The last six years, starting in 2017, I posted 10 musical recommendations per week on this blog. A total of well over 3.000 tracks, mostly by upcoming – often female (fronted) – artists from all over the world. As I explained yesterday, Carte Blanche Music is entering a new era. One in which I’ll focus my efforts on my constantly updated Spotify playlist.

For sure, that doesn’t mean the blog is closing down. It’ll continue to be the home of my ‘best of’ collection (Werner’s Weekly) on Monday mornings (CET) and my favourite new track (the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard), every Wednesday morning. Also, I’ll post the latest additions to my playlist on Saturdays. For updates, follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

No better way to round up the last six years than by publishing the Your ‘All-Time’ Favourites, a chart compiling the 500 most popular (as in best-read) Carte Blanche Music recommendations from 2017 to 2022. You’ll find the Top 25 below, but click through for the full list. My original recommendations are behind the links. If you’re an artist, don’t be shy and search (Ctrl+F) to find out if you made the list. You might be surprised…

Enjoy and thanks for joining the ride so far. Follow the Carte Blanche Music playlist (click ‘♥’ in Spotify) for many more recommendations to come!

Your ‘All-Time’ Favourites (2017-2022)

1. Videoclub – Roi
2. Wildcard (week 7): Drew Sycamore – 45 Fahrenheit Girl
3. Aili x Transistorcake – Dansu
4. Wildcard (week 13): Placebo – The Prodigal
5. Super db – Wait For Me
6. Wildcard (week 12): Shanguy – Toukassé
7. Japanese Breakfast – Paprika
8. Saint Motel – A Good Song Never Dies
9. IBE – Table Of Fools
10. Angèle – La Loi De Murphy
11. Wildcard (week 22): Håkan Hellström – Alla Drömmar Är Uppfyllda
12. Rick Astley – Every One Of Us
13. Friedberg – Go Wild
14. Wildcard (week 26): Videoclub – En Nuit
15. Agnes – Here Comes The Night
16. a-ha feat. Ingrid Helene Håvik – The Sun Always Shines On TV (MTV Unplugged)
17. Angèle – Libre
18. Temples – Paraphernalia
19. Lola Le Lann – Portofino
20. Pixey – Free To Live In Colour
21. Eliza & The Delusionals – Just Exist
22. Videoclub – Enfance 80
23. Izzy Bizu (feat. Chris Martin) – Someone That Loves You ’19
24. Mina Okabe – Miss Those Days
25. Just – Walk Slow Smile More Read More →

Ahead of your favourites among this year’s Carte Blanche Music recommendations, which I’ll publish next week, these are my personal choices from the songs that came out in 2021. This list holds only 100 tracks, but you can find all of my 998 recommendations in my container playlist Carte Blanche Music 2021.

As always, I love to share some statistics about the Carte Blanche Music Top 2021. If there’s one – sad – common denominator to be found in this list, it’s that most of these songs have been criminally overlooked by radio stations outside the artist’s home countries. Radio playlists are growing more and more uniform, denying the diversity of the music available. Obviously, with over 60.000 new tracks added to Spotify every day the supply is kind of excessive, but more adventurous choices would be very welcome. Knowing this won’t happen, the best you can do is follow the Carte Blanche Music playlist, then I’ll keep you updated 😉. This is what you can expect, based on this year’s Top 2021:

• Mostly (young and) upcoming artists, many of whom release their music independently
• No less than 72% of the Top 2021 features female vocalists, up from 70% in our Top 2020 and 60% in the Top 2019
• We love pure pop songs, but with 40% guitar-based tracks, we’re more rock ‘n’ roll than average. According to Spotify Wrapped, our favourite genres last year were indie pop, modern alternative rock and dance pop, and we agree
• You can expect the best new tunes from all over the world, but even we have our preferences. We have extra warm feelings for music from countries like Australia, France, Canada and Denmark. Just so you know…

The Carte Blanche Music Top 2021 features 100 tracks, which are presented below in alphabetical order. You can listen to them all via the Spotify player. If you prefer another order, the shuffle button is your friend.

Meanwhile, you can read my original recommendations through the links below.

• Ali Barter – You Get In My Way
• Alice Merton – Island
• The Allergies – Move On Baby
• Ally Cribb – Bigger
• Alta Falls – The Fire
• Aly & AJ – Don’t Need Nothing
• Amy Shark – Baby Steps
• Angèle – Libre
• Anish Kumar & Barry Can’t Swim – Blackpool Boulevard
• Archie X – Fight Me
• Baby Queen – You Shaped Hole ^(WC)
• Bakermat (feat. LaShun Pace) – Ain’t Nobody
• Baxtr – In Pop We Trust ^(WC)
• beabadoobee – He Gets Me So High ^{(*) (WC)}
• Blu DeTiger – Blondes
• Buffalo Paradise – Buffalo Paradise
• bülow – Revolver
• Calogero – Centre Ville
• Camila Cabello – Don’t Go Yet
• Charlie Collins – Just My Luck
• Chloe Lilac – 19
• Clara Luciani – Respire Encore ^(WC)
• Clypso – On Our Way ^(WC)
• Coeur De Pirate – Tu Peux Crever Là-Bas ^(*)
• Cold War Kids – What You Say
• Coral Palms – Something In The Air ^(WC)
• Daði Freyr & Ásdís – Feel The Love
• Dead Anyway – Pigs In Blankets
• Drew Sycamore – 45 Fahrenheit Girl ^(WC)
• Dual – Wipe Your Tears Away
• Dua Lipa – Love Again ^(WC)
• Dubstar – Tectonic Plates
• Dylan Cartlidge – Hang My Head ^(WC)
• Eyjaa – Don’t Forget About Me
• Fear Of Tigers – Tiger Blood
• Foals – Wake Me Up ^(WC)
• Foo Fighters – Waiting On A War
• Foxes – Sister Ray ^(WC)
• Grand Corps Malade – Des Gens Beaux
• Haerts – Days Go By ^(WC)
• Halsey – Honey
• Harry Styles – Treat People With Kindness ^(WC)
• Hawke – Pinch Me (Am I Dreaming?) ^(WC)
• Hope Tala – Tiptoeing ^(WC)
• Jaguar Jonze – Who Died And Made You King? ^(WC)
• Japanese Breakfast – Paprika
• Jonas Brøg (feat. Lilian Vieira) – I’m Your Nr. 1 [Brazilian Version] ^(WC)
• Julie Zenatti – France Et Jojo
• Kacey Musgraves – There Is A Light
• King Stingray – Milkumana
• Kinishao – Always In My Head
• Laura Mac – Garage Full Of Dreams ^(WC)
• Lauran Hibberd – Bleugh ^(WC)
• Lights – Prodigal Daughter
• Lissie – Hey Boy ^(WC)
• Lizzie Esau – Bitter Weather
• Lou Hayter – Time Out Of Mind
• Lucy Spraggan – Heartbreak Suites ^(*)
• Madison Olds – If You Wanna
• mags – I Can’t Get Over You
• Maisie Peters – Psycho
• Marina – Purge The Poison ^(WC)
• May-a – Central Station ^(WC)
• Mazy – Flowers ^(WC)
• Mike Posner (feat. James Valentine & Jacob Scesney) – Amor Fati
• Miles Kane feat. Corinne Bailey Rae – Nothing’s Ever Gonna Be Good Enough ^(WC)
• Miss Machine – Regarder Les Choses
• Monowhales – He Said/She Said (I Wait) ^(WC)
• Montaigne – Technicolour
• Niko Rubio – You Could Be The One ^(WC)
• Olivia Rodrigo – Good 4 U
• Orla Gartland – You’re Not Special, Babe
• Palaye Royale – No Love In LA
• Parcels – Comingback ^(WC)
• Päter – Obstinate Brain
• Philippine – Bah Non. ^(WC)
• Placebo – Beautiful James
• The Ramona Flowers feat. Nile Rodgers – Up All Night
• Render Ghosts – Eye Rhyme
• RoseeLu – Playing Alone ^(WC)
• Saint Djuni – All Of My Friends ^(WC)
• Self Esteem – How Can I Help You ^(WC)
• Slothrust – Once More For The Ocean ^(WC)
• Smith & Thell – Pixie’s Parasol ^(WC)
• Stefanie Heinzmann – Labyrinth ^(WC)
• Super db – Wait For Me
• Telenova – Bones ^(WC)
• Thunder Fox – Not For Sale
• Torres – Thirstier ^(WC)
• Tove Styrke – Start Walking
• Troi Irons – She Loves Me Not
• Vistas – Start Again
• Who – Hey! Get Out The Way ^(WC)
• Who Parked The Car – Candle Dance
• Willow feat. Travis Barker – Transparent Soul
• Wilsn – You Know Better ^(WC)
• Wolf Alice – How Can I Make It OK?
• Yelle – Noir ^(WC)
• Youth Sector – Self Exile ^(WC)
• Yuke – Stranger Still ^(WC)

^(WC)    ex Carte Blanche Music Wildcard
^(*)       album track