#5 - Jane Remover - "Royal Blue Walls"

Jane’s music has gradually unspooled in length and feeling over the last couple of years. Teen Week was pressurized and claustrophobic, drowned in angst; Frailty was similarly dense and cluttered with sounds, but the songs were newly expansive, carefully-plotted biomes of beat drops and impressionistic passages. The six-minute “Royal Blue Walls” echoes the best emo rocktronica of Frailty but with a gentler, fragile fingerprint. Their voice is light and sleek, so wispy it’s seemingly on the verge of collapse; the instrumental rises cautiously, coming into focus like a faraway landscape slowly appearing on a skyline of blue-gray mist. I love how the second half of the song unfolds, from Jane’s slow repetition to the way the instruments ramp up for the climax. “Somehow I’m still never satisfied, satisfied, satisfied,” she repeats as the song spirals into chaos, Jane’s cries flashing like lightning in the squall of noise.

The list:

#25 - Destroy Lonely - “NOSTYLIST”

#24 - elusin - “Elksling”

#23 - skaiwater - “#miles”

#22 - Wednesday - “Bull Believer”

#21 - islurwhenitalk - “pink neon lights”

#20 - Two Shell - “home” & “Memory” (tie)

#19 - Luci4 - “ON GANG”

#18 - Harto Falión - “{*______*}” (prod. evilgiane, whitearmor, Gud)

#17 - lecie - “ex post facto”

#16 - Yung Lean ft. FKA twigs - “Bliss”

#15 - DJ:ReCode - “adhd” ft. tobre & “keeper” ft. goji! & BIO (tie)

#14 - Uffie - “dominoes”

#13 - Yeat - “Still countin” & “Out thë way” (tie)

#12 - Ame - "Degree" (prod. Royal, y2tnb, Brycenknwn, Ame)

#11 - Sudan Archives - “ChevyS10”

#10 - Asian Doll ft. Bandmanrill - "Get Jumped" & Bandmanrill - "BANDTHOVEN" (tie)

#9 - Nilüfer Yanya - "stabilise" / "chase me" (tie)

#8 - GREED - “summer mixx 2k22”

#7 - Hemlocke Springs - “Girlfriend”

#6 - Izaya Tiji - “I drink blood” (prod. Souljaspirits)