Howdy, disco citizens!

 

It's now December, which means that it's officially Listmas. Which means that it's time for my 9th annual rundown of my 50 favourite songs of the year, which for this period is 2016. Which song will find it's place on the wall of fame, joining my favourite songs of the past few years? Past list toppers have been:

 

2008. Vampire Weekend - A Punk

2009. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

2010. French Horn Rebellion vs Database - Beaches & Friends.

2011. The Vaccines - Norgaard

2012. The Asteroid's Galaxy Tour - Heart Attack

2013. Public Service Broadcasting - Signal 30

2014. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Eurydice

2015. Ten Fé - Make Me Better

2016. Bear's Den - Auld Wives

 

And last year - the top 10 went a little bit like this:

1. Bear's Den - Auld Wives

2. The Strumbellas - Spirits

3. Teenage Fanclub - I'm In Love

4. Meilyr Jones - How to Recognise a Work of Art

5. Draper, Prides - Break Over You

6. Ciaran Lavery - Return to Form

7. Turin Brakes - Keep Me Around

8. INHEAVEN- Baby's Alright

9. Anteros - Breakfast

10. Town of Saints - Short Circuit Breakdown

 

And to whet your appetites, here's a few hints as to the songs that made the top 50 -

 

- 8 songs are by Northern Irish artists

- 2 songs are cover versions

- 5 songs made the UK Top 75 during 2017

- 3 songs first came to my attention through the BJSC (excluding my own entries)

- 13 artists have appeared in our Top 50s before, including three former #1s.

- You will not believe what my #50 song is.

 

So. speculate away!

Looking forward to this! I'm sure there'll be some songs I like in here, my favourites from your 2016 Top 10 are Spirits and Breakfast :D

And we kick off with -

 

#50

Galway Girl

Ed Sheeran

 

 

Album: Divide

 

This may come as a surprise to see Ed Sheeran make my top 50 of the year - and believe me, it came as a surprise to me too. Galway Girl is Ed Sheeran's tribute to an Irish girl he once met, and contains a sample from trad band Beoga, and is just one of those songs that makes you happy every time you hear it. Just don't try to compare it to the Steve Earle song of the same name.

#49

Give Me A Reason

Ibibio Sound Machine

 

 

Album: Uyai

 

What would the “Ghostbusters” theme tune sound like if it were recorded by Nigerian-British band? It may end up sounding a lot like “Give Me A Reason” by Ibibio Sound Machine. It’s one of those songs that defies regular genre classification, and is all the better for it.

 

Previous chart positions:

2014 Let's Dance (Yak Inek Unek) - #49

#48

Neighbors

Girl K

 

 

Album: Sunflower Court

 

I’m a sucker for delicious indie-pop, which is why “Neighbors” by Chicago artist Girl K really impressed me. It’s a wistful, yet joyous song about losing touch with friends, with a chorus that could easily rival fellow indie-pop maestros Alvvays.

 

#47

Praise You

Hannah Grace

 

 

Album: N/A

 

“Praise You” is one of my favourite #1 singles of all time, so if you’re going to cover it, you’d better do a damn fine job of it. Thankfully, Hannah Grace has done a great job of her euphoric version of the song, which was featured in a Lloyds advert this year, and also features lyrical interpolations from the original song that Fatboy Slim sampled on the song.

 

#46

Ambulance Song

Malojian

 

 

Album: Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home

 

At #46 we have Northern Irish singer-songwriter Malojian, who won me over in 2017 with “Ambulance Song”, a string laden heartwarmer of a song featuring contributions from Gerard Love of Teenage Fanclub. Classy as they come.

 

Previous chart positions:

2015 Communion Girls - #27

 

#45

Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight

Jennifer Hudson

 

 

Album: Sing! Soundtrack

 

See Elbow, THIS is how you cover “Golden Slumbers”. If your cover of the song does not end with the “Carry That Weight” refrain, it doesn’t count.

 

Jennifer Hudson did a fantastic version of The Beatles’ classic for animated film Sing! earlier this year, and although I haven’t seen the film, I did really love this passionate cover version of the song.

#44

Kites

Darren Doherty ft Lauren Bird

 

 

Album: What You Do

 

This duet from Strabane singer-songwriters Darren Doherty & Lauren Bird is a great, country-tinged folk duet, that is absolutely adorable.

 

Previous chart positions:

2015 Goodbye, Good Luck - #36 (Lauren Bird only)

#43

Shake It

The Vegan Leather

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Up next we’ve got some dance-y alt-pop from Paisley band The Vegan Leather. It’s a song of two halves, with the first half falling into your usual indie-rock territory, before veering into something more LCD Soundsystem-esque in its closing minutes. An interesting little song.

 

#42

Turbulence

Aidan Logan

 

 

Album: Turbulence

 

Hey! Belfast singer/songwriter Aidan Logan released his well-received EP Turbulence earlier this year, and the title track from it is a Nashville-inspired ditty, which envisages love as a bumpy airplane ride.

 

#41

You Don’t Want To Love Me

Owen Denvir

 

 

Album: Motion Picture Soundtrack

 

And at #41 we have another Belfast singer-songwriter, Owen Denver. Owen built up a name for himself in 2017 with his intricate, multi-layered covers of popular songs (including a mash-up of Coldplay songs, which ended up being re-tweeted by the band). He also released some original songs in 2017, with “You Don’t Want To Love Me” being the highlight. It’s a string laiden wistful affair, with elements of “Eleanor Rigby” to it.

 

I actually quite like Galway Girl! That sort of Irish-sounding music really gets me.

 

Nice to see the Praise You cover here as well, although admittedly this is the first time I've heard it outside of the Lloyds advert :P

#40

Bonnie

Anteros

 

 

Album: N/A

 

British indie-pop group Anteros released one of my favourite songs of 2016 with “Breakfast”, and they followed it up the equally irresistible “Bonnie”, which is another great slice of Blonde-esque pop with a harsh edge.

 

Previous chart positions:

2016 Breakfast - #9

 

#39

Panda

Parekh & Singh

 

 

Album: Ocean

 

I would never have thought that India would have been a hot-bed for luscious indie-rock, but duo Parekh & Singh definitely proved me wrong. “Panda” is a brilliant, precious tune.

 

#38

Hot Thoughts

Spoon

 

 

Album: Hot Thoughts

 

Spoon have been stalwarts of the American indie-rock scene for over 20 years now, although their success on these shores has been very limited. Still, “Hot Thoughts” picked up a lot of attention on 6music this year, where it came across my ears and I fell in love with it.

 

Cold War Kids

 

 

Album: L.A Divine

 

Cold War Kids were first hyped on the BBC Sound of 2007 poll as artists to watch, although despite gaining a lot of radio play at the time, they never really broke through. It wasn’t until 2014 when their music started to become ubiquitous, with “First” becoming a monster alt-rock hit, featuring in tonnes of American TV shows over the past few years I’m pretty sure you’ve heard it already, even if you didn’t know who it was by).

 

Fast forward to 2017, and they have delivered “Love Is Mystical”, which moved further away from the indie-rock of their earlier career into deep alt-rock flavoured pop with strong hooks.

 

Previous chart positions:

2008 Something Is Not Right With Me - #36

#36

Keep On Trying (Sechs Freunde)

British Sea Power

 

 

Album: Let The Dancers Inherit The Party

 

And at #36 we have stalwarts of British alt-rock, British Sea Power, with the song “Keep On Trying (Sechs Freunde)”. “Sechs freunde” translates to “six friends” in German, which means the song could be a comment on the band, which contains 6 members (although when sung, it sounds like “sex friender”, which is rather funny in its own right).

 

#35

Feel It Still

Portugal. The Man.

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Portugal. The Man have been trying to become a “thing” for at least half a decade, with several singles in that time being touted as their potential mainstream breakthrough that never quite materialised. They finally broke their duck in 2017 though with “Feel It Still”, which was a massive US hit, and also made the top 40 on this side of the Atlantic too. Built around an interpolation of “Please Mr Postman”, it’s an infectious, trumpet parping indie song that was rightfully beloved. Let’s see if it’s a one hit wonder for them, or if they can continue their chart success.

 

#34

Robo Learns To Whistle

Remington Super 60

 

 

Album: Indie-Pop for Kids, Vol.1

 

This is a bit of an odd one. “Robo Learns To Whistle” is a song taken from an album of tunes for a children’s audience by Norwegian artist Christoffer Schou, who records under the name Remington Super 60. The track is a (mainly) instrumental song built around marimba and an insanely catchy whistling hook. Hear it once, and it’ll be stuck in your head all day.