The New Cue #454 December 20: Songs Of The Year Special Pt 2, featuring James Acaster, Miki Berenyi, Moose, Yannis Philippakis, Lucy Rose, Felix White and more!
"The paywall is down, repeat, the paywall is down!"
“You boy, what day is it?!”
“Why, it’s the day that The New Cue are running the second part of their Songs Of The Year special editions, sir, and they’ve taken the paywall out again sir, they’re top lads, Ted and Niall, sir, are you a paying subscriber sir, you should be sir.”
That’s right, today we’ve got another round of ace playlists from friends of TNC such as James Acaster, Lucy Rose, Felix White, Miki Berenyi & Moose, Jeff Barrett, Yannis Philippakis and many more for you to tuck into. To balance out the fine choice of tunes, you’ve also got a playlist from me, Niall Michael Doherty. Here it is, enjoy it and don’t forget not to mention it if you don’t:
As previously mentioned, this edition is free for all, our Christmas gift to you. But we would also like to keep making money from this whole foolhardy venture, so if you’re not a paying subscriber and you’d like to become one, then you can do so here:
Or maybe you’re still searching for that perfect gift for that friend or family member with a great music taste and a love of insightful, funny interviews, weekly new music picks and Substack publications that rhyme with The Mew Sue:
Enjoy the edition, we’ll see you on Monday for our last TNC of the year, a festive Story Behind The Song with East 17’s Tony Mortimer.
Ted and Niall
24-4-24 Playlist Special, Part 2!
James Acaster, actor, comedian and writer and loads of other stuff too
James began the year by starring in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and ended it with the release of his first HBO special, Hecklers Welcome. Actually he didn’t end it then because after that he did this playlist for us:
One of James’s picks was GFOTY’s Bobby, which isn’t on Spotify, so here it is, sitting all on its own:
And for the Apple Music crew, it’s here.
Lucy Rose
Lucy released her excellent fifth record This Ain’t The Way You Go Out earlier this year. She took advantage of her kids napping in the car to put her 24-4-24 playlist together and take the above snap to go with it.
Yannis Philippakis & Vincent Taurelle of Yannis & The Yaw
This year Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis unveiled his new project Yannis & The Yaw. Yannis and new bandmate Vincent Taurelle collaborated on putting together their 24-4-24 playlist.
Nick Littlemore
This Aussie producer and songwriter has had a big year, releasing records with both his dance project PNAU and Empire Of The Sun, the synth-pop duo he’s in with Luke Steele. Because he’s a maverick, he’s done 29 tracks because I reproached him for not having any Essex in there, so he added those, and then added some of his own songs too. Honestly, these artistes…
Zena White
Zena is COO of Partisan Records, home to Ezra Collective, IDLES, Laura Marling, PJ Harvey and many more.
Everything Everything’s Jeremy Pritchard
Everything Everything released their brilliant seventh record Mountainhead in March. They ended the year with a short, sold-out UK tour but due to illness, bassist and lovely fella Jeremy Pritchard couldn’t make it. He did make us this playlist from his sick bed though. Get well soon Jeremy!
Jeff Barrett of Heavenly Records
Jeff says this, as we approach the season 24/25 midwinter break: “Heavenly hitting 35 in 2025 feels like a big deal. Who’d have thought it? Not me that’s for sure. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was working in record shops, selling fanzines and putting on gigs. Actually, nothing much has changed when I come to think about it - I’m personally made up that the HVN FAN ZINE has been so well received. I’m enjoying putting those together (issue #5 out in Jan btw) and I also take great delight in having successfully added a book section to the Heavenly Bandcamp store (The Bird is The Word, natch).
Moose & Miki Berenyi of Miki Berenyi Trio
MB3 have new music coming out in 2025 and will be playing shows throughout the year…
Nat Cramp of Sonic Cathedral
’Celebrate Yourself’ - The Sonic Cathedral Story 2004-24: a 4CD 20th anniversary box set is out now.
Felix White of 86TVs & Maccabees
It’s a been a reasonably busy year for the hardest working man in any business, show or otherwise: debut album and touring with his 86TVs, co-wrote Jimmy Anderson’s best-selling biography, continued airwave dominance with the hit cricketing Tailenders podcast, hosted the official Fulham podcast and returned once more to the USA in his commentator role for Major League Baseball on the BBC…oh, and The Maccabees announced they’re reforming for an enormo All Points East headline next August.
"I don’t know how well I’m going to do with music from 2024 tbh mate. Can happily do a playlist of 24 songs but not much will have been released this year.” That’s fine, Felix.
bdrmm
A collaborative effort from Leeds quartet bdrmm, who will release their brilliant third album Microtonic in February via Rock Action.