Loah OV: Home Playlist

Loah OV: Home Playlist

December 8, 2021

The sublime Loah takes us on a journey of the songs that bring her home, from Sufjan Stevens all the way to Marvin Gaye

As part of Other Voices: Home at the Guinness Storehouse we asked the acts about the songs that 'bring them home' and why. Performer and host of the evening Loah brings us all the way home with her tender and thoughtful choices.

   LOAH :: OV HOME PLAYLIST

Spanish Mary - The New Basement Tapes I love Rhiannon Giddens who sings and plays banjo on this track, and the project itself is super cool. It's all these discarded Bob Dylan lyrics from '67 onwards, taken by a supergroup of legends of folk and rock, who made a really great record out of it. This track sounds like it is hundreds of years old, yet also compelling and urgent.

Nothing Arrived - Villagers (Live from Spotify) This is one of my favourite Villagers songs and this particular version sends chills up my spine every time. The bareness yet perfection of this performance is the reason why the singer-songwriter form never dies!

Aztec - Bo Diddley Love this slick instrumental which was actually written for Bo Diddley by his amazing lead guitarist Peggy Jones, who glides these crunchy solos throughout. I find myself returning to this constantly this year, no matter the mood I'm in.

Kinfolk - Mereba One of my top songs this year, it's this gorgeous marriage of a bluesy singer-songwriter grounding with electronic trickery that transforms it with groove. I dream of this kind of effortless weaving of sounds and approaches.

Risk - FKJ, Bas Two great artists meeting. FKJ released the Ylang Ylang EP this year which is a gorgeous soulful soundscape, and Bas cuts through on this track with these mellow, stream-of-consciousness musings on a lost lover that get me in the feels every time.

Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye I started listening to Marvin again recently, his songwriting is so timeless. The Trouble Man film album was such an incredible moment for him, moving from being a hit machine to crafting ambitious artistic projects. Trouble Man is both, in perfect tandem.

Quarrel - Moses Sumney This is possibly one of my top 10 songs of all time... A gorgeous, open, beautifully arranged and orchestrated musical inquiry into the nature of relationships, race, self. There is harp, there is scripture, there is Sumney's soaring falsetto and there are Thundercat basslines. Perfection.

That Was the Worst Christmas Ever - Sufjan Stevens It wouldn't be a Christmas playlist without one Christmas song and this is one of my favourites. Sufjan just nails that high and lonesome singer-songwriter's infinite dark night of the soul, and this tale of a Yuletide gone wrong is no different.

In a Bind - Vagabon I discovered Vagabon this year and have been converted ever since. This whole tune is spacious and elegant, with this steady build to a gorgeous and urgent vocal climax.

Snow Dance - Abbacaxi I wanted to end on as high a note as possible in a playlist largely full of wintry, introverted folk songs. This song takes me back to winter nights in Berlin when I visited my brother and friends and went to nightclubs for what felt like days, dancing to the most incredible house music, to fend off winter blues. It's a perfect "sad banger" and makes me yearn to dance with the people I love again...

Listen to Loah's OV:Home playlist      

Don't miss Loah at Other Voices: Home at the Guinness Storehouse on 15 December.    

Full Other Voices: Home at the Guinness Storehouse line up: Pillow Queens, Bell X1, Maverick Sabre, Ryan McMullan, John Francis Flynn, Loah + the Theodora Byrne Ensemble.
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