Previously on Adam Riff™:
Our favourite songs. One per year.
Time to update it.
Side A (curated by Jon)
1. Radiohead – "The National Anthem" [2000]
2. Finch – "What It Is to Burn (Demo)" [2001]
3. Spoon – "Stay Don't Go" [2002]
4. The Mars Volta – "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt"
5. Ratatat – "Seventeen Years"
6. The Mountain Goats – "This Year"
7. DragonForce – "Through the Fire and Flames"
8. Frank Turner – "The Real Damage"
9. The Wonder Years – "You're Not Salinger. Get Over It."
10. So Many Dynamos – "New Bones"
11. Jamie Lidell – "Your Sweet Boom"
12. M83 – "Midnight City"
13. Jai Paul – "Jasmine (Demo)"
14. CHVRCHES – "The Mother We Share"
15. CFO$ – "Worlds Apart"
16. Oneohtrix Point Never – "No Good" [2015]
17. Kanye West – "Ultralight Beam" [2016]
18. GoldLink – "Crew (feat. Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy)" [2017]
Jon: "Crew" is so good that its radio edit is longer than the original. This song is what I imagine mixing uppers and downers sounds like.
I kinda want to change track 7 [2006] to My Chemical Romance – "Welcome to the Black Parade." The second half of "Through the Fire and Flames," though…
And perhaps track 8 [2007] should be Against Me! – "Thrash Unreal." [grumbling]
Side B (curated by Ben)
1. Outkast – "B.O.B." [2000]
2. Gob – "I Hear You Calling" [2001]
3. Justin Timberlake – "Cry Me a River" [2002]
4. The White Stripes – "Seven Nation Army"
5. Franz Ferdinand – "Take Me Out"
6. R. Kelly – "Trapped in the Closet"
7. TV on the Radio – "Wolf Like Me"
8. UGK – "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) [feat. Outkast]"
9. MGMT – "Time to Pretend"
10. Passion Pit – "The Reeling"
11. LCD Soundsystem – "Dance Yrself Clean"
12. M83 – "Midnight City"
13. Bruno Mars – "Locked Out of Heaven"
14. Daft Punk – "Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams)"
15. Duke Dumont – "I Got You (feat. Jax Jones)"
16. Major Lazer × DJ Snake – "Lean On (feat. MØ)" [2015]
17. G.L.O.S.S. – "Give Violence a Chance" [2016]
18. Kendrick Lamar – "DNA." [2017]
Ben: I distinctly remember Kenny's album dropping at midnight and knowing I had to wait two hours to hear it (I was DJing). When I heard the opening of "DNA." blasting out of my car speakers, I nearly crashed out of excitement. No part of any song last year gave me the chills that you get from the tempo change about 1:50 into the song.
New for 2018:
Bonus Disc (curated by Adam Robot)
1. Snapcase – "Typecast Modulator" [2000]
2. Rival Schools – "Travel by Telephone" [2001]
3. City of Caterpillar – "And You're Wondering How a Top Floor Could Replace Heaven" [2002]
4. Every Time I Die – "Ebolarama"
5. Codeseven – "All the Best Dreams"
6. Comeback Kid – "Wake the Dead"
7. Jesu – "Silver"
8. Rob Crow – "Up"
9. Russian Circles – "Campaign"
10. Coalesce – "Wild Ox Moan"
11. Deftones – "Rocket Skates"
12. Touché Amoré – "Home Away from Here"
13. Torche – "Kicking"
14. Coliseum – "Fuzzbang"
15. Violent Soho – "Covered in Chrome"
16. Baroness – "Chlorine and Wine" [2015]
17. Joyce Manor – "Last You Heard of Me" [2016]
18. Charly Bliss – "Westermarck" [2017]
Adam Robot: "Westermarck" is a twee power-pop song with lead singer Eva Hendricks sounding like she's about to shrink through the entire track. There's nothing complicated going on, it's an earworm with borderline nonsense lyrics that's hooky as hell, and it helped me forget 2017 was a living nightmare.