eyes
Never having been a Big Thief fan, this album took me totally by surprise. This song is the PERFECT penultimate track.
15. Rosalia - I See A Darkness
A mid-album track covered and reworked excellently into a gorgeous closer: a tension that lurks in the original is relieved here.
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