I’m not going to write a lengthy preamble this year. It was as tough as ever to curate this list. Hundreds and hundreds of good songs were released in 2015, so culling them down to a hundred wasn’t easy. But I did it, and I like/love every single song on this list. There’s a tonne of quality tune-age here. If you’re reading this, hopefully you find something to get into. #BeeheeheeatsLiveHere
100. Big Grams – Lights On
99. Naughty Boy f. Beyonce & Arrow – Running
98. Shamir – Demon
97. Baio – Sister of Pearl
Bonus: Andy Grammer – Honey I’m Good
96. Ratatat – Cream On Chrome
95. Rae Sremmurd – Come Get Her
94. Ashley Monroe – The Blade
93. Small Black – Boys Life
92. Life In Film – Get Closer
Bonus: Springtime Carnivore – Name on a Matchbook
91. Bully – Trying
90. Missy Elliott f. Pharrell – WTF (Where They From)
89. Book of Fears – The Water Lets You In
88. Destra Garcia – Lucy
87. Shawn Mendes – Stitches
86. My Morning Jacket – Big Decisions
Bonus: First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining/Stay Gold
85. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Can’t Keep Checking My Phone
84. Angels and Airwaves – Anomaly/Tunnels/The Wolfpack
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.
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.
The Pun Is Sure 