January music playlist - courtesy of Drowned in Sound

February 4, 2010

We’ve got a new monthly playlist feature for you, put together by our good friends over at Drowned in Sound. If you’re not aware of DiS, it’s a music community which has been doing an amazing job in providing opinions and recommending records since 2000. Each month, the site’s founder will compile a link-laden playlist for you featuring 20 of the previous month’s finest releases, primarily from the ‘alternative’/indie-rock/electronic sphere.

So, here’s the first playlist in this series Drowned in January 2010 playlist and the commentary from Sean Adams:

1) Owen Pallett ‘Lewis’ Dream’

Plink, plink. Kicking off this playlist is something slight. This gentle and genteel track is from the violin-wielding former Arcade Fire and Last of the Shadow Puppets collaborating man formerly known as Final Fantasy, whose new album Heartland was released via Domino Records this month, read DiS’ 8/10 review of the album here.

2) Frightened Rabbit ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’

Fans of indie-rock royalty The Shins and The National who haven’t got The Winter Of Mixed Drinks (Fat Cat) scribbled in their diary on March 1st, do so now because if this song and a few others I heard live are anything to go by, these Grey’s Anatomy-soundtracking Scots have a real treat in store. Read our interview with the band about the album.

3) Paul Simon ‘Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard’

Brooklyn’s angular indie-popsters Vampire Weekend released their second album this month but try as they might, they still haven’t bettered this classic track from the legendary Paul Simon. However, they did write a a great director’s commentary-like guide to Contra for DrownedinSound.

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24 comments

24 responses to “January music playlist - courtesy of Drowned in Sound”

2 years ago afront said:

12) Chew Lips ‘Solo’ Their debut album Unicorn is out now Post the Spotify URL for this and make me happy :p

2 years ago studleyuk said:

These sponsored playlists look great with their thumbnail images and descriptions. Any chance of opening that functionality to us mere mortals (or at least subscribers)? It would HUGELY benefit the sharing of playlists. (or will this just get ignored again?)

2 years ago andres said:

@studleyuk - There are no immediate plans to open the function up. Perhaps in the future for premium users but nothing has been decided.

2 years ago is_there_a_ghost? said:

As much as I appreciate these monthly playlists (it's a good idea in general) I don't like that it seems to be targeted at only one specific country, the UK I guess. Here in Sweden 4 songs are not available (at first sight) as there is this really unnecessary and stupid country restriction on songs. This makes these monthly playlists a little letdown for anyone outside the UK, because we always have to wonder if we can listen to these potentially awesome songs or not! Here's the thing: the songs marked as "unavailable" in red aren't really unavailable in Sweden. At least not all of them. A click on the artist reveals that the songs by Uffie and Hot Chip ARE available in Sweden, only on different album releases. This bugs me a little. Could you at least make it possible to use the "Replace Unplayable Tracks" option on these playlists? I know you cant't change anything about the country restrictions but place make this option available or make playlists with songs that are available to all users. Or at the very least mention that these playlists are targeted at the UK users. Thanks! Keep up the good work.

2 years ago seaninsound said:

@is_there_a_ghost - thank you for the constructive feedback. apologies, I did try to pick tracks which would be as widely available as possible. Certainly wasn't made just for the UK. 4/20 isn't bad but obviously it could be even better . As I'm sure you know, the issues here are related to the labels and international boundaries but will discuss with the Spotify folks on how we can avoid this in future - perhaps you could create a link to the playlist with the missing tracks for your fellow swedes?

2 years ago sickofmotion said:

Too bad they couldn't pick one song off the real Owen Pallett release, "Heartland". What's up with that one? It's out for almost a month, and Domino is part of the labels signed to Spotify...

2 years ago barneyk said:

4 songs not available here in sweden, its so stupid. I know its not you, Spotifys, fault, but it still sucks. Could you work out a deal so that at least premium users could listen to stuff globally or something?

2 years ago robboten said:

Great playlist! Thanks Sean. Nice with new Tindersticks and new Magnetic fields. Yey.

2 years ago greenline said:

I want to buy music from Spotify. But it has failed three four days in a row now. Whats happening?

2 years ago lucasolsson said:

You should add "Hope For Haiti Now" album. Then we could listen and contribute in the help for the people of Haiti.

2 years ago robytron said:

This is deeply wicked, though I will hadmit I am entirely biased. That said, *any* playlist with Yeti Lane, the Hot Chips, Yeasayer, These New Puritans AND dEbruit is alright with me. And should be alright with you too, internet person.

2 years ago nhoj said:

dear spotify awesomeness. please make public playlists searchable. epic awesome win. yes please!

2 years ago alfredekroth said:

Dear spotify crew... stop the mc donalds commercial, it sucks ass, it ruins my day...

2 years ago costi said:

:) pay not to hear them alfred... I think it's fair to have Spotify free and listen to commercials that pay your account. I bought an iPod Touch 2nd Gen just to listen Spotify on the go and pay a monthly subscription for that too and you are not willing to listen to a commercial for having it. The solution is simple: stop using it.

2 years ago antonello99 said:

Chek out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQlj3V4fv0s

2 years ago karlnorling said:

The Watson Twins - Talking to You, Talking to Me. Please

2 years ago orphis said:

The first album of "Jil is lucky" has also been added, and it's quite good ! spotify:album:6VLFsBhHqpPVFzxikWXaKg

1 year ago zackeg said:

Please. Add (Jag är en tönt som spelar counter strike) as a song to Spotify

1 year ago mtcunnie said:

Still waiting on Owl City - Ocean Eyes and some Oasis tracks!

1 year ago dtr4eva said:

right so im Loving your Moonspell Discography but DUDE your missing the Memorial album from 2006 the hint is relatively clear ;) cheers mate