best of lists

Top 20 Songs of November 2015

My favourite tunes of November, 2015:

20. A Silent Film – Lightning Strike

 

19. R. City f. Adam Levine – Locked Away

 

18. New Politics – Girl Crush

 

17. Chvrches – Keep You On My Side/Bury It/Down Side of Me

 

16. Metric – Lie Lie Lie/Cascades/Fortunes

 

15. Sia – Bird Set Free

 

14. The 1975 – Love Me

 

13. Grimes – Belly Of The Beat/Easily/World Princess Part II

Grimes’ label is doing a hell of a job of making sure tracks from her new album don’t reside on Youtube. Alas. These three are really dope tracks.

 

12. The Helio Sequence – Red Shifting

 

11. Baio – Sister of Pearl

 

Bonus: Happy Hollows – Endless/Goodnight Radio – Sophia So Far

Two really cool tracks from the film Before I Disappear.

 

10. Majical Cloudz – Downtown

This sparse gem is affecting in ways that are hard to pinpoint.

 

9. Borns – The Emotion/American Money

What a debut record from Garrett Borns.

 

8. Dragonette & Dada & Paul Harris – Red Heart Black

Martina Sorbara is on every hook-y dance song of the last three years, I’m convinced.

 

7. Book of Fears – The Water Lets You In

Brilliant song from an astounding show (Bloodline).

 

Bonus: The Features – This Disorder

 

6. Hailee Steinfeld – Rock Bottom

Taylor Swift is so ubiquitous, that aping her sound/voice is a pretty decent plan if you’re looking for success/air play. You have to have a strong song to go along with that plan though, and luckily for Ms. Steinfeld, this is that.

 

5. Guster – Long Night/Simple Machine

My treasures. I suppose I’ve felt this for a while, but after seeing them recently in Toronto at Danforth Music Hall (I believe that was the 4th time I’d seen them), the thought has crystallized: Guster is one of my favourite bands of all-time.

 

4. Chvrches – Playing Dead

Like Metric, just with a smaller catalogue, Chvrches employ the release strategy of ‘hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after…’ With so many slayers, I don’t think anyone is feigning death though.

https://youtu.be/bM6eu_Y453M?t=27s

 

3. Coast Modern – Modern Life

An electro-indebted ode to Cage The Elephant. This is a (really) good thing.

 

2. Missy Elliott f. Pharrell – WTF (Where They From)

The Queen of hip-hop makes her triumphant return. Oh, and this Pharrell beat is ludicrously good.

 

1. Grimes – Flesh Without Blood/Kill v. Maim

Wish the record version of Kill v. Maim was available online, as the live one I’ve linked here is of just okay quality. Nevertheless, these are possibly the two best tracks from what is one of the best albums of the year.

Top 20 Songs of September 2015

 

September was absolutely, positively stacked with giant songs. Here lie those monoliths:

20. Chvrches – Clearest Blue

 

19. Rita Ora – Body On Me

 

18. Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean

 

17. Youth Lagoon – Highway Patrol Stun Gun

 

16. Tame Impala – Yes I’m Changing/New Person, Same Old Mistakes

 

15. Wavves – Way Too Much

 

14. Bleachers – Like A River Runs

 

13. Jim Adkins – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun/I Will Go

 

12. The Neighbourhood – RIP To My Youth

 

11. Vance Joy – Fire And The Flood

 

10. Brandi Carlile – Wherever Is Your Heart

 

9. Charlie Puth f. Meaghan Trainor – Marvin Gaye

 

8. Nathaniel Ratecliff & The Night Sweats – S.O.B.

 

7. Foals – Mountain At My Gates

 

6. Shakey Graves – If Not For You

 

5. Deerhunter – Snakeskin

My favourite Deerhunter song ever.

 

4. Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin’

My favourite Kurt Vile song ever.

 

3. Chvrches – Never Ending Circles

It’s hard to gush any further about how talented these 3 artists are. Their way with pop music is unparalleled right now. Hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit…

 

2. Pure Bathing Culture – Pray For Rain

“Was it pleasure, was it pain, did you pray for rain?” The downpour came at me in waves and I embraced the water as if it were air.

 

1. Tame Impala – The Less I Know The Better

Obsessed. Completely and utterly.