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21. Alessia Cara – Here
22. TWRR – Water Frozen
23. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
24. U.S Girls – Woman’s Work
25. Olly Murs – You Don’t Know Love
26. Xan Griffin - Utopia
27. Daydreamer – Travelling Light
28. Crywolf - Akureyri
29. Coldplay – Up&Up
30. Kontrust – Sock N Doll

Quite the varied bunch here, just before we get to the business end of the top 20. As ever, there's some BJSC discoveries in here - Kontrust...so this was a thing, at first it was just a novelty of a music video with sock puppets which intrigued me, but the crazy style of the song, the rapidly changing vocal styles and tempo and genre changes (even going REGGAE-esque at one point) and the chorus that sounds hilariously like Fire Burning by Sean Kingston, it's so bonkers and refreshing, this would make an amazing Eurovision entry for Germany or something no? Ryuichi Sakamoto, actually being over fifteen years old, isn't technically from last year but was one of the most excellent discoveries, an extremely haunting and poignant (I guess given it was from a film that starred David Bowie :'() piano/orchestral instrumental that never needs to switch up to remain gripping throughout, and TWRR is a gorgeous dark-thoughts-at-sunset-on-the-mountains kind of song that has a beautiful gradual build up in it's instrumental and the sombre vocals, doesn't sound a million miles away from Linkin Park and I would kill for a song this good from them these days.

I've been very into long songs this year, as I've made quite clear in this thread, but one song that definitely backed this up was my own BJSC entry Daydreamer, Travelling Light was a true instant love first listen and it is still an epic journey of a listen through today. Not a conventional dance song at all, it is like a three part play in a song, so much that it becomes a completely different song by the end of it, complemented by a wonderful moving video courtesy of SuicideSheep (

) the first half seems standard synthy electronic with a dance beat that slowly gathers more layers until a slightly harsher beat kicks in and the atmosphere fades until just a piano and some reflective sad vocals come in, you can feel things start to intensify here and sure enough THAT drop is one of the few moments this year where a song shocked me, this goes on for a solid minute before a reflective piano plays the song out - all over eight minutes and all the time keeping that sad, hopeless feeling throughout, it's a journey not in just song structure but of the gradual intensity of sad, melancholy feelings over a period of time. It's wonderful that music can portray this so well and I simply cannot justify it in writing, needs to be heard to be believed~, Xan Griffin is a similar emotional instrumental, which isn't so much a journey but more a wonderfully euphoric melodic dubstep leap, it certainly lives up to it's name and almost brings a tear to my eye to this day. My second to last BJSC entry to appear here is, sadly one of my least successful of last year, U.S Girls. I charted her in my list last year with Damn That Valley, but Woman's Work was a different package entirely - the version on Youtube is unfortunately only four minutes and that doesn't nearly contain the power and epic building feel of the seven minute version. It shares a title with the Kate Bush song and it certainly resembles her work in more ways than one as well - intense, dark, with screaming strings and banshee-like unsettling vocals and even a choral backing, it's a wonderfully composed thrill ride that again I can't do much justice writing about, I'm not lazy I promise~

Yes, you read that right, Olly Murs is in my top 30, not really someone I go to for exciting music these days but You Don't Know Love was something different to his Capital pandering fluff he's become accustomed to, an intense and a little bit like Dear Darlin' a few years back, clearly quite meaningful and authentically written song with a hell of a chorus, he is just so much better when he's like this, I couldn't believe this didn't get top 10, Gawd, how many more mistakes must you make, Joe Public!!11 Coldplay, fixtures on my chart of the year it seems, make it in not with Hymn for the Weekend - which I'd actually rank right down with my least favourite Coldplay singles, idgi - but the wonderful Up&Up, there are two reasons why it massively clicked with me other than being a typically great anthemic, rousing listen from them -

, it's so so gorgeous and thoughtful, only they could do something that and hearing that song over gorgeous images of turtles floating in the sky amongst aeroplanes just made me love it that little bit more, and also their Glastonbury performance - I will probably regret not getting tickets to see Muse and Coldplay live in the same festival at some point, but still, Coldplay's performance was right up there with my favourites ever, biased probably, but to still see them so full of energy and exuberance and still surprising us after all this time was amazing to see, and such a feel good performance was really all that was needed for a year like 2016, long may they slay all in their wake. Alessia Cara isn't really a genre you see this high up my chart, but it's probably the most relatable lyrics I've heard all year, hearing a song about an introvert that hates wild parties is refreshing not only in the wake of so many songs portraying the opposite of this but also encouraging that someone with an attitude like this can make it big in the music industry without their introversion holding them back, in such an extroverted world, it's something I'm always trying to do as a particularly big introvert. I'm talking about the idea more than the song, but the song is a wonderfully well sang haunting R'n'B number that never loses grip.

On a final emosh note, Crywolf's peak this year for me was the gorgeous Akureyri, naming itself after a place in Iceland was heading in the right direction in my affections but the song is his style in a perfectly formed song - the emotional lyrics in the verses (particularly coupled with the concept of a dream where he's losing his lover) and the longing calling in the chorus when the synths come in always gets me. BJSC helped me get into it, but I actually knew it prior and it really did keep me into his unique brand of melacholy electronic music, and he's one I will still look out for in 2017.

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Yassss, top 20 time etc.

great read so far, yay for songs like Monody and No Money making your top 50 :music: (you do chart a lot of BJSC entries :o)

Hi Chez

 

Oh wow, didn't realise you enjoyed YDKL that much at all. It is very different for him so I can see why so many loved it but I'm quite the fan of his cheeky chappy pop bops so I wouldn't even rank this in his top 5 personally lol. I was expecting it to be a big hit officially too but at least it got good longevity and sold well in the long run :D

 

Starboy was a fantastic comeback for The Weeknd, it just oozes cool factor and I agree that the robot vocals are a great addition. I must say though, I am loving I Feel It Coming even more at the moment, it's such a little bop, sounds amazing when you're walking out and about with headphones in :wub:

Nice to see 'Here' here! It definitely grew on me as I listened to it! Up&Up is nice as well!

Hear, hear! (:kink:)

 

great read so far, yay for songs like Monody and No Money making your top 50 :music: (you do chart a lot of BJSC entries :o)

 

It varies on the year, but I've been a bit out of touch with new chart/blog music this year so I have had to rely on BJSC for a lot of them as they're one of my few reliable sources for new music these days! :lol: That said, there's only ~7 still to come in the top 20, not counting my own.

 

top 20 time ;o

 

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19. Illenium feat. King Deco – Reverie

20. Birdy – Keeping Your Head Up

 

Yep, Birdy is in my EOY top 20, I never thought I'd be uttering that sentence when she released that sacrilegious cover of People Help The People, but how far she's come, Wings (intentional pun aside) was a lovely little ballad that I rekindled my love for when it featured on that advert in 2015, but I certainly wasn't ready for a sound like this - pretty dark and avant-garde-ish by her standards with a fantastic chorus, and sounding like a combination of Florence & Ellie Goulding in the Halcyon era when she was interesting with even a slight hint of Kate Bush in it. It's certainly a sound I can get on board with and it's one I hope she sticks to (even if it got little attention compared to her bland ballads, sigh).

 

And the final of three Illenium entries - I've preached ad nauseam about SuicideSheep melodic emotional dubstep in this thread so I guess I could just sum this up by saying it combines all of those together to make an utter tear jerker. King Deco's vocals (just like on Spirals, the previous song of his I was aware of thanks to BJSC) are just divine and combined with a gorgeous atmospheric drop and some quite lovely lyrics that resonated with me a lot at the time as I felt a little alone and lost in life at the time of first hearing it. Ashes is a great EP btw, listen to it.

 

 

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17. Big Black Delta feat. Debbie Gibson – RCVR

18. Kygo feat. Kodaline - Raging

 

I don't care if it all sounds the same, Kygo remains the best at tropical house, not the least cos it actually feels like authentic tropical house and not some shite watered down version. Still, Raging is actually something quite different, with a more piano led melodic sound and the guest feature of professional Travis/Coldplay mimics, Kodaline really well to complement both artists' styles and the anthemic chorus still slays. I would call this a chart discovery, but it seems like all my favourites just miss the top 40 these days with their best songs :'(

 

And another BJSC entry, or was this a long lost classic from the 80s? You could've fooled me either way, RCVR has such an authentic new age sound with it's pounding synths and back and forth duetting vocals. It flows along marvellously and even has a massive breakdown where it all goes a bit synth-crazy but it's wonderful. It is always encouraging to see that retro styles are still out there even decades after when the sound is past it's relevance.

 

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15. The Flavor - Shosholoza

16. Overhead, the Albatross – Big River Man

 

Overhead, The Albatross had the sort of striking name (and apparently a Pink Floyd lyrics which is even better) that appealed to me and it is definitely my favourite post-rock track I've found this year. It's everything great that I love from the genre, for seven minutes long, it never feels like it's dragging or staying in the same place. It's odd in that it starts at the heaviest it's been with thrashing guitars before toning down to allow all manner of instruments to play a part - drums, bass, piano, strings, even a choir towards to the end before becoming just as epic by the end wt and leave you wanting more, and yes you will see in the

he is playing a ladder, unique choice ;o Srsly worth a listen, one of the most epic build ups I heard all year.

 

Something a little bit different, Shosholoza is one of the most uplifting and fun dance tracks all year, this and RCVR were very close together in my rankings for BJSC 85, this just edges it here but it could've been different on another day. Anyway, the African chants and world music vibes combined with a modern dance is a winning mix, like something that can be played over a The Lion King compilation video. Wonderful :wub:

 

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13. Sleeping at Last – Hearing

14. Paul Cronin – Now Bad Boy

 

Two of the very best instrumentals (or almost instrumentals) I discovered via BJSC this year, in fact I'd almost say best if there wasn't two more to come. And both so different - Now Bad Boy was a hell of a discovery, a completely bonkers, sample and casio keyboard sound effect driven thrill ride back to early 90s rave culture. I really enjoyed it, it's so standout and six minutes doesn't feel long enough for how much fun it is. It never fails to get me in a good mood.

 

Which is the exact opposite to the song next to it - an instrumental purely consisting of piano and strings and based around a single set of chords that builds and builds that is honestly one of the most saddest and beautiful pieces of music I've heard in a long time. It doesn't need anything more than what it is to be so tear jerking, it's certainly not the most uplifting, but it's a perfect track for my more melancholy moments. It made me discover and check out other material from Sleeping at Last (keeping that melancholy feeling with that heartbreaking name </3) and sure enough, this dark, brooding sound (albeit with vocals) is fairly commonplace in their back catalogue, could be an artist I grow to love in 2017~

 

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11. CHVRCHES – Empty Threat

12. Dua Lipa – Be The One

 

These two could technically be classed as 2015 I know, but I didn't get into them until this year so here they are. Dua Lipa did not go in a direction I liked this year after this debut - Last Dance was quite forgettable, Hotter Than Hell did grow on me after a while and I'd rank it as good but Blow Your Mind was terrible and I've kinda lost all my interest in her after this oops :x HOWEVER, let's focus on the shining pop gem in 2016 that will hopefully be a hit in the UK (lol yeah right) second time around, Be The One has everything from stirring production, a desperate feel in the delivery and THAT chorus omg, amazing. If you've got anything like this left Dua, please release it and give me faith your not a one trick pony x

 

CHVRCHES...I've always loved these guys and the last album only reaffirmed with the amaze Leave a Trace last year, the epic Clearest Blue and the very fun Bury It (Hayley or not, idc really), but Empty Threat trumps them all, the electro synth sound and catchy hook still work brilliantly, but it's Lauren's powerful and frantic vocal delivery that really sticks in my mind with this song, reminding me a bit of Gun, it's a quite relentless earworm that still sounds timeless to this day and reaffirms them as leaders in making the finest electro indie-pop music.

 

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-x-

 

Top 10 possibly coming tomorrow! Yeah, I'm rushing a little with this but it'll be worth it with the tunes still to come (or maybe not :x)

Wow some brilliant BJSC picks in this countdown, not least of course Youth (glad there were some huge fans of that one :heart:)

 

Also really like Fate, Ilumbarada & Sock N Doll - 3 very different sounding songs but all superb.

 

Travelling Light definitely my fave entry of your this year, what an epic!

 

Looking forward to seeing what appears in the top 10 ^_^

Incredible stuff lately, Monody and Ilumbarada are of course excellent, really appealing to my love of cinematic music. And the same for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and in a different but very fun way, Kontrust, so glad to see all of those getting a lot of traction in here - and another person whose songs EOY is going to be very dominated by BJSC tracks, will help mine look good when I get around to posting it. Same for RCVR and Shosholoza, both incredible highlights in very different ways.

 

Glad someone else is with me on Raging, one of the highlights of both artists, certainly the best I've ever heard Kodaline do, they complement each other so well.

 

And YES at more people realising the sheer beauty of Empty Threat, one of the best pop tracks this decade.

Hi Chez

 

Nooo at that remark in terms of Last Dance, it's still her best track for me and definitely the catchiest song she's made imo anyway. I wish that was the track getting the re-release rather than BTO but I do like the latter too, it's just not as interesting for me. I'm hoping it actually does something in the charts though because it would be nice to eventually get her album. :lol:

 

Empty Threat was always one of my big highlights from their second album so I was chuffed when it got released as a single. Leave a Trace was still the best of the era for me but this is a close second for me and has an incredibly catchy hook as you mentioned. Bury It was a lot of fun too but unfortunately was my least favourite single from the campaign !

 

:)

Thanks guys, let's gooo *.*

 

-x-

 

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10. films - clone

 

Well that's an artist name that's difficult to google, so comes as no surprise that they're a little bit obscure. I probably wouldn't have known this if I weren't browsing Reddit one night and randomly came across the tag 'Ambient neo-classical' or something. Suffice to say, this caught me attention, at first it was just the visuals - one of the most artistic, beautiful and elaborately constructed short films I've seen in a long time and probably my favourite music video of the year. But after a few listens, the song definitely had enough impact to stand on it's own - though it is the perfect accompaniment to the visuals - opening with a foreboding thudding bass and screeching strings before some very hushed vocals (I can't make out a word of it, but that only works in it's favour), before the guitars join in at the end building to an amazing crescendo. The act themselves are as mysterious as the song is, from what I can make out, they are a Japanese neo-classical/post rock duo that specialise in this sound. I think they definitely could become a new obsession of mine. One of the best Youtube late night finds of the year easily, if you weren't in the most recent UP I sent this too, please do check out this stunning piece of art below:

 

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9. Thomas Bergersen – Empire of Angels

 

One half of my number 1 artist of last year lasts until this year, Two Steps From Hell and their aliases are yet to put merely a foot wrong so far, and this wonder I first discovered this one in BJSC Instrumentals, and ofc. it was a total highlight, the string solo is so gorgeous, even more so when the epic choir and horns come in. In truth, the reason this stuck with me so well was when I heard it's use on some of the Planet Earth II trailers (see there was a reason I did that TV shows list ;o), and how it sounded SO amazing on there and now automatically makes me think of the show and animal montages when I hear it (no such video exists yet but I would love one to be made, wildlife videos with classical music are the best), so certainly worthy of a place here.

 

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8. Hilight Tribe – Free Tibet (Vini Vici Remix)

 

My second favourite BJSC discovery of the year, I feel this is quite well known now around these parts and for very good reason. There isn't much else original I can say about it that I didn't already post in my BJSC songs countdown so I'm just gonna copy/paste that lol

 

Oh so close to being my number 1, but it didn't quite happen, but surely one of the tracks that 2016 BJSC will be remembered for. I've always had a soft spot for Ethan's long dance entries, to me they are more atmospheric and minimalist than boring, however this was just something else. Not content with subtlety at all, it's a rapidly changing musical experience of blaring foghorns, Far Eastern vibes and Dalai Lama chants that you just never know where it's going to go next. I can safely say I have never heard a piece of music quite like this one and I am truly thankful to BJSC for allowing me to discover things like this! Bravo on this year, Ethan, who I've been quite the stan of from afar, they've certainly made this year as the year I take notice of them. This got my 18 Points in the bloodbath that was BJSC 82 and was one of the reasons that made that contest so great, and the fact it won that contest was the icing on the cake.

 

It would be the most unique and brilliant song of it's kind I've heard this year, but somehow there was one that was even better...

 

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7. Shpongle – Around the World in a Tea Daze

 

'And we can take this huge universe and put it inside a very tiny head: you fold it.'...I feel like this lyric at the start of this is reflective of the whole experience, as is the title. This whole song feels like it put all the sounds of the world combined with modern day ambient electronic music and a hell of a lot of drugs into a blender and this was the result. It is a musical experience like no other and truly one you can never second guess - from reciting hindi mantras to French opera samples and Turkish vocal samples combined with a layered ambient instrumental that never stays in one place. That's my best attempt to describe it but really, it can only be heard to be believed. One of my favourite UP discoveries I've ever made easily, and certainly with the artists' material going along this sound, this could be another obsession starting.

 

Listen (and watch, I didn't know it had a video and it's as you'd expect) below (please do):

 

 

(There isn't only super obscure long instrumentals in this top 10, fear not :P)

Edited January 4, 20178 yr by Chez Wombat

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6. David Bowie – Heroes

 

Curveball moment~

 

It was close to around this time last year when the world was shocked by the passing of David Bowie - and sure enough a catalyst for many horrible celebrity deaths of...well heroes, it. His death did prompt me to seek out other material by Bowie, even though I was vaguely familiar, I'd never properly explored. Lazarus was certainly a foreboding and intense piece to go out too and I must check out Black Star, but somehow I'm always drawn back to this one. It's not from 2016, yet it felt so relevant to this year, maybe it's the vague lyrics that reflect that united can succeed over tyranny no matter how hard things get, or maybe it's the incredible vocal performance and the wonderful guitar work, but either way, it almost brought me to tears a lot and is one of the songs I never realised how much I loved until this year, so I feel that it deserves a place and a mention in the memory of 2016 - RIP </3

 

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5. Nayo Hiiragi – Requiem

 

And onto my favourite BJSC discovery of the year, thanks Iz x Again, I unfortunately don't have much else to add that I didn't already write about in my BJSC EOY but still, this is definitely the track that stuck with me the most throughout the year from the contest, the production is ofc. banging and the drops are amazing throughout, though it is the little Japanese vocal samples that get me, they sound so...wistful and they do add a somewhat emotional feel to the track, despite not being familiar with the anime behind it (check out Iz'a anime reviews in his EOY for that x) and that's all I could want from a hard trance track.

 

 

 

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4. Glass Animals – Life Itself

 

This was where the lyric in the subtitle to this thread was, so well done to those eagle eyed amongst you who spotted it~ I hear a lot of standard indie pop tracks when I listen to Radio 1 these days and apart from hearing this basically all the time from them, there is a reason why it stuck with me a lot more. The instrumental is pretty excellent for one with it flying all over the place with it's synths and guitar combos for the intro and bridge after the chorus, and wow what a catchy chorus that is. I kinda like the lyrics too, I related to them a lot at various points and they are refreshingly normal sounding and the rather weird video which could take any meaning was another means in which I invested in a lot. Overall, a rather excellent indie pop track that was a great introduction to them as I'd never been familiar with them prior.

 

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3. Christine & The Queens – Tilted

 

Yeah I suppose this makes me look like a commercial hoe given I first heard it almost two years ago now (!) in it's original form, Christine, and I liked that, it didn't stick in my mind that well but I found it a lovely song. The prospect of it becoming a UK hit seemed utterly alien to me as I was not convinced the public would take to something so eccentric and unconventional, but seeing that just made me love it so much all over again and temporarily regained my faith in the charts along with a certain other song that was charting at the same time. The English version isn't miles better than the original, but at the same time, me understanding most of the lyrics did highlight how wonderfully innovative and beautiful some of them ('I'm doing my face with magic marker' just really gets me for some reason and I don't even know why) are and the wonderful French spoke bridge shows the semblence of the original isn't entirely gone. Furthermore, it's just such a gorgeous, understated beauty with it's minimalism, quirky visuals and vocals and themes that fit in very well with the excellence of Chaleur Humaine, one of the few albums I checked out this year but very glad I did, it adds to the song's wonderful lyrical depth, we did a very good job making this a hit, let's see what other ancient excellent BJSC entries we can dig up to be hits in 2017 ay?~

 

Edited January 5, 20178 yr by Chez Wombat