Nice Finds #1 – a new mixtape

One of the advantages of working from home over the last three years is that I’ve listened to tonnes of music. Thanks to Spotify, which I stream from my laptop to the stereo in what I laughingly call “my office” (which is really a playroom), I’ve discovered artists I probably would never have otherwise heard. The source of all of this new music is the personalised “Discover Weekly” playlist, which is refreshed each Monday with all kinds of audio goodness. Mine seems to be populated with a lot of folk, Americana and alt-country, as well as a smattering of classic rock, soul and reggae, based I guess on the artists I’ve followed and/or listened to on there.

But just as we have an almost insurmountable hill of shows and movies to watch on Netflix (which a friend recently referred to as “the tyranny of content”), being able to listen to pretty much absolutely any music ever released via Spotify presents its own problem – it can be too easy to enjoy something but then forget to bookmark it so that it becomes lost forever. Years ago I would buy a new album and listen to it over and over, particularly if it was one that I didn’t initially enjoy; I’d milk it for as much value as possible, worried that I’d invested in (another?) dud. But that doesn’t happen with digital streaming – you can flick through a couple of tracks on an album and if it’s not immediately arresting you move on to the next. I know, first world worries, eh?

Anyway, while listening to my Discover Weekly since 2020 I’ve added tracks that I’ve enjoyed to a personal playlist I’ve set up called “Nice Finds”. It’s here in full, if you’re interested. From there, I’ve been able to follow the breadcrumbs in my listening habits back to the albums they come from and then other work released by those artists. As a result, I’ve become a fan of acts like Watchhouse, Lake Street Dive, The Avett Brothers, Terry Callier and Richard Thompson. And because Discover Weekly will also pop in tunes by artists it knows you already like, I’ve been reminded of how good the likes of Big Star, John Smith, Beth Orton, Fairport Convention, Tracy Chapman, Ron Sexsmith, Steve Tilston and This is the Kit are.

It’s been such a long time since my last mixtape (and thanks to encouragement from Mat Riches, whose own weekly blog, the brilliantly named “Wear the Fox Hat“, is always a good source of great new finds), so I’ve put Nice Finds #1 together from a bunch of Discover Weekly tracks, as well as old rediscovered favourites and the odd tune I’ve enjoyed on CDs I’ve bought recently. It’s a bit folky, a bit funky and hopefully an enjoyable listening experience for your lug ‘oles.

And here’s a YouTube playlist in case you don’t use Spotify:

Tags: Mat Riches, Nice FInds, Nice Finds #1, random mixtape, Spotify