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· intro

 

from around the age of 12 right up until about aged 18 or 19 (i don't quite remember) i would compile a weekly chart. it initially started on paper and then onto a word document (i don't understand spreadsheets sadly) then suddenly, i just stopped. i continued to love music and keeping up with what is relevant but the love of compiling, working on and creating a chart just disappeared. i think it's the subconscious mimicking of the official chart that i had started. for example, a song charting at number 38 and then dropping out, what does that even mean? did i even really like it at all? furthermore i'd hold certain songs in a biased esteem so my chart ultimately became a warped vision of the self-image i wished to project.

 

the downside of this is i have no means of collecting in my listening habits from the year. all the more exacerbated by this multi-platform age. so i've decided just to do short little tales, essays, blog posts, whatever you care to call them on musical moments from my year. how the trials and tribulations of my life have reflected in my listening habits, general musings regarding music culture and the like. i hope you enjoy.

i kinda think the same about doing a chart, mostly for the fact pitting 40 different songs against another in some way... like how do u do it... is it just you being SNOBBISH

 

but i like it for the records thing so u know i won't rupaulogise

 

looking forward to this !!! i think we'll at least have a few matching cards in this

Edited December 30, 201311 yr by ✖ leww ✖

I will be listening attentively!

 

I have no idea what my chart means. I like music and I like pretty patterns, so why not both?

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even though i've planned to do this as a random collection of thoughts, the brain is telling me to start chronologically and therefore in a relatively happy place. i started probably the most intense relationship to date with someone i instantly moved in with. we had totally conflicting music tastes but there were some crossover moments. more on the electro-goth side of music. together we'd listen to a lot of ladytron, austra and especially trust. he being something of an emotionally stunted goth i tried but could never quite get him into chvrches. trust was the only proper gig we actually went to together and it was incredible. roll on joyland.

 

probably the greatest surprise in our musical relationship was our shared love and adoration of white noise by alunageorge. we would listen to it xx times a day in a period when we were both really in love, listening to it now takes me back there and reminds me of all those amazing emotions. all of which is a bonus to what is an exemplary left-of-field pop song. it is without a doubt my song of the year. it's so strange how sometimes a song can become so much more than a song. my mother had a conversation with me earlier this year about how the sound of a song could take her back to a time, place and emotion. i didn't quite get her. to be young and have not much time behind you. but thinking about it now, white noise is the first song i can think of that will resonate in such a way. bittersweet.

 

I am really REALLY looking forward to this.

wow! great list of songs so far. it's nice to see these songs resonate with you in such a positive way.

and i think everyone knows how much i loveveveveve trust so

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thinking of the musical landscape geographically, i honestly do not know what i would do without sweden? and more's the point, i don't know how they do it. a nation where english is the second language stand head-and-shoulders above everyone else. swede's somehow manage to convey emotion in such precise and acute fashion unlike anywhere else. they all share a sense of polish and completeness, beating to their own drum and drawing from a profound personal experience and feeling. and each act does it in their own standalone nature. it doesn't feel like anyone begs, borrows or steals from another. nor is it a 'scene' within itself. everyone just does their own thing. it's a really pure thing and it makes music really rather amazing. i think i'll stop the lyrical waxing there...

 

i do see this as a something of an ongoing thing but so many new faces SPRUNG up in 2013. bleeding for your love by suvi, something of a power ballad for the modern day left me hypnotised. quite where she has gone since WHO KNOWS but what a powerful pop song. naomi pilgrim's no gun tore up the pop song structure book. hook after hook, nuance here, nuance there. the very best though has to be tove lo, the idiosyncrasies of habits and the sheer POWER of out of mind. the build through the second chorus: "and can you can say i'll be alright?" / "what makes you say i'll be fine?!" is one of the musical moments of the year. so RAW. so pop. elliphant, say lou lou, kate boy all add their own ting to the mix.

 

one of the best things about music for me is the anticipation of seeing where an act is going to go. i have such a love of the cusp and sweden has provided so many promising cusp for 2014 it is unreal. i also oft wonder how these songs would achieve if tact on to the rihanna's, katy perry's and more of that ilk but tbh that'd take away from what makes them so glorious in the first place...

 

p.s. i still do not get melodifestivalen

 

Agreeing with pretty much all of that Sweden post, it contains a large part of my Scandi highlights this year. Naomi Pilgrim, Suvi and Tove Lo (mainly Out Of Mind) are all doing very promising things in that part of the world, would love to see where the former goes after putting out a huge debut in No Gun.

Stop overanalysing everything Jake. A new entry at 38 followed by a swift exit simply means you initially liked the track but it wore thin very quickly.

 

A new entry at #1 means you've lost the plot entirely.

sweden did the damn thing this year

SHIT SONGS I AM WELL AWARE ARE SHIT BUT REALLY RATHER ENJOYED

 

it's pretty much as the subheading suggests. i can offer very little quality analysis or reasoning as to why i like these inherently rubbish songs. i just do. kicking things off is 'sleeper hit' counting stars by onerepublic to these it is a total rip off of both ho hey and wanna be startin' somethin' but also quite the tune. i have no quarms singing along when i hear it on a popular radio station (and in public!), i have even youtubed it at home a couple of times. a decent ditty. celine dion's loved me back to life moved me to tears when i watched her performance on x factor (i was on a bit of a comedown. i see now why she failed to film an "offical video". "lil'" mix's salute was EMPOWERMENT. empowerment in lower case more fitting perhaps as it contrived more than anything. pink seems to have lost any empowering quality in her older age (which makes me mourn for the days of u + ur hand) slipping onto the heart fm playlist yet still able to put out a pleasant tune in just give me a reason. there we have a selection of rather boring but slightly listenable selection of songs that leaves me both cynical but a little happier in life.

 

no!!! yes. no!!!!!!! yes.

 

that celine performance happened when i was extremely hungover and it was a beautiful moment~ altho saying that it's not been relived since.

celine has the ability MOVE those at their most VUNERABLE

Yeah I cannot emphasise with those last four. Although that's mainly because I've only heard Just Give Me A Reason - so offensively average. :(

Yeah I cannot emphasise with those last four. Although that's mainly because I've only heard Just Give Me A Reason - so offensively average. :(

it is but sometimes we need to enjoy AVERAGE moments to appreciate all that is good in the world musically

 

i am not even persuading myself with this NONSENSE

p.s. i still do not get melodifestivalen

WHORE

 

LOVE this little concept. White Noise is among my faves this year too (altho clearly u have much more of a personal connection to it than i ever will!)

 

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JUSTIN BIEBER, ELLIE GOULDING AND JESSIE J ARE REALLY FUCKING SHIT

 

there is always a lot of rubbish music around, thankfully one can generally bypass it and see it for what it is but then there are those that take it that you can't help but be offended by. justin beiber is the best example of this. a truly wretched personality and literally not a single song of substance under his belt. it's worsened the music mondays campaign he put out. cashing in on fans loyalty instead of allowing them just to get the tracks as an album making them purchase them one by one. are these songs supposed to be completed songs? what direction are they supposed to push him in? where does justin beiber see himself going as an artist? can people genuinely like an artist purely based on their looks?

 

jessie j is a fairly self-explanatory one. a bloody awful woman who writes about weak cliches yet believes she's the next elton john, generally sings quite horribly and acts rather obnoxiously. why doesn't anyone around her tell her?! i'm grateful to see the album did a pixie, sometimes there is musical justice.

 

now for my greatest disappointment; whatever happened to ellie goulding? i remember an artist pre-sound of xx showing real potential, working with interesting people, having a little spark but admittedly not much. suddenly she seems to have become 2013's answer to emeli sande. if ellie goulding was a town, she would be swindon. that terrible children in need song, the tinny performance of 'burn' on x factor. 'burn' THE SONG itself, when did she suddenly start taking leona knock-offs? it's as if she's shredded up every ounce of credibility and totally sold out to the world of the royal variety performance. the ONE redeeming feature of this lady is that her dulcet tones lend themselves well to remixes, though still not worthy of posting. her duet with that vagabond child on the x factor final really summarises what has become of her as an artist.

 

(as an aside it was only last week that i realised her surname was pronounced 'golding' and not 'goolding')

 

here is the video for crying for no reason by katy b which is an example of how things should be done:

 

 

YAY for Katy B!

 

Obviously I totally agree with your comments about Ellie Goulding, "Burn" is such a disappointment - I mean not as awful as that Children In Need song or deliberately-written-for-poor-vocalist-crowd-pleaser "Roar" by Katy Perry obviously.. but still pretty dire.

Edited January 1, 201411 yr by Doctor Blind