Songs of 2016: Top 20

So into my top 20 songs of the year; I won't have much preamble but read the previous two posts (if you haven't already, Mother) to get an idea of the sort of things I generally respond well to because these 20 have them in spades.

20. “Roll Up” by Fitz and the Tantrums (Indie Pop)

Kicking off my top 20 is the king of what I called “feel good” week (see my write-up of TNT in the previous post). I was a little mixed on Fitz and the Tantrums’ self-titled album, but this happy track with loads of good catchy vibes was an instant winner, and has stayed right at the top of beloved song list. A good measure of whether something will crack my top 20 – apart from meaning something to me personally – is if it has a low chance of me skipping it on my playlist (I can be very fickle). This one hasn’t meant anything to me personally but it absolutely never gets skipped.

19. “UGH!” by The 1975 (Pop)

This was a pick of mine from just about the first week of 2016, and while this was technically released in 2015, it was a lead single from a 2016 album. The album itself was actually a bit of a let-down following this track, although I feel I’m at odds with most people in thinking that – since most found the album amusingly diverse, and this just standard stuff from the 1975. It’s an incredibly daggy boy-band song, but I’m a guy who digs incredibly daggy stuff (see the next two songs, plus about 70% of everything so far) and this is just fantastically catchy and feel good.

18. “Greedy” by Ariana Grande (Pop)

Set daggy factor to extreme. If you’d asked me before we started the #1000albums project, to state some of the LEAST likely outcomes, I may well have put “Sam becomes an Ariana Grande fan” on that list. But having said that, I’d never heard any of her music until this year, and this song in particular was a real revelation. Again, it’s nothing profoundly affecting, but it’s an excellently-produced pop song that makes full use of Ariana’s well-toned voice and just generates all those feel-good, daggy vibes that I love so much. I also enjoyed the over-played “Into You” (it’s also on my songs of the year longlist) but this is a significantly better song in my opinion.

17. “Youth without Love” by Har Mar Superstar (Synthpop)

OK, so I’ve just broken the daggy-meter. I have absolutely no idea why this is my number 17 song of the year. If someone can listen to it, and explain why I haven’t been able to shake it or get it out of my head, or even skip it when it comes up on my playlist, for the past seven or so months, I’d love to hear it. This is just a really dumb, likeable song – it has daggy feel-good vibes and also makes use of that trope I mentioned yesterday, “strange noises made musical”. There’s also plenty of things wrong with it (like the way the dude strains to hit high notes in the chorus), but sometimes I just think flaws build personality. And whatever this song lacks in quality it more than makes up for in personality. That said, number 17 song of the year. It’s like that puppy dog that shits in your shoes and carries on making noise all night but you can’t help but adore it because it’s so cute and stupid (I call that puppy dog “Bec”) – that’s how I feel about this song.

16. “Pufferfish Love” by Moulettes (Indie Pop)

Hooray, out of daggy territory and into intelligent, beautifully orchestrated pop music. The whole Moulettes album Preternatural is an underrated gem (even possibly by me) but for some reason it was this song and no other that really floated (it’s a pun because pufferfish) to the top in my estimation. Having relistened to the whole album, it feels a little arbitrary now because any one of these clever, inviting and carefully crafted pieces of pop music could easily have become the standout. But I have gone back to this song over and over again, and I think it’s mainly the “strange noises made musical” here that inflate it (Get it because PUFFERFISH? AAAAAAAHHHH) so much.

15. “Here in Spirit” by Jim James (Psych-Rock)

This is a thoughtful, chills-inducing bit of music, slightly psych-rock sounding but with a plaintive piano riff over the top, and the message of the chorus “If you don’t speak out / we can’t hear it” was a very timely release given that this came out the same week the whole world imploded into stupid sometime in November. I love songs that tell a story, and this song has a hell of a lot to say.

14. “Saturday-Sunday” by Doug Tuttle (Psych-Rock)

So we’ve basically paired my two favourite psych-rock tracks of the year. Doug Tuttle’s brilliant album “It Calls on Me” was a huge highlight for me earlier in the year, and this odd little song that marks its apex, has been a favourite all year. I love Tuttle’s dreamy vocals on top of the languorous organ riff for the first “Saturday” part, and where the song transitions into its livelier, more upbeat “Sunday” instrumental section is an abrupt about-face that has so much great 70s nostalgia. The whole ‘finish a song with a long instrumental section’ motif is criminally underused these days and this is a great example of it very well done.

13. “You can’t make me make up my mind” by The Sun Days (Pop Rock)

Wow, so apparently I haven’t evenmentioned the Sun Days yet. There’s plenty more of them on my song of the year longlist but apparently this was the only one to crack the top 100. You’ll definitely hear more about the album (called “Album”) in my top 25 albums write-up tomorrow. Anyway, there should be very little mystery as to why this cracked my top 20; it’s chock full of bright, sunny vibes, frenetic guitar energy and some strange-noises-made-musical pop sounds over the top. If there’s a bit of a disconnect between me and the Sun Days that presents this being higher, it’s basically that their lyrics seem somewhat darker and more angry than their music indicates. But then I don’t often pay attention to lyrics, so in this case I mostly just overlook them.

12. “The Accordionist’s Despair” by Jamie Smith’s Mabon (Folk)

Yes, here we are – it’s my highest-rated JSM song. What I loved most about Jamie Smith’s Mabon and the album “The Space Between” was how it took familiar folkish tropes and totally revolutionised them. This is why the title track of the album, which follows a far more conventional folk-song structure, was relegated out of my top 50, and why this extremely silly piece of music finds itself my number 12 song of the year.  Basically this is a frenetically-paced instrumental track where the titular accordionist seemingly attempts to play a thousand notes a minute for four and a half minutes, with 16 seconds of interludes. It’s structured like a dirty electronica song (fast-paced, driving, repetitive) but created using hilariously anachronistic instruments. It also very much does what I talked about in my previous post with “Psychotubes” by Moon Hooch. You can tell these guys are having a load of fun with this, even just because it’s such a ridiculously silly concept.

11. “Jane Beat the Reaper” by Kyle Craft (Glam Rock)

I have this eerie feeling I may have just lost Jez, or at least this is probably the last track on my countdown that we’ll agree on (peeking ahead, yep it pretty much is). In my previous post, I spoke of Kyle Craft’s theatrical style which reaches the peak of its powers in this wonderfully sassy piece of rock operatic beauty. It’s also Craft’s most tightly honed and orchestrated song, with the guitar work, lyrics (and the story they tell) and his vocals with all their affectation and volatile intonation all working superbly together to create this bit of musical genius. If there’s one thing that could make this song even better, it’d be basically a vocal-free version that I could sing karaoke to, because my God that would be fun for all involved.

10. “Narcoleptic” by White Lung (Punk Rock)

Into the top 10 (AKA “The 10 songs that Jez and I most disagree about except maybe his top 10”) and the first entry in the elite few is this fantastic bit of raw aggressive energy from Canadian punk rockers White Lung. This song blew out of the tracks when I picked the album “Paradise” earlier in the year and has stayed right in my sweet spot for the rest of the year. One thing in particular I enjoyed this year (and enjoy generally) is female vocalists in aggressive genres (like punk rock, or metal), I don’t believe for any reason other than that I just love a good kickass woman, and Mish Way’s raw but charismatic vocal style is perfect for this music. I also like the slight electronica twist on the music here but otherwise it’s just pounding drums and chords that drive a furious bit of cathartic music home, with bonus abrupt ending (why give a fuck about ending a song properly).

9. “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE (Pop)

Ooh yeah, more unbelievable silliness cracking the top 10 this time (and not the last, that’s for sure). This was a very late charge to the top of my list, coming from an album only released in mid-November, but an inevitable one. Leaving aside the fact that this is happy-vibed pop funk with an insanely silly set of lyrics, the fact is that I love – LOVE – without exception songs that have “cake” in the title. This includes the 2014 Latvian entry at Eurovision, “Cake to Bake” by Aarzemnieki, the 2014 Belarussian entry at Eurovision, “Cheesecake” by Teo, as well as other songs from the music project – “Fruitcake” by Brain Tentacles, “Bake me a Cake” by One Trick Pony – and going back with a bit of a stretch to the masterwork of the cake genre, Macarthur Park. Some might say it’s just correlation, but 100% correlation is generally a pretty compelling statistic. But let’s leave my own silliness there, and revel in just how much fun this song is, because it’s catchy as fuck.

8. “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” by Car Seat Headrest (Indie Rock)

Along with “Narcoleptic”, this is one of two entries into my top 10 that didn’t win either my song or my runner-up song of the week it was included in our project. This track in particular was a very, very slow burn that ended up blazing up when I realised just how brilliantly orchestrated the song is. As I implied in my write-up of the Ballad of the Costa Conchordia in my previous post, Car Seat Headrest is a musical and lyrical genius, and I think this song, which takes a sort of two-parted flip form, beginning with lyrics about drunk drivers and finishing with a chorus about killer whales (where the three syllables of the two phrases are harmonically mirrored sequences of notes). It’s just got this poetic symmetry and balanced progression that feels like it’s taken me on this surreal journey through a drunken mindscape while at the same time staying grounded in a piercing social commentary – which Car Seat Headrest does so well in his songs (“We are not a proud race / it’s not a race at all / we’re just trying, I’m only trying to get home”). As I mentioned, this is never the sort of music that immediately hits my sweet spot, hence why this masterpiece is only at number 8, but it’s hard for me to dispute the artistic merit of this particular track, which is why it's here despite my initial misgivings.

7. “Youth” by Glass Animals (Indie Pop)

This is probably more than most tracks on here going to make Jez raise an eyebrow, and I’m not sure if I can necessarily draw a compelling argument for why this is my number 7 song of the year (and also, incidentally, the highest-ranked “Runner-Up” song of the week of its release), but I’ll try. While Glass Animals also fall into that territory (with Miike Snow) of really painfully indie pop, with their slightly twee vocals, mostly incomprehensible lyrics and unusual, idiosyncratic musical tracks, this song just has an infectious beauty about it, helped into my top 10 by the overall happy vibes and the flute twills (which fall under the “strange noises made musical” heading). Regardless of all the objective quality, every time this came up on my playlist I kind of thought of it as a very underrated song, even by me, and so I hope to make amends for that with its ultimate recognition here.

6. “No Hard Feelings” by the Avett Brothers (Countryish Folk)

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that the Avett Brothers are sort of an anomaly, because they’d comfortably fall into sort of country territory, but it’s country-ish music that I really respond to, and that’s nowhere more true than this sweet, sentimental ballad about facing mortality and tying up loose ends. It’s also got that most effective of musical motifs that always gets me, songs that build and tell a story. And when the strings (stirring strings, another of my favourite motifs) kick in during the final verse it just gets me right in the feels. I find this song very affecting in the best possible way, because it’s sad and slow but ultimately really affirming and uplifting.

5. “Giant” by Banks & Steelz (Hip-HopTronica)

This is almost certainly the top ten entry that Jez in particular never saw coming, and it probably feels like a bit of an anomaly given the things that generally qualify songs for this elite list. The fact is, that despite the lack on my list (and spoiler alert: this will apply to albums too) of Kanye West’s nothing album, or Chance the Rapper’s dull, incoherent mixtape, or all the other hip-hop mainstays of everybody else’s top 20, I actually really like hip-hop/rap, at least in theory. But I don’t respond to messages or lyrics or ‘objective importance’ of the music. What I respond to is what this fantastic track has in spades: a good, driving beat and really hard-hitting vocal work, with personality and a real permeating sense of anger. This won’t make it onto anybody else’s list because it doesn’t make an important enough statement, but it’s the most enjoyable bit of rap that I encountered this year. It’s also worth noting that my highest-ranked “runner-up” song of the week, Glass Animals’ “Youth” was second to this song in the week of release. So apparently that was a pretty great week for me.

4. “Can’t Let Go, Juno” by Kishi Bashi (Chamber SynthPop)

Kishi Bashi has already had two references in these write-ups, but both songs were part of my 100-51 dump so I haven’t yet had a chance to rhapsodise about his brilliance. His album “Sonderlust” was quite a late release in the year but within a couple of weeks this particular track – my song of that week – had already amassed a number of plays to rival my song of the year, to come. It feels perhaps a little arbitrary that this particular song became the highlight on the album, because it’s just one of many examples of clever, brilliantly produced pop music that blend stirring strings (there we are again) with fun electronica notes and Kishi Bashi’s eruditely lyrical vocal work. There’s also just a superbly engineered and orchestrated precision to this dude’s music, that draws out really positive feeling in strange and inventive ways. Whatever it was that really drew me to this song, it continues to draw me into its quirky and wonderful magic.

3. “Can’t Get Enough of Myself” by Santigold ft. BC (Indie Pop)

From exquisitely precise pop music to silly, bouncy pop music. I know that this track isn’t on anybody else’s radar because it’s not available for hottest 100 voting (although other, far lesser Santigold releases are) and that’s a shame, but perhaps understandable, because this song isn’t particularly respectable and certainly not ‘important’ but it’s right in my wheelhouse of joyous, cheesy fun. From its upbeat beginnings to its sassy and witty lyrics, it’s just a big fluffy ball of good times. It has some of the funniest lyrics I’ve enjoyed in 2016 (“All I wanna do is what I do well / Ain’t a gambler, but honey I’d put money on myself / All I wanna do is bottle it to sell / ‘cos my brand of vainglory is much better for your health”) and it’s always just infected me with its boppiness. What’s more, this song came up often enough on my playlist in the car that it got under Bec’s skin too, to the point where she asked me to put this on her labour playlist. We didn’t end up getting around to it, but there was the chance my son would have been born to this song (instead of some random Ali Farka Touré song I don’t know the name of).

2. “Morning Light” by Woods (Folk Rock)

Ah, Woods. We knew more of this was coming, I assume. This is very much the top of the pile in a superb album of music, that blends sweet pop rock with folkish sounds and even a tinge of country. And oddly enough I think this track is probably the most country-infused song on here, and yet despite my general disdain of country vibes, this finds itself my runner-up song of the year. It’s just got a really sweet tune, with Jeremy Earl’s beautiful counter-tenor lilting over the sprawling 12-string twang that just gets all of that pure Americana vibe into an ultimately simple, very unpretentious package. Whatever else it does technically or through its composition, when Earl sings “I love you” it just gets me in the right spot. I also remember it getting Bec in the right spot, too, during the latter stages of her pregnancy, and I think of it fondly for that reason, too.

1. “Runaway” by Aurora (Indie Pop)

So my song of the year combines a couple of elements from my previous two songs – it’s a song that’s on nobody else’s radar (despite plenty of airtime given to this artist) and it gets me smack bang in the right spot, every time. What’s funny though is that this doesn’t really contain any of my more distinctive favourite motifs – in fact this is a very low-key and sparse bit of music. But the Sam-pleasing motif it does play on – the ‘build’ – is something that was practically pioneered by this song, at least in terms of my realisation that this was something I responded to. When I first listened to this my exact words were “the way it builds is fucking magic” and I haven’t had any pause to reconsider that initial impression. From its beginning with Aurora’s sweet, slightly Celtic-sounding vocals it slowly swells (with smart, dramatic retreats) in its instrumentation to where it peels out to a haunting chorus that just conjures up a starlit night sky to me, wide open and gorgeous and terrifying at the same time. The lyrics are not immensely complicated but this allows the simple story, of a runaway girl who is longing to return, to pair with that sparse and haunting soundscape and create an emotional heft that sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. As with the Santigold, I think it’s a shame that Aurora’s slightly more conventional pop hits got all the attention, because this is, to me at least, as perfect as pop music gets. 

As I mentioned at the start of the countdown, now that I've finished my own personal 'hottest 100', the full longlist for consideration is available as a public playlist and with a GPM account you can listen to the full thing here: https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXynh7k0YcRqioaD9GpqnJW4K67LgmSEDFnjs3W2dPi7J5WamFbRzOu5otOKuM-HVzRqMpJBA9suFvDwcHbxnv1kpOTaipA==