oasis

The Final Countdown: Top 20 Songs of 2015

The best of the best. I’ve an unwavering adoration for every song that follows. My favourite songs of 2015:

20. A Silent Film – Tomorrow

I played this tune a lllllllot in the spring months. Regretfully, it’s been criminally underappreciated/underheard. This is an epic alt-pop movie of a song.

 

19. Leon Bridges – River

Only came to my ears in December, but it was immediately compelling. Musically sparse, emotionally monumental.

 

Bonus: Twenty One Pilots – Holding On To You

Where was I when this came out three years ago? I’ve no answer for that, and I’m ashamed I missed this beast for so long.

 

18. Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out/Ride

I’m not surprised Twenty One Pilots have become as big as they are. Schizo-pop has the ability to cross over if done well, and this duo does it exceedingly so. “Stressed Out” and “Ride” are absurdly catchy.

 

17. The Helio Sequence – Battle Lines

My favourite song from The Helio Sequence’s latest, eponymous record. Summers and Weikel have a preternatural ability to infuse emotion in their (always melodic and gorgeous) songs. “Battle Lines” is a giant exhale, a sanctuary of serenity. Time always seems to stand still when I listen to the best of The Helio Sequence. They remain one of my most treasured bands.

 

16. AWOLNATION – Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)/I Am

Aaron Bruno and company are masters at Shizo-pop. “Hollow Moon” is a delicious slice of modern alt-pop, the type of song that appeals to the masses and gives classes in hook construction. Bruno is also a star at crafting interesting vocal harmonies; this is ever-apparent on the succulent “I Am”.

 

15. Marina and The Diamonds – I’m A Ruin

Far and away my favourite song on her latest LP. “I’m A Ruin” was a staple song for me throughout the year, and it’s among the very best that Marina Diamandis has ever released.

 

14. GRL – Lighthouse

One of the very best pop songs of the year.

 

13. Pure Bathing Culture – Pray For Rain

Portland strikes again. “Pray For Rain” is a hazy, sultry, foot-stomper and snare-pop romper. “Is it pleasure, is it pain, did you pray for rain?”

 

12. Best Coast – California Nights/Feeling OK

Mega-sized hits, both of them. “California Nights”: tempered, pensive, exploratory. “Feeling OK”: propulsive, energetic, incessant.

 

11. Bad Suns – Cardiac Arrest

I went nuts singing and air-drumming this slinky, sexy, sunny-day-at-the-beach anthem last year.

 

10. Houndmouth – Sedona

A grower. And how. Each time I heard “Sedona”, I liked it more. Eventually, I heard the simple truth that became obvious: “Sedona” is one of the best songs of 2015.

 

9. Glass Animals – Pools

One of the coolest songs of the year. One of the sexiest. The oddest. The warmest. The slipperiest. The slithery-est. The roam-freely-in-the-jungle-est. The earwormy-est. The sing-a-long-inside-your-yawn-est. Glass Animals, with only one album under their belts, are a band to be reckoned with. “Pools” is brilliant. (The video is too.)

 

Bonus: Broods – Superstar/Sleep Baby Sleep/L.A.F.

Slept like a baby on these tracks last year, but made up for it early in 2015 with copious plays. All three tracks are sensational pop songs, and I could’ve linked a few more from Broods’ first LP/EP. Extremely impressive work from the bro-sis Notts.

 

Depending on the day, each of the following songs could be my number one song of the year, such is how I value them. As it happens, today, this is how I’ve ranked them…

 

8. Chvrches – Leave A Trace/Never Ending Circles

Blissful, bombastic pop made by a group without peer. Chvrches dropped hit after hit on their debut, and apparently they felt like continuity was the best way forward, as their second LP moves along with nary an off-point blip on the radar. “Leave A Trace” is stunning. They couldn’t have come up with a better lead single. The staggering thing is, “Never Ending Circles” is just as good. Chvrches are well on their way to headlining duties as one of the biggest bands on the planet. I don’t think there’s a better pop-music-making group around.

 

7. Metric – The Shade

Although Metric might have something to say about that. Six albums in, Metric keeps getting better. Which is just preposterous. When I first heard “Gimme Sympathy”, I thought that’d be their pinnacle. It still shines bright enough to light up a galaxy, but “The Shade” is its equal. That’s astonishing. Without a shadow of a doubt, Metric have cemented their place as one of Canada’s best bands of all-time. I adore their way with melody. More than anything else, they care about the quality of a song, an eternally endearing quality if there ever was one.

 

6. Day Wave – Drag

That I have “Drag” this high is a surprise in a sense. It came out of nowhere. But day after day, week after week, it spoke to me. After it spoke, it sung, and clung to the strings of the beating organ in my chest. The clinging of the strings, the singing shaped like wings, and the body finds a soul to squeeze.

 

5. Purity Ring – push pull

I remember hearing this song in January and knowing right away that it’d be one of my favourite songs of the year. The thought held true, and “push pull” remains an obsession. This is electronic music drawn on a hip-hop canvas and doused with an angelic aura. It’s Purity Ring’s best song to date. “I built a constellation lair, out of the moles that hovered there, a fever billowed in the wind, and I bade the sky therein…” is one of my favourite lyrics of the year.

 

4. Miguel – Coffee/Leaves

“Coffee” is my favourite Miguel song to date. And it’s probably the best song on Miguel’s latest. But the feeling that “Leaves” induces compels me just as much, and that’s why I think it’s worthy to keep company with the lead single. FWIW, the non-explicit version of “Coffee” is a lot more captivating than the explicit one (and the version featuring Wale). “Leaves” is based off a simple guitar lick, and is carried through the seasons by Miguel’s alluring vocal. In both songs, Miguel found a way to elicit emotions and make them clear, even if they pull in different directions. He’s at the peak of his powers here, and I get lost in that zenith each and every time I hear these songs.

 

3. Tame Impala – The Less I Know The Better

I’m fucking flabbergasted at how good this song is. I could describe the way I’ve been struck with awe by this majestic piece of music, but I feel like I should let the tune stand for itself, so the less I say, the better.

 

2. Wolf Alice – Bros

I love “Bros”. It’s a romantic love. A familial one. A familiar one. Each and every second of this song is a second in which I’m enthralled. “Ohhh, 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…” is a lyric I hold so, so dearly. With one song (and a teflon-strong debut album), Wolf Alice have made waves without water. In a couple years, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see them headlining arenas around the world.

 

1. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – The Ballad Of The Mighty I

This is my favourite Noel Gallagher song in almost twenty years. No big deal right. It’d be a stretch to say that Noel’s getting better with age as the music he penned for Oasis will live forever, but the fact that his material has not dipped in quality is truly amazing. I chalk it up to an obvious and simple sentiment: Noel Gallagher is one of the very few people on this earth that was born to write music. And not just any old music, but consistently catchy, consistently excellent, consistently melodic music. I believe that Mr. Gallagher is probably the best songwriter walking the earth right now. It’s also not a surprise that “The Ballad of The Mighty I”, the best and my favourite song from Noel’s most recent album, was made with a hand from the incomparable Johnny Marr. But make no mistake, Noel is captaining this ship. His vocal is stunning. The musical composition is transcendent. When you put them together, you get best-song-of-the-year type stuff. Noel Gallagher is a living legend. D’you know what I mean?

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.