"Hey, Azul!" everyone's been shouting at me. "What #music are you listening to RIGHT NOW? We need to know this, for some reason. Tell us. Tell us immediately!"

Well, okay, here you go. This is my ongoing #NowPlaying thread.

What better place to begin my #NowPlaying thread than with a track that knocked my socks off the first time I heard it, and hasn't stopped since? But then, any song containing the phrase '#CollectiveBargaining' is gonna get me going. #JoinAUnion

Wurk, by #LinquaFranqa

https://youtu.be/QIxsXzrugUE

#NowPlaying

Red Light Spells Danger, by #BillyOcean.

Banger. End of.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/3592297

I listened to #Christmas #music for 10 uninterrupted hours today, which was a bit much even for me.

So I put my 'lovely' #playlist on as a palate cleanser, and soon it gave me this beauty of a #song. I'm a sucker for singers with #accents, and if that accent is #Scottish I am yours.

#NowPlaying 'Isobel', by #HealAndHarrow.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/209843676

So while we're talking #lovely #music sung with a #Scottish #accent, here's another one.

#NowPlaying: #CoverYourEyes by #KarinePolwart

(I think this #song is about Donald Trump being allowed to build a ghastly golf resort on some precious bit of #Scotland's coast.)

https://tidal.com/browse/track/103436001

Fookit, have another one from my 'lovely' #playlist. #Welsh #accent this time though.

#NowPlaying: #NothingHurts by #Catatonia

(Was a toss-up between that and Dead From The Waist Down.)

https://tidal.com/browse/track/19458899

To see out this infernal year, I will spend its dregs listening to the #music #Tidal tells me I played most in #2022.

Firstly, because #RandomPlay is *obsessed* with playing me this track: Don't Play That Song, by #ArethaFranklin. (If random play is trying to tug at my heartstrings, it is shit out of luck as I haven't had romantic yearnings for anyone for quite some time now.)

https://tidal.com/browse/track/26008323

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist

I've never really got into the Dropkick Murphys before, because I fookn hate the bagpipes. But I was fookn angry at rich/non- #socialist people *a lot* in #2022, and this track suddenly broke through for me, so I listened to it on repeat. You can play this #song at my funeral, and hire a fookn bagpipe player too.

Worker's Song by #DropkickMurphys.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/121124068

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Same #socialist anger as previous #song, minus bagpipes and English, plus Spanish and #ska. 'Tu enemigo es el patrĂ³n".

El Vals del Obrero, by #SkaP

https://tidal.com/browse/track/18896573

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

I still think this is one of the most exciting songs of the last... oh fook, I just looked it up and this was released in 2005! 17 years! God, I'm old. (I actually did dance like a robot in 1984, though I was more into #breakdancing than #robotics.)

Anyway, I often play this and sing along in what's left of my #Sheffield accent, and that is a good thing.

#ArcticMonkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

https://tidal.com/browse/track/13456786

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Talking of feeling old, here's a song all about that. "I ain't as good as I once / But I'm as good once as I ever was". Yep. Agreed. Me too.

#TobyKeith - As Good As I Once Was

https://tidal.com/browse/track/586309

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

This one just knocked my socks off as soon as I heard it. An absolute belter of a #pop #song. Should've been number one on the hit parade (if they still do the charts).

Into My Arms by #DianaDeMuth

https://tidal.com/browse/track/133541605

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

It's not a prize every time with HMHB, but boy howdy do they get it right every now and then.

Joy Division Oven Gloves, by #HalfManBiscuit

https://tidal.com/browse/track/222599391

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Ah, now, there was a theme to my music tastes in #2022. What with the pandemic, and with the breakdown of the old societal fixtures that brought people together, I really worry about people feeling alone, lonely and vulnerable. And I was bang up for anything and anyone that was saying "We're still here - we'll find a way to be together again, if we can just hold on now".

Storm To Weather, by #GracePetrie (whom I love v much).

https://tidal.com/browse/track/192470876

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Um, see previous post in thread. Life's shit. Be together. And if you're hurting no-one, don't feel bad for being happy for a bit.

Nothing to Regret, by #Robinson

https://tidal.com/browse/track/84851881

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

As per previous few posts...

I know this song might be about the afterlife, and is almost certainly about the delusion of the American Dream, but it's also about comforting your loved ones with hope. That's powerful stuff. Use it.

Across the Border, by #BruceSpringsteen.

(I'm not crying, *you're* crying.)

https://tidal.com/browse/track/24385388

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Ever feel like you need a Happy Song? Here's #AlexTheAstronaut. Join in! Dah daaah dada dada dah...

https://tidal.com/browse/track/221605582

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Aw heck, while we're listening to #AlexTheAstronaut, here's another belter by them. "I Think You're Great." (I do. You are.)

https://tidal.com/browse/track/221605645

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

OK, this is just a lovely undemanding #pop #song. If there is a smile in me to be smiled at all, this will put it on my mush.

Brighter than the Sun - #ColbieCaillat

https://tidal.com/browse/track/97293058

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

As per previous post - just a lovely #song to smile for.

Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae

https://tidal.com/browse/track/122876

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

And this one! I have absolutely no idea who these people are, or what they want, but I love their #song anyway.

"Danger! High Voltage" - #ElectricSix

https://tidal.com/browse/track/49912080

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

I don't really do #NewYearsResolutions, but I do want to catch up with #EzraFurman in #2023. But they're so prolific! Hard to keep up!

"Take Off Your Sunglasses" by Ezra Furman and the Harpoons.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/110728483

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Just a solid banger. That's it. That's the post. (Name a better bass opener?)

The Night, by #FrankieValli and the #FourSeasons.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/35177955

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Talking of bangers... BANGERISSIMO! You will never go back to that weedy #SoftCell cover after hearing the original.

#TaintedLove by #GloriaJones

https://tidal.com/browse/track/51855032

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

You know what we need now? Some banging Ukrainian electrofolk. Luckily I happened to listen to this song A LOT in #2022, so it's on the list. (It's actually quite a sweet and innocent song about Spring being really nice.)

Shum, by #GoA

https://tidal.com/browse/track/193038577

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

I love this #song. I love her. This will probably be on my most-played list next year as well. You may ridicule me for it. I don't care. It's a chooon.

The Boy Does Nothing, by #AleshaDixon.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/2023150

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Now, stick with this one. It needs time to build, but it fair rattles along by the end.

Spoon Out My Eyeballs, by #BenjaminBooker.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/33175602

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

I was born in entirely the wrong time and place to have been on the #NorthernSoul scene. (Also, I'm not much of a dancer, or clubgoer.) But by gum I love the #music that came out of #WiganCasino and the like.

Cry No More, by #BenEKing

https://tidal.com/browse/track/23609572

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Like, this is cheezy as all giddy-up. And it's by #TonyBlackburn, for heaven's sake! But it's really good #NorthernSoul. No, it really is. Honest.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/183630530

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Oh, there's apparently one more #NorthernSoul track that I listened to lots last year.

Feels So Good, by #BobbyHarden and the #SoulfulSaints.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/204521195

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

I am an absolute sucker for a bit of #HammondOrgan, me. And here's a lovely swinging cracker of a #song that has hammond out the wazoo. (Someone will now tell me it's not actually a hammond organ. And I won't care.)

Surrender to the Rhythm, by #BrinsleySchwarz.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/1502329

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

I'm looking at what's left on my #MostPlayed in #2022 #playlist, and wondering if I've got enough upbeat tracks left to get us to the #NewYear without harshing the mood.

We're alright for now, though. Here's Sixteen by #DietCig.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/68390666

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

This is a corker in general, but there's a genuinely thrilling passage from about 2m40s. HEY! HEY! IT'S JUST A LITTLE HEARTBREAK!

Sea Hearts, by #Honeyblood.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/129313685

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

Ooh, hold on. We're back on the #hammond, and I'm going to use a word I hate: we are boogying it right up.

Buried Alive In The Blues, by #JanisJoplin.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/45984565

#NowPlaying #2022Playlist #music

@azulbuho I wonder if it got mocked at the time for being so obviously riding the wave of Alesha's second wave of fame from Strictly, making it seem like a cheap novelty record as well as the good pop song it absolutely was?

Wouldn't go as far as to say it is or was a favourite but I'd play it a bit on student radio at the time and I play it a bit at home now.

@shinybat You might be right. I think also it was very much the highlight of a disappointing album that was expected to do much better off the back of her Strictly success. (I'm working on memory here - I've no intention of going back to listen to it.)