It’s been another very good year for music, so much so that whittling my list down to a mere Top 10 has been more difficult than ever. And once again, I have included the Top 10 songs of the year from my son Brandon, now 14 and able to legitimately access more gigs than was the case this time last year!
Here then are my picks, in reverse order for maximum drama:
10. Locate S,1 – You Were Right About One Thing
A Summery slice of prime American indie pop from the artist also known as Christina Schneider.
9. Bloxx – Television Promises
Still with just the one (utterly fantastic) album to their name, Bloxx could already release a formidable ‘Greatest Hits’ album. ‘Television Promises’ was unleashed as a digital single in March and later starred on August’s Modern Day E.P.
8. Ash – Race The Night
The title track of their first new album for five years was classic Ash; a big single that would have sounded at home on their Number One albums Free All Angels or 1977.
7. Temples – Gamma Rays
Kettering’s uppermost purveyors of psychedelic indie pop returned with possibly their best album to date, Exotico, from which came this brilliant single.
6. Halo Maud – Terres Infinies
A taster from the new album Celebrate, due March 2024, ‘Terres Infinies’ is a wonderful track that gives a nod to singer Maud Nadal’s past as a collaborator with the equally wonderful Melody’s Echo Chamber.
5. Marika Hackman – No Caffeine
2024 promises to start on a high with Marika Hackman’s new album Big Sigh, from which she has released a handful of brilliant tracks that already give me a fair idea that it will be a nailed on ‘Top 3 Of 2024’ record for me. Here’s one of them!
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4. Chappaqua Wrestling – Wide Asleep
The Brighton band released their debut Plus Ultra this year that was crammed full of bona fide anthems. They have the potential, and the songs, to be huge.
3. Izo FitzRoy – Give Me The High
A burst of pure joy, FitzRoy’s incredible voice augmented by swoonsome backing vocals on this very 21st Century take on Northern Soul.
2. Nabihah Iqbal – This World Couldn’t See Us
Iqbal’s incredible Dreamer album, (the second under her own name after previously trading as Throwing Shade), was so full of great moments that virtually any track could have been chosen, but this is the one that occupied my ears most!
- The Woodentops – Ride A Cloud
The fact that there was a new Woodentops single in 2023 was already cause for celebration as far as I am concerned, (their first brand new one for nine years), but the fact that it sounded so otherworldly and yet exactly like The Woodentops AND was utterly brilliant was cause for, well, further celebration. There’s been nothing else quite like it this year, or any other year for that matter!
And now, as promised, the choices of Brandon Levi Page, teenage music connoisseur:
10. Tom Grennan – ‘How Does It Feel’
9. Dua Lipa – ‘Dance The Night’
8. The Hives – ‘Rigor Mortis Radio’
7. Bloxx – ‘Television Promises’
6. Niall Horgan – ‘Heaven’
5. Chappaqua Wrestling – ‘Wide Asleep’
4. The Royston Club – ‘The Deep End’
3. Anish Kumar – ‘Little Miss Dynamite’
2. Olivia Rodrigo – ‘Vampire’
1. Post Malone – ‘Chemical’
