Here are my picks for the Top Twenty.
Here is to holidays, beers, champagne, family...and good music!
#20 Kamikaze - MO
Infectious awesomeness!
#19 Chinatown - Girlpool
Wistful...charming...oddly sad. A great tune.
#18 Greg Holden - Boys in the Street
An truly moving song about homophobia, family and redemption.
#17 Coffee - Miguel
An intense, wild, amazing song.
#16 All Your Favorite Bands - Dawes.
"May all your favorite bands stay together." Indeed.
#15 Love Like Mine - Miami Horror
Take a moment from your day to watch what is easily one of the best videos (and songs) of the year!
Just fantastic. Crazy, weird, bizarre, fixed POV awesomeness!
#14 - Mr. Misunderstood - Eric Church
Not generally a big fan of this guy TBH...but this song owes a lot, in a very good way, to artists like Bob Seger, and has both a terrific message and a great, great old-style country-rock sound.
And..."She turned me on to back porch pick-ups, Jackson Pollock and gin" has to be one of the best rock/country lines in recent memory!
#13 bros - Wolf Alice
Wistful, nostalgic and awesome.
#12 SOB - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
As good a drinking song...or song about drinking...as I have heard for a very long time!
#11 The Eye - Brandi Carlile
Her latest album is just fantastic...and this may not be her only appearance on this year's list!
#10 - Make Up Your Mind Tonight - Hawksley Workman
For a song that goes on about "this is the way that we relax"...THIS IS THE LEAST RELAXING SONG EVER! Love it...Canadian rock artist Workman is back.
#9 Just Like We Never Said Goodbye - Sophie
Ethereal and haunting.
#8 Pedestrian At Best - Courtney Barnett
This song is like an anxiety attack that just keeps getting worse. A stream of consciousness nightmare of brilliance!
#7 Here - Alessia Cara
This claustrophobic and disturbing song has only grown in my estimation.
And she is an emerging superstar.
#6 Brownlow - Lapsley
A reflection in part, apparently, on rave culture, it is also an intense piece of song writing and of almost existential self-criticism. "I set the deal straight".
#5 Infamous - Basia Bulat
This is a terrific song from a great Toronto artist. Her music just keeps getting better...and this should be one of 2016's better albums.
#4 - The Things I Regret - Brandi Carlile
Such a great song from the best overall album of 2015. And so full of the angst of regret...that very worst of feelings.
#3 Gimme All Your Love - Alabama Shakes
This song gives me goosebumps. Incredible vocals, a simmering and explosive tone, that incredible part where they switch it up...just amazing.
Turn it up to eleven and disturb the neighbours! Put it on repeat.
Fantastic.
#2 Her Mercy - Glen Hansard
WHAT A GREAT SONG THIS IS!!! Shows the influence of Van Morrison and folks like Jackson Browne...inspiring and stirring.
By one of the great singer-songwriters alive today.
#1 Sunday Candy - Chance the Rapper, "Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment"
This song is such a joyous, wonderful, uplifting and amazing ode. Everything about it makes you want to sing and dance (if I could do either I would!!!).
A love song about his grandma...and a love song generally. Hearing it makes me want to open the front door and yell "I love you all" to the world!
The video, which was done as a single live take...is something to be enjoyed and savoured.
There is not one ounce of anger, cynicism or ugliness here.
Just perfect.
See you all next year!
(For a link to my Top 20 Countdown from 2014 see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjhmKvCuC84&list=PLphgIImJtvdFTHqMPONstFRjKPw8ZNdOY)
See also: 10 Best Songs of 2015...so far!
See also: 5 Great Songs for International Workers' Day! Featuring Paul Robeson, Billy Bragg, The Red Army Choir & more
Everyone can sing and dance!
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