Top 10 Tracks of July 2013.

10

Heartbeat Overdrive

Ballet School

"Heartbeat Overdrive", the debut single from Berlin new wavers Ballet School, is a triumphant and glorious track that sounds delirious and atmospheric enough to please shoegazers and funky and danceable enough to please synthpoppers. 

9

Airglow Fires

Lone

Lone brings his gorgeous slightly wonky ethereal sound to the house playground, and judging by it's swanky beats and sleek 90s chords, it's an area he was born to play in.

8
Martial Law
Venkman

The debut single by Midlands newcomers Venkman, "Martial Law", mixes jittery guitars and a fiddly rhythm section with the playful yet disarming dual vocal of band mastermind James Sutton and lead vocalist Kate McQuaide. Yet despite the chaos, the track restrains itself just enough to carry a masterful pop melody and a gorgeous tapestry of vocal and guitar-peggios at its climax.

7
Sinners
Lauren Aquilina

18 year old UK singer/songwriter Lauren Aquilina has a charm that more cryptic and pretentious songwriters could never hope to exhude. On latest single "Sinners", Lauren is lyrically very raw and sometimes charmingly clumsy - "let's be sinners to be saints" - but her earnest, youthful voice makes every awkward rhyming pair sound feasible and even as poignant as intended.

6
Thinking Of You
The Night VI

Melancholic and majestic indie lament from UK's The Night VI. Lying somewhere between the hooks of Haim and the sophisticated post rock tapestries of London Grammar, "Thinking Of You"'s heartbreaking yet incidental refrain "I lay low in my hotel room, thinking of you" is one that's hard to shift from your brain once you've had your heart broken by it.

5
I'll Be Around
Empire Of The Sun

Returning with a lush sophomore album, Empire Of The Sun nearly reach the peak of "Walking On A Dream" for a second time with the ethereal, Balearic "I'll Be Around". Slide guitars swoon and beats humbly shuffle in the background, as Luke Steele conversationally assures "I've made up my mind, I will be around for a while". As long as we get at least one song as gorgeous as this per album, let's hope he's true to his word.

4
Global Concepts
Robert Delong

The bubbly verses of Robert Delong's latest single "Global Concepts" seem relatively tame and full of self doubting questions, but when DeLong vows to "make you fucking dance" all hell breaks loose. An obnoxiously loud Moombahton synth lead squirms like an earthworm on the pavement, and a raw, tribal drum beat pounds until it causes cracks to form.

3
Sober
Elli Ingram

Elli Ingram would seem to tick a suspicious amount of boxes - the seductive brassy vocal stylings of Delilah, the ultra-cool sophistighetto demenour of Lana, and the honest and gritty lyrical flair of Adele - but still manages to come out on top with her own distinct identity. "Sober", and indeed the entire EP that this titular track leads, is light and casually soulful on the surface, with some charming brass licks here and there, but is undercut with dark subby bass and hip hop beats. Expect to hear much more from her in the coming 12 months.

2
Strong
London Grammar

On London Grammar's latest masterpiece (5 and counting) "Strong", singer Hannah Reid's voice carries the track much in the way that it carried the impossibly but blissfully sparse "Hey Now". Whilst "Hey Now" sounded like a distant cry for help, "Strong" picks up where that track left off - yearning and desperate - but is much more confident. "I might seem so strong, I might speak so long, I've never been so wrong" laments Reid, and we feel bit by bit, her and her band are gradually letting us into the flaws in their cautious but perfect world.

1
Wake Me Up
Avicii

If you were searching for this year's definitive dance anthem, you could do a lot worse than to stop your search here. Dropping the huge slamming chords in favour of happy-go-lucky strumming and deliriously cheery country melodies, "Wake Me Up" is where EDM meets Country, and the risk couldn't have paid off more perfectly. Aloe Blacc's voice is totally reinvented as a tool of country crooning, for which it couldn't be more suited.

GivePopAChance's Summer 2013 Playlist.

So the year's first perfect sunny weekend bids a hopeful farewell to a miserable 7 month winter, and as May approaches, festival season begins to rear its defiant head. Visions of cider drenched, Diplo-worshipping, scantily clad music lovers passing out in fields, outside clubs and on stony beaches seem so much closer.

It seems like the perfect time to share a dance-heavy Summer playlist of sure fire hits and lesser known, but equally deserved ones, that you can expect to be on heavy rotation throughout the summer. If GivePopAChance had its own radio station, you would indeed expect these tracks to be A-listed until October.



The return of Daft Punk is perfectly timed, and sets the tone worldwide for a summer of chilling out, partying and getting lucky. In the UK, Duke Dumont led the 2012/13 House revival to the the top of the charts a couple of weeks ago, and Basement Jaxx's crazy comeback tune is a defiant "anything goes" statement.

If anything really does go this year in dance music, hopefully DJ Snake's bizarre tweet-trap (quite literally) number "Bird Machine" will make its way to your confused but welcoming ears, and if that's too way out, Major Lazer is bringing Jamaica back through the medium of crushing dancehall beats and hyperactive synths.

Watch out for Moon Boots, whose soulful, irresistibly funky 80s take on the new wave of House music has sported two of the years most effective, sun-kissed remixes. They morph Singer/songwriter Alison Valentine's "Peanut Butter" into something altogether more blissful and euphoric, and their take on Bondax's "Gold" drags the track back to 1991, where it clearly belongs. Miaoux Miaoux's glorious, synth-laden take on CHVRCHES' "The Mother We Share" occupies similar airspace, so bright and grin-inducing it's almost impossible to look directly at.

After the huge,anthemic electronic dance of Swedish House Mafia and Madeon dominated dancefloors and dance festivals last year, 2013 has its fair share of big dance tunes. After his godly, life-affirming "Language", Porter Robinson teams up with Mat Zo, to bring something just as breathtaking for 2013, in the form of "Easy", Kat Krazy comes down hard on Bastille's hit indie single "Pompeii", transforming it into this year's "Don't You Worry Child", and Russ Chimes' stunning "Turn Me Out" is fist pumping, Balearic heaven.

Also queued up is the D&B anthem of the summer, Drumsound & Bassline Smith's "One in A Million", the dark Gold Panda-produced electro of goth-flecked starlet Charli XCX's "You (Ha Ha Ha)", the similarly quirky and groove-laden vibes of Flume's "Sleepless", the drunken, woozy beats of the UK hip hop tune of the summer, Dream McLean's "Sloe Gin" and perhaps the sunniest of them all, Mausi's carefree piano house ditty "Move", graduating straight from the 2003 school of blissed-out house.

Whatever the weather, dance music in 2013 seems to have one defiant goal, to have fun, not take itself too seriously, and to party harder than ever. And judging by the gradual lean towards dance music that the Top 40 is beginning to show, looks like we're all on the same page.

TOP 10 SONGS OF JANUARY 2013

10

"Move"

Mausi

A timelessly summery tune straight from the turn of the millennium, mainly thanks to an insanely uplifting, flailing synth lead. Remember Milky's "Just The Way You Are"? It's on par.

9

"No Problems"

Azealia Banks

Whilst Angel Haze's diss to Banks was kind of self-indulgent and overlong, we should be thankful she stirred the pot, because just desserts for Haze are served in the form of "No Problems", in which a rabid hip hop beat courtesy of Machinedrum serves as a platform for Banks at her calmest and most threatening at the same time.

8

"Deathwish"

Bebe Black

The La Roux-esque voice of Benga's "Icon" comes into her own with her debut single. First appearing on the free "Black Lion Sessions" EP last year, the organic and yearning songcraft "Deathwish" is so wonderfully performed by Black that it's hard to imagine it performed by any other singer, no mean feat for an artist's debut single.

7

"Turn Me Out"

Russ Chimes

Euphoric and life-affirming house in the vein of Tensnake, "Coma Cat" for 2013 if you will, this will serve as a highlight for many a summer festival.

6

"You (Ha Ha Ha)"

Charli XCX

GivePopAChance said...

"Taking on a quirky yet more-ish Gold Panda beat, Charli XCX does very little over the top, but it ends up working perfectly... further proof that she is London's answer to Lana Del Rey."

5

"No Strings"

Chloe Howl

GivePopAChance said...

"The warm and fuzzy indie-synthpop of "No Strings" mimics the bassline from "Pumped Up Kicks" but brings it to a teenage house party, where she tells of a typical 17 year old's battle between lust and love."

4

"Life Size Ghosts (Catching Flies Remix)"

Mt Wolf

GivePopAChance said...

"Catching Flies' take of the track brings the track into darker territory, without sacrificing any of Mt Wolf's cloud-gazing magic."

3

"Can't Handle The Truth"

JoJo

JoJo is fast becoming the female Drake, her latest mixtape being an honest, experimental, catagorically-relaxed half hour, ending in this gorgeous and frank ditty to infidelity from the point of view of the cheater. Just as gorgeous as her cover/response to "Marvin's Room".

2

"In My Arms"

Fryars

GivePopAChange said... 

"The main hook of "In My Arms" jumps playfully into the air with Garratt's gentle falsetto, as a piano hook lumbers humbly in the background, with barely-awake house flair."

1

"Hey Now"

London Grammar

GivePopAChance said...

"London newbies London Grammar bring the year's first classic song, a song thats poignancy and beauty is timeless."