What a year for music, huh? 23,725 streams from 3154 artists, making for an average of 7.52 streams per artist. 1829 of those artists had at least 2 streams, while the other 1325 just got played once. What a life. Rock was the top tag for the year, followed by Alternative Rock, Alternative, Pop and Synthpop. The top 3 hours for listening for the year were 10p-11p, 9p-10p, and 11a-12p. Surprisingly, Monday racked up the most streams for the entire year, just beating out Tuesday - meanwhile Saturday had far and away the least. Let's dig some more into the top artists from the year. I don't think we'll see as many leaving and entering the ranks as we did with songs.
First up, the artists that fell out of the Top 25.
Looks like we had six artists fall off from 2019. Four of them had
new albums last year, while Colony 5 just barely missed cracking in this
year. Audioslave was kind of a surprisingly slider, but I think I just
burned myself on Chris Cornell after his death.
Key: Band (LY) - TY
De/Vision (24) - 62
mind.in.a.box (20) - 49
Colony 5 (18) - 27
Florence + The Machine (15) - 117
Audioslave (11) - 37
Andrew WK (10) - 206
Alright. It's gonna be artist and where they were last year, and then top track and where it landed this year.
#25. Blindside (NR in 2018)
Top Track: Gravedigger (T125 in 2019)
Once Blindside finally came back, I thought for sure that there would be a new album in 2019. I reckon if that were the case, they would've been much higher on this list, but instead it was just the one song. Still, that helped propel them into the top 25 this year. Perhaps the ascent will come next year, but they've gone back to radio silence after releasing the "Gravedigger".
#24. Fuel (22)
Top Track: Falls On Me (T72)
Fuel kept pace with themselves in 2019. The band is still touring and released a record with their new lineup a few years back, but they continue to live in the 90s and early 2000s. Once again it's "Falls On Me" and "Hemorrhage" that are their toppers for me.
#23. And One (23)
Top Track: Enjoy the Unknown (T95)
How unlucky for And One, to have 8 more streams from 2018 to '19, but still stay at #23. No matter what music they have out there, it's always the Bodypop record that rules my lists.
#22. Soundgarden (17)
Top Track: Outshined (T190)
Amusingly, Soundgarden only had 1 stream more in 2018 than they did '19, but they fell 5 spots. I guess those numbers don't mean much at the end of the day, but they raise my eyebrows. As the pain from Chris Cornell's sudden death wears down, I find myself listening to his stuff just a little less than I used to, but not on purpose. I think I splurged so hard after he died that I needed a little break.
#21. Solitary Experiments (12)
(Top Track: Epiphany (12)
I tried to spend more time listening to songs other than "Epiphany" in 2019, and I found a treasure trove of excellent remixes that Solitary Experiments had done. Those guys definitely know their way around their keyboards.
#20. Five Iron Frenzy (25)
(Top Track: Far, Far Away (T267)
A bit of a climb for the ska superstars, although theirs is definitely one of the more diverse track assortments; I don't think anyone below here will have a most played song lower than T267.
#19. The Cure (NR)
Top Track: Pictures of You (18)
The Cure have experienced a renaissance with me the last two years, and they shot up from 64 to 19 this year. There's talk that they might release an album (or three) this year, and I'm wondering how their sound will have progressed over the last decade and a half.
#18. Solar Fake (6)
Top Track: More Than This (T42)
The fall of "Until It's Over", last year's top track (which slid to #62) is fairly evident in the rank for Solar Fake this time around. Of course, being #18 is nothing to snuff at, I just didn't think they'd slide so dramatically.
#17. Circle of Dust (13)
Top Track: Machines Of Our Disgrace (T384)
I stand corrected! For the second consecutive year, it seems that Circle of Dust will have our lowest ranked, most streamed track from a band. They're definitely a wide range of tracks for me, and being tied for 384 equals 8 streams, despite the band catching over 100 plays last year.
#16. Ashbury Heights (NR)
Top Track: Spiders (16)
Ashbury Heights would have ranked #76 last year, but I really don't feel like I went out of my way to listen to them in 2019. "Spiders" and "Missing Mr. Marchie" are the only two that I really feel like I spent a lot of time with. Such a strange band to have a love/hate relationship with.
#15. The Birthday Massacre (16)
Top Track: All Of Nothing (26)
The Birthday Massacre moved up 1 spot in spite of having 25 more streams than they did last year. It was a much broader field for them this year as I spent more time finding more to love about them. Their cover of "Open Your Heart" got a lot of play as well as last year's highest ranking song "One" still ringing hot.
#14. The Broken Relics (new)
Top Track: Where The Creatures Roam (3)
The Broken Relics released their first song in February, and their debut EP in May. The rest is history, I suppose. For a band with only six songs, they did a lot of damage in 2019 and are primed for a big run in 2020 as well.
#13. Korn (21)
Top Track: Let's Do This Now (T492)
I honestly didn't see Korn coming in at #13, but I did give their new record a few solid spins before going back to the good old tracks. I scrobbled 73 different Korn tracks in 2019, which by itself is almost enough to make it into the top 25.
#12. Slipknot (NR)
Top Track: Purity (T622)
Hah. Ok, I promise, there's no way any of the higher ranked bands have any lower songs. Slipknot was #33 last year, just missing the cut. That's about where they would've ended up had they not released a new record in 2019. I really tried to love it, giving it several chances last year, but it just did not stick with me. "Birth of the Cruel" and "Unsainted" tried but failed to really burn into me.
#11. Truslow (NR)
Top Track: Hurricane (8)
Truslow made a humongous leap from 2018 to '19, going from #382 to almost cracking the top 10. Honestly, this is where the band belongs, and I have no idea why they had so few streams in '18. Both of their albums ranked among the top 15 streamed in 2019.
#10. Curse of Cassandra (5)
Top Track: Re-Bind (Retro Binding Mix) (T72)
Re-Bind repeats as the top CoC song at the end of the year, but the new album novelty wore off and it was just back to normal listening. Last.FM tells me that I'm still their top fan, which makes me happy even if they've essentially stopped touring. "Bastet" and its remix were the next two most streamed tracks of the year.
#9. Wolfsheim (8)
Top Track: Blind (22)
Ever since my wife introduced me to Wolfsheim, they've held a huge place in my musical heart. I spent a little time digging into their older albums in '19, but "Blind" and "Kein Zuruck" reigned supreme for another year.
#8. Rammstein (19)
Top Track: Radio (25)
R+ more than doubled their stream count in 2019 with the release of their untitled, potentially final album. "Radio" "Deutschland" and "Puppe" carried the heavier parts of the year, while everything else fell into place like it usually does. I'm pretty stoked to see these guys in 2020!
#7. Apoptygma Berzerk (14)
Top Track: Kathy's Song (Victorian Mix by VNV Nation) (T42)
If I had to guess, I wouldn't have had Apop ahead of Rammstein this year. I think it's because I listened to more of Rammstein the band, but there were more Apop songs on different playlists. "Kathy's Song" continues to be the standard bearer, despite not making the Top 30 again. I credit that song as the one that really got me into darker EBM.
#6. Demon Hunter (9)
Top Track: The Negative (29)
Demon Hunter is another band that benefited from a new album release, but they went with a double release just to make sure they'd be in the top 10 again in 2019. Okay, they didn't do it specifically for that reason, but it pumped their numbers pretty well. Actually, except for "The Negative", I didn't really spend a lot of time with their newer stuff, but that's still 20+ new tracks to preview.
#5. Mesh (4)
Top Track: The Last One Standing (6)
Mesh again rocked 2 songs in the Top 30 streamed with "The Fixer" also capturing #11. Those two songs made up for an impressive 45.5% of Mesh's overall streams. Will they release new music in 2020? There are rumours bubbling that they might, which might shoot them near the top of this list.
#4. Assemblage 23 (3)
Top Track: The Other Side Of The Wall (14)
A23 also had 2 songs in the Top 30, with "Damaged" hitting #27. Disappoint was tied for 48th as well, making for a potent triumvirate at the top for Tom and co. They actually had more streams this year than last, but the next 3 had spectacularly massive numbers in 2019.
#3. Anberlin (7)
Top Track: Time and Confusion (T102)
I'm not gonna lie. A23 had a solid amount of streams, but Anberlin beat them by over 100. For perspective, their month of April (in which I saw them live) alone would have put them at #21 on this list. I also heard them in bars and at work, and played them on jukeboxes at coffeshops to boot. There was no wrong place for Anberlin in 2019. The reunion tour show was amazing, as expected. I don't think there'll be another record, but another tour could happen within the next two years.
#2. VNV Nation (2)
Top Track: Only Satellites (1)
Look. You knew VNV was going to be 1 or 2. Noire was the most streamed record by a long shot, and Only Satellites had more streams on its own than all but 7 other records in 2019. VNV also had "The Farthest Star" at 9, "Armour" at #10, and "Arena" at 20. VNV is an institution, but amazingly a new record was not enough to put them over the hump. They also had more than 100 streams past Anberlin, and more than twice as many as Mesh. Unreal.
#1. Cold (1)
Top Track: Shine (28)
Noire may have stolen the show on top records, but The Things We Can't Stop got a ton of plays on its own, with both "Shine" and "Without You" having strong showings. In the top album streams, Cold had 6, 7, 8 and 10, despite having only (ONLY) four songs in the top 100.
Thanks again to Last.FM for allowing me to do all of this. Let's get 2020.
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