In ‘This Week in Discover Weekly’, I listen to my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist and offer first impressions on each track in a line or so. I’ll then make a decision as to whether I KEEP it in ‘Songs’ or DISCARD it.

Mildly psychedelic and deeply jaunty, Michael Rault’s Too Bad So Sad is nice enough, but sounds like a lot of stuff has done since Unknown Mortal Orchestra proved this kind of thing was profitable. KEEP

A while back, Spotify offered a breakdown of users’ listening tastes and assigned a segment of mine as ‘Freak Folk’. I’m not sure what that means but I imagine  The Crayon Fields’ All the Pleasures of the World might be an example of it, offering as it does the gentle, hushed vocals of a folk act over a song that said folk act might describe as ‘freaky’. It’s alright. KEEP

Good Morning’s Give Me Something to Do almost immediately earns back the points it loses for a tired opening line with a dueling sax break that’s followed by a complete tempo change that makes you wonder why this isn’t two songs. It’s going in 2016 anyway. KEEP

As someone who only really knows Television for 1977’s Marquee Moon, 1880 or Or So answers any lingering questions I had on what Television sounded like in 1992. The answer is ‘more studio polish’. KEEP

Tweedy is Wilco’s  Jeff Tweedy accompanied by his son Spencer on drums. So any enjoyment one might get out of Low Key‘s ELO meets Wilco stomp is slightly marred by the thought of this kid getting to do what he wants because his Dad is in Wilco. KEEP

In the Moonlight by Blithe Field would be perfect to proofread to.

Ethio-Jazz forefather Mulatu Astatke will be familiar to fans of Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers; his track ‘Yègellé Tezeta’ featured on a mix CD that Jeffrey Wright gives to Bill Murray. Tezeta (different track) is a gorgeous, waltzing, crackly little number that’s appeared on my DW before, but it’s welcome to come back any time. Know it already but KEEP

Turtle Necks are back, did you hear? Bosnian Ranbows’ Turtle Neck came our in 2013 so one can only assume they were ahead of the trend on that front. Goes a bit proggy about 4 mins in. Skiiiiiiip. DISCARD

MT.OSSA‘s Love Jam sounds like Van Morrison trying to sing the Jackie Brown soundtrack. So we’ve established that it works. Just maybe don’t read the band’s Facebook page. They don’t talk a good game.  KEEP

Clash The Truth is the opener to Beach Fossils’ excellent album Clash the Truth. What this demo version loses in throbbing urgency, it gains in sounding more like New Order. KEEP

Discover Weekly often suggests I listen to Moses Sumney‘s Man on the Moon which is very nice. KEEP

At around the half-way point, I’m getting the sense that the mighty algorithm has decreed it a very low key week on Discover Weekly. Here We Go Magic‘s Over the Ocean bears this out. A pleasant little tune that’s not too dissimilar from something Air might make. KEEP

My interest in jazz dries up in the late 60s. It’s when they start using electric basses and Miles Davis grows long hair and starts wearing wacky jackets with no shirt underneath. BadBadNotGood’s Triangle sounds alright and I doubt they’ve got the guts for that look. KEEP

Travis Bretzer‘s Lady Red has that aggressively applied twee-pop sheen of late-period Smiths singles. Needs a video of a girl with a quiff looking at a TV through a shop window as it shows an episode of Coronation Street. She smiles knowingly. KEEP

Joan Shelley‘s Siren is eminently skippable. DISCARD

If this is former Strokes man Albert Hammond, Jr‘s idea of a Spooky Couch, I would very much like to sit on’t. KEEP (Oh, hard KEEP)

Holy Toledo was a line uttered by Jeremy Irons’ Simon Gruber in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Vundabar have a German name and a song called Holy Toledo. Coincidence? Almost certainly. Thumbs up anyway. KEEP

Shamir’s Lived and Died Alone isn’t doing it for me. DISCARD

Pastor T.L.Barrnett and the (…) have a great tune called ‘Like a Ship’ that Wonderful doesn’t quite match. Is it possible to criticise a song by a Pastor for being too religious? Yes, I believe it is. DISCARD

Think I recognise the chorus of Baby by Os Mutantes but no idea where from. Probably an advert… I mean one of the cool places I hang out in. KEEP

Point that thing somewhere else by The Clean is a punchy, scrappy li’l fella that I like plenty but can’t see myself listening to all that much once it slips out of the DW. KEEP (Just in case)

The Smoking Trees‘ Home in the Morning deploys a metric tonne of fuzz atop another mildly psychedelic jam. Is this Freak Folk? KEEP

Maybe it’s because it’s Monday, maybe it’s the song, maybe I’m trying to “blog” on the 59 bus using an iPhone (surprisingly well, thanks) but Jackson Scott‘s Ripe for Love is a bit too fidgety for me. A more frenetic, jittery Paranoid Android of sorts. If that sounds good to you then you’re welcome to it. DISCARD

I like talking about butts and so does Doug Hream Blunt whose Gentle Persuasion gets a lot of mileage out of what, one would presume, is a really good butt. KEEP

Yes to Kim Jung Mi, and yes to Beautiful Rivers and Mountains. The Kill Bill Vol 1 soundtrack’s loss is my Discover Weekly’s gain. KEEP

Broadcast I already like a fair bit. Moreso after Tears in the Typing Pool. Whispy. KEEP

Cass McCombs is another artist I like and who often turns up in my playlists but I cannot lie, I Cannot Lie is no I Went to the Hospital or That’s That. DISCARD

Blue Zipper by Made of Oak is instrumental electronica of the sort I proof read to. Perhaps I mentioned that. I’m struggling to find a way to say that without repeating myself from earlier. KEEP

Barbarella is great post-post-punk. At least I think it is. My usage of multiple posts- was to obfuscate my lack of confidence in nailing down Billy Changer‘s true genre with any certainty. KEEP

Sunflower Bean‘s Easier Said is thoroughly lovely Beach Fossils-esque jangle pop with the kind of bell-clear ladyvocal that I can’t ever say “no” to. Welcome to the 2016 playlist, guys. KEEP

This week, the mighty algorithm scores 23/30.