Good morning everyone,

This has been, at least, a great year for music. Let's enjoy some highlights together in this Fem Fri of 2019 albums of the year.

Firstly, Holly Herndon's Proto is terrific. She made an AI (called Spawn, she/her) to collaborate with her and trained it with loads of workshops so it's not just a dry project but also has been made with the help of a community. She's still training her AI too! I went to see her live this year and she said, help me to train Spawn. One of her choir would sing a line, then the audience would sign it back, and it was all recorded for Spawn. It sounded amazing and was a beautiful communal experience to sing with everyone and, together, be a part of Holly Herndon's music in the future. Here's Eternal from the LP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sROgbaeOs

From the charming and arty to the purely charming, I loved Hatchie's dreamy nu-shoegaze this year. If you want to listen to 45 minutes of sweet, warm music, I can't recommend her album, Keepsake, highly enough. Here's Stay With Me, you will love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwdXi0I8vsQ

It's very likely that someone else has already recommended Sudan Archives to you, and if you have not listened to her album, Athena yet then definitely make the time for that today. We're back to arty here, and it's also spiky and fun to listen to. Here's Glorious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJDMSctOnQY

I know I recommended The Japanese House earlier in the year, and I still love her album, Good at Falling. Lilo gets a lot of love but my favourite track, and the one I commend to you here, is Follow My Girl. But the whole thing is great! Listen to Follow My Girl then listen to the whole LP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cFjEtjV3ZM

Finally, this is an album by men that I am about to recommend to you, if you're not up for that then cool but for me, Copeland's Blushing is a perfect album. It's hazy and dreamy and romantic and diffuse and yes okay you need to listen to it about four times before it clicks but when it clicks, it really really clicks. I highly recommend that you listen to this LP four or five times today but at least to start with here's Night Figures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttOQa8B-Jt0

Happy listening, friends,

A xx.