Putting our favourite songs of 2015 in order of ‘least good to most good’ because it’s that time of year, and it’s perfectly normal to take an experimental orchestral work and a Carly Rae Jepsen track and decide which one is better than the other.
But then, I’m not not going to do it. It’s a compulsion. A sickness if you will. And by you clicking on this article you’re contributing to my illness and it’s only going to make me repeat the same process next year. I HAVE NO CHOICE, YOU DID THIS.
For this year’s selection there are a variety of ways to listen… If you hate musicians and like to see them paid as little as possible, there’s the Spotify playlist. If you’re mega cool, there’s the Songdrop page (recommended if you’re broke, hate adverts and are fairly ambivalent towards artist royalties). Or you can scroll down this page, stopping to read each word that I have carefully crafted and play every video in full (this benefits nobody else, apart from my ego and YouTube.)
Made your decision? Alright, it’s your funeral. Here we go…
20) HEALTH – NEW COKE
It’s HEALTH doing their terrifying HEALTH thing, only now with tonnes more vomiting, less suffocating nihilism and vocals you can actually hear. Relatively speaking.
19) SEXWITCH – Ha Howa Ha Howa
It’s a ferocious sexy dance party that you’ve stumbled upon accidentally in a forest, which you’re not allowed to leave without at least drinking someone else’s blood and/or having sex with a demon.
18) Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin
Kurt Vile: a man who the term ‘giving zero fucks’ was invented for. He effortlessly swaggers his way through this highlight from b’lieve i’m goin down with charm, poetry and self-effacement. A pleasure to spend a late morning in your underwear with.
17) Chromatics – I Can Never Be Myself When You’re Around
Highly sophisticated, emotionally beleaguered electro-pop from the masters of exactly that sort of thing. Their best yet in fact.
16) Lonelady – Bunkerpop
Funky, minimalist and exquisitely cool, Lonelady’s ‘Bunkerpop’ snakes its way into your mind and leaves behind its freshly shedded skin. Which you decide to wear for the rest of the day in the hope you’ll feel just as exquisitely cool. It won’t work though. You’re wearing last season’s snake skin.
15) Faith No More – Superhero
The obtuse metal-heroes from your youth reformed, released a new album and in ‘Superhero’ produced one of their best ever tracks that’s as gloriously portentous, furious and compelling as their classic work. Now jump around your bedroom and fall over like an idiot.
14) Holly Herndon – Chorus
“Mum, this record’s broken! It’s glitchy as fuck.”
“Yeah, that’s right son, it is glitchy as fuck. It gets better too FZZSSGGGH too better, PLAZXC wait for the melody to BBBBBBBBUilD. son GWARRTHHJUGUYGGL gl-gl-gl- BOUNCE”
“Okay, I might go stay at Dad’s again”
13) The Internet – Get Away
Dumps you head-first into a world you don’t belong; listening to the inner-monologue of Syd the Kid as she contemplates sexual encounters, money problems and her own wild ambition. All the with the rolling, smothering bass of a party you could be unceremoniously removed from at any minute. Quick, grab as many bottles of Prosecco as you can smuggle out.
12) Gaz Coombes – The English Ruse
Possibly this year’s most purely exhilarating track and certainly the best solo single released by any member of a Britpop band from the 90s.
Now I’ve said that, I’m just going to check for sure whether that’s true or not…
Yep, it is.
11) Braids – Sore Eyes
‘Sore Eyes’ is a gorgeous, tightly controlled tale of a woman battling her loneliness with an addiction to online pornography and sounds like something the Pet Shop Boys would have hidden away on one of their first albums. So brilliant then.
10) Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld – The Rest of Us
“What’s going on here?” you ask, “What are these crazy noises invading my head and beating my brain into submission with infectious rhythms?” Well, I reply, it’s the sound of a saxophone being played using a circular breathing technique by multi-reedist and Arcade Fire collaborator Colin Stetson, mixed with the dissonant and unsettling violin of Sarah Neufeld, who is also in Arcade Fire. You then say, “It’s much scarier than anything by Arcade Fire,” to which I reply, yes and much better.
9) The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face
Sure you’re probably sick of it by now, but you really shouldn’t spend so much time in TopShop. The Weeknd channels Off the Wall era Michael Jackson and creates the most satisfying mainstream pop hit of the year and the way his laconic vocal rolls over the bass in the chorus is fucking triumphant. Also IT ALLUDES TO COCAINE DON’T YOU KNOW.
8) Sleater-Kinney – A New Wave
‘A New Wave’ from Sleater-Kinney’s comeback No Cities to Love, sweats pure joy and the lyric “it’s not a new wave, it’s just you and me” is possibly the most lovely thing Sleater-Kinney have ever hollered. Also it introduced me to Bob Burger’s so I owe it a very large debt of gratitude as Bob’s Burgers is fucking excellent.
7) Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better
Crunchy bass, funky rhythms and lyrics that are a bit shit if you think about them too long (nobody’s called Trevor anymore), this is Tame Impala at their (well, his) very best: ramping up the melodies, scaling back the psychedelic bullshit and going direct for the heart. Gorgeous.
6) Grimes – Flesh Without Blood
Grimes has written and produced the perfect pop song. She’s basically a genius.
5) Kendrick Lamar – King Kunta
Weird, indecipherable and sometimes irritating if it catches you in an off-moment, the thunderous standout track from To Pimp a Butterfly shows Kendrick at his most ingenious, employing tightly wound funk and complex literary allusions to The Invisible Man to create a world shifting stomp that comes alive beautifully on the dancefloor.
4) Jamie XX (feat. Romy) – Loud Places
Although composed and graceful for the most part, it’s when Jamie XX threatens to fully tip you into euphoria that makes ‘Loud Places’ transcend beyond ’the best ever track by The XX that’s not technically by The XX’ to become one of the most soulful and beautiful dance tracks of the last five years.
3) Vince Staples – Jump off the Roof
Dark, brooding, brutally honest and deeply hypnotic. It’s a full-tilt journey through the horrors of addiction and withdrawal, yet also contains some of the slickest hooks of the year. And doesn’t Snoh’s Aalegra’s bridge just make your heart stop?
2) Ought – Beautiful Blue Sky
Although the influences are obvious (Mark E. Smith, Talking Heads, Joy Division), Ought have created an absolute masterpiece here; a tableau of mundane suburbia told through the shattered lens of punk that somehow manages to make the line “I’m no longer afraid to die, because that is all that I have left” sound positively euphoric.
It’s the song that I imagine is going through Dr Robert Laing’s head as he beatifically contemplates his place in society while looking at a new apartment block being constructed at the end of High Rise. Prentention Level 10: unlocked!
1) Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian at Best
Full of contradiction, ‘Pedestrian at Best’ prises off the front panel of your speakers with equal parts abrasion and melody; confidence and neurosis; complexity and simplicity. It delivers its bewildering and bewildered pop-philosophy direct to your brain using the simplest method possible: bloody-minded vocals and guitars turned up screamingly loud and played with bleeding finger-tips.
Fuck yeah, track of the year.
Check out our 20 best albums of the year.
