It wasn’t actually too bad a year for music. There were long-awaited albums released by artists who’d been presumed missing (hey, Frank Ocean), long-awaited albums that were a return to form (hey, Britney) and long-awaited albums released just before untimely demises (hey, David Bowie). In the spirit of retrospection, here are some of our favourite songs from this year. Basically the ones we played in the QX Office which prompted everyone to ask ‘oh who’s this?’, rather than ‘what is this?’
Little Mix – Shout Out to My Ex
You know what? We think in about 6 years we’ll be looking back at Little Mix with the same rosy hue we currently only reserve for Girls Aloud. This song was very much the turning point from cod-Jamaican, one-vine wonders to gay treasures. Yeah, it’s a little basic, but AREN’T WE ALL? It’s the sound of Rosé sloshing out onto scatter cushions, it’s tears at Starbucks as the barista calls out a gingerbread latte to someone with the same name as your ex, it’s starting to fill out an application form to appear on First Dates but then abandoning it. It’s not as if Zayn actually cares, he is after all going out with a supermodel now. Still, great song.
Kero Kero Bonito – Trampoline
Yeah, we all want to get into K-Pop and J-Pop, but it’s an awful lot of effort isn’t it really. This London-based band is a pretty good place to start though. It’s giddy, fizzy, almost child-like pop music, the equivalent of wolfing down two packs of Haribo Tangfastics and then hopping into a dodgem. Plus, it’s bound to irritate someone when you play it out loud. Someone in the QX Office said it sounded like Nyam Cat, AS IF THAT WAS A BAD THING.
Kaytranada – Lite Spots
Move over Sweden, the best music is now being made by your equally arctic, big sister, Canada. The winner of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize (like their Mercury Prize, but with less Laura Mvula) was Kaytranda, a young electronic producer, who managed to beat Carly Rae Jepson, Grimes, Jessy Lanza, Justin Bieber, and Drake among many others to win. His album, 99.9%, zipped between genres with cocksure confidence and had a load of great guest contributors on there too. Lite Spots is the pick of the bunch on there; a glitchy, inescapably danceable belter.
Ariana Grande – Into You
Imagine if we hadn’t put this on here. There would be hordes upon hordes of bunny-eared homos trying to rip down our door. And quite rightly so. It’s sultry, breathy, sweaty, just pure sex in a song. It’s one of the easiest picks on the list. It must have been like when they were putting together the QX End of Year Songs List sometime in the 19th Century, and they were like, well obviously Beethoven’s 7th’s gotta be in there. Well, actually we weren’t there. Ask the design team, they’ll be able to tell you.
Solange – Don’t Touch My Hair
We’re still not sure why the biggest artist in the world chose to make her album exclusive to a streaming service that nobody wants to use, but at least her sister actively wanted us to hear what she had to say. A Seat At The Table was a multi-genre exploration into modern blackness, an important artistic statement made all the more resounding with the nature of Barack Obama’s departure and his ensuing replacement. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that it’s difficult to mix politics and music without sounding trite, but Solange more than managed it here.
Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion
It’s grown on us. So there.
