english music

Top 30 Songs of Summer 2015 (15-1)

Without much preamble, here are my absolute favourite songs from an amazing summer of music:

15. Glass Animals – Black Mambo

Such sticky. Much sexy time. So rhythm.

 

14. Echosmith – Bright

“Bright” is rife with gorgeous melodies. I don’t want to be too reductive, but this is basically Taylor Swift doing Indie-pop. And it’s great.

 

Bonus: Zhu – Faded

Hats off to my boy Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat for this one. Don’t know why I slept on this tune. Memories of the limo ride to the beach from here to infinity.

 

13. Sylvan Esso – H.S.K.T.

At once gitchy, dirty, and throw-your-hands-in-the-air-like-you’re-an-heir-danceable. My favourite Esso song to date. Pure banger.

 

12. El Vy – Return To The Moon

I continue to play the shit out of this. If you ever wanted to hear The National’s Matt Berninger sing on top of warmer and more welcoming music (than The National usually do), this is for you.

 

11. Alabama Shakes – Future People

Future People. Gorgeous music right now. Those guitars. That melody. And as it always seems to come down to with Shakes’ songs, Brittany Howard’s soul-rattling, life-affirming voice.

 

10. Courtney Barnett – Depreston/Pedestrian At Best

The wittiest, most playful lyricist in music? Maybe. I wouldn’t care that much if she didn’t have the songs to match, but she does. These two tunes are quite different from one another, but Barnett shines in both. I adore the wistful “Depreston” and the way she lingers the line “I think you’re a joke, but I don’t find you very fu-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uhnny” in “Pedestrian At Best”.

 

It was exceedingly difficult to rank the following songs as each and every one are monsters.

 

9. Daya – Hide Away

Pop doesn’t get purer than this. Unbelievably catchy and a star turning vocal from this 16-year-old newcomer. Everywhere you look you’ll find a hook.

 

8. Houndmouth – Sedona

A grower. An unabashed summer anthem. For the pensive, for the yearning, for the nostalgic, for the happy. This is a beautiful song.

 

7. Alvvays – Ones Who Love You

I adore this track. When I saw Alvvays at Osheaga, I was really stoked to see their most known tracks, “Archie, Marry Me” and “Adult Diversion”, but “Ones Who Love You” was the one that stole my heart. It moves so effortlessly, like a refreshing gust of wind on a sun-stunned summer day.

 

From this point on, 6 could be ranked 1 and 1 could be ranked 6; their slotting probably just depends on how I’m feeling right now. These songs have all meant a TONNE to me this summer.

 

6. Glass Animals – Pools/Pools (Roosevelt Remix)

The first song I’d heard by Glass Animals was “Gooey”, some months ago. I really dug it. I listened to it but didn’t go completely apeshit for it. I started throwing primate fecal matter when I heard “Pools” though. It’s a pristine gem. Every sound in the track is so carefully assembled, fits so perfectly with what comes before and after it. Just don’t mistake the coruscating production for polish. There is an organic warmth here that not many songs can match. I wish the drum flourish at the end of the song lasted 15 minutes instead of 15 seconds. The lyrics are also a blast to sing along to. “Shake my little soul for you now toy… I’m a man of many tricks and tools and joy” is a line I sung with pleasure time and time again over the summer. Oh, and Glass Animals are incredible live and are going to be huge. Oh, and the Roosevelt remix is fucking amazing.

 

5. Chvrches – Leave A Trace

I firmly believe that Chvrches’ debut, The Bones Of What You Believe, will go down as one of the best pop records of this decade. It would be insane to expect them to match that effort, yet here we are. “Leave A Trace”, the lead single from their second album, is an absolute stunner. I think we’re at the point where we can say that Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty are preternaturally gifted at song making. And I’m pretty sure that’s an understatement. On their way to conquering the world, I have little doubt.

 

4. Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out/Ride/Holding On To You

I knew this band for “House of Gold”. I think it’s a good song, but stylistically, it’s in the same vein as a lot of other songs in the Indie-pop arena. Man, I had no idea what these cats had up their sleeves. The masters/coiners of schizo-pop, Twenty One Pilots don’t sound like anyone else. I fell deeply in love with a bunch of their songs over the summer. These were the three I fell hardest for. I’ve listened to these tracks a tonne, yet with each listen, their appeal does not cede, it increases. This is some of the most thrilling pop music being made anywhere. I am not surprised one bit that this band has become huge. They check off way too many boxes. Similar to the reach-for-the-stars-and-neighbouring-galaxies-and-let’s-make-sure-to-get-the-kitchen-sink-in-there-too effort of Fueled By Ramen label mates Paramore (on their last, eponymous record), Twenty One Pilots clearly want to make the most appealing and melodic music possible. And they couldn’t give a fuck what genre it belongs to or how it’s classified. While that’s being talked about, they’re too busy making hits and selling out shows. Too busy holding onto you. It’s not rocket science.

 

3. Miguel – Leaves/Leaves (Adam Foster’s Sweet California Remix)

Miguel’s “Coffee”, from his third album, Wildheart, is one of the songs of the year. That is a fact. But “Leaves” is the album’s other ace up his sleeve (when he wears sleeves, which is rare, I grant you). The melody, lyrics, and Miguel’s typically stunning vocal combine to form a strange sadness. It’s part regret, part love, part infatuation, part uncertainty, part longing. It’s an evergreen in a forest of maple trees. “The leaves don’t change here, so I never saw it coming” is possibly the lyric that struck me hardest over the summer. There’s a simple beauty in those words. The leaves don’t change here, and neither does my feeling for this song’s melody, those words, that voice. The first clip is a(n incredible) live version of the track while the second is Adam Foster’s fantastic Sweet California remix.

 

2. Christine and The Queens – Paradis Perdu/Saint Claude

I shed a tear the first time I heard “Paradis Perdu”. Because emotion transcends language. Because of the Kanye sample that was so completely unexpected. Because of that melody. And that vocal. Because I knew I’d be seeing Christine and The Queens at Osheaga. I live for moments like that. Where art batters routine. Feelings compel. Where music is the only thing in the world. These are the moments that make life feel like paradise. They must be remembered.

“Saint Claude” is just as great a song. The vocals in the chorus are brilliant.

 

1. Wolf Alice – Bros

“Bros” is precious. The video yes, but the song, first and foremost. The guitars, the vocal harmonies, and most of all, the bridge. The way Ellie Roswell sings “Oh, jump the 43, are you wild like me? Raised by wolves and other beasts, I tell you all the time, I’m not mad. You tell me all the time, I got plans.”

A better ode to friendship I don’t think I can recall. Friendship with people, with wolves, with clouds, with music, with water, with road trips, with tall blades of grass and sun fades in the past.

Another summer gone. Another pack of memories to store. Music, as always, there to soundtrack it all.

Top 10 Songs of Summer 2015 That Are Not From 2015

What I wrote last year when I issued the first of this type of list still aptly describes my feelings on the subject:

Part of the joy of summer is listening to music, whether it’s outside on a sunny day, by the water, at the cottage, or out for a jog. And often times, the summer songs that give us pleasure aren’t necessarily new. Listening to old(er/ish) songs during summer has a unique power: it can place us in a memory from the distant past, make time seem to stand still, and fill a moment with pure, unencumbered peace. It has the power to conspire with the elements, warm, sun-filled air, whistling trees, and roving clouds, to make one smile. That’s some kind of experience.

Here’s a list of the “oldies” that helped make the summer of 2015 a special one. My top ten songs of summer 2015 that are not from 2015:

10. Band of Horses – Laredo/Detlef Schrempf

The guitar work in Laredo will never get old. The way Ben Bridwell croons “a kitchen knife up to my face” won’t either.

It’s been almost eight years since Band of Horses released Cease To Begin. It had been a while since the sad beauty of “Detlef Schrempf” fell on my ears. That was too long. It’s still an immaculate song, like a prolonged exhale in the most peaceful of settings.

 

9. Tiga – Hot In Here

The amount of swag in this cover cannot be contained or defined by any year.

 

8. I’m From Barcelona – We’re From Barcelona

This is exhibit #3,207,471 why the Swedes are amazing at music. I hadn’t heard this song in a couple years before I heard it again this summer. It made me smile from ear to ear when I first heard it and its effect has not waned.

 

7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Y Control

So much energy. So much power. It’ll always be Karen O and then everyone else.

 

6. 5ive – If Ya Gettin’ Down

Rick Jordan demanding to hear 5ive on the way back from seeing a movie lead to this rediscovery. It’s hard not to get down, get jiggy, and sing along with this ditty.

 

5. James – Laid

A sing-a-long song to conquer all sing-a-long songs. The melody is an all-time classic. This song has never gotten old and it never will.

 

4. Under The Influence Of Giants – Mama’s Room/In The Clouds

Even before AWOLNATION, Aaron Bruno and his crew had a way with melody. Awolnations’s new album prompted me to get back into UTIOG. These two songs were always my favourites and they’ve held up really well.

 

3. Travis – Selfish Jean/Closer/Writing To Reach You

I’d not forgotten how great of a band Travis is, I just hadn’t been reminded of that fact until this summer. Fran Healy and company were/are such gifted song constructors. Melodies, lyrics, and videos. They did it all. I got back into pretty much every Travis song that I love this summer, but here are three that I particularly enjoyed listening to again. The live version of “Writing To Reach You” shows how phenomenal they are live.

 

2. Oasis – Supersonic

Oasis are one of my all-time favourite bands. They affected me (as they did countless others) in a way that no other band can touch. It’s been more than 20 years since they burst onto the scene, and no one has come close to replicating the rock’n’roll swagger of Liam, Noel, and their Mancunian brethren. I don’t think there’s been a year where I haven’t listened to Oasis a lot, so it wouldn’t be fair to say that I’d forgotten about them or their legendary songs. But something happened with regard to “Supersonic” this summer.

I heard the tune several times in serendipitous circumstances. In pubs, on the radio, in surround sound. And although I’ve always been in awe of its incomparable bravado and machismo, I think the song’s immaculate melody and stonehenge heavy guitars filled a new space in my brain. I was taken aback, and I was in love with the revelation. It’s now right there with “Champagne Supernova” as my favourite Oasis song of all-time. The live version I’ve linked below is from an MTV broadcast in 1994. Liam is hilariously stoic but his voice sounds sensational. But what makes this clip is what makes the record version too. That 10-foot-thick concrete wall of guitars. Combined with a melody that couldn’t be more perfect, and you have, hands down, one of the best rock songs of the last 25 years.

 

1. Jamie T – Alicia Quays

I adored this song several years back. I even got to hear it at Toronto’s V-fest in 2007. But I think I’d forgotten about it because Jamie T either hasn’t done much or he just hasn’t come to my attention since then. “Alicia Quays” is still vicious. The raw, unencumbered, feverish emotion that Jamie T sings/raps/pleads/spits is still as compelling as the day I first heard it. Perhaps even more so because it’s very rare that a song can be this furiously frenetic. The beat is still so fucking sharp. The bass is incredible. The keyboard touches are sublime. This song was one of my favourites in the year that it was released. And now, over eight years later, I can say, with certainty, that “Alicia Quays” is a classic. A classic that perhaps never got the attention it deserved, but a classic nevertheless. Still absolutely vital.