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Top Ten Songs of 2017
Dec. 14th, 2017 09:19 am10. X-Rx - The Chosen Ones
X-Rx are (like most bands with an X in their name) one of those bands who sit very well in the middle of a running playlist or the setlist of a dirty industrial club where everyone is off their tits, but when they come on when you're sitting in your living room, they have you reaching for the "skip" button. On their latest album, Gasoline and Fire, however, they seem to have made some kind of effort to write proper songs with verses, choruses and tunes, and this has paid off sufficiently to see them edging into my top ten.
9. Panic Lift - This Poison Remains
While X-Rx sound like a band who take too many drugs, Panic Lift sound like a band that don't take enough. This is the most memorable track they have produced in their ten year career. It still sounds like it needs a bit of a slap in the arse to get it doing but I've included it as I needed ten songs.
8. Slighter - Disinformation
Okay, actually getting on to the proper good stuff now. Slighter are a band I have never heard of before, I think I got them from one of Adam's posts. This is a chugging mid-90s industrial sound like early 16 Volt or Sister Machine Gun with a growly bloke complaining about not being told what to do. A classic formula which never disappoints.
7. Faderhead - I'm Never
I wasn't bowled over by Faderhead's latest album, Night Physics. We were promised a new direction, but as far as I could tell, he was really going in the same direction at a slower speed. There are a few decent songs on there, but nothing that stands up to the likes of "Like A Rocket" and "Champagne and Real Pain" and nothing really clubby either. However, I highly recommend signing up to Faderhead's Patreon, where he releases a Patreon-only song every month (hence the lack of a YouTube link for this one). These songs aren't just those that didn't make the cut for the album, rather, they are songs where he has gone for a different style and more importantly, songs that stand up on their own. I'm Never is a mournful lament about going away and never coming back and is my favourite Faderhead Patreon release, although they're all brilliant.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/im-never-14557967
6. mind.in.a.box - Coming Down
I'm never really sure what kind of band mind.in.a.box are trying to be. They don't quite fit into any of the techno/industrial/ebm/dance/synthpop genres but sound a bit like all of these. Anyway, whatever they are, the new album "Broken Legacies" is really good and I had to choose between three songs to put on this list (the runners up being "Attack" and "Paranoia").
5. Zynic - Slice of Life
Zynic were my top discovery of 2016 and their new album, Neon Oblivion, did not disappoint. Zynic's forte is making really cheery songs about murder and this song is no exception. A hypnotic 80s bleep and earworm chorus will have you humming this for the rest of the week. No need to thank me.
4. KMFDM - Hell Yeah
I don't think I need to tell anyone reading this who KMFDM are. What I do need to tell you is that this is the best thing that KMFDM have done for decades. It actually sounds like KMFDM used to sound, before they started fucking everything up with shit like metal guitars and female singers. I knew this was going to be a stonker from the opening seconds of the video, and I was right. Incidentally, I also saw KMFDM live for the first time this year, but that experience wasn't quite as overwhelmingly positive.
3. Mesh - Only Better (classical version)
I'm obviously never going to get through a top ten without including a Mesh track. Generally, I'm not a fan of classical music or reworks that have less energy than the original, but I do think this one works really well, and Only Better is one of my favourite ever Mesh tracks. The rest of the album is a bit like lift music, though. Dear Mesh, if you're reading this, please send more angst and woe next year, and less violins.
https://mesh-uk.bandcamp.com/track/only-better-live-at-neues-gewandhaus-leipzig
2. Empathy Test - All It Takes
The most eagerly anticipated release of the year for me was Empathy Test's double album, featuring remastered versions of their previous releases and a set of stunning new songs. This track - a track the band themselves apparently weren't too sure about and said "would never become a live favourite" - is my pick of the bunch. It's all about the beginning of a new relationship and the intoxicating feelings which go with it, yet, in true Empathy Test style, as much as they tell us "This is the beginning of something wonderful", you can hear bitterness and woe bubbling in the distance. You just know that this magical relationship is all going to go to shit and have them writing songs like "Losing Touch" within a couple of months.
1. Lizette Lizette - Sober Up
Spotify's Discover Weekly usually just plays me shit like Combichrist and Strawberry Switchblade but when it came up with this track one day this summer, it stopped me in my tracks. Imagine the Eurovision Song Contest being held in Slimelight. This song would be the winner. Lizette Lizette, a Buffalo-booted non-binary goth with a massive septum piercing, would have ousted Covenant to represent Sweden. The song is quite simply about a relationship which only works when intoxicating substances are added to the equation and it is completely perfect. I listened to it on repeat for a week.
BONUS SONGS
I really wanted to include the following on the list but apparently they're both from 2016. I didn't hear them until 2017, though, so they are going in.
Aesthetic Perfection - Love Like Lies
I love Aesthetic Perfection. Unlike 90% of bands of this genre, they have a frontman who is dynamic, witty, sexy and just a little bit silly. Daniel Graves, with his sequinned clothes, his tattoos and his bowler hat, reminds me of an industrial Boy George. I think you actually have to see Aesthetic Perfection perform for their music to make sense - it's the contrast between Daniel's outgoing, confident stage persona and the seething self-hating misery of his lyrics that make this special.
Dismantled - Suicidal
Seriously - how have you let me go forty years without discovering Dismantled? This band are my favourite discovery of 2017. Imagine a parallel universe in which Nine Inch Nails didn't go to shit after The Downward Spiral but continued to move with the times and play small venues in Oregon to a tiny audience. That's Dismantled. Their music is catchy, stompy, angst and sometimes dirty. They write songs about war, death, bad relationships and hills. "Suicidal" makes the refrain "I'm Feeling Suicidal" sound a victory chant which is an achievement in itself. More people need to know about this band.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6AAKY9ODbVwmjUoNROhGye
X-Rx are (like most bands with an X in their name) one of those bands who sit very well in the middle of a running playlist or the setlist of a dirty industrial club where everyone is off their tits, but when they come on when you're sitting in your living room, they have you reaching for the "skip" button. On their latest album, Gasoline and Fire, however, they seem to have made some kind of effort to write proper songs with verses, choruses and tunes, and this has paid off sufficiently to see them edging into my top ten.
9. Panic Lift - This Poison Remains
While X-Rx sound like a band who take too many drugs, Panic Lift sound like a band that don't take enough. This is the most memorable track they have produced in their ten year career. It still sounds like it needs a bit of a slap in the arse to get it doing but I've included it as I needed ten songs.
8. Slighter - Disinformation
Okay, actually getting on to the proper good stuff now. Slighter are a band I have never heard of before, I think I got them from one of Adam's posts. This is a chugging mid-90s industrial sound like early 16 Volt or Sister Machine Gun with a growly bloke complaining about not being told what to do. A classic formula which never disappoints.
7. Faderhead - I'm Never
I wasn't bowled over by Faderhead's latest album, Night Physics. We were promised a new direction, but as far as I could tell, he was really going in the same direction at a slower speed. There are a few decent songs on there, but nothing that stands up to the likes of "Like A Rocket" and "Champagne and Real Pain" and nothing really clubby either. However, I highly recommend signing up to Faderhead's Patreon, where he releases a Patreon-only song every month (hence the lack of a YouTube link for this one). These songs aren't just those that didn't make the cut for the album, rather, they are songs where he has gone for a different style and more importantly, songs that stand up on their own. I'm Never is a mournful lament about going away and never coming back and is my favourite Faderhead Patreon release, although they're all brilliant.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/im-never-14557967
6. mind.in.a.box - Coming Down
I'm never really sure what kind of band mind.in.a.box are trying to be. They don't quite fit into any of the techno/industrial/ebm/dance/synthpop genres but sound a bit like all of these. Anyway, whatever they are, the new album "Broken Legacies" is really good and I had to choose between three songs to put on this list (the runners up being "Attack" and "Paranoia").
5. Zynic - Slice of Life
Zynic were my top discovery of 2016 and their new album, Neon Oblivion, did not disappoint. Zynic's forte is making really cheery songs about murder and this song is no exception. A hypnotic 80s bleep and earworm chorus will have you humming this for the rest of the week. No need to thank me.
4. KMFDM - Hell Yeah
I don't think I need to tell anyone reading this who KMFDM are. What I do need to tell you is that this is the best thing that KMFDM have done for decades. It actually sounds like KMFDM used to sound, before they started fucking everything up with shit like metal guitars and female singers. I knew this was going to be a stonker from the opening seconds of the video, and I was right. Incidentally, I also saw KMFDM live for the first time this year, but that experience wasn't quite as overwhelmingly positive.
3. Mesh - Only Better (classical version)
I'm obviously never going to get through a top ten without including a Mesh track. Generally, I'm not a fan of classical music or reworks that have less energy than the original, but I do think this one works really well, and Only Better is one of my favourite ever Mesh tracks. The rest of the album is a bit like lift music, though. Dear Mesh, if you're reading this, please send more angst and woe next year, and less violins.
https://mesh-uk.bandcamp.com/track/only-better-live-at-neues-gewandhaus-leipzig
2. Empathy Test - All It Takes
The most eagerly anticipated release of the year for me was Empathy Test's double album, featuring remastered versions of their previous releases and a set of stunning new songs. This track - a track the band themselves apparently weren't too sure about and said "would never become a live favourite" - is my pick of the bunch. It's all about the beginning of a new relationship and the intoxicating feelings which go with it, yet, in true Empathy Test style, as much as they tell us "This is the beginning of something wonderful", you can hear bitterness and woe bubbling in the distance. You just know that this magical relationship is all going to go to shit and have them writing songs like "Losing Touch" within a couple of months.
1. Lizette Lizette - Sober Up
Spotify's Discover Weekly usually just plays me shit like Combichrist and Strawberry Switchblade but when it came up with this track one day this summer, it stopped me in my tracks. Imagine the Eurovision Song Contest being held in Slimelight. This song would be the winner. Lizette Lizette, a Buffalo-booted non-binary goth with a massive septum piercing, would have ousted Covenant to represent Sweden. The song is quite simply about a relationship which only works when intoxicating substances are added to the equation and it is completely perfect. I listened to it on repeat for a week.
BONUS SONGS
I really wanted to include the following on the list but apparently they're both from 2016. I didn't hear them until 2017, though, so they are going in.
Aesthetic Perfection - Love Like Lies
I love Aesthetic Perfection. Unlike 90% of bands of this genre, they have a frontman who is dynamic, witty, sexy and just a little bit silly. Daniel Graves, with his sequinned clothes, his tattoos and his bowler hat, reminds me of an industrial Boy George. I think you actually have to see Aesthetic Perfection perform for their music to make sense - it's the contrast between Daniel's outgoing, confident stage persona and the seething self-hating misery of his lyrics that make this special.
Dismantled - Suicidal
Seriously - how have you let me go forty years without discovering Dismantled? This band are my favourite discovery of 2017. Imagine a parallel universe in which Nine Inch Nails didn't go to shit after The Downward Spiral but continued to move with the times and play small venues in Oregon to a tiny audience. That's Dismantled. Their music is catchy, stompy, angst and sometimes dirty. They write songs about war, death, bad relationships and hills. "Suicidal" makes the refrain "I'm Feeling Suicidal" sound a victory chant which is an achievement in itself. More people need to know about this band.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6AAKY9ODbVwmjUoNROhGye
