Here is a playlist of the essential 100 (or so) tunes to come out of Scotland.

It began with a long list of some hundreds, was distilled to a (not so) shortlist of 200 and now this 100-or-so

This Scots playlist of the most essential tunes of 2022, contains everything from alternative rock, dance, electronica, hip-hop, rap, indie, trap, choral, punk, post-grunge, folk and... well see for yourself.

It is a mix of the known, little known and the unknown, leftfield and mainstream,  immediate pop anthems, challenging (very) experimental projects and the completely barking.

The 100-or-so are published over four days.

Here is the next chapter.  Final top 25 drops tomorrow.

 

Top 100 Tunes from Scotland in 2022 Part 1 (100-76)

Top 100 Tunes from Scotland in 2022 Part 2 (75-51)​

Top 100 Tunes from Scotland in 2022 Part 4 (25-1)​

 

Part 3- 50-26. 

=50 Lewis Capaldi - Forget Me (Spotify Singles version)

The worldwide chart-topping Scots superstar proves that his addictively lovelorn set of songs on his debut Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent were no fluke with this cute don't-mess-with-the formula that entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart. 

But this stripped down and slowed down strings version exclusive to Spotify transforms the tune into a far more contemplative and plaintive place and exposes just how cute a songwriter he really is.  The song release was accompanied by an open letter, in which Capaldi admits to being nervous about the release, saying, "it could be the beginning of a beautiful chapter in my life, or the very public downward spiral that, let's face it, I'm probably due". 

 

=50 Camera Obscura  - Making Money

This lost ten-year-old gem was released as a single to mark their Making Money: 4AD B-Sides & Rarities album.

Recorded during the sessions for their last studio album, 2013’s Desire Lines, it’s title riffs on late keyboardist Carey Lander's wry observation that she saw the band as a “non-profit organisation.”    

 

49 Swiss Portrait ft Phantom Handshakes -  Play With Fire

This dreamiest of dream pop collaborations is headed by Edinburgh visual artist-turned-musician Michael Kay Terence and features New York duo Federica Tassano and Matt Sklar.

" I recorded, mixed and mastered my first album Familiar Patterns all on GarageBand. I have now upgraded to Logic Pro," he said.

 

48 Kode9  -  Torus

A little known name to most, but the Glasgow-born experimental electronic artist AKA Steve Goodman, is one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene and creator of the forward-thinking Hyperdub record label that signed groundbreaking artists such as Burial.

His first album in seven years is a beautifully unsettling avant garde soundtrack to an imaginary computer game about a space-faring imperial Scotland.

This standout is simply an incomparable mind-bending three-minutes-and-thirty-seconds of eccentric electronica, with scampering asymmetric club-like rhythms,  piano chants, abstract loops and psychedelic layers of discordant synthetic noise.  

 

=47 Inferiem   - Whispers

A brutal primal scream of a metalcore-influenced three minutes with a heavy ear for a ferocious melody from a young five-piece that won the Best Metal gong at the 2019 Scottish Alternative Music Awards. 

 

=47 Rory James   -  Never Get Tired

The new Scots songwriter and producer's debut single is a skyscraping slice of spacey house-influenced electro art-pop that is far too contagious.

 

46 Taahliah ft Loraine James  -  F**k It 

Rising Glasgow black trans DJ and producer has become a regular on this list for the sheer inventiveness of her heady hyperpop. This ecstatically barkingR Rated cut was conceived in one afternoon during a studio session involving the two artists at Warp Records' London offices, as well "some back & forth on DMs".

 

45 Becky Sikasa  -  Island In The Sun

A gospel-tinged touch of class from the Glasgow-based neo-soul songstress who promises much based on her string of releases in 2022,

 

44 Broken Chanter   -  So Long (I'm Not Around)

Beautifully melodic alt-rock-fok beaut single that grips like a vice from Kid Canaveral's David MacGregor.

 

43 C O   -  Decisions

Bringing Nigerian roots to Scottish hip hop music scene, C O mixes grime with rap for this potent hymn to the life on the streets.

 

42 Jack Brotherhood  -  Heteronormativity

The Glasgow gay dad rock outfit whose influences include Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse released a debut EP Live, Laugh, Jack Brotherhood, from which comes this insatiable "queer scream into the void" single.

 

41 Humour  - Alive and Well  

Few bands come along that make my ears prick up through their sheer devil-may-care ingenuity and attitude. These Glasgow neo-indie newbies formed during the Covid lockdown are one such band. 

This is a standout track from their debut EP that spirals mishapenly all over the place like a crazed Pavement vs Idles amalgam while underpinned by the confrontational barking of Andreas Christodoulidis who is surely to become one of the most distinctive new voices to emerge this year.

 

40 Kami-O  -  Back Way

Championed on this list last year, this inventive Glasgow-based DJ & producer followed his stunning debut with his equally captivating second Veiled from which comes this hard-hitting standout among many standouts that is a combination of tribal rhythms, cute changes of pace and a leftfield dubstep meets techno feel that twist and turns delightfully.

 

39 Wine Moms  -  I Hope You Have Regrets

A riot of cutting riffs, a soft-loud-soft dynamic and a beautiful sneer from the new Glasgow teenage neo garage-punk combo. It bears repeating.

 

38 Sun's Signature  -   Bluedusk

Ever since Cocteau Twins formally broke up in 1997, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser has apart from the odd collaboration been quite quiet.

But having teamed up with partner former Spiritualized drummer Damon Reece she released an eponymous EP which effectively marks her first new music in 13 years. One of many highlights is this sophisiticated chamber pop gem in which Fraser's aching lament can be compared to Kate Bush.

 

=37 Dinner Night  -  People In Airports

Having completed a stint at the Glasgow School of Art, in the summer of 2019 flatmates Max Lunn and Becky formed Dinner Night.

Now as a five-piece they released this freakish Sonic Youth vs Pavement indie-punk which builds and builds, with a wobbly-kneed fuzz bass, trashcan garage drums and a go-ballistic whirlwind of sparkling guitars finale. It sounds like a lost underground classic.

 

=37 Taahliah ft Tsatsamis   -  Fall Into Place

The Glasgow-based DJ and avant-pop producer which this list loves is soaring in the wake of the death last year of her inspiration, the Scots Grammy-nominated 'trans icon' Sophie. This is a mix of mad experimentation and insane dance pop hooks that once heard won't leave.

 

36 Unify Separate   -  Closure

The Scots-Swedish duo featuring the golden larynx of  Geneva frontman Andrew Montgomery released a second album Music Since Tomorrow and this stunning standout, a seductively slow-building dark electro monster of an album opener and the best thing they have done to date.

 

35 Yabba  -  Get By 

Air-raid siren guitars, battering percussion, distorted and R-Rate confrontational vocals and a sense-assaulting melody from this five-piece Dumfries dark sleaze-disco punk combo propel this thrill ride of a debut release skyward.

"Get By is the theme song Stone Cold Steve Austin wished he had. It is not for nerds," they warn.

 

34 Snack Villain   -  Me and You

The second ever single from the genre-bending Glasgow producer is an intoxicating cocktail of lo-fi trip hop, glitch beats, neo-soul, and alterno R&B.

 

33 Michael Timmons  -   Hanshin Railway Line

The East Kilbride songwriter released his debut album Bone Coloured in 2018 and built a growing reputation for sparse, ethereal, angst-ridden songs.  This is unlike other releases. It is a building,  brooding, soaring anthem from the Pastel EP that oozes positivity and is all the better for it. How it never made his second album is beyond me.

 

32 Russell Stewart  -  Inward

The undiscovered Glasgow alt-soul savant produces a mellowed out, shimmering gem from an eye-opening first EP that bodes well for the future.  

“Inward is about getting pulled back from being in your own head and feeling stuck at a low point with insecurities and doubt," he says. " It’s an ode to the friends, community and the people you meet that bring you out and help you through. The idea came from when I was struggling through a low point, but went to a festival and had such a beautiful night of friends, music and connection that it put things in perspective and brought me out of the dip.”

 

31 dvr  -  Stupid 

A simple guitar strum, wry R Rate lyricism, a cute DIY ethic and a killer chorus hook make this the North Berwick teenage songwriter's answer to Beck's Loser.

Speaking of the song, he says “Had a rough time but got some tunes out of it so good return on investment. Bit schtewpid innit."

 

30 Lomond Campbell  -  Phonon For No One

The one-of-a-kind Scottish multi-instrumentalist and producer who spent his formative years making sound installations with his band and art collective FOUND introduced the captivatingly diverse Under This Hunger Moon We Fell, the third and final instalment of his experiments using tape loops at the heart of his music making process.

Unlike its more experimentally electronic-based predecessor album, 2022 saw the sound sculptor produce a more accessible, diverse and moody amalagamation of styles, combining neo-classic textures alongside stark electronic moods that would be at home as a soundtrack to dark thriller.

He is at his best at his most playfully experimental, as in this remarkable multi-layered combination of light, shade, experimental,  neo-classical, keyboards, pianos, strings and even flicks of drum 'n' bass percussion in parts, exposing a fascinatingly fashioned, kaleidoscopic and truly original aural journey that is startling, possessive and haunting.  He describes it as "akin to a massive machine starting up, like a huge sinister power mobilising”. 

 

29 Bleed From Within  -  Paradise

The Glasgow-founded metalcore combo have taken 17 years to produce their most cinemascopic album of their career so far with Shrine featuring industrial beats, electronica and full symphonies courtesy of the Parallax Orchestra. 

There is dynamic experimentation on their sixth album with an oscillating, ebb-and-flow dynamic - and standout tracks like this anthem built for arenas. It starts with an atmospheric simple piano before embarking on a brave rush of whoah-ohs, angry rasps, big groove riffs, strings and a fists to the air hook of a chorus.  

 

28 Moni Jitchell  -  Tidy Rage

A chaotic melodic hardcore jewel from the barking Glasgow duo's debut EP Clear which was  recorded at Glasgow’s Chime Studios in late 2019. Its release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They expect to have a debut LP in 2023.

 

27 Duncan Marquiss  -   Drivenhalle

Best known as the guitarist from Glaswegian indie rockers The Phantom Band, he produced his beautifully immersive debut album  Wires Turned Sideways In Time in his parents's Aberdeenshire garage while influenced by Can and Neu.

This richly layered opener, which comes over like Mogwai force-fed krautrock, Hindustani classical music and movie soundtracks is a shimmeringly gorgeous cinematic 10 minute epic journey of sitar sounds, guitars, synths and carefully crafted textures. 

“I like it when music builds itself up in an organic fashion,” he says of the track.   “When it just seems to emerge and almost writes itself.”

 

26 Paolo Nutini - Through The Echoes

“Right, enough’s enough,” tweeted Scottish superstar Lewis Capaldi in early 2020, “where the f*** is Paolo Nutini?”

He is here. After a five-year hiatus, the Paisley-born singer-songwriter channels his inner Mick Hicknall on this classy, passionate return to form and highlight from his fourth album Last Night in the Bittersweet.


 

The final part drops on tomorrow, New Year's Day.

 

 

Top 100 Tunes from Scotland in 2022 Part 1 (100-76)

Top 100 Tunes from Scotland in 2022 Part 2 (75-51)​

Top 100 Tunes from Scotland in 2022 Part 4 (25-1)​