60 ~

(27-17-7-8-6-6-12-15-16-19-30-36-x)

 

59 ~

(36-x(30)-24-12-11-8-5-10-16-26-32-x)

 

58 ~ As Animals - Ghost Gunfighters

(32-38-x(13)-5-5-9-20-23-34-x)

 

57 ~

(34-13-5-6-9-13-20-33-x)

 

56 ~

(32-14-12-8-3-5-6-13-21-28-x)

 

At #60 is Ellie Goulding with the third and final single off the original 'Halcyon' album (I can't really say the 'standard version' because the original release had both a standard and a deluxe as did the re-release 'Halcyon Days'). It's a rather lovely ballad, her ballad singles are usually her weakest but she's proven that she can do ballads well with this and 'How Long Will I Love You'. Nonetheless, it was quite annoying to see 'Explosions' completely overshadowing the ever underrated previous single 'Figure 8', which was the song reponsible for me becoming a big fan of Ellie when I'd never really cared for her that much before. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' 'Same Love' is not too far ahead of 'Thrift Shop' at #59, it originally entered my chart in the same week as 'Thrift Shop' as I listened to it out of interest in its subject matter back then, it would take many more months for 'Same Love' to finally become a single and re-enter my chart. Another very lovely song and one that would be a much better legacy for Macklemore and Ryan than the likes of 'Thrift Shop' and 'Can't Hold Us'. Another BJSC discovery at #58 from As Animals, this one was sent by Espen and I initially charted it just based on it being a potential of theirs a few months before it was sent, something that I've never done with any other song. Unfortunately not too many others share my enthusiasm for the song but it's still one of my favourite BJSC entries ever - that chorus :wub: Back to the realm of well known hits at #57 is Sebastian Ingrosso of Swedish House Mafia with 'Reload', re-hiring John Martin who provided vocals for two SHM hits including their biggest, 'Don't You Worry Child'. An unpopular opinion but I far prefer 'Reload' to that now, I did really like 'Don't You Worry Child' at the time but overplay has rendered it quite dull these days. 'Reload' at least still sounds exciting (if possibly a tad generic). I love the way the instrumental gets more ~intense~ when the word 'reload' is said. At #56 is Iggy Azalea with her breakthrough hit 'Work'. I was a fan of Iggy's earlier work that I'd heard (especially her feature on 'Beat Down' by Steve Aoki) and 'Work' was a very positive start to her 'mainstream' career, with an addictive hook, great production and some great lyrics (who could not love the 'head over heels' line?) but unfortunately she ruined it all with the horrific 'Bounce' that followed this. 'Change Your Life' was somewhat of a return to form but I think she peaked a little bit early.

 

55 ~

(17-12-16-16-16-10-7-9-12-18-22-36-x)

 

54 ~

(22-19-20-6-6-8-14-11-17-16-19-30-35-33-35-x)

 

53 ~

(13-4-2-1-8-15-22-27-x)

 

52 ~

(16-2-4-9-8-8-12-24-32-x)

 

51 ~

(28-17-10-6-5-6-6-13-23-26-x)

 

The second appearance from Kendrick Lamar is the one I just mentioned in my reply to Bal, 'Poetic Justice' featuring Drake. I don't think it was a UK single but it certainly was one in the USA and it had a music video this year so I'm counting it as a 2013 single nonetheless. It has an understated but brilliant chorus sampling Janet Jackson's 'Any Time, Any Place' and both Kendrick and Drake on top form in their verses. #54 is Paramore with one of their more pop-oriented releases to date, 'Still Into You'. Unlike their previous well-known foray into ~sentimental~ stuff, the terrible 'The Only Exception', 'Still Into You' still has a clear Paramore feel to it despite its less than typical lyrical content from them. It took a while for me to accept it into my heart nevertheless, but I eventually conformed to the general consensus that it is a better song than 'Now', the lead single from their 2013 eponymous album. That misses this top 100 but I do still have a lot of love for it. The biggest hit of the year is at #53, 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell. Everything that needs to be said about this song has already been said a million times over and allegedly condoning rape or not it's still a great track in my eyes and I've never really got bored of it. It does have Pharrell Williams' golden touch after all - I love most of the songs that he's produced. #52 is Biffy Clyro's 'proper' comeback 'Black Chandelier', it wasn't the first single from their 'Opposites' album (that'd be 'Stingin' Belle', which I've only really come to properly appreciate since the album release) but was the first to receive any real support. I can definitely see why they chose to properly push this over 'Stingin' Belle' as that was a little too 'heavy' to be a hit whereas 'Black Chandelier' is much closer to the 'Many Of Horror'/'Bubbles' sort of sound that has brought them more commercial success, albeit at the expense of some of their original fanbase moaning at them selling out. I personally love both sides of Biffy and don't mind them 'selling out' at all. Finally, closing as she opened this section is Ellie Goulding's 'Burn' which was unbelievably her first ever UK #1!!1! (Chart show joke). It's a very good pop song and all (obviously if I disliked it it wouldn't be so high here) but I can't help but slag it off a little here for being her least 'Ellie' song to date, part of her appeal before was that she offered something a little bit different to your average female popstar whereas 'Burn' is verging on the overly generic (it wasn't even written with her in mind). She does still get across a little bit of personality on it but it's a worrying sign for her and I really hope she doesn't carry on in this direction - but then she's more popular now than ever so I won't hold my breath for her to release a new 'Anything Could Happen' or whatever as the lead single from her 3rd album.

50 ~

(23-15-4-3-...)

 

49 ~

(38-x(7)-33-27-25-14-7-15-22-40-x(5)-31-22-28-37-x)

 

48 ~

(RE-31-18-23-37-x(2)-19-15-18-21-23-35-x)

 

47 ~

(7-3-9-13-27-27-x)

 

46 ~

(RE-20-11-5-5-11-13-16-36-x)

 

Creeping into the top 50 are Chase And Status with 'Alive', the third single from their 'Brand New Machine' album featuring Jacob Banks who puts in a much better performance than 'Doing OK' with Wretch 32. I've been a fan of Chase And Status for a long time and they certainly didn't disappoint with their 2013 comeback, all 3 of the singles from the album have been close to flawless ('Alive' is only so low because I haven't known it for that long). It's the most drum n bassy of the 3 singles and sounds like a successor to Rudimental's first 2 singles. There's a trio of hip hip songs next. Kanye West's 'Bound 2' is at #49, it was an instant highlight of 'Yeezus' and the perfect choice for the 2nd single, though it's not overly representative of the album, sounding much closer to 'old Kanye' than the more experimental sounds of the rest of 'Yeezus'. I'm not going to even attempt to defend *that* video but don't let it ruin the song. Kendrick Lamar's 'Swimming Pools (Drank)' is the only song to have appeared in both of the EOY countdowns I've attempted (it came in a lower 83rd in 2012), I've allowed it in again due to the fact it got an official re-release in the UK in 2013 which sadly didn't really do any better than the first release, nonetheless it made me fall back in love with the song again after it originally peaked at #5 in my chart in 2012. Like I said before, this is a track that required closer listening to the lyrics or else it may appear to be a generic party song, which is far from the case. Finally at #47 is Eminem with 'Rap God', just 6 minutes of incredible rapping, not relying on a memorable hook. Who knew Eminem still had it in him after all these years? But he certainly does. Let's ignore a certain few choice questionable lyrics though. Definitely the best of the 4 rapid-fire tracks he released from 'The Marshall Mathers LP 2' though I see why he didn't give it a proper full push as a single (but it's a UK top 5 hit nonetheless, quite amazingly). Onto something very different at #46 it's 'C O O L' by Le Youth, essentially just a remix of Cassie's 'Me & U' but a much better version if I do say so myself. It's another song I originally discovered in BJSC courtesy of Järkangel back in 2012 but again allowed in to this list due to being pushed as a single in 2013. I did love the song already to begin with, giving it 10 points, but I can't pretend it didn't grow even further when I got to be a commercial whore about it. Possibly 2nd only to 'Happy' in the 'doing what it says on the tin' stakes, 'cool' is pretty much the most appropriate way to describe it. Much vibes.

 

45 ~

(12-5-5-5-4-11-24-32-36-x)

 

44 ~

(13-4-5-8-12-15-21-29-x)

 

43 ~

(23-10-5-4-3-4-5-17-38-x)

 

42 ~

(25-13-8-4-3-6-11-17-19-28-36-x)

 

41 ~

(18-5-5-14-29-x)

 

CRAZY is the theme of the next 2 tracks. At #45 is 'Booyah' by Showtek featuring We Are Loud and Sonny Wilson, 3 Dutch acts who had done very little of note prior to or since this song. As you can probably guess from the title alone it has a bit of a Jamaican touch to it but it's a confused song which can't seem to decide what genre it is, flipping chaotically between chilled out reggae, euphoric house and aggressive drum n bass. Once I got used to the craziness I could appreciate it for just being a massive tune (We Are Loud are another contender for 'does what it says on the tin 2013'). A little more consistent genre-wise but an equally strange (at first) listen is the #44 from Dizzee Rascal, 'Bassline Junkie'. Originally just a track from his 'DirteeTV.Com' mixtape/EP it's a surprise the song managed to take off but it certainly deserved it, one of the best songs he's put out in recent years and accompanied by a hilarious video. Unfortunately the return to 'proper' grime wasn't a trend for Dizzee and he followed it up with 'Goin' Crazy'. My final BJSC entry is Jaymes Young's 'Dark Star' or to be precise the Kiely Rich remix of said track at #43. It beat Truls to become by far my biggest entry to BJSC, not quite managing to win thanks to very poor entry timing (just had to coincide with later Best of BJSC winner 'Take Me Home') but finishing 2nd with one of the best point scores of the year. I've linked to the full 7 minutes version rather than the cut down version I submitted to the contest, if you haven't yet listened to the full version I recommend you do as the extra buildup if anything makes the final breakdown even more euphoric. It's certainly one of my favourite of my entries. At #42 is Drake with 'Hold On, We're Going Home' featuring the mysterious Majid Jordan, apparently a Canadian production duo. I wasn't overly impressed with the song on first listen but it quickly grew on me. Drake can certainly do the whole smooth R&B thing pretty well when he wants to and this is a perfect example, fully deserving of becoming his biggest track to date. Finally, just missing the top 40 is perhaps surprisingly another BJSC discovery - that's right, I prefer someone else's song to my own! Of course anyone who pays attention to my posts in BJSC will probably know how much I love this song though. It's the absolutely haunting and beautiful 'So Close' by Icelandic producer Ólafur Arnalds, sent by Caerfyrddia. For one glorious month it was Caerfyrddia's biggest entry and only top 5 finish but unfortunately the still good but much less so 'Bring It Back' won the following month. Ah well. 'So Close' will always be Ghosty's legacy for me (though I hope to see him return to the contest this year anyway). I'm not sure why 'So Close' had such a crummy run on my chart, it's worth so much more than that.

40 ~

(11-3-4-6-11-12-13-...)

 

39 ~

(16-29-x(7)-19-5-3-9-...)

 

38 ~

(24-14-7-8-9-9-9-18-40-x)

 

37 ~

(32-1-8-7-7-14-24-22-33-36-31-29-x)

 

36 ~

(29-11-7-4-4-6-7-11-11-24-28-30-x)

 

Ellie Goulding's 3rd of 4 appearances is 'How Long Will I Love You' at #40. I first heard the song (a cover of a 1990 track by The Waterboys) as a soundbed on a show on the BBC when it was just an album track and thought it was pretty bland, so I was quite disappointed to hear that it was the 2nd single from the 'Halcyon Days' repackage. It wasn't really until her absolutely gorgeous performance on Children In Need (for which the song was the official charity single of course) that it fully clicked with me and it's now by far my favourite of her ballad singles. Her highest entry on this list however is probably the farthest thing from a ballad she's ever released - her collaboration with Calvin Harris, 'I Need Your Love' at #36 (appearing on both artist's albums but primarily a Calvin track). Had I made this countdown even a couple of weeks ago I probably wouldn't have placed 'I Need Your Love' anywhere near this highly; I was absolutely obsessed with it to begin with but excessive radio overplay almost completely drained my enjoyment of it. However, lately I've found myself liking it a lot more now it's not quite being played every 4 seconds. It's nothing out of the ordinary for Calvin but I don't ask any more of him honestly. At #39 is another cover, London Grammar's cover of 'Nightcall' originally by Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxxx. When I listened to London Grammar's album 'Nightcall' immediately stuck out as the obvious highlight beyond the previous 2 singles and they obviously agreed as it duly became the album's 4th single (or 5th including Disclosure's 'Help Me Lose My Mind' which was also included on their album, similar to 'I Need Your Love'). I'm always a sucker for trip-hop/Massive Attack-esque songs and the LG version of 'Nightcall' is just that. Back to Disclosure (this commentary all feels nicely connected) they're at #38 with 'F For You', which proved that as well as being incredible producers they, or at least the one doing the singing, are perfectly competent vocalists as well. It struck me as a bit of a strange single choice over any one of the various exciting collaborations on their album, but it was nonetheless the highlight of the non-collaborations on 'Settle' and it worked perfectly as a single in retrospect. I still don't understand the title though, 'Fool For You' would have been a much better title. Finally at #37 is Austria's finest musical export since DJ Ötzi, Klangkarussell with 'Sonnentanz (Sun Don't Shine)', originally an instrumental but reworked with a featured vocal from Will Heard. It was one of a number of similar deep house-y hits of 2013 and I loved pretty much all of them, though this was the only one to top my personal chart, in one of the more peculiar chart runs I've had, starting 32-1-8.

 

35 ~

(20-6-3-3-11-19-35-x)

 

34 ~

(6-1-2-4-12-16-31-34-x)

 

33 ~

(38-x(2)-31-37-x(16)-7-4-3-7-17-16-15-21-30-x)

 

32 ~

(31-21-13-11-9-8-4-5-12-18-18-24-28-x)

 

31 ~

(37-23-13-11-15-14-18-17-14-8-9-14-23-x)

 

I was quite disappointed with 'Don't Save Me' and began to think that HAIM were a 'one-hit wonder' so to speak with me after how much I loved 'Forever' but they managed to top that with their third single 'Falling'. It's another song with very obvious Michael Jackson inspiration, around at the same time as another MJ knockoff that is otherwise not in any way comparable (Chris Brown's 'Fine China', which I also ashamedly quite liked but is nowhere near this countdown). Another personal chart #1 drops off next, this time Chase And Status with 'Count On Me' feat. Moko. It managed to sneak a week amidst Lorde domination to become their 5th (IIRC) #1 across the various incarnations of my chart, but it's by far my least favourite of those. Still a fantastic song though, sounding like a continuation of the sound of Redlight's 'Get Out My Head' and 'Lost In Your Love' (whatever did happen to Redlight?) Chase And Status' last remaining song will be a contender for my #1 of the year (okay I'm not kidding anyone here, it's not a contender for #1 but maybe #2!!1!) Two more of those similar deep house-y hits I mentioned earlier up next, I was first introduced to Ben Pearce's 'What I Might Do' by Hitstastic (R.I.P.) first through Teams and then again a few weeks later through Unknown Pleasures but typical old commercial me only put it in my top 10 when it became a UK hit courtesy of a Tesco ad a few months later. The track is built around a repeated sample of a song by Anthony Hamilton, it's very addictive and always gets stuck in my head for hours every time I hear it. Nonetheless it's not something I really expected the UK to take to, must be one of the least commercial top 10 hits of recent times. With slightly more obvious hit potential was Chris Malinchak's 'So Good To Me', at #32 here, which is also a deep house track based around a sample, this time of Marvin Gaye, but it's much more upbeat and 'feel-good'. And there's a giraffe in the video. What's not to love? (Maybe the version that actually got released which didn't feature the Marvin Gaye vocal presumably due to legal difficulties - the replacement vocal doesn't totally ruin it but it's certainly not as good as the version that still gets all the promotion). Finally at #31 is Fuse ODG with 'Antenna', which was 2013's token Afrobeat hit. Though having said that, unlike D'banj, Fuse ODG seems to have actually stuck around and has another hit on his hands with the more Jamaican-influenced 'Million Pound Girl (Badder Than Bad)' at the moment. 'Antenna' was quite instant with me but also took its time to peak in my estimations, with probably the longest time to reach the top 10 of my chart from debut of any song this year (in consecutive weeks anyway). Another very feel-good song even if I don't think I'll ever understand what he's talking about on it.

 

And with that I've officially surpassed the number of songs I bothered actually counting down last year. Let's see if I go any further.

determined to finish this by the end of the month, 2 posts to go ~

 

30 ~

(3-3-5-7-6-5-5-10-10-7-8-12-17-31-x)

 

29 ~

(3-5-4-5-7-14-25-18-15-20-33-x)

 

28 ~

(20-14-9-9-9-14-18-15-19-...)

 

27 ~

(2-4-5-4-4-2-4-14-18-22-x)

 

26 ~

(9-4-3-6-6-4-6-10-12-16-24-34-x)

 

At #30 is the long-awaited comeback from Justin Timberlake, 'Suit & Tie'. Many were disappointed by this which is fairly understandable, after so many years away from the music business you'd expect him to re-emerge with a big 'statement' track rather than just a little pleasant slice of R&B (with a rap contribution from Jay-Z). Of course the BIG comeback track was the one that came next. I was hooked on 'Suit & Tie' for quite some time as you can see from its chart run but it did end up getting rather overshadowed by 'Mirrors'. The 1975's 'Chocolate' is a very much hate-it-or-love-it track, courtesy of that accent of Matthew Healy's. Another track I fully understand hate for but I can look past the accent and just hear a great indie anthem. (Do indie people mind me lumping The 1975 in with 'indie'?) Number 28 belongs to the very young (he's only seventeen!!1) Dutch house music producer Martin Garrix with his breakout and, let's face it, probably only hit, the mostly instrumental 'Animals'. I think it would actually be better if it was fully instrumental but the occasional 'we're the fucking animals' doesn't exactly ruin it. It's another song that I didn't vote for when it was sent to BJSC and then predictably ended up loving when it became a UK chart hit. Another comeback track next at #27 from Tinie Tempah with the Diplo-produced trap smash 'Trampoline' featuring a slightly pointless verse from these days' rent-a-rapper of choice 2 Chainz. Great production, great hook, slightly less impressive lyrics than usual from Tinie is my only criticism really (he hasn't totally lost his quotability this era but he is certainly a bit more generic lyrically than in the 'Disc-Overy' days). Finally Disclosure are at #26 with 'You & Me', the third single from their debut album 'Settle' which had the slightly unusual choice of featured vocalist of Eliza Doolittle. Despite appearing bizarre on the surface they turned out to be a great pairing and it was a glorious throwback to UK garage, almost as good as the previous Disclosure single. Unfortunately Eliza didn't stick to this sound and instead released 'Big When I Was Little'. Unsurprisingly, she's now back to irrelevance.

 

25 ~

(38-22-13-9-7-4-3-8-15-19-28-40-x)

 

24 ~

(30-25-12-11-7-8-6-6-6-8-12-23-36-36-x)

 

23 ~

(...-11-8-8-6-1-4-10-13-13-20-21-27-32-x)

 

22 ~

(35-31-33-19-8-3-4-9-11-14-...)

 

21 ~

(4-4-3-3-4-8-15-29-29-25-21-35-x)

 

The other Diplo-produced trap hit of the year falls out just ahead of 'Trampoline'. 'Earthquake' was credited to DJ Fresh vs. Diplo (feat. Dominique Young Unique) but really DJ Fresh doesn't do much on it, it was basically just a new version of a track Diplo produced for Angel Haze. Unfortunately for poor irrelevant Angel they decided to run to another randomer female rapper who doesn't sound too dissimilar to her. Regardless of who the vocalist is though this song is all about that drop. Next is another Tinie Tempah song, the higher of his two appearances on this countdown, 'Children Of The Sun', featuring two time Swedish House Mafia vocalist John Martin. A very unpopular opinion but I genuinely think this is Tinie's best single, it was an undeniable attempt to recreate his previous album's smash 'Written In The Stars' yes but it achieved that recreation and more for me. A massive and underrated anthem. Another rapper's final appearance is next at #23, Kendrick Lamar's 'Backseat Freestyle' which snuck a quiet week at #1 in my chart early in the year after hanging around in the top 20 for a few months. That remains Mr. Lamar's only week at the top of my chart to date, a situation I hope to rectify when he gets around to releasing another album. This is definitely my favourite of his singles but yet again it doesn't help his perception when the chorus features the lyric 'I pray my dick get as big as the Eiffel Tower / so I can fuck the world for 72 hours'. It's ironic I swear!!1 Another song I feel to be a bit underrated is at #22 from Calvin Harris and Alesso featuring Hurts (or more accurately Theo from Hurts). Theo's voice sounds great on a bit of generic Calvin production and said generic Calvin production also sounds great as ever (he even had the help of an actual Swedish person making that instrumental). I realise I'm not selling it here at all. Falling just short of the top 20 is another 'indie' track with a regional accent although not nearly as prevalent as the one on 'Chocolate', it's one of the biggest hits of the year from Bastille. I was quite late to hear this song, only charting it after it entered the UK's official chart. At first I was slightly disappointed with it after the brilliant 'Flaws' but it very quickly grew on me to become one of my favourite megahits of the year (my top 20 is actually not THAT overly commercial surprisingly, of course nearly every song was at least a top 40 hit but only a few really big hits left).

Dutch house music producer Martin Garrix with his breakout and, let's face it, probably only hit, the mostly instrumental 'Animals'.

Hopefully 'Wizard' can become a minor UK hit at least, but yeah you're probably right there :cry:

 

Yay for this chart not getting completely abandoned! Some really great songs in that bunch except 'Children of the Sun' which was disappointing for him and 'Backseat Freestyle' which I never got into (although it's not bad)

determined to finish this by the end of the month, 2 posts to go ~

 

literally been on tenterhooks all this time :(

Hopefully 'Wizard' can become a minor UK hit at least, but yeah you're probably right there :cry:

 

oops

 

literally been on tenterhooks all this time :(

 

oops #2

 

CONTINUING / FINISHING TOMORROW

I was excited to see Lorde smash in at #1 :(

you're killing me here bre / half term no excuses!

I think it would actually be better if it was fully instrumental but the occasional 'we're the fucking animals' doesn't exactly ruin it.

 

I always thought it was 'motherf***ing animals'

 

NEVER LISTENING IN THE SAME WAY AGAIN

lol this still isn't finished isn't it, I blame Jáhq

 

Bookmarked this thread to remind me to finish it off in the very near future. May or may not bother with commentary on the remaining 20 songs.