Glowed Up serves as a laid-back anthem for sunset hours, the beat has a slow grooving tempo with a little bounce to it, and Anderson .Paak steps in with his great off-beat vocal styling to match. Pretty much everything you’d expect from these two collaborating but it’s not a bad thing; they get the vibe right and I rejoice each time I listen.
54. Boreen – Glint
Inspired by the likes of Alex G and Arthur Russell, Boreen creates introspective lo-fi, dream pop music about life. Your same old, same old, and oh I discovered him on some random blog. But with Boreen, I found myself going back to his music regularly even though most blogosphere music like it doesn’t stick me. He just does a fantastic job at evoking emotions I feel and it’s full of them little moments in songs that I love about music. Wait I haven’t mentioned the song. So, in short: Glint is amazing.
“I Need a Forest Fire”, “My Willing Heart” or “Modern Soul” could all be in place of this but Put That Way and Talk to Me stood out more as the most interesting and my most-listened to song from Blake’s album. The use of autotune to make his vocals soulfully distorted is great and reminds me of Kanye West’s use with 808s & Heartbreak to further song’s themes. And I love how the lyrics work as an inner conversation with yourself, regardless of what “that” is we are leaning on.
52. Steven Julien – XL
Steven Julien (also known as FunkinEven) created this jazz-tinged house song 15 years ago and it somehow became the best song on his album and a lost-in-the-moment dancefloor anthem for 2016. The jazz chords over the drum machine’d rhythm hits a moment in the song that has the bassline create this intervallic sound which is awesome and makes me bop. It’s such an easy listen and why the song is one of my most played of the year.
51. LUNA – Free Somebody
I was over house-pop songs by female vocalists in 2014 but somehow this is the second one to appear on my list lol. Free Somebody just does a tremendous job of reminding us how good the songs can be when done extremely well. You need more than bop-esque production but also for the vocalist to know how to deliver the song aka where to put in the frame of the melody and when to deliver powerhouse vocals. LUNA does that so it never loses momentum when listening to it a hundred times.
James Blake. I've said this before but imma repeat it. I feel like his album is underrated because he released days before radiohead and that overshadowed it. A shame because it's stellar.
Unfortunately, Lawrence’s album from this year didn’t quite cut it with its futile attempt at ambient but the centrepiece of the album Clouds and Arrows did as the most floor ready song on there. Lawrence plays with disco qualities yet it’s still got a lounge-y vibe to it so it can be good for many settings.
49. Chance the Rapper – All We Got
Wow, Chance is becoming synonymous with grand openers now–”Good Ass Intro” and obviously “Ultralight Beam”–and even though All We Got isn’t as great as the others, it’s worthy of being included in the conversation. Every part of the song is full of character and colourful like the mixtape title would imply. It’s hard to decide what is the best part but I love Kanye’s vocal harmony building around the choir and it conveying so much joy.
48. Shura – Nothing's Real
Shura drags you in with a song about having a panic attack and ending up in the hospital. That can be an overwhelming and intense feeling so to capture that the song wields disco-esque synths and bunch of drumbeats and laser sounds. It nears on space disco (so I'm not surprised Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas both remixed it recently). It’s really great and showcases Shura’s gift for incorporating music into her storytelling.
47. Nebraska – What You’ve Done to Me
A pleasingly light disco house song, I caught the mid-section of it during a podcast and was hooked by the groove. But it became even better when listening in full–it opens with a carefully thought-out downtempo sequence to further the blow of disco synths during the mid-section. It makes for a cool festival song.
46. Car Seat Headrest – Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales
When the song explodes into an epic singalong about killer whales in captivity, it’s such a rewarding experience listening to it through loudspeakers. Every single time! Will Toledo delivers a wonderfully moving performance that in some way simultaneously captures the feeling of being drunk at night and caring about whales in captivity. It’s crazy how he pulls it off but the unforgettable melody brings it all together–”IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS / KILLER WHAAALES!”. It feels like the song is destined to become a festival staple and get some heavy usage in media.