🎅 🕎🎄Bumper festive newsletter! 🎅 🕎🎄

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Hello,

Bumper newsletter for you this week! As this atrocious year draws to a close, we've tried to reflect on some of the things that weren't all bad. One person who made us happy was tiny legend Nandi Bushell: the 10-year-old who reminded us that a genuine enthusiasm and dedication for music (or whatever your thing is) is a joy to watch and can lead to great things.

From reading countless interviews with artists this year, it's become more and more apparent that our pop stars are sick of labels, being put in boxes and being told what they can or can't create. With so much time to be experimental in 2020, we've seen some really exciting projects emerge: case in point, the output of this month's Cover Star, Nilüfer Yanya, (more below). Long may that stick around.

For now! Enjoy your festivities and a well-earned break. Oh, and if you've still got pressies to buy, we've pulled together a very quick gift guide.

OUR DECEMBER COVER STORY
Nilüfer Yanya doesn't make R&B but people always say that she does. For our final Cover Story of the year, Kate French-Morris meets the indie icon to talk about new EP, 'Feeling Lucky?', tiresome industry prejudice plus the positives she's taken from the big 2020 slowdown.

THE YEAR'S BEST ALBUMS
It felt apt to share this quote about our round-up of the year's best albums. "Yours is the only end of year list that isn't full of random show-offy stuff and actually makes sense". So, you know, if that's not reason to give it a read, we're not sure what is.

NOT A LOT GOING ON AT THE MOMENT
So we've broken down all the E aster eggs and hidden messages in Taylor Swift's latest surprise album 'evermore'. There are loads.

OUR WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Phoebe Bridgers has kept us entertained this year with her gorgeous music, surprising collaborations and excellent social media output. We had a chat with the woman herself about her pretty great year – and why her brother might regret going with her to the Grammys.

TREMORS
For our last TREMORS// of 2020, Rhian Daly meets Phem – the green-haired popstar determined to "fucking change the world"

45S OF THE WEEK
Abigail Firth reviews the tracks you need to hear this week including a new one from slowthai, Carolina Polachek covering the Corrs (!), Pale Waves and more. Dig in!

GET THESE ON THE BIG TELLY!
It's surprising that we got any decent music videos this year, all things considered, let alone cinematic masterpieces. Here are our 20 favourites of the year.

#TAYLAMADE
You might not think you can name a Tayla Parx track but you definitely can. Jenessa Williams chatted to the woman behind some of pop's biggest songs about industry burnout and going it alone.

Forward

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🎅 🕎🎄Bumper festive newsletter! 🎅 🕎🎄

Older messages

The best songs of 2020

Phoebe Bridgers but make it sadder 😭

We're six months old 🎉

Sorry Donald, Joe – we're actually going with Ariana this year

That fly meme though

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