Choose your tracks of the year and get your playlist made into a radio show!
TeamRock has teamed up with EMP for the 12 Playlists of Xmas. Over the next few days we’ll be posting Xmas/End of Year playlists – and asking you to submit your playlists. The best 12 will be played once a day in the build up to Xmas and win a TeamRock+ subscription. The details for how to enter are at the bottom of this post.
Our second playlist is another roundup of the year’s hottest tracks - 2015’s best as chosen by TeamRock Radio presenters and staff members.
Here are their selections – tell us yours. Send us your top 12 tracks of 2015 here.
We Can Do What We Want
Drenge
Chosen by Moose, Breakfast Presenter/Head of Radio
“I found Drenge through the power of words. I thought any song called ‘Necromance Is Dead’ is at least worthy of a click. My initial impression – that they sounded like the White Stripes prison raping the Stray Cats – is long gone. We Can Do What We Want stumps my desperation to pigeon-hole everything in a relatable way. The music and lyrics have an air of cocksure wanker I admire and despise. They sound much bigger than they actually are and I like that.”
I Am The Virus
Killing Joke
Chosen by Alexander Milas, Presenter of the Metal Hammer Magazine Show, Editor In Chief of Metal Hammer
“36 years after their debut Killing Joke remain the most ferocious band in our world - heavy, timely, and fucking brilliant.“
First Regret/3 Years Older
Steven Wilson
Chosen by Philip Wilding, Presenter of The Prog Magazine Show, Producer of the Metal Hammer Magazine Show
“The opening double punch from Steven Wilson’s most rounded (and well received) solo record sums up the musical and emotional tsunami that’s about to rise up and wash you away. Part ambient, part prog, it doffs its cap to Rush, and Pink Floyd (and has overture like aspirations) before it breaks down to pull back the curtain on Wilson’s plaintive tale of heartbreak. It’s gets a lot done, even in its allotted twelve minutes or so.”
Sweet Disorder
Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires
Chosen by Nicky Horne, Presenter of The Classic Rock Magazine Show
“A glorious joyful track that has the nonchalance of The Stones and the swagger of The Faces - plus the politics of The Clash. This Alabama band are not yer average southern rock band - this lot have a strong social conscience too. This is all about disrupting systems that have fallen short: government criminal justice, the church… Fucking love it!”
Drown
Bring Me The Horizon
Chosen by JRock – Breakfast Presenter
“I’ve not once claimed to be a Bring Me The Horizon-ologist, and if I’m honest, I’ve never been a fan of their earlier heavy stuff either, but almost every song on the band’s new record is, in Pete Bailey’s words, ‘a banger’. If you want stadium-filling, feel good anthemic rock then look no further. Drown has been the standout record of 2015 for me. I couldn’t name you a song I’ve had stuck in my head more, and having heard it seven hundred and fifty six times on the radio, I’m still not bored of it. Surely the sign of a keeper.”
Counterfeit Sky
Failure
Chosen by Stephen Hill, Presenter
“Form is temporary, class is permanent. But there’s no way you could have predicted that a cult oddity from the grunge era could reform nigh on fifteen after splitting and make the best record of 2015. Although most bands aren’t Failure. Counterfeit Sky is menacing, disturbing, beautiful, shimmering, resolutely single minded and just as plain out of step as Failure have ever been. The jewel in the crown of comeback album The Heart Is A Monster. Never take them for granted again.”
Can’t Sleep
Gary Clark Jr
Chosen by Clare Neal, Producer of the Classic Rock Magazine Show
“Ok, so it’s not typically classic rock, but it’s funky as fuck and from one of the best albums of 2015 (in my humble opinion) - The Story of Sonny Boy Slim. Can’t Sleep has an unmistakable Prince-like swagger about it that oozes cool. But Gary Clark Jr is not just imitating here, he has his own unique groove and he executes that groove magnificently here…”
I Want Out
Young Guns
Chosen by Tom Hillman, TeamRock Social Media Manager
“Whilst not as heavy as Young Guns’ previous work, I Want Out is a pure anthem; everything from the gang vocals to a bridge that slowly builds until it crescendos into a swooping chorus. It’s a song that’s been in and out of my head all year and compels me like no other to keep hitting the repeat button, again and again…”
Throne
Bring Me The Horizon
Chosen by Miss Rach, Midday Presenter
“This track was inescapable over the summer, with even the Rugby World Cup using it for their footage! There was such an immense amount of anticipation for the follow up to 2013’s Sempiternal, and they didn’t disappoint. Stadium filling choruses, disillusioned lyrics, powerful hooks and melodies… The band are evolving, but heading in a direction that could see them become future festival headliners.”
Can’t Kick Up The Roots
Neck Deep
Chosen by Pete Bailey, Music Editor, Presenter & Producer
“If there was anything the dark, dank, gloomy landscape of the UK needed it was definitely an injection of uplifting pop punk from Wrexham’s Neck Deep. Taken from the album Life’s Not Out To Get You the track is the perfect soundtrack to the summer and flips the idea that every band hates their hometown on its head with its positive message of being proud of where you are from.”
Fairly Local
Twenty One Pilots
Chosen by Sophie K, Presenter
“When Twenty One Pilots released their album Blurryface it was clear they were set to take over. Don’t forget you heard it here first.”
TeamRock Radio, in association with EMP, want to turn your playlists into radio shows. What are YOUR tracks of the year? Tell us by entering your top 12 tracks of 2015 here for a chance of winning TeamRock+ membership.
Sign up for the EMP catalogue here.
