Bloody hell.

 

2015? Twenty-fifteen?! How did it get to the middle of the decade so damn quickly? The dawn of the decade - a time when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, David Tennant was (just about) Doctor Who, tuition fees were £3,000 a year, Ukraine was a nice place people went on their holiday etc etc seems like a few days away, and it feels absolutely terrifying to think that we're the same amount of time away now as the start of 2005 was then.

 

I was a partying, drinking, hedonistic and optimistic twenty-one year old at uni when 2010 began. Today I'm a slightly more bitter, much older (but to be honest not really more responsible) 26 year old who spends more time at work than raving it up in clubs these days, listening to most "modern day" music and grumbling that it wasn't like this back in the good old Gaga days of pop.

 

But that's not important. Midway through both those milestones, in the equally far off summer of 2012 (you know, when the Olympics were on, UKIP were an irrelevance and everything briefly seemed a bit brighter for the future) the 23, almost 24 year old me counted down my 25 favourite songs of the decade so far on this forum, a thread that can be seen here. We were a quarter of the way through the decade so 25 seemed a fitting number, and, as we reach the halfway mark, I thought I'd challenge myself a bit more and try a top 50. If I keep to this schedule then look out for a top 75 in the summer of 2017, and, if I'm not completely disallusioned with the popular music scene, a top 100 to welcome in the year 2020 :P

 

Compiling the list ended up being a bit trickier than I first thought. Obviously any songs released after July 2012 are going to be new entries, but it's not just a simple case of adding 25 new tracks to the old list. Old songs have changed positions - songs I may have mildly enjoyed then I now adore, and so have shot up the chart or even appear for the first time. Or, in some cases, songs have taken freefalls down as their initial novelty has long worn off, as I found when I realised that some songs as high as top 10 in 2012 are now completely out of the top 50! I'll let you know which ones have moved up or (way) down from the previous. As before I'm starting from the w/e 16/01/2010, the first week to actually include entries released in the new decade, and anything released up to New Years Eve 2014 is eligible. I'll aim at one post a day, although I'll be in and out of the UK so sometimes I'll post a few at a time.

 

Starting things off today with number 50!

50. TOVE LO FEAT. HIPPIE SABOTAGE - STAY HIGH (HABITS REMIX) (New Entry)

 

Peak: #6 (April 2014)

 

 

This just missed the top 50 in my first draft of the list, but weeding out a few songs from the old that I realised didn't belong anymore have sneaked it in to the full. An immensely atmospheric track that caught me by surprise when it randomly appeared in the top 20 earlier this year, one that despite charting in April fits the cold winter months much more and while it lost some play for me in the summer it's sounding good again now. Definitely one of the best of 2014 but not *the* best, as you'll see in the rest of this countdown!

Nice intro and concept! Love 'Stay High' so great start as well. :heart:

49. GEORGE EZRA - BUDAPEST (New Entry)

 

Peak: #3 (July 2014)

 

 

A huge grower, and another one that almost didn't make the list, then at one point made it all the way into the top 30 but I decided that was a bit too high. It's a song that, should indeed I update in a few years, will either be much lower or much higher - for now it has the benefit of being new and shiny.

 

Generally I'm not a huge fan of guitar-playing, teenage singer-songwriters singing quirky acoustic ballads, but there's a very nice magic about this one that builds over the song. For me what perhaps finally made it top 50 was actually visiting the said Hungarian capital a few months ago, adding some extra memories of sun-topped buildings, flowing rivers and general Eastern European goodwill. Sadly I just missed Mr Ezra actually performing there by a few days, hearing a hit song called Budapest being performed in Budapest must have been pretty special.

48: TRAIN - DRIVE BY (New Entry)

 

Peak: #6 (May 2012)

 

 

This one was around when I did the first list but (somehow) I don't think I'd heard it at the time. In fact this one took forever to grow, one that finally got copied to my iPod in June this year.

 

Train are one of those odd acts, like Scooter or Shaggy, that will have the occasional massive hit and then disappear again for a few years. Their three major top 20 hits, of which this is their highest-charting (but perhaps not the best known) happened in 2001, 2010 and 2012, and it seems a shame that whenever they try and follow it up here no one seems to care. What elevates this into my top 50 is that really lovely middle 8, but the whole thing is a nice and catchy pop track of which they're damn good at and presumably in a few years they'll be back with another.

 

What about the other one, I hear you cry? Stay tuned...

 

47: MCFLY - LOVE IS EASY (New Entry)

 

Peak: #10 (November 2012)

 

 

McFly are a group who I've majorly critically re-appraised in recent years. As a teenager, I hated them. Music for pre-teen girls and a rip-off of the equally terrible Busted I used to dismiss them as, it's only in my twenties I've actually listened back to their material and there's some pretty great stuff in here. 'Obviously' is the, erm, obvious one, but Five Colours In Their Hair and All About You are also both really well done pop tracks, especially written by those so young at the time.

 

This was a bit of a surprise direction for them and a major guilty pleasure of mine. It was watching the video that first got my attention as it's filmed in my old workplace, the Battersea Arts Centre, and I recognised the hall they're in immediately as somewhere I spent a good two or three years of my life in! But then the song is also simply but insistently great, a vocal hook of the 'do do doo doo do' style that buries in your head with ease. Not one that I'd blast out or ask a DJ to play but one I can smile at when it plays on my iPod headphones, making sure no one else on the train can hear it...

46: THE KILLERS - SHOT AT THE NIGHT (New Entry)

 

Peak: #23 (November 2013)

 

 

GOD this is glorious, and far too obscure a song for one of the best groups of the noughties. Since smashing it with 'Human' in 2008 (a song that, should I ever do a Best of the Noughties list, would be an immediate top 10 choice) they've sadly not made much of a mark, this is one of only two top 40, let alone top 20 hits this decade so far and only appears as a bonus track on their Best Of collection. A fabulous 80s-influenced power ballad that's up their with their best, although you know if any DJ does play The Killers they'll probably just plump for Mr Brightside for the millionth time rather than their huge back catalogue of classics.

45: DISCLOSURE FEAT. ALUNAGEORGE - WHITE NOISE (New Entry)

 

Peak: #2 (February 2013)

 

 

Ever get when songs not only remind you of a point in time, but of what the weather was like? Anything released in the summers of 2003 and 2006 remind me of 30+ degree scorching heatwave weather, while the opening months of 2013 were insistently, eventually unseasonably cold, of which this and others to come soundtracked for me.

 

As this began to get radio and video play, a major snowfall - the last one to date I remember - covered London, and I remember playing it as I shivered back home on an Overground train. Disclosure's first couple of singles are fantastic stuff, this one doing a top class job of evoking the spirit of 80s acid house and actually succeeding, unlike other so-called recent 'deep house' hits that are vastly inferior to the tracks that inspired them. This is one of the few to get the balance just right, particularly when the acid sounds begin in the second half of the track. Not a fan of everything they've done but have always felt the love for this.

44: MUSE - FOLLOW ME (New Entry)

 

Peak: Didn't chart (December 2012)

 

 

Another group, like the Killers, who owned the noughties but have struggled in the rockphobic teens. Indeed it's a miracle anything from The 2nd Law album even charted at all but they had an Olympics appearance to boost the sales of their opening few singles. This, regrettably, did nothing. And I can sort of see why, it sees the group co-produced by Nero for some extreme-sounding vocal dubstep. But hardcore Muse fans are just going to be a bit horrified, while dubstep fans are going to blankly wonder who these old guys are, coupled with the dubstep craze fizzling out by the time this was released and eventually no one's going to buy it. A shame as it's my favourite track on their album, gloriously euphoric and heavy and fantastic vocals from Matt Bellamy. It's just...not really Muse at the end of the day, is it? Nero feat. Matthew Bellamy might have been a better credit.

 

43: THE SATURDAYS - MISSING YOU (New Entry)

 

Peak: #3 (August 2010)

 

 

A new entry, but it shouldn't be. Always one of my favourites, I somehow forgot to include it in the 2012 list and only realised later. While it's another somewhat embarrassing choice, there are reasons behind it.

 

The beginning of the autumn of 2010 saw a huge change in my life and a lot of friends disappear from it, whether I wanted them to or not. I had previously, somewhat foolishly optimistically thought that the people I had around me would be there forever, but in your early twenties that's never going to happen. People find new lives, new people and older ones sometimes have to be left behind. This song was the big hit at the time, and as I approached my then-birthday somewhat broken from the losses I'd endured, it hugely resonated with me.

 

To most it's all but forgotten, not even the best The Saturdays have released. For me it'll always remind me of a life and times I used to have, plus as cheesy as some may judge it, I think it's nicely and sweetly sung and produced. A melancholic end-of-the-summer feeling, It'll never be a classic but it's one with big memories for me.

42: MAJOR LAZER - PON DE FLOOR (Down 22)

 

Peak: #125 (April 2010)

 

 

FINALLY we have a song that made my top 25 two and a half years back. Don't take the 'Down 22' as too much of an insult, lots of that initial 25 are completely out of the top 50 now so anything that's stayed deserves some credit. In general it's the dance tracks that have fared the worst, perhaps because I don't quite club as much as I did back then so have less good memories attached. But this one, even as I re-listen to it on headphones at home, is still a great, quirky track. One that, to my delight, the DJ played for me as I clubbed my way into my 24th birthday two and a half years ago in a club in Old Street, to which I vaguely remember drunkenly raving it up with gusto.

 

'Run The World' can naff off. This is where it's at.

A ton of work over the weekend has delayed this a bit so here's a whopping four entries to try and keep up:

 

41: ROBYN: DANCING ON MY OWN (New Entry)

 

Peak: #8 (June 2010)

 

 

Every so often the world will be treated to some top-class Scandipop. Aqua, A-Ha, ABBA, A*Teens, (sort of) A1, Ace of Base, Alda, Agnes, Alphabeat, Axwell and Avicii have all made big impressions here, Swedish singer Robyn stands out immediately simply for not beginning with the letter A. After owning 2007 with one of the best #1s of the decade 'With Every Heartbeat', she surprised some with this 2010 comeback that didn't catch me straight away but was an iPod favourite by 2012.

 

Similar to WEH it's an 80s influenced electro popper, this one with a big anthemic chorus that has you hooked. Another one who randomly appears with big hit singles every now and again, hopefully she'll be back again in the future.

 

40: WILEY - HEATWAVE (New Entry)

 

Peak: #1 (August 2012)

 

 

Further to the weather comments mentioned at number 45, sometimes a song can even give you a false view of what the weather actually was because its very sound is evocative of a picturesque scene. Remember that long, cold snowy winter when East 17 was Christmas #1 and Mariah Carey Christmas #2? Probably not, because that particular Xmas was fairly mild. But listen to Stay Another Day and All I Want For Christmas Is You and you'll be taken back to a festive winter wonderland that, for that year anyway, wasn't actually around south of Scotland.

 

The summer of 2012 was notoriously wet and flooded. Somehow this track by Wiley is so drenched in sunshine that it takes me back to a false memory of a heatwave summer, although there were some notable warm spells where this genuinely did sound brilliant. It's also the only #1 I can think of that I saw a live performance of it while it was actually #1, at that year's V Festival. Yeah, people may say he is by now a huge commercial sell-out making cheesy pop tracks like this instead of his grime roots, but give me a hot summer's day and a cold drink and I'll blast this out the speakers.

39: KYLIE MINOGUE - ALL THE LOVERS (Down 26)

 

Peak: #3 (July 2010)

 

 

Number 13 back in 2012's list, again it's survived the top 50 even though my current view is there's 38 better songs before it. The backing track is still top class and it still has a lot of magic, just a shame that this ended up being her last really massive hit single. She hasn't done too badly since, getting two more fairly big #12 singles, but this was the last one I remember that probably made an impact outside of her usual fanbase.

38: PINK FEAT. NATE RUESS - JUST GIVE ME A REASON (New Entry)

 

Peak: #2 (April 2013)

 

 

Cruelly beaten to #1 by, of all things, PJ & Duncan's 'Let's Get Ready To Rhumble', this like White Noise takes me back to the never-ending winter of early 2013. Snow was still falling when this reached its peak in April. I remember standing in the freezing cold with friends at the time and having to stop myself asking what everyone was doing for Christmas, as it genuinely felt like we were in some sort of permanent December.

 

I'm not a huge Pink fan but this is up there with 'Just Like A Pill' as her two genius tracks. This one starts off already pretty great as your standard all-the-love's-gone ballad, but then steps up a gear when Nate comes in with "I'm sorry, I don't understand where all of this is coming from. I thought that we were fine?" and brilliantly subverts everything in the space of one line. Then you've got them both sharing their completely differing viewpoints but both singing the same chorus, it's a simple gimmick but one that elevates it up there to this list, plus the awesome melody and vocals from both throughout.

 

Just noticing the first word of her two best songs. To follow the trend, maybe a cover of Radiohead's 'Just' should be her next single?

37: KATY B - CRYING FOR NO REASON (New Entry)

 

Peak: #5 (February 2014)

 

 

Words cannot describe how happy I was when this appeared out of nowhere and smashed into the top 5. Everything Katy B had released in her initial 2010-11 era had been great, and everything in her 2013 comeback had predictably underperformed. This was her third single from the second album and, while awesome, seemed doomed to obscurity as the country moved on to its next set of musical stars.

 

Sometimes the British public make the right decision, and thank god this ended up as one of her biggest ever hits. It's her best ever single, a breathtaking electro-ballad about depression and insecurity that not only sounds incredible but is written so brilliantly, every lyric absolutely perfect and massively resonating with me. I still can't believe, to this day, that this was the hit it always deserved to be. As deeply flawed as the charts may be, they're worth following for the occasional bit of gold dust like this.

:hi:

 

You thinking of finishing this?!

 

Adore some of these songs ('Shot At The Night', 'Dancing On My Own' and 'Crying For No Reason' in particular) and your commentaries have been very interesting to read so I hope you'll get back around to it eventually!

Hope you come back to finish this! Very good countdown so far

...and we're back. :)

 

Thanks to the two comments above and apologies for the sudden halt of this back in January. A combination of various life issues put hold to this and all other projects, but let's resume things with a triple bill of posts this evening. The list remains exactly how it stood when I compiled it back at the very end of the year, as tempted as I was to tinker with it!

 

So number 36, and, erm, guilty pleasure time...

 

36: JASON DERULO - TRUMPETS (New Entry)

 

Peak: #4 (January 2014)

 

 

Although a January release it's the summer of 2014 I associate this with, either singing it with friends on holiday in Vienna, or simply lying on the grass on hot afternoons with my iPod playing. While I'm definitely not a fan of Jason "JASON DERULO* Derulo, this works as it just refuses to take itself seriously and pumps up the cheese factor to a million, you've got that bouncy main trumpet hook plus some slightly ridiculous falsetto, and the lyrics which, bar a few questionable comparisons, are kinda clever in the way he compares certain attributes of a woman (or a man wearing a bra) to various songs by various artists. But generally it's all about that hook. Da da dadadada da da dadadada OH GOD it's in my head again now. Brb while I play it a dozen or so times.

35: AVICII - WAKE ME UP (New Entry)

 

Peak: #1 (July 2013)

 

 

I initially didn't think much of this. Well, it was *ok* but what put me off was its mega, mega sales, huge airplay and everyone praising it as the best song to ever happen in history ever. Seriously? It's a standard EDM dance track with a bit of country in it. Nothing more.

 

Flash forward to two weeks in Scandinavia, September 2013, and this song is my ultimate soundtrack. Played on every radio station from Denmark to Norway to Sweden to Finland, blasted out of every car, plus a surprisingly warm climate with above-average sunshine for the time of the year all called me towards it and suddenly the lyrics started to hit me. It all culimated in a club in Helsinki, when on a big dancefloor on a Saturday night this genuinely did sound like the best thing I'd ever heard.

 

A year and a half after its unending ubiguity, I can get past how overplayed it got and appreciate it both as a great example of the early 2010s EDM sound and one to effortlessly take me back to another era of my life.