January 11, 20214 yr Author Albums: Top 50  4 Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia | 1-2-2-2-2-3-3-4-4-6-7-9-10-10-12-13-14-6-6-6-8-8-11-11-13-15-15-14-14-x Flash back to lockdown 1.0. Nobody knew what was happening or how long covid was going to be around, and I certainly don't think most of us expected lockdown 3.0 for January 2021 at that point, but things felt bleak. I know Dua Lipa bringing her album forward a week was just what I needed, and I was right. I loved the self-titled debut, but Future Nostalgia felt like a superbly focused follow-up. Dua's vision was clear from the offset, in the album title and visuals for the era as well as the cohesive sound. The singles have all been well-chosen, but it says it all that there's still potential single choices left, after five of them have been released! Good In Bed sticks out as the only real dud for me, but that aside, what an incredible pop album and one that's so worthy of the insane hype it received. Charting Songs 02 Physical 03 Levitating (feat. DaBaby) 04 Don't Start Now 05 Break My Heart 05 Love Again 10 Future Nostalgia 24 Hallucinate 31 Fever (Dua Lipa & Angèle) Album Track Recommendation LAdxhHz6Tu4  3 Conan Gray - Kid Krow | 1-3-3-3-1-1-2-2-3-2-5-5-6-6-5-5-6-5-7-7-4-5-6-10-9-9-10-10-12-10-13-13-14-x Throughout 2019, Conan Gray built his profile in my chart, achieving a top 10 hit with The King in the first half of the year, and finishing the year with his biggest hit to date Maniac, which reached #4 and continued to hang around into 2020. My hype levels were high by the time Kid Krow came around, and he'd just achieved a #1 single in the form of Wish You Were Sober, so naturally, the album followed suit. Conan's songwriting is honest and he doesn't shy away from talking about his deepest, truest emotions, making perfect sense for a coming-of-age album. The album is compact and tight, with interludes helping to separate different themes, from love, heartbreak, anger and growing up. The future's bright for Conan and I can't wait to see where a second album will take him. Charting Songs 01 Wish You Were Sober 04 Maniac 09 Heather 10 Checkmate 13 The Story 25 Comfort Crowd Album Track Recommendation pmZTq7frkDQ ALEC BENJAMIN vs THE KID LAROI - who will take my #1 album of 2020?
January 11, 20214 yr Giving Into The Fire a listen now, sounding quite nice! Could definitely be a grower. I've only heard the charting songs from the Lady Gaga album but there were some nice sounding songs out of those.
January 11, 20214 yr Author Giving Into The Fire a listen now, sounding quite nice! Could definitely be a grower. I've only heard the charting songs from the Lady Gaga album but there were some nice sounding songs out of those. Glad you like Into the Fire, Pete! If you like that, you'd enjoy much of Reed's album actually, it's quite a representative song ^_^
January 11, 20214 yr Author Albums: Top 50  2 Alec Benjamin - These Two Windows | 1-1-1-2-2-2-2-3-5-3-3-4-5-8-8-8-9-9-11-11-14-14-13-15-x Though it had 12 tracks, Alec's Narrated for You release wasn't actually considered an album for some reason. Perhaps because Let Me Down Slowly hadn't quite taken off at that point and his label were sceptical to release a debut album before Alec had a hit under his belt. Fast forward over a year and the actual debut album arrived. With a whopping six out of ten songs available before the album's release, it was fair to say I knew I'd enjoy the album, but I was still somewhat surprised. The singles seemed to slightly wane in quality as the releases went by (notably, the four that immediately preceded the album release came quite close together, and the order of release definitely represents quality - Mind is a Prison > Demons > Oh My God > The Book of You & I). However, These Two Windows contains everything I wanted from Alec. It's builds on Alec's superb lyricism and outlook from Narrated for You, while building on the production elements a lot more. Match in the Rain is a prime example of this, and it stands out as one of his best songs to date. I maintain that Alec is quite possibly the best songwriter around, too, and it's evident in songs like Just Like You (a song about his dad), Mind Is a Prison and Jesus in LA, but it peaks in the sublime Must Have Been the Wind, my favourite song on the album and my EOY #8 for 2019. It's a shame that These Two Windows didn't quite provide the commercial breakthrough Alec deserved, partially because it came a year after Let Me Down Slowly's chart success and ultimately didn't even feature that song. Nonetheless, Alec proved himself once again as one of the most important voices in pop, and he's truly cementing himself as a massive favourite of mine. Charting Songs 01 Demons 01 Jesus in LA 01 Match in the Rain 01 Mind Is a Prison 01 Must Have Been the Wind 03 Oh My God 08 The Book of You & I 08 Just Like You 15 Alamo 18 I'm Not a Cynic Album Track Recommendation kTm-_OI8ang  1 The Kid LAROI - F*CK LOVE (SAVAGE) | 3-1-1-1-2-5-5-2-3-4-2-3-5-4-5-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-2-... A year ago, I truly had no idea who The Kid LAROI was. In fact, even six months ago, I was barely any wiser, and he'd almost breached the top 40 with Juice WRLD collaboration GO at that point. It wasn't until August when I finally listened to GO, and even then I wasn't immediately bowled over. Nonetheless, I was somewhat curious, so I listened to a few more songs. I ended up listening to the whole of Laroi's debut mixtape F*CK LOVE, not in order, and I was pretty impressed. I struck gold near the end, though, when I reached NEED YOU MOST (So Sick), but I'll go into detail on that song in the songs countdown. Nonetheless, I loved it, and it kept drawing me back to the full mixtape. Over the next week, I listened to very little else. I distinctly remember that it was the summer, and I listened to it on my way down to Devon on the train pretty much on repeat. So many songs made themselves known at different times - TELL ME WHY stood out quickly as an emotional and raw Juice WRLD tribute, positioned cleverly directly after GO on the tracklist. SELFISH was a gorgeous way to end the album, as Laroi explains the feelings of anger and desire for revenge after a relationship breaks down and the other person moves on. The whole album tackles the themes of a broken relationship directly, with Laroi's emotions at just sixteen years old being relatable to so many people undoubtedly. It's fair to say that I knew the album would be a defining one for me very early on, and it spent three consecutive weeks at my #1 spot (after an immediate #3 debut after just a day!). Every one of the 11 songs on F*CK LOVE (excluding the skit interludes of course) charted in my singles chart, becoming just the fifth album to achieve that feat. NEED YOU MOST spent four weeks as my singles chart #1, with GO, SELFISH and TELL ME WHY joining it in the top 10 for three straight weeks. WRONG reached the top 10 after its video release a little later down the line, and the album never left my top 5. Cut to November. SO DONE had been released as the lead single from SAVAGE, Laroi's next project (referencing the lyrics of SELFISH directly, where he says "imma be savage"). It turns out it's actually attached to the original mixtape, so F*CK LOVE (SAVAGE) was released with SO DONE and six other brand new songs before the existing mixtape. Here, Laroi talks about the aftermath of the relationship. ALWAYS DO sees him admit many of his faults ("said I wouldn't drink but I did same day, shit I lied to your face like I always do"), and breakout hit WITHOUT YOU closes the era in a very different way to SELFISH - Laroi's ready to move on, even though it hurts and he's "scared to be alone." The seven tracks of SAVAGE presented Laroi with a further three #1s and three more top 10 hits, while PIKACHU made #16, ensuring every one of the 18 "proper" songs from the combined F*CK LOVE (SAVAGE) album made my top 40 - a record from one project. Ultimately, this will go down as a historic album for me. Hip-hop isn't usually my thing at all, and I can count on one hand the number of albums I've heard by male hip-hop stars (I'd hesitate to call Laroi a rapper because he sings much more of the time, much like Post Malone I suppose). Nonetheless, Laroi doesn't just mumble over trap beats, he sings lyrics that are relatable and honest, and he sings them with every ounce of emotion they deserve. Even the slightly less deep songs like WRONG bring a lot of energy to the album, showing Laroi's versatility. At just seventeen years old now, Laroi's laid some highly impressive foundations in the industry, and I truly cannot WAIT to see what's coming next, because I just know it's going to be incredible. Charting Songs 01 ALWAYS DO 01 NEED YOU MOST (So Sick) 01 SO DONE 01 WITHOUT YOU 03 GO (The Kid LAROI & Juice WRLD) 03 SELFISH 04 FEEL SOMETHING (feat. Marshmello) 05 F*CK YOU, GOODBYE (feat. Machine Gun Kelly) 07 WRONG (feat. Lil Mosey) 09 TELL ME WHY 09 TRAGIC (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again & Internet Money) 12 SAME THING 16 PIKACHU 17 I WISH 23 RUNNING 30 MAYBE 38 ERASE U 40 NOT FAIR (feat. Corbin) Album Track Recommendation D-ocerKPufk
January 11, 20214 yr Oh wow, Conan slaying :cheeseblock:Â I need to give some Kid LAROI music a listen at some point tbh! Unsurprising #1 there though *.*
January 11, 20214 yr nice to see Future Nostalgia so high in the albums list, I don't usually listen to pop albums but had to for Dua and it was great. excited for this supposed Side B release this year.
January 11, 20214 yr Author Oh wow, Conan slaying :cheeseblock: I need to give some Kid LAROI music a listen at some point tbh! Unsurprising #1 there though *.* U better get to it bitch x nice to see Future Nostalgia so high in the albums list, I don't usually listen to pop albums but had to for Dua and it was great. excited for this supposed Side B release this year. Thanks Dan!!
January 11, 20214 yr Author Points Charts As always, now's the time for a quick look at how my end-of-year chart would look if it were based on points from my weekly charts. I don't use these officially and prefer to create my own rankings but nonetheless I find them intriguing to look at! Singles 01 709 The Kid LAROI - NEED YOU MOST (So Sick) [01] 02 664 Boy In Space - Caroline [01] 03 626 Doja Cat - Say So [01] 04 601 Powfu feat. beabadoobee - death bed (coffee for your head) [01] 05 508 Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion - WAP [01] 06 468 Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar [01] 07 426 Fin Argus & Sabrina Carpenter - Clouds [01] 08 423 Ulrik Munther - Gloom. [01] 09 412 Greyson Chance - Dancing Next to Me [01] 10 391 Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - Rain On Me [01] 11 374 The Kid LAROI - SO DONE [01] 12 368 The Kid LAROI - SELFISH [03] 13 364 Bastiaan & jens feat. Wiktoria - Someone Else [01] 14 361 Mishaal feat. Powfu - Friends [01] 15 359 Harry Styles - Falling [05] 16 357 Boy In Space & NOTD - Therapy [01] 17 354 FELIX SANDMAN - BOYS WITH EMOTIONS [01] 18 331 Harry Styles - Adore You [01] 19 321 Dua Lipa feat. DaBaby - Levitating [03] 20 319 Conan Gray - Wish You Were Sober [01] 21 304 Conan Gray - Maniac [04] 22 304 The Kid LAROI - WITHOUT YOU [01] 23 290 Alec Benjamin - Match In the Rain [01] 24 284 Sista Prod feat. Powfu, Alec Benjamin & Rxseboy - Eyes Blue Like the Atlantic Pt 2 [03] 25 283 Dahl - Can I Kiss You? [03] 26 278 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You [01] 27 277 Harry Styles - Golden [04] 28 272 jens - In or Out [01] 29 272 Troye Sivan - Take Yourself Home [01] 30 265 Olivia O'Brien - Josslyn [06] 31 260 Ulrik Munther - C'est la vie [01] 32 256 Kylie Minogue - Say Something [01] 33 255 Matteo Markus Bok - Háblale Claro [01] 34 251 Why Don't We - Fallin' (Adrenaline) [01] 35 250 SHY Martin feat. Boy In Space - Still the Same [01] 36 250 Isac Elliot - Weekend [01] 37 249 Conan Gray - Heather [09] 38 249 The Kid LAROI - ALWAYS DO [01] 39 246 Ruel - as long as you care [01] 40 244 The Pussycat Dolls React [02] We can't compare to the official ranking yet but with just over 100 points separating the top 4 songs, things will be interesting at the top end of the singles countdown. Of course, some 2019 carry-overs feature here - Harry's Adore You won't feature (though Watermelon Sugar will despite featuring in 2019's EOY and peaking at #1 that year), and Mariah's seasonal classic as always won't be featuring either. Albums: 2020 01 755 The Kid LAROI - F*CK LOVE (SAVAGE) 02 634 Conan Gray - Kid Krow 03 484 Alec Benjamin - These Two Windows 04 436 Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia 05 314 Lady Gaga - Chromatica 06 311 New Hope Club - New Hope Club 07 256 Reed Deming - Second Life 08 240 Selena Gomez - Rare 09 233 Louise - Heavy Love 10 207 Melanie C - Melanie C The top 5 albums here are the same five as in the official EOY, but Conan and Alec switched. Recent releases like Shawn Mendes and Ava Max don't feature, in favour of older albums like Selena Gomez and Louise that had longer to rack up weeks on my chart. Albums: Pre-2020 01 1281 Harry Styles - Fine Line 02 347 Greyson Chance - portraits 03 320 Ruel - Free Time - EP 04 265 Matteo Markus Bok - Cruisin' 05 192 Camila Cabello - Romance 06 144 S Club 7 - Best: The Greatest Hits of S Club 7 07 102 Atomic Kitten - The Greatest Hits 08 98 Ulrik Munther - Ulrik Munther 09 72 Isac Elliot - FAITH 10 72 Girls Aloud - Ten The December release meant Harry Styles' Fine Line didn't make my end of year #1, losing out to Greyson Chance's portraits, but with it charting in every week of 2020, it achieved the most points of any album, even including 2020 releases (not helped by Laroi missing 7 months of the year). Other than 2019 carry-overs, it's greatest hits albums that benefit, as well as Ulrik Munther's debut album (boosted by his 2020 single releases) and Isac Elliot's de-facto greatest hits album FAITH. NEXT: The top 300 singles countdown begins!
January 12, 20214 yr Author Songs: Top 300  291 Sofia Carson & R3HAB - I Luv U | 20-32-x 292 jens - Tough Love | 14-37-x 293 Powfu - im used to it | 26-30-x 294 Gunnar Gehl - For Your Love | 17-27-34-x 295 Nathan Dawe & Little Mix - No Time For Tears | 16-x 296 Camila Cabello - Living Proof | 32-31-x-20-29-33-x 297 Liam Ferrari & Tyron Hapi - Nobody Else | 17-x 298 Taylor Swift - Only the Young | 19-x 299 Greyson Chance - Athlete | 17-40-x 300 Charlie Puth - Girlfriend | 18-32-x We start with a selection of smaller hits as always. mostly tracks that only spent a handful of weeks in my chart. Charlie Puth hasn't massively impressed me post-Voicenotes era still, but Girlfriend was a nice little track nonetheless and much better than the blackbear thing that followed. Greyson Chance's Love, Victor soundtrack song Athlete is very album track-worthy for me, a nice song and it works well in the show but not one I'm drawn to much otherwise. Taylor Swift's soundtrack song Only the Young was a short-lived top 20 hit, not helped by feeling like a Lover reject...! Early year hits from Sofia Carson and Camila Cabello pop up here, as well as singer Liam Ferrari and DJ Tyron Hapi's second collaboration - not as good and not as boppy as their first track I Like the Way, EOY #83 in 2018 but cute nonetheless. Nathan Dawe enlisted Little Mix for his latest single, a good track but slightly generic and not one I find myself relistening to. Gunnar Gehl's debut single and a jens EP track mark their first appearances of several, and Powfu's death bed follow-up appears, being one of the very few non-top 20 hits to feature - im used to it proved to be a grower after initially not really getting it. 3AuzANuYggk
January 13, 20214 yr Author Songs: Top 300  281 RAYE - Please Don’t Touch | 19-15-18-36-x 282 Freya Ridings - Love Is Fire | 26-18-24-40-x 283 Michael Schulte - Keep Me Up | 17-36-x 284 Hailee Steinfeld - Wrong Direction | 19-30-x 285 Kelly Clarkson - I Dare You | 13-32-x 286 5 Seconds of Summer - Wildflower | 38-28-17-23-30-x 287 R3HAB & HRVY - Be Okay | 37-32-23-28-34-x 288 BLACKPINK - How You Like That | 12-40-x 289 Kygo & Tina Turner - What's Love Got to Do With It | 18-31-x 290 Dove Cameron feat. BIA - Remember Me | 12-24-x A few more early 2020 hits drop out in this section, including RAYE's best track in a while, Freya Ridings' criminally underrated Love Is Fire (personally I prefer it to Castles...!) and Hailee Steinfeld's understated Wrong Direction. Dove Cameron and BIA came together for their first, and currently only, hit in my chart during the first lockdown, while Kygo's remake of What's Love Got to Do With It gave Tina Turner her very first chart hit for me. Keep an eye out for more Kygo to come! BLACKPINK make their first appearance of three, and 5SOS their first of two with the fifth single from CALM. Kelly Clarkson and Michael Schulte make their only appearances in this section, and R3HAB's theme of 2020 being "throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks" somewhat pays off as Be Okay is his second appearance of four, and first of two with HRVY. IIMAAbArwJU
January 13, 20214 yr Be Okay is sounding quite nice! It doesn't sound too much like R3HAB (and I probably wouldn't have been able to guess that the featured artist was HRVY either) but I am quite enjoying it! Not too many I recognise in this section other than the chart hits, unfortunately none of those so far really clicked with me but I guess No Time For Tears still has growing room.
January 13, 20214 yr Author Thanks guys!! I've always found Wildflower good but a little clunky in the chorus, Calum :cry:
January 13, 20214 yr Author Songs: Top 300  271 Kygo, Zara Larsson & Tyga - Like It Is | 20-33-x 272 Ava Max - My Head & My Heart | 13-34-x 273 Jakob Karlberg - Om du tror att jag saknar dig | 13-22-30-x 274 Alec Benjamin - I Built a Friend | 34-x-40-18-8-6-10-14-17-25-31-x-11-x 275 Britney Spears - Swimming in the Stars | 20-x 276 Delta Goodrem - Solid Gold | 12-38-x 277 Ellie Goulding feat. Lauv - Slow Grenade | 14-30-36-x 278 Gabrielle Aplin & Nina Nesbitt - Miss You 2 | 13-28-x 279 Ava Max - Who's Laughing Now | 13-19-28-x 280 FELIX SANDMAN feat. Astrid S - RELATIONS | 13-17-… Former FO&O members Felix and Oscar are littered throughout this countdown, with Felix losing the first of his two songs here in his collaboration with Astrid S, who has another two songs remaining. Ava Max appears twice with two of three #13 hits she managed to achieve in 2020, alongside Gabrielle Aplin's remake of 2016 song Miss You alongside Nina Nesbitt. Ellie Goulding loses her first track of two, and Delta Goodrem loses her first of four with Solid Gold, a rare occasion of her missing my top 10 with a single. Britney's promo single Swimming in the Stars had a short shelf life but places respectably for a cute track, and Alec Benjamin's I Built a Friend is allowed to feature again due to a new version released last year (worth noting that 11-x was its 2020 run, the rest came in 2016-17). Jakob Karlberg represents our first Melodifestivalen entry, and Kygo pops up again with Zara Larsson and Tyga. ALjgwjvNevI
January 14, 20214 yr Author Artists: Top 10  10 Shawn Mendes 2020 was a difficult year to compile an artist top 10 for. Usually, I'll base my list on a whole host of things - albums and singles of course, but music videos and concerts too. Music videos, at least for a couple of months, seemed to consist solely of people dancing around their iamspamspamami as the industry adapted to the COVID world, and concerts have completely stalled for obvious reasons. Therefore, the impacts of albums and singles feels stronger here than usual, as well as just how much I've stanned each artist too. There's no real requirement, an artist doesn't need to have put an album out in 2020 to feature here, they just need to have made a sizeable impact on my year. Shawn Mendes has dominated the past few months, though his near-invisibility for the rest of 2020 means I can't really justify placing him any higher. Nonetheless, as already mentioned, Wonder is his best album to date. He's come back more confident, more assured, and readier than ever to shake up his usual formula. Though the album is amazing, Shawn's been lacking with his single choices. I think Wonder is a strong song (it was #1 in my chart of course) but not lead single worthy in my opinion, as its chart success proves. Monster, another good song and another #1, relied a little too much on name power to sell itself, and the fact it doesn't mesh well with the rest of the album at all makes it feel even more strange a single choice. However, the visuals this era have been brilliant and Shawn knows exactly what direction he's heading in. I really hope he's able to tour Wonder at some point, so many songs I want to hear live!
January 15, 20214 yr Hi Joseph! Nice to see these albums in your Year-End album list: Ava Max - Heaven & Hell Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated Side B Declan McKenna - Zeros Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia Lady Gaga - Chromatica Little Mix - Confetti Miley Cyrus - Plastic Hearts Niall Horan - Heartbreak Weather Sam Smith - Love Goes Shawn Mendes - Wonder Taylor Swift - evermore Taylor Swift - folklore The Vamps - Cherry Blossom And these are my favourites from your songs section: 271 Kygo, Zara Larsson & Tyga - Like It Is 272 Ava Max - My Head & My Heart 277 Ellie Goulding feat. Lauv - Slow Grenade 279 Ava Max - Who's Laughing Now 282 Freya Ridings - Love Is Fire 283 Michael Schulte - Keep Me Up 286 5 Seconds of Summer - Wildflower 289 Kygo & Tina Turner - What's Love Got to Do With It 295 Nathan Dawe & Little Mix - No Time For Tears 296 Camila Cabello - Living Proof 300 Charlie Puth - Girlfriend Some of them will appear on my Year-end list as well. (But I won't tell which ones will make it, "it's a secret!" :kink:)
January 15, 20214 yr Gabrielle and Nina are both still to appear on my EOY as featured artists but not heard much of either of their solo stuff! Giving this collab a listen now, sounding quite nice, their voices work together well!
Create an account or sign in to comment