Class of 2013 – Årets 100 bästa låtar!

Både du och jag vet att uppdraget är omöjligt. 100 låtar som ska anses vara årets bästa. Varenda en på listan här nedan ligger egentligen på topp tio vilken dag som helst. Jag hade en lista med det tiodubbla innan jag skar ned till 300 för att handplocka de 100 “bästa”. Det handlar enbart om humöret för dagen. Men nu ska vi inte vara såna, listor skulle inte finnas om ingen fann spänning i att jämföra, hålla med och inte hålla med.

Alla gör listor den här tiden på året, och ibland kan jag känna att det blir lite tjatigt. Lite som det kanske är för er när ni går igenom den här. Men för en gångs skull är det inte jag som ska berätta något om låtarna som finns med. För vem vet mest om dem om inte de som skrivit dem: artisterna själva. Omkring trettio av dem har exklusivt för Songs for Whoever berättat historien bakom sin låt. Några har haft en hel del att förtälja, några har hållit det kort hur mycket jag än lirkat för att få ur dem något mer. Årets bästa låt har jag till och med fått skriva om själv, inte för att jag har något emot det, men dess upphovsman har helt enkelt inte velat säga något. Och det är säkert en del av förklaringen till dess storhet; myten och spekulationen. Men jag är mycket tacksam för allt som de andra berättar för oss och som tillför upplevelsen en extra dimension.

Hoppas ni får lika roligt när ni går igenom Songs for Whoevers årsbästalista som jag har haft när jag sammanställt den. Oavsett om artisten har berättat något om sin låt eller ej. Oavsett om ni håller med om att en låt ska vara med eller ej. Det är sekundärt. Jag vet inte ens om jag själv håller med. Förhoppningsvis fyller vi i några luckor från 2013, om inte annat.

You and me both know that it’s Mission Impossible. 100 songs considered to be the best of the year. Every single one on this list is, to be honest, top ten on any given day. I had a list of songs ten times the amount before I cut it down to 300 and then hand-picked the 100 “best”. It’s all about the mood of the day. But let’s not get hung-up on that, lists wouldn’t exist if there was no excitement in comparing, agreeing and disagreeing.

Everybody is making year-end list these days, and sometimes I think it’s a bit repetitive. Maybe a little like you feel going through this one. But for once it’s not me telling things about the songs included. Who knows more about the songs if not the ones who wrote them: the artists themselves. Around thirty of them have exclusively for Songs for Whoever told the story behind their song. Some had a lot to share, some just stuck to a few lines, no matter how much I tried coaxing them into telling more. The best song of the year I’ve even had to write about myself, not that I mind, but because its author simply hasn’t been willing to tell anything. And that’s surely part of the reson for its grandeur; the myth and speculation(Apologies to international readers for writing about No 1 only in Swedish, as well as keeping the Swedish artists’ quotes in their original language). However, I’m very grateful for the song stories that have been told, which adds an extra dimension to the experience.

I do hope you have as much fun going through Songs for Whoever’s best-of-the-year list as I had compiling it. Regardless of a story from the artist or not. Regardless of whether you agree that a song should be included or not. That’s all secondary. I don’t even know if I agree myself. If nothing else we’ll hopefully fill in some gaps from the year 2013.

LYSSNA PÅ SPELLISTAN VIA WiMP

1 Keaton Henson “10am Gare du Nord”
Hans sätt att vid sina ytterst sporadiska framträdanden sitta ihopsjunken – närmast krum – över sin gitarr, tomt blickandes ner i golvet iförd kavaj och yvigt skägg, avslöjar en introvert och skygg artist så fäst vid sin konst att inte ens hans obehag av uppmärksamheten den tilldrar sig kan få honom att överge den. Något som också bekräftas när jag gör research om ”10am Gare du Nord”. Efter växelvis kontakt med Keaton Hensons management får jag i alla fall fram att den kvinnliga rösten som sjunger andrastämma i refrängen är Jesca Hoop(en gång barnflicka hos ingen mindre än Tom Waits, men det tar vi en annan dag). Låtens bakgrund vill han dock absolut inte gå in på, ty han är ”not entirely comfortable with the intimacy”, något jag köper till fullo.

En som däremot inte har några problem alls med att ventilera saken är den känslosvallande sångtextens huvudperson. Franska sångerskan och skådespelerskan SoKo rapporterades ha ett inte helt friktionsfritt förhållande med Henson fram till någon gång under 2012 då paret gjorde ett hjärtslitande publikt uppbrott via lätt kryptiska och sårande hälsningar till varandra i bl.a. radio. Mest drivande att dra den andre i smutsen får nog alla gånger SoKo anses ha varit, men ironiskt nog blev hennes offentliga kölhalning av Henson också en katalysator för hans karriär. Hon ägnade 2012 åt att dela flertalet klipp av hans sånger(som antas i stort sett alltid handla om henne) på sin Facebooksida – med över 210.000 följare – taggat med fräsande ordsalvor riktat mot sin forne älskade. Under 2013 har hon låtit ämnet bero, men så plötsligt den 7 december delade hon åter ett klipp av Henson framförandes ”10am Gare du Nord” åtföljt av orden ”This breaks my heart every single time. Why does he keep singing songs about loving me when he clearly doesn’t…? @keatonhenson #forevermissinghim”. Vad för slags kärlek som river upp den typen av sår kan vi bara försöka föreställa oss.

Henson å sin sida har för det mesta hållit sig till att kommentera situationen i sång, och vill som sagt inte göra det på annat sätt, inte ens när en obskyr svensk musikblogg utser en av hans alster till 2013 års bästa låt. Lider man av svår scenskräck så gör man.

Så till själva huvudämnet: årets bästa låt 2013. Redan titeln väckte intresse. Ett klockslag, en världskänd parisisk tågstation och ett kärlekspar. Föreställ dig följande scenario: en rastlös Keaton Henson är olycklig i deras tvåsamhet och föremålet för hans svallande känslor, SoKo, vill inte längre utstå hans nyckfulla, inåtvända och obeslutsamma persona. Ett helt kärleksförhållande avhandlas på under fyra minuter, och kanske är Gare du Nord helt sonika en metafor för den instabila plattform det vilat på; ständigt ett tåg väntandes på att en av dem ska kliva ombord och den andra inte. Om inte ”10am Gare du Nord” redan hade en lite djupare innebörd så fick den det kanske nu. Har du aldrig sett ett söndermosat hjärta på utsidan av en bröstkorg bör du lyssna och blunda till dessa toner, du lär aldrig komma närmare en visualisering än här. Återigen är det bevisat att smärta är den vackraste känslan, så länge någon annan drabbas och kanaliserar ut den i briljant konst för andra att ta del av.

Inte sedan Jeff Buckley erövrade ”Hallelujah” från Leonard Cohen har vi hört någon sjunga så innerligt över en elektrisk gitarr som verkar ge ljud åt samma förblödande hjärtesår som Keaton Hensons bräckliga röst. Med avslutande raderna ”Please do not break my heart, I think it’s had enough pain to last the rest of my life, And I will not tire of you” är det förmodligen fullt medvetet, för att inte säga nödvändigt, med tretton sekunders tystnad efter att sista ackordet klingat ut. Mot ovan dramatiska bakgrund måste sådana ord begrundas en stund innan man klarar av att höra eller göra något annat.

2 The Proctors “Into The Sun”
“After losing my mother suddenly, my brother was approached by a stranger who said she could see a woman resembling my mother in a field gathering flowers. Thats the chorus, and perhaps ‘another star will guide your way home tonight, and as you stumble arms are holding you tight’ refers to someone watching over you, though no longer physically present. And I’m afraid stumbling home referred to me! Looking at the stars and wondering which one of them was her! Around the same time someone close also lost someone, and the ‘beyond the city lights a sleeping angel said goodnight, my love, please hold on’ is about that, and the massive empathy I felt with my old friend. The first verse goes back in time to when my sister and I visited my dad in his new flat, then walked home rather too late for kids of our age across Gornal Park. I particularly remember the Autumn leaves…”

– Gavin Priest

3 The 1975 ”Chocolate”
“‘Chocolate’ tells the story of our relationships with the governing authorities of our small town. Smoking weed, smoking anything I suppose, boredom and what ensues  when both parties challenge one another. It’s a love letter to boredom, limited opportunities of expressing yourself and embracing and understanding the make up of where you’re from. Musically and structurally it is the blueprint of our output, but I’d need an entire book to discuss that in detail”

– Matthew Healy

4 Vampire Weekend “Ya Hey”
5 Ed Harcourt ”Murmur In My Heart”
6 Superchunk ”Me And You And Jackie Mittoo”
7 Håkan Hellström “När Lyktorna Tänds”

8 Johnossi “For A Little While”
“Jag skrev låten i Portugal, sommaren 2012. Oftast sliter vi med en låt i dagar eller veckor men den här tog en halvtimme ungefär, det är en sån där låt som bara rann ur mig. Jag skrev den på gitarr men visste direkt att det skulle vara piano på inspelningen.”

– John Engelbert

9 Rhye “Hunger”
“We are not sure if anyone caught this, but the song ‘Hunger’ is the one of the only cuts on the record that has no affiliation with love. Rather it’s a statement, a political one though very subtle… The recording was started in Copenhagen, ‘The Fall’, ‘Woman’ and ‘Major Minor Love’ were recorded there. Then we did the rest in Robin’s apartment in L.A. while I was traveling back and forth for Berlin, visiting Alexa(my wife that I made my most recent record with, Jetlag).”

– Milosh

10 Laura Stevenson “Runner”
11 Sigur Rós ”Ísjaki”
12 Cut Copy “In Memory Capsule”
13 Disclosure feat. Eliza Doolittle “You And Me”
14 Neko Case “I’m From Nowhere”

15 Bipolar Sunshine “Love More Worry Less”

“The song was written as a form of celebration , self release. I wanted euphoric sound and for people to take the best bits from it to suit them…”

– Adio Marchant

16 Jonathan Johansson “Den Brända Jorden”
“Det är en låt om våld. Om Europa. Om skuld och konsekvens. Den pumpar framåt som blod och sjukdom.”

– Jonathan Johansson

17 MØ “Glass”
“‘Glass’ is about being young and vulnerable. About wanting to experience life at its full extend, but not knowing how to do so ’cause you’re too restless and too confused. About being afraid to die, missing all the fun. About being sad ’cause we always glorify the past. Stuck with a feeling of emptiness towards the dawning days to come.

I received the first beat scratch for “Glass” from Swed-Dane producer ELOQ  in fall 2012. The lyrics and the melodies I made while on the road. The vocals I recorded at my parents house. Finally my main producer Ronni Vindahl got all exciting parts, and made the song into what it is today. As I said – I wrote all melodies and lyrics while on the road, and I remember clearly how the essential lyrics came about.

I was sitting in the train to Copenhagen. It was raining, and my mind was dark. I looked out at the landscape passing by, and I thought about my situation – things wasn’t too bad… Things were actually quite good, but still I got this feeling of “what’s the point?”. Young people in Scandinavia nowadays are so spoiled. Myself included. We got everything – all possibilities lies ahead of us. Still we are unsatisfied. Still we want more. That’s just the human nature. While sitting in the train grumbling about these issues – the lyrics for Glass was made. So at least something constructive came out of my gloomy sunday.”

– Karen Marie Ørsted, aka MØ

18 The Black Lillies “The Fall”
“It is the lead track on our most recent release Runaway Freeway Blues, despite being the final song written for the new record. I have to attribute the initial inspiration to a day on the river with friends and music, crawfish, whispy clouds and sunshine…sounds like some hippy jargon…and it is!  I got together with a bunch of musician friends on a summer day when we were all off the road at the same time…we must have played 200 songs that day….one just lead to the next…and I remember telling myself that the next time I wrote a song don’t be scared to write something simple and something that pleases the senses.  The imagery from ‘The Fall’ is direct and relatable, vast yet focused…and of course its a love song…I haven’t written too many of those…but its high time…a good step to take as a writer and a person!”

– Cruz Contreras

19 Club 8 “Stop Taking My Time”
“Låten är det närmaste ett beställningsjobb jag kommit med Club 8. När albumet var nästan klart sa Karolina att hon ville ha med en hård elektronisk låt som skulle låta si och så. Så jag åkte till studion och gjorde “Stop Taking My Time” baserat på hennes önskemål. Det är en av mina favoritlåtar på skivan så det kan visst vara ett fungerande sätt att skriva på ibland. Pratpartiet bestod ursprungligen av mig som sa något på semi-franska med hårt distat ljud. Som en demogrej. Så kom jag att tänka på Indochine‘s album “L’Aventurier” som en låt med en flicka som hälsade hem. Jag var väldigt faschinerad av att det när jag var liten. Jag tänkte att det skulle passa låten att göra likadant, fast tvärtom. Dvs först en text på engelska som de flesta förstår och sen en hälsning på svenska som 99% av våra lyssnare inte förstår ett ord av.”

– Johan Angergård

20 Blood Orange “You’re Not Good Enough”
21 Jonathan Wilson “Love To Love”
22 Lady “Get Ready”
23 Phoenix “Trying To Be Cool”
24 Basia Bulat “Tall Tall Shadow”
25 Fitz & The Tantrums “Spark”

26 PAWWS “Slow Love”
“A song about enjoying the exciting first part of a relationship”

– Lucy Taylor, aka PAWWS

27 Josh Rouse “This Movie’s Way Too Long”
“This was the last song written for my album and I tried to put some Lindsey Buckingham type guitar solos at the end which was a lot of fun! The lyrics deal with trying to manage touring and staying in one place. Arguing gets old.”

– Josh Rouse

28 The New Amsterdams “Too Many Of A Good Thing”
“That song was written and recorded in 2003. The Get Up Kids were on a hiatus and the third New Amsterdams album Worse For The Wear was being released around the same time as the Reggie And The Full Effect record Under The Tray. I was playing in Reggie at the time and had to make the decision not to go on tour with that band but with The New Ams instead. So, I had to take a break from my side project with James to do my side project by myself. There were too many good things going on and not enough time to do it. The song was originally going to be on Killed Or Cured but it was too upbeat.”

– Matt Pryor

29 Free Energy “Girls Want Rock”

“‘Girls Want Rock’ was a demo that we arranged in pro-tools. It’s a party anthem, but also about feeling stuck and caught in repeating patterns and habits. Scott and Paul demoed the song in the Free Energy practice space in Philadelphia, PA, and then rehearsed it live with the band before recording it in a church called Dreamland Studio, in Woodstock, NY. John Agnello produced it.”

– Paul Sprangers

30 Franz Ferdinand “Love Illumination”
31 The Internet ”Dontcha”

32 Hästpojken ”Sommarvin”

“Texten handlar ganska rakt av om när jag och Adam sitter och dricker tillsammans.”

– Martin Elisson

33 James Blake “Retrograde”
34 The Milk Carton Kids “Whisper In Her Ear”
35 Tedeschi Trucks Band “Made Up Mind”
36 Lorde ”Royals”

37 Treetop Flyers “Houses Are Burning”
“‘Houses Are Burning’ is about the way people relate to each other on a core level and was inspired by the re-introduction of rugged individualism in our society, American and sort of British, over the last two or three decades. Greed has grown to be acceptable in ways it wouldn’t have been to previous generations despite its negative effects on people’s lives. 

We’re much more self-serving, self-obsessed than we used to be and these seem to be positive character traits to have nowadays.  People only listen to each other when it fits some preconceived notion and yet everyone wonders why the world is falling apart.

It went unfinished for a while and in an eerie way we revisited and finished the song just before the London riots in the summer of 2011.”

– Tomer Danan

38 Israel Nash Gripka “Woman At The Well”
“The song is written about my ranch, in Dripping Springs, TX. It’s a place where I have made a lot of life changes in over the past two years. Growing up, seeing the world differently, all from my backyard looking out into the Texas Hill Country. The Woman at the Well is a fountain statue on my back porch. She is made of white stone and ‘pours the water out.’ But for the song, she represents what my life in the country is about: peace and clarity in life.”

– Israel Nash Gripka

39 Lost In The Trees “Lady In White”
40 Empire Of The Sun “Celebrate”
41 Glasvegas “If”
42 Midnight Juggernauts “Ballad Of The War Machine”

43 Attic Lights “Don’t You”
“‘Don’t You’ is about falling in love with someone and then realising that they don’t really feel the same back. When love is one-sided like this it can drive you crazy and in the end, you reject the other person as well in order to limit the hurt you feel. Therefore, it basically says, ‘don’t you’ not love me because if you do I won’t love you back anymore.”

– Colin McArdle

“Colin wrote the full song in his flat, including the lead guitar solo, and recorded an early demo version on his computer. The full band then learned the song and added various dynamic parts and helped restructure it. It’s also one of the most enjoyable songs to play live from our new album. And the lead guitar solo is my favourite Attic Lights guitar solo.”

– Kev Sherry

44 Tomorrow’s World “Metropolis”
“‘Metropolis’ is my favourite song of the album too. This is the latest one that we’ve recorded. The story is about(I hope to not make a mistake because this is Lou’s story) about the inner darkness of cities. How people behave in the city. But this song is a way, a path to light to positivism. Musically it goes straight to a glowing end. And the beauty of it is in Lou’s energy that she carries along her performance, as a hot secret that she kept for a long time and that she’s finally able to tell to everybody.”

– Jean-Benoît Dunckel

45 Villa “Mint”
“‘Mint’, or ‘the swan song’, talking about a pursuit of girls and boys chasing each other in a night club, actually more the boys making a big effort to get the girls, in the most funny way possible, we thought it was a good cliche to go with.. cause we see it all the time behind the DJ booth… so we thought we’d make song about it… ‘the swan song’… would you like a mint? 

We worked on this track with the great NICK HOOK who mixed the track for us, big up!!!!”

– Francois De Meyer & Thang

46 Best Coast “I wanna know”
“I was listening to Blondie. I was listening to A LOT of Blondie, and ‘I Wanna Know’ doesn’t sound anything like Blondie but was inspired by Blondie. Almost all of my songs are about break-ups or make-ups, but I wanted to make another song that was classically, undeniably poppy and catchy because I didn’t really have one of those on the second record. ‘I Wanna Know’ is my favorite on the record…it has this very upbeat poppy feel to it, so I’m pretty stoked on that.”

– Bethany Cosentino

47 Josh Berwanger “Baby Loses Her Mind”
“‘Baby Loses Her Mind’ was written about failed relationships and the tendencies people have to destroy them no matter how good the relationship is going. I recorded it in the mountains of Colorado with Jim Macpherson(The Breeders/Guided By Voices) on drums. As for the riff on ‘Baby…’, I was just messing around, that idea has been done many times from The Beatles to Petty and so on, I think it’s all about how you make it your own, and I felt I made the song mine without feeling I ripped something off, if that makes any sense.”

– Josh Berwanger

48 Lloyd Cole “Blue Like Mars”
“I found myself singing the opening line to the melody a year or two ago and recorded it on my iPhone. Went back to it a year later to see if I could make a song out of it and ended up in Old Testament and Outer Space. I suppose the idea owes a fair bit to Lonely Planet Boy, which made me think of The Little Prince, hence the last verse. The title is from a NASA photograph that I found on the www”

– Lloyd Cole

49 Cool Ghouls “In The Morning”
“The song is about being born and raised here in the Bay Area. As a band and also as individuals, we’re just really proud to be from this part of the country. It serves as inspiration for a lot of our material. I wrote the song to act kind of like our battle flag or our coat of arms in a way. Haha. About equipment we used a combination of Protools and a Tascam 388, so a bit new and a bit old. The album was recorded by Tim Cohen of The Fresh & Onlys in his bedroom.”

– Pat McDonald

50 Charlie Boyer And The Voyeurs “I Watch You”
“‘I watch you’ is about being a voyeur. we named our group after this song, or we named this song after our group. I’m not sure which way round it is.”

– Charlie Boyer

51 The Naked And Famous “Hearts Like Ours”
52 Arcade Fire “Joan Of Arc”
53 Willis Earl Beal feat. Cat Power “Coming Through”
54 Quadron “LFT”
55 Ladi6 “Diamonds”
56 Alice Russell “Heartbreaker”
57 The Growlers “Tell It How It Is”
58 Washed Out “Falling Back”

59 Buchanan “Par Avion”
“‘Par Avion’ was the first song we finished recording with our producer for the album. It’s about writing a difficult letter to a loved one back home and was our third single released in Australia – it’s probably my favourite track off the record. The falsetto hopefully helps communicate the emotion of the main character in the song… Although when I was writing the track it kind of just came out that way and wasn’t planned as such!”

– Josh Simons

60 Patrick Baker “Get 2 Know U”
“‘Get 2 Know U’ was definitely an homage to Whitney Houston and classic 80’s pop-dance production. It was meant to be a kind of exuberant, summery song and I wanted the sounds to be as authentic as possible. It was all produced in my home studio and I spent a lot of time finding the right synths and bass sounds and getting the groove to feel just right. I think a good pop song can be like a finely tuned machine with everything in its right place and so in that regard I really tried to focus on all those little details. It was definitely a lot of fun working on that track.”

– Patrick Baker

61 Nat Jenkins & The Heart Caves “East And West”
“‘East & West’ is a song I co wrote with Heart Caves’ guitarist Robbie Heart. It had always been based around that main hook that Robbie plays – at one stage we were even playing it with a sort of gentle folk vibe. One night I went to a house party and came back in a bad mood. I’d written the lyrics as I walked home that night – and the next day we changed the whole rythmn and feel of the song, keeping that riff as the main hook. 

It was recorded live in one take at London’s Dean Street Studios – however when we came to the mixing stage the producer discovered there was too much drum spill through the vocal mic. So it was that I came to re-record the lead vocal in my Paris apartment’s bathroom while the crazy old woman who lives upstairs yelled ‘Nazi!’ at me and hurled buckets of water out of her window.

It’s still one of my favourite tunes on the record.”

– Nat Jenkins

62 Temples “Colours To Life”
“‘Colours To Life’ is a song that we wrote while in our studio, looping this 12 string guitar, that just keeps chiming. We tried to create a sound that soars, rushes and explodes all in the same atmosphere. We wanted it to be as-transitional-as-possible pop music.”

– Tom Warmsley

63 Steve Earle & The Dukes(& Duchesses) “Love’s Gonna Blow My Way”
64 Phosphorescent “Song For Zula”
65 Haim “Falling”
66 Kanye West “Black Skinhead”
67 Justin Timberlake “Take Back The Night”
68 Jaqee “Dance”
69 St. Lucia “Elevate”

70 Valerie June “You Can’t Be Told”

“The elders can always tell youngsters how to live.  Life must be lived by each being in order to know the proper way to embrace each moment.”

– Valerie June

71 Holy Ghost! “Bridge And Tunnel”
72 Roosevelt “Elliot”
73 JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound “Before You Die”
74 Hot Natured feat. Róisín Murphy “Alternate State”
75 Shooter Jennings feat. Patty Griffin “Wild & Lonesome”
76 The National “Fireproof”
77 Youth Lagoon “Mute”
78 Drenge “Backwaters”

79 Gregory Alan Isakov “Saint Valentine”
“I’m always looking to make songs that allow the listener to dream. This song, in particular, is rooted in the bittersweet search for love and home – but hopefully it conjures up more than that.”

– Gregory Alan Isakov

80 Thea Gilmore “Love Came Looking For Me”
81 Lana Del Rey “Young And Beautiful”
82 The Flaming Lips “Peace Sword(Open Your Heart)”
83 John Mayer “Paper Doll”
84 Alela Diane “About Farewell”
85 Prefab Sprout “The Songs Of Danny Galway”

86 Over The Rhine “It Makes No Difference”

“It’s a cover of the The Band classic, of course. We performed it at a Levon Helm memorial concert, and decided to include it on our latest. Stripped down, and sung by a husband and wife, it felt like a new song.”

– Karin Bergquist & Linford Detweiler

87 Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside “Bad Boys”
88 The Weeknd “Wanderlust”

89 Fryars “Cool Like Me”
“‘Cool like me’ has been in the works for over three years and has gone through several reincarnations. It was exciting to finally let it out into the world.”

– Ben Garrett

90 Marc Carroll “(It Was)Lust Not Love”
“‘Lust Not Love’….Well, I was going to leave that song off the album. I didn’t think it had any place in the structure of the record. When it came to record the song, we (myself and Chris, who produced the album) listened to the demo recording and just went with it and like most songs I record, they dictate themselves during the recording process. A lot of the time I don’t consider the songs I write as songs, more like pieces of music that I happen to sing over. I don’t have the dicipline or patience to perfect something before I go into a studio. I prefer the element of surprise, something to thrill and inspire along the way, even if it ends up failing. Who cares about failure, as long as the song has been served. As for what the song is about…..well, I think the words suit a female voice more than mine. It would work better from a female perspective. It’s a song for Women. Desire can be an untameable beast.”

– Marc Carroll

91 Talib Kweli feat. Miguel “Come Here”
92 Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge “Rise Of The Black Suits”
93 Hot Chip “Dark And Stormy”

94 Justin Currie “I Hate Myself For Loving You”
“‘I Hate Myself For Loving You’ nearly didn’t make the album as Mike McCarthy, the producer thought it was too clichéd. But I thought we needed something light and throwaway to balance out the album and once the Austin musicians heard it they loved it so their enthusiasm carried it through. I like it because it has a happy ending, like a dirty massage.”

– Justin Currie

95 Chromeo “Over Your Shoulder”
96 Janelle Monae feat. Miguel ”Primetime”
97 Har Mar Superstar “Prisoner”
98 Dizraeli & The Small Gods “Million Miles”

99 Retro Stefson “She Said”
“I started writing the song early 2011 slowly progressing for over a year. Part of the lyrics concern a couple we saw making out in the backstage area of a festival we were playing. It’s produced around the preset Solid bass from the Yamaha DX100 synth.”

– Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson

100 Jenn Grant “I’ve Got Your Fire”
“I don’t really have a story to share. It is just a bunch of ideas and dreamlike ideas that make up this song and I hope that people have made their own stories for what it means to them. I am honoured to think that anyone as far away as Sweden may have even heard it. I recorded it in a country house in Prince Edward Island where my husband grew up. His name is Daniel Ledwell and he produced the album. I wrote all of the songs for this album in the ten days while we there, recording the drums and bass at the same time. There are a lot of moments on the album, especially on this song, that make me think of angels. Like the angel Gabrielle. It’s sort of based on my own, abstract idea of what an angel would be. Nothing is set in stone with my lyrics. There were a lot of special guests, and on this song 41 boys between the ages of 7-11 sing on the album. They are the Halifax Boys Honours Choir.”

– Jenn Grant

LYSSNA PÅ SPELLISTAN VIA WiMP