Reviewing: My Top 5 Songs of 2017

My Top 5 Songs of 2017.

I am, famously, a music weirdo. I like what I like, and I can never fully express why or how I like it. My likeage exists beyond genres, beyond artists, beyond preconceptions of taste. My likeage transcends all these things. But when I like things, I tend to fall head over heels for them, and I beg everyone I come into contact with to check them out! So this - writing about music on my blog - is just a new form of said beggage...

So here goes:

5. The Shins - Cherry Hearts

Favourite lyrics: "You're not wanting anybody wanting you; I get it "All is Fair"... But I've been biting all my cherry hearts in two, and you don't even care... Won't you ever come down from the big rock I found you climbing, stowing your diamonds away... You kissed me once, when we were drunk. It set me spinning on my heels, call the devil for a deal."

Why I love it: 'Heartworms' was EASILY the album that I was most excited about this year. I love The Shins: the accessible pop-yet-indie feel; jangly guitars and plosive percussion; James Mercer's jaunty vocals; their delicate yet deeply resonating lyricism and their mastery of metaphor. And I wasn't disappointed with the latest offering from a band which I have often told my father and others is "my favourite band in which all the members are still alive and/or relatively young."

The album is surprisingly synth-heavy, but with the occasional surprise referencing of the band's acoustic prowess - such as the grounding simplicity of 'Mildenhall' and the plinky-plonky piano of 'Name for You.' Beneath the happy-go-lucky pop exterior, lie deeper, darker themes: sexual harrassment (Name for You;) the disconnect of modern dating (Rubber Ballz;) and gender expectations and toxic masculinity (Half a Million) - "As crazy as it seems, you give it up and you are free." The lyrics speak to me, reaching out to younger people feeling the same things that James felt as a youth.

To put it briefly - the album feels more explicitly autobiographical than any of their previous stuff. In 'Mildenhall' Mercer talks about discovering his passion for music, and in 'Fantasy Island' we are taken on a throwback-ride to our own childhoods: "I've always had something to hide: my skinny arms; my evil intentions. Back at school, hitting the fire alarms, desperately wanting attention." We get the sense of a child bored and/or frustrated by the education system - a problem relevant and prevalent in our current climate!

It has to be said, however, that my favourite tune from the album was 'Cherry Hearts'. From its video-game-main-menu intro, to its climactic chorus, it just fills me with joy. The chorus captures perfectly the exquisite elation of FINALLY kissing that person you've been crazy about for ages - and the second verse perfectly encapsulates the feeling you wake up with, after that person goes home with someone else. Then, I discovered the "flipped version" on YouTube.

This version has a rawness to it that the original lacks; it is more frustrated, more emotionally wrought; it jangles and crashes its way pointedly towards the end of the song. Choosing between them would be futile - they both have pride of place on my little iPod shuffle. I love them both, and suggest you get your butt on YouTube to listen and hear these two sides of the same melodious coin!

4. Be the One - Dua Lipa

Favourite lyrics: "I see the moon, I see the moon, I see the moon, oh, when you're looking at the sun. Not a fool, I'm not a fool, not a fool. No you're not fooling anyone... Oh, but when you're gone, when you're gone, when you're gone, oh baby, all the lights go out."

Why I love it: Dua Lipa is a recent discovery of mine. Sometimes I'll catch myself thinking that wanky thing of "it's popular so it can't be that good." Clearly I need to check myself before I wreck myself, as Lipa's rich voice laid over polished dance beats gives me the same feeling as a shot of whisky, warms me up inside, and leaves me wishing I'd embraced her sooner.

Her entire eponymous debut album Dua Lipa is full of gems - like the sensual 'Hotter than Hell', 'Genesis' (listen to the acoustic version - again. Butts. Youtube. Get.) and the jarring-in-a-good-way 'New Rules'. It's also her aesthetic - the heavy brows and fishnets, mixing a 90s pop sensibility with the current youthful melancholy-hedonistic mood. Lipa apparently describes her musical style as "dark pop," which I am totally down with.

The way that this song in particular allows her to soar - emotionally and vocally - appeals to me. The bridge, a desperate cry "when you're gone oh baby all the lights go out", is universally emotive, even "dark", and yet the light beat makes the song pop-y and all-weather. Also, anything with Queen-style driving harmonies in the chorus will pretty much sell itself.

3. St Vincent - New York

Favourite lyrics: "New York isn't New York without you, love. So much for a home run with some blue bloods... You're the only motherfucker in this city who can stand me."

Why I love it: A bittersweet, wrenched-from-the-heart-at-4am ballad, with grit. Makes you feel like drinking black coffee on an empty stomach makes you feel. We've all had that one person: when you're together you LOVE that they love all the same things as you, but when they cut you out, or vice versa, you realise that many things, places, activities, drinks - even mutual friends - are ruined for you, forever.

The video is a riot of pop-art colour and Clarke's wide, expressive brown eyes. It beckons you to make sense of it. There's the stuff we know: the Manhattan geography; the Cara stuff. Then there's the stuff we don't; the sinking synth of the chorus, that drags us down with it, then pulls us one-handed back level with the next verse of upbeat piano; the sheer Athenian-scale tragedy of the sentence"I have lost a hero."

Favourite Youtube comment: from user "PastAsylum95", 2 months ago:"Annie gave us 3 minutes of rich white woman on hallucinogenics doing errands in Manhattan."

Basically. Yes. And I am here for it.

2. Rose-Coloured Boy - Paramore

Favourite lyrics: "I hear you making all that noise about the world you want to see, and I'm so annoyed 'cos I just killed off what was left of the optimist in me. Hearts are breaking. Wars are raging on. And I have taken my glasses off."

Why I love it: In which Hayley perfectly encapsulates how you feel when you're on your period, the central line is down, you've been pushed and shoved around on a bus for two hours, the weather is shitty, you're ill, you're fighting with your parents, you've lost your house keys and you found out you didn't get that audition from the other day - and then your colleague says "Smile! It could be worse!"

It's like the people who think that telling you that "There are children starving in Africa!" will make you feel better about your life!? Who are you, you heartless, incapable-of-empathising monster?! Yes, thinking about the sheer insurmountability of human suffering is bound to make me feel better. You're a genius.

After Laughter was another album I was toddler-at-a-Wiggles-concert excited for. And it was another album that shocked me with it's pop-y-ness - but did not disappoint me! The hits are, of course, mass-appealing - 'Told You So' was stuck in my head for a solid month. But the shock of 'Hard Times' was somewhat softened by the sense of deja vu I felt - is this change of image and sound to a more commercial, dance-y vibe not exactly what the legendary Blondie did with Parallel Lines?!

There are throwbacks to old-school Paramore on the album too, of course: 'Grudges' is teenage-angsty enough for the whole album, referencing a faltering friendship, along with the emotionally-explicit 'Fake Happy.' Not to mention, the album's song '26' gives me serious 'Misguided Ghosts' vibes!

Also - I'm referring you to Youtube once more, dear reader - if you haven't seen Hayley's version of Drake's 'Passionfruit' in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, you are MAJORLY missing out. Prepare to have your soul cleansed.

1. Cleopatra - The Lumineers

(Technically, this song came out in 2016, but I discovered it (and its amazing eponymous album) this year. I've loved it, wept to it and wondered at it this year. And if me using it in this post is totally unacceptable to you then it kinda sucks for you that this is my blog and I make up the rules as I go, sorry not sorry.)

Favourite lyrics: "I was Cleopatra, I was young and an actress, when you knelt by my mattress and asked for my hand... And I left the footprints, the mud stain on the carpet. And it hardened like my heart did when you left town. But I must admit it, that I would marry you in an instant. Damn your wife - I'd be your mistress just to have you around. But I was late for this, late for that, late for the love of my life. And when I die alone, when I die alone, when I die I'll be on time... I..."

Why I love it: Moody indie rock with growly-man-vocals has been a penchant of mine for some time now - every time someone mentions Hozier I explode into a loud sermon of praise - but this song hooks me in a way that the other songs on the album don't quite manage. Don't get me wrong, I love The Lumineers - "Ho Hey" was the song of summer 2013 for me. But I was never a super-fan. Not until I came across this song on a random Youtube wander, and fell in love with it's tune, words and wisdom.

The story it tells is so clear, so well-structured, so affecting. That classic Lumineers-style banjo-like guitar clangs and purrs so effectively towards the climactic verse: "I was Cleopatra, I was taller than the rafters. But that's all in the past, love, gone with the wind."

It's one of those songs that you have to experience. It's a dream and a fairytale: disjointed yet flowing; honest yet elusive; caged yet free. You have to plug in your headphones, close your eyes, and let your imagination swoop, dive and somersault with what it's given.

It is a song that makes you ask questions. Who is this woman??? We only get snapshots of her life; what happens in between? Who is the man she loves and loses? Will they ever be reunited? Does she die on time, in the end, and what does that mean? It is written from the deathbed - it is as full of hope and celebration as it is lamentation and wistful regret. It is a three-minute lifetime, and to me it is infinitely valuable.

I hope you enjoyed my picks, and I hope my passion for this music will inspire you to go listen to it. I am always of the opinion that music enriches you - even if it's not your cup of tea and you only listen through once.

Meanwhile, I am preparing for week 2 of ELSC's Macbeth, which mean's I'd better hit the hay rather than proofreading like I oughta!!

All my love,

Char

xxx