I’ll 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, that’s what making a year-end chart is about… 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 ‘best of the best’ playlist  Werner’s 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.

It’s 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 won’t bother you with many statistics, but I’m 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 doesn’t get better than this (play)list 😉 . Enjoy!

• Absynthe Minded – The Execution
• The Aces – Physical
• AKA George – Stone Cold Classic ^(WC)
• Alice Merton – No Roots ^(WC)
• Aloe Blacc – King Is Born ^(WC)
• Ankathie Koi – Little Hell
• Anna Of The North – Someone
• Arcane Roots – Off The Floor
• AronChupa – (Don’t Fight It) Feel It
• Awolnation – Miracle Man ^(WC)
• The Bamboos (feat. Montaigne) – I’ll Make You Happy ^(WC)
• BC Unidos (feat. Shungudzo) – Bicycle ^(WC)
• Beck – Up All Night
• Belle & Sebastian – We Were Beautiful
• Blackfield – How Was Your Ride?
• Boy Azooga – Face Behind Her Cigarette
• Buffalo Tom – All Be Gone
• Calogero – 1987 ^{(WC) (*)}
• Calypso Valois – Vis à Vie
• Dagny – Love You Like That ^(WC)
• Deacon Blue – Gone ^(WC)
• Delilahs – Bricks (The Outsider) ^(WC)
• Disciples – On My Mind
• DNCE feat. Nicki Minaj – Kissing Strangers
• Efecto Pasillo – Las Banderas ^(*)
• Eleanor Jacks – Run ‘n’ Hide
• Eliza & The Bear – Higher ^(WC)
• Fatboy Slim – Where U Iz ^(WC)
• Freak – No Money
• Gin Wigmore – Cabrona
• The Go! Team – Mayday ^(WC)
• GotSome feat. Lisa Kekaula – I Don’t Know ^(WC)
• Hannah Grace – Praise You
• The Hunna – Summer ^(WC)
• Izzy Bizu – Talking To You ^(WC)
• Jade Bird – Cathedral
• Jain – Dynabeat ^(WC)
• The Jesus & Mary Chain (feat. Sky Ferreira) – The Two Of Us
• Jimi Charles Moody – Shame
• John Adams – Things That Make You Beautiful ^(WC)
• JohnnySwim – First Try
• Julian Velard – Don’t Ask Me About Hamilton (Anymore) ^(WC)
• Kadebostany – Mind If I Stay
• Kailee Morgue – Discovery
• Kara Marni – Golden
• Kasabian – Comeback Kid ^(WC)
• Kettcar – Sommer ’89 (Er Schnitt Löcher In Den Zaun)
• Kira Puru – Tension ^(WC)
• The Kooks – Be Who You Are ^(WC)
• Laini & The Wildfire – Wandering
• Les Gordons – Let The Music Speak ^(WC)
• LP – Other People ^(WC)
• -M- (feat. Fatoumata Diawara & Oxmo Puccino) – Bal De Bamako ^(WC)
• Mist – Dark Side
• MisterWives – Never Give Up On Me ^(WC)
• Nana Adjoa – The Resolution ^(WC)
• Nerina Pallot – Man Didn’t Walk On The Moon
• Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – It’s A Beautiful World ^(WC)
• Nothing But Thieves – Amsterdam
• Olsson – No Sugar
• Pale Waves – There’s A Honey
• Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott – He Wants To
• Picture This – Take My Hand
• Plan B – Heartbeat
• Powers – Dance ^(WC)
• The Presets – Do What You Want ^(WC)
• Public Service Broadcasting (feat. Tracyanne Campbell) – Progress
• Rae Morris – Do It ^(WC)
• Rat Boy – Revolution
• Ride – All I Want
• Ridsa – Avancer ^(WC)
• Rocky – Love Is A Soft Machine ^(WC)
• Roy Paci & Aretuska – Tira
• Saint Etienne – Dive ^(WC)
• Saint Motel – Destroyer ^(WC)
• San Cisco – The Kids Are Cool
• Saveus – Levitate Me ^(WC)
• Sea Girls – Call Me Out
• Seramic (feat. Bootsy Collins) – Greg’s Love
• Shanguy – La Louze
• She Drew The Gun – Sweet Harmony
• The Shins – Half A Million
• Skott – Mermaid ^(WC)
• Sleigh Bells – Rainmaker
• Sol Heilo – America ^(WC)
• Soulwax – Do You Want To Get Into Trouble? ^(WC)
• The Sound Of Arrows (feat. Annie) – Wicked Ways ^(*)
• Stromae – Repetto x Mosaert
• TANA – Leave Away ^(WC)
• Thanks (feat. Sam Sparro) – Your Man
• The The – We Can’t Stop What’s Coming
• The Tibbs – Lies
• Tiggs Da Author – Work It Out
• Toploader – Together
• Triggerfinger – Flesh Tight ^(WC)
• Turin Brakes – Wait ^(WC)
• Van Echelpoel – Ziet Em Duun ^(WC)
• Wolf Alice – Beautifully Unconventional
• Wolf Parade – Valley Boy ^(WC)
• Youngr x Endor – Give It Up

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

Werner Schlosser

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.