The Metaphorical Boat's Top Songs of 2016 - 5-2

We're really close to finding out just what The Metaphorical Boat's Top Song of 2016 really is. We hope you're as excited as we are to find out just what song has made it to #1. But before we get there, let's find out what fantastically brilliant songs ended up at numbers 5 through to 2 on our countdown -

5. Draper ft Prides - Break Over You

We may have been rather hyperbolic and/or incorrect back in April when we insisted that "Break Over You" was going to be a #1 hit single. Although in fairness, it wasn't the worst incorrect prediction to be made in 2016. Still, it made it to #5 in our countdown, which is something, I guess. The Draper/Prides collaboration is a wonderfully powerful synth-pop single that gives you the same kick as 2 litres of Red Bull injected directly into your eyeballs.



4. Meilyr Jones - How to Recognise a Work of Art

There haven't been many breakthrough artists in the chamber-pop genre for many years now, which is somewhat explicable, given the large expense involved in hiring and touring a full orchestra for the purposes of recording an album and/or touring isn't as easy as it was 20 years ago when there was more money available for developing emerging artists (indeed, it's not just an issue with newer artists - when 90s chamber-pop group My Life Story reconvened earlier this year, they ditched the orchestra altogether).

Perhaps that's why "How To Recognise a Work of Art" by ex-Race Horses member Meilyr Jones was such a delight. A cacophony of instruments over Mr Jones' crooning on the subject of the valuation of pictures and ornaments. It helped to catapult the parent album to the Welsh Music Prize, and we are reliably informed that they never stop playing it in Starbucks.



3. Teenage Fanclub - I'm In Love

We're always going to love anything that comes out of the minds of Teenage Fanclub, and "I'm In Love", their first single in six years, was no exception. Like most of their post "Songs From Northern Britain" material, it's a lot less noisy and more subdued, yet still has all those qualities that make us love the band - the sunkissed harmonies, the jangly guitars, and that unbridled optimism that shines through.



2. The Strumbellas - Spirits

And the song that narrowly misses out on our top spot is "Spirits" by Canadian band The Strumbellas. This was another song that we were absolutely sure would become a massive hit in 2016, although despite millions of YouTube streams, high placings on specialist radio in the United States, and playlisting on Radio X over here, it never really took off like it should have done. Still, "Spirits" is a spectacularly poppy indie-folk tune with a rousing chorus that you just cannot help but sing along to.