The songs we played on Spotify most in 2016 and why

((logo: Spotify, edit: Christopher Hooton))

Spotify has deployed its annual 'Wrapped' feature, showing you the soundtrack to your subway journeys, house parties and bathtimes in 2016. The service has been firing out emails to users with detailed stats in like how many minutes you spent listening to music on it, how many different artists you got through and your top five genres, but you can find a playlist, in order, of the individual songs you listened to most by clicking through this page.

Here, me and a few of my colleagues each state/confess our most-listened-to track and why we blasted it so much:

‘untitled 02 06.23.2014.’ by Kendrick Lamar

“Pimp-pimp, hooray!” That recurring call-sign from Kendrick’s experimental and oddly cohesive compilation of off-cuts untitled unmastered was lodged in my head for most of the spring, largely thanks to this track, which is up there with the best he’s ever written. Moody and moreish, it is populated by saxophone lines that sound like they’re falling up and down M.C. Escher-designed staircases, precarious, crumbling piano chords and a bass line that purrs like the engine of a muscle car turning over at a dark road intersection. Lyrically, it is as dense as you would expect from K-Dot, a tapestry of references that sees him trying to reconcile leaving Compton for music festivals and fancy hotel rooms. His voice wavers beautifully on the haunting line “I see jiggaboos, I see Styrofoams” and the understated drop at the beginning of the “Cornrow Kenny he was born with a vision…’ verse is probably responsible for a fair share of my listens, making me screw up my face in delight every time. I’ll leave it to Kanye to quote the catchiest hook of the year though:

- Christopher Hooton, Culture Editor

'All Night' by Chance the Rapper

I must admit, this is quite a surprise. Chance the Rapper’s Colouring Book was a solid mixtape, but 'All Night' was hardly the stand-out moment. Why my most-listened-to track of 2016 then? Probably thanks to my morning “Please Don’t Talk To Me, Can’t You See I’m Wearing Massive Headphones” playlist for the good ‘ol Tube commute which this song is on. Plus, being only two minutes in length and of serviceable catchiness, there’s barely time to get my phone out to switch track. Oh, and Frank Ocean’s album was only on Apple Music, Kanye’s on TIDAL and the former dropped too late in the year to rack up as many plays.

- Jack Shepherd, Culture Reporter

'Giant' by Banks & Steelz

Banks & Steelz marks a meeting of minds that somehow makes both the least and most amount of sense – smashing together the perpetual melancholy of Interpol's Paul Banks and the machine-gun precision of RZA into something totally unique.

- Clarisse Loughrey, Culture Reporter

'Miracle Aligner' by The Last Shadow Puppets

I was surprised to find this particular Last Shadow Puppets track top of my ‘most-listened’ list on Spotify - sure, I worship at the altar of Alex Turner, but I wouldn’t have named it my favourite track on their latest record. Upon retrospect, however, it becomes as simple as a line out of a doo-wop tune (to steal from the wordsmith): filled with an alluring Turner vocal, 'Miracle Aligner' is a melodious gift from a past era that seeps into your bones without you realising. Honourable mention goes to Jamie T’s indie treat 'Joan of Arc'.

- Jacob Stolworthy, Culture Reporter

'Send Them Off!' by Bastille

I wasn’t really surprised to see that Bastille’s ‘Send Them Off!’ was my most played song of the year - it’ll probably be in my top 100 for 2017 as well. Dan Smith has this weird superpower when it comes to writing earworms, and ‘Send Them Off!’, the second single from Wild World, is one of his best. A natural story-teller, Dan draws on the narrative from Othello and Shakespeare's green-eyed monster and attaches them to feelings of jealousy in a modern-day relationship. The narrator is also hyper aware of his own flaws and insecurities - this is a running theme for a lot of Bastille songs - and so in ‘Send Them Off!’ you hear a desire to be rid of those jealous feelings, without quite knowing how. Then there’s the instrumentation: the swaggering brass riff, ominous bass, and the hip-hop influences on the beat that builds into that absolutely stonking chorus. It’s all incredibly over the top, a big, epic jam that has been stuck in my head for months and probably won’t leave until Bastille’s next album.

- Roisin O'Connor, Music Correspondent

'Pastel' by Moose Blood

Having fawned over them since watching them play to around 50 people in what can only be described as an extended toilet in Whitechapel three years ago, it was great to see Moose Blood break through to the mainstream in 2016. The Kent group’s second full-length, Blush, hit the top 10 and was hands down my album of the year. It’s jam-packed full of catchy emotional pop songs like opener 'Pastel', in which frontman Eddie Brewerton sings about his new wife and fatherhood. With its overtly early Noughties emo influence, its comfortingly nostalgic yet uplifting hook made it my go-to escape from the grim reality of this year.

- Steve Anderson, Daily Edition Editor

'Watch Me' by Anhoni

Anhoni’s Hopelessness may as well be an ode to 2016 and ‘Watch Me’ feels like the perfect soundtrack to the year in which any privacy we once had on the internet seemingly ceased to exist. The lyrics glide between seductive voyeurism, “Watch me watching pornography”, to chilling surveillance, “I know you love me, cos you’re always watching me/Protecting me from evil/Protecting me from terrorism”.

- Kirsty Major, Voices Commissioning Editor

Raveheart (Original Mix) by Galantis

I want to caveat this by saying I've only had Spotify for a month. Yes, I know I'm spectacularly late to the party - forgive me, I'm still clinging to my iPod. Electronica appears to have snuck into my top five, nestled atop Halsey's 'Castles' and Mos Def classic 'Miss Fat Booty'. Perhaps it's a symptom of my slow spiral into an existential crisis one angry, synth-laden tune at a time? Maybe it's just really good concentration music? I haven't decided yet.

- Narjas Zatat, Indy100 Writer

'Desire Gets in the Way' by American Football

If there was one stomach-lurching feeling to define 2016, it was that which followed the swift supplanting of hope by disappointment – the realisation that David Bowie had in fact left us, that Britain had in fact voted Brexit, and all the (extensive) rest. So, when American Football released a second album in October – 17 years after the first, a defining release of the emo canon – it seemed inevitable it would underwhelm. But it didn’t. 'Desire Gets in the Way' was the pinnacle of a reassuringly familiar album. With twinkling, earworm guitars and lyrics that found comfort in the forlorn – “we’ll lie here forever like condemned criminals on trial” – it was something to cling to, an affirming reminder that, after all, there are some things you can count on.

- Jochan Embley, IndyBest Writer

'Faking Jazz Together' by Connan Mockasin

Oddly, my most-listened to track of 2016 wasn’t from this year at all, but from 2011. But that’s rather apt for a year marked by death, uncertainty and long-held conventions being cast aside. 'Faking Jazz Together' from New Zealander musician Conan Mockasin is a song of contradictions. It unfurls over five minutes and 13 seconds but feels too short. It’s as ethereal and dream-like as it is melancholy nightmarish, with its trembling guitars, Mockasin’s high-pitched vocals and cryptic lyrics, After countless listens, I still don’t know what “Love that’s forced is borrowed / Eating out for breakfast” means or what a “quadropus” is. With a song this beautiful, arresting and strangely comforting, I don’t particularly care.

- Kashmira Gander, Lifestyle Writer

'Run' by Tourist

When I listen to music it’s usually while I’m trying to focus, or on the move. And so naturally I tend to reach for something upbeat, and with few words to distract me. That’s exactly what this song is. There are no lyrics, it’s incredibly repetitive, and I’d probably pretend I’d never heard it if it came on in a nightclub (because it never would). And yet I love everything about it. It may not be my favourite song of the year (or yours), but it’s got me through some of the toughest commuter struggles North London has to offer, and offers solace in a world of catchy choruses that won’t let me get back to my work.

- Matt Murphy, Assistant Video Editor

'On the Lips' by Frankie Cosmos

I am in love with Frankie Cosmos (real name Greta Kline) and this song, slight at one minute 49 seconds, epitomises her genius.

It is bare and electric with simple lyrics that jab at your emotions socks without her breaking a sweat. Labelled an anti-folk musician, Frankie (I feel we’re on first name terms) came into my life through a performance of this song on YouTube in June. She barely moved anything other than her lips by the mic and her fingers on the fret board while wearing a hoodie. This song works on its own, as part of her 2016 Next Thing album or in a playlist…in essence the most eminently listenable song of 2016 – My wife now hates it.

- Matt Payton, Assistant Audience Editor