No surprise that Gareth Emery got your album of the year, really like some of the tracks from the i_o & Lights collaboration as well.

glad you're enjoying the picks from the I_o album!

 

Can't say I've heard much of that album but I'm skimming through a few of the songs you've put on there now and they're sounding great! I really should pay him some more attention.

yeah I think you'd quite like the album! seems to be the sort of dance-pop you like for the most part.

FORMAT

Here is how my EOY chart works this year. The best "selling" songs of the past 12 months will be counted down, as determined by my points system. The tracking year for 2020 takes into account points accumulated from chart #588 to the most recent #640. The points are based on two factors; playcount taken from the chart dates inclusive, as well as weekly chart positions. Any plays from today onwards will count towards next year's chart. The chart points will be expressed as 'sales' totals for the tracking year. To keep it fair, any song that charted during the tracking year is eligible, including tracks that did not peak during the tracking year, which means there will be a few 'leftovers' from the previous year.

 

As a bonus this year, I am introducing the Mainstream Chart - a collation of my favourite official UK Top 100 chart hits of the past 12 months. Primarily because my EOY chart has very few songs that were actual hits and I'd like to give a quick mention to the few chart hits I vibed with in the year.

 

As a teaser of what is to come here is a list of performers with more than two entries in the top 200:

7x - Grum, Lane 8

6x - Craig Connelly

5x - Gareth Emery

4x - Above & Beyond, Hugel, Purple Disco Machine

3x - Bon Entendeur, Ciaran McAuley, Cumbiafrica, Fred Again.., Grandbrothers, John Summit, Massane, Nora En Pure, Redondo, Spiritbox, Worakls

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

70 108,400 Belters Only ~ Don't Stop Just Yet [feat. Jazzy]

71 105,700 Calvin Harris ~ Potion [feat. Dua Lipa and Young Thug]

72 103,600 Venbee and Goddard ~ Messy In Heaven

73 99,400 Vibe Chemistry ~ Balling

74 95,600 Sam Ryder ~ Space Man

75 91,700 Da Beatfreakz ~ Money Calling [feat. Raye, Russ Millions and WeWantWraiths]

 

The first of two Eurovision songs, surprise surprise is actually a British one as for once we actually put some effort into it and were rewarded with our best finish this side of the 21st century thanks to Sam Ryder. He being the reason that Eurovision is cOmiNg hoMe!!1 being hosted in Liverpool next year. Sam himself proved to be a great vocalist on the night and with a well written pop tune alongside it.

 

Vibe Chemistry wasn't a producer I'd ever heard of before 'Balling' came seemingly out of nowhere into the UK top 40, assisted by some rappers I'd also never heard of. However it is the original version that I came back to as I felt the guest rappers detracted from the song. It's a fun DnB track with a strong hook.

 

Another DnB track next with Venbee. Her minor breakthrough hit went right over my head but she'd soon enough release 'Messy In Heaven' which had a fair bit more to it and of course it still sits in the top 10. It mostly grew on me after the edited version came out as I found the original hookline to be rather cringey.

 

You'd perhaps not expect a lead Calvin Harris single from a long-awaited album to be this low (falling well short of the main top 200) however here is where 'Potion' drops out. A rather disappointing track particularly given his previous collab with Dua Lipa was right at the top end - #2 of the 2018 EOY. It doesn't help that one of my least favourite rappers Young Thug is here too, however I gave the track enough of a chance for it to be here it and the subsequent album was the year's biggest letdown.

 

Belters Only broke through with 'Make Me Feel Good' which you can expect near the top end, meanwhile their follow-up which barely scraped the UK top 100 and my own personal chart is here. It's not really a surprise they were only able to create one proper hit, although it would've been gooooood and niiiicccee if this prevented them from total 1HW status.

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

65 115,000 D.O.D ~ Still Sleepless [feat. Carla Monroe]

66 114,200 Ed Sheeran and Elton John ~ Merry Christmas

67 113,400 Drake ~ Jimmy Cooks [feat. 21 Savage]

68 110,600 Metallica ~ Master of Puppets

69 109,900 The Weeknd ~ Sacrifice

 

The Weeknd couldn't quite re-create the magic of his previous era where 'Blinding Lights' and 'Save Your Tears' were huge worldwide chart hits, however 'Sacrifice' was perhaps worthy of a little more chart longevity than it ended up getting. Released as the single alongside the surprise album 'Dawn FM' it was certainly the best choice, being my favourite on the album. It has a great funky bassline to it too.

 

The 4th season of 'Stranger Things' was responsible for two 80s classics crossing over to the UK chart - the first of these will end up much higher predictably, however it was also great to see Metallica getting a short-lived chart run with 'Master of Puppets'. Now if you know me you'll know I'm not typically a metalhead, and although the song is seen as one of the classics of its genre I was not very familiar with it. However without spoiling anything its use in the show was truly excellent and made the song work for me. It would perhaps be a bit higher if the song wasn't so long, but it's great nonetheless.

 

4 years ago if Drake had released two albums in a year I'd have been rather excited. This year, it's been a big old meh from me. We did however get at least two songs worth revisiting from "Honestly, Nevermind" - the first of these being the sole trap song off the album and the reason why he ended up doing a collab album with 21 Savage more recently. "Jimmy Cooks" which I had to google to find was a reference to the character he played on the TV show that got him famous is a solid rap track, even with two distinct sections it flows rather well.

 

What is this, an Ed Sheeran song I actually enjoy? Well he's not really as bad as I often exaggerate him out to be, but I couldn't be bothered to put any of his recent singles on my playlist. Besides this because hey it's a NEW Christmas song that doesn't sound like ass. Assisted by Elton John of course it has all the makings of a great Christmassy singalong and I would welcome it being a future mainstay of the chart in December. As for the LadBaby version of this though, that's a big pile of nope.

 

A faceless house DJ getting a minor chart hit is certainly something I can always get behind. Although I wasn't actually a huge fan of 'Still Sleepless' from D.O.D., it's a solid standard house track and it would've been nice had it managed to actually climb into the UK top 40. Half of its points total in fact comes from a DnB remix from Ekko & Sidetrack which adds a bit more life to the song.

messy in heaven, SPACE MAN and Merry Christmas are my favourites to appear so far! :wub:

Really like seeing "Space Man", "Potion", "Sacrifice" and "Still Sleepless" from your selection!

I haven't been paying attention to progressive house releases that much recently so decided to check out the Grum album and it was a surprisingly decent listen. I loved the synthwave influence in a number of the tracks. Look to the Light was definitely a highlight so great choice in BJSC entry there. I also liked Our Cosmic Insignificance and Faded Memory with Sarah Appel. I imagine his music sounds even better in a live setting.

 

Will give the Lane 8 album a listen in full too. I've been meaning to do that for a while but keep forgetting

"Believe In Magic" was my favorite from the contenders since 4 of the songs surprisingly reached my top 40 this year (and a surprising #1 peak from "Headed For The Sun"), but "ANALOG" is well-deserved winner too. "LYFAT" might not be far behind from debuting on my top 75, while "Electric Life" is expected to debut this week. :magic:

 

"SPACE MAN" was an beautiful song and should be getting a Top 200 finish on mine with only 2 charts remaining.

messy in heaven, SPACE MAN and Merry Christmas are my favourites to appear so far! :wub:

glad you're enjoying a few of the mainstream chart picks so far, I suspect there'll be a few more to come you like too.

 

Really like seeing "Space Man", "Potion", "Sacrifice" and "Still Sleepless" from your selection!

glad you're enjoying a few of the mainstream chart picks so far, I suspect there'll be a few more to come you like too.

 

I haven't been paying attention to progressive house releases that much recently so decided to check out the Grum album and it was a surprisingly decent listen. I loved the synthwave influence in a number of the tracks. Look to the Light was definitely a highlight so great choice in BJSC entry there. I also liked Our Cosmic Insignificance and Faded Memory with Sarah Appel. I imagine his music sounds even better in a live setting.

 

Will give the Lane 8 album a listen in full too. I've been meaning to do that for a while but keep forgetting

glad you enjoyed the Grum album - I do love the big synths he uses which made the record stand out from other trance and progressive producers. they're particularly epic on Look To The Light which is why I saved that up for BJSC 150 being a 'milestone contest'.

 

"Believe In Magic" was my favorite from the contenders since 4 of the songs surprisingly reached my top 40 this year (and a surprising #1 peak from "Headed For The Sun"), but "ANALOG" is well-deserved winner too. "LYFAT" might not be far behind from debuting on my top 75, while "Electric Life" is expected to debut this week. :magic:

 

"SPACE MAN" was an beautiful song and should be getting a Top 200 finish on mine with only 2 charts remaining.

glad you enjoyed Believe In Magic and Analog from the albums. Space Man didn't really stick around for me post-contest which is why it's only just inside the 'mainstream chart', which translates to falling well short of my Top 200 overall.

 

thanks all.

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

60 126,500 Dave ~ Starlight

61 126,000 Cardi B ~ Hot Shit (feat. Ye and Lil Durk)

62 125,300 Fred Again.. ~ Clara (The Night Is Dark)

63 123,500 Sigala ~ Melody

64 119,700 Tion Wayne ~ IFTK [feat. La Roux]

 

UK Drill didn't have such a big year in 2022 however we did get one good track to come out of it, and I shouldn't be surprised it came from Tion Wayne as he was one of the rappers behind 'Body' last year. Alongside a fairly inspired sample choice going back to Skream's remix of La Roux in 2009, with them getting a feature credit on the song too. 'IFTK' is just a fun track even beyond the sample with Tion giving a great rap performance.

 

It seems like the days of Sigala being able to get into my main EOY chart are well and truly over - a mix of my taste gradually changing and Sigala doing B-rate rehashes of his earlier hits I suppose. 'Melody' was the first of 5 tracks he put out this year, none of which made my top 40. This however does do its job reasonably well of being a commercial dance-pop track and got a few plays from me when I just wanted basic dance to work out to.

 

Next up a song that barely qualifies for mainstream as it only managed a single week in the chart, but we'll take what we can get! Fred Again.. had a massive year and indeed takes five positions out of the Mainstream 75 - the first of these being "Clara", released as a single alongside the "Actual Life 3" album. Whilst the album was good, I didn't rate it quite highly enough for it to be in my Contenders list. I should get around to revisiting it, and belatedly check his first two albums out however.

 

Cardi B seems to be taking her sweet time in-between single releases these days and so I was a bit excited for what was her first in over a year. Although once that died down, the song quickly exited my chart and I don't have much desire to return to it. Sure it's a decent rap track but she has done better, and it sure didn't need either of those features either (particularly Ye though this at least came out before his antisemitic rantings).

 

Having a bit of a quiet year beyond having a big #1 hit, expectedly as Dave had just put out an album last year, we have 'Starlight'. Sure it's not his best track but a good choice as an in-between albums throwaway. I've never been a fan of 'Fly Me To The Moon' as a song but it works reasonably well as a sample here, the version sampled here is cute.

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

55 135,700 Meduza ~ Tell It To My Heart [feat. Hozier]

56 132,700 Luude ~ Down Under [feat. Colin Hay]

57 132,700 Swedish House Mafia ~ Heaven Takes You Home [feat. Connie Constance]

58 132,700 Drake ~ Massive

59 131,300 Nicki Minaj ~ Super Freaky Girl

 

Just about proving herself as the biggest female rapper of the year in my chart we have Nicki Minaj after she finally decided to put some effort into one of her singles again. It's a bit diet 'Anaconda' though sure, but a fun song at least. The sample works well here and the hook is catchy, perhaps even borderline annoyingly so but it's good if you're in the right mood for it.

 

Drake singing over a piano house instrumental wasn't what I'd expected from him but it worked fairly well on 'Massive'. Although I wish the drop had a little more to it, it was nonetheless the highlight of what was supposedly a 'dance' album from him and pretty much the only track from it the house DJs were actually playing from what I gathered.

 

Swedish House Mafia finally released their debut album this year in 'Paradise Again'. I didn't think it was quite great enough to put in my AOTY shortlist, but it had some moments. One of those of course being the single they released alongside it in 'Heaven Takes You Home'. It is pretty obviously their attempt to recreate DYWC for the modern dance scene, and whilst it falls well short of being that kind of anthem, it was a perfectly serviceable dance-pop tune that deserved better than the #80 peak it ended up getting in the UK chart.

 

Bringing back DnB to the top end of the UK chart this year we had Luude. The first of two tracks by him here, 'Down Under' of course based off the Men At Work hit. It was a bit on the novelty side which perhaps stopped me from really loving it, but it is a good bit of fun and nothing less than what you'd want or expect from a DnB rework of this song.

 

First of two Meduza songs now with 'Tell It To My Heart' which ended up getting caught between years, it would've been in my main top 200 with its full chart run. Hozier puts in a great vocal performance here and the song feels like a natural progression for Meduza from their first couple of hits, though unfortunately it ended up never making the UK top 40.

 

I've also just realised a song further up I thought scraped the top 100 didn't so I've gone back and added an extra song to the chart.

"Tell It To My Heart" should've been higher for me on my charts, if I didn't have a couple of people in my friends list who don't like the song.

"Down Under" is tolerable, but I prefer "Big City Life" more.

"Heaven Takes You Home" would've been bigger for me as well, it just didn't got huge for me. Maybe a return someday?

"Melody" is my favourite so far, really like Sigala's output recently, can't wait for his album next year.

Great so far.

I've just finished my album Year-End list, can't wait to start the Top 250 Songs of the Year for my Year-End lists soon.

Nice to see Clara make an appearance. A big standout along with the singles from an otherwise meh album

mm mm *.* IFTK is my favourite Tion Wayne track so far, and I wasn't even that bothered by In for the Kill when it came out.

 

Hot Shit, Melody and Super Freaky Girl are also great picks!

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

50 150,600 Sigala ~ Stay the Night [feat. Talia Mar]

51 149,700 Fred Again.. ~ Delilah (Pull Me Out Of This)

52 137,400 Raye ~ Escapism [feat. 070 Shake]

53 136,100 Chris Rea ~ Driving Home For Christmas

54 136,000 Leona Lewis ~ One More Sleep

 

A couple of Christmas favourites firstly with Leona Lewis - a former #1 of mine 'One More Sleep' didn't quite do the business in December of last year but continues to be a favourite of the season - closing in on a playcount of 150 now which is the most for any seasonal hit. In the current UK chart climate of Christmas songs grinding the new music season to a halt for the entirety of December, it is pleasing at least that this remains amongst the crop of returnees.

 

However just about out-doing her we have Chris Rea - 'Driving Home For Christmas' is closing in on 100 plays for me, although the amount of times I've heard it is likely to be at least double that figure. Regardless it is a song that ages like fine wine (as the expression goes, I'm not that fond of wine myself) and is a real winter warmer. It was especially pleasing that the song was able to finally reach a top 10 official chart peak.

 

Next up a song that has been rapidly climbing my chart in the last couple of weeks and now sitting in my top 10. Raye managed to get 'Escapism' to trend online which thankfully allowed me to give the song another chance and grow on me. It is an excellent showcase of her vocal and songwriting talent and hopefully a future UK #1 hit too. 070 Shake also appears here though we'll hear more from her further up the chart. If the song continues to hold up it should be able to contend for my main EOY chart for 2023.

 

And look here's Fred Again.. again. 'Delilah' managed to be a surprise top 40 hit for him, a great calming and uplifting electronic track. The beat switches keep the song rather interesting throughout its repetitiveness - the 'music getting faster' section being a particularly welcome change. Ultimately it wasn't one of his absolute best of the year though.

 

Narrowly besting 'Melody' for Sigala we have 'Stay the Night', which also became a bigger hit in the official chart - largely thanks to a stronger vocal and hook. Again, nothing too special from him production wise but as a basic dance-pop track it does its job.

"Tell It To My Heart" should've been higher for me on my charts, if I didn't have a couple of people in my friends list who don't like the song.

"Down Under" is tolerable, but I prefer "Big City Life" more.

"Heaven Takes You Home" would've been bigger for me as well, it just didn't got huge for me. Maybe a return someday?

"Melody" is my favourite so far, really like Sigala's output recently, can't wait for his album next year.

Great so far.

I've just finished my album Year-End list, can't wait to start the Top 250 Songs of the Year for my Year-End lists soon.

for me Tell It To My Heart was a fair bit better than the couple of Meduza singles put out before and afterwards.

Big City Life is yet to appear in the Mainstream 75 so I have to agree there.

I was initially rather excited by Heaven Takes You Home but it just fell quickly and never recovered in my chart.

I'd be excited for the Sigala album except we've most likely heard over half of it already haha.

 

Nice to see Clara make an appearance. A big standout along with the singles from an otherwise meh album

it was indeed a standout, there'll be a couple more of Fred's tracks here too.

 

mm mm *.* IFTK is my favourite Tion Wayne track so far, and I wasn't even that bothered by In for the Kill when it came out.

 

Hot Shit, Melody and Super Freaky Girl are also great picks!

I did prefer Body as that made my EOY top 100 proper last year, IFTK was a solid follow-up however and better than most of Tion Wayne's output. gotta love that he shoves his mm mm catchphrase into every song too haha.

 

thanks all.

 

Nice to see Sam Ryder in your Mainstream Chart, as I said in my own thread it's a fab song and gret to see us do well in Eurovision for once! Tell It To My Heart was a decent track for MEDUZA as well.

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

45 162,200 Schak ~ Moving All Around (Jumpin') [feat. Kim English]

46 161,700 Rihanna ~ Lift Me Up

47 155,800 MK and Burns ~ Better [feat. Teddy Swims]

48 154,600 Cornelia Jakobs ~ Hold Me Closer

49 153,800 Luude vs. Mattafix ~ Big City Life

 

Narrowly besting 'Down Under' was the follow up hit for Luude in 'Big City Life' - a remix of the 2005 Mattafix hit. I was never a big fan of the song in its original version and I wasn't particularly sold on the idea of this being the song Luude happened to choose to remix, however Luude gave it a much needed uplift and soon enough it grew on me. It was pleasing that he managed to bring back DnB to the UK top 10 twice as I did presume he'd just end up with just the one hit.

 

The best of this year's Eurovision bunch came from Sweden, as often has been the case in the past but not so often recently. However in Cornelia Jakobs they chose very well and perhaps in a regular year this could have gone on to win. With a great vocal performance and backing strings this was amongst the strongest mid-tempo ballads ever heard on the Eurovision stage. It managed a solitary week in the UK chart afterwards qualifying it for this list.

 

He will appear in my EOY 100 with a non-hit but for now we have 'Better' for MK, which scraped the UK top 100 for one week. Assisted by Burns (who himself had another release in the year I preferred, but was not a UK hit) it is a perfectly serviceable piano house track but does nothing too special to put it amongst MK's great tier.

 

Marking her return to music this year we have Rihanna who put out a ballad for the new Black Panther film (which I have yet to see). It's no secret that I generally prefer uptempo music but I was willing to give the song a good go for well, being Rihanna's first new song in years. She has still got the vocal talent but ultimately the song didn't have too much replay value once the initial excitement of her return died down.

 

Finally a song that could perhaps end up as a UK top 40 hit once Christmas music has exited the chart, coming from Patrick Topping's label which gave Ewan McVicar a hit we have Schak. It appears to be that he's kinda bringing back clubland-y bounce music with 'Moving All Around', sampling a 90s Kim English track (unfortunately she's not here to see the song's new lease of life). It's a fun song anyhow.

MAINSTREAM 75

 

 

40 191,500 Sam Smith ~ Unholy [Original/Disclosure Remix] [feat. Kim Petras]

41 189,200 Diplo ~ Don't Forget My Love [feat. Miguel]

42 181,000 Adele ~ I Drink Wine

43 172,500 Lost Frequencies ~ Where Are You Now [feat. Calum Scott]

44 163,600 Meduza and James Carter ~ Bad Memories [feat. Elley Duhé and Fast Boy]

 

With the advantage of its release date the higher of the two Meduza tracks this year is 'Bad Memories', although I did consider it a slight downgrade from 'Tell It To My Heart'. Even for a Meduza track it is incredibly repetitive, which perhaps stopped me from really getting into it. The song is undeniably catchy though and I'm surprised it didn't take off more than lingering at the bottom end of the UK top 100 for a couple of months.

 

Now on to one of the year's biggest UK hits, you may be surprised that it is not any higher on my list. Firstly, it peaked for me in October of last year. It is certainly the best of Lost Frequencies' most recent output however, so its success was pleasing to see. Not to mention further proof that Calum Scott is a tolerable enough vocalist when he's not doing dull ballads. Its points total this year was also assisted by a Kungs remix.

 

Two Adele songs appear on this list. The higher up one, I'm sure you can guess what it is. Meanwhile it was her third single 'I Drink Wine' that for me was the standout of the rest of her album. A long ballad sure but a fairly interesting one (even beyond the song title), though I'd already given it the 'single treatment' in my chart at the start of the year so it didn't have any impact with the belated video release.

 

Another rather decent piano house track now from Diplo which hung around the bottom end of the UK top 40 for a while, though for me it lacked the extra oomph that made his Paul Woolford collaboration 'Looking For Me' so great. But clearly I returned to it often enough on my workout playlist for it to be this high in the mainstream chart as I only personally charted it for 2 weeks!

 

Starting off the top 40 we have Sam Smith whose 'Unholy' became somewhat of a surprise #1 hit as the previous single had missed the UK top 40. This one however was a lot more memorable to begin with, helped by the backing choir and hyper pop inspired production. Although it is my personal chart so of course it peaked for me with the anticipated Disclosure remix put out a couple of weeks later, giving the song the extra kicks and hats it needed. Kim Petras is here too of course - she had hit my chart once before on a Kygo collaboration but none of her solo work has yet to make any impact for me.

Nice to see Sam Ryder in your Mainstream Chart, as I said in my own thread it's a fab song and gret to see us do well in Eurovision for once! Tell It To My Heart was a decent track for MEDUZA as well.

yes, I hope its not just a one-off but I know better than to really get my hopes up given the history