So last year's multiple posts with screen after screen of links and videos and blurbs didn't seem to be a big hit. Except for the post listing my 10 favourite songs of the year. So here's how I'm going to break it down this year: one post, ten songs and a link to everything else. I looked back over the list of my favourite 100 songs that I either heard first in 2015 or heard first in 2014 but really hit their stride for me in 2015 and realized that I pretty much shared all of them with you over the course of this year. So if you have been following along, there is no real news here. Except for the fact that LCD Soundsystem is getting back together and Radiohead just dropped a new song online. Squee!
The full list of my 100 favourite songs of the year has been converted into a youtube playlist HERE. I invite you to go have a look. Spoiler alert! The first song on the list is #100 and, as Casey Kasem used to say, as the numbers get smaller, the hits get bigger. I am featuring the tail end of the list (#10 to #1) below.
#10: "My Silver Lining", First Aid Kit
Followers of this blog over the past couple of years know that I've got a thing for Swedish music. This is the country's lone representation in my top 10 of the year. Not the kind of song that I would have listened much to a few years ago, but it really stuck itself in my consciousness this year. I'd say that I regret missing the sisters' show at Osheaga this past summer (apparently it was amazing), but the festival schedulers created a real Catch 22 for me by scheduling them opposite The War on Drugs (more on that later) so regret isn't the right word. "America" and their 2012 recording "Emmylou" were other songs of theirs I listened to this year. Definitely check both of them out.
#9: "Fool For Love", Lord Huron
Interesting. For all of the electronic uptempo music I listen to, we're kicking things off with a couple of rootsy tunes. "Fool For Love" ranked as Billboard's #15 Adult Alternative song of the year and you'd think that with a hit that big, they'd have followed it up with something else by now but I have no indication of what their next move is. With this song as my jumping-off point with Lord Huron, I took the opportunity to travel back in time and explore their previous album, Lonesome Dreams. The title track is definitely a winner and the album is a nice slice of folk.
#8: "Bloodstream", Ed Sheeran and Rudimental
Ed Sheeran's had a pretty nice run over the past year and a bit with hit after hit from X getting played on the radio. Billboard even had "Thinking Out Loud" as their #2 Hot 100 track of the year. Impressive. This track ended up hitting #2 in its own right on the UK, Scotland and New Zealand singles charts, was followed up by Rudimental's minor hit "Rumour Mill" (that just barely missed my top 10) and then the current collabo that you can still hear on mainstream radio in North America, "Lay it All on Me". Looking forward to hearing more from both Sheeran and Rudimental.
#7: "Snake Eyes", Mumford & Sons
When M&S released Babel in 2012, the world shook. It seems that with the band's brief hiatus since then, they lost some steam and the lead single from Wilder Mind, "Believe", didn't quite fare as well as "I Will Wait" did three years prior. But it still got played a lot. "The Wolf" followed and then the current release "Ditmas", but the standout single for me was definitely "Snake Eyes". A bit formulaic for the band (see: "Awake My Soul"), but still a pleasure to listen to.
#6: "Disappearing", The War on Drugs
Even though Lost in the Dream came out early in 2014, I really only warmed up to it after a number of listens later in the year. "Red Eyes" made my top ten list last year and a number of tracks lived on to have an impact on me this year. The greatest of these was "Disappearing", an ethereal track that featured minimal vocals and a five-minute instrumental denouement. Pitchfork apparently suggested that a potential inspiration for this song was Tears for Fears' "Pale Shelter". You be the judge.
#5: "First", Cold War Kids
Seriously, that's five alt-rock songs out of six now. I'm a little stunned. This was Billboard's #3 Alternative Rock song behind only "Shut Up and Dance" and "Renegades". This was my most buzzy track from March and it held sway through the spring and beyond. I still love cranking it up.
#4: "Loud Places (feat. Romy)", Jamie xx
When all is said and done and I look back at the songs to which I was introduced in 2015, this will probably go down as my all-time favourite. It came along a bit late in the year to have as much overall impact as the top 3 songs of the year, but I'll at least take this space to say that I have a special place in my heart for this song (as well as most of Jamie xx's album).
#3: "Fade Out Lines", The Avener
I'm a total word dork and I've decided that French DJ The Avener's name is a play on "avenir", meaning "the future". Then again, Wikipedia says that an avener is the chief officer of a king's stables. I like my idea better. I'm not sure if Phoebe Killdeer and the Short Straws (whose song forms the basis for this mix) will ever surface again, but this has provided some pretty awesome exposure across Europe. Not sure why it wasn't a bigger deal here. Except in Quebec. I have a feeling that "Fade Out Lines" will figure prominently on year-end charts of radio stations like this one.
#2: "One Touch (feat. Rae Sremmurd and AlunaGeorge", Baauer
I never thought this song would click with me this year like it did. I'm not really a Rae Sremmurd guy, but I am an AlunaGeorge guy and I am a wicked bass drop guy. This came off the ß album by Baauer (although I'm not sure if this is the Greek B (likely) or the German ss (less likely). The single apparently only surfaced on the Belgian charts, so I suppose I share something with my Flemish friends aside from a love of frites and mayo!
...drum roll...
#1: "Falling Short", Låpsley
British ambient electronic songstress Holly Lapsley Fletcher (aka Låpsley) takes the crown this year. "Falling Short" is from her debut EP, released in January of 2015. Allegedly a full-length album is due out in 2016 and I will be keeping my ears open for that. I always find it interesting to stumble across a song that I come across digging through music blogs online in mainstream pop culture references and "Falling Short" offered up one of the most unexpected pop culture sightings of the year when it was featured in episode 2 of HBO's "Ballers". Granted, this show featured a TONNE of my favourite artists (such as Gallants, Kendrick Lamar, Daft Punk, Busta Rhymes, The War on Drugs, Major Lazer, The Knocks, Sleigh Bells, Outkast and the above mentioned Baauer) so I guess it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise.
Thanks for listening and Merry Christmas!
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