12. December 2013
Alle Royale’s Top Singles 2013 (NSFW)
By Alle Royale
No doubt about it, I’m an LP guy. I’ve always found boring to turn the sides of those damned 7 inches every three minutes or so, and I prefer an album as a whole: a complete artistic expression of a band in a precise era.
Anyway, back in the days, singles have always been cool messengers of things to come, at least until all got corporate, and promoting songs became like selling gadgets: everybody had to have some of the same. Internet could be seen as the end of the game by many artists who feel defrauded, but somehow it saved the music, and their ass, from the programmed decline of MTV and the ostracism of corporate powers that want us all like inanimate, soulless pawns. New social platforms like YouTube gave a renewed and enormous visibility to the video format, and suddenly everybody started making videos and singles again.
Here we are then, with the best year for singles since…at least the 1988-1990 period, and the songs that blasted my stereo speakers most in these months are varied and irresistible.
- Lets’ change mood and try some Tom Keifer and his delicious “ The Flower Song”, one of the most uplifting songs since the classic standard “Sunny”; with an helping hand from Jim Peterick, ex Survivor, Tom serves us a strummed, catchy and simple melody to hum along all day long.
- All the way from
- Obviously, no 2013 poll is a real poll without our favourite Swedes, The Hellsingland Undergound; their audacious, almost six minutes long, “Lost River Band” single conjures all the best elements of the seventies with that juicy modern twist that make us feel like cool “yeah” dudes and not nerds living in the past: guitars that rock with technical proficiency, inspired lyrics, fat and concise arrangements…and a taste for melody that will hook you forevermore.
- A galloping anthem of epic proportions and, hands down, the best single I’ve heard in ages, it‘s “Writing On The Wall” by Sweden hard rockers Horisont. Sure, the eye catching video is a fascinating plus, but the song is so simply (apparently) and perfectly crafted that you cannot help but surrender to the rock genius of this young five piece.