Decade songs - 60 to 51

The last part of the first half! Featuring last decade's number one artist, singers from Norway and Greece, and the same person appearing twice in three songs.

60. MØ - Final Song
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:55
UK release date: 13th May 2016
UK chart position: 14
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 21
Gigs this decade: 2

Oh look, another Scandinavian! Despite two sets at The Great Escape festival earlier in the decade, I didn't really click with Mo until another Norwegian artist (who we will meet later) had a pre-show playlist comprised of Norway's best and brightest, which sent me scurrying to make a Scandi-pop playlist and rediscovering this gem, which had cropped up on several algorithmic Spotify lists without me realising. 

59. Rilo Kiley - Let Me Back In
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:23
UK release date: 2nd April 2013
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: 1
Listens as at 8th October: 23
Gigs this decade: 0

Also known as "I Love LA" to the purists. A bit of a fall for last decade's number one artist, but it's tricky to keep up that level when you spend the entirety of the 2010s on hiatus broken up, and the only thing you release is a collection of B-sides and remixes. This song had been performed live a few times when the band were still together, and was retitled and used as the lead single to the compilation. It's a lovely song, and the second best ode to Los Angeles on this chart!

58. Troye Sivian ft. Ariana Grande - Dance To This
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:51
UK release date: 13th June 2018
UK chart position: 64
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 22
Gigs this decade: 0

Speaking of songs that are just utterly lovely...This is another one I came about due to the Spotify algorithm thrusting songs it thinks I'd like onto my Daily Mix playlists. It's a song that brings warm feelings of a long-term couple, having a cosy afternoon together on the couch, happy just to be in each other's company. It's an unexplored aspect of relationships that doesn't get covered much in songs, which is not detrimental to the song at all. Every time I listen to the song it makes me feel happy.

57. Iron Maiden - Empire Of The Clouds
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 18:01 
UK release date: 16th April 2016
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 5
Gigs this decade: 0

Fun bit of trivia for you - this is the longest song in the top 100! Came about this completely by chance, listening to Planet Rock while washing up of a morning, and the DJ gave this track a bit of promotion before an exclusive first play, detailing the facts behind the event that the song is written about. Everyone knows about the Hindenburg airship (which itself has a rock pedigree, as the infamous image of the airship crashing was used as the cover of the album Led Zeppelin) but very few people are aware of the maiden flight of the British airship R101 and the tragedy that occurred. The wikipedia link in the previous sentence can shed more light on what happened, but if you prefer to read with your ears and like your tales accompanied by piano-led metal, give this a listen. 

56. Gabrielle Aplin - Miss You
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:17
UK release date: 9th November 2016
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 6
Gigs this decade: 5

It's been quite a good few years for Ms Aplin. Shooting to fame with a number one in the lead up to Christmas 2012 after covering The Power Of Love (the Frankie Goes To Hollywood one, not the Jennifer Rush one or the Huey Lewis & The News one) for a popular department store's annual ode to capitalism. Since then she's found a comfortable niche for herself - one of the few artists on here that I genuinely feel is producing and releasing the music that she wants, rather than at the label's behest. This track was initially overlooked by me in my longlist in favour of three others, before regular listens made me slap my forehead at what a doofus I was being to miss this out. It's about another part of a relationship, where you're playing it cool and trying not to let the other person know how lost you are without them - until they admit it first.

(Also try: Panic Cord; Light Up The Dark; Sweet Nothing)

55. Rolo Tomassi - Cosmology
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 7:43
UK release date: 24th May 2010
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: 59
Listens as at 8th October: 66
Gigs this decade: 6

Big, epic sounding, album- or set-closing tracks are my kryptonite. I find that Rolo Tomassi blow hot and cold with me, sometimes I don't click with the screamo parts of their math-rock sound, but when it's good it's really, really good. This track just builds, layering on elements, pouncing and receding until the three minute climax hits you.

54. Sainte - Technicolour
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:31
UK release date: 11th October 2016
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 22
Gigs this decade: 1

It's difficult to write this up, because Sainte are 60% of the band We Are The In Crowd, just poppier, and chronologically later - but the WATIC piece will appear after this one. Hmm. I'll just go with it.

...but thankfully that curse doesn't apply to the two members of We Are The In Crowd who aren't in Sainte! In fact, when we saw the band live at their first ever gig in 2016, we ended up having a nice chat with Tay about Orphan Black. This is definitely a poppier sound than WATIC, and far more colourful, but also a well I've returned to many times since release.

53. Marina & The Diamonds - Bubblegum Bitch
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 2:34
UK release date: 27th April 2012
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 34
Gigs this decade: 1

I'm all for a strong opener to an album, and this track's a Statement in itself. The opening song on Marina's second album, it lays down a marker, stating "I'm improving on The Family Jewels". The song itself is two and a half minutes of strong femininity over a crunching guitar riff, each individual part of the track leap-frogging over the rest to reach the end first. It's feminism without compromise, and when I finally got to see Marina live this year, I was utterly impressed!

52. We Are The In Crowd - Attention
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:22
UK release date: 20th August 2018
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 63
Gigs this decade: 4

We Are The In Crowd are a band who I've loved pretty much since I've heard them. Frontwoman Tay Jardine's similar taste in TV shows to me has certainly helped, but after the Paramore comparisons (comparamore?) of their first album, the second had a harder edge to it and this lead single garnered everybody's attention. Unfortunately I've had bad luck with their live shows, missing three due to the untimely deaths of both grandfathers and also to a flat eviction. I'm beginning to think that they might be cursed...

51. Timbaland ft. Katy Perry - If We Ever Meet Again
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:52
UK release date: 18th January 2010 
UK chart position: 3
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 50
Gigs this decade: 0

Hey look, it's the oldest song on the list! The start of this decade coincided with the start of Katy Perry's Imperial Phase. After the success of One Of The Boys marked her out as a star on the rise, she had a few "featuring on..." credits to keep her in people's minds before the second album. The first one, Starstrukk (a collaboration with 3Oh!3) achieved mild success, as did this, but this is included for more personal reasons as it soundtracked the early start of the relationship with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.

That's my wife Dana, not Katy Perry.

Next time...the first (but probably not the last) ten song segment comprising of all female vocalists, the only song from a musical (and not the one you're thinking of), a Grammy award winner and the Princess of Pop...