My Soundtrack of 2013

Apologies to any remaining regular readers for the sparseness of the blog in recent times. But inspired by the ever-granular Ben Jiggins, below are the songs that have been particularly distinctive in my life this year (organised alphabetically by artist rather than order of impact): 

Machineries of joy – British Sea Power: A new British Sea Power album is always a major event in my musical calendar, and this opening track (from the album of the same name) sets the scene for the beauty that follows. I don’t feel I really know the album that well as yet, but this song has rarely been out of my head since hearing it. 

Monsters of Sunderland – British Sea Power: Another stand out track from the new album, this is unadulterated energy, melody and guitars mixed with tales of North Eastern folk heroism. Fantastic.

Stunde Null – British Sea Power: An older track from BSPs generally underwhelming 4^th album, this minor-key number rocks out at an urgent pace in a generally incomprehensible manner. Classic BSP and a song whose excellence I’ve only come to appreciate this year.

Give life back to music – Daft Punk: The first three notes of this song constitute the most powerful and distinctive opening to an album I’ve heard for a long while. The riff returns at regular intervals to make this a highly captivating song.

Giorgio by Moroder – Daft Punk: Undoubtedly my favourite new song of the year. And this from someone not massively inclined towards electro-pop. Epic epic epic. No other word. That ITV used this in their Tour de France coverage after Chris Froome’s early domination only increased the awesomeness.

November Rain – Guns n Roses: During my two-week placement on the manufacturing line one of my duties was to test the radios on each car. Blasting out all nine minutes of this was a definite highlight and led me to rediscover the song.

Read my Mind – The Killers: I’ve considered this to be a very high calibre song for a good five years, but it gets special recognition for hitting my ultimate ‘music-for-the-moment’ experience of the year – playing over the morning airwaves while driving to Heathrow to fly to the USA for holiday. Sublime.

Siberia – Lights: Having not heard of her before, I ended up listening to Lights on Spotify through a chain of related artist suggestions including Bastille and Imagine Dragons. I would highly recommend becoming familiar with her catalogue, and it was the acoustic version of this track that has particularly penetrated my songscape.

Some Kind of Nothingness – Manic Street Preachers: Another track of a few years past whose genius is now full-born in my mind. Soaring strings, choir in the third chorus and a drenching of classic Manics nostalgia combine to scintillating effect. Would wager this is the song I have listened to most while driving in 2013.

Glory Days – Bruce Springsteen: A long way from my favourite Springsteen song, but this has come up over and over again this year at opportune times to raise my mood. Also has interesting tie-ins to the theological debate surrounding the cultural mandate.

I Work Days and You Work Nights - To Kill a King: A band introduced to me by the aforementioned Ben, I have enjoyed their debut album and the simple piano/haunting vocal combination of this opening number have embedded into my deeper musical conscience. Another album I look forward to getting to know better.