Somebody To Love Me

Listening to Greg James' Top 40 of 2010 and it got me thinking as to what my favourite songs have been this year.
It's fair to say that music has played a massive part of my life this year. It was over the last year I realised that I don't actually want to be a lawyer - I do want to write about music for a very long time to come.
I graduated this year, I worked at NME twice, I turned 21 and I discovered Glee. 2011 has got a job on it's hands to beat it's predecessor.

So here are a few of my top songs this year...

Glee - Don't Stop Believing
What a song. What a TV Show. Who knew this little old school in Ohio could have such an impact on our lives! My housemates and I just fell in love with this song as did the DJ at Ocean in Nottingham. Every Friday without fail this would play. *Mushy, emotional bit* It was the last song played on my last night out as a student. So many memories are attached to this song.
Let's listen to it again! 3minutes and 8seconds of heaven!



Kanye West - Power
This song will always remind me of The Social Network (which I have just watched again) and that was one of the best films I've seen all year. Saying that, there were only two films this year which really had an affect on me and the other was Inception. Well done Mark Zuckerberg, by betraying your best friend back in 2004 you got Kanye in my top songs chart of 2010!

Bombay Bicycle Club - Ivy and Gold
I remember hearing this song for the first time whilst sat in the NME office next to James Macmahon (features ed) trying to blag a copy of the new (at the time) Klaxons album off him. This song however caught my attention mid sentence - which doesn't happen very often! And as the rest of the Flaws EP played I quite simply fell in love with it.

Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler
One of the best chorus hook's I've ever heard - it littering festivals all summer!
'Get Loose, Get Loose!'
Also, surely a contender for best video of the year?! Noel Fielding parading around the countryside as Dracula? Doesn't get much better in my eyes! (watch out at 0:32 - Hilarious)



Ellie goulding - The Writer
This girl can really do no wrong. I think Ellie is really exciting - she's running around the world (literally) spreading the news that, "Hey, Britain can actually produce amazing female singer/songwriters, so there, up yours America". She's leading the charge and raising our female singers' profile's. Well done Ellie.
Plus her cover of Elton is simply beautiful.

Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand

Apart from being an instant club classic and being many a night-out anthem for me and my friends, I will never forget when my favourite contestant of this year's X Factor, Diva Fever, performed this song!

And catchiest "woo oooh oooh oooohh" I think I've ever heard!

The XX - VCR

This is a rather sneaky accolade as most of the XX's singles (and their album) was released last year but this tune was released in January and I'm pretty sure it's my favourite. What an incredible year for the XX. Mercury prize winning emo children, the trio's debut album exploded into our lives last year and was surely bigger than they ever could have imagined. Each of their iconic singles have been stolen by one TV show or another though (90210 etc).... eurgh.

Katy B - Katy on a Mission
Loved this song. I love that Katy B and the likes of Magnetic Man, Benga and Skream are bringing Dubstep into the mainstream. Long live Dubstep!

Jason Derulo - Ridin' Solo
Jay-sooon Deruuuuuuulllllloooooooo! We all need a guilty pleasure, don't we?
"I'm putting on my shades to cover up my eyes..."

Klaxons - Echoes
I was desperate for the new Klaxons album to be good. Myths of the Near Future is one of my favourite albums so I naturally, didn't want to be let down. Thankfully, I wasn't.
Echoes is a song of the year for me because it reminds me, vividly, of being at the very front, in the middle of the crowd when I saw them at Leeds this year. I had waited patiently for 3 years for them to return and there was no way some stuck up rahh was going to get in my way (despite how hard she tried). I can only describe their gig as euphoric. Simply incredible. I was tingling all over, I felt high as a kite - in short I was in heaven at that gig and this song was majestic.

MIA - Born Free

Aside from the video controversy and the 'ginger-side' (we'll side step that) this is a great song. I heard this in the NME office again for the first time, had a great chat about it with Jaimie Hodgson and helped him decide what questions he was going to ask the lovely lady herself when he interviewed her later that day.

Jonsi - Go Do
So catchy and fabulous, yet it didn't last. I'm not quite sure why. I still love it!



The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster - So Long Goodnight
This album played on the NME stereo for a week before I plucked up the courage to ask Jamie Fullerton who was playing. I was desperate to know - typing the lyrics into google as fast as they were sung trying to find out who it was! I was driving myself mad looking for the artist of this simply amazing new and intense sound so I was brave and just asked Jamie. And he told me. And then I found $5.

Professor Green - Jungle

This song has just hit the airwaves and I LOVE it. I wasn't a big fan of Pro G I have to say - I just thought he was one massive gimmick really. But this song is incredible. It's really from the soul and to me it's his defining single. Rapping about real things gets you places - Mr Mathers showed that. Jungle proves Pro isn't a cheesey 'rapper' sampling old dance songs to make even worse pop songs - he's actually a credible rapper who got his big break with the manufactured crap so he could then release proper music. Clever move, Green, clever move.

Laura Marling - Rambling Man

A stunning song by an unjustifiably underrated artist.

This is a beautiful live performance of the song from the first time it was released. She was only 18 when this was performed, saying that she is only 20 now. It's rare to find such an inspirational song writing talent to be so young and why she isn't celebrated more in the mainstream, I just don't know. She's amazing.

Part 2 to follow tomorrow, my bed is calling!

Rx

Trunk

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

After Make You Feel My Love got a repeatedly oversung on the X Factor Adele got the leg up which only a show like X Factor can give. Adele could have sung about pig muck and Cheryl Cole lovers everywhere would have bought it after hearing renditions of Make You Feel My Love by Katie, TreyC, Rebecca and every other girl in bootcamp...
Thankfully, though, Rolling In The Deep is wonderful!
It's raw and powerful like a savage army heading to battle. Adele takes command of the orchestra and cries down at anything that falls out of line. Theatre and drama resonate throughout the chorus as Adele marks her place giving out attitude that won't be given back. The voice takes charge and shows to all the plan of the offensive to be used against anything that stands in the way of success. As soon as the attack comes it is gone leaving an impression on everyone that came into contact with it.



Rx

Night Air

So I got my hands on a copy of Olly Murs new album, originally titled 'Olly Murs'.

And here's what I thought of it:

This cheeky chappy from Essex has come a long way since he stole our hearts last year when he sang 'Superstition' to us all on a little old show called The X Factor. Heard of it?



At last, we thought, a contestant with a bit of character and charm who can dance like a wally and make it look good. For those of us who watched this chap unfold into the guy that all blokes want to be mates with and the guy that all girlies want to be with, it will serve as a relief that his massive grin and cheeky attitude are definitely at the heart of his debut album.

The frankly, crap titled 'Olly Murs' is full of catchy and upbeat pop records which will get you sporting the 'Olly' dance move in no time. (3:06 above) The singles 'Thinking of Me' and 'Please Don't Let Me Go' are pounding their way up the charts and it's easy to see why. There is a very summery vibe to this LP, laid back bass lines and sing-a-long choruses make this into a perfect pop record. Cheeky lyrics and off-the-cuff key changes give the album personality and set it apart from the other mainstream pop-crap out there at the minute. A personal highlight is 'Hold On' starting with the old-skool chant "well you might as well quit, if you haven't got it"

Cool and edgy, they're some of the best pop songs I've heard in a long while.

Now let's not forget the ballads in this charm offensive album. I'd forgotten quite how good this guys voice is - there's a reason he got to the final of the X Factor! The romantic ballads show off his range and make girls' hearts melt as that charisma and his smooth, slick charm resonate through the songs. 'A Million More Years' is prime example of this - girls will be daydreaming into their tea about the becoming Mrs Murs...

I think what makes this record so good is that Olly knows exactly what he's doing. He know's who he is targeting his music at, he gets that he's a pop star not another indie kid (though he dresses like one) and he is not taking it too seriously. He's embracing the Pop which means the album isn't cheesy like it so easily could have been. He's had time to become the artist he wants to be and not what Simon says - unlike the other 'winners' of the X Factor.

So coming second isn't so bad after all, in fact, it's bloody brilliant!

Rx

All I Want For Christmas

For the first time in all my 21 years, I have never had a day off work or school for snow. Until now.
It's SNOW DAY!!!!
And it's also the 1st December. Feeling so very festive and this song sprang to mind....



The best Christmas song? It's up there, only to be rivalled by Shakin' Stevens and Chris De Burgh (yes...) in my eyes:





Btw, crappest video for Chris De Burgh ever, but it was honestly the best I could find :/

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! Ha!

However, there is always one who destroys the mood: http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=146&p=9493&title=indie_bands_stop_with_the_crap_christmas&more=1&c=1
Scrooge.

Rx