A Better Entertainment Is Possible.
The last part of our Top 100 tracks of the 2020 brings our favourite 25 songs featuring, among others, odes to glamourous fabrics and pieces of furniture; new agey philosophical reflections; a flamenco pop live recording for a US radio station; the nightmare of American religious fundamentalists; a duo of indie titans with a high octane power ballad and the catchiest chorus of the year.
Listen to the Top 100 Tracks of 2022 (25-1) here.
The third part of our favourite songs of 2022 recap has Charli’s angels; reggaeton ballads; Canadian folk-rock; Irish dancefloor melancholia; Spanish stoner rock; Tuareg songwriters; Mormon rock; a duet between French pop royalty; Nigerian R&B; the biggest spoken word hit in aeons and the band that may herald a new wave of britpop. Are we inclusive or what?
Listen to the Top 100 Tracks of 2022 (poitions 50-26) here.
In the second part of our Top 100 favourite songs of the year we find Andalusian rap; Colombian urban ballads; alternative supergroups; Nigerian stars; Australian rock; hip-hop icons; Danish R&B starlettes; ecological activist rappers; 70’s veterans meeting Hollywood stars for bonkers rock opera; Spanish pop-rock and the band whose lead singer is also the protagonist of one of the TV series of the year. Diversity is our middle name!
Listen to the Top 100 Tracks of 2022 (poitions 75-51) here.
101-ᗅᗺᗷᗅ
I Still Have Faith On You
(Polar)
After our Top 50 albums of 2021, it is time to recap our favourite songs of the year. Beginning, as our tradition demands, with the symbolic 101 position, usually dedicated to a guilty pleasure or a track/artist of great relevance during the last twelve months, left bubbling under our selected list. In this case, it is both, as after four decades of their separation Swedish pop behemoth ᗅᗺᗷᗅ announced their return, which automatically was hailed as the comeback of the century. Their new album, ‘Voyage’ unsurprisingly found them at their most mellifluous, but in times of a pandemic recovery that is still uncertain, ‘I Still Have Faith In You,’ at least for anyone whose childhood was left mildly traumatised by the sheer melodrama of Chiquita or for those that treasure some joyful memories soundtracked by ‘Dancing Queen’ or ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’, had the warmth and feel-good embrace of an encounter with a long time absent friend.
The Swedish fab four may have felt slightly dated and their new offerings weren’t even the best ᗅᗺᗷᗅ-like songs around, that honor could go to Pearl Charles‘ glorious pastiche ‘Only for tonight’. However, like theirs, most songs outside the tyranny of the mainstream fusion between EDM, pop and modern R&B formerly called urban music were positively revivalistic. In 2022, whatever your favourite jam from the past may have been, there was a strong chance a current song was influenced by it. This has not been a year for great innovation then, but rather for music which, suitably for the times we are living in, brought comfort and reassurance.