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15. Only Acting - Kero Kero Bonito (2018)
The epitome of loud-quiet-loud-quiet songwriting that runs with an excellent metaphor and ends with an ear-bending collaspe. Really good stuff.
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Writer/Marketer. He/Him. Writes about Doctor Who at https://readfnord.wordpress.com 'By an English Sea' is in 'Neon Magazine 44'; 'The Month You Were in a Relationship with Taylor Swift' is in 'Kiss Your Darlings'.
#TheTenx5 Day 36
15. Only Acting - Kero Kero Bonito (2018)
The epitome of loud-quiet-loud-quiet songwriting that runs with an excellent metaphor and ends with an ear-bending collaspe. Really good stuff.
#TheTenx5 Day 35
16. Black Magic - Little Mix (2015)
Little Mix are the best band of the 2010s and this is their best song. I will not be accepting any other questions at this time.
I think HMLTD faultered when they released a concept album about worms at the same time as people were complaining about them being straight men appropriating queer aesthetics. This has always felt unfair though: that album's really good and people really want straight people to act *more* straight?
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17. Proxy Love - HMLTD (2018)
It's amazing how artists rise and fall. Once underground darlings, now (IMO) a massively underrated band, HMLTD are what rock could be - ludicrous, massive, messy and bold.
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18. Bills - LunchMoney Lewis (2015)
The most relatable hit of the decade.
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19. Shut Up and Dance - WALK THE MOON (2014)
We need more songs about the joy of shutting the hell up and not getting in your own way.
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20. Church - Samm Henshaw feat. EARTHGANG (2019)
A religious pop song actually joyous and inspirational enough that I used it as my pump-up music for a good few years.
Shout out to EARTHGANG's wonderfully odd feature verse. "Seatbelt's fastened, straight to Mars, look at God!"
Absolutely love this song and this band!
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21. Tongue Tied - GROUPLOVE (2011)
Really captures the whole "bunch of friends at a transcient party" feeling.
(Don't ask me why so many 2011 indie rock music videos look so bloody grim.)
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22. Tastes Good With The Money - Fat White Family (2019)
A nice little apocalypse for the middle classes.
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23. No Reptiles - Everything Everything (2015)
Sometimes you just need to hear that it's alright to feel like a fat child in a pushchair, old enough to run. Also that there's no reptiles, just soft boiled eggs in suits and ties waiting for the flashing green man.
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24. This is America - Childish Gambino (2018)
One of the defining statement of its times, even if its exact lyrics are imprecise (as if any accurate statement about living through the political landscape of the late-10s would sound coherent)
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25. Some Nights - fun. (2012)
A millenial indie-pop quarter-life-crisis rock opera.
#TheTenx5 HM5
Your Fine Petting Duck - Devendra Banhart (2013)
This was very close to getting on my list but missed out because I didn't think anyone would pick it and I had some similar songs that I wanted to shout out more. And then someone else went and picked it. On the HMs it goes!
Also amazing to me is how completely insignificant the Tories were. I know it was an election in Manchester but less than 2% of the vote! After decades where they were the most dominant force in my life, the speed with which they've evaporated into irrelevancy is still shocking to me.
All the news reports saying that Gorton and Denton was a close race, and then you look up the vote share to find the Greens were over 10% ahead of second place and had 40% of the vote.
#TheTenx5 HM4
Pedestrian at Best - Courtney Barnett (2015)
Sometimes, all you need is a few fuzzy riffs and some incredibly quotable lyrics.
#TheTenx5 HM3
Good Day Today - David Lynch (2011)
If I get the option of voting for David Lynch, I vote for David Lynch.
Speaking to journalists, Matt Goodwin says Reform lost the election due to "people not voting for him on political grounds"
#TheTenx5 HM2
Every Single Night - Fiona Apple (2012)
It's not one of my lists without Fiona Apple appearing somewhere. If only I had remembered that this was released in the early 2010s and not the late 2000s.
#TheTenx5 HM1
Let It Happen - Tame Impala (2015)
The big song that I saw someone else post and went "How the hell did I forget to put this on my list?" It does have to be the album version with all the glitchy stuff happening in the middle, though.
I'm glad you like it :) I can also recommend "Madeline Crumbles", "Isobel: a Report to an Academy", "The Wheelbarrow" and "Twilight Cinema" from them if you're after more of this type of thing.
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26. Do It All The Time - I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME (2018)
Enjoyably funky indie rock from the band with the best name on this list.
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27. Of The Night - Bastille (2013)
A lowkey indie pop mashup of "Rhythm is a Dancer" and "The Rhythm of the Night". Electronic dance music is always best when it's about yearning, and that makes it really good source material for a band like Bastille to go all in on.
Mostly, I'm just surprised how many people have heard for Anna Meredith - for a quite experimental electro-classical artist, she's done incredibly well for herself!
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28. Baseball - Major Parkinson feat. Linn FrΓΈkedal (2017)
From my favourite band of all time, here's a ten-minute goth/bossa nova/prog rock odyssey. I was delighted when they found they had released it as a single, and would probably have included it even if it wasn't.
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29. Nautilus - Anna Meredith (2016)
Surprised to see how much support this song has got so far and delighted to add to it. If you like this anxiety attack turned into a bop, I highly recommend its sprirtual sequel "Sawbones", alongside everything else Anna Meredith has done.
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30. Turn Down For What - DJ Snake feat. Lil Jon (2013)
Or, to render it correctly: TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?!
Back in the day, it was usual for my friends to shout "TURN DOWN FOR WHAT", then hum the trumpet line from Jason Derulo's "Talk Dirty". The two work together surprisingly well.
Labour lost three council seats last night. 1 each to the Greens, Lib dems and Plaid. Reform were 2nd or 3rd in each.
The Greens also won and beat Reform in another local election.
So when they say vote Labour to stop Reform, they couldn't be more wrong. Vote almost anyone but Labour to beat Reform.
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31. The Way We Are - Alesha Dixon (2015)
Dixon works her ass off and sells the hell out of this song. I'm still to find anything else that quite sounds like its chorus.