December 31st, 2017
chart, year-end chart
Your Favourites (2017)
After a radio career of nearly 30 years, I decided to continue my mission (bringing new music and bands to the attention of as many people as possible) through a blog. Youāre staring at it right nowā¦ Carte Blanche Music started on 1 January 2017, and exactly one year later, I have dedicated 650 posts to the thing I love the most: great new music.
I can hear you think: āGood for youā. But you know what? Apparently , itās good for you as well! š .
Each month in the past year, I posted Your Favourites: my blog posts that you read the most. So now, inevitably, itās time for the ultimate round-up. The result? A Top 100 thatās more fun and less predictable than any other chart youāll see this year. Whatās especially funny, is that you picked a totally different set of songs as your highlights as I did in my own Carte Blanche Music Top 2017.
Isnāt that the best thing about music? I can make a selection, but ultimately, you make your own choices. Based on taste, mood, weather, feelingsā¦ Or, when I look at it less romantically, perhaps the artists below are the ones with the largest families, the most active fan bases, or the best promotion teams. Whatever the reasons, the result is the same: a great list of 100 songs. Your Favourites of 2017.
All of them (and 840 more) are in my Carte Blanche Music 2017 playlist, and once again, each link below corresponds with my original blog post, obviously including the recommended song. Enjoy! May 2018 be as musically diverse and interesting as last year was.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
chart, year-end chart
Carte Blanche Music Top 2017
Iāll publish your choice (the most read Carte Blanche Music posts of the year) here tomorrow. An absolutely great and totally surprising list. But below you can find my selection of the best music that came out in 2017.
Narrowing down, thatās what making a year-end chart is aboutā¦ In the past year, I brought 940 great new tracks to your attention via my container playlist Carte Blanche Music, dedicated 650 blog posts to providing you with background info, selected 289 of them honourably for my ābest of the bestā playlist Ā Wernerās Weekly and chose one song each week to be placed in the spotlights on the blog: the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard.
Now, the time has come to put all of that information together, and serve you with my very personal, now and then arbitrary, but over-all rather brilliant ? final playlist of the year: the Carte Blanche Music Top 2017.
Itās a Top 100. With 100 different artists in it. Needless to say it was a struggle. Not even all the Wildcards made this final list and some artists made more than one great song in the past year. Still, I only chose one. I wonāt bother you with many statistics, but Iām delighted to say that 43% of the songs feature female lead vocals. I really hope this will become a trend in 2018 on radio and streaming playlists alike.
Because all 100 songs are dear to me, they are alphabetically ordered. Of course, you can listen to the Carte Blanche Music Top 2017 on Spotify, and the links below correspond with my original recommendations. Believe me, it doesnāt get better than this (play)list š . Enjoy!
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
chart, ebbchart
European Border Breakers Chart 29 December 2017
The European Border Breakers Charts show no signs of slowing down when it comes to introducing you to upcoming European artists. The charts indicate the songs that are most successful outside the artistsā home countries, based on airplay. Other success factors will be added to the equation in the new year.
This weekās Top 100 welcomes 16 new tracks, four of which spend their very first week in the chart: Kamferdrops – En Liten FĆ„gel (#48), Tom Tripp – Pamela (#82), Boye & Sigvardt – Give Me (#88), Shanguy – La Louze (#100; pictured).
There is no official year-end chart, but I can offer you a sneak peak of the most successful songs in the EBBChart throughout 2017 via this link (loading can take a little while). The tracks are ranked by the amount of people they reached via airplay. Happy browsing!
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Yumi & The Weather – Long Before
The last few years, Yumi & The Weather (the stage name of Brighton singer-songwriter and producer Ruby Taylor) has self-released a few EPās and singles. But her debut album has yet to be released. That will happen in May 2018.
As a taster, she released a double A-sided single. It features the track Callum and the one I feature here: Long Before. Itās a sparkling, guitar-led heartbreak song with some Blondie echoes in it.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 52):
Wildcard (week 52):
Awolnation – Miracle Man
In 2009, Aaron Bruno, David Amezcua and Drew Stewart formed the band Awolnation (although the latter two have left in recent years). Their 2011 debut album Megalithic Symphony featured the single Sail, that only really peaked a few years later, after having featured in numerous movies, TV shows and commercials.
2 February 2018, their third album Here Come The Runts will see the light of day, once again entirely written, produced and performed by Aaron Bruno. āWith this record I really wanted to make a rock ānā roll/pop album,ā he says. āAnd I mean āpopā how I grew up listening to it, in the sense of Dire Straits or Born In The U.S.A or The Cars or Tom Petty.ā
Miracle Man by Awolnation is this weekās Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. The last one of the year. You can find all of them in the Wildcards 2017 playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
remix, single track
Picture This – Take My Hand
Timing is everything in the music business. Sometimes a band, or a song, comes just that little bit too early. Picture this: in June 2016, I played Take My Hand in my Carte Blanche radio show. Then… nothing happened, really. That is, not outside their home country Ireland, where theyāve become popular in no-time.
A year and a half later, the duo – consisting of childhood friends Jimmy Rainsford and Ryan Hennessy – give the song another try. The version that is now being re-released, is the one from their eponymous debut album. The mix is a little more subtle than the original version, but as a whole, it remains the strong song it already was. Letās take this one into the new year, shall we?
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weekly
Wernerās Weekly (week 52)
Guess what I found under the Christmas tree? A playlist full of great new music! āGreat new music?ā youāll ask? Yes, indeed. Because despite the fact that Spotify curiously didnāt upload New Music Friday playlists in several countries last Friday, there still is a lot to discover, music-wise. I mean, I didnāt exactly have a hard time finding fine new tracks by !!!, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Hunna, Shy Luv and The Hunna, all of which I added to my container playlist Carte Blanche Music, featuring the best music that came out in 2017.
The hardest part, each week, is narrowing this selection down to only a few tracks, that deserve a spot in my alphabetically ordered ābest of the bestā playlist Wernerās Weekly. But I managed, and these ā apart from the recommendations Iāll post this week ā are the last songs Iād like you to consider this year. For your streaming playlist, your radio show, the magazine you write for or just for your own listening pleasure. All of these tracks have the Carte Blanche Music stamp of approval, which means ā as I hope you discovered the past year ā that theyāre catchy, rich in melody and accessible. Whatever the genre.
Well, just check for yourself. You can listen to each of the songs via the Wernerās Weekly player in the sidebar, and find more information by clicking the links below. Enjoy!
- Turin Brakes – Wait (Wildcard this week)
- Delilahs – Bricks (The Outsider) (Wildcard last week)
- IAMJJ – You In My Arms
- Joan – Tokyo
- Shanguy – La Louze
- The Phase – Burnout
But if youād really rather hear Christmas music these days, without having to plow through the obvious Wham!s, Mariah Careys and Chris Reas, I can recommend this playlist. Happy X-Mess!
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
The Phase – Burnout
Australia never had a shortage of great musicians, but in recent years, they are coming by the dozens. Via Carte Blanche Music I keep you up to date about the best of the bunch. The Phase, for instanceā¦
The Phase is an alternative pop/rock band from Sydney, for all you Two Door Cinema Club/The Kooks lovers out there. They started out as a solo project by Luke Mangraviti, but grew into a band after he started searching for musicians to actually bring his songs to life. Earlier this year they debuted with Can’t Get It, and Burnout is only their second effort. I like it. A lot!
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
chart, ebbchart
European Border Breakers Chart 22 December 2017
Well, we couldāve expected this, didnāt we? With less high profile new releases and radio stations that dedicate a lot of their air time to musical reviews of the year, all-time charts and specialist programming, we find only two really new entries in this weekās European Border Breakers Chart.
Fittingly, the highest of the two is a festive track. All I Want For Xmas Is Rock And Roll by LA Wise Man (pictured) enters at #85. LA Wise Man is a new project of Sam Dust, a.k.a. LA Priest. And just as appropriately, the other entry, at #98, is new single My Obsession by one of the most promising bands to come out of the UK lately: Pale Waves.
Only two entries in the Top 100 doesnāt mean there is little action in the EBBChart. On the contrary: a whopping 18 tracks re-enter this week. Among them Carte Blanche Music favourites like Dua Lipa, Alma and Pale Wavesā debut single Thereās A Honey. Over at the Tips by Country chart La Louze by Shanguy enters at #2. One to watch!
For the complete Top 100, click the āEBBChartā tab in the top menu of this blog (loading of the PDF may take a little while). More charts (like the Tips, ranking the tracks that are on their way to the Top 100), are available at www.europeanborderbreakerschart.eu, where you can listen to all of the tracks and watch their videos as well.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Ball Park Music – The Perfect Life Does Not Exist
Ball Park Music is a five-piece indie pop/rock band based in Brisbane, Australia. They independently released their debut EP Rolling On The Floor, Laughing Ourselves To Sleep (which is now hard to find) in April 2009. Influential national radio station Triple J immediately championed them and the āballā started rolling.
23 February 2018, the band brings out their fifth full album Good Mood. Itās preceded by The Perfect Life Does Not Exist, the second single off it, that will also be liked by fans of They Might Be Giants and OK Go.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
