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The Spectacular Quiet would go on to be the first discovery of this Swedish post-rock artist but it would lead to something much better, and Fireflies was that. For such a beautfully named artist and song title (when are fireflies not beautiful?), you'd expect something truly beautiful from this and my God, does it deliver.

 

I'm not familiar with the genre 'post rock' much but if it's good as this then I'm definitely sold. It's an instrumental that starts out with a beautiful piano refrain and slowly building in the background until strings and slight choral vocals start before everything goes quiet and calm before it properly builds to it's highest intensity and the crashing drums, choral vocals soar along with a beautiful guitar solo taking the place of the piano, I've used journey of a song a lot, but this one really fits that more than most as it truly is a building journey reflected in the mood and the composition of the song from stripped back to bursting with life and then back again, and one where I go through so many emotional shifts listening to and it's almost tough not to cry. And one best listened to looking at the stars or a horde of fireflies, as the feelings can really intensify then, if only I lived in a place where there's more stars on display than sky and more fireflies than mosquitoes. Hmph, anyway this was pretty much my song of the late autumn and it did open my eyes to how good rock based instrumentals can be as well as dance/synth ones that tend to be more my thing, and though the parent album Chronicle, did prove a bit samey and lacking standouts apart from the two glorious songs featured here, just one song as good as this doesn't come along very often so it was more than enough.

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But if we're talking instrumentals, it really couldn't be anything else than this that gets my top pick for that and the year as a whole. I've never come back to a song or felt so many mixed emotions listening to a song, and to think it came from a midnight trawl on a dark corner of Youtube makes it all the more surprising. It might be hard for me to sum this up, but I'll try.

 

This instrumental (much like Compass earlier) is a beautiful, serene orchestral piece that is instead an epic soaring instrumental that has more than a few modern touches to it to make it not sound like a straight out classical instrumental, like the slight trance-esque touches that are present in both the main build up and the crescendo, fused with classical this just sounds so amazing, it starts off quite desolate and sombre with a slow building feel that lasts almost a minute before bursting into life and joy, the strings soar, the orchestra flies and the choir chants in the background before it fades slightly and becomes faster and progressive in leading up to the final climax, where it soars even higher than before as it grabs your emotions, refusing to let go, it's such a rollercoaster with such pristine perfect production that just works so well, it's hard to describe in words really, or even just music, I do wish there was a video as I'm sure that would make it even more of a tearjerker than it already is.

 

I came back to this a lot during the year as it just stuck with me and put me in a good mood when I was feeling down with it's hopeful and powerful feel, it packed a real punch and I even got the courage to send it to BJSC, and seeing how it became such a good discovery to so many people spurred me on even more and made me feel quite...special as weird as that sounds as it's not often that something unknown that resonates with me so much can do the same with other people. It definitely spurred me to check out the album itself and the artist and it emerged that the artist has done a lot of film music before and their standard stuff is a lot more epic than this and the album of the same name it comes from, but the album proved to be exactly what I wanted from them, beautiful airy and inspiring orchestral music that serves the perfect background to nature documentaries and climactic film scenes and whatnot as they just pack that much of a punch.

 

The next paragraph is kinda super emosh/cheesy soz

 

I suppose above all, it made me realise how much I love instrumentals as a whole - much like Fireflies except with strings replacing guitars, it did not need words to make me feel what it does. It has clear themes that can be derived from just listening - pessimism turning into optimism and gradually turning into euphoria and leaving with a feel of hope. I picked 'illumination' as the title as it reflects the mood that both of my top 2 can make you feel (plus it vaguely fitting the lights theme and all). Furthermore , as I'm oing through a very tough time in my life right now where I at times feel lost, music like this can really help me out of this and get me in a better mood and inspire me to keep going with life and well, working towards that miracle. So I guess that is the reason why over the last year (started with one epic instrumental as my YE #1 last year, now it's my top 2 ;o) I've been warming to this type of music over that with lyrics, as it conveys this and paints a picture without the need for words, a triumph in my eyes and I suppose will continue to inspire me now I know to seek this kind of music out.

 

God, I've waffled on haven't I? tl;dr: IT'S GOOD, so much so I'm gonna link to it twice:

 

 

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1. Two Steps From Hell - Miracles

2. Lights & Motion - Fireflies

3. CHVRCHES vs Eric Prydz – Tether

4. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Ballad of the Mighty I

5. M83 feat. Haim – Holes in the Sky

6. Alex Adair – Make Me Feel Better

7. Taylor Swift – Out of the Woods

8. Years & Years - King

9. Kishi Bashi – I Am The Anti-Christ to You

10. Coldplay – Adventure of a Lifetime

11. Crywolf feat. Maighan Kennedy – Home We Made Part II (Skrux Remix)

12. Jai Wolf – Indian Summer

13. Major Lazer feat. MO & DJ Snake – Lean On

14. XYLO - America

15. Calvin Harris feat. Haim – Pray to God

16. DANCE WITH THE DEAD – Waves

17. Galantis – Peanut Butter Jelly

18. OMFG – Hello/I Love You/Yeah/OK/Ice Cream/Mashed Potatoes

19. machineheart – Snow (Myles Travitz Remix)

20. Yeasayer – O.N.E

21. Sigala – Easy Love

22. Two Steps From Hell feat. Merethe Soltvedt - Compass

23. Oh Wonder – Technicolour Beat

24. Petit Biscuit – Sunset Lover

25. Alesso feat. Roy English – Cool

26. Owsey, Jernalism & Resotone – I’ve Been Secretly Falling Apart

27. CHVRCHES – Leave a Trace

28. Yoshua Alikuti – The Very Best

29. Lights & Motion – The Spectacular Quiet

30. Peking Duk feat. Nicole Millar – High

31. Walk the Moon – Shut Up and Dance

32. Marlon Roudette – When The Beat Drops Out

33. Etienne De Crecy feat. Madeline Follin – You

34. Neon Indian – Annie

35. Mr Fijiwiji feat. Danyka Nadeau – Yours Truly

36. Power Glove - Crypt

37. ONUKA – Time

38. Taylor Swift - Style

39. A-WA – Habib Galbi

40. DIA – ЕГЕЯ

41. Kygo feat. Conrad – Firestone

42. R O Z E S - Everything

43. Audrey Napoleon – Dope Ala Mode

44. OOFJ – You’re Always Good

45. Tame Impala – ‘Cause I’m a Man

46. Fae – Ruok

47. The Weeknd – The Hills

48. Florence & The Machine – What Kind of Man

49. Hellberg feat. Cozi Zuehlsdorff – The Girl

50. Kyla La Grange – Cut Your Teeth (Kygo Remix)

51. Fall Out Boy - Centuries

52. Disciples – They Don’t Know

53. Milk & Bone – Pressure

54. Jess Glynne – Hold My Hand

55. Chromatics - Camera

56. Young Fathers - Get Up

57. Ferreck Dawn – Heaven Sent

58. Robert Delong – Don’t Wait Up

59. Bro Safari – Bender

60. Tove Lo – Scream My Name

61. Space Above – This is It

62. Headphone Activist – Ocean Floors

63. Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian at Best

64. Coyote Kisses – Ferrari

65. 99 Souls feat. Destinys Child & Brandy – The Girl is Mine

66. Delta Heavy – Ghost

67. Axwell V Ingrosso – Something New

68. tiny deaths – Ocean

69. Fred V & Grafix – Major Happy

70. CHVRCHES – Dead Air

71. Calvin Harris feat. Disciples – How Deep is Your Love

72. Dimitri Vangelis & Wyman – ID2

73. Skrillex & Diplo feat. Justin Bieber – Where Are U Now

74. Mele – Aaliyah

75. Get People – Macaw

76. Caravan Palace – Lone Digger

77. Mumford & Sons – Believe

78. Simon Patterson – The One

79. MOWE – Birds Flying High

80. Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk

81. Arcane Station – Make Me a Bird

82. Dr. Kucho! & Gregor Salto feat. Ane Brun – Can’t Stop Playing (Makes Me High)

83. Adele - Hello

84. Phillip George – Wish You Were Mine

85. Viceroy & K-Flay – Back at the Start

86. Sidewalks & Skeletons - EXHUME

87. Cold War Kids – First

88. Priest – Samurai (Deebs Remix)

89. Polar Dear – Even if I’m Late

90. Little Mix – Love Me Like You

91. Russian Red – Volare

92. US Girls – Damn That Valley

93. Omar Souleyman – Enssa El Attab

94. Slow Magic – Girls

95. f(x) – Four Walls

96. Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do

97. Grace – You Don’t Own Me

98. Ghost Bath – Golden Number

99. Audialist – Burning

100. Woolf & The Wondershadow - Cloaked

101. HOLYCHILD – Running Behind

102. Charli XCX feat. Rita Ora – Doing It

103. Tiasu – Plummet

104. Phases – I’m In Love With Your Life

105. Sandra – I’ll Never Be (Maria Magdalena)

106. Muse – Dead Inside

107. Hannah Diamond – Every Night/Pink & Blue

108. Best Coast – Heaven Sent

109. July Child – Turn Me On

110. Oh Wonder – White Blood

111. I See Stars – The Hardest Mistakes

112. Matt Lange feat. Jeza – I Can’t Forgive (Eric Rigo remix)

 

And that is (finally) that for 2015, only 17 days late. Thank you all very much who commented throughout :wub: I may not have replied, but I definitely appreciated them, and I'm really grateful some of you are just reading as it makes these commentaries worth it! (Must find a less time consuming format next time though), this list is pretty much shaped by various Buzzjack discoveries so thank you so much to all who sent these to BJSC/UP as I wouldn't have discovered them without you!

 

Two Steps From Hell join M83, Wintergatan (three YE instrumental number 1s in a row *.*), Swedish House Mafia and Coldplay in the medalists section, I have ONE MORE special feature coming up over the next few days so stay tuned, not now though, as I have to head to bed~

Wow, what a perfect top 2 to finish this off with. And M83 at #5 just to hammer that home, that's definitely one of my favourites of the year.

 

On Fireflies, I had been thinking what sort of genre it could be and it is true that it is very post-rock, of course it is, post-rock is always very atmospheric in its presentation, I love that sort of thing also, rock-based instrumentals are exactly my sort of thing and if you ever find any, feel free to share them with me, it's a genre I also need to explore more. Much more.

 

Agreed very much with ALL of the Miracles essay (maybe I should just copy that for when I get to it in mine :kink:, I mean, all of these paragraphs have been great but that especially), it is an utter triumph of a song, that it connected with as many people as it did is fabulous, the feeling it gives when listening to it is nothing short of glorious and reading this through, looking at your past #1s, it makes so much sense as your end-of-year #1. A fantastic artist with a brilliant impact.