http://i66.tinypic.com/1127td5.jpg

It is a shame that it took me until this being entered into a BJSC spin off for me to take notice how excellent The Midnight really are. They are a large part of my reasons for venturing into 80s Retro Wave sound that I tried to do more of this year. Whether they are doing wonderful classic instrumentals or glorious synth power ballads, their music is epic, never have sax solos sounded so electric. Jason is one of the latter (perhaps unusual for me to pick a vocal song over an instrumental one) and is a perfect duet - both vocalists bounce so well off each other and accompanied by the light synth backing and trademark sax solos, it's an incredible track that blends with the atmosphere to just become oh so evocative, like the end of a film where the two star crossed lovers watch a sunset over a beach in a car reflecting on their journey. Long live the 80s.

And something a bit more chart friendly from the Disciples now, they've made Calvin Harris sound great I'm pleased they seemed to have gone down well with the public as their brand of distinctive, slightly sinister sounding house is always appealing to my ears. On My Mind has more of a mainstream feel to it thanks to a less shady sounding vocalist coupling with the trademark deeper sounds which still gives it that edge that exists in their other material that to me at least stands out and paints them as one of my favourite modern dance bands.

http://i67.tinypic.com/97l7p3.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/9t3gv4.jpg

Definitely a contender for my favourite BJSC discovery of the year, but then there is a couple more still to come so maybe not. Travva is exactly the kind of unsettling, creepy pop which I adore. With the most harrowing, glitchy production instantly swerving your attention, this 'Linda' person certainly is great at being a scorned, almost possessed sounding vocalist and the gradual clock-ticking instrumental adds a feeling of urgency and time running out that makes the track even more confusing and sinister than it already is. It's a sensory overload that isn't far away from the spooky spectacular genre of witch house and would scare you senseless if you were alone in a forest at night, I wish I could know the inspiration for writing this as I've not heard many tracks this shivers-inducing.

OMG another One Direction member, what is happening here. But anyway yeah, I'm not a huge fan of ZAYN, his 'oh I'm too cool for 1D' is a bit offputting and the music feels like he's trying wayyy too hard to separate himself from that sound when it should come naturally, he's better when he's just writing very good pop songs, which Dusk til Dawn definitely is. I do probably give credit to Sia's ever-wonderful presence that made this stand out, but it's a really great, epic, timeless pop ballad with soaring vocals that could easily be a film soundtrack, and the duetting is pretty perfect between the two which I wouldn't have expected. Stick to songs like this other than Fifty Shades songs thanks Zayn x Also, nice use of Photoshop on that poster :kink:

http://i65.tinypic.com/dgngxt.jpg

Just missing out on my top 10 is the third highest of my BJSC entries and the second entry from the wonderful Stellar Dreams. One of the connoisseurs of 80s atmospheric synth pop and their scope-spanding titles definitely match the heights and intensity of their music. Infinity is the clearest example of this - with operatic, almost ghostly vocals that glide along with the futuristic production and then giving way to a whirlpool of synths that is absolutely eargasmic. If there's any song that takes me on a trip to space it's this one and their whole EP was filled with much of the same, I certainly recommend them to anyone that likes that retro synthwave sound and look forward to more music from them.

Arcade Fire probably had their least critically lauded era this time around, and having listened to the album, it certainly wasn't their finest work especially next to Reflektor but at the same time, it was still a cut above a lot of indie music and while protest songs are starting to become a bit expected with the current political climate, they still have some weight. And they certainly still get it just right with the singles undeniably,, Everything Now is an excellent commentary on our capitalist and greedy natures as well as being a very accessible and wonderfully melodic indie-pop song in it's own right, that opening riff is still a stunner and the scope even expands to having a children's choir. It doesn't come near Reflektor in my affections, but Arcade Fire still have a long way to go before they disappoint me as a singles and album act I'm purposefully denying the existence of We Got the Power

http://i66.tinypic.com/j7carm.jpg

-x-

Top 10 will start and finish this weekend, sorry for this dragging out a bit x

Oh my gosh, what a treat to see 'Jason' in someone's EOY! Gotta say I agree, The Midnight's original BJSC entry kinda passed me by but something finally clicked as I looked for something to send to Masquerade. Such a beautiful duet, and so is 'Dusk Till Dawn' for that matter! :wub:

Dusk Till Dawn showing up is a nice surprise! Definitely my favourite Zayn song to date, it didn't feel quite as forced as PILLOWTALK (even if I liked that) and pretty much everything else he's done.

Oh my gosh, what a treat to see 'Jason' in someone's EOY! Gotta say I agree, The Midnight's original BJSC entry kinda passed me by but something finally clicked as I looked for something to send to Masquerade. Such a beautiful duet, and so is 'Dusk Till Dawn' for that matter! :wub:

 

I actually loved The Years as well, but I feel like that wasn't reflective of their sound as much as Jason, suffice to say it was that that got me to check them out further, thanks very much for that!

 

Dusk Till Dawn showing up is a nice surprise! Definitely my favourite Zayn song to date, it didn't feel quite as forced as PILLOWTALK (even if I liked that) and pretty much everything else he's done.

 

No comment on the song at 21? :o :kink: (thanks x)

10. The xx – On Hold

 

 

I really liked what I have heard of The xx prior to this, Sunset was an excellent iTunes free Christmas gift and Angels and Islands are wonderfully chilled and melodic duets that have come to encapsulate their sound, but hearing On Hold made me see what was missing from their sound that I just never realised. Both of the xxs themselves are great in their unique droning tone but it's also fitted with some rather unexpected distorted vocals which add a slight urban edge to their material that sounds completely natural rather than trend chasing and brings a new scope to their sound preventing them from sounding stale. It is to their credit that they took a gamble and sounded less like retreads of former glories (as much as I love them, it's a shame Haim and London Grammar couldn't quite manage that this year) and adapted and the album itself was a great listen too, shoutout to Say Something Loving :heart: and one that certainly stapled them as one of my favourite indie bands atm.

 

http://i63.tinypic.com/2hr33u0.jpg

9. Anathema – Untouchable (Parts I & II)

 

 

While it only came to me in the last few months of the year through BJSC, this is unquestionably one of the most beautiful, moving and epic musical journeys I heard all year and am so glad I came across that, thanks Rollo. Anathema, being in two parts, is indeed sounding like two different songs and there's a lot of different change ups along it's building feel, starting off like on a fast acoustic pace that seems fairly limited in scope, the vocals and guitars begin to rise in volume and the feeling more sombre and desperate before the guitars subside to give way to raw vocals with a piano and a gradual rising orchestra as well as some beautiful female vocals that enter that turns this into a stunningly epic duet and I have definitely felt a tear drop in that last minute. If I could compare it to an existing song, it would be I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) by Meat Loaf which was pretty darn excellent and we haven't seen many truly classic rock anthems make as much of an impact since so (even though I very much doubt this will ever make said impact) it is wonderful to know that songs of that scale are still out there and I am pleased to have been introduced to it.

 

http://i66.tinypic.com/orttaw.jpg

8. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Holy Mountain

 

 

Oh poor Liam Gallagher, I feel a bit bad for him, he released a pretty passable song in Wall of Glass for his first proper solo venture and it looked like he was finding his own path...but then Noel had to come in at the end of the year and truly reminded me at least who the brains of Oasis was :kink: Noel Gallagher et al. have done very well in my EOY lists in the past with things like AKA...What a Life and Ballad of the Mighty I that are similar in their haunting, dark and understated manner which he does fantastically well, but Holy Mountain proved he can also do the wonderful fast paced bops well as well. Yes, the chorus sounds a bit too much like Ricky Martin's She Bangs but when it's such an infectious and joyous romp, there's not much to complain about. There's so much going on in the atmosphere and the frantic pace means it's never boring and instantly brilliant. It may say a lot about how little music I've been listening to this year that this instantly goes into the top 10, but I played it like mad the last few months of the year so I think it's earned it's place.

 

As we all know what he looks like, Here's instead an additional very funny video I found of him online which exemplifies why we all secretly love the arrogant bastard <3

 

7. Ágy - Arvedávgi

 

 

(I think that's how you spell that name) The award for my favourite main contest BJSC discovery goes to this very quirky little gem that I didn't even give my full 18 points too at the time but has wormed my way much higher in my affections since then and was a bit of a late spring anthem that got me through that stressful period. There's something really whimsical and meaningful about this song, I'm not entirely sure what it is she's singing about (nor what an Arvedávgi is, sounding like an Italian farewell) but the colourful instrumental, the soft touch of her vocals and relatively simple backing make it seem like it could be anything and that mystery adds an odd endearing quality to the track, one that always made me happy in a way that you can't really explain but just happens to be. Maybe it was the endearing mystery that kept me listening to it or maybe it was that awesome instrumental, but either way, it's a marvelous discovery and one that I have come back to perhaps more than any other thanks to that hence it's placing.

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/2ih1553.jpg

6. Marcus Warner – Africa

 

 

Sometimes the power of music is just incredible - I don't mean to sound cliched but really - it can transport you to a completely different world, time, place and feeling with just some instruments and sometimes that power really resonate with you to turn your mood around. That is certainly the case with Marcus Warner's Africa - I found it as some random track on C21FX at first on one of my classical music playlists earlier in the year and while there's a lot of fairly standard movie trailer stuff there, this one stood out as something that really captured everything about the best parts of the title, a majestic, soaring classical track with choral backing and gradual building crescendoes to come to something fairly akin with walking out on the African Savannah and embracing the beauty. It always put me in a very good place and remains one of my favourite ever classical discoveries. What was missing was a video - but thankfully that was provided by the above, I was already a sucker for wildlife, Planet Earth style videos so this was always going to be up my street and it compliments the music beautifully along with bringing a very sad message at the end to reinforce how to keep this alive. Probably my favourite EXPERIENCE of a music track this year, I made me really want to go and put Africa on my countries bucket list.

 

http://i65.tinypic.com/eb3j7l.jpg

Great to see how much you like Untouchable. I discovered it myself this year after seeing it on a list of the best prog rock songs from 1990 onwards.

Holy Mountain is one of my favourite HFB singles to date! Really infectious and catchy, really glad it made Top 40 officially!

Noal Gallagher and The XX yes :heart:

 

That Anathema was quite good in BJSC.

No comment on the song at 21? :o :kink: (thanks x)

Exposing my skim-reading technique to catch up with everyone's countdowns :ph34r: YASSSS HARRY x

I've gotta say that 6Music absolutely hammered Holy Mountain but I found it really awful/unlistenable, sorry. It is really overproduced and quite grating to my ears. :(

 

That said - really loving the addition of On Hold (#1 on my chart in December 2016) and Everything Now which placed similarly for me in my Top 100 of 2017. Excited to see what your #1 is!

I'd probably put Untouchable and Arvedavgi in my top 10 of the year had I made one! Great to see them getting similar levels of love from you, both amazing tracks in their own way. Jason was the best thing to come out of Masquerade as well, beautiful stuff

Thanks for the comments <3

 

-x-

 

5. The Enigma TNG – The Glass Alice

 

 

I had no idea what metalstep was before this year, but perhaps I was missing out. A random late night YouTube trawl bought this dark beauty to my ears which I later entered to Nuggets. If Marcus Warner showed the power of inspiration, this shows the crushing darkness that an instrumental can bring. Grinding guitar combine with jumping synths to create an atmosphere of disturbance and terror, and even giving way to some choral vocals in the chorus. Ominous and aggravating in nature reflecting a spectrum of negative emotions, perhaps I know this because I played it every day on my way into college to teach as it prepared me for the horrors ahead :kink: the dark Alice in Wonderland imagery is also one I appreciate. I really would recommend this and his other dark dubstep songs as they are quite unique in sound and a must for any dance horror fan.

 

http://i65.tinypic.com/j61lbm.jpg

4. Marcus Warner – If Elephants Could Fly

 

 

So yes back to the feel good positive emotions now as it's one I obvs prefer to feel sometimes, and it is Marcus Warner again, turns out Africa wasn't even his best song! If Elephants Could Fly contains many similarities to that with it's slow build up, majestic orchestra and positive vibes, but there is a slight subtlety and I suppose the interpretative nature of the track's title means there's room to apply it to any situation, rather than devoted to a certain image or place, which I suppose is what put it above Africa even though I adore them both. I don't even know a lot about this guy truth be told, he's apparently only 20 years old and is a university student who aspires to make film soundtrack music going by his website...I suppose if you do ever happen to see this, I wish you the best of luck as I certainly would back you in that career :lol: But he more than anything has captured the most feel good and beautiful qualities that a song can have with no lyrics and sits as my favourite fully instrumental track of the year (yes all my top 3 have vocals ;o), it also came at a relatively happy time in my life so have even more good feelings associated with it. I would highly recommend this as I'm guessing quite a lot of you won't know it and just look to the skies and feel the serenity~

 

http://i67.tinypic.com/i20nz9.jpg

3. FM-84 feat. Ollie Wilde – Running in the Night

 

 

So yes, for the first time probably that I can recall, my favourite BJSC discovery of the year isn't a track from the main contest but a spin off - I really can't exemplify enough how much this and Jason got me into 80s retro style music during the year, so it was quite a surprise to see them both pop up in the same contest and perhaps a wake up call that I should explore him more. I loved Arcade Summer when it was entered last year (well year before last now) but this really got me into him - the wonderful synths are still here but I do have to commend Ollie Wride's vocals here as they are excellently powerful and add a new layer to the song that it probably wouldn't have had otherwise. It's the sort of epic that A-ha or Ultravox could record and send to number 1 back in the 80s and I feel like the Scissor Sisters could pick up a few hints from it as well, I'm glad at least the BJSC masses saw it's chart topping potential~ The rest of the album didn't have anything quite as good as this but had the similar vibes and that was great in my book, probably my favourite new artist discovery this year and one I'll be looking out for in the future.

 

http://i63.tinypic.com/16a8s9c.jpg