Oh I much prefer 'Out the Blue' to 'Tidal Wave'. 'Tidal Wave' is alright but I think it's about the weakest thing I've heard from either act.

Oh I much prefer 'Out the Blue' to 'Tidal Wave'. 'Tidal Wave' is alright but I think it's about the weakest thing I've heard from either act.

 

Oh, I much prefer Out of The Blue as well. It's such a tune! :wub:

'Falling Down' is a LOT better than either of them though in terms of 2012 Sub Focus singles.

Flo + Santi + Puppets = good.

/ \ 88 :: DOT ROTTEN :: "OVERLOAD" (FEAT. TMS) / \

 

29-30-28-8-7-9-14-23-x

 

 

'Children' by Robert Miles is one of my favourite dance instrumentals of all time so this rather less elegant use should have been total sacrilege. Most people think it is, in fact. However, I was pleasantly surprised at this and I don't feel like it particularly relies on the sample at all (again most would disagree with that). A strong example of British hip-hop/dance fusion and Dot Rotten really should have launched his career with this rather than the crap 'Are You Not Entertained?' - this did much, much better in the chart so the public clearly agree.

 

/ \ 87 :: TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB :: "SLEEP ALONE" / \

 

8-5-6-11-22-29-x

 

 

I thought this was an incredibly underwhelming start to the campaign for second Two Door album 'Beacon' at first. This only entered my chart after I heard it live at Reading Festival. Sounds much better live than it does on record, although the recorded version has grown significantly since then, though it's still not a patch on the singles off 'Tourist History'. Luckily, second single 'Sun' very much was and that is much higher on this countdown.

 

/ \ 86 :: CONOR MAYNARD :: "CAN'T SAY NO" / \

 

22-15-5-8-12-14-22-x

 

 

Here's that questionable taste I mentioned in the first post. Much more of that to come, including both of Conor's other singles. I don't even know why I like Conor Maynard so much when I have much contempt for similar artists like Justin Bieber and those other ones that Joseph loons. Maybe I'm just xenophobic. But hey, Conor has made some very strong singles and I'm not gonna deny that just because they're slightly tacky Justin Timberlake ripoffs. This one has not aged as well as his other two singles so is by some distance the lowest placed one.

Edited December 25, 201212 yr by Michael Bubré

/ \ 85 :: JLS :: "DO YOU FEEL WHAT I FEEL?" / \

 

17-20-11-9-10-12-13-19-26-x

 

 

Oh hai more bad taste! JLS get a shit-ton of undeserved hate on BuzzJack in my opinion, they are by far the best of the late 00s/early 10s generation of boybands (not saying much since One Direction and The Wanted are only periodically good) and I've charted all but one of their singles. Haters you can kill yoself etc. This song, arguably their last stand before descending to complete floppiness, is probably my favourite of theirs. Most of its chart run on my chart, including its peak position of #9, was in 2011 but I've included it on this list as it was released as a single in 2012. No more JLS to come as 'Hottest Girl In The World' just missed out so I can now start to piece my credibility back together to some extent for the remainder of the countdown.

 

/ \ 84 :: SEAN PAUL :: "SHE DOESN'T MIND" / \

 

18-17-17-7-5-12-20-30-x

 

 

In only slightly better taste is Sean Paul's very brief return to chart superstardom, the insanely catchy 'She Doesn't Mind' which somehow rescued him from 9 years of obscurity to become his biggest hit ever. I do like a few of Sean Paul's songs from his 2003 heyday, mainly 'Gimme The Light', but I'm glad his 2012 comeback only produced one hit because he seems like someone who you'd get very bored of after a while. This song still sounds good to this day though, even with the totally incomprehensible verses.

 

/ \ 83 :: KENDRICK LAMAR :: "SWIMMING POOLS (DRANK)" / \

 

19-13-5-16-28-38-x

 

 

One of the most recent songs on this countdown. This one only crept up on me a while after its release but once it did I was totally obsessed with it, for all of about a week. On first listen I thought this was a generic song about drinking excessively etc. (which is not necessarily a bad thing) but after looking up the lyrics and the context of his album 'good kid, m.A.A.d city', I found out that it's actually protesting against these hip hop tropes, which is really refreshing to hear. The album is one that I definitely intend to have a listen to soon, especially after hearing the almost equally brilliant follow-up single 'Backseat Fresstyle'.

Conor Maynard lurve :wub:

 

Ew at that JLS song, but She Doesn't Mind and particularly Swimming Pools are ma jamz! Rekindled my love of it listening to the album.

Overload and Swimming Pools! :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

 

I love you so much for those inclusions! :D

/ \ 82 :: WILL.I.AM :: "T.H.E (THE HARDEST EVER)" (FEAT. MICK JAGGER AND JENNIFER LOPEZ) / \

 

21-19-10-1-5-14-20-x

 

 

The first #1 to fall (there are only 18 of them and all of them have made this top 100) is this bizarre collaboration between Black Eyed Pea will.i.am, Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and Jennifer Lopez. The song is undeniably a big mess but I couldn't help but love it. JLo's parts are not too great but I do really like will.i.am's verses, especially the second one. And Mick Jagger's part is just so hilariously out of place that it's incredible. Who would have ever thought one of the greatest rockstars of all time would be screaming about how he's 'hard like geometry, trigonometry' over an 'über dope' will.i.am beat? It's aged pretty badly but I did absolutely love this at the time so I can't deny it a place in the top 100.

 

/ \ 81 :: PURITY RING :: "OBEDEAR" / \

 

23-x(4)-17-21-x

 

 

And we go from Mick Jagger's extremely uncool verse on 'T.H.E' to what I think the concept of cool would sound like if it was a song. It's another BJSC entry, this one from Mdiče aka Medicated Soap, but I don't count it as a 'discovery' because I had heard this once before BJSC. However, it was BJSC that really made me love it. Like 'The Wheel', I don't think the vocals on this really add an awful lot, it's all about the instrumental which is probably the greatest I've ever heard in BJSC. I've heard other songs from Purity Ring which are pretty much more of the same but 'Obedear' does it far better than any others. A shame this couldn't win BJSC, although it came 3rd in an extremely strong top 3.

 

/ \ 80 :: MR LITTLE JEANS :: "RUNAWAY" / \

 

26-15-24-x

 

 

This is the song which I count as my favourite ever BJSC discovery. The vast majority of BJSC songs, even ones I really like, I just never listen to again after the contest. I'm awful I know. But this one, entered by FSR Rontvia aka gooddelta, I find myself going back to all the time. Just a hauntingly incredible track. I'm not the biggest fan of FSR Rontvia but when they're capable of sending songs like this one I can see why they're the most successful nation (even though this was far from their biggest hit, 'only' coming 8th). It kind of says a lot that my favourite ever discovery from BJSC only scraped my top 15. I have no excuse for this. I'm just an awful person, like I said.

 

/ \ 79 :: WOODKID :: "RUN BOY RUN" / \

 

12-13-15-23-36-x

 

 

Completing a trio of BJSC entries is this contest winner from Woodkid, entered by Ingermanlandia aka Arrs. Woodkid is also known under his real name of Yoann Lemoine as a video director responsible for high profile videos like 'Teenage Dream' by Katy Perry. You can really tell from the video to 'Run Boy Run', which is for lack of a better word spectacular. That's not to take away from the song which is also incredible even on its own merits, with its strength again being mostly in the instrumental. The video probably helped me to like it so much though. This is another case of me being a mainstream whore because even though I did really like it through BJSC, it only made my chart after it was featured on an ad and became a minor UK chart hit. This has been a bit of a recurring theme. Oops.

Edited December 25, 201212 yr by Michael Bubré

YAY FOR CONOR.

THIS REMINDS ME OF JOSEPH.

 

SHIT.

/ \ 78 :: LANA DEL REY :: "BORN TO DIE" / \

 

9-13-15-23-x

 

 

What kind of end of year countdown would this be without a little bit of Lana? This is her only entry on here though I have liked all of her 2012 singles bar 'Ride'. It sounds like it should be super depressing but it doesn't actually sound like that at all to me. I didn't think she'd be able to make a song as good as 'Video Games' but this is even better than that, especially the second half of the chorus. The less said about her live performances the better though. Oops.

 

/ \ 77 :: A$AP ROCKY :: "GOLDIE" / \

 

22-x(3)-6-10-9-15-28-x

 

 

And an apparent friend of Lana (he starred in her 'National Anthem' video) just bests her on this countdown. Unlike 'Swimming Pools (Drank)' this song absolutely is about genberic hip hop tropes, but as I said that's not necessarily a bad thing. The uncensored version of this has a great flow to it, even in the strange vocals in the chorus. When censored for radio though, it's literally like half the song is blanked out, rendering it almost completely unlistenable - it's not even just the swear words that are blanked out, all the inoffensive gun references in the chorus get the silent treatment as well. Living for the uncensored version.

 

/ \ 76 :: RUSTIE :: "AFTER LIGHT" (FEAT. ALUNAGEORGE) / \

 

3-6-11-16-38-40-x

 

 

Another dreadfully underrated producer much like SBTRKT albeit just a little bit more full on is Rustie, who just misses the top 75 with his first of two entries on here. The song was originally an instrumental and a brilliant one at that, but unlike many songs with brilliant instrumentals the vocals (provided by hot tips for 2013 AlunaGeorge) make a huge difference to this. My only minor gripe is the fact it only has one verse which is then repeated. That chorus is just incredible though. Would love to see both of these artists blowing up next year but realistically it's not happening for Rustie.

 

Still on schedule after 2 days!!!

Nice to see Runaway in here, even though I thought it would be substantially higher after your raving over it this year :o It's quite a lot higher in my EOY chart! I'm more inclined to chart BJSC songs higher I guess, although my chart isn't completely dominated by the contest like Hits/Eyes and some other's tend to be.

 

I've always thought that JLS get too much hate on here too, they've had a few woeful singles but Eyes Wide Shut and One Shot were sublime and most of their singles are at least decent.

 

Good start!

/ \ 75 :: DJ FRESH :: "THE POWER" (FEAT. DIZZEE RASCAL) / \

 

20-10-8-4-1-1-1-3-3-7-13-18-20-x

 

 

Probably my most regrettable #1 of the year, I never even listen to this song any more and haven't heard it for an age so barely even remember how it goes. However, I was totally obsessed with it for a couple of months allowing it to grab three weeks at the top of my chart. I think at the time it was my favourite of DJ Fresh's hit singles, but I would now rank it below 'Hot Right Now' and 'Gold Dust' (though I still don't think much of 'Louder' or 'The Feeling'). Dizzee Rascal is not at his best either although he did deliver the line 'I don't give a rass' which I loved.

 

/ \ 74 :: TYGA :: "RACK CITY" / \

 

27-25-28-22-19-5-9-13-24-x

 

 

A song that I've randomly had stuck in my head all the time again recently. Tyga is the fourth person to kind of escape the general no1curr-ness of being signed to Young Money but it looks like this is the only song he'll ever be known for. This song is objectively kind of awful but there's something about it that I can't help loving. Might be the production, might be the quite unusual choice of lyrics in parts (rhyming 'pronto/Alonzo/nacho/poncho') or it might be because every time I hear it I can't help but picture a grandma skanking around to it and mouthing the lyrics. That happened if you haven't seen the viral video (which I've linked to above instead of the official video).

 

/ \ 73 :: FUN. :: "WE ARE YOUNG" (FEAT. JANELLE MONÁE) / \

 

16-12-13-8-8-7-5-6-8-13-25-x

 

 

I still don't quite understand how this song HAPPENED, just seems like Glee picked up on some obscure song by an obscure band and propelled it to be one of the biggest hits worldwide of the next year. However, despite the Glee association (:P) I did love this song. Very big and anthemic etc. However, I've liked it less recently for a couple of reasons; 1) typical superhit overplay making it significantly lose its impact and 2) hearing the follow-up 'Some Nights' which is just infinitely better in every way. I thought they were certain to be one hit wonders whose other songs were nowhere near as special as 'We Are Young' but I could not have been more wrong. I do like Janelle Monáe also but her feature here is entirely pointless. I didn't even realise that was her until I saw the video.

Excellent to see both Woodkid and Purity Ring in here (though 'Obedear' far from their strongest). I agree about 'We Are Young' too, loved it but gone right off it now, heard it too much, I only listened to it because it featured Janelle Monae, I had to listen again whilst watching the video to work out what she did in it!

/ \ 72 :: THE SCRIPT :: "HALL OF FAME" (FEAT. WILL.I.AM) / \

 

13-7-21-32-37-x

 

 

I have very mixed feelings about this song. Sometimes when I hear it I love it and think it's one of their best songs ever (and I do like The Script, 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved' is up with my favourite songs of all time), other times I think it sounds hideously middle of the road and I can't understand why I liked it so much before. Literally switches between the two every three or four listens. However, no matter how many times I hear it, when I'm liking it I still like it as much as I did when I first started liking it, oddly enough. In a way the verses kind of remind me of 'T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)', what with every line starting with 'you could'. will.i.am re-using ideas? Lazy. At the moment I'm liking this song anyway, almost want to push it up a few places but #72 seems about right.

 

/ \ 71 :: LITTLE MIX :: "WINGS" / \

 

16-10-13-21-23-10-20-33-37-38-x

 

 

One of the higher/only BuzzJack-friendly pop anthems on this list. I absolutely hated Little Mix on the show (although they got better near the end) so I would never have expected their first proper single to become my favourite 'first proper single' by an XF winner ever. Yet, that is exactly what it was. I was shocked at how... FRESH this sounded. In fact, it still sounds fresh now months later. Most girlgroups have one song which I really really like (The Saturdays 'Up', Girls Aloud 'Call The Shots', Spice Girls 'Viva Forever') in a sea of crap/average/slightly good and Little Mix seem to be no exception, having hit the really good song on their first attempt. I do like 'DNA' as well but nowhere near as much.

 

/ \ 70 :: LEONA LEWIS :: "TROUBLE" (FEAT. CHILDISH GAMBINO) / \

 

17-25-19-29-17-13-13-6-14-22-34-x

 

 

Beating the 2011 winners however is 2006 X Factor winner Leona. I'm not a fan of Leona. She has a couple of good songs. This is by FAR her best. I just absolutely adore this style of music - I adored it when Emeli did 'Heaven' and had hope that would spark a trip-hop revival in the chart. That never happened, even Emeli ditched the sound very quickly. I hoped again that this would somehow start a trip-hop revival. Not only did that fail to happen again, this wasn't even a big hit like 'Heaven'. One day. Childish Gambino puts in a very strong guest verse on this as well, it doesn't add a HUGE amount to it but the Gambino version is just about noticeably better than the Leona solo version.

 

Starting to look like going off schedule WHEEEE.

Edited December 26, 201212 yr by Bré

Everything in that section is :wub:. Miles better than the last few which contained loads of rubbish (looking at u Rack City & T.H.E.)

/ \ 69 :: ALEX CLARE :: "TOO CLOSE" / \

 

19-12-9-8-6-12-19-27-x

 

 

Literally the only good thing to ever be associated with Internet Explorer. Like a few of the lower songs this song just came out of nowhere when it was on an advert. I was somehow expecting it to be something really dull, from his fairly generic name. First time I heard it I was pleasantly surprised by the start, then it went into that chorus. I wouldn't have thought that indie (for lack of a better description) and dubstep would ever sound good fused together but 'Too Close' makes that work somehow. He has a great voice as well, even if it is indistinguishable from John Newman's as revealed when the two collaborated on a song still to come on this countdown.

 

/ \ 68 :: JUSTIN BIEBER :: "AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME" (FEAT. BIG SEAN) / \

 

29-9-15-x

 

 

The mortal enemy of music circa before he released this and after he released this. But for this one release Justin Bieber managed to somehow transform himself into an actually decent artist capable of making songs that aren't squeaky annoying rubbish. The lyrics are still just as awful as ever but they're somehow less offensive on this. If it weren't for those lyrics I would easily believe this was made by a perfectly credible artist. Big Sean's guest verse is probably my least favourite part of this song shockingly. It had a very brief chart run, which was probably influenced by me still feeling it a bit taboo to chart Justin Bieber. Hopefully this EOY #68 position makes up for that.

 

/ \ 67 :: RUSTIE :: "SURPH" (FEAT. NIGHTWAVE) / \

 

29-x

 

 

Like Santigold but much, much worse, this barely scraped into my chart for a single week and yet ranks within my top 70 songs of the year. I charted this based on the first time I ever heard it and just forgot to ever re-enter it despite loving it for months afterwards. I don't think there are any more anomalies to come like this. Anywhere, here is Rustie's second entry and quite possibly the most obscure song in the entire top 100. Absolutely adore the instrumental to this (and like 'After Light' it was originally an instrumental).

Edited December 27, 201212 yr by Bré

ONLY #68?!

This countdown has finally gotten into the 'chart hits Umi actually bothered with' section, thank God! :D It's all good, really. Well except fun. and The Script but nobody's perfect.