#20

L.U.V

Catholic Action

 

 

Album: N/A

 

We enter the top 20 with “L.U.V”, a song from Glaswegian garage rockers Catholic Action. A great, enjoyable throwback to the indie-rock of yore.

 

#19

Bad Girl

SOULS

 

 

Album: Release

 

“Bad Girl” by producer David Gledhill, aka SOULS, is an interesting one indeed. The vocals have been taken from field recordings of a 1930s blues song, and then mixed up with a modern, trip-hop production. He’s not the first artist to make music this way (Moby’s “Play” album made a killing off the back of this formula), but by golly, it is effective.

#18

We Love You

Wood Burning Savages

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Face-melting rock from Derry band The Wood Burning Savages. “We Love You” is an angry rant at the world, a la Manic Street Preachers at their most feral.

 

 

Previous chart positions:

2014 Boom - #40

2015 Premier League - #29

#17

Holidays

Starwalker

 

 

Album: Starwalker

 

A collaboration between ½ of Air and Barði Jóhannsson of Bang Gang, “Holidays” is a chilled out electro-pop song with choir-esque vocals and a soothing melody. Robot-pop at its finest.

#16

Catherine The Great

The Divine Comedy

 

 

Album: Good Grief

 

A welcome return to music for Neil Hannon & his Divine Comedy. “Catherine The Great” is a great chapter to his musical output, a chamber-pop song that reimagines the ruler of Russia in a way that you would never have imagined.

 

Previous chart positions:

2010 At The Indie Disco - #2

Love Catherine The Great!

#15

Speeding Cars

Walking on Cars

 

 

Album: Everything This Way

 

Emotional indie now from Irish five-piece Walking on Cars. “Speeding Cars” got a lot of airplay at the start of the year and looked like it was going to be a breakthrough hit for them, but alas it was not to be. Still a great song, with a powerful chorus.

 

#14

Frankie Sinatra

The Avalanches

 

 

Album: Wildflower

 

The Avalanches returned after more than 10 years away with “Frankie Sinatra”. The song, which features guests Danny Brown & MF Doom, sees the band continuing to be their sample-happy selves, with the song sampling an old calypso tune (and quite possibly one of the first ever “diss” tracks), as well as a track from The Sound of Music. Eccentric and brilliant.

#13

Elodie

Ten Fé

 

 

Album: Hit The Light

 

London duo Ten Fé made my favourite song of last year, but with 2016 being such a strong year musically, they have to settle for the #13 spot this year.

 

“Elodie” is a slow building rock track in the mold of The War on Drugs or Bruce Springsteen, that slowly builds until it gets well under your skin. A real delight.

 

 

Previous chart positions:

2015 Make Me Better - #1

#12

Go!

M83 ft Mai Lan

 

 

Album: Junk

 

When M83’s album came out earlier this year, it went well over my head, despite being a fan of the group in the past, due to a mixture of them losing one of the members that made me love the band around their Saturdays=Youth phase, as well as the lead single being bitterly disappointing. However, then “Go!” came around, and I found something to really like. It’s very much unlike anything they’ve done before, yet it still feels like a natural progression. Plus, you’ve got to love that soaring guitar solo.

 

Previous chart positions:

2008 Kim & Jessie - #21

2011 Midnight City - #4

#11

What I’m Trying To Tell You

Suede

 

 

Album: Night Thoughts

 

Well, the best band of all time were always going to make an appearance here, weren’t they? “What I’m Trying To Tell You” is very much Suede at their finest. It’s very similar to the sound that everyone loves them for, yet this song has the swaggering rhythm to it that calls to mind a bit of Franz Ferdinand. Brilliant, as always.

 

Previous chart positions:

2013 It Starts & Ends With You - #3

2013 Hit Me - #13

2015 Outsiders - #6

Great to see Speeding Cars here!

 

Cathering the Great is nice, but I much preferred How Can You Leave Me On My Own :)

The top 10 begins this afternoon. What are hoping/expecting to see?

#10

Short Circuit Breakdown

Town of Saints

 

 

Album: No Place Like This

 

We kick off the top 10 with Dutch/Finnish indie-folk band Town Of Saints. "Short Circuit Breakdown" is a song that combines boogie-woogie rock with stadium-sized choruses and soaring strings to create a rock-hopping masterpiece.

#9

Breakfast

Anteros

 

 

Album: N/A

 

I loved "Breakfast" when we first heard it back in April, and loved it even more when I saw Anteros open their set with it at The Great Escape. A delicious indie-pop tune about being kept up late at night by a partner for all the wrong reasons.

 

#8

Baby’s Alright

INHEAVEN

 

 

Album: N/A

 

On "Baby's Alright", post-punk band INHEAVEN pull off that great musical trick of hiding rage-filled, angry, vitriolic lyrical verses around a rousing sing-along chorus that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the song in question. Favourite moment in the song is the 2nd chorus, when the guitars double up and the song soars into the stratosphere.

#7

Keep Me Around

Turin Brakes

 

 

Album: Lost Property

 

Turin Brakes are one of those bands that have for years been in my category of acts that we feel we would absolutely love if we made an effort to explore their music further, but haven't yet set aside the time to do so (see also: Cold War Kids). Well, in 2016 we made the first tentative steps towards that after falling for love with "Keep Me Around". There's something about that acoustic guitar hook and soaring strings that keeps me listening to the song time and time again. Who knows? This might be the start of a beautiful friendship.

#6

Return to Form

Ciaran Lavery

 

 

Album: Let Bad In

 

 

It almost feels like an artist is tempting fate when he names his comeback single "Return To Form", especially when it comes off the back of a highly streamed, successful debut, although Northern Irish lad Ciaran Lavery need not have fretted, as the song marked a new high watermark for him. It's certainly the most radio-friendly song that Ciaran has released to date ( if you exclude the polite f-bombs on the album version), and calls to mind "I'm Not The Only One" by Sam Smith, although with the choirboy swooning replaced with Lavery's trademark world-weary ragged vocals. Definitely not a return to form, but a strengthening of it.

#5

Break Over You

Draper ft Prides

 

 

Album: N/A

 

I might have been rather hyperbolic and/or incorrect back in April when I insisted that "Break Over You" was going to be a #1 hit single. Although in fairness, it wasn't the worst incorrect prediction to be made in 2016. Still, it made it to #5 in this countdown, which is something, I guess. The Draper/Prides collaboration is a wonderfully powerful synth-pop single that gives you the same kick as 2 litres of Red Bull injected directly into your eyeballs.

 

Previous chart positions:

2014 Out of The Blue - #13 (Prides only)

#4

How To Recognise a Work of Art

Meilyr Jones

 

 

Album: 2013

 

There haven't been many breakthrough artists in the chamber-pop genre for many years now, which is somewhat explicable, given the large expense involved in hiring and touring a full orchestra for the purposes of recording an album and/or touring isn't as easy as it was 20 years ago when there was more money available for developing emerging artists (indeed, it's not just an issue with newer artists - when 90s chamber-pop group My Life Story reconvened earlier this year, they ditched the orchestra altogether).

 

Perhaps that's why "How To Recognise a Work of Art" by ex-Race Horses member Meilyr Jones was such a delight. A cacophony of instruments over Mr Jones' crooning on the subject of the valuation of pictures and ornaments. It helped to catapult the parent album to the Welsh Music Prize, and we are reliably informed that they never stop playing it in Starbucks.