The National – “Nobody Else Will Be There”

Concluding my list with another sad song we have The National with the first track off of their 9th studio album “Sleep Well Beast“.

“Nobody Else Will Be There” features my favourite thing in music: mixing classical and contemporary styles. This is accomplished through the main instrument in the song being piano with all other instruments used being secondary other than the drum machine that follows through the song. We then come up to the middle 8 of the song where the piano plays arpeggios to a climax at which a string section comes in with a swooping topline, adding beautifully to the serenity and sadness of the track. Accompanied by the baritone singing of Matt Berninger, the lyrics follow a man on a downwards spiral in New York and how he doesn’t want to leave his significant other and how he feels that without her, nobody else will be there.

This song is the perfect starter to the album as it sets the scene for the rest of the tracks: sadness and alcoholism. This track was by far my favourite release of the year and can’t wait to see what The National have in store for 2019.

Listen to this beautiful song here.

American Football – “Silhouettes”

The critically acclaimed midwest-emo band are back with a new single and it’s as twinkly as ever.

After the mixed reception from LP2 in 2016 the band are back with the leading single from their 3rd studio album combining their original sound with the newer sound of LP2. With added tuned percussion at the beginning the song takes a while to get through an introduction but once the first guitar chord is heard, it washes over the listener like a wave of emotion. Focusing on falling out of love in a relationship, the song has a poignant sense of sadness to it throughout with the instrumentation solidifying this through the reverb-drenched, interlinking guitars combined with the somewhat jazzy, slow tempo drums creates a song for the broken-hearted.

As with most people, I’m a big fan of a memorable sad song and these guys do it very well and as a fan of LP2 I found the track to be a nice breath of fresh air for the band overall, having notes of the first album in it throughout. I am thoroughly excited to see what their new album will have in store.

You’d better get the tissues out for this one.

Franz Ferdinand – “Huck And Jim”

What is there to say about Franz Ferdinand that hasn’t been said before? One of the best bands to come out of Glasgow and with their new album they could not have reaffirmed that statement any more.

A slacker rock ode to bands like Silver Jews, “Huck and Jim” discusses the political and cultural state of the US whilst drawing comparisons to the UK  in the past few years. Kicking off with a huge and infectious riff that sounds inherently American, the song draws the listener in before dropping out to slower, somewhat military-esque feeling verse where synthesizer and hi-hat dominate the sonic palette before jumping back into a huge guitar-driven chorus. The “icing on the cake” for this song is the key change in the last chorus, giving the song its last “hurrah!” before finishing on the line “Sipping bucky with the boys” ending the song on the lightest note imaginable.

This song provided a great start to 2018 for me musically with the overall felling from listening the song just being relaxing and fun. The song title also references my favourite book so I may be slightly biased (but only slightly, honest).

Check out the track here.

Delta Sleep – “El Pastor”

The first single off of their highly anticipated second album “Ghost City” finds Delta Sleep doing what they do best: Writing catchy, complex and accessible music.

The Brighton based math rock band had been alluding to their follow up to their first album “Twin Galaxies” the previous year and came through with one of my favourite releases of the whole year. “El Pastor” is arguably the strongest track on the album (in my opinion) immediately hooking you in with the high tempo drumbeat consisting of 16th notes then being backed up with interlinking guitar arpeggios that duck and weave throughout each other providing a solid foundation and harmony throughout the song. Devin Yuciel’s vocal delivery is as soft and soothing as ever although not being afraid to let some aberration through at the climaxing points of the track where he makes his passion in the lyrics known to all.

Being a big fan of the genre and the album’s overall production and track layout, as well as the band’s recent impact on the scene around the world it would make it hard to not have one of the songs from this LP on my tracks of the year. The overall message the album spreads about the environment and physical/mental well-being is a pleasant breath of fresh air (if you’ll pardon the pun).

The track can be heard here.

Having came and went in what feels like such a short period of time, to say 2018 was a big year for music is an understatement. With so many releases and developments within the industry there are many tracks that I could talk about but frankly, this post would take days to read. So instead I give you, over the next few weeks, a select handful of my favourite songs released in the past year.

Iceage – “Broken Hours”

Being released at the tail-end of the year, the Danish punk outfit hits us with a very strong single. Having been debuted back at Pitchfork’s Music Festival back in 2015 and being met with great reception by the crowd, fans have been waiting for the official release of the song and it is fair to say that after the years of waiting it has been worth it.

Initially starting with huge, overdriven guitar chords played in a chromatic sequence it’s easy to tell this is your classic Iceage track. being driven primarily by a pounding bassline throughout the verses, building up to a huge chorus where frontman, Elias Bender-Ronnefelt’s almost pained shouting becomes the focal point of the song then calming down once more and settling back into the guitar and bass driven verse.

Definitely a long awaited release by myself and many others, Iceage fails to disappoint as of yet. You can listen to the track for yourself here.