millionreasons | 2018 in song

The Cranberries - Linger
The Fall - In These Times. January always beings death and 2018 was no exception.
Lovely Eggs - Wiggy giggy

Courtney Barnett - Nameless Faceless. Courtney joins the #Metoo movement
The Smiths - Wonderful Woman. I watched England Is Mine, the Morissey biopic, and really wanted the film to be about Linder Sterling intead.
Blondie - One Way Or Another. I did karaoke at Heike's birthday and listened to this a lot in preparation.
Prefab Sprout - Lions In My Own Garden. I heard this randomnly in a bar in Hamburg and it wouldn't leave my head. It became a sort of Brexit song, for me.
Netta - Toy. A deserved Eurovision deserved winner.

Hookworms - Negative Space. The lead singer turned out to be a wrong'un, but I still like this song, about the death of a friend: "I still see you every time I'm down."
MGMT - Kid. I heard this when queing up in a shop on one of those heatwave days and the hook went into my brain, in a good way.
Gruff Rhys - Frontier Man. I never liked The Super Furry Animals, but I do like this Lee Hazlewood pastiche, even if I did sing "Mushroom man" along with it.
Subway Sect - Holiday Hymn. We went to one of those local summer festivals and living legend in his own lunchtime, Vic Goddard was playing. He didn't do their best song, Ambition, but he did do this, which I didn't realise Orange Juice covered.
Dubstar - You Were Never In Love. The return of Sarah's dour shimmer.

Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains. On the day that it finally rained, I stood out on the step and watched it, breathing in. One of the neighbours did the same. It was wonderful. Obviously now I'd like a bit of that heatwave back.
Scritti Politti - Woodbeez. Aretha Franklin died and the day afterwards Sean Keaveney played this on his radio show and it seemed perfect, somehow better than hearing Respect for the 90th time.
East River Pipe - Make A Deal With The City. Perfect autumnal music
Simon and Garfunkel - Leaves That Are Green. As above.
Pavement - Range Life. I found this song a bit addictive, the ersatz coutnry, the falsetto on "Raaaange", the jerky hook, the slagging off of The Smashing Pumpkins...

St Etienne - Hobart Paving. We saw them do a gorgeous acoustic version of this song, complete with live violin and flute, at a gig at the British Library this year, and whilst I've always found St Et to be arch and slightly insincere, this brought a(n Elvis) tear to my eye.
Shopping - The Hype
Hinds - Bamboo. We saw these two bands at an all dayer recently. Shopping were very impressive art-rock-riot-grrl, whereas Hinds were a bunch o'fun.