December 24, 20168 yr Shelter :music: that song really grew on me as I heard it :) Ex's & Oh's is nice as well!
December 24, 20168 yr Shelter's video + song is such a perfect combination, I've seen a lot of anime this year but it still stands out as one of the best stories given the time it has to tell it, I'm very glad to see it pop up in someone else's EOY Excellent choices from the Skallians, and Not Enough Violence and Revolver, and Aelyn, really picking some of the best BJSC hits here.
December 24, 20168 yr Hey Chez! my faves from 81-100: 81. Elle King – Ex’s and Oh’s good thing this was 100x better than 'America's Sweetheart' cos that was awful 82. Porter Robinson & Madeon – Shelter amazing song and video combo :heart: really want to hear more of Porter Robinson next year, one of the most innovative producers of the 2010s. Madeon too I guess. 83. Major Lazer feat. Justin Bieber & MØ – Cold Water this was a bit of a jam even if as you say it was watered down 89. Teengirl Fantasy – Azz Klapz 93. The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk – I Feel It Coming 94. Infinity Ink feat. Yasmin – How Do I Love You 97. Philter - Revolver this was quite a lovely (in its own depressing way) BJSC entry 98. Ariana Grande – Into You 99. Aelyn – Give Love a Try jam :music: 100. AlunaGeorge feat. Popcaan – I’m in Control loved Aluna this year :heart: DUNCE making an appearance here though :no: repent yo sins.
December 24, 20168 yr Author Ariana and The Weeknd my favourites so far! Intrigued to see what else is to come, I haven't spoke to you much about new music this past year :o ... Do stay tuned, there's still some great stuff coming up ;o I am officially a Dunce, soz :ph34r: -x- http://i67.tinypic.com/fdy4cp.jpg 71. Firefox AV – Heart of Mine 72. Gidge - Norrland 73. MØ – Final Song 74. LeMaitre feat. Jenny A – Closer 75. Beyonce - Formation 76. Chainsmokers feat. R O Z E S - Roses 77. BLVCK CEILING – WVFFLIFE (CHVRCN Remix) 78. Moth Equals - Cordiform 79. TIX & The Pøssy Project – East High 2016 80. Kenton Slash Demon - Harpe The section of Danish Os and weird spelling *.* That's a good place to start. MslashO has become a real favourite of mine over the year and thankfully her long awaited mainstream recognition has been achieved without her sacrificing her own sound too much, Final Song isn't up there with Pilgrim or Glass or maybe even Lean On, but it's still a solid song and who doesn't love a My Way style closing song? And the other Scandinavian act...oh my lord, I hate to have my credibility destroyed but TIXX & The Pøssy Project was something a revelation, apparently a genre called Russemusikk which graduates play when they finish college for a month of celebrations, so party music for Norway basically, anyway this is so so terrible, the misogynism, the recycled beats, the autotune, the ROLEPLAYS OF HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL CHARACTERS...Oh lord, it's just so amazing, I'm glad Worldvision gave me the chance to discover this, I recall getting pulled into a similar vortex of Russemusikk by these guys, including one about My Little Pony and Looney Tunes...wow. There's quite a lot of rather odd stuff here, Kenton Slash Demon, with a name like that I was always going to be interested and it was wonderfully dark disco and glitchy instrumental with a slightly unsettlingly odd video to match, put me in the mind of the apocalypse for some reason, a real keeper from BJSC. Also from there is BLVCK CEILING with it's shouty title, this was always gonna be pretty out there and this was a marvellous mishmash of witch house whispers and drops with an amazing breakdown near the end. From the other contest, Gidge is a very different instrumental to what I'm used to, no synths or bells and whistles or anything, just a light percussion beat and horns along with a quite desolate sense during it's eight minutes. Still, it stood out massively, I'm into these long instrumentals this year, as you'll see later~ Moth Equals is another mysterious and intriguing almost instrumental clearly with a hint of Eastern culture laden in there, the beginning words state 'Pay close attention, you might miss something' ;oooo More conventional to an extent, Firefox AV sounds like something CHVRCHES could've released, with steel drums in the place of synths, and that ofc. makes it a glorious affair throughout. I got back into LeMaitre when I heard it's use on a few adverts and even on 4Music, tis a shame it still did nothing chart-wise, but it's still an amazing trumpet-laden behemoth with amazing drops that just keeps you coming back for more. I can get down with the Chainsmokers when their not doing obnoxious 'novelty' or songs that are so dull and watered down that serve no musical purpose apart from being a feature on Spotify playlists, Roses was a bit different with some nice sophisticated production and vocals by (as appropriate to the title) R O Z E S, who I did love a few songs by last year added to that, again blaming joe public for this flopping as they could have kept up this interesting sound had it been successful :'( Finally, Beyonce isn't always to my taste, but I admire her as a relatable, non contrived symbol of female empowerment in this day and age and she has definitely proved herself to be more diverse in terms of styles over the years rather than just radio friendly R'n'B (even if it's sometimes unlistenable, hi 7/11). Nothing showcases this more than Lemonade, definitely feels like her Ray of Light moment in showcasing her as one of the all time greatest female artists, and an extremely gripping movie to match. There are so many different styles from Hold Up to Don't Hurt Yourself to Daddy Lessons to Forward, it's startling but they're all tied together well. I could pick a lot of highlights, but Formation stands out as her distinctive and innovative style that works as an excellent closer to the album. It's a MUCH better version of Run The World (Girls), and that's a very good thing. http://i66.tinypic.com/1zybdc.jpg This will resume after Christmas, Feliz Navidad all <3 Edited December 25, 20168 yr by Wombanta Claus
December 24, 20168 yr Loving Final Song, Cake By the Ocean and Cold Water in the last few sections! Didn't think you'd like the latter actually :o
December 25, 20168 yr Hiya Chez, loving these write-ups at the moment, you have a way with words for sure :wub: It is mad (like you say) how Lemonade is home to so many varying musical styles but it all works so well. I can see why Formation is the highlight for most and I imagine it will become one of her most famous tracks in time but Don't Hurt Yourself is definitely my favourite track, it is so fierce :wub: Happy Christmas !
December 25, 20168 yr Hiya Chez! Some superb songs in this list so far, none more so far than the INCRED Roses :wub: I highly doubt they'll ever top that! Also really loving I Feel It Coming now after not so initially, probably my second fave song of his now after The Hills. Cold Water really is fantastic, even after hearing it so much, love the parts where Bieber & MO are both signing. As for Aelyn well that's hands down one of the best BJSC entries of the year :dance:
December 27, 20168 yr Author Loving Final Song, Cake By the Ocean and Cold Water in the last few sections! Didn't think you'd like the latter actually :o Well, the fact it knocked One Dance off the top did earn it a lot of brownie points :kink: I did hear it a lot over the summer though and I really grew to like it's vibes. Thanks everyone for the comments! *.* Will start checking out other's charts v. soon I promise. -x- http://i67.tinypic.com/dpa1i0.jpg 61. FM 84 – Arcade Summer 62. Orenda Fink – Holy Holy 63. Bruno Mars – 24k Magic 64. Mike Posner – I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb Remix) 65. Essaie Pas – Le Port du Masque un Rigeur 66. Christine & The Queens – Saint Claude 67. Blossoms – Charlemagne 68. Delhi 2 Dublin – Apples 69. Jacoo – The Moments We Shared, I Miss Them 70. The Girl & The Dreamcatcher – Make You Stay Here we see the first two of my own BJSC entries, none of which I even remotely regret sending for possibly the first year ever as they are all still regulars on my listening playlists. However one had to take the fall as my least favourite and that is Delhi 2 Dublin, if only cos it was more an 'omg this is a thing *_*' kind of entry rather than one I instantly adored on first listen. And what a glorious thing it was though - If you'd've told me there was a band that fused together Punjabi beats and vocals with Celtic strings like their name suggested, I'd have laughed but Reddit does throw out the odd stuff like this sometimes. Apples (not sure why it has that name apart from adding to the trippy video which only adds to the fun) can only be heard to believed, it's so so fun and merges the two cultures effortlessly making you wonder how someone didn't do this sooner. Or maybe it's something that only works once, as from the other material I checked out from them and especially their recent stuff (this was released in 2010), nothing's anywhere near as good as this :'( Just ahead of it is something a little different by Canadian group, Essaie Pas with a darkly subtle piece of synthy electronica (translates to 'A Mask may be Required' roughly), the minimalism and desolate atmosphere make it already extremely engaging, but it's made even better by the duetting hushed French vocals and a suitably grand build of synths at the end making this one of the classiest neo-noir style synthpop songs I've heard in a long time and they have plenty of other similarly wonderful songs from what I checked out. Of other's song contest entries, The Girl & The Dreamcatcher is one of the best duets I've heard in a long time, in the sense it gets everything a duet should be right, perfect harmonising, equal contribution from both singers and a wonderful male-female love story told from both sides. It should be kitsch, but it manages to avoid that which is to it's credit. Orenda Fink pretty much does the same as that, but ticking all the boxes as an emotional, heartfelt ballad rather, stripped back to the max and with some profoundly heartbreaking lyrics ('We come in to this world all alone, and we leave with not much more' </3) and a wonderfully hushed tone, it's a truly captivating listen. FM 84 is pretty much straight out of an 80s video game, it whirls and swirls around in it's synth wonderland and remains a joyful listen throughout. Like a lovely day out at the arcade. Not from this year, but while I loved Saint Claude by Christine & The Queens when it was entered into BJSC last year, it was only this year following the success of Tilted and me checking out her album where I really started to rediscover what a gorgeous track it is, especially with the French lyrics and that chorus, more on them later but suffice to say, that's not the last we'll be seeing of them. Finally, another late night Youtube find, Jacoo is the same artist as Children of the Hollow Earth from earlier under his main alias, and as the title suggests, it's another tear-jerker, a stripped back piano with background electronic effects and distorted vocals that really grabs you by the heartstrings and doesn't let go, almost like a electronic Ludovico Einaudi, while it's not my favourite piano instrumental I found this year (;o), it's one I still come back to a lot, link Let's get to something a bit happier shall we? I'm not really into a lot of 'landfill' indie music these days, I guess as I'm not exposed to it as much and it all kinda blends in, but occasionally something comes along that interests me, and Blossoms with it's synth riffs definitely and intriguing song names definitely does that. I'm yet to check out more from them but this was some nice, catchy guitar music to keep me interested in the genre moderately. Also here is *gasps* a UK number 1, I didn't think I'd have any of them here but actually I have three out of eleven, which I suppose isn't bad for the worst year of number 1s ever, anyway, there's a reason this is here as it's so different. The tag of one hit wonder is pretty much (royalties aside) a curse on your career forever in the music industry, and for Mike Posner to not only acknowledge that in a song but also ironically lift him from that tag is nothing short of genius. Some of the best lyrics of the year and the production from SeeB stands out as far more slick and polished than some of the drab beats produced this year. A song that SHOULD have been number 1 is next to it, Bruno Mars is certainly good at what he does, his ballads are certainly a lot more classy and refined than many of the same genre, yet they are painfully overplayed and I can barely listen to the likes of Grenade/Just the Way You Are these days, but Uptown Funk showed that that sound suited him much better and I'm thrilled that with 24k Magic, he took that sound further. So MJ-esque, it's a funk-tastic, slickly sung entry that wouldn't sound out of place in a 80s disco as well as a nightclub today. I do hope that this not being as big a hit as I hoped doesn't cause him to stop doing this sound as it suits him to the ground. http://i64.tinypic.com/2zxp4hu.jpg Edited December 28, 20168 yr by Wombanta Claus
December 27, 20168 yr Final Song, Formation, 24K Magic, I Took A Pill In Ibiza, Le Port du Masque un Rigeur, Saint Claude and Charlemagne all incredible :wub:
December 27, 20168 yr Lovely to see I Took A Pill In Ibiza in this bunch, definitely one of the standout dance tracks of the year and it was very deserved of its #1 peak :D Also liking 24K Magic and Saint Claude, although I definitely prefer Tilted to the latter! Arcade Summer was a rather good BJSC entry, I think it just scraped my points as far as I'm aware. I really loved Charlemagne, it was awesome to see Blossoms do so well this year, they're one of my favourite indie bands of the moment. Blown Rose is also pretty decent but nowhere near as good as the aforementioned :wub: Awesome countdown so far!
December 27, 20168 yr Mike Posner is definitely an interesting case as he's one of only a few people to be one-hit wonders twice :o (he does seem to have disappeared again)
December 28, 20168 yr Author Indeed, the rare two hit wonder :magic: -x- http://i68.tinypic.com/riang5.jpg 51. Crywolf feat. Charity Lane – Neverland 52. Fraunhofer Diffraction – Fate 53. Prince – Purple Rain 54. Pogo – Mellow Brick Road 55. Plaitum – Jagwa 56. Marsheaux – Safe Tonight 57. Bear’s Den – Auld Wives 58. Ani Glass – Y Ddawns 59. Illenium feat. Joni Fatora – Fortress 60. Justin Timberlake – Can’t Stop the Feeling! We get to the BJSC entries that REALLY made an impact on me now (there's less of them as we go up, only the very best get past the top 20), Fraunhofer Diffraction with it's rather random choice of sample of an old Kelly Clarkson song that I'd almost forgotten about turns it into a synthwave opus with bleeps and blares popping up all over the shop and remaining constantly epic, the only thing that was missing was a video, especially the optic equation it was named after x, Ani Glass is one that crept up on me all year, apparently from the Pipettes, I'm not used to the Welsh language in songs, but it was quite wonderful, though it was the production, reminding me so much of Kraftwerk's The Model in places that it actually spurred me on to download that, true story, that pulled me in. All in all, a sophisticated synthpop song that is ridiculously addictive. Speaking of retro synthpop, Marsheaux is an absolutely perfectly composed 80s style song that always make my upper lip quiver, it's so beautiful, helped by the gorgeous softly spoken female vocals along with the backing helps create such a tragic instrumental, almost a wall of sound, that gives me the shivers. What is DEFINITELY a wall of sound is Plaitum, but a glorious one. You know it's coming but that explosion of witch house echoing sounds with longing, almost possessed vocals when the chorus hits is just awe-striking, a treat for the ears indeed. Pogo is apparently famed on Youtube for making these kinda glitchy compilations based on samples of animated films which I'm ashamed for not finding earlier as they are quite ingenious, but this Wizard of Oz themed one was a wonderful discovery that lead me into that and is still a bop that never feels repetitive and just worms it's way into your affections with each passing sound. I really got into Illenium this year thanks to various MrSuicideSheep uploads making my life for a period of the year, it was wonderful emotional melodic dubstep that took many forms, more of which are to come, Fortress is subtle in it's drops but mainly wows through the incredible power and emotion of Joni Fatora's vocals. I entered this to BJSC mainly on peer advice and the hunch that it would appeal the most out of the three main favourites of him (the other two still to come), I do actually prefer the other two if just cos they had that little bit more to them, but all are wonderful. Also doing class melodic dubstep, Crywolf, being responsible for one of my songs of last year, was someone I had to check out more from this year and his new EP was a good place to start and it has been generally more of the same sombre, dark electronic ballads with clear emphasis on emotions, but that's no bad thing at all, it's wonderful. Neverland is a great example of this - a six minute epic of a duet with a building crescendo in much the same style as Home We Made until the more subtle drops and even a children's choir come in to continue to add to his unique brand of emotional music. Prince, should probably address that, 2016 being the utter shitstorm it has been with so many deaths, I feel it is only fit to reflect the loss to the musical world in my chart of the year by putting these here despite not being 2016 songs as I did get back into these material not just in the name of tribute, but because some songs just sound so much more profound and masterful (and ofc. heartbreaking) after death, they can even take on a new meaning. I'd never massively checked out Prince's material before (I guess as it wasn't on iTunes or Spotify) and was familiar with Purple Rain but hearing the full eight minute opus on the chart show was such a moment and that and particularly When Doves Cry stayed with me all year. He's not the only one on this list in sad circumstances but still, RIP to a legend (I will add an honorary inclusion of George Michael's Careless Whisper here as well, that feels especially profound now :'() And finally two that don't really link to the others in the paragraphs - Bear's Den were another very good alt-rock discovery from Radio 1, beautifully composed with strings mixing with guitars and somewhat ambiguous but heartfelt lyrics make for a touching listen and not a million miles from early Keane and finally Justin Timberlake, yeah, it was overplayed as hell so was docked for that but I can't help but love it - I have a soft spot for JT anyway and though this isn't anywhere near his best, it always filled me with joy over the summer every time with it's carefree and cheesy lyrics. True, I'm naturally drawn to emotional sad music as this countdown shows, but I need songs like this sometimes to cheer me up and in a gloomy year like this, truly happy songs like this make you just try and be positive and music that achieves a change in mood is always great. http://i65.tinypic.com/2py89ci.jpg
December 28, 20168 yr Hiya Chez As you say, I'm glad R1 discovered Bear's Den otherwise I probably would never have done so, their tracks remind me a bit of new Mumford & Sons and they're all rather gorgeous. I think my favourite from them is Agape though :wub: :D
December 30, 20168 yr Author http://i64.tinypic.com/2vtuzqq.jpg 41. OVERWERK – Toccata 42. Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne Marie – Rockabye 43. T2Kazuya – Youth 44. TheFatRat feat. Laura Brohm – Monody 45. HAELOS – Earth Not Above 46. Kitchen – Time 47. The 1975 – The Sound 48. La Femme – Sphynx 49. Leon Vynehall – Blush 50. Vendredi sur Mer – La femme a la peau bleue A double whammy of Jadakissnia BJSC entries here, they weren't my favourite country of the year for nothing, OVERWERK very much tried and tested in terms of sounds I'm very much into, but that's no bad thing, in terms of Halloween-esque synth electro-orchestral instrumentals, this is certainly an amazing one, a six minute epic with rising and howling synths, whirring organs, spooky sounds and even a choir coming in at the end, the one thing it was missing was visuals as I'd have loved to have seen one. HAELOS with that weird letter combo I can't type was something very different, sounding epic in a different way, an epic building indie number that builds to an amazing string laden climax, definitely a standout piece of Pitchfork-blogpop type music. Other BJSC entries here include the charming and subtly alluring French vocals of Vendredi sur Mer, I think it's fairly clear from here that French hushed vocals ticks all boxes for me, particularly accompanied with a light orchestral backing, which makes it perfect as a belated soundtrack to Casablanca or something, marvellous. Oh look at that, there's another one, La Femme also charms with those French vocals but this one accompanied with a trippy, epic video and whirring synths and a grandiose structure that makes it quite the experience as well as great song. And surely 'epic' dance music cannot match any other dance track than TheFatRat's track no? The trademark bumping synths are accompanied with pipes and a triumphant orchestra, that along with the amazing background listed above, can make it apply to pretty much any film involving a huge fantasy or Sci-Fi adventure to the unknown. The vocals don't add a lot, but they complement the epic feel of the song so they're still fine by me, still quite the riveting listen to this day, very well done on this one, Dan. T2Kazuya is the sort of errative wistful melodic dubstep thrill ride that I love finding on YouTube trawls, so I was very happy to see someone else send this one to BJSC as it is still a very enjoyable and somewhat emotional listen. Though the ultimate experience of a lengthy song is Leon Vynehall, Blush is an eight minute thrill ride with constantly building polished synths and keyboards and the occasional cry of joy, it's definitely helped by the psychedelic and amazingly arty video that makes this something that wouldn't look out of place at an art student short film festival or something, quite the bop as well~ I've been getting into the glorious sounds of post rock a lot more these past few years and Kitchen , a nine minute epic guitar and string led beauty that once it's reaches it's peak is unmatched in epicness, was a wonderful addition to the epic music discoveries I often find on YouTube and I'm very happy to list it amongst my (minor) BJSC successes this year (though I will admit that seeing the hilarity of the name on Buzzjack after the spam filters was a primal influence for me to send it to BJSC). Finally, The 1975 returned this year after me almost forgetting the tune of life that was Chocolate back in 2013 with another catchy little indie pop jam, very poppy but still with their trademark, ahem, sound, it wormed it's way into my affections over the course of the year. And officially my highest UK number 1, the wonderful Rockabye by Clean Bandit came at a time I was almost losing interest in them as a group due to them being dirty sellouts and ditching the baroque pop sound for dull dance, but this Tropical dancehall flavoured track is a real earworm, and complemented by both vocalists working alongside each other well, even if lyrically it seems a little gradiose and Sean Paul's cries of 'DAILY STRUGGLE' and 'single mums how you doin' out there???' remain just a tad ill-fitting. Very pleasing return to the 'normal' Christmas number 1 as well and a long running one I'd be happy with...I don't wanna shower it with too much praise though, as I'm still pissed I never put money on it to get Christmas number 1 and get £200. Cry. Edited December 30, 20168 yr by Chez Wombat
December 31, 20168 yr Author sorry, I'd hoped to have got further by now, have underestimated how much work I can put off over the holidays, this will finish very soon next week -x- http://i65.tinypic.com/3358h2t.jpg 31. Galantis – No Money 32. Celtic Woman feat. Oonagh – Tír na nÓg 33. Kids of the Apocalypse – Better Life 34. Salt Ashes – Save It 35. Ortiga – Illumbarada 36. How I Became the Bomb – Ulay Oh 37. Javiera Mena – Otra Era 38. The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk – Starboy 39. tiasu – Plummet 40. Illenium feat. ECHOS – Afterlife There are only two songs here that aren't linked to BJSC in some way, so let's start with them. The Weeknd and Daft Punk make their second appearance (admittedly I have massively got into I Feel It Coming lately so maybe that would be higher in time, but I'm more familar with this so for the purposes of the chart it's higher and all) with the new single that really grabbed my attention and it didn't just need the presence of Daft Punk to do that, Starboy has some of the slickest production of the year and retains a lot of that ~street swag that made the Weeknd a big deal anyway, and the autotune and robot voices fit in perfectly without sounding forced, indeed, I wonder why he didn't rope Daft Punk in earlier as he is FAR better at doing this than mushy ballads. And Galantis, I will not hear anything against them frankly as they do bonkers, colourful dance music that is almost completely distinctive to them which is a relief in this sea of copycats jumping on the latest genre bandwagon and thus they are SAVIOURS. No Money did take it's time to grow on me and isn't quite up there with the tune of life Peanut Butter Jelly but it's still got all the elements of that along with some awesome steel drums and vocals pitched all over the place. It won't convert any new fans, but it didn't need to in my case ;o We have three of my own BJSC entries and one 'nearly' one - Illenium, we met him earlier with my actual entry from him but this stuck with me better, it's exactly the sort of emotional SuicideSheep Melodic dubstep sound that I look for on that channel, starting as a haunting ballad with the gorgeous Florence-esque vocals from ECHOS, who I really need to check out more from as everything I've heard has been amazing, before a desperate cry in the chorus and the mother of all drops comes in taking this stratospheric, appropriate for the wide scale of the song's themes I guess. It's six minutes of pure awe inspiring bliss, I didn't think Illenium would top it but believe it or not, there is one more STILL to come from him. Onto my actual BJSC entries, tiasu I think I included in this chart last year, but with me entering it to BJSC this year, it impacted me more and stuff. Still a wonderful instrumental straight out of Final Fantasy/Street Fighter/Sonic/Mario/Pokemon *delete as appropriate* and the sort of instrumentals that I honestly have become so accustomed to, my year's almost not complete without video game style dance instrumentals. How I Became The Bomb...funny story with this one, I actually found it on my Facebook news feed of all places (I have really cut down on my use of that this year massively so at least there's some impact there I guess), and sure enough it was linked in one of those various Buzzfeed clickbait articles like 'this man and woman haven't seen each other for thirty years, their reaction when they meet is SO emotional' etc. BUT it is a very inspiring story - well known visual artist, Marina Abramovic, was holding a show 'The Artist is Present' on where she literally stared at people that came to sit with her (idk it's art, look it up) and her husband Ulay, whom she hadn't seen for thirty years since they decided to split up after both walking the duration Great Wall of China and meeting in the middle(art stuff as well I guess), and their reaction in the video was their first contact since then. It's ever so emotional, and despite this all being in 2010, these randomers made a song about it to go on top of the viral video (link) which went viral and even charted in the Hot 100, I ofc. completely missed this and this was my first experience of it this year, but I just wanna talk about the song - obviously context dependent, but it's still gorgeously emotional with the simple lyrics and production throughout that complement the video and building into a rousing finale, all very :'( and <3 (although debatable with the latter as Ulay actually ended up suing Marina soon after oops). Anyway, moving on, Kids of the Apocalypse returned this year as well after years of just disappearing and even revealed their true identity in their videos, one of my favourite acts due to their mystery and intriguing sound and apocalyptic theme around their act, it definitely felt appropriate for them to return this year and Better Life was something different from the quite uncategorisable epicness of Masters of the Sun and Empire, an urban tinged, Gorillaz-esque slow number, with chilling chanting in the background, it was more painting the portrait of the aftermath of the apocalypse and the video with it's animated crossover definitely painted that. It was a different style, but it was still just as chilling and epic as their last material, and I hope they stay with us and surely 2016 has proved that the apocalypse seems a little bit closer than we first thought. Onto other's entries, Foreign language entries done right in BJSC entries can be incredible - the best of which are shown here, Javiera Mena's juxtaposition of Spanish vocals with refined synthpop works excellently and a sound I haven't really been exposed to before from the Spaniards. It was a rightful massive BJSC smash...or perhaps it could've been bigger, srsly I'm still stunned this wasn't a runaway winner. Ortiga rightfully WAS a big smash and completely deserved, I've used epic a lot in here but in this case, it's more than warranted - baring more than a few similarities to the glorious Baba Yetu, another BJSC entry, an amazing building piece of world music, starting with quiet male vocals before a whole choir brings the song to life, it's triumphant and gradiose on a national anthem scale, so I'm surprised it's so under the radar but I'm very glad to have discovered this as it is uplifting beautiful music at it's finest. Celtic Woman, strange name for a group but still, I was vaguely aware of but wasn't expecting such a fun and fantasy driven ride, the chorus is probably the biggest earworm of the year and the celtic strings are just irresistible, if there was ever a song where you wanted to experience what it was like sailing to a fantasy Celtic forest where people sing round the fire and ride on horses in white robes, this will bring you quite close to that. Salt Ashes wasn't foreign but - and I've said this about this a lot but I will repeat it - it is probably the most timeless BJSC entry this year, this could honestly be a hit in any decade, the restrained yet quietly sad vocals carry the song, impressively for a electronic dance song, and you really do feel if the general public knew about this it would go on to be a huge hit. Tis a shame that's restricted to BJSC, but nonetheless, still a haunting and stunning listen. This is where I start to waffle a bit. http://i66.tinypic.com/20tmo9c.png Edited December 31, 20168 yr by Chez Wombat
January 1, 20178 yr Hi Chex from your recent sections 31. Galantis – No Money 32. Celtic Woman feat. Oonagh – Tír na nÓg 34. Salt Ashes – Save It 36. How I Became the Bomb – Ulay Oh 38. The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk – Starboy 40. Illenium feat. ECHOS – Afterlife 42. Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne Marie – Rockabye 45. HAELOS – Earth Not Above 46. iamspamspamami– Time 47. The 1975 – The Sound 48. La Femme – Sphynx 49. Leon Vynehall – Blush All pretty good! especially Clean Bandit since I still love that too this day! Edited January 1, 20178 yr by HarryEzra
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