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 first playlist is The Songs of the Year - 12 different songs from 2015 chosen by different TeamRock staff members.
Was 2015 a good year for The Rock or a load of old mimsy? We’ll leave that for future rock historians to discuss. In the meantime, we asked the people at the BLEEDING EDGE, the dudes and dudesses chipping away at the rock coalface, playing Hook-A-Duck at the great prog carnival, sniffing out morsels like seagulls on the shit-tip of metal, panning for gold at the blues rock frontier [Ok, get on with it - Ed.] what song they most loved from this year. Here are their answers – tell us yours. Send us your top 12 tracks of 2015 here.
Small Town Dreams
Northcote
Chosen by Sian Llewellyn, Editor, Classic Rock
“Catnip to those lamenting the current silence of The Gaslight Anthem (ie, me), Canada’s Northcote tapped into that blue-collar, son-of Springsteen vibe with this age-old tale of longing for escape - the titular ‘small town dreams of big city lives’ all wrapped around an utterly monster chorus and simple guitar refrain. One listen at a time isn’t enough for me - the play count on my iPod testifying to how relentlessly addictive it is. It’s fist-in-the-air, windows-down triumphant, catchy as hell and, frankly, bloody brilliant.”
Brainwashed
While She Sleeps
Chosen by Merlin Alderslade, Deputy Editor, Metal Hammer
“The UK’s finest showed yet again why they are leagues ahead of their peers this year with the diverse and dynamic Brainwashed. The breakdown on this, the album’s crushing title track, is as good as it gets.”
Routine
Steven Wilson
Chosen by Jerry Ewing, Editor, Prog
“The mournful tale of a woman coping with the grief of losing husband and son in a school shooting forms a quite sensational centre point too Wilson’s latest album, easily progressive music’s album of the year in 2015. Performed live at the Royal Albert Hall with Isreali singer Ninet Tayeb, who duets on the album, and backed with Jess Cope’s stark stop-motion visuals, it’s the perfect riposte to those who claim prog is not emotional music.”
Devil’s Hand
Shemekia Copeland
Chosen by Ed Mitchell, Editor, The Blues Magazine
“The daughter of late blues guitar genius Johnny Copeland pays tribute to her old man with this smouldering take on one of his classics. A standout track on Outskirts To Love, the blues album of the year.”
Motherfucker
Faith No More
Chosen by Dave Everley, Deputy Editor, Classic Rock
“No one expected Sol Invicutus, the San Francisco art-rock pranksters’ first album in eighteen years, to be as good as it was. And it was never better than this potty-mouthed highlight. Brooding, profane and funny - everything you want from Faith No More.”
Roll The Balls
Giuda
Chosen by Geoff Barton, Editor At Large, Classic Rock
“If retro-sounding rock’n’roll and junk-shop glam are your bags, then look no further than this song from bovver-booted Italians Giuda. The opening track of their latest album Speaks Evil, it’s like the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s never happened. Rather, it’s forever 1973 in Giuda land – even their tourbus is a biege Austin Allegro with a square steering wheel.”
X-Ray Visions
Clutch
Chosen by Polly Glass, Assistant Features Editor, Classic Rock
“What’s not to like? A tight, propulsive tone-setter for the Maryland hard-rockers new record (Psychic Warfare), it’s completely furious and monstrously good fun. A joyful exercise in groovy brutality – metalhead, classic rocker or otherwise, you won’t struggle to like it.”
Strike It While It’s Still On My Nose
Down I Go
Chosen by Simon Young, Editor, TeamRock.com
“Taken from the album, You’re Lucky God, That I Cannot Reach You, this is perfect for awkward people who lead busy lives yet like to listen to a smörgåsbord of disparate genres all at once. Strike It While It’s Still On My Nose goes from gentle prog to juddering post-hardcore without sounding cack-handed. The whole album is a treat, but this particular song stands out like a crusty spot on a model’s face.”
Hole
Secrets Of The Moon
Chosen by Jon Selzer, Reviews Editor, Metal Hammer
“The past couple of years a number of bands drawn to the restless, haunted spirit of 80s post-punk and goth, but none of them have put their face as close to its fire or proved quite as transformative as Germany’s Secret Of The Moon. Pulled out of their former black metal orbit, their new album, Sun, was a journey through a shattered world and Hole was a rite of passage though dread to incendiary deliverance, forging heart-bursting brilliance from the darkest of matter.”
S.O.B.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Chosen by Henry Yates, Reviews Editor, The Blues Magazine
“A spring-heeled slice of contemporary soul, punching through the slurry like a sunbeam. If you don’t find your hips bucking involuntarily when that chorus hits, you must be dead from the waist down.”
Deep Six
Marilyn Manson
Chosen by Eleanor Goodman, Features Editor, Metal Hammer
“The God Of Fuck returned to fuck shit up in a bluesy, sleazy way. From throaty vocals to swaggering riffs, this was an awesome comeback.”
New Cold War
Killing Joke
Chosen by Ian Fortnam, Reviews Editor, Classic Rock
“What’s Killing Joke’s ultimate secret weapon? Jaz Coleman’s apocalyptic howl of hyper-driven accusatory rage? The rich orchestral clamour of Geordie Walker’s guitar? The fact that you feel the sub-sonics of Youth’s bass vibrating the soles of your feet even when you’re listening on headphones? On New Cold War it’s the crisp, impelling syncopation of Paul Ferguson’s drums that render all resistance futile. As Killing Joke reach into the depths of your psyche to force feed you your darkest dystopian fears, Big Paul mischievously compels you to dance in the ruins of what once was your future.”
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.
