grimes

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 May 2015

Here are my top 20 songs of May, 2015:

20. Garbage f. Brian Aubert – The Chemicals

 

19. Carly Rae Jepsen – I Really Like You

 

18. San Cisco – Run

 

17. Grimes – REALiTi

 

16. James Bay – Hold Back The River

 

15. Belle and Sebastian – The Party Line

 

14. Flagship – Life Underwater

 

13. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Can’t Keep Checking My Phone/Multi-Love

 

12. Scott Helman – Bungalow

 

Bonus: Metric – Clone/Lost Kitten

Revisited Metric’s last LP in May, and played these two tunes a bunch. Synthetica is a fantastic record.

 

11. Twenty One Pilots – Tear In My Heart

Rare to find this much cheek and fun in a song by an American band. Refreshing.

 

10. Florence And The Machine – Ship To Wreck

 

9. Mumford and Sons – Believe

Took me quite to get into this track, and though I don’t love it like I do “Babel” or “”Little Lion Man” or “The Cave”, it’s still a cool tune.

 

Bonus: London Grammar – Strong (High Contrast remix)

The original is brilliant, so even a passable remix (this is more than that) would sound great.

 

8. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Dying Of The Light

Legend.

 

7. Elliphant – Love Me Badder

Shame this probably won’t break in North America. Super catchy pop song.

 

Bonus – Jann Arden – Good Mother

Forever and always special to me. The melody, the lyrics, and Jann’s comforting, pleading, heart-piercing vocal.

 

6. Death Cab For Cutie – The Ghosts of Beverly Drive/You’ve Haunted Me All My Life/Little Wanderer

From what I’ve gathered so far, DC4C’s last record with Chris Walla is pretty dope. The first two singles and this trio of songs are really, really good.

 

5. Future Islands – The Chase

A new song by Sam T. and co. is always welcome. And, per usual, it’s a banger.

 

4. Brandon Flowers – Lonely Town

I don’t think any song on Flowers’ quite good new solo record can touch lead single “Can’t Deny My Love”, which is a monumental pop smash. If anything else can come close though, it’s “Lonely Town”, particularly the bridge (2:03-2:30), which I played on repeat. The bridge is a massive hook in an already stellar earworm.

 

3. Day Wave – Drag

A song to get lost in. Sun meets shade and fun finds fade. I have a feeling this song will linger with me for quite some time.

 

Bonus: Imagine Dragons – Shots

This tune was #18 in my top 20 from February, but I’ve come to listen to and dig it vastly more than that ranking signifies. “Shots” is a beast, plain and simple. My favourite song from Imagine Dragons’ latest album.

 

2. The Vaccines – Handsome/Dream Lover

These two tracks couldn’t be more different, and that speaks to how talented The Vaccines are and how varied their songs can be. “Handsome” is frenetic, full of English cheek, with an irresistible melody that on several occasions made me smile from ear to ear. “Dream Lover” plays at a much slower pace but is just as catchy. It’s a haze of distorted guitars and harmonies. I love lead singer Justin Young’s vocal on that song.

 

1. Metric – The Shade (I Want It All)

I’ve always loved Metric. They were early adopters of a synth-pop sound that blew up in the early 2000’s. Way more substance than style (though they’ve had that in spades since the jump), Metric always came to the party armed with a bevy of hits. Something happened though when they released their fourth studio album, Fantasies. They dropped what I think is a perfect pop song: “Gimme Sympathy”. It’s a song so good most bands would kill to have written something half as good. I was so happy for Metric. I’d felt like they’d become one of the best bands in the world, with an unrivalled ear for dashing pop songs. I thought they’d never come close to the greatness of “Gimme Sympathy”, but that was okay, because they crafted something otherworldly, and they have a shit tonne of other super songs to keep it company.

I may have been a bit early in thinking they couldn’t touch “Gimme Sympathy”.

When I first heard “The Shade”, I thought it was a huge risk to have that video game-ish sound effect feature so prominently in a song — a lead single to boot. By about the third listen or so though, the effect seemed to retreat a bit into the background, and the true beauty of “The Shade” stepped out of its shadow. It’s incredible. The verses, the chorus, the vocal, the music. Everything is wonderful.

Moral of the story: Metric are preternaturally gifted at songwriting, and I’ll never doubt their ability to achieve perfection again. Stars.