#22

Plastic Skeletons

Jealous of The Birds

 

 

Album: The Moths of What I Want Will Eat Me in My Sleep

 

Portadown musician Jealous of The Birds first got our attention through her first album “Parma Violets”, which was quite an acoustic record. Since then, she’s decided to go in a much heavier direction, as evidenced by “Plastic Skeletons”, a grunge-y alternative rock song that still contains the lyrical density that she was first known for.

 

#21

Nightclubbing

Matt Edible & The Obtuse Angels

 

 

Album: Stairgazing

 

“Nightclubbing” by Hull musician Matt Edible & The Obtuse Angels is a Beatles/ELO-esque classic rock song about a more up-to-date topic, namely going to a nightclub and the routine that surrounds it. It’s quite nice.

 

Was it you who sent Plastic Skeletons to UP? It was a great song nonetheless, one of my favourites from that contest! (in fact the contest as a whole was a massive highlight). Shotgun is a great song, it's amazing how George has turned his career around after Don't Matter Now performed so terribly.

#20

Dizzi

New Atlas

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Infectious electro-pop from NI born, Liverpool-based New Atlas. It’s the kind of pop song that gets into your head the moment you hear it.

 

#19

Gymnasium

Pizzagirl

 

 

Album: Season 2

 

Another Liverpool based producer, what is it about that city and producers at the moment anyway? “Gymnasium” is a chillwave and tropical-infused song that takes influences from 80s music, with more flutes than you can shake a stick at.

 

#18

Animal

Spring King

 

 

Album: A Better Life

 

Macclesfield 4-piece Spring King called it a day last month, having delivered two albums of material over the years. From this year they had “Animal”, a powerful slice of rock that 15 years ago would have seen them tear up radio playlists across the country, yet these days is greeted by no more than an apathetic shrug outside of the rock scene.

 

#17

Evening Lights

Fjokra

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Dublin singer-songwriter Fjokra makes the cut for the 2nd year in a row with “Evening Lights”. The song continues on from his previous genre-bending material, being a straight-up pop song that is punctuated with the unusual sounds of a brass band.

 

Previous chart positions:

2017 Sick Kids - #12

 

#16

I Hope You’re Happy

Blue October

 

 

Album: I Hope You’re Happy

 

I’d never heard of Blue October until this year, although my research indicates that they are a Texan band who had great success in America in the mid-00s, with two platinum singles and a platinum album to their name. It was 2018’s “I Hope You’re Happy” that landed them on my radar however, a Killers-esque electronic-rock song about lost love that really struck a chord with me.

 

#15

Out The Window

Confidence Man

 

 

Album: Confident Music For Confident People

 

Whilst Confidence Man came to prominence with their infectious, cheeky pop songs, they showed that they had great depth to them with their song “Out The Window”. Think of it as their “Turn Back Time” moment, if you will. It’s a song that takes its cues from early 90s indie music, with Primal Scream being the main touchstone. If you found a lot of their songs to be too sugary for your tastes, then this might be the Confidence Man track for you.

 

Previous chart positions:

2017 Bubblegum - #2

2017 Better Sit Down Boy - #10

#14

Hold Me Like a Heaven

Manic Street Preachers

 

 

Album: Resistance Is Futile

 

Whilst I’ve mostly ignored a lot of Manic Street Preachers’ post-2007 material, I did get back on board with them somewhat this year with “Hold Me Like a Heaven”, which I found to be a brilliant, powerful little track. The Warm Digits remix is worth listening to as well if you get a chance.

 

#13

Sorry

Egoism

 

 

Album: N/A

 

Australian indie-pop from duo EGOISM. IF you like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, then “Sorry” will be very much up your street.

 

#12

I Hate Love Songs

Kelsea Ballerini

 

 

Album: Unapologetically

 

Whilst I cannot say that I am a connoisseur of the country music genre, I do dabble from time to time and pick up on a gem that really gets be interested. Like “I Hate Love Songs” from Kelsea Ballerini. It’s a song that dismantles the cliches that she hates about romance and romantic songs, and does it in an endearing way that still feels like a classic country-pop song.

#11

Wipeout

Crossfaith

 

 

Album: Wipeout

 

And it wouldn’t be a top 50 of mine without at least one song Japan, would it not? This song didn’t come to my attention through anime as one might expect, but through a great Japanese Spotify playlist. “Wipeout” is a solid piece of nu-metal that has been an unexpected pleasure for me throughout the year.

 

Spring King's Animal is a great indie track

#10

Last Words

Isaac Gracie

 

 

Album: Isaac Gracie

 

I don't really listen to Radio 1 as much as I used to in the past, although given that I wouldn't have discovered such wonderful gems like "Like Words" by Isaac Gracie without it. It's the kind of emotional, acoustic folk that harks back to Nick Drake & Jeff Buckley, as well as more contemporaneous artists like Ben Howard.

#9

Life Is Golden

Suede

 

 

Album: The Blue Hour

 

Now that Suede have got to the stage of their career where they're no longer chasing radio hits, their albums have become more self-contained pieces of music, without as many songs that you could call "single-worthy", whatever that means in this day and age. That doesn't mean that the albums can't have stand-out moments mind, as "Life Is Golden" can attest to. It's a rather grandiose track, with swelling strings and an anthemic chorus.

 

Previous chart positions:

2013 It Starts & Ends With You - #3

2013 Hit Me - #13

2015 Outsiders - #6

2016 What I’m Trying To Tell You - #11

#8

Life On Earth

Snow Patrol

 

 

Album: Wildness

 

It was a long time coming, but after a 7 year wait, we were finally treated to new music from Snow Patrol. The highlight of the new music was "Life On Earth", a slow building emotional blanket of a song, which reminded us a little of "Ordinary World" in places.

 

Previous chart positions:

2011 Called Out In The Dark - #42

 

#7

Starcrossed Lovers

The Fratellis

 

 

Album: In Your Own Sweet Time

 

Now this is a band that we never thought would appear in one of our year-end countdowns, let alone in the top 10. We had more or less written The Fratellis off back in 2008, when they launched their 2nd album with the honest-to-God, ruddy awful "Mistress Mabel", when even now we think is one of the worst songs ever recorded.

 

None of their other music released in the intervening period really gave us any hope of getting us back on board, which is why when we bowled over "Starcrossed Lovers", we were surprised to discover it was a song by The Fratellis. It's a brilliant, updated version of the Romeo & Juliet story with a real emotional heart and a little rock swagger. Sometimes, it's nice to be surprised.

#6

Paradise

George Ezra

 

 

Album: Staying At Tamara’s

 

George Ezra gets his third, and highest placing, entry in this year's list with the ubiquitous "Paradise". It's hard to underestimate just how much this song turned around his fortunes. After "Don't Matter Now", the lead track from this album, flopped, if this song hadn't gained enough traction he would probably have been dropped from his record label, loyalty be damned.

 

Thankfully for George, people really responded to "Paradise", it went on to become a monster top 10 hit, and led the way for "Staying At Tamara's" to be the biggest, non-soundtrack album of 2018. And it's a pretty great pop song to boot, so there's that as well.

 

 

Previous chart positions:

2014 Budapest - #20

2018 Pretty Shining People - #40

2018 Shotgun - #24

 

Really nice seeing "Paradise" so high on your year-end list!