Now it has finally happened, a list-of-the-year here on Meadowmusic, with the 60 best songs from this past year. My source is entirely the music I have presented here on the blog; my obvious reference from 2013 in which I live and breathe almost every day during the year. I do love albums also, but I realised it would be an impossible task for me, to be able to construct a serious list for this in time. Maybe I will prepare myself in a better way next year.

It’s really the first time since the start in 2008 that I make a year list such as this, and I hope that it will help somebody to find new favourites that you have missed. That’s how I think when I go through year lists; I usually tire after a while, as too many lists from newspapers and others are so similar. I’m pretty certain that this list is quite unique, though.
I want to make the reservation that the list is somewhat biased at the catchy side of pop and rock, which means that instrumental, experimental and other types of music doesn’t get the place it deserves here, nonetheless enjoyable. But that’s how it is, right now, you’ll probably survive.

The songs can be enjoyed here below, without any specific order, or you can pick up the Spotify playlist (four songs are missing) here:

Meadowmusic – Favourites 2013 on Spotify

I wish you all a happy ending of this year. This is probably my final post this year, and I’ll see you again at the start of 2014.

Grande Roses – “Radio Heartbreak”

Ceremonies – “Promises”

Ensamhushåll – “Stunden”

The Hyper Actives – “The Promised Land”

Killer Clan of F.U.N. – “Blood Runs Hot”

Simian Ghost – “Dizzy Spells”

Sara Thuresson – “Vakna” (with Mikael Wiehe)

Hurricane Love – “Only Human”

Humfree Bug Art – “With Nights and Lights”

Mire Kay – “Beat”

Dödens Dal – “Bakom Stjärnor, Bakom Tiden”

The Sweet Serenades – “Run (Run, Run)”

Robert Dahlqvist – “Det tog en lång tid”

Niels Nielsen – “Dpend”

Californiaman – “Give Love Back”

Junip – “Line of Fire”

Automobilist – “A Spark Is Enough”

The Crystal Caravan – “Hour of the wolf”

Adam Tensta – “Raindrops” (with Duvchi)

Feather Revs – “Lean”

Dida – “Don’t Go”

We Are the Storm – “Monument”

Act Utd – “Religio”

New Rose – “Case Sensitivity”

Mikael Persson – “A Man With Hound By His Cottage”

A Man With Hound By His Cottage

Kickback Circus – “Flashlight Memories”

Fou de Toi – “Heartless”

Turn Off Your Television – “Between the Lines”

Magnus Bergman och Gösta Linderholm – “Drömmarnas Allé”

Emerald Park – “Bergsgatan”

Tikkle Me – “Time to Act”

Iida – “Life Will Kill You”

Honeymilk – “Light Entertainment”

LIABT – “Dancer On a Chair”

Tim Schmidt – “Everything is gonna be ok”

The Chrysler – “Bound For Love”

Terrible Feelings – “I Don’t Even Know You”

White Birches – “The End of the Line”

Rigas – “Kungen”

YAST – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams”

Me The Tiger – “Ariana”

Beat the Heart – “Glebe Market”

Last Lynx – “Killing Switch”

Noras Falcon – “Kiss the Night” (with Staphan O’Bell)

Könsförrädare – “Death to Stories”

Rooni – “Ambulance”

The Gloria Story – “I See You Tommorrow”

Douglas Unger – “When the Bullet Leaves the Gun”

Alaska – “Take Your Time”

This Vision – “Hungry Heart”

Misth – “Rise of a New Day”

Tiger Forest Cat – “Everybody’s Running”

Solblomma – “(Come Count the) Sheep (With Me)”

Principe Valiente – “Take Me With You”

Swedish Tiger – “Boom Goes My Heart”

Skimret – “Adna”

Case Conrad – “Copper Thief”

Alice Boman – “Waiting”

Funked Up – “Don’t Lose Your Mind”

Sefyr – “Klockan tickar”

It’s been four years since I wrote about Moist, or David Elfström Lilja which is his real name. Since then he’s released a full length album and is on his way with the second one, which will be released during Spring. As a first glimpse of what’s coming up he’s presenting the single “Worlds Collide”, with a suggestive, melodic electro pop. Maria Marcus is the lead singer on the song as she’s been in earlier song collaborations.

Moist på Facebook – på Spotify – på Wimp – på Soundcloud

I never say no to new pop songs from Simian Ghost. Here they are with the single “A Million Shining Colours”, a 60’s-vibing tune with a flavour of Beach Boys. It’s the first single from their upcoming album “The Veil”, due for release in Spring.

Simian Ghost’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara – on Soundcloud

Honeymilk have released a number of great singles during the last year, and been one of the house bands on Meadowmusic this year. Finally, a few weeks ago, they released their debut album “Lean on the Sun”, an album I had high hopes for. A bit surprising is that they have chosen not to include their three first strong singles “It Might Be”, “This Time Around (The Gods Won’t Save You) and “Situations of You”, which is understandable, though, as they have chosen to build upon the disted sound they introduced with the last single “Light Entertainment”. The result is a coherent album, but where they still give themselves plenty of space to vary between a rough indie rock’n’roll with a taste of brit pop and some more polished indie pop inspiration. I can’t say that I miss the earlier singles on this tastefully long album with it’s eight tracks; the song material is better than ever, and the latest album single “Sea to Shining Sea” is perhaps their strongest one so far. I think it’s an impressive album debut, well it’s an impressive debut year from the band, and my expectations has been met more than enough.

Honeymilks site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

True to my traditions I’ve collected some new Christmas songs this year also, which I’m going to present here today.

Our friends in Crying Day Care Choir have recorded a Christmas EP with four tracks, called “Christmas Day Care Choir”. What’s extra nice about this is that they are donating all income from the album to Musikhjälpen during this week, i.e. until December 15th. Musikhjälpen is a project run by the public TV and Radio in Sweden each year, collecting money for people in need. This year it’s about women’s rights to survive pregnancies. If you’d like to help the band to help, you can just click download in the player below.

YAST presented their album debut earlier this year and walks out of it with this fine Christmas song, “If Santa Ain’t Real”, accompanied by Alice Boman on backing vocals.

Magnus Bergman has worked hard with releasing singles this year, and it’s only logical that he would make a Christmas single as well. It’s called “Decembernatt” and is a remake of his own song, this time in a duet version together with Kim Vestin.

And it’s great that Brainpool make a comeback after almost ten years of silence, and they do that with this Christmas single “The Last Christmas”:

Tenonsaw, who released the album “Avenging Angels” during the Autumn, also wanted to contribute to the Christmas ambience. Of course they also want to experiment, and they do this by combining Mariah Careys “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and U2:s “All I Want Is You” into this song:

Next up is some lovely classical sounding Christmas jazz from Gunhild Carling, here with her new single “Winter’s Day”:

I’m finishing with celtic punk rockers Finnegan’s Hell, who serve us a Christmas song in the spirit of social realism, as they write, “Drunken Christmas (An Irish Christmas Song)”:

I hope you can find your Christmas spirit in this post; there are quite different versions to choose from here above. Merry Christmas to you, and thank you for coming here reading my posts and most of all for listening to the music.