Looking back at 2015

As always, we started the year with some bold predictions about what 2015 might hold. Let’s see how accurate they actually were!

January

We jumped into the New Year by marking post number 909, just because…

February

We finally finished our comprehensive history of the BRIT Awards! You can read the Complete Guide here.

March

March saw us revisit the archives of this blog and everything that came before it, with reviews of Depeche Mode, Enigma, Erasure, and others.

April

In April, we celebrated the 1000th post on this blog. Awesome. Quantity rulez.

May

May saw exciting new releases from Jean-Michel Jarre, Hot Chip and Leftfield – which is a lot to fit into one month.

June

June saw us rolling back to the early 1980s, and reviewing a-ha and OMD.

July

As the official UK charts officially moved to Fridays, we celebrated our third anniversary and gave up on Sunday posting (probably for the sabbath, or something).

August

August for stowaways saw reviews of oldies from Goldfrapp and Dubstar!

September

September finally saw the last installment (for now) of our Beginner’s guide series. Collect the full set here!

October

October this year saw us counting down to the Q Awards and the Mercury Prize!

November

November saw the introduction of a brand new feature on this blog, Vinyl Moments – which hopefully will be back soon!

December

Sees us celebrating the Christmas and New Year period yet again. As the Germans say, have a good slide into 2016!

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Top tracks of 2015 – New Order feat. Elly Jackson

Time now to reveal our favourite track of 2015, but first let’s look again at the chart so far!

• 10. Sarah Cracknell feat. Nicky Wire – Nothing Left to Talk About
• 9. Marsheaux – Satellite
• 8. MG – Pinking
• 7. Dave Gahan and Soulsavers – All of This and Nothing
• 6. Jean-Michel Jarre – Zero Gravity
• 5. Hot Chip – Need You Now
• 4. Leftfield – Bad Radio
• 3. Étienne de Crécy – Hashtag My Ass
• 2. Little Boots – Better in the Morning

Number 1 is New Order, from their comeback album Music Complete, with Elly Jackson from La Roux, and the exceptional Tutti Frutti. There doesn’t appear to be an official video, but here’s a great live version:

Top tracks of 2015 – Little Boots

One of many exceptional comeback albums this year was the third full-length release from Little Boots, Working Girl. At number two on our top tracks of 2015 is the fantastically minimal Better in the Morning, which comes with a great music video too:

Top tracks of 2015 – Étienne de Crécy

Let’s go back to our countdown of the top ten tracks of 2015. Here’s the chart so far:

• 10. Sarah Cracknell feat. Nicky Wire – Nothing Left to Talk About
• 9. Marsheaux – Satellite
• 8. MG – Pinking
• 7. Dave Gahan and Soulsavers – All of This and Nothing
• 6. Jean-Michel Jarre – Zero Gravity
• 5. Hot Chip – Need You Now
• 4. Leftfield – Bad Radio

And at number three, Étienne de Crécy in a particular moment of genius from the latest album Super Discount 3, with Hashtag My Ass:

Christmas chart for stowaways – 2015

This post was especially delayed to allow compilation, but we can now exclusively* bring you the Christmas chart for stowaways, for 2015!

1. New Order feat. Elly Jackson – Tutti Frutti
2. Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – All of This and Nothing
3. Jean-Michel Jarre & Vince Clarke – Automatic
4. Pet Shop Boys – Christmas
5. Erasure – Gaudete
6. Róisín Murphy – Exploitation
7. MG – Pinking
8. Little Boots – Working Girl
9. MG – Europa Hymn
10. Napoleon – Rudolph

* Yes, that’s exclusively, in the sense of nobody else being interested in covering it…

Christmas without a Prayer

It’s Christmas Eve, and for some reason I’m always a bit surprised when somebody turns up with a new Christmas song. This one, in particular – the brilliant Sparks have barely released anything new for half a decade now, and then they suddenly come up with this, Christmas without a Prayer. Season’s greetings!

Top tracks of 2015 – Leftfield

After an album in 1995 and another one in 2000, it was beginning to look as though Leftfield had shut shop for good – but then they (now he) reappeared with the exceptional Alternative Light Source instead. My pick was Bad Radio, but it seems to be a bit low on videos, so here’s another look at the brilliant video for Head and Shoulders instead:

We’ll continue the list on Monday.

Top tracks of 2015 – Hot Chip

Every couple of years, Hot Chip seem to reappear with another exemplary album, and this year’s was Why Make Sense? My favourite track was Need You Now:

Top tracks of 2015 – Jean-Michel Jarre

Going back to our top tracks of 2015, it’s time for number six! Here’s the chart so far:

• 10. Sarah Cracknell feat. Nicky Wire – Nothing Left to Talk About
• 9. Marsheaux – Satellite
• 8. MG – Pinking
• 7. Dave Gahan and Soulsavers – All of This and Nothing

After a very long gap indeed, Jean-Michel Jarre finally decided to make his comeback a couple of months ago with Electronica 1: The Time Machine. After a long drawn-out promotional period, my personal favourite turned out to be the collaboration with Tangerine Dream, Zero Gravity, but it doesn’t seem to have a video. So here’s Glory instead:

 

Chart for stowaways – 12 December 2015

Here are this week’s top ten albums:

1. New Order – Music Complete
2. Jean-Michel Jarre – Electronica 1: The Time Machine
3. MG – MG EP
4. Little Boots – Working Girl
5. Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – Angels & Ghosts
6. MG – MG
7. The Future Sound of London – Environment Five
8. Kylie Minogue – Kylie Christmas
9. Air – The Virgin Suicides (OST)
10. Leftfield – Alternative Light Source