#36

Final Form

Benin City

 

 

Album: Last Night

 

And finally some dance music from Benin City. Quite a great little ditty.

Glad to see someone else who likes Confidence Man. My local record store played the first few tracks of their new album and I ended up getting hooked into that album a few days later. The sound of their material reminds me of CSS.

 

CSS is actually a pretty good comparison now that you mention it. Hadn't crossed my mind before.

 

I will say that as the countdown continues, there may be a song or two whose inclusion you will like...

 

 

Nice to see The Greatest Show here! It was my personal favourite of the soundtrack songs, such a brilliant song to lead the film with! (although I've not seen the film either :P)

 

Yes, usually the song that gets my #50 position is one that I really enjoy that people may be surprised to be on the list (Galway Girl was that song last year). It's just one of those songs that you just can't get out of your head, and from such an unexpected source too.

 

Nice to see PSB on here. They make great use of old vocal recordings to fit in spacey, atmospheric music settings.

 

I've been following PSB from back when they'd only just released "ROYGBIV", well before their debut album was ever even likely, and I'm absolutely astounded and delighted that they've got to the stage in their career when they can play to over 10,000 people.

 

Giving Human Touch a listen, sounds like something I'd enjoy! I'll try and keep my eyes open for new music from him. Up In Smoke sounds like the sort of thing that would really grow and get stuck in my head for weeks as well.

 

Great that you like Owen Denvir, I've known him for years, and he's a really great guy as well as a great songwriter/performer.

I think I remember liking Pretty Shining People when listening to the Staying At Tamara's album nine months ago.

I mentioned that Hash Pipe cover a couple of times in some threads on BJ.

#35

Losing You

Gizmo Varillas

 

 

Album: Dreaming of Better Days

 

“Losing You” is a heartbreaking song about the Orlando shootings, imagining the reaction of the mother of one of the men who lost their lives that evening.

 

#34

American Gods

ONR

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Scottish artist ONR is being pushed for big things in 2018, and songs like the poppy heavy-rock tune “American Gods” shows why he is getting such love.

 

#33

Moving Closer

Nathan O’Regan

 

 

Album: Let's Not Last Together

 

Cork singer-songwriter came to my attention as co-host of the Mad Notions podcast (see #49 on this list for the other co-host), but he won me over with his soulful singer-songwriter material with “Moving Closer”. If you like Glen Hansard or similar Irish music, you will quite like this.

#32

Anthologised By Cherry Red

Spray

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Ricardo Autobahn has been involved in a number of projects over the year - he was a member of the Cuban Boys, who had a massive hit with “C vs I” (aka the Hamster Dance), and also co-wrote Daz Sampson’s Eurovision entry. He’s also been a member of the indie-pop group Spray, through whom he released the single “Anthologised by Cherry Red”. The song is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Cherry Red Records, a music label that is notable for reissuing music from indie artists from the 80s and 90s.

 

#31

You’re Not Alone

Astræa

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Lloyds Bank really love using sincere, piano-led covers of dance hits in their adverts, don’t they? The next song to get the treatment is Olive’s #1 smash “You’re Not Alone”, and it is Jennifer Ann, aka Astræa, who is responsible for it this time around.

 

I do recognise You're Not Alone from the Lloyds advert, it's a very strong cover and sounds better hearing the song in full as well.

#30

To Chicago

Ciaran Lavery

 

 

Album: Sweet Decay

 

Ciaran Lavery is one of the finest singer-songwriters to come out of NI, and his Spotify stats seem to concur. “To Chicago” is taken from his 4th studio album, and is a fantastic acoustic number.

 

Previous chart positions:

2016 Return to Form- #6

 

#29

Spread Love (Paddington)

Boston Bun ft DVNO

 

 

Album: N/A

 

“Spread Love (Paddington)” by French producer Boston Bun is the sort of dance tune that gets me nostalgic for late 00s, early 10s house-inspired music (I didn’t think I’d ever get nostalgic about something from that era so quickly). It reminds me of “Tenderoni” of Kele Okereke, which of course is a joyous thing indeed. The vocalist on this song previously featured on a song by Justice back in the day.

 

#28

Zombie

Bad Wolves

 

 

Album: Disobey

 

If you’re going to cover a classic song, you’d better make sure you do a darn good job of it. So well done to American group Bad Wolves, whose cover of “Zombie” by The Cranberries does a good job of taking the original in doing something different with it. Although there’s bits of the version I don’t like (I don’t think the lyrics needed changing, and taking out the explicit references to Irish history didn’t add much to the song), it’s a great, heavy metal take on the original, which can stand on its own.

#27

Feel The Love Go

Franz Ferdinand

 

 

Album: Always Ascending

 

Franz Ferdinand can usually be relied upon for great indie-rock tunes, even if they may not enjoy the same mainstream success as they once did. “Feel The Love Go” is a solid entry to their musical cannon, and is notable for its use of a rather nifty sax solo.

 

Previous chart positions:

2009 No You Girls - #27

2013 Right Actions - #20

#26

Cheetah Tongue

The Wombats

 

 

Album: Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life

 

For a band that are seen as exemplifying “landfill indie”, The Wombats really impressed me in 2018 with a song that was quite atypical to the sound that I had become accustomed to expecting from them. “Cheetah Tongue” is heavier and grittier than you would expect from the band, and all the more glorious for it.

 

And this won’t be the first example of a band derided as “landfill indie” that we will see on this countdown who impressed me with a fantastic song in 2018. Feel free to guess who else will be popping up later on.

 

Spread Love is a really funky dance piece, I was really obsessed with it for a few weeks back in the summer, the perfect summer track. It would have been interesting to have heard Dolores' vocals on the new version of Zombie but after what happened I think it's a really good cover and it's grown on me since I first heard it as well. Cheetah Tongue is nice enough but I much prefer Turn and Lemon to a Knife Fight, this didn't quite have the edge those two did.

Eyes of Steel wow *.* a damn good tune (the Pelican similarities probably help <3)

 

Spread Love, Feel The Love Go and Cheetah Tongue are great. Glad to see someone else who likes the last two.

Finally back doing this after a shot trip to Fuerteventura. Next up -

 

#25

Blue Lights

Jorja Smith

 

 

Album: Blue Lights

 

Winner of the Brits Critics Choice Award, Jorja Smith won me over with her soulful hip-hop single “Blue Lights”, with its exquisite production and rather smart use of a Dizzee Rascal sample.

#24

Shotgun

George Ezra

 

 

Album: Staying at Tamara’s

 

And a second entry from Mr Ezra. “Shotgun” was his first number 1 single, and it’s no surprise why, such an infectious, sunny song, that was more or less unavoidable over the summer months.

 

Previous chart positions:

2014 Budapest - #20

2018 Pretty Shining People - #40

 

#23

Overton Window

Hector Collectors

 

 

Album: Remember the Hector Collectors? ... You Won't Believe What They Sound Like Now!!!!!

 

 

The Overton Window refers to the idea that there are some ideas that you can discuss in polite conversation, and there are others that are considered taboo, and over time this window can widen in one director, or shutter in the other, depending on how the tides are turning at the particular point. Glasweigian band The Hector Collectors have taken this idea and turned it into a short, satirical indie-pop song about this topic, to great effect.