Flaky

dumb blue jay lol

One Artist, One Favourite Song

Starting Notes

  • Applied to first artist, to prevent issues like featured artists.
  • The song here must be rated 9, or a full 10 out of 10.
    • ⭐ Star emoji = 10/10
  • Mostly one per artist, though if it warrants it an artist can have more than one (typically for two very distinct eras, cover vs. non-cover)
  • Country + year signifies an entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.
    • If you’re on Windows + a Chromium-based browser, get an extension that converts flag emoji because Windows doesn’t do them. Firefox and its forks actually fill this gap.
  • Links are from a site that allows free streaming.
  • Genres are based on the collective minds of Rate Your Music, or my best guess.

My Favourite Song

It’s hard to point a “favourite” for me, but if I had to pick one at the moment, it’d be How Not to Drown by CHVRCHES feat. Robert Smith. This was CHVRCHES’ pivotal moment, when they started to move to other genres after three albums worth of synthpop, in this case alt rock. It’s such a great “post-depression” breakdown song, when you’ve finally gotten out of the sea of depression and swam back to safe land, and you’re figuring out what the fuck is going on. I saw a comment on Reddit that the album it’s on was generally great for coping with the uncertainty of the coronavirus lockdowns in the early 2020s, and that tracks – I was heavily streaming Screen Violence, and this track, a lot back then. The snare on the track hits hard but doesn’t get in the way of the melody, and that atmospheric ending is amazing, and Robert and Lauren Mayberry’s vocals suit each other really well.

This seems to be the CHVRCHES song to play to unfamiliar people, if you’re a big CHVRCHES fan like I am. I’ve played this to family and to friends who don’t like CHVRCHES and they’ve enjoyed it. I also want to mention that if it was not for this song, I would not have given The Cure much attention, either.

List

0-9, #

A

  • Above & Beyond: ⭐ Thing Called Love – progressive trance; vocal trance
  • Adele: Set Fire to the Rain – pop; pop soul
  • aespa: ⭐ Spicy – electropop; k-pop
  • Afrojack: The Spark (feat. Spree Wilson) – dance-pop; festival progressive house
  • Against All Logic: You (Forever) – electroacoustic; glitch; post-industrial
  • Alvvays: ⭐ Party Police – indie pop; twee pop
  • Andrew Bayer: ⭐ Let Go – festival progressive house
  • Andrew Rayel: ⭐ There Are No Words (feat. Sylvia Tosun) – big room trance; vocal trance
  • ANNIE: ⭐ In Heaven – synthpop
  • Aphex Twin: ⭐ Heliosphan – ambient techno; IDM
  • Armin van Buuren: ⭐ Not Giving Up on Love (feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor) – progressive trance; vocal trance
  • Arovane: ⭐ Good Bye Forever – ambient
  • Ariana Grande: supernatural – contemporary R&B; synthpop
  • Art Garfunkel: ⭐ Bright Eyes – folk pop
    • Black Mirror episodes might be hit or miss, but god damn do they hit hard on the soundtracks (This was on Demon 76, season 6 episode 6). Charlie Brooker not only has good taste in music, but great execution, and I’m not ashamed to admit that Black Mirror has gotten me into music I think I would’ve shrugged at. Sometimes the context just makes it all the more precious.
  • ATTLAS: Parallel Lines – chillwave
  • Audio Bullys: The Snow – hip house
    • This is a good example of a 2000s track, I love it lol. Took me a bit to realise they’re the ones behind the remix of Bang Bang.
  • Aviators: This Is Not The End – alternative rock; pop rock
  • AZEDIA: Release – downtempo

B

  • B*Witched: To You I Belong – pop
  • Balam Acab: ⭐ Await – downtempo, with aquatic/chillstep elements
    • Wander/Wonder in general is a phenomenal album, I love listening to it at the beach at night. In some beaches it just feels like I’ve been transported to an entirely different planet. It was genuinely hard to pick one song from this album.
  • Baths: Earth Death – art pop; post-industrial
  • Belinda Carlisle: Heaven is a Place on Earth – pop rock
    • Even setting aside the general personal nostalgia of 80s Sounds, the use of this track on Black Mirror (San Junipero) was fucking perfect.
  • Benoît Pioulard: ⭐ Zenava – ambient; tape music
  • Betty Who: ⭐ Heartbreak Dream – dance-pop; synthpop
  • Bibio: ⭐ Curls – chamber folk; psychedelic folk
  • Bicep: ⭐ Saku (feat. Clara La San) – future garage; UK bass
  • Big Giant Circles: Sevcon – chiptune
    • Despite not listening to it at all before Just Shapes and Beats, it felt very nostalgic.
  • Billie Eilish: ⭐ everything i wanted – alt-pop
    • Content warning for mentions of suicide on the song. This song was one of the few that got me through the COVID lockdowns.
  • Bilmuri: ⭐ Brain Lock – easycore; post-hardcore
    • An intense yet still pop punk-ish track that perfectly encapsulate how it feels to have OCD.
  • Björk: ⭐ Hyper-Ballad – electronic; pop
  • Black Country, New Road: Opus – experimental rock; post-rock
  • Blind Channel: ⭐ Die Another Day (feat. R∅RY) – alternative rock
  • Blue Angels: Dislocation – ambient
  • Blue Stahli: Not Over Til We Say So (feat. Emma Anzai) – industrial metal
  • Bop: ⭐ Closer 2 U (with Subwave) – future garage
    • The production is like a warm, reassuring hug. IDK how else to explain it.
  • Boris Brejcha: Never Look Back – tech house, with progressive house influence
  • Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star – new wave; synthpop
  • Bvdub: ⭐ With Broken Wings and Giants Tall – ambient

C

  • Calvin Harris: ⭐ Drinking from the Bottle (feat. Tinie Tempah) – electro house; festival progressive house; hip house; pop rap
  • CAMELLIA: DENPA NEVER DIE (feat. Nanahira) – denpa; rawstyle
  • Carbon Based Lifeforms: Rymden3000 – dream pop; psybient
  • Carly Rae Jepsen: Party for One – electropop
  • CAZZETTE: Beam Me Up – electro house
  • Chaos Chaos: Do You Feel It? – alt-pop; indie pop
    • Rick & Morty is absolutely fucking cursed now and you should be watching something else instead lol, but I cannot deny it, the way they used this song was great. If anything good came out of Rick & Morty living long enough to be the villain, it’d be Chaos Chaos’ fame, no matter how big or small it was.
  • Charli XCX: ⭐ Gone (feat. Christine and the Queens) – dance-pop; electropop; synthpop
  • Claire Richards: ⭐ My Wildest Dreams – pop
  • Clark: ⭐ EmW – ambient; classical
    • Pleen 1930s came up on an IDM mix on Spotify while I was studying for university, and I checked out some of the other tracks on Clarence Park. EmW hit hard, especially since I was dealing with personal issues back then. Nowadays, it’s a nice track for when the snow’s coming down.
  • Chrome Sparks: Send the Pain On – chillwave; downtempo

D

E

  • Emma Blackery: ⭐ Icarus – alt-pop; synthpop
  • EtheReal Media™: Reception – broken transmission/signalwave

F

G

H

I

J

  • Janet Jackson: Rhythm Nation – dance-pop; new jack swing
    • Yes, I found this from the stories of the music video’s audio glitching hard drives. Yes, this goes hard. Imagine going so hard that you break computers in your vicinity.
  • Jason Ross: Chains (with RØRY) – electro house; festival progressive house
  • Jessica Folcker: To Be Able to Love – contemporary R&B; pop
    • Found Folcker through DDR tracklists and Dino had a lot of great tracks, but this one stuck out for me.
  • Joost: ⭐ United by Music (feat. Tommy Cash) – pop rap; satire; scouse house
    • Some people think this is them being edgy for the sake of being edgy, but I vehemently disagree. Overthinking It has a great video analysing this track, and one interpretation they point out is that the song is challenging black and white/oppositional thinking. “I wanna buy a Samsung in the Apple Store” has become a constant in-joke between me and a friend.
  • Justice: ⭐ DVNO – french house; hip house
  • Justin Bieber: ⭐ The Feeling (feat. Halsey) – contemporary R&B; electropop
    • Purpose was released at a pivotal time in my life, when I started university. Bieber had gotten a lot more respect around this time, for different reasons. This song just clicked for me, production-wise, and I played it a lot during my uni days. Bieber has since, uh, gone back to square one on the whole getting respect thing.

K

  • Käärijä: TRAFIK! (with Joost) – bouncy techno
  • Kacey Musgraves: ⭐ Happy & Sad – country pop
    • This is such a beautiful song dealing with the fear of being happy.
  • Kaleen: We Will Rave – dance-pop; euro trance; eurodance
    • 🇦🇹 Austria 2024
  • Kaskade: Angel on My Shoulder – electropop; progressive house
  • Kate Bush: ⭐ Deeper Understanding – art pop
    • The Sensual World is my favourite album from Kate Bush, and this is my favourite song from it. This song has stood the test of time really well with its subject matter (technology and mental health).
  • Kendrick Lamar: The Blacker the Berry – conscious hip hop; hardcore hip hop; political hip hop
  • Kesha: ⭐ Learn to Let Go – pop
  • Kiasmos: Flown – future garage; progressive breaks
  • Krewella: ⭐ Human – melodic dubstep
  • King Midas Sound: ⭐ On My Mind (with Fennesz) – ambient pop
  • Kylie Minogue: ⭐ Say Something – dance-pop; electro-disco; synthpop
    • Tom Scott said this reminded him of CHVRCHES and yeah, I can hear it. It’s like if they were influenced more by disco rather than Gothic rock in their Bones days.

L

  • Lily Allen: ⭐ LDN – sunshine pop; third wave ska
  • Lingua Ignota: ⭐ Holy is the Name (of My Ruthless Axe) – lied; neoclassical darkwave
    • Content warning: mentions of rape and murder. Such a soul-crushing song.
  • Lucho Ripley: ⭐ Ateísmo – ambient

M

  • Magdalena Bay: Chaeri – progressive house; synthpop
  • MALINDA: Figured Out – indie folk; singer-songwriter
  • Måneskin: TIMEZONE – pop rock
    • This song – or rather its collab music video with Beastars, led me to falling for Legoshi. There is a route from Eurovision fan to Legoshi simp and I hit that hard.
  • Marina Satti: LALALALA – balkan pop-folk; dembow; neoperreo
  • Mass of the Fermenting Dregs: ハイライト – emo; shimokita-kei
  • Mastodon: Show Yourself – alternative metal
  • Max Cooper: Swapped – tech house
    • Glitchy, groovy tech house that goes hard, enough said.
  • MC Boing: ⭐ Boing Beat – bubblegum bass; jumpstyle
    • Such a fun song. Gives me keygen music vibes, too. Also MC Boing is cute.
  • Moby: ⭐ Guitar Flute & String – chamber folk
  • Motion City Soundtrack: ⭐ Everything is Alright – emo-pop; pop punk; power pop
    • As someone with ADHD and symptoms of OCD, this song hits really hard.
  • µ-Ziq (mu-Ziq): ⭐ Hasty Boom Alert – drill and bass

N

O

P

  • Pale Waves: ⭐ She – ambient pop; synthpop
  • Paramore: ⭐ Rose-Colored Boy – alternative dance; new wave; pop rock
  • PassCode: ⭐ Ray – j-pop; trance metal
  • Pendulum: ⭐ Cartagena – dancefloor drum and bass with rock/metal influence
  • Pet Shop Boys: ⭐ Vocal – festival progressive house

Q

R

  • Rameses B: Orbit – ambient
  • Red Vox: ⭐ The Wrong Side of History – hard rock; post-grunge
  • Rina Sawayama: ⭐ Alterlife – dance-pop; electropop; pop rock
  • Rosa Walton: ⭐ I Really Want to Stay At Your House – electropop; synthpop
    • I went to see Let’s Eat Grandma as a support act for CHVRCHES the year before Cyberpunk 2077 was released, and was low-key hyped to see that Rosa did a song for them. Despite the turbulent development and glitched release, this is such a beautiful song. Glad the anime gave it new life.
  • RÜFÜS DU SOL: Eyes – melodic house; progressive house
    • Found this band from FUSER (Harmonix’s swansong before they became the Fortnite Festival developers), so that’s part of why I picked this one as my fave for Rufus.

S

  • Sabrepulse: ⭐ Close to Me – chiptune; complextro; french electro
    • The best song on Just Shapes and Beats. Amazingly executed in the context of the game’s simple story, the song exudes this desperate emotion that perfectly fits the level and its boss who is trying to break free from the corruption it was suffering. Just, don’t listen to Sabrepulse’s stuff from 2025 onwards, it’s basically AI slop.
  • Sean Curtis Patrick: see Benoît Pioulard
  • Shoji Meguro: SNOWFLAKES – piano rock; soft rock
  • Shygirl: ⭐ SLIME – hyphy
  • The Sight Below: ⭐ Further Away – ambient
  • Skrillex: ⭐ Fire Away – dubstep; future garage
  • Slayyyter: ⭐ Alone – electropop; hyperpop
  • Sleep Token: Vore – alternative metal; post-metal
    • Funny name, actually really good metal. This band seems to have the most obnoxious haters, they’re a perfectly fine metal band lol.
  • Sophie Ellis-Bextor: see Armin van Buuren
  • Spice Girls: ⭐ Viva Forever – downtempo; pop
  • Squarepusher:⭐ Tommib Help Buss – ambient
  • Steps:
  • Steve Hauschildt: ⭐ Arpeggiare – progressive electronic
  • Subwave: see Bop
  • Swedish House Mafia: ⭐ Don’t You Worry Child (feat. John Martin) – festival progressive house
  • Sylvan Esso: Make It Easy – indietronica

T

U

V

  • Vitalic: ⭐ Don’t Leave Me Now – ambient pop; synthpop
  • VHS Collection: ⭐ Sign – synthpop; synthwave
  • Voyager: ⭐ Seen Better Days – progressive metal
    • Content warning: The song is a reference to the lead singer’s terminal cancer. The following link contains references to such, as well as mental health and death.

W

X

Y

Z