#16 - Heartworms - Smugglers Adventure

#15 - Westside Cowboy - Shells

#14 - Nourished By Time - Max Potential

#13 - Saya Gray - Lie Down

#12 - Smerz - You Got Time And I Got Money

#11 - Divorce - Lord

The Heartworms album is very good - my favourite from it is „Extraordinary Wings“.

Onto the top 10 then!

#10 - Rosalía ft Bjork & Yves Tumour - Berghain

I first came to listening Berghain via this video with no prior knowledge of what to expect, but having always been a fan of Rosalía I was excited to see what her new music would be like when it was announced. Safe to say nothing could have prepared me!

So the curtain opening scene comes… and BAM! the music hits, it pretty much took my breath away! What a way to announce yourself. I love music that completely commits like this. The album, Lux, which followed was in many ways even better. She’s doing things that nobody else in the ‘pop’ music realm is doing right now, and also you know that by the time everyone else catches up she will have moved on to something new. A true innovator.

#9 -  Hatchie - Only One Laughing

Another artist I’ve always enjoyed. With Influences from great 80s band like the Smiths and the Cocteau Twins but also, especially, the fantastic vastly underrated Sundays, it’s perfect jangly indie pop with a modern twist.

#8 - Alan Sparhawk & Trampled By Turtles - Stranger

From one of the sadly missed all time great bands ‘Low’, I’m so glad that Alan is continuing to make music after the passing of his wife and musical partner Mimi Parker.

This does have the sound of a Low song but with more of a country feel provided by TBTs. It sounds like a great lost slower REM song (in the vein of Country Feedback perhaps) which can only be a good thing.

#7 - Dove Ellis - Pale Song

Dove is a newish Irish singer songwriter who has virtually no internet presence, which is refreshing. I found out about him because he’s been supporting Geese in the US. He makes absolutely gorgeous ‘folkish’ songs but very idiosyncratic, I suppose the closest comparison to his voice would be Jeff Buckley but I can hear influences of Radiohead, Rufus Wainwright in the arrangements, and also Queen in the harmonies.

A future star, if he wants to be, I’ve said many times on this forum that the album, Blizzard, sounds like a perfect fit for a Mercury Music prize winner. My favourite on there changes almost day to day but Pale Song was the one where I first fell in love with his music so that’s the one I chose.However despite recommending Dove to friends, family and everyone I can, I still seem to be the only one who likes him so far, so maybe it’s just me?!

#6 - Chappell Roan - The Subway

Chappell writes a Cranberries song!

I liked ‘…Midwest Princess’ a lot, but it’s been since the 3 singles after that when I’ve really ‘got’ Chappell’s music properly. Each song better than the one before, it feels like she’s gearing up for something truly special with the long awaited 2nd album. The Subway is a lovely song throughout but it’s the second half, and the beautiful ‘she got away’ coda, that lifts it skyward, each repeat slightly different than the one before.

Always makes me cry!

Comfortably the best number one of the year, such a shame it didn’t stick around in the charts longer!

#5 - Dijon - Automatic

I had heard of Dijon before, from his collaborations with Mk.gee and then on Justin Bieber’s Swag album. His is a quirky update on 80s R&B and I’d love to imagine Prince doing something like this if he were still here. His album, Baby, is unique sounding with fantastic production and again I could have chosen many of the songs to feature on this list, but this is just about my favourite

#4 - Tyler Childers - Oneida

I’m always a sucker for a great alt country leaning song and this one starts off simply with strummed guitar but then bursts into a gorgeous Pogues or Dexys like folk masterpiece. Really great and romantic lyrics, love the waltz rhythm too. An absolutely beautiful song!

#3 - CMAT - Take A Sexy Picture Of Me

I had real difficulty choosing which CMAT song to include, Euro-Country is the best

album of the year and pretty much the whole of it was worthy of a place here. In the end I went with this for its great melody, lyrics/sentiment and her playfully breaking the ‘4th wall’ between verses. I’ve loved her since her first album, getting better with each release, and am really looking forward to where she goes next. She really should be a massive star by now.

#2 - Westside Gunn ft Doechii - Egypt (remix)

So Doechii does have one of the very best songs of the year, but it’s certainly not Anxiety!

I just love the feel of this, the rhythm the brilliant chopped samples and 2 great contrasting verses. My official ‘most played song of the year’ (thanks Spotify), fantastic stuff!

#1 - Geese - Taxes

Band of the year, song of the year, and only just missing my album of the year!

Another artist I liked since their first proper album and the Disco single, but this year they’ve certainly fulfilled their most exciting band destiny. Both the solo Cameron Winter album and the Getting Killed albums are great, but Taxes was the icing on the cake for me, especially ‘the moment’ in the middle when the full band comes in, one of the best drops of any song, right up there with LCD Soundsystem’s Dance Yrself Clean. I feel that they’re taking on Talking Heads mantle of weird but brilliant indie pop music with unique rhythms. The best compliment I can give is that no one sounds quite like them. I don’t think any AI is going to make anything as unpredictable as this. Brilliant band and song, a deserved number one!

And I’m finally getting to see them live in March in Manchester, can’t wait!

That’s the countdown done, so finally here’s a Spotify playlist of my whole Top 50 if anyone is interested in listening (it’s missing Hotline TNT who have removed their music from there, so I’ve added Wednesday as a ‘reserve’ instead).

All that’s left to say is Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, have a great day everyone and thanks for having me as one of your crew on Buzzjack!❤️