Dork’s Bangers of the Year (So Far): 30-21

We’re more than half way through the 2018 auditing period, Dear Reader. That means it’s time to pull down the shutters, call in the staff, and do a stock check on the only thing that counts. Cold, hard Bangers.

We’ve run the sums, calculated the co-efficients, and come up with our definitive top 50 tracks of the year so far. You can read the full run down now in the new issue of Dork, or keep pace on readdork.com over the next few days as we count down.

Obviously there are rules to this countdown. You can read them here. You can check out numbers 50-41 here and 40-31 here.

Featuring appearances from the likes of Let’s Eat Grandma, Matt Maltese, Sorry, Courtney Barnett and more, here’s the next 10 to make the cut.

30 George Ezra Shotgun

He’s a number one recording artist, don’t you know?
If you’d have told us earlier in the year that, by the height of summer, George Ezra would be fighting out ‘Three Lions’ for a number one single, we’d probably have thought you were making it up. Not that our George didn’t have chart potential in him – he’s a sure fire unit shifter – but rather we underestimated just what a moment ‘Shotgun’ could become. Going toe to toe with the unofficial national anthem, we’ll not make the same mistake again.

29 Blossoms There’s A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)

It’s because they have caller ID, isn’t it?
It takes a special song to instantly get in your head AND make you feel ‘feelings’, and ‘There’s A Reason Why’ ticks both boxes instantly. A walloping chorus backed with shimmering synths as frontman Tom tells us just why he didn’t return our call, An anthem for modern day heartbreak.

What they say: “If you look at the opening track, ‘There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)’, that’s the first song I wrote for this album. It’s about the previous relationship, and also what a lot of that first album is about. The final song, ‘Love Talk’, is about being in another relationship, one that’s long-distance. It’s kind of stuff from the last two years of my life.” – Tom Ogden

28 Florence + The Machine Hunger

The queen of the indie banger is back! Back!! Back!!!
If it’s siren vocals, plucky harps, rolling drums, and an impressive string section you want, Florence has got it. Well, she always had it, but ‘Hunger’ feels as much like a career highlight as it does one of the year’s best. How does she keep making songs about death seem so lively?

What they say: As Florence herself puts it, “this song is about the ways we look for love in things that are perhaps not love, and how attempts to feel less alone can sometimes isolate us more. I guess I made myself more vulnerable in this song to encourage connection, because perhaps a lot more of us feel this way than we are able to admit. Sometimes when you can’t say it, you can sing it.

27 Let’s Eat Grandma Falling Into Me

We’re falling for LEG.
For a song that’s almost six minutes long, ‘Falling Into Me’ feels like it could keep rolling for far, far longer. You’ll struggle to find a more satisfying pop moment this year than the synth ‘drop’ at about four minutes in, but what follows, and precedes, it is hazy, jittery, genius.

26 Matt Maltese Greatest Comedian

Double M is at it again.
‘Schmaltzcore’ is one of the worst genre names since ‘Nu-rave’, so we refuse to pin the label to lounge lizard and professional suit-wearer Matt Maltese. That aside, ‘Greatest Comedian’ is a perfect example of his woozy, updated take on the classic crooner. Give it a go, you’ll be a schmaltzcore enthusiast before you know it.

What they say: “It’s a love song, really. It’s me blaming fate for love failing. What’s the point in blaming yourself when you can drag a higher being into it?” – Matt Maltese

25 Confidence Man Out The Window

 That’s not a banger. This is a banger. 
Confidence Man are unlike any other band around. Ridiculous fun, it’d be easy to see them as a novelty act, good for a bit of dancing and some light up, erm, ‘bits’. Easy, but really bloody stupid. ‘Out The Window’ is proof that they’re not just able to raise a smile, but a top class pop banger too. Style and substance – it’s the future

24 Parquet Courts Wide Awake

Sun’s out, fun’s in.
A wonky, bug-eyed, carnival infused banger. What’s not to love? Parquet Courts have always balanced being great fun with tackling societal issues head-on, but with ‘Wide Awake’ they show a desire to stretch beyond their usual boundaries, and boy do they make it work. It’s the first (and probably last) time you’ll hear a rave whistle on a punk track, so don’t miss out.

23 Sorry 2 Down 2 Dance

Bangers 4 lyf.
Grunge and ballet are not obvious bedfellows, but Sorry have decided to force them together anyhow. ‘2 Down 2 Dance’ is about exactly what you’d expect, and it pulls off the tale of a sad ballet dancer remarkably well. The chorus is oddly catchy too, even if you do have to sing it in the voice of a moody teenager.

22 Courtney Barnett Nameless, Faceless

A wonky grunge-pop delight.
Minor guitar lines, ominous spiralling riffs and delectable distortion back dark lyricism paraphrasing novelist Margaret Atwood. “Men are scared that women will laugh at them” but “women are scared that men will kill them.” Courtney just wants to “walk through the park in the dark” without clutching her keys. Misogynists might think they can remain anonymous in their attacks, hiding in the dark or behind an online screen, but Courtney has just called them out big time in banger form, and we don’t think she’ll be afraid to do it again.

What they say: “It was just unavoidable. It was everywhere, and it is everywhere,” says C-Bar. “It’s recognising the anger. It’s one of those things that kept coming up in conversations with friends and me. I had maybe been a bit, not ignorant; I’d always just accepted it as a thing we all had to exist next to. There was a lot of stuff happening in my periphery, and that song was me trying to work through it. It wasn’t meant to be a bold statement; it was just me thinking about it, and being angry and upset about it.”

21 Sigrid High Five

A banger in a sea of bangers.
As the Norse queen of pop bangers, Sigrid never lets us down. On ‘High Five’ she takes aim at sycophants and social climbers, with a percolating beat that boils over into a massive chorus, and an immense vocal to knock your actual socks clean off.

What they say: The colossal pop song ‘High Five’ is about “the importance of those relations where you both dare to be completely honest with each other, rather than exchanging superficial «high fives»” says the 21-year-old pop sensation.

Words: Abigail Firth, Jake Hawkes, Josh Williams, Stephen Ackroyd