1. Sheppard - Bombs Away

 

http://d3mfoxizwrqdu.cloudfront.net/Artists/S/sheppard/slicks/sheppard_bombs_away_0614.jpg

 

Chart run: 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-1-2-3-3-4-4-5-5

 

Highlights: Everything apart from These People

 

I first became aware of Australian indie-pop act Sheppard early last year when I stumbled across the McFly-esque Let Me Down Easy and sent it to Unknown Pleasures. I promptly forgot about them again but soon remembered them when the folky Geronimo shot to #1 in Australia. Their debut album Bombs Away surfaced in July and I decided to check it out. What I didn't realise is that I'd be checking out the most consistently strong album I'd heard since The Fame Monster.

 

Geronimo and Let Me Down Easy are present, and sounding as great as ever while other single Something's Missing is also fantastic. Ignoring the singles though, this album has the strongest bunch of album tracks I've heard in a very long time. A Grade Playa...which I shall go into in more depth later...is pop perfection, Lingering is an absolutely gorgeous if mournful ballad, Smile is sun-drenched island-pop, Find Someone is a surprisingly sweary-angst while Halfway To Hell is a perfect closer. The deluxe edition, due to be released in the UK...at some point...is even better as it's due to add the excellent Shine My Way and Hold My Tongue. The only song I ever skip is the slightly underwhelming These People.

 

I saw the guys live in Camden in August and it's easily the best gig I've seen in years, they have so much energy and passion for what they do and it's incredible how accomplished the gig was for a band with just one album under their belts. The album spent 11 weeks at #1 for me, more than any album in the last ten years, and is quite easily my favourite album of the decade so far. I really really couldn't recommend it any higher and it upsets me that barely anybody else seems to have listened to it. There's something for absolutely every pop fan on here.

I must admit out of the above list I only got 1 album... and that is Lana Del Rey, was tempted to buy Calvin Harris album but I think I wait for GooglePlay to price it at 99p :lol: since googleplay has gone mad pricing albums at 99p, I bought Chapter One for 99p :lol: considering some of the tracks are not that really that good, that was a bargain.

 

I probably bought about 14 albums this year, which was just about enough to list a top 10 albums of the year chart. ha

 

Google Play has had some incredible deals. Shame all of the albums they've featured I've already either bought or downloaded at full price :(

 

Clean Bandit's album just missed out on a top 10 entry from my year to date chart, Katy B and Kylie both feature inside the top 10, I must admit Kylie's album is pretty good, it just didn't stay longer in the official album chart, it quickly fizzled out, some great tracks on it. I think she needs to collaborate with a featured artist on a future single, it didn't harm Paloma Faith in the long run, maybe Tinie Tempah :lol: just kidding, Röyksopp would be my logical choice.

 

Glad you like Katy and Kylie's albums, shame they both weren't a lot bigger really.

 

only 2nd tho

 

what a flop

 

2nd everywhere, poor brave Common Linnets :(

 

The Common Linnets is not # 1 in the albums chart. :o :???:

(but they will have # 1 in singles list)

 

As much as I truly love them, I'm afraid there was something better. Any other year in the last four it would have topped my EOY chart very easily.

omg is calm after the storm also #2 in your singles chart? :o cannot be!

I'll kick off the top three with a disclaimer - these three albums are FAR better than my #1 album of last year, True by Avicii, which shows how brilliant 2014 has been for albums. The top two indeed are my two favourite albums of not just 2014 but of the 2010s so far.

Rich :no: :no: :no: there is no better album than True you silly bean :nono:

 

Sheppard #1 in the albums then, how obvious :P. Wouldn't surprise me if they got the singles #1 too tbh

 

Some great songs here so far~ and from your top 10 I like the Clean Bandit/Katy B albums.

-

Edited September 17, 20159 yr by 21.63

omg is calm after the storm also #2 in your singles chart? :o cannot be!

 

It is...still to come! Stay tuned!

 

Rich :no: :no: :no: there is no better album than True you silly bean :nono:

 

Sheppard #1 in the albums then, how obvious :P. Wouldn't surprise me if they got the singles #1 too tbh

 

Some great songs here so far~ and from your top 10 I like the Clean Bandit/Katy B albums.

 

I do love True but it did sort of top my EOY chart by default on account of 2013 being incredibly crap for albums :lol:

 

I think it was obvious too, that chart run *.*

 

Thanks Dan!

 

I didn't watch often your charts and thought "7" is your # 1 in the albums chart.

 

Nowhere near sadly, that was down at #26

Singles

 

10. RAM feat Susana - RAMelia (Tribute To Amelia)

 

 

Chart run: 3-4-1-2-3-2-5-10

 

Dutch producer RAM had never really been on my radar until I downloaded Armin Van Buuren's latest installation of his A State Of Trance series. Amongst a sea of admittedly excellent trance, RAMelia stood out on the album due to its sheer beauty. The first two minutes of the track are atmospheric piano balladry, led by the emotive Susana with vocals about RAM's wife who died in 2013. After the two minute mark the track delivers a blistering trance breakdown for about a minute before returning back to Susana for a simply stunning and heartbreaking closing vocal. It's definitely the most raw and genuine feeling I've heard on a dance song for a long time.

 

I sent the song to BJSC in May, not really knowing how well it would do but knowing it would stand out at the very least. That it did and it greatly benefitted from the hosts going AWOL and forcing the contest into a One Big Final format, allowing the track to hoover up some major pointage and becoming FSR Rontvia's first winning entry in nearly three years! More trance in BJSC please and thanks.

9. Helene Fischer - Atemlos Durch Die Nacht

 

 

Chart run: 6-2-3-2-1-3-7

 

Schlager is obviously still big business in Sweden but looking at Germany's charts (the only other country that particularly cares about it) it appeared that they'd started to grow out of it. That is aside from the almighty force, the blonde bombshell Helene Fischer. A high selling album artist for many years with a number of huge tours, she'd never really had a major hit single. This changed in late 2013 with the poptastic Atemlos Durch Die Nacht, which peaked at #3 and spent about twice as long in the German top ten as Happy did in the UK charts.

 

A number of versions of this track exist but my preferred version is the one that I sent to BJSC back in February, finishing 14th. This cheery track really helped me through my ridiculously hard intensive journalism course, never failing to raise my spirits. It was also the first of two German language songs to top my chart in 2014, and the first since Frida Gold in 2011. In a parallel world where German language songs could smash outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland this would be a global smash, but as it never will be I shall enjoy it for what it is, a perfect piece of contemporary schlager. Fans have been campaigining to get her to represent Germany at Eurovision for years but as her whole persona has a whiff of 'schlager fan favourite that finishes 20th' about her, I doubt that she would actually smash if she ever got the opportunity.

8. The Common Linnets - Calm After The Storm

 

 

Chart run: 3-1-1-2-2-6-10

 

Surprise! Finishing a little lower than was probably expected is the song that finished 2nd in Eurovision this year, The Calm After The Storm by Dutch country duo The Common Linnets. I found this song completely underwhelming from the moment I first heard it until the moment they stepped out on stage during the first Semi-Final. From that moment on I was completely spellbound. The staging of the performance with the road graphics and the double microphone stand looked absolutely perfect while Ilse & Waylon delivered not only a flawless vocal and stunning harmonies but genuine on stage chemistry, an element that many Eurovision duets sadly lack in. The song itself proved to be a major grower that I can't believe I didn't adore right from the outset.

 

The song and the band instantly rose in my affections and it soon topped my chart, albeit with a shorter chart run than other Eurovision entries as it took me so long to 'get' it. It finished a very deserved 2nd in the contest, the best result for The Netherlands in about 40 years, and opened an excellent debut album. And with Taylor Swift moving completely over to pop and this song inexplicably reaching the UK top ten (despite the fact that both the UK entry and the winner failed to do this), it provided the UK's only country top ten hit of 2014 *.*

7. Molly - Children Of The Universe

 

 

Chart run: 3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-2-4-4-10

 

After two perfectly nice but ridiculously misguided entries in the form of Bonnie Tyler and Engelbert Humperdinck (admittedly both legends in their day), the BBC returned to the unknowns and decided to select the UK's 2014 Eurovision entry from the BBC Introducing platform. Singer/songwriter Molly Smitten-Downes, formerly known as Stunt, had achieved a UK top ten hit with Sash! in 2008 and racked up about three hits in my chart over 2008 and 2009. But she was still pretty much an unknown.

 

Children Of The Universe was a major step in the right direction for the BBC and for the UK. The production was more than slightly reminiscent of Coldplay's Paradise and the lyrics were rather Eurovision cliched but I really got on board with the song and still think it's musically excellent. Sadly the UK fans got a little whipped up in the excitement that we were sending an above average song for once and were tipping it to win but on the night it limped in 17th. Completely unjust but not altogether surprising (I think I predicted 8th) due to Molly basically going on way too late and not really delivering a memorable enough performance.

 

I met Molly in April and she's a lovely girl, very down to earth and normal and that could have been part of the problem, there really isn't any star quality to her. Nevertheless, it was a brilliant opportunity for her and gave her a UK top 40 single, more than the last two entries could manage. Hopefully the BBC will continue in this direction and hopefully Molly will get her album out there soon, because she has a pretty unique and fantastic voice with a really rich tone and I'd love to hear more of her music.

-

Edited September 17, 20159 yr by 21.63

6. Take That - These Days

 

 

Chart run: 2-3-3-4-5-6-2-1-1-1-2

 

When These Days premiered in October there seemed to be zero buzz around both the song and Take That in general, after various things that have happened to the band since their last album, 2010's Progress. As a bit of a loon I instantly loved the funk-pop song, which interestingly sees Mark, Gary and Howard singing in harmony throughout, and it flew to a #2 debut in my chart, lingering around the top five for a while without ever really having the power to climb to the top - until they started to perform it live and I started to really realise just quite how clever, impressive and brave a lead single it is.

 

As the single release approached it still looked to me as if it would be a fanbase low top 5/top 10 hit before crashing and burining out of the charts. Yet to my surprise it climbed to #1 on iTunes and topped the UK chart, their first #1 in six years and bringing their span of chart topping years to 21 since Pray hit the top in 1993. It once again proved to me that I should never write this band off. And in the weeks since its release it's managed to hold up incredibly well and looks like yet another potential addition to their canon which already includes classics such as Pray, A Million Love Songs, Could It Be Magic, Back For Good, Relight My Fire, Never Forget, Patience, Shine, Rule The World, Greatest Day and The Flood. I think by this point they're pretty easily my second favourite group of all time (after The Corrs).

5. Clean Bandit feat Jess Glynne - Rather Be

 

 

Chart run: 8-5-5-4-2-1-1-3-5-7

 

I first heard Rather Be in mid-December last year and it managed to get to #5 in my Xmas chart last year - I quite quickly realised that it was something quite special but what I didn't realise is that the British public would agree with me in quite such an emphatic way! The song rose to #1 in my chart early in 2014 and, like Helene, really helped to keep my spirits up during my journalism course.

 

Without a doubt one of the best UK dance songs of recent years, everything about this song works so well. The production is flawless, the cello once again adds a touch of class to proceedings and helps it to stand out from everything else while Jess Glynne's vocals soar across the track in all the right places. A deserved million seller and a hit across the world, this has soundtracked so many parts of my year (Germany were obsessing over it while I was there in May) and couldn't not appear in my top five of the year.

4. Sheppard - Geronimo

 

 

Chart run: 7-OUT-5-2-3-5-5-2-2-1-2-6-9-7-9-8

 

I first heard Geronimo when it started smashing in Australia (climbing from #29 to #1 in Australia in a week or something like that) and it briefly made my top ten. Of course, being Eurovision season I was more focused on that and it drifted away. Upon getting the album in July I realised that I really should have paid way more attention to this anthem, which takes inspiration from the indie-folk-pop trend of the last few years but delivers a killer chorus to boot.

 

Lead singer George Sheppard delivers a fantastic performance throughout from the 'Say Geronimo' chant to the 'can you feeeeee-eeeee-llll my love' falsetto. It's an infectious and pretty perfect pop song and I really hope it smashes in the UK when it finally gets a push here, whenever that may be. I still believe that they're on course for global stardom and although I don't want that to be as a one-hit wonder, grabbing that one hit would at least be a start.

3. The Veronicas - You Ruin Me

 

 

Chart run: 9-4-1-1-1-2-2-2-1-1-1-2-4-5-7

 

After a hiatus that went on for way too long, Australian twin sisters The Veronicas returned in 2014 with piano ballad You Ruin Me. These girls practically ruled my life in 2006 with debut album The Secret Life Of...and I was just pleased to have them back. What I hadn't banked on is quite how flawless the track would actually turn out to be. In a good day for pop the first time I listened to it was immediately after I first listened to Tove Lo's Timebomb. I was relatively surprised that a band so well known for their angsty pop anthems would return with a ballad but although others said it was completely unexpected, it's not like they'd never dabbled in them before. Speechless went to #3 in my chart in 2006 while In Another Life peaked at #2 in 2007.

 

But You Ruin Me was in a whole different league. Both girls voices had noticeably deepened and matured in the time that they'd been away but it definitely added so much to the raw emotion of the song. I haven't been able to get the stunning chorus out of my head since September and it managed an incredible chart run with 10 consecutive weeks in my top two, six of those at #1. It's overtaken 4Ever as my favourite Veronicas song now and I will forever worship Heart FM for somehow making this song a UK top ten hit. So so deserved. Of course it was another #1 down under, because Australia have been getting pretty much everything spot on this year.

2. Sanna Nielsen - Undo

 

 

Chart run: 3-3-2-1-1-1-1-1-2-4-2-4-1-2-5-8

 

7 turned out to be eternal bridesmaid Sanna Nielsen's lucky charm. One of Sweden's most loved stars, Sanna has entered Melodifestivalen over and over again, even winning the public vote with Empty Room in 2008. But despite reaching the final each time, it was not to be...until now. 2014 saw Sanna rejoin the competition with the stunning and powerful piano ballad Undo. As always she turned in a flawless performance and topped the bookies odds instantly but surely Sanna wasn't going to finally win? Surely she'd used up all of her chances by now? Faced with a formidable opponent in Ace Wilder's Busy Doin' Nothin', Sanna thankfully swept her aside to just edge past her on the public vote and FINALLY achieve her dream of representing Sweden at Eurovision.

 

Hopes were high and she was genuinely expected to do well but surely the eternal bridesmaid was just going to flop on her arse and trail in 19th? Thankfully the European public embraced Sweden's most genuine entertainer and whisked her into the top three in the final. Which is just as well as Sanna looked as if she was delivering the performance of her life on stage - to say she embraced the moment would be an understatement. Her stunning delivery of the dramatic key change was carried out with such gusto that she completely sold the song to any remaining doubters. She couldn't make it past Conchita or The Common Linnets who the public had taken right into their hearts but a third place for Sweden and Sanna was incredibly respectable and very well deserved.

 

One of my favourite singers for the best part of a decade, it was quite amazing to see her finally achieve her dreams of winning Melodifestivalen, smashing at Eurovision, and as an extra bonus somehow scoring a UK top 40 hit! A win would have of course been the fairytale ending but I'm sure Sanna is quite content with everything she's managed to achieve this year.

Finally, I can agree with you.

 

"Undo" won my ESC ranking of 2014, my Melodifestivalen ranking of 21st century, it's my favourite Swedish Eurovision entry (even not "Waterloo") and finally it's my "Single of The Year".

 

She should win the contest. It could be most deserved winner in last 30 years (even more deserved than "Fairytale") .

Edited December 26, 201410 yr by NICI Moose

More trance in BJSC please and thanks.

Yes please, such an underrated genre these days, although that's not helped by a lot of trance being uneventful, but then we get the odd gem like RAMelia (yay for that in your top 10! also made my top 100)

 

I will continue to send mainly house into BJSC so sending trance can be your job :P

 

The 3 ESC entries in your top 10 are great too, still annoyed about Molly's underperformance.

 

Rather Be :wub: Best song in your top 5.

 

And I was right about Sheppard being your singles #1 :P

1. Sheppard - A Grade Playa

 

 

Chart run: 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-3-4-5-6-6-7-8

 

Sometimes a song just grabs you in such a huge way even though it's incredibly hard to explain exactly why. The first time I listened to Sheppard's album Bombs Away I got to track 5 and then pressed repeat, over and over again. It took me days before I finally got to track 6. I'd assumed that George Sheppard was the Brisbane-band's lead singer and that was that. What I hadn't realised is that his turquoise-haired sister Amy Sheppard was just as capable of holding a tune. A Grade Playa caught me off guard and - 185 plays and eight weeks at #1 in my chart later - hasn't let me go since (I very rarely pass 100 plays of a song).

 

The biting lyrics are quite surprising and show off Amy's feisty side, definitely a woman scorned telling the tale. The way the melody continues to move up the scale through the bridge sets up a really powerful chorus reminiscent of the sort of thing Stefy and Ashlee Simpson were putting out in 2006. But my favourite part of the song without a doubt is the harmonies, which in my opinion is where Sheppard excel as a band. George joins in for the excellent 'go on, go on, go on, go on, be gone!' refrain before it jumps back into the second verse with great lyrics such as 'if there was a medal for the biggest sleaze, there wouldn't be any other nominees'. The production kicks in harder for the second chorus before the harmonies of the post-chorus make an emphatic return. Then the middle-eight is Australian pop at its finest, and bring me back memories of the finest examples of the genre from the turn of the century. The music cuts down and slows down for a delicately sung line from Amy before a wonderful and completely unexpected key changes powers through. The production becomes almost dubstep-like at this point, with the punching bass adding yet another layer to a surprisingly complex pop song. And then the final 25 seconds, a repetition of the 'go on, go on, go on, go on, be gone' harmonies, are probably my favourite outro of any song I can remember. Pure magic, which I captured on video below when I saw them live in August.

 

The less said about its reception in BJSC the better, if this song is destined to be my hidden treasure then so be it.

 

Finally, I can agree with you.

 

"Undo" won my ESC ranking of 2014, my Melodifestivalen ranking of 21st century, it's my favourite Swedish Eurovision entry (even not "Waterloo") and finally it's my "Single of The Year".

 

She should win the contest. It could be most deserved winner in last 30 years (even more deserved than "Fairytale") .

 

It's such an amazing song, and Sanna is such a great performer, I'm so happy for her that she did so well this year, I was worried that she wouldn't beat Ace Wilder in Melodifestivalen!

 

Yes please, such an underrated genre these days, although that's not helped by a lot of trance being uneventful, but then we get the odd gem like RAMelia (yay for that in your top 10! also made my top 100)

 

I will continue to send mainly house into BJSC so sending trance can be your job :P

 

The 3 ESC entries in your top 10 are great too, still annoyed about Molly's underperformance.

 

Rather Be :wub: Best song in your top 5.

 

And I was right about Sheppard being your singles #1 :P

 

I agree, I really wish there was more trance in the charts. But yes, a lot of it can be samey and you have to look hard for stuff that somehow stands out - a piano ballad element definitely adds to the effect!

 

Even despite all the factors going against Molly, I wish she'd finished top ten at Eurovision

 

Yep you were, another year and another instance of the same act topping my singles and albums chart!