2

M83 featuring Susanne Sundfør - Oblivion

2013

 

 

For the top 2 we're into "all time" great songs.

 

Now don't shoot me but I'm not really a fan of M83, which is some sort of heresy in Buzzjack Alternative circles. And I promise to go back to them soon but this is the most magnificent thing I've from them so far.

Like a late 80s Pet Shop Boys or A-ha slow burner - all brass, arpeggiated keyboards, synth drums, strings and warm bass - it must have sounded amazing in the cinema.

 

Then there's Susanne Sundfør wonderfully aching vocals.

I've posted an extended mix that someone made by adding another of the sound-track pieces to the start and it only serves to make the whole thing even more epic.

 

One of my favourite things for a song to do is to end with a contrasting piece in slowed down form - cheesy maybe but this one is such a great way to bring an organic element to what is primarily a synth-pop ballad.

 

 

 

 

1

James Blake 'Retrograde'

2013

 

 

It was a very, very tough choice to between the Top 2 for my favourite song from the last 5 years. This was an early contender having beating down other highly tipped favourites Never, Oh No! and Madder Red.

 

You all know it but I'll go through why I love it anyway. Among other things, it manages to reference a load of 80s soul standards with the words "I'll wait" which sound more like "always". There's that classic intro vocal hook. The sweet vortex-like synth which sounds like it's descending but never falls, messing with your perception of pitch. The pathos of the lines "And your friends are gone. And your friends won't come". The rapturous peak!

 

The sound of an utterly modern artist making his mark on a classic genre and honouring that genre. Stunning.

Lovely countdown, Tony. I've enjoyed reading through it all, even the ones I'm not familiar with, and you made me revisit and appreciate a few forgotten gems, namely 'Come On' and 'Retrograde' of the last batch so cheers for that! I'm also one the few of the opinion that 'Born To Die' is superior to 'Video Games' and that 'Scheiße' is a big standout of 'Born This Way'.

 

Loved your write-up of Marina/'Oh No!' in particular. Along with the wonderful production as you said, I find the lyrics of that a real selling point, especially 'TV taught me how to feel/Now real life has no appeal', which would be up there as one of my favourite Marina lines after the entirety of the second verse of 'Obsessions' about her supermarket/cracker related anxieties. :wub:

 

Great job!

Edited June 8, 201510 yr by Noahspike

Thanks Noah.

Susanne Sundfør is an excellent vocalist - I only discovered her thanks to her Röyksopp collaboration in 2012. Couple of tracks of hers I'd definitely recommend seeking out (if you've not heard them already): “White Foxes”, “Delirious” and “It's All Gone Tomorrow” - all from different albums to give you different flavours of her work.

 

M83 are a band I massively got in to in my early 20s and so hold a special place in my heart - their 2008 album Saturdays = Youth and in particular “Kim & Jessie” bring back lots of good memories.

 

I'd say he is one of those artists like Moby where their music gets used for emotional montages on the BBC but nobody knows what the music is called or who it is by - in the past this meant the work was undiscovered but thanks to things like Shazam they are much easier to find and I'm glad that people did get to find and enjoy his last album. In particular

 

I love “Retrograde” too, what an excellent #1 and a brilliantly written commentary- by the way, it did manage to chart in the UK at No. 87!

 

Thanks for sharing Tony. : )

Edited June 8, 201510 yr by Doctor Blind

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Edited July 5, 201510 yr by AntoineTTe

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Edited December 24, 20159 yr by Ever After