Part 6: SONGS

 

I'm pleased to report, that looking over this list, it's actually been far better for my enjoyment of music than I had imagined, I've just had less plays overall but that doesn't mean my feelings of the songs have changed. In that all 220 songs that I've shortlisted here are songs that I enjoy listening to and have enjoyed listening to at varying degrees of obsession throughout the year.

 

Most of them are not from the charts. Because the charts were awful this year and based on a quick cursory listen this afternoon show no signs of getting better. Says the person who's grown to hate watered-down commercialised RnB/dancehall or poorly-made house. Hell, the biggest song of the year is some warbly repetitive, dull bullshit I can't tolerate and have no clue how the whole world managed to tolerate it for so long. But I'm not here to hate, I'm here to put out all my positive feelings about the music I experienced this year. Because I like doing that. Not gonna stop me being critical of them though. If they deserve it.

 

I have completely abolished any year of release rules, the only rule is that they can't have featured majorly in a previous EOY of mine and I don't even stick rigidly to that, just like, as much as I'd love to give Lone Digger more accolades it was a lofty 11th for me last year so let's let someone else have a turn. So there may be songs from quite a few years ago in here. They're more likely to be from anime soundtracks (hence the warning in the subtitle), random youtube channels, artists I follow, and just like, from anywhere and everywhere. It's mostly BJSC.

 

 

220 . Clean Bandit - Tears

219 . After Dark - Kom Ut Som En Stjarna

218 . The Cat Empire - Wolves

217 . Freddie - Pioneer

216 . Robin Bengtsson - Constellation Prize

215 . Lady Gaga - Perfect Illusion

214 . Van Canto - The Bardcall

213 . Tonight Alive - How Does It Feel?

212 . The Pretty Reckless - Take Me Down

211 . Gramatik - Illusion Of Choice

210 . Foreign Air - Echo

209 . Tokyo Karankoron - Spice

208 . 360 - Lights Out (Will Sparks & Joel Fletcher Remix)

207 . Caravan Palace - Wonderland

206 . Brown Eyed Girls - Warm Hole

205 . Danny L Harle - Broken Flowers

204 . Major Lazer - Light It Up

203 . The Collapsible Hearts - Easy Street

202 . Sergey Lazarov - You Are The Only One

201 . Yu Takanashi - Hikari No Haneri

 

I always pick the cutoff point for talking about songs at the point where I feel I can exclude no more from my original list of songs I charted in my personal chart over the year as well as any I added by discretion. I had 368 of those so all of this lot are enjoyable and since I haven't played many of them much they also feel rather fresh for the most part. Anything (that you, the reader do not know) in here does come with my recommendation to listen to. You know, if you feel like adding some good music to your repetoire.

 

The chart hits here are at the point where I start to find them enjoyable to listen to, I have slightly higher standards for those. Tears was a fairly tuneful Clean Bandit single but I knew they could do better and thankfully they proved that later in the year. Louisa does do an okay job though. Perfect Illusion, I'm beyond really being interested in Gaga beyond a casual listen here and there but lead single Perfect Illusion was initially rather nice and something I felt I could enjoy rather than ignore. Light It Up also got harmed a bit by outstaying its welcome but Major Lazer's foray into stardom hasn't quite found a bad song (and Cold Water was not too far outside the cutoff point).

 

Melodifestivalen hits and Eurovision hits are mostly here from male pop stars, it seems, including After Dark, who provided an unexpected melodic anthem in a rather average Melodifestivalen year, it feels so LONG ago now I've probably underrated the whole cohort in here. Constellation Prize is also very competent but couldn't quite excite me, which might have been why it didn't win. The winner is not going to be appearing, despite making itself annoyingly tolerable to me by the end. Sergey Lazarev has been rather reliably been my 10th-12th favourite song in this year's Eurovision (not that I've checked how many exactly are ahead of it yet but I've always given it one point or nothing in game rankings), a good song, not the best, very slick and polished and Russian. The harsh-voiced Pioneer from Hungary was also memorable and enjoyable. Definitely been far too long since a Eurovision season.

 

I've been aware of Gramatik for some time now but Illusion Of Choice was the first song of theirs that grabbed me in a good way, old favourites like The Cat Empire and Tonight Alive appear with pretty decent tracks if not the best by either artist, same for the Pretty Reckless, who have fallen a long way from reliably being top 100 residents.

 

Hikari No Haneri and Spice are the anime songs to appear here, from Orange and Food Wars respectively. Light years apart in show tone, they're both similiar in song tone though, although the former is a male melodic ballad and the latter is more sweet bubblegum pop. And they're OP and ED. But the tone is similar. I'm trying. The riffs in both of these are brilliant. They're not JUST anime pop, they're good anime pop.

 

Broken Flowers gets back in for its commercial push but not a whole lot as it didn't go the way it should have and the original was better. Did appreciate the reminder of an incredible song though. Echo's a lovely indie-pop song with a strong 'echo' present, and The Walking Dead's unlikely foray into pop song making does well as Easy Street lands at #203.

 

Van Canto's The Bardcall shows off their metal guitar mojo... without guitars. Instead, it's a

through way of acapella guitar imitating and something you should check out to believe.

 

360's Lights Out is one of those songs I shouldn't like but this remix I found through a nightcore channel really endeared it to me, it's got a great beat and the vocals sound very engaging so it kinda lured me in. For quite a few plays. Killer remix.

 

Warm Hole is one of those K-Pop songs we shouldn't really talk about. I'll just give you the hook lyric ('fire in the hole when you touch me down there') and make you make up your own mind.

 

~~

 

Finally, Caravan Palace has Wonderland, a great song with a single push that made me chart it for a short while, but this appearing has made me realise I completely forgot to put their wonderful album (so it's now retroactively 8th) in my albums list. There are always oversights, but this is a big one. Not just Lone Digger, the tunes of Tattoos, Wonderland, Russian, Mighty, were all excellent electro-swing examples. Definitely one I shouldn't have missed out.

looking forward to reading the songs section, and I hope TheFatRat is as high on your chart as it is on mine :dance:

 

'Broken Flowers' :music: serious jam, yes the original is better but I did appreciate the remake; enough for it to make my EOY top 100 once again actually.

 

Also liking the few chart hits from here because I'm a commercial hoe. Except 'Perfect Illusion', which I couldn't get into even after trying a few times.

Tears and Light It Up are both fantastic tracks, great to see them here :wub: The former is my favourite Clean Bandit song to date although Rockabye isn't miles behind.

 

Justice for Frans tbh x

I can confirm TheFatRat will be coming up quite a ways away. (and does Fran need justice? :P)

 

also we're backtracking back a few numbers as I noticed a few (essential) BJSC entries I never entered into my chart for some reason (and I've made a couple of upcoming songs double A-sides but really, does that matter?) - and I'm sure there are others I haven't noticed and therefore won't be appearing despite going quite high in my BJSC EOY, honestly, for comprehensive detail my BJSC EOY is right there, and they're going to be in a very different order because I didn't make them on the same day.

 

 

203 . tiasu - Plummet

202 . Trippple Nippples - LSD

201 . Kaleo - Way Down We Go

200 . Evelina - Honey

199 . Wolf Alice - Freazy

198 . Deficio - Egyptica

197 . Cruskin - My Soul To The Devil

196 . DNCE - Cake By The Ocean

195 . Jeff Williams - From Shadows (feat. Casey Lee Williams)

194 . Alisia - Moy

193 . Frances Rose - Dangerous

192 . PVRIS - Empty

191 . Superfly - Kuroi Shizuku

190 . Lukas Graham - 7 Years

189 . Barei - Say Yay!

188 . Ghost Town - Spark

187 . Against The Current - Young & Relentless

186 . Yoko Shimomura - Hikari

185 . BLACKPINK - BOOMBAYAH

184 . Nothing's Carved In Stone - Out Of Control

183 . Javiera Mena - Otra Era

182 . Void Camp - Dead Bodies

181 . Volbeat - The Devil's Bleeding Crown

 

A suicidesheep instrumental, Plummet does just that and was one of the many I could listen to over and over again, I have only one other like it in this section, Hikari, which leaves drops behind for something that sounds straight out of a heroic Disney movie (which Plummet could also be if it was a bit less produced), and I think it's not that far off in its actual intent, but beautiful sounds in both of those.

 

LSD is the first of my 10 BJSC entries to show up, I do love it for its weirdness but it was one of my... more annoying entries. Worldvision entry Moy is above that, a Bulgarian slutjam that has a lot of interesting instrumental noises that led me to it in the first place. It's beaten by Void Camp from that contest, a very weird song, a weird video combination but something I know is good whenever I listen to it - it also includes an unexpected sample (the same one as on Warrior's Dance *.*).

 

Kaleo was a song I liked for a few weeks after seeing it surface the iTunes charts, see no one talk about it and this unknown group, sounding a bit Bastille if anything, and then I wondered why it was getting slightly famous. Cool song. And cooler title. That was probably half the reason.

 

Honey was an exciting Finnish pop song and probably one of the best the nation had to offer this year although not quite the very best. It's joined by Frances Rose, a group with a surprisingly effective pop song at capturing my interest.

 

Freazy, a leftover from Wolf Alice's album, did really well for me at the start of this year. It looks like Lisbon might be getting a new lease of life with me in 2017 now but Freazy was another win from that very great group. Cruskin just ahead was a female rock tune I got recommended through last.fm I believe (possibly the last song I remember that happening with) and ended up really liking - it's a song subject I definitely have no issue with those sorts of bands doing - although I don't really have any issue with them doing any subject - but that's more powerful than most.

 

PVRIS' Empty is their only entry up this high, I liked You & I but had to eliminate it before this stage, I just didn't listen to it enough. Empty is a very lovely vulnerable slow song though so I really liked that. Meanwhile, Against The Current have their first entry of many here with the youthful anthem Young & Relentless, which I listened to a lot to prepare me for seeing them live.

 

Deficio's Egyptica is one of the few trap songs I've gotten really into - and it's mostly because it embodies the ancient, exploratory Egyptian sound really well and any sort of ethnic sound is too easy to get into my brain. More like this for the wider public please.

 

Two fairly unfairly ragged on popular songs I've seen this year have been DNCE's Cake By The Ocean and Lukas Graham's 7 Years. In a year where we were struggling to get anything upbeat at all, Cake By The Ocean was a freaking marvel, by a band who despite industry connections and questionable songwriting skills created a really unique pop song subject and a very fun tune to sing along to. I've been missing these silly pop songs. 7 Years on the other hand, yes, people found the lyrics a bit trite but that's offset by some lovely piano and vocals - I've always liked Lukas Graham's voice and eventually I let the lyrics endear themselves to me. And for a ballad, it wasn't boring. 10, no 100 times more interesting than that gnash thing.

 

Blackpink's Boombayah stands out among the Asian entries for being a rare Korean entry this year, in a year where you could probably expect most of them to be Japanese. It stands out in another way, had it been released a few years earlier it'd be dismissed as a trite club song, faced with the dull and drab pop scene in 2016, this out-and-ridiculous K-Pop song was one of the few I got really excited by - although on here it's sadly remembered for a veto drama more than anything else, it's a right tune. There's Kuroi Suzuku, a Japanese pop song, one I got attracted to for sounding more like an Indila-esque French hit than a Japanese song, it has that vibe and Superfly is a great performer. The only other Asian entry in this section is Nothing's Carved In Stone, the rock group who did a Psycho Pass OP, and you wouldn't know it, as the English-language Out Of Control sounds more like an early 00s American rock anthem than anything else, and definitely not like an anime OP.

 

Similarly (old), the first song from RWBY shows up, from when the first volume came out. From Shadows is the theme song for the Black Trailer, introducing Blake and her life as a vigilante. 'From Shadows, we'll descend upon the world, take back what you stole' is the indicative hook line and it's coupled with some chill-inducing instrumental bits, I only put this so low because it does a few production things I tend to skip and I haven't spam played it like I have the rest.

 

One more Eurovision song from Barei, the joyful Say Yay, the Fall Out Boy-like Spark from Ghost Town that was quite an anthem when it showed up in BJSC, I knew Otra Era from a couple of years ago when it won PJSC but I appreciated the reintroduction of this Chilean beauty into my life, and some hard rock from someone like Volbeat never goes amiss with me and The Devil's Bleeding Crown was quite an incredible outing for them.

 

180 . Eir Aoi - Innocence

179 . ZUN - U.N. Owen Was Her?/Nhato - Way Of Life

178 . Triple T - Born To Be Wild

177 . Justs - Heartbeat

176 . Halsey - Castle

175 . Against The Current - Outsiders

174 . CHVRCHES - Warning Call

173 . Milk Teeth - Brain Food

172 . Pogo - Mellow Brick Road

171 . Twenty One Pilots - Ride

170 . Twilight Force - Riders Of The Dawn

169 . Demagumi Inc - Demparty Night

168 . BanYa - Beethoven Virus

167 . Mai Lan - Technique

166 . David Lyme - Bye Bye Mi Amor

165 . Iveta Mukuchyan - LoveWave

164 . Jeff Williams - When It Falls (feat. Casey Lee Williams)

163 . Kygo - Stay

162 . M.I.A - Borders

161 . White Lung - Kiss Me When You Bleed

 

Eir Aoi's Innocence is from an anime I watched last year rather than this year, Sword Art Online, the same one that Ignite came from. I include it here because after another opening by her made her pretty much my favourite and most reliable J-pop singer and I got back into this in a big way - the only one of Sword Art Online's 4 openings I didn't chart last year and yet did chart this year. It's really sweet and has that wonderful instrumental flourish (just after it's done a spine-chilling chorus no less) all the best anime OPs have.

 

Instrumentals finds another tune, the dark Touhou soundtrack theme for one of the bosses. And actually, though I haven't included it because I never charted, might as well make this one a shoutout for Nhato's Way Of Life which got really into my head, I need to chart more BJSC entries so I don't forget them like this. Just above it, a BJSC entry I remembered to chart, Triple T's great K-Pop party anthem - similar to Boombayah really and it's definitely planned that they're at a similar level.

 

Latvia started a streak of well-produced pop this year with Justs' Heartbeats, while not quite as good as Love Injected, still an impressive and well-vocalled entry for a nation once 'lovably shit'.

 

Halsey's only solo song I've really been convinced by was Castle, a cinematic pop song, admittedly more Lorde imitator than she is normally, but cinematic sounds count for a lot. Another Against The Current follows it, Outsiders is lovely, and has Chrissy's excellent vocals all over it but isn't quite as rocky as I want it to be, I can see how it won over far more people than normal though. Almost TOO rocky is Milk Teeth's Brain Food, but as we know that superlative doesn't really exist in my vocabulary, Brain Food is a short, sharp, exciting female rock song that introduced me to this talented band - I should keep my eye out for more.

 

CHVRCHES had an excellent year for me last year and I wanted to give the few tracks that carried over this year more attention but I forgot about Warning Call pretty quickly if I'm honest although it sounds excellent listening now, a great progressive building tune. Just past it, the wonderfully weird Pogo does a great Lemon Jelly impression.

 

It's hard to choose between all the many great Twenty One Pilots songs to find one to eliminate this low down and Ride is certainly incredibly good (retrospectively Tear In My Heart deserves a better position in last year's EOY) but it's the hardest for me to remember how it goes. Out of those I've shortlisted anyway. Still a huge bundle of joy and a great example of why they're one of the best things about popular music right now.

 

Twilight Force seem to be a very interesting band, mostly specialising in camp power mithril (metal with fantasy lyrics). Naturally, this is something I'm very into. Riders Of The Dawn really sounds like the Riders of Rohan are about to charge into the fray and it's glorious. Meanwhile, something similarly weird and something I nearly sent to BJSC before deciding not even I could take it seriously, Demparty Night is a song done by a Japanese girlband made up of geek chic girls that seems to take the piss out of every cutesy kawaii sugar pop song by trying to outdo them at their own game, complete with Disney-esque riffs. At least, I think they're satirising it. I may yet send it to BJSC one of these days.

 

Beethoven Virus (Nightcore) is everything it sounded like and that is AWESOME. Classical, nightcore, instrumental, evocative imagery coming through the music, an easy 18 for me in instrumentals and one I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of. Continuing to go through the weird section, Technique. One of Pitchfork's weirdest offerings ever, the M83 collaborator made her own mark with a ferocious accusing track that attempts to... moisturise, take breaks, take computer breaks, and hide the drops, god help me there's a hidden message in it. And another BJSC hit, Bye Bye Mi Amor is from the 80s but I had so much fun discovering this disco-pop song in November I'm awarding it a place regardless - that probably makes over half the songs in this section not actually from 2016.

 

Actually from 2016, LoveWave was another highlight of Eurovision, even if it took me a long time to get used to the unusual structure, but only in a similar way to Sia's weird structures. Now I'm all for the future of Eurovision to sound like this. At least some of the songs.

 

The only RWBY song in here from Volume 3 and therefore from 2016, the opening When It Falls promised a much darker and desperate RWBY through its sound. Calling back to earlier songs like Red Like Roses ('maybe it's red like roses, maybe it's a pool of blood') Mirror Mirror ('mirrors will shatter') I May Fall and general darkness ('misery and pain for all when it falls'), it's got some incredible lyrics and a dark, robust rockier sound than earlier songs, the vocals are a little bit harsher than they used to be, so it's a dark song. We got that. It's so far the only RWBY volume 3 song I've really gotten into, although I'm sure there's more from Casey Lee and Jeff waiting for next year (when I'll be adding in Volume 4 songs as well I bet).

 

Kygo's small hit Stay eventually hit me quite well, although not his best this year, it's still got all his trademark great sounds and Maty Noyes does a good job with it. Borders was something I nearly put in the tail end of last year but saved for this year, its powerful video and typical hard-hitting M.I.A lyrics, 'what's up with that' on numerous human constructs, principally borders (which I think so many people in our country could do with getting less uppity about), questioning why we're so keen to make divisions that shouldn't be there. I love M.I.A when she does stuff like this - I hope her message reached some ears who can do something.

 

White Lung was a really incredible discovery I made from Nuggets, hard and harsh, very Pretty Reckless and hence one of the best forms music can take. I should have listened to it more outside of Nuggets, it could be a favourite if I keep it on playlists - I feel so alive listening to it.

 

160 . Brown Eyed Girls - Brave New World

159 . Highasakite - Golden Ticket

158 . Twenty One Pilots - Lane Boy

157 . Wiktoria - Save Me

156 . Lindsey Stirling - The Arena

155 . John The Baptiste - Socila

154 . Beautiful Bodies - Ravens

153 . Claudia Kane - Einstein

152 . Illenium - Fortress

151 . Jonas Blue - Perfect Strangers

 

The better half of Warm Hole, Brave New World shows off the real strengths of Brown Eyed Girls, comparatively innovative compared to the rest of K-Pop and with similar militaristic instrumental flourishes that made Sixth Sense such a triumph. K-Pop's had a fairly good year up at the top.

 

Golden Ticket builds on the incredible longing pop that Highasakite showed themselves capable of on Since Last Wednesday, it's joyful in its expression and a track I'm definitely glad I got into for a short while. They're not always good, I struggled to get into Someone Who'll Get It and I wasn't so into Samurai Swords, but this elated beauty of Scandipop is one of the best I've heard that area of music do lately.

 

Lane Boy, says 'don't trust a song that's flawless', so what do I do with it? It feels perfect, I just have to spread out 21P songs somehow. Like Ride it's got some great bouncy instrumentals, intriguing fast flowing lyrics and a good rock chorus. I can't praise these guys enough. There's still three more of them to come.

 

Save Me by Wiktoria is an impassioned cry of a pop song, and one of the highlights of this year's Melodifestivalen, due to her unusual vocal style (almost TOO screechy but unique enough to be interested in listening to it) and backing choir.

 

The return of Lindsey Stirling was heralded by The Arena, something that's fairly usual for her but of course that means very amazing upbeat and ferocious violin dubstep. Always good.

 

The opposite of nightcore, something I'm always into, is apparently daycore now. Because I guess that makes sense. Socila is a form of another song, still obscure, in slow motion. And from memory when I went and checked that song out (it's so memorable, I'm sure you can tell by me telling you the name), this slow motion version is awesome. It feels a bit team rockit, the way it plods along, still energetic, still going somewhere, and it's just a really wonderful track.

 

Ravens instantly spoke to me. It always reminds me of The 100 as I was watching it at the same time as this came out, but it could fit with the plot of many fantasy shows, all the talk of ravens taking flight, it's really quite inspiring. A bit. But it's a really compelling song and stuck with me from one listen of Beautiful Bodies' album.

 

Einstein has some awesome lyrics, very befitting of the great man himself and it's unusual I'd say that about a pop song, all the talk of time machines and black holes, I think he would have appreciated it. The classy, slow appeal, helps with that. Definitely a song I was glad to discovery from BJSC.

 

Fortress, like Spirals last year, sticks with the tried and tested method of wispy high voices over a progressive instrumental - that's always a good tactic for modern dance music to use.

 

Similarly, in the world of chart music, Perfect Strangers partially redeemed Jonas Blue for his crimes earlier in the year by being a pretty good dance track. Not forgiving him totally yet but both this and By Your Side were enjoyable songs so he's making at least some good out of his rise to fame.

Lane Boy is a nice inclusion, definitely one of my favourites from Blurryface. Also nice to see CHVRCHES make an appearance here, although I must say I far preferred their style circa 2013.

Oh this chart is great so far Iz, I look forward to seeing the rest, so much great stuff not from the UK charts, a bit like mine :lol:

 

Technique was such a fresh BJSC entry <3 and U.N. Owen Was Her? was mad but genius, I loved it from the first listen.

 

Lots I don't know so your commentaries on them have me intrigued!

Oh this chart is great so far Iz, I look forward to seeing the rest, so much great stuff not from the UK charts, a bit like mine :lol:

 

Technique was such a fresh BJSC entry

 

Lots I don't know so your commentaries on them have me intrigued!

 

Mmm, yeah, exactly, in fact I think the section of 10 that I'm doing right now has no chart hits in it at all. :lol:

 

Thanks, both of you, it's good motivation to keep going. (and yeah Rich, check out any you have a mind to)

 

 

150 . Ani Glass - Y Ddawns

149 . Fiestar - Mirror

148 . Ecca Vandal - Father Hu$$la

147 . Ling Tosite Sigure - Abnormalize

146 Kids Of The Apocalypse - Better Life

145 . Raye - Shhh

144 . 3-nen E-gumi Utatan - Question

143 . Maceo Plex - Mirror Me

142 . Beware Of Darkness - Dope

141 . Dolly Style - Rollercoaster

 

A Welsh-language indie beauty, Y Ddawns struck me in that I didn't really expect it to strike me, but the incredible Celtic sound carries over to it and it's really beautiful. Similarly beautiful, a bit more upbeat but relying on a strong instrumental undercurrent, Fiestar's Mirror is the best I've heard that particular K-Pop group do to date.

 

Mirror songs are often really good (for reasons I suspect have to do with the identity crisis apparent in most mirror songs) and that's mirrored in Maceo Plex's Mirror Me, a seven minute epic with dark stabbing synths and an accusing voice that I always look forward to hearing. Similarly harsh, and sounding slightly like it's talking about some corrupt Russian Orthodox priest, Ecca Vandal's Father Hu$$la uses a similarly unusual voice from Ecca to keep my interest into an amazing track.

 

Abnormalize is a bit of indie-rock, a bit of progressive metal, it uses a wispy slightly pop voice, it's a real mix of genres and not a song I'd ever have expected to be fronting an anime (having said that, I've just got to Death Note's second opening and well... that kind of tops everything else). I slightly prefer Abnormalize to the second opening for Psycho Pass, Out Of Control, it's not as anthemic but it's a more unusual song overall and that seems to be the theme of this section for sure.

 

Slow and grandiose in its subtlety, Better Life explodes into a half cinematic banger, half that lazy-indie-rap sound that remains so compelling, a wonderful return for an artist I didn't expect to hear more from.

 

Raye has been someone to make me feel good about the future of British pop as for once, I think she's not boring and dull, but rather has a comparatively interesting singing voice and more importantly does lots of little digs and swings in her songs that make it sound a lot more worthwhile, Shhh is a great example of this, the way it builds to that grand climax is lovely.

 

The first song from Assassination Classroom to show up here is Question, slightly more serious than other openings, I love getting chills as it pans over each student in the opening reel, and the building lyrics (translated of course) of 'and just when I get warmed up' as it leads into the chorus. The only reason it's lower than the main two I love is the chorus line of 'question, question' (this in English) took me a while to get used to - it makes sense for the story but feels a little like a sudden stop musically.

 

Dope is a really energetic rock song that sounds like the White Stripes reborn. At least I think so. It has pulsating guitars, it's really upbeat, it's lovely to listen to, and Beware Of Darkness just for that are one of the best bands I've discovered this year.

 

And after the triumph of Hello Hi last year and the... triumph(?) of lyrics that Cherry Gum was, Rollercoaster, well, it was awesome seeing Dolly Style back again. And Rollercoaster... it didn't stick with me as much because MFest feels so long ago now but it's certainly well worthy of a place in the discography of the most strange pop band Sweden's produced for a while

 

140 . Eclipse - Runaways

139 . Courage My Love - Stereo

138 . Danny L Harle - Ashes Of Love (feat. Caroline Polachek)

137 . Midnight In Monaco - One In A Million

136 . Pegboard Nerds - Emoji

135 . Elle King - Ex's and Oh's

134 . Argo - Utopian Land

133 . Holdviola - Vagta

132 . Galantis & Hook n Sling - Love On Me

131 . Primal Scream & Sky Ferreira - Where The Light Gets In

 

I am of the strong opinion that Melodifestivalen always needs a good glammy rock band (especially if it's a schlager song disguised as a rock song) to spice up the variety of options the Swedish people have - even if they'll only once in a 2007 choose that option. Mainly because it vastly improves my enjoyment having something to contrast against the hordes of (admittedly mostly also good) pop songs and that's why I loved 2013 so much because everything turned on its head that year. Sadly, in 2016, Eclipse were the lone flag flier for this sort of music and they weren't REALLY a patch on past glories like Outtrigger or Dynazty, but they did deliver a solid rock anthem that sounds amazing a year on. I don't see anything that looks like it'll be in this genre at all in 2017 sadly unless Roger Pontare goes for that sound this time, but maybe there's a name in there that I've missed that'll give me something like this.

 

Stereo builds on the great songs I've heard Taahino fling my way lately from Courage My Love, much more pop than I've heard from them before but it's strong musically and while not as good as Skin And Bone is still brilliant.

 

From Forever reaching as high as #11 last year, Danny L Harle hasn't been quite as flawless this year, I didn't like his Carly Rae Jepsen song but this, with the lead singer of Chairlift on vocal duties is a strong dance song that basically is most of the things I like about him without being quite as transcendental as Forever was.

 

Midnight In Monaco, I don't quite know how to express how I love this, it has a non-stop synth bassline over the song, the band name evokes an urban night... thing, it's a fab piece of synthpop I guess. Fortunately, with Emoji up next, I can just do this for :D :dance: :yahoo: :cheer: :kink: :dancing: :funky: - that's the most emoticons I've used for years and even though it's for a reason I still feel dirty. But it's great seeing Pegboard Nerds back with a proper banger that does weird things with drops all over the place that somehow work brilliantly and come together for a great tune.

 

Ex's and Oh's, a pop hit early in the year, I had been sort of interested in Elle King after the quite good America's Sweetheart, but Ex's and Oh's was a huge improvement, making use of her unusual notable vocals in a cool swish way, to make a guitar-pop song that is really alive. I wish it had been even bigger, there's not enough of this personality-filled excitement on the charts.

 

This year saw the first time Greece has sat on the sidelines of the Eurovision final and unfortunately, it was with one of their really good songs. They're normally high-quality but seeing a song with a really interesting flowing eastern instrumental, a hook line that in 'we're the rising sun, join with us for a utopian land', feels really cool and inspirational, running in the video, some rapping which wasn't actually that bad, some Pontic Greek being spoken (god knows non-English language, particularly dialectic ones are rare enough to be treasured at Eurovision these days), it ended up being one of my favourites of Eurovision this year and seeing it rejected was... less than ideal.

 

Proving non-English superiority, my favourite from this year's BJSC Worldvision was a beautiful Hungarian pop song by the name of Vagta, which made use of an amazing pop voice, a shimmering backing track and held vocals to create something wonderful.

 

Galantis had two of my top 10 last year. Maybe it's because they're not quite as fresh a name but they haven't QUITE lived up to those lofty standards this year although they've made a good job of it - Scandidance is one of my biggest weaknesses in popular music. Love On Me was very fun in the last quarter of the year when otherwise I was pretty much completely ignoring the charts more than I ever had before.

 

Primal Scream are a band that I occasionally really like something from - I especially like Country Girl from back in the day. This duet with Sky Ferreira, quite an unusual and eye-catching collaboration, is quite the incredible duet that I spent quite a few weeks getting into but sadly left behind and it's only just returning to it now that I realise how brilliant it is. The interloping between singers is some of the best, the track feels fresh and exciting with synths and instrumental backing pouring all over it - a hidden gem I'd say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the most recent section I like;

 

139 . Courage My Love - Stereo

138 . Danny L Harle - Ashes Of Love (feat. Caroline Polachek)

137 . Midnight In Monaco - One In A Million

136 . Pegboard Nerds - Emoji

135 . Elle King - Ex's and Oh's

132 . Galantis & Hook n Sling - Love On Me

131 . Primal Scream & Sky Ferreira - Where The Light Gets In

 

 

Elle King is probably my favourite of the section to be honest

 

130 . Bastille - Good Grief

129 . Celtic Woman - Tir Na NÓg

128 . Lights & Motion - The Spectacular Quiet

127 . ManuElla - Blue And Red

126 . RMB - Spring

125 . Jeff Williams & Casey Lee Williams - Time To Say Goodbye

124 . The Chainsmokers - Don't Let Me Down

123 . Simone - Heart Shaped Hole

122 . filous - Feel Good Inc (feat. LissA)

121 . Lemon Demon - Touch Tone Telephone

 

Often underrated by me in that I underestimate how much I like it until I listen to it, Good Grief is actually a great return for Bastille, not quite as special as Pompeii but cool to see them back. I can't really resist Celtic sounds with the implied grandiose ancient traditions such sounds have (and given Oonagh is German, it melds two cultures I myself have heritage in, that's a pattern that's gonna get continued), so Tir Na NÓg, a song about going to the Celtic heaven, the land of youth, being very joyful, it's wonderful.

 

I placed Lights & Motion in my top 200 last year for Fireflies and almost should have put them a bit higher so seeing them in here again is no surprise because they bring forward some of the best post-rock one can imagine. All of the best parts of that wonderful genre are evoked here. In that The Spectacular Quiet is a stargazing, contemplative, dreamy tune that gets you lost in thought as it plays quietly building in the background before exploding into a wonderful array of sounds, which is the key principle of post-rock and why I always want to add more great stuff when I find a gem. There's not much in here but when I find the tunes I like I really get attached to them and I'm attaching myself to this one like with Fireflies.

 

Blue And Red continues Slovenia's line of competent Eurovision entries, a bit country pop and a bit corny on the lyrics but that's not the worst thing to have, somehow 'how can I mix red and blue together' feels rather poignant. I don't know how my mind works, but colours are good and symbolic.

 

RMB, a 90s dance track, with clearly some classical influences as it stabs the synths down brightly into an upbeat seasonal tune was something I got rather into after its appearance in BJSC, something I was very glad to add to my repetoire of amazing 90s dance.

 

Time To Say Goodbye, the second volume opening for RWBY from the 2014-2015 of it, highlights that things will not always be rosy in the RWBY world 'there's a point where it tips, there's a point where it breaks', 'there's a line that we'll cross and there's no return, there's a time and place no bridges left to burn ANYMORE', 'our enemies are gathering, the storm is growing deadly' 'now it's time to say goodbye to the things we loved and the innocence of youth' all set to a pounding epic female rock beat. I think there's no question that I was going to love that.

 

The first of three from the most unlikely highlights of popular music this year shows up in the form of Don't Let Me Down by the Chainsmokers. Far from their ignominious start, they've spent this year making dance tunes with messy and interesting drops while calling on the vocal services of a different member of the horde of Lorde-alikes that are bubbling under the pop scene right now. Don't Let Me Down features one of the most pop of those, Daya, so feels the trashiest of the three, but the lyrical idea of Don't Let Me Down, the video imagery of the Chainsmokers marching towards Daya on an unimportant country road, makes this for me. Don't Let Me Down may be outside the top 100 but the other two are going to be some of the most major of players from the popular music catalogue this year. Consistently the creators some of the happiest and least boring pop songs this year.

 

What I wish I could be announcing as Denmark's entry, I share the feelings of basically everyone that Simone would have been one of Denmark's best Eurovision options in years. Heart Shaped Hole shows off some lush vocals, a ballad drawout that feels perfect and a steady beat that combines to produce one of the most interesting pop midtempos I've heard this year.

 

I've ragged on tropical house covers of popular songs a lot this year so it's partly surprising that I have one up this high when it's covering one of my favourite songs ever but also not surprising. I love the layout of Feel Good Inc as a song so I'd like it whoever sings it (original is still 100 times better but I'm still keen on this), and filous & LissA do a vocal-muffled breakdown in place of the rap to make this version a bit more unique and it all feels pretty respectful and I think that it never looked like being a hit or even at all outshining the original helped that. A good summer tune.

 

Finally, Lemon Demon produced a fairly ordinary song by his standards (that's just me remembering Ultimate Showdown a bit too much) but Touch Tone Telephone is still pleasingly weird and an upbeat synthy-indie song with great lyrics namedropping Leonard Nimoy, ancient aliens, claiming to be an expert, it's all about being inside the mind of a conspiracy theorist. A humorous look at that of course, but he never goes off-message.

Missed LOADS here but my favourites include Stay, Cake by the Ocean and 7 Years. Ex's & Oh's is great too, never expected it to become a hit but I'm glad it did, a pleasant surprise and something different compared to most chart hits!

^many thanks guys, btw x

 

 

(Jain - Come should be around here but it's not in my list, who cares about numbers anyway)

120 . Lia - My Soul, Your Beats

119 . Nightcall - Dead V (Vocal Version)

118 . Royksopp - Never Ever (feat. Susanne Sundfor)

117 . Samir & Victor - Bada Nakna

116 . Sofi De La Torre - Colorblind Cruisin

115 . SMILO - Weight Of The World/Young Again (see, who cares about numbers)

114 . St Lucia - Dancing On Glass

113 . Mssingno - Scope

112 . Riton - Rinse And Repeat

111 . Ghost - Square Hammer

 

So Jain, a very capable French hit that I should have shortlisted for this, it was high in my BJSC EoY (quick reminder that while I'm generally trying to keep a similar order to that it's failing spectacularly because I made the orders on different days), a bouncy cool pop song that's going in my playlist anyway.

 

On to more songs and we reach the first anime song for a while, My Soul, Your Beats, the opening song for Angel Beats. The plink plonk of the piano that this song is built around hits right home with images of that wonderful series, while Lia is a singer who hangs around the background of rich instrumentals and sings delicately without overtaking that, creating something really lovely and emotional.

 

Dead V is has a deep lush background instrumental that does simulate an imagery of a dark nightly city, so atmospheric, while the vocals from Dreamhour add a lot more urgency to this lush track.

 

Running With The Sea is one of the best tracks of the last few years so clearly Royksopp recognised that and brought back the wonderful Susanne Sundfor for another go, this time on a much more upbeat song, with her vocals layered all the way around the track coming at you at a ferocious pace. Couldn't be more different from Running By The Sea but is similarly amazing.

 

On the other end of the credible scale, I was ashamed I liked Bada Nakna as much as I did, rooted as it was in an excuse for homosexual men the world over to hyperventilate when the two guys singing it went topless in front of all of Sweden. And by a duo who had penned an ode to a god damn group selfie the year before. But it's a really catchy tune that feels really heroic given its trashy origins, I wish it had done slightly better in the final as it was a track that really grabbed me when I didn't expect it to and that's sometimes the purest love you have for music.

 

SMILO were a wonderful band in Melfest, proving a rare exception to the quality level boybands jumping on the tropical house bandwagon in being rather amazing with Weight Of The World. They continued it with Young Again, one of the most alive and joyous Avicii pastiches I've had the pleasure of acquainting myself with.

 

Fast-paced pop has been doing well here, because it's exciting and exciting is good. Colorblind Cruisin is a pop song spitting lyrics faster than many well-flowing rappers do, yet feeling very calm and "cruising" despite that. Great song.

 

St. Lucia still hasn't topped September but he's done a good job of putting out quality tunes and Dancing On Glass is no exception, a whirlwind of synths and I'm always good with a whirlwind of synths. Another return for me from MssingNo, after the cute carefree sound of Xe2 that I loved, Scope is just as good and exudes a similar attitude, light computerized compelling vocals coming in over a really unique backing track to create a track that I'm definitely always 'stuck on'.

 

The breakfree song from Riton was the best I've heard from them, a rhythmic dance song that adds in more elements into its deliberately repetitive sound to create something that builds (again, that's always really good) before it rinses and repeats and creates a new iteration of the building. Basically what Fatboy Slim's Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat SHOULD have sounded like.

 

I haven't been aware of hard-rock band Ghost before Square Hammer but clearly I should be paying more attention as Square Hammer creates a sound that sounds like a return for mid-00s rock bands, a bit like a slightly harder 3 Doors Down but with even more frenzied urgency and riffs descending into the dark (are you ready to swear right now before the devil) chorus. Definitely a rock song I found essential in the last months of 2016.

Lights and Motion <3 Both this and Fireflies were such wonderful tracks that I still play a lot today, the parent album they're from (Chronicle, if you're interested), I unfortunately found a bit too samey outside of those two. He released some new stuff last year as well if you're interested, was a slightly less epic feel than the two aforementioned but still all you could love from Post Rock!

 

Excellent BJSC stuff so far, asides my own entries, Y Ddawns & Square Hammer were both highlights and the chart definitely needs more hits like Ex's & Oh's

 

I have started Death Note as well, but never finished it for...reasons. An excellent anime though, and yeah that was where I got The WORLD from, brilliantly epic theme song *.*

Lights and Motion if you're interested, was a slightly less epic feel than the two aforementioned but still all you could love from Post Rock!

 

Excellent BJSC stuff so far, asides my own entries, Y Ddawns & Square Hammer were both highlights and the chart definitely needs more hits like Ex's & Oh's

 

I have started Death Note as well, but never finished it for...reasons. An excellent anime though, and yeah that was where I got The WORLD from, brilliantly epic theme song *.*

 

I will definitely check some more Lights & Motion out, thanks for the link - I can always use more good post-rock tracks, even if they aren't as good as those two. I've tried getting into bands like God Is An Astronaut and Explosions In The Sky but haven't found anything I super love yet.

 

I had started racing through Death Note (from the beginning to remind myself of where I'd got to) on sub when I wrote that and I'm now almost at the end such is its addictiveness when you really get into following up its cliffhanger endings. The World is brilliant indeed but the second opening is something else (pretty ill-fitting as well but iconic) entirely.

 

 

110 . LUH - $ORO

109 . Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix)

108 . Twilight Force - Flight Of The Sapphire Dragon

107 . Parade Of Lights - Feeling Electric

106 . Vesala - Tequila

105 . BLVCK CEILING - WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)

104 . Kero Kero Bonito - Break/Trampoline

103 . Hilight Tribe - Free Tibet (Veni Vici Remix)

102 . Lindsey Stirling - Hold My Heart (feat. ZZ Ward)

101 . Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz - Midnight Gold

 

$ORO has a really strong instrumental bassline helped by some weird and noticeable vocals that buoy it up throughout the grindy wondrous first half. That sort of beautiful sound, classical riffs hidden in harsh sounds is really quite beautiful for me, I count team rockit's aura as one of the base tracks for this sort of sound but LUH is a more weighty and dramatic song of that type and you feel all of it.

 

I Took A Pill In Ibiza, one of the year's most unlikely yet biggest hits and one that spawned a cult of discussion over the incredibleness/audacity of a one hit wonder actually returning to the forefront of pop and having a second hit by talking about how terrible it is to be a one hit wonder. Helped of course by SeeB, Ibiza is melancholic and depressive and yet feels good to listen to as... and this was important in my #2 of last year, Road Of Resistance, it tells the story of the musician singing it and that's so important to do when you can. Helps add meaning and weight to it. Also it's a good warning against ruining your life to take a pill. Because doing drugs is bad, kids. (this from someone who's never used and never planned to, this song or not)

 

Camp power metal is a speciality of mine. So discovering a band called Twilight Force had done a track all about a Sapphire Dragon and set it to power metal with band members dressed up as elves and using Disney-esque riffs... I was floored. The singer looks very much like Thor too, so it just adds to the whole fantastical elements of it. Something that's hard to describe until you actually listen to it. But those instrumental riffs are completely celticly amazingly awesome.

 

Feeling Electric I first heard in 2015 but dismissed it pretty quickly, I came back to it this year in BJSC and it sounded so much better, all Smallpools-y and alive, the sort of indie-pop anthem that I really enjoy seeing coming out from a band like that.

 

Tequila is I think the highlight of Finnishness this year, but it has most of the things I love about Finnish pop, airy vocals, a title that sounds completely at odds with the tone of the song which can be just as good as a title that totally fits sometimes, as long as the title's interesting, and Tequila's not a normal title for a song unless you're Doop. But yeah, builds really well and is a total tune.

 

WVFFLIFE's remix proved the power of witch house, not quite at Izetta levels of power but close enough, the drops, the choral voices doing work all over the place, it was one of the few times I got totally enraptured with this strange subgenre.

 

Kero Kero Bonito's single outings is in two - this was originally supposed to be Break as that was what I charted but well, Trampoline was almost better so I just decided to them both, both great forms of pop, Break about the amazingness of taking a break in the middle of whatever you're doing, Trampoline about totally letting yourself go. I mean, it's not that innovative but interspersed with KKB's trademarks of computerized fluffy pop and random Japanese words, it becomes something quite brilliant.

 

Free Tibet is something I really don't need to say much on, if you've heard it, you'll know what it is and why it's here, if you haven't, you have yet to discover one of the greatest moments of your life, go youtube it. Dance song descends into Dharmic chants that bubble along in twists and turns so unexpected you treasure it forever despite its length is probably all I need to say.

 

Lindsey Stirling did a lot more vocal tracks on her album this time and I don't really mind this, I love her instrumental but a good vocal track of hers can be really good, as this one with ZZ Ward proves, fast and with tons of violin swishes as per normal but with ZZ singing some of her more poignant lyrics (don't need a man to hold my hand, I just want one to hold my heart), which, any time someone does the love song in a slightly unexpected way, I'm cool with it.

 

And the last song to fall outside my top 100 which probably is a top 100 if I haven't forgotten anything else is Georgia's wonderful Oasis-inspired Eurovision entry, proud recipient of the British seal of approval on the night of Eurovision, a surprise qualifier to haunt the dreams of all the pop fans and a banger of an indie-rock track besides. It wasn't so great for me at first, but it grew and it grew hard.

liking quite a few of these (the ones i know anyway), 'In Ibiza' was one of my fave UK hits of the year for the reasons you mention as well as SeeB being brilliant on the production.

 

Also love 'Free Tibet', 'Never Ever', 'Ashes Of Love' and 'Mirror Me' (didn't expect that to end up in anyone else's EOY)

HI IZ ;O

 

Here's what I know and like from your chart so far:

 

220 . Clean Bandit - Tears

215 . Lady Gaga - Perfect Illusion

205 . Danny L Harle - Broken Flowers

204 . Major Lazer - Light It Up

196 . DNCE - Cake By The Ocean

190 . Lukas Graham - 7 Years

163 . Kygo - Stay

151 . Jonas Blue - Perfect Strangers

135 . Elle King - Ex's and Oh's

132 . Galantis & Hook n Sling - Love On Me

130 . Bastille - Good Grief

124 . The Chainsmokers - Don't Let Me Down

109 . Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix)

 

Predictably that leaves a list of your most commercial choices! :lol: Pleasantly surprised to see Perfect Illusion feature. Looking forward to your Top 100! :D

liking quite a few of these (the ones i know anyway), 'In Ibiza' was one of my fave UK hits of the year for the reasons you mention as well as SeeB being brilliant on the production.

 

Also love 'Free Tibet', 'Never Ever', 'Ashes Of Love' and 'Mirror Me' (didn't expect that to end up in anyone else's EOY)

 

The vocals on Mirror Me are just so lush I had to keep coming back to it.

 

HI IZ ;O

 

Here's what I know and like from your chart so far:

 

220 . Clean Bandit - Tears

215 . Lady Gaga - Perfect Illusion

205 . Danny L Harle - Broken Flowers

204 . Major Lazer - Light It Up

196 . DNCE - Cake By The Ocean

190 . Lukas Graham - 7 Years

163 . Kygo - Stay

151 . Jonas Blue - Perfect Strangers

135 . Elle King - Ex's and Oh's

132 . Galantis & Hook n Sling - Love On Me

130 . Bastille - Good Grief

124 . The Chainsmokers - Don't Let Me Down

109 . Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix)

 

Predictably that leaves a list of your most commercial choices! :lol: Pleasantly surprised to see Perfect Illusion feature. Looking forward to your Top 100! :D

 

Well of course I do half expect people to only know the more commercial stuff and that helps me as I can often get some decent commentary for it. And I can have much more of a moan at them. Anime and BJSC stuff >>>> mainstream every time though. I'm surprised I liked Perfect Illusion enough to include myself, she had some work to do convincing me and she just about managed it.

 

ON TO THE TOP 100 *.*

 

 

100 . Different Heaven - OMG/Nekozilla

99 . Big Black Delta - RCVR

98 . Shpongle - Around The World In A Tea Daze

97 . Myth & Roid - Styx Helix

96 . Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out

95 . Blackbriar - Until Eternity

94 . Animal Collective - FloriDada

93 . Aelyn - Give Love A Try

92 . Jeff Williams & Casey Lee Williams - Caffeine (feat. Lamar Hall)

91 . OneRepublic - Kids

 

Different Heaven has been quite a revelation in my post-Alan Walker wave of discovering fast-paced NoCopyrightSounds music, both OMG and Nekozilla are tunes that demand you keep coming back to them again and again with stabby synths, a feeling of elation and huge build to huge drops. This sort of unabashed dance is what I want to see more of.

 

Big Black Delta is more of a dark synthy affair, with two vocal styles competing for track space as it delves classily towards a drop of a chorus about the couple's inability to communicate. It sounds so good. Also sounding so good, and also something for which my thanks must go to Dandy*, Shpongle's Around The World In A Tea Daze is an 11 minute introduction to one of the most delightfully strange musical acts I've ever come across. I forget how good it is until I'm listening to it, there's so many sounds that come up. It's kind of like Free Tibet but less audacious about the sounds it's taking from world music and instead just introduces them classily, at one point it really sounds like you're ascending the steps of a Buddhist monastery, at another, a world choir joins in. Or a chant. It's something amazing one can drift off into.

 

Probably the highest anime song in my list that was actually released this year, Myth & Roid's Styx Helix is a beautiful modern pop song that jumps straight into the emotional part that, by watching Re:Zero you associate with the uplifting moment after a load of sadness and desperation. There's a lot of emotions mixed in here. The structure's a little weird but the lyrics, 'oh please don't let me die, waiting for your touch', 'and our memories are gone', relating to the anime, but also feels really emotional. I suspect my enjoyment of it is heavily tied to the anime but it's still a great song. While I'm here I've also got directed onto Re:Zero's first opening 'Redo' which is a great heavy rock tune that we didn't hear enough of because most of the time there was so much going on in the show they cut the opening.

 

One of the best hits of the year as it introduced the majority of the world to the incredible Twenty One Pilots if nothing else - but it's also one of the better downbeat songs this year by not being totally f***ing boring. Stressed Out isn't the most lively twenty one pilots song, most are far more lively, but for a proper introductory one with 'my name's Blurryface and I care what you think' and 'wish we could turn back time', it hits my good lyrics button and my story of a band button. The instrumental is really chill and swish too. It might have suffered a little from overplay but it's still one of the best things that the charts have seen for a long while.

 

Blackbriar is one of those bands that if you know me you immediately say 'that's an Iz band'. Female rock, hard beats, operatic voice, slightly harsh, it's all there. Probably shouldn't be a surprise that this was on my radar before it showed up in BJSC. But that solidified it for me as a favourite as it often does, making me notice the amazing voice Ms Blackbriar wields and getting right into her struggle until eternity.

 

FloriDada was a result of my yearly indie catchup at the very beginning of 2016 - which has become an annual thing for me, completely coincidentally colliding with the voting rounds of the Indie Song Of The Year. FloriDada is an incredible bouncy indie-pop tune that dispels basically all of the image of overly avantgarde experimentality I saw when I saw the name Animal Collective and instead replaced it with a fun experimental image. It's still outside the norm but it's still very much a true anthem.

 

There's far too little trance around here nowadays, as I'm sure any snake will tell you. So to see one come in the form of an artist who also seemed to have a face and personality to go with it, well that's kind of catching me off guard from what I expect from trance and it of course makes for a great combination as Aelyn pleads for you to give love a try just one more time, all the poignant considering what country she comes from (actually, the last few years have been somewhat INCREDIBLE for Ukrainian music, I never noticed any outside of Eurovision before 2014 but they have tons of great band and singers hitting the scene now, I hope that's not a direct correlation but they're on top of it in Kyiv regardless).

 

Caffeine is something rather ridiculous to contrast the sublime from Aelyn just behind it. An ode to both coffee and RWBY team CFVY, it's three singers going one after the other on a track that almost seems out of control but keeps it on the tracks, first with the harsh singing vocals of Jeff Williams ('listen up strap in notify your next of kin'), followed by the amazing cool girl vocals of Casey Lee Williams ('I'm a cheetah on the plains I'm a highway star, a supersonic princess in a million-dollar car, blood on fire pumping through my veins, weaving in and out as I'm bolting through the lanes' - one of my nominations for most epic single stanzas of a pop song anywhere). The energy in both of these verses pumps up and up until you get to the chorus, all like you're taking a huge caffeine shot. Then in-house rapper Lamar Hall comes in for a verse and he has the weirdest verse of them all ('grab yourself a mug cause I made a fresh pot, come and get a dose of my kick-ass java, fueling your addiction with this thick black lava' NOT A DICK JOKE KLAXON). The song is even accompanied by a load of violence and fighting in the show as CFVY come in to save the day. It's weird but addictive as all hell. Like the drug it's talking about.

 

Finally in this section OneRepublic's Kids is an example of a band I keep writing off but shouldn't, because Kids shows their willingness to evolve with current trends and I got addicted to it for a few weeks after I first heard it. It sounds like Smallpools' Dreaming a bit (as so many songs do these days but what a band to emulate), the backing a bit like M83 (again, what a band to emulate), and despite an obviously much bigger band picking up tips from comparative minnows reeks of consumerism, I can't help but enjoy this anthem a lot.

 

90 . Thomas D/Franka Potente - Wish (Komm Zu Mir)

89 . OVERWERK - Toccata

88 . Gfriend - Rough

87 . DJ Snake - Middle

86 . Ignea - Alga

85 . Eluveitie - The Call Of The Mountains

84 . Christopher Tin - Walayo Omoni (We Overcome The Wind)

83 . Ramin Djawadi - Light Of The Seven

82 . Tegan & Sara - Boyfriend

81 . Kishi Bashi - Ode To My Next Life

 

Komm Zu Mir is something quite incredible I'd never come across before this year, accompanying a film that's obviously a classic, but being a breathy haunting track in half in German which makes the entire thing more tense as the male voice gets more and more desperate while the female voice sounds more and more dead inside - a compliment because this is art. German is awesome in songs sometime.

 

A toccata is a classical music term for a piece that is designed to exhibit the technique of the performer as the intent is that they run their fingers over the keys so lightly it barely touches them. That fits half of what Toccata is about as it samples from Bach's most famous work of that name, but it doesn't account for its dark mood, it's like a dark twisted version of a virtuoso's display of talent by adding synthwave against a classical backdrop. This turns it into such a wonderful sound and there's so much of it. Very fulfilling discovery.

 

I think that Rough is my highest K-Pop song, in a year when I wasn't so up on it but based on 2017 so far will probably come back to it at least a bit. Rough however was the rare... ahem... diamond in the rough in 2016 though, filled with lush and gorgeous strings, a melody that sounds sweet given the girlband, a band I've never heard anything about before or since. It feels so pure and almost Japanese (which is probably why in this most Japanese year of mine, I liked it more than all other Korean songs). An absolute tune and one I think deserved more recognition.

 

A rare chart hit, but DJ Snake has been one of the more reliable big names of late due to his unique production style that even with the push to produce less abrasive music from the stunning Turn Down For What as his record executives recognise he's now has a chance of being successful, resulting in this, he hasn't completely lost it. The strength of Middle is, as always with Snake, in the breakdown, that distorts sounds into something that sounds rather pleasing to the ear. And Bipolar Sunshine does a fairly good job with the vocals. It's a completely different song from Turn Down For What and more in the style of Lean On but it's still exciting enough for now. Which means he's got one up on Skrillex who's just been completely neutered now.

 

Remember that Ukrainian thing I talked about with Aelyn? It surfaces again with Ignea, whose song Alga is a pretty obvious bid to make it the national anthem of Ukraine ('no one can take our land from us, this is our home') - and I would wholly support that, it's suitably grandiose, with an entire orchestra involved, and it's got a great rock beat as it shows everyone how symphonic metal should really be done. I compare their sound to Nightwish, and believe me when I say, that is NO SIMPLE COMPLIMENT from me, this could fit on Oceanborn or Wishmaster with ease.

 

Another symphonic metal track, this time venturing into Celto-Germanic folk as well so basically a lot of my loves summed up in one, I'd had Eluveitie's commercial pop-esque offering The Call Of The Mountains on my radar for a while but it really hit me this year out of all years and I had some great times listening to the unusual instruments and the sweeping landscape images that accompany the video, one of the finest examples of how to do a track that more people than just symph metal nuts like myself will be on board with.

 

Everyone remember the awesome intro track to Civ IV? Baba Yetu featured the talents of American composer Christopher Tin and the Soweto Gospel Choir, on his album Calling All Dawns, a concept album filled with similarly great world-classical music about the day/night cycle which is probably top of my list of albums to actually god damn listen to one of these days. He, in 2014, released a followup album about the water cycle called The Drop That Contained The Sea, inviting all new choirs and singers from all over the world to participate in that. We Overcome The Wind is the closing track on that and he invited back Soweto Gospel Choir back to make what basically amounts to a 12-minute Baba Yetu. It gives me serious chills every time I listen to it and well deserves a place in my top 100 for it. You can imagine, like with Baba Yetu that it transcends what it's supposed to be about what with the language (this time in Lango rather than Swahili) being indecipherable to my ears and instead a wall of beautiful sounds envisaging a bright future for all of humanity. That is this song. It's slow for part of its unwieldy length so I wouldn't rank it above Baba Yetu nor is it my favourite (second, by a narrow margin) from The Drop... but it's an awesome composition from an amazing composer.

 

Nor is it the only composition from an amazing composer in this section, this one being far more relevant to 2016. If you've watched Game Of Thrones Season 6 you'll know what a true triumph Light Of The Seven was in the episode where it premiered and I shall say no more about that. The music itself, it's slow and foreboding, it's effective even on first listen as although songs generally sound less notable on first listen as you need to get used to where the notes are going this coming out of nowhere to suddenly make you realise that it's playing is an effective part of its beauty. It then delves into some faster more heartracing stuff and eventually puts themes of the main theme into it, a masterful composition and probably one of the best modern classical soundtracks. I am really positive for my #80-ish songs, but just you wait.

 

Boyfriend marks the first song of that title that I've thought is any good and indeed, rather love it. It's ironic because it's sung by Tegan & Sara, who are otherwise noted lesbians and so shouldn't have any business singing about that but it's not what you think it's about from that title, it's about a relationship that has to be hidden. That makes more sense doesn't it. I love Tegan & Sara in all incarnations, through their pop sellout era (which this continues with bouncy synths) to their indie-rock era (and this also has a couple of elements of this as it feels less perfectly produced than Heartthrob did), so good return for them. Still yet to get an album other than Heartthrob because I'm a bad fan of theirs.

 

Clearly an album track off a Kishi Bashi album, Ode To My Next Life nevertheless came to my attention through BJSC and it was a great discovery as this has more complexity to it than I Am The Antichrist and is almost (but not quite) more emotional, as it goes through tons of sounds and heavy St. Lucia-like synths to create something that sounds utterly fantastic, a huge wall of synth sound that I need to hear more of. It's a brilliant upbeat journey and one that deserved a huge video and a lot more recognition than it got.