“Noswaith dda! Dwi’n Duo, y tylluanod Cymreig! Roeddwn i’n siomedig iawn am fod Kat yn rhoi’r gorau i wneud Duolingo y llynedd. Gwn ei bod hi’n brysur iawn, ond mae fy planed yn marw, ac mae angen Quosh arnom. Pam ydych chi wedi ein gadael pan fydd angen help arnom fwyaf? Nid yw Google Translate yn ddigon… mae’r cywion, maen nhw’n crio am eu mam … beth ddylwn i ei ddweud wrthynt, Kat?”
Diolch, Duo! That’s all the Welsh I can remember I’m afraid. I’m sure your message is as encouraging and cheery as ever though! On to the next batch of results:
30. Andrew W.K. – “Music Is Worth Living For”
Philanthropic feel-good agony aunt, brainwashed victim of an illuminati conspiracy, cynical marketing avatar, random dude who wandered on stage by mistake – Andrew W.K. is all things to all people. I unfollowed him on Twitter a while back, so to me his image has recently dwindled to the ‘before’ image on a Persil advert.
29. Pistol Annies – “Got My Name Changed Back”
Divorce has never been so sparkly! Miranda and co cheerfully tackle some life admin with the aid of a massive cake and some Dom Perignon.
28. Riton & Kah-Lo – “Ginger”
Absolute banger, would do well on Spice Week on Bake Off.
27. Tracey Thorn – “Queen”
I don’t think people appreciate how hard it is to play the guitar while wearing a seatbelt! Props to Tracey and her reflective synthpop sadbanger for pushing the safety first agenda – if you squint you can see her cab going past Fishcoteque in Waterloo.
26. The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It”
Ah, the rolling trashfire that was 2018 current events. I muted a large amount of words on Twitter this year, not because I don’t care about the world going to shit, or because I don’t want to be informed, but because there is nothing useful to be gained by reading small snippets of how angry everybody is every 10 minutes. I’m angry too, but if filtering my online diet down to short clips of Japanese mascots falling over is what it takes to preserve my mental health and maintain my ability to effect change in the world, then I think that’s the right path. Use what strength you have: support investigative journalism, support democracy and transparency, pay your taxes, join the union, give to charity if you can, make people’s lives better if you can, look after yourself if you can, watch videos of mascots falling over if you can’t. It all helps. (NB this video carries a flashing images warning.)
25. Ella Mai – “Boo’d Up”
New to me! Lovestruck R’n’B with a tinge of regret. Pretty good!
24. Cassie – “Don’t Play It Safe”
Cassie’s image has always puzzled me a bit: the sincerity and warmth in her voice often jars against her aloof, steel-eyed glare in her videos. Saying that, she’s obviously a superior being to us mortals, so I guess treating us with contempt is fair enough? In this video it’s all gone a bit 28 Days Later as Cassie wakes up to find everyone has buggered off and there’s only zoo animals and product placement left to keep her company. She takes this opportunity to dress up as 00s-era Jennifer Lopez and sing a song about fucking. It’s not our place to argue.
23. MNEK – “Tongue”
It seems mad that MNEK is only just releasing his first album, but I guess he’s been too busy doing guest spots, writing stuff for other folks and sharpening up his culinary skills for this eventful episode of Come Dine With Me. Also I realised that I’ve been saying ’em-neck’ instead of ’em-en-ee-kay’ all this time, sorry dude.
22. Let’s Eat Grandma – “Falling Into Me”
In general, I approve of what LEG are aiming for, but this one goes on about 2 minutes too long for me.
21. King Princess – “1950”
“Did you mean it when you said I was pretty / That you didn’t want to live in the city / Where people are shitty?” On the 2018 ‘year’ song rankings I rate this much better than “2002” and “1999”.
#20-#11 to be posted next week…
Well at least Ginger made it. I can die happy (once I finish the film and TV polls)
King Princess & Ella Mai are new to me… both tracks are great! Thanks to whomever picked those.
Artists I’ve even heard of – 9
Songs I’m confident I’ve ever heard – 3
Songs I could sing to you – 0
Songs I voted for – 0
It’s crazy how far out of the loop I am. Or maybe there is no loop in 2018? All my music discoveries now, few and far between as they are, are made more or less by complete accident.
Riton + Kah-Lo made a ridic number of good songs this year. The whole album is a guilty pleasure, couldn’t pick one.
Good to see the Cassie fan club still has some branches left in operation ;-)
Voted LEG.
Didn’t vote for any of them. The only one I was familiar with is the Cassie song, which is pretty good but not (to me) super-memorable.
On first listen, I’m very taken with Pistol Annies (a band I’ve always imagined I’d quite like but never really got to grips with) and Riton & Kah-Lo. Will revisit the Ella Mai track, too.
Voted for Music Is Worth Living For, genuinely picked me up at several points this year, thanks AWK!
Voted for Boo’d Up, sort of surprised but not really surprised that Kat and Swanstep haven’t heard it as it was the biggest hit of the summer in the US, and Ella Mai is from London – but apparently this sort of thing doesn’t sell over here, sadly enough.
Not sure if I voted for The 1975, first time I’ve really liked one of their songs, and not sure why, the way they segue into the chorus maybe?
Sure I forgot to vote for Falling Into Me, again the first time I’ve really got this group, still have trouble getting over their name.
Ginger is new to me, and love it!
MNEK is good, but was better collaborating I fear.
Afraid I actually slightly prefer 1999 to 1950. 2002 can fuck right off though.
Queen is very good, though ultimately find it pretty forgettable.
Cassie is cleary a cyborg
Pistol Annies I will never get, sorry.
I voted for the 1975 and for a different LEG song (which may yet turn up), but am commenting here to say thanks to Weej for that comment, which intrigued me enough to check out the song/video by Andrew “wasn’t he that bloke with the bloody-nose album cover?” W.K.
And blimey. What a stonking slab of party rock that is. Like all the best bits of Judas Priest, Meat Loaf and Jack Black, in the service of a message that surely nobody here would disagree with, even if you don’t care for that style of song. Made me feel 15 again. And the video! The video truly ramps it up to 11. I showed it to my not-quite-teenaged son, to inspire him in his rock-god dreams, and we both laughed our heads off at that glorious moment at 3:07. And I know we were laughing with Andrew W.K., not at him. Thanks, Weej, and everyone else who voted for it. I would have as well if I’d encountered it a month sooner.
Gee – I have the Tracey Thorn album – perhaps the only 2018 album I heard i nits entirety. Again I forgot – I would have voted for it.
The others I hadn’t heard, but Riton & Kah-Lo is a lot of fun.
I remember reviewing Andrew WK’s first album, and I hadn’t heard much since. Great to see he’s still partying it up.