Top Tracks of 2016
And here we go with the first of the 2016 Post Mortem entries, my top ten songs of 2016. This is mainly a celebration of the fact that for once I listened to some music that was released after 2004.
7. Anne-Marie - Alarm (Marshmello mix)
I've always been a sucker for a wild boy
Anne-Marie is best known for that awful saccharine song about single parents but this is a stomping masterpiece, a furious whirlwind on the topic of That Moment when you realise that your significant other's behaviour does not quite add up. This remix builds and explodes like a real-life alarm.
6. 3teeth - Atrophy
All I see is vanity and I don't want to be
3teeth have brought back that 1990s guitar industrial sound with a modern twist. This is a seething song with a shout-it-out chorus that somehow manages to be simitaneously catchy and cacophonous. This is a fabulous video too, it's somewhere between a riot and an orgy with a load of latex, riot police, moustaches and John Lennon glasses milling around in a place that looks like Slimelight.
5. Gnash ft Olivia O'Brien - I love u I hate u
You ever wonder what we could have been?
You said you wouldn't and you fucking did.
My friends' children all love this song which probably means everyone else reading this will hate it. Admittedly, it's a rap ballad duet, but it's no Emilie Sande dirge. Clever lyrics and a melancholy refrain... and great for putting on repeat when you've just been dumped. I have just noticed that Gnash and the singer from 3teeth look a bit alike too.
4. Alien - Starboy
Look what you've done -
I'm a motherfucking starboy!
The original version of this song (by The Weeknd) only came out this year, and could easily have made this list had my favourite X Factor rejects not come along and done it even better. Also check out the running-mix friendly James Hype remix. I have no idea what this song is about and it has so much swearing in it it doesn't really make any sense when they play it on the radio, but I don't care.
3. Faderhead - Like A Rocket
She rocks like a rocket, she's hot like the sun, she's cool like ice and too much fun!
This is a track from this year's FH-X album which breaks the Faderhead mould a bit. The Faderhead back catalogue can basically be divided into "up all night snorting amphetamines in the club here come some hot chicks boomph boomph" and "woe is me, I'm bad, you're bad, the world is really bad, here is my synthesizer. Like A Rocket, however, has a distinct "Rockin All Over The World" kind of sound to it. I fondly remember listening to this song near the end of the Brighton Half Marathon, speeding along the beach feeling like Mo fucking Farah, oblivious of the seven thousand people in front of me, rocking like a rocket!
2. Mesh - Kill Your Darlings
YOUR HOUSE IS BURNING TO THE GROUND!!
Mesh were back this year (well, not "back", they never went away) with more of the same. There has been little change to their formula over the last twenty odd years, and this is fine by me, but on their latest album "Looking Skyward" they do appear to have made a conscious effort to stop writing about that same dysfunctional relationship that ended in the 1990s. (Maybe Mrs Mesh was getting the hump). Kill Your Darlings is just a miscellaneous mishmash of angst and woe, it sounds like they've taken a few lines from other Mesh songs, sped it up a bit and added a new bleeping sound. That sounds a bit negative but it's not meant to be. I love you Mesh, don't go changing!
1. Empathy Test - Demons
I waited so long for you
And now you're here I don't know what to do with you
Yes, someone made a better song than Mesh this year. And this isn't even my favourite Empathy Test track (that would be Losing Touch, which made me cry the first time I heard it). Empathy Test write the kind of music that goes right through your soul. Demons is about finding love when you felt all hope was gone and the abject terror which accompanies it. I first encountered Empathy Test when they supported Mesh on tour earlier this year - an obvious choice really, an extravaganza of Angst and Woe. Their style will be familiar to all lovers of 80s and synthpop, yet they still manage to sound like nothing else I've ever heard before. If you only listen to one song from this post, make it this one. I can't wait to see what they are going to do next.
7. Anne-Marie - Alarm (Marshmello mix)
Click to viewI've always been a sucker for a wild boy
Anne-Marie is best known for that awful saccharine song about single parents but this is a stomping masterpiece, a furious whirlwind on the topic of That Moment when you realise that your significant other's behaviour does not quite add up. This remix builds and explodes like a real-life alarm.
6. 3teeth - Atrophy
All I see is vanity and I don't want to be
3teeth have brought back that 1990s guitar industrial sound with a modern twist. This is a seething song with a shout-it-out chorus that somehow manages to be simitaneously catchy and cacophonous. This is a fabulous video too, it's somewhere between a riot and an orgy with a load of latex, riot police, moustaches and John Lennon glasses milling around in a place that looks like Slimelight.
5. Gnash ft Olivia O'Brien - I love u I hate u
You ever wonder what we could have been?
You said you wouldn't and you fucking did.
My friends' children all love this song which probably means everyone else reading this will hate it. Admittedly, it's a rap ballad duet, but it's no Emilie Sande dirge. Clever lyrics and a melancholy refrain... and great for putting on repeat when you've just been dumped. I have just noticed that Gnash and the singer from 3teeth look a bit alike too.
4. Alien - Starboy
Look what you've done -
I'm a motherfucking starboy!
The original version of this song (by The Weeknd) only came out this year, and could easily have made this list had my favourite X Factor rejects not come along and done it even better. Also check out the running-mix friendly James Hype remix. I have no idea what this song is about and it has so much swearing in it it doesn't really make any sense when they play it on the radio, but I don't care.
3. Faderhead - Like A Rocket
She rocks like a rocket, she's hot like the sun, she's cool like ice and too much fun!
This is a track from this year's FH-X album which breaks the Faderhead mould a bit. The Faderhead back catalogue can basically be divided into "up all night snorting amphetamines in the club here come some hot chicks boomph boomph" and "woe is me, I'm bad, you're bad, the world is really bad, here is my synthesizer. Like A Rocket, however, has a distinct "Rockin All Over The World" kind of sound to it. I fondly remember listening to this song near the end of the Brighton Half Marathon, speeding along the beach feeling like Mo fucking Farah, oblivious of the seven thousand people in front of me, rocking like a rocket!
2. Mesh - Kill Your Darlings
YOUR HOUSE IS BURNING TO THE GROUND!!
Mesh were back this year (well, not "back", they never went away) with more of the same. There has been little change to their formula over the last twenty odd years, and this is fine by me, but on their latest album "Looking Skyward" they do appear to have made a conscious effort to stop writing about that same dysfunctional relationship that ended in the 1990s. (Maybe Mrs Mesh was getting the hump). Kill Your Darlings is just a miscellaneous mishmash of angst and woe, it sounds like they've taken a few lines from other Mesh songs, sped it up a bit and added a new bleeping sound. That sounds a bit negative but it's not meant to be. I love you Mesh, don't go changing!
1. Empathy Test - Demons
I waited so long for you
And now you're here I don't know what to do with you
Yes, someone made a better song than Mesh this year. And this isn't even my favourite Empathy Test track (that would be Losing Touch, which made me cry the first time I heard it). Empathy Test write the kind of music that goes right through your soul. Demons is about finding love when you felt all hope was gone and the abject terror which accompanies it. I first encountered Empathy Test when they supported Mesh on tour earlier this year - an obvious choice really, an extravaganza of Angst and Woe. Their style will be familiar to all lovers of 80s and synthpop, yet they still manage to sound like nothing else I've ever heard before. If you only listen to one song from this post, make it this one. I can't wait to see what they are going to do next.