My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #4

#4 “Jungle (Remix)” by Jamie N Commons and the X-Ambassadors (feat. Jay-Z)

Released: 26/12/13 (original) 15/6/14 (remix)

Album: VHS (original, X-Ambassadors album)

I accidentally classed this as a 2013 track but it’s actually 2014 if we’re talking about the remix. It doesn’t really matter either way.

 

Jamie N Commons is a terribly underrated artist, I think I’ve said this a few times now. He’s the guy that sings the chorus in this massive blockbuster summer hit of 2014. He’s done some other awesome songs too, and you may remember him on this earlier at #29 with “Karma”.

 

Jay-Z really bring the whole song together with his awesome rap, before Jay-Z helped out with the remix the song was great but not spectacular. This song is still used on adverts even now more than two years later because of how good it is and how pumped it can make you feel, especially in sports. I listened to this song so many times in 2014 and still play it today, it’s just so much fun to listen to, and of course, it helps that my son loves singing it too!

Here's the video if you want to hear it!

If you missed #5 go here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #29

#29. "Karma" – Jamie N Commons

Released: 5/12/14

Album: None

I may have said this before but I’ll say it again – goddammit Jamie N make an album! Enough of these EPs, I want a full length album that you can focus 10-12 high quality tracks towards and produce a piece of brilliance that will get everyone talking and expand your reputation as an excellent songwriter and musician!

You may or may not be familiar with Jamie N Commons, you may have heard that “Jungle” song a few years back, especially the remix of it featuring Jay-Z. It was a collaboration between Jamie N Commons and the X-Ambassadors. It’s the most famous song really Jamie N Commons has done but he’s also done some fantastic tracks over the years. In my eyes he’s far better than, say, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and George Ezra, similar artists in the genre. And “Karma” really is a strong track to get into, if you’re not familiar with him. His voice is just gold here and the song itself is quite strong musically so it’s a good combination; a lot of his songs concentrate more on his great vocals so may put off certain people who like a bit of bang to go in the background with these type of singers. I don’t know what to say other than – listen to this man if you haven’t before, you may be missing out on a new favourite singer songwriter!

Here's the video if you want to hear it!

If you missed #30 go here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #88

#88. “Sing" – Ed Sheeran

Released: 7/4/14

Album: x

When it comes to the modern day folky poppy solo male singers Ed Sheeran is one of the best. They're not really my thing generally, I don't like James Bay and I can't stand Sam Smith, but in fairness, Ed Sheeran is pretty good. For a genre I don't like I can't help but appreciate some of Ed's stuff. "Sing" is by far my favourite of his songs. It's incredibly catchy, and, clearly, heavily inspired by Justin Timberlake. I once read somewhere another journalist say that with "Sing", Ed does Timberlake better than Timberlake does. Which is some compliment. With the help from Pharrell Williams (again!), Ed Sheeran has created one of the best pop songs of this decade. It'll be remembered for years to come. And it's a cracking tune in fairness.

Speaking of the folky poppy solo male singers, check out Jamie N Commons. He's fantastic. Yes he'll be featured on this list at some point or another.

Here's the song if you want to hear it!

If you missed #89 go here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

The Mercyside 100: 2015 Edition

The Mercyside 100: 2015 Edition

Happy New Year people. For the last three years I've been calculating all my play counts on my personal media player, to see what songs I listen to the most. And then at the start of the next year I reveal what the 100 most listened to songs were that year. Last year I revealed The Mercyside 100 2014 and before that I did The Mercyside 100 2013, click on those if you're interested in what I played most on those years.

This year I did The Mercyside 100 2015. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do DJ shows of these songs. One of the reasons why is because I'm having problems with my computer at the moment, sound wise. The main reason however, without revealing too much, is because there's a lot of entries in this list by a certain band called Slaves. Slaves are by far my favourite band at the moment and unfortunately, Mixcloud won't allow you to play more than three songs by one artist in the same show. And that means it's difficult, because, well, they appear a lot.

I was going to make this into a playlist on YouTube but I can't do that either, because certain songs are not on YouTube which is frustrating.

So, in reverse order, here are is The Mercyside 100 2015! These are 100 songs I played more than anything else last year.

So, what was the most played song of the year for me? Here it is...

#1: The Hunter - Slaves ("Are You Satisfied?", 2014)

Slaves - The Hunter from Youth Hymns on Vimeo.

So there we go! I hope you find some interesting entries in here, and if so, check them out on Youtube if you can, most of the songs are easily available on there. And if you don't like the band Slaves then this list clearly isn't for you! If there's something on this list you've not heard before and you end up really liking, let me know, comment below! I'd be happy to have gotten you into a song or an artist you've not heard before!

"Green text"
If you don't listen to The Mercy Side, my radio shows which you can find on Mixcloud, then you may not know that I reveal every month what was my "Song of the Month". Basically, those tracks where played more than any other track, on a particular month of 2015. Here's the list in order, with Youtube links attached:

January 2015: The Hunter - Slaves
February 2015: House of Pain - Hot Action Cop
March 2015: Feed the Mantaray - Slaves
April 2015: Rise - David Guetta (feat. Skylar Grey)
May 2015: Take It - King 810
June 2015: Do Something - Slaves
July 2015: Blame it on the Boom Boom - Black Stone Cherry
August 2015: Superhero - Faith No More
September 2015: Reapers - Muse
October 2015: Waiting - Green Day
November 2015: Complexity - Eagles of Death Metal
December 2015: The Hunter - Slaves

If it confuses you why I added "Waiting" by Green Day at the start of my Top 100 reveal despite it not actually being one of the 100 most played songs last year, hopefully it makes more sense now - it was "Song of the Month" for October.

Multiple Artist Entries

Here's a list of artists with more than one entry in The Mercyside 100 2015:

12 Entries - Slaves
8 Entries - King 810
4 Entries - Foo Fighters, Royal Blood
3 Entries - Arctic Monkeys, The Beards, Eagles of Death Metal, Jamie N Commons, Kasabian, The Prodigy, The Queens of the Stone Age, Slipknot
2 Entries - FFS, KoRn, Muse

Multiple Album Entries

Here's a list of albums with more than one entry in The Mercyside 100 2015:

9 Entries - "Are You Satisfied?" by Slaves
8 Entries - "Memoirs of a Murderer" by King 810
4 Entries - "Royal Blood" by Royal Blood
3 Entries - ".5: The Gray Chapter" by Slipknot; "48:13" by Kasabian; "AM" by Arctic Monkeys; "The Beard Album" by The Beards
2 Entries - "…Like Clockwork" by The Queens of the Stone Age; "Drones" by Muse; "FFS" by FFS; "Sugar Coated Bitter Truth" by Slaves; "The Day is My Enemy" by The Prodigy

Here's some charts showing you how often songs appeared by the year, or decade...

Also, if you're interested, 46 songs on this list were not singles, which means that 54 of them were!

So I'm listening to less "older" music now than I have been in the previous two years doing this list. That's 80% by the way, from the last half decade.

Also, considering I haven't mentioned them once yet, I have to honour King 810, another one of my new favourite bands. Seriously, check them out, they're the best new metal band out there, in my opinion. Think Slipknot meshed with KoRn, which is no coincidence, because that's how I discovered them, by seeing both Slipknot and KoRn last year! Great band, checkem out!!

Well that's it from me at the moment, I'll be back very soon with another website project! All the best and thanks for reading!

For the latest updates on my work, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!