Posted January 1, 20205 yr So after I somehow managed to commit to making a chart every week of 2019 (and I wasn't even late with any of them! ok I kept going weeks without updating my chart thread but they were always up in the Multichart on time x), it's time to do an end of year chart for the first time in god knows how long. I do want to actually make sure I finish this so I'm not going to commit to writing a lot of commentary but I'll try and do at least a bit. I've put together a top 200 songs list (and I may or may not make a quick top albums list as well since I actually listened to enough full albums in 2019 to make one worthwhile). Before I start the countdown here's a wall of stats for anyone who may be interested (who doesn't love stats?) UK chart success 1 #1 9 top 3 hits 11 top 5 hits 19 top 10 hits 26 top 20 hits 31 top 40 hits 46 top 75 hits 52 top 100 hits Leaving nearly 3/4 of the list that did not chart in the UK at all. Although should note there are also 5 or 6 ish other songs that would have charted (one of those as high as the top 10) if not for the OCC's rule limiting artists to 3 charting songs in any particular week. Gender divide (based only on the first credited artist on each song) 141 male 49 female 9 mixed (i.e. groups with both male and female members) 1 non-binary (that I'm aware of) Oops. Some of those male led songs have some or all female vocals as well though so it's not quiiiite as imbalanced as it appears? xx Nationality diversity (based only on the primarily nationality of the first credited artist on each song) 85 USA 72 UK 9 Canada 6 Spain 3 Australia 3 Ukraine 2 Denmark 2 Iceland 2 Russia 2 Slovenia 2 Sweden 1 Belarus 1 Brazil 1 Burkina Faso 1 Colombia 1 France 1 India 1 Italy 1 Japan 1 Netherlands 1 Norway 1 Slovakia 1 South Africa Nearly a quarter non-UK/US, not bad! A single artist accounts for 5 of the 6 Spanish appearances (as lead artist), I'll let you all guess who that might be, I'm sure it's not at all obvious. (All 3 Ukrainian songs and both Slovene songs are also the same artist while Canada's total of 9 songs comes from only 4 artists). Language diversity 163 English (incl. 3 partly French, 2 partly Spanish, 1 partly Arabic, 1 partly Lingala, 1 partly Zulu) 13 instrumental (incl. 2 with minimal (English) vocals) 6 Russian 6 Spanish (incl. 1 partly English) 2 Icelandic 1 Bissa 1 Galician 1 Neapolitan 1 Old West Norse 1 Portuguese 1 Punjabi (partly English) 1 Slovak 1 Slovene 1 Swahili 1 Turkish 12 of the 37 songs that are not primarily English (including most of the more obscure languages) are BJSC entries - there are 20 BJSC songs in total, comprising 9 of my 10 entries to the main contest, one of my spinoff entries and 10 main contest entries from other countries (2 each from Aeroche and Jadakissnia and 1 apiece from Dobago, Elëdan, Espen, Lotunia, Quintessa and Thelonia). Although both of the Aeroche songs and the Dobago one are songs I had already charted before the contest for unrelated reasons so it's really only 7 non-Persephonian discoveries included. They're all very good ones tho. x The top 200 includes 21 songs which did not make my top 10 during the year, the lowest charting of which only got to #18. Conversely 36 songs that charted in the top 10 for me during the year have not made the list. 11 of those may have been in there somewhere but I've declared them ineligible as I've tried to limit the list solely to 2019 songs, or at least 2019 discoveries (there are for example a couple of older songs included that I discovered via BJSC in 2019, and some 2018 songs that became singles / had new music videos in 2019 or that I'd have definitely never heard before 2019 even if I was paying more attention to music). Honourable mentions for those 11 excluded songs which may or may not have otherwise been somewhere in the list: Made my top 10 at the start of the year but are inarguably 2018 songs and would have been in a 2018 EOY for me if I had one: Ava Max - Sweet But Psycho J.I.D - Off Deez (feat. J. Cole) Post Malone and Swae Lee - Sunflower Discovered in 2019 but I'd probably have known them in 2018 if I was paying more attention: Anderson .Paak - Who R U? Donae'O - Chalice (feat. Belly) Flipp Dinero - Leave Me Alone Juice WRLD - Armed And Dangerous Los Unidades and Pharrell Williams - E-Lo (feat. Jozzy) Knew before 2019 but charted in 2019 under special circumstances: The Chemical Brothers - Swoon The Prodigy - Timebomb Zone The Prodigy - We Live Forever So I'm actually excluding 2 of my #1s, as 2018 track 'We Live Forever' got there following Keith Flint's death and 'Swoon', an all time fave from 2010, got there after going to see the Chem Bros live. The 25 top 10 hits during the year that have just legitimately missed the top 200 are, ordered by their peak position and within that a rough order of how close they were to making it in: #1s none #2s Ellie Goulding and Juice WRLD - Hate Me (blame cqmerqn x) #3s Wiley, Sean Paul and Stefflon Don - Boasty (feat. Idris Elba) Lil Nas X - Panini Unknown T - Leave Dat Trap (feat. AJ Tracey) (this would probably have made it if not for... events in Unknown T's personal life that cut its chart run for me short at 3-6-x as I became a little uncomfortable listening to it, oops) #4s none #5s Ski Mask The Slump God - Nuketown (feat. Juice WRLD) Freya Ridings - Castles #6s Oliver Tree - Cash Machine #7s Alan Fitzpatrick and CamelPhat - Kona Octavian - Bet (feat. Skepta and Michael Phantom) Darkoo and One Acen - Gangsta #8s God Is An Astronaut - Echoes The Cranberries - All Over Now Channel Tres - Black Moses (feat. JPEGMAFIA) Kanye West - Use This Gospel (feat. Clipse and Kenny G) #9s Vampire Weekend - Unbearably White Madeon - Dream Dream Dream Sampa The Great - Final Form Blanco Brown - The Git Up #10s Deb Never - Out Of Time Prospa - Control The Party Stormzy - Vossi Bop deadmau5 - ASEED Ocean Wisdom - FATBOY (feat. Fatboy Slim) Russ - Gun Lean Laura Misch - Hibernate Finally I'll also throw out an honourable mention to Roddy Ricch's 'The Box' which won't feature here as I anticipate it'll be pushed more as a single and probably get a music video in 2020 (and it only got onto my chart in the last week of the year at #22, due for a big rise in the first chart of 2020 #spoilers). A few more songs technically released right at the end of 2019 but due to debut in my first chart of 2020 have also not been put in for consideration for this list, they'll have their chance next year if they stick with me enough. ~ Now that rabble is done with... I'll start zooming through the countdown pretty soon, maybe tonight. x
January 1, 20205 yr Author This is a top 200 of my favourite songs of the year, not my least favourite. x
January 1, 20205 yr Gender divide (based only on the first credited artist on each song) 1 non-binary (that I'm aware of)You managed to like a Sam Smith song enough to make it on this list?
January 1, 20205 yr Author You managed to like a Sam Smith song enough to make it on this list? There are other non-binary musicians! ('How Do You Sleep?' was a good song but didn't make it here x)
January 1, 20205 yr Looking forward to this, interesting set of stats as well! Think Castles is my favourite of the omissions I know but I actually quite like Gangsta as well. And Vossi Bop was one of the better #1s from this year also.
January 1, 20205 yr anyway as for your honourable mentions these are my faves Ava Max - Sweet But Psycho J.I.D - Off Deez (feat. J. Cole) Post Malone and Swae Lee - Sunflower Flipp Dinero - Leave Me Alone Los Unidades and Pharrell Williams - E-Lo (feat. Jozzy) The Chemical Brothers - Swoon Ellie Goulding and Juice WRLD - Hate Me (blame cqmerqn x) Wiley, Sean Paul and Stefflon Don - Boasty (feat. Idris Elba) Freya Ridings - Castles Alan Fitzpatrick and CamelPhat - Kona Octavian - Bet (feat. Skepta and Michael Phantom) Darkoo and One Acen - Gangsta Madeon - Dream Dream Dream Stormzy - Vossi Bop Russ - Gun Lean surprised to see that I'm seemingly a bigger fan of Vossi Bop (EOY #120) and Gun Lean (EOY #128) then - those were 2 of the best rap hits for me this year, but hopefully there's a good few more that have made it in.
January 1, 20205 yr Leave Me Alone, Sweet But Psycho and Hate Me are great honourable mentions that would probably all appear in my EOY top 100, brilliant to see my BJSC entry Echoes on that list too although it's a shame it missed out on the top 200. Looking forward to this!
January 1, 20205 yr Author I'm a little surprised that 'Vossi Bop' ended up missing out myself as well, it was my third favourite #1 of the year behind the ~mystery song~ that has made the list (what could it be :thinking: :thinking: x) and 'Sweet But Psycho'. But ultimately just too many songs I liked better! It did have a pretty short chart run for me with only 3 weeks in the top 40 (this list isn't based on the chart runs but still emblematic of it not really sticking with me for all that long). 'Gangsta' had an even shorter shelf life for me with a run of 7-18-x, still a solid tune but I definitely regret charting it so highly oops ~ Stormzy does have 2 songs in the top 200 to make up for it anyways, and a third ('Rachael's Little Brother') was iirc the next song that would have made the list if I hadn't stopped at #200 so another honourable mention for that B-) And apologies coi for 'Echoes' being the one BJSC song to make my top 10 but not my EOY (well, aside from my own entry 'Final Form') - still a great discovery though of course! I am actually going to start the countdown tomorrow now so stay tuned ~
January 2, 20205 yr If we're limiting chart runs to top 40, then Vossi Bop did even worse on mine with just a 19-26-x run, but racked up a fair few plays throughout the year to make up for it (plus a few more weeks between 41-100).
January 2, 20205 yr Author #200 Flame 2 - Dive / Rain 6-16-33-x Opening the top 200 on a fairly obscure note is this dark and menacing electronic instrumental (inspired by UK drill), a collaboration between Burial and The Bug. I'm not familiar with any other stuff by The Bug (apart from the less good other half of the double A-Side 'Rain') but Burial will have another song much, much higher up the list of course... #199 Prospa - non-album single 10-15-29-x The first BJSC song to appear, although its chart run for me had been and gone before it was in the contest representing Dobago as it was briefly playlisted by Radio 1 earlier in the year. A great dance song which deserved more mainstream attention. They had a second top 10 hit for me with the very The Prodigy-esque 'Control The Party' but that misses this countdown. Still an act to keep an eye on for the future. #198 Friendly Fires - Inflorescent 15-9-23-35-x My favourite of the singles from indie electronic group Friendly Fires' long-awaited comeback album, that chorus melody is just so infectious and happy sounding. #197 Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens - non-album single 29-18-12-... A very late inclusion onto the list (and I might well end up putting this in my 2020 EOY as well if I do one as it's just hit a new peak of #7 on my chart this week), a beautiful 7 minute electronic track which builds well throughout. Kelly's vocals are very nice although I'd probably have liked it just as much as an instrumental. #196 Grimes - Miss Anthropocene 9-9-... First of 4 appearances for Elon Musk's other half, in the past I've found her very hit or miss and most of her songs haven't been that memorable for me but 'Miss Anthropocene' is shaping up to be a pretty good album if the singles are anything to go by. Another late inclusion here for a drum n bass infused banger from her. #195 Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? 15-9-10-20-x The first song so far that was actually a hit in the UK (and the only top 40 hit in this section), one of the most sonically unusual top 10 hits we've had in a long time from queen 'not like the other girls' herself Billie Eilish. This feels like it should be higher as it stood out a lot at the time but I won't lie, this was kind of overshadowed by her other hits for me and I often kind of forget this one happened. First of 5 appearances for Billie. #194 ROSALÍA and Ozuna - non-album single / TBA 3rd album? 10-19-26-37-x And now the first of 6 appearances for Spanish queen ROSALÍA, she was bound to show up here pretty quickly as I've been stanning her most of the year (only one act has more appearances than her in this countdown, hint: it's another act that DNQed for me in the BJSC). This collab with Ozuna was another throwaway reggaeton bop from her which is... not as credible as most of her releases (and didn't quite land as well as 'Con Altura') but it's still good for what it is. Do I give trashy generic reggaeton a pass just because I stan ROSALÍA? Maybe. She has better songs to come, don't worry. #193 Tyler, The Creator - IGOR 15-9-26-x Continuing our introductions to acts with several appearances, here's the first of 4 for ex-edgelord Tyler, The Creator who continued his remarkable musical reinvention with the fantastic album 'IGOR' which is at least in my top 3 albums of the year. This one is just the intro track on the album but it's still a tune in its own right, featuring some uncredited guest vox from Lil Uzi Vert (not that you'd be able to tell). #192 Hatari - non-album single / TBA debut album? 9-13-21-x If you loved the banging electronic elements of Icelandic Eurovision icons Hatari's 'Hatrið Mun Sigra' but weren't too keen on the shouty man, maybe give this one a try, shouty man is still present but in a much reduced capacity so it might be a little more palatable. Hatari's best song that I've heard to date. #191 Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising 10-32-x And we end this section with the first actual BJSC discovery, this one courtesy of Quintessa (who I really hope will be back in the new year!) - I've heard great things about Weyes Blood's album but alas I'm lazy and have still only heard this one song, a suitably cinematic track with more than a hint of Lana Del Rey to it (and an instrumental bit very reminiscent of the excellent 'See You All' by Koudlam).
January 2, 20205 yr Silhouettes is great and bury a friend is the clear highlight of that section for me! Also lol at eight of the ten being songs that peaked at #9 or #10 :D
January 2, 20205 yr Igor's Theme is pretty cool at setting the tone of the album but it's the track I find myself least likely to listen to outside of the album. Igor was actually my 3rd favourite album of the year so snap at having it in the top 3 :D
January 2, 20205 yr My fave of those has to be 'Luminous Spaces', as I commented in your PC it will be entering my chart now that Christmas is over and done with. 'Bury a Friend' was a rather good effort from Billie too although 'When the Party's Over' is still my fave of hers.
January 2, 20205 yr Going to commence with a lot of EOY spam now, starting here! These songs are very good: #200 Flame 2 - Dive I'm happy that you recommended this to me at some point last year! Burial can always be relied on to provide the goods. However, if it was to come on shuffle while I was in the bath and my mum overheard, then she'd definitely say something along the lines of "what is that noise? are you okay?" :kink: #198 Friendly Fires - Silhouettes 'Lack Of Love' was of course my favourite Friendly Fires release of last year, being a personal chart #1 and all, but this was also really good! I agree that the chorus melody is very uplifting. Okay this is going to be stuck in my head now. :kink: #197 Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens - Luminous Spaces I'm so pleased that this is growing on you more and more! Jon Hopkins has a couple of great songs on my chill-out playlist ('Breathe This Air' and 'Abandon Widow') so I was excited to hear this and it did not disappoint. Perhaps a new addition to the chill-out playlist actually :o #196 Grimes - 4ÆM Oh is this actually going to be on Grimes' new album? :o I was under the impression that it was a gaming soundtrack thing. Well, a wise decision then, because it's very good! She trolled in the best kind of way with that ethereal intro to D&B banger transition. #195 Billie Eilish - bury a friend One of three #1s for Billie on my personal chart :heart: it was such a breath of fresh air to hear something so strange on the chart! I do get what you mean though in your commentary, it definitely feels like it's been overshadowed by 'bad guy', also a great song tbf. #192 Hatari - Klámstrákur Another good'un from Hatari, both them and zalagasper have emerged as solid Eurovision faves out of last year's finalists! #191 Weyes Blood - Movies Yesss this was such an excellent BJSC discovery! Only blocked from my 18 by none other than Deandria :kink: definite Lana vibes. ~~~ I'm usually a ROSALÍA stan also but 'Yo X Ti, Tu X Mi' was a rare misfire :'( at least I could get into 'Con Altura' in a big way from her reggaeton sellout stuff :heart:
January 2, 20205 yr Author #190 Coldplay - Everyday Life 9-15-22-33-39-... The rumours / implications that Coldplay were done releasing albums after 'A Head Full Of Dreams' thankfully turned out to be wrong and here they are on my 2019 EOY, another act with a good handful of songs on the list, this is the first of 5 and my highlight of the album tracks that weren't dropped ahead of the album release. I'm just always a sucker for anything with that 2-step esque drum pattern. #189 Declan McKenna - TBA 2nd album 9-24-33-x I quite liked a couple songs from Declan's first album but definitely didn't anticipate how much I'd enjoy this comeback, a delightfully British dose of satirical political commentary, wrapping some pretty depressing lyrics up with a jolly catchy tune. It's very George Ezra meets Sam Fender. I feel like we must be overdue a follow-up single by now though. #188 Juice WRLD - Death Race For Love 29-27-x32-6-30-x Speaking of depressing... here's the first of 3 songs on the list from the late Juice WRLD (RIP) which was initially a rather underrated low top 30 hit on my chart but was my tribute song of choice following his untimely passing which gave it a belated top 10 peak (and look, it's a top 10 peak that isn't #9 or #10 at last! :P) Like a lot of his songs its lyrics feel very spookily appropriate in retrospect. Live fast he did. </3 Juice's songs have tended to have a pretty short shelf life for me, with 2 top 5 hits from him not making this list at all, but he does have 2 songs still to come. #187 Bladee - non-album single 4-7-18-31-x Very much a product of niche Internet interest, this was my favourite of the songs dropped this year from the Drain Gang camp (a collective of Swedish weirdo rappers affiliated with my former BJSC artist Yung Lean). It's an acquired taste that I'm not really sure how to describe. x #186 Marshmello - (feat. CHVRCHES) non-album single 20-6-21-21-25-x Hack 'producer' Marshmello is the kind of guy that I think is pretty easy to hate (and he definitely dropped some trash this year) but sometimes his formula churns out gold, and that was the case for me here, primarily down to the choice of wacky collaborator this time CHVRCHES, Lauren Mayberry's voice is always a treat and the lyrics are just so damn cute, I don't even care how generic the drop is. Thank god he didn't do the Chris Brown & Tyga song before this or we'd never have heard this one. CHVRCHES will make one further appearance but not for quite a while. #185 Trentemøller - Obverse 13-13-24-30-x Not really much to say about this one, it's one for the relaxation playlists. Just a very pretty instrumental. Kudos of course to Leww for putting me onto Trentemøller with his BJSC winner back in the day. #184 Altın Gün - Gelin Halayı / Dıv Dıv 31-27-29-18-37-x Immediately followed by another artist I discovered via BJSC although this one much more recently. Probably one of the weirdest inclusions on here (and it's the one with the lowest peak on my weekly charts), here we have a group from the Netherlands who sing folk music in Turkish over dancey instrumentals. Brought to my attention by Terra Avium's BJSC entry 'Süpürgesi Yoncadan' which I loved as well but this later song from them is even better, really makes you want to do a folksy little jig ~~ #183 Ariana Grande - thank u, next 17-33-x First of 2 songs from BuzzJack fave Ariana Grande, another artist I've typically found to be hit or miss in the past but she's dropped most of her best songs in the last couple of years and 'thank u, next' was a super solid album as a whole package, this album track highlight (I soooo wish this was a single, surely it could have been huge!!) is definitely up there with her best for me despite the disgustingly underwhelming chart run. ~ari chan~ #182 Travis Scott - non-album single 12-6-7-9-24-x And here's the first of 4 appearances for psychedelic trap pioneer Travis Scott. As far as Travis songs go this one is a bit on the formulaic side (it's pretty much just 'BUTTERFLY EFFECT' again) but Travis' music just always has that ~vibe~ that's very difficult to go wrong. Won't go down as an all-time classic from him, if anything the most memorable thing about it is how it was cheated to #1 on the Hot 100, but still very good nonetheless. Also back on my charts this week for the new year courtesy of a new remix with ROSALÍA (this is an improvement) and Lil Baby (this isn't). #181 clipping. - There Existed An Addiction To Blood 15-16-25-x Finally for today (next section will probably not be until Monday, today was probably not the best day to start as I'm away for the weekend but I'll try to be consistent after that!) we have experimental rap group clipping. with my highlight of the singles from their horror-themed album with the glorious title 'There Existed An Addiction To Blood' (taken from a vocal sample used in this song). Some hard hitting and thought provoking lyrics here and the flow in the last verse is just insane. These guys need to be more well-known. x
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