I never talk about music here at Film Grimoire, unless it’s part of a film review. Which is strange, because I love music so much. But there comes a time, once a year, when I am forced to make a top ten list of my songs for the previous year. I don’t do this voluntarily (but nor do I do it with a gun put to my head) – I do it for the Triple J Hottest 100, a day once a year where Australian radio station Triple J counts down the top 100 songs of the previous year.

2017 was a year where I went HAM on Spotify and Soundcloud to find and try new things. I generally listen to a lot of music at work whilst writing reports, and I’ll generally just type in ‘vaporwave’ or ‘psychedelia’ or something else that’s random into Spotify or Soundcloud, just to shut my brain off and work. I also do a lot of driving for work which means I have optimum car-singing time. I think my top ten songs are all songs that I’ve sung (or rapped, no shame) in my car a whole bunch across the year.

Without further ado, please see below for my top ten songs of 2017.

Not Worth Hiding is a song that has come at a good time for Australia given that we legalised marriage equality on the 15th of December. I love this song because it’s so sweet and genuine and I’m sure it’s important for young LGBTI Australians who are wondering about their own identity.

Angus & Julia Stone specialise in dreamy pop music, making good use of acoustic guitar and romantic lyrics about teenager lover runaways. In Chateau, they make good use of a soothing strings section as well. It’s just a relaxing song to listen to, as are the rest of the songs on their newest album ‘Snow’.

I loved Baker Boy’s Marryuna because it’s such a joyful and energetic Australian hip hop tune, and most notably, he blends his rapping between both English and Yolngu Matha language from his home town in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. It’s a pretty beautiful language and to see the two languages blended together is so nice; what has resulted is a really good song. His video clip for Cloud 9 has some beautiful footage of up north and Indigenous Australian communities as well.

I flippin’ love BROCKHAMPTON, and I particularly loved their album ‘SATURATION II’ on which SWEET is featured. It’s just such a good song with a nice beat and fun lyrics. What I like most about BROCKHAMPTON is that they kind of subvert the badass imagery and identity of hip hop and replace it with something that is a little more ironic and humble. Speaking of which…

Kendrick Lamar’s album ‘Damn’ was released in 2017, and in my opinion, it is probably the best album of the year. Just so good from start to finish, and Humble is one of the best songs on the record.

This newest outing from MGMT is a little bit darker than their previous stuff, and I really enjoy it. They continue to be the masters of evocative synth pop.

Fake Magic has a nice, chunky bassline and is perfect for singing in the car.

I’ve loved Run the Jewels since their first album in 2013. Their album ‘Run the Jewels 3’ is so good and kind of like with BROCKHAMPTON and Kendrick Lamar, it was hard to pick just the one song from the album to include in my top 10.

Say My Name is such a good pop song. Those Swedes have done it again.

Out of everything, though, Golden to Thrive is probably my favourite song of the year. Such a good hook, so good to sing to in the car, gets your head nodding. Love it.

What do you reckon? What were your top songs for the year, and what do you think I should have a listen of?

If you’re after more good music, I also made a Spotify playlist of my favourite songs of 2017 (click to open, may open Spotify), which is a much more extensive list than this top 10 and also includes musical goodness from other years.