10 Catchiest Indie Rock Songs
You better be ready to sing your heart out to these indie anthems.
The word ‘indie’ is a curious word, guaranteed to split a room in a way that would’ve previously required an architecture degree and copious amounts of drywall. As anyone who has ever tried to talk music to a group of new people will attest, admitting you listen to ‘indie’ is a flip of the conversational coin. Heads, you win, you have a new group of mates. Tails, you lose, and get stuck with the nickname ‘Liam Gallagher’ for the next few hours, which really isn’t as cool as it sounds.
Even people who do listen to indie music have a distaste for the label, a label which is subject to intense gatekeeping, in-fighting and all-round discord. In short, indie has an image problem on par with binge drinking and stomach flu. So, what in the world can bring peace to this complex situation? How do we reunite the two halves of the room, the two sides of the coin? Must we get the UN involved? The answer is simple. Gather a collection of indie songs so infectiously catchy, earworms so melodically contagious, that the entire world has no choice but to join hands and live in harmony with one another.
That is the end towards which this list is the means. These are the ten most annoyingly catchy indie songs that will (potentially) bring about world peace.
10. Blossoms – There’s A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)
Picture the scene: you’re walking down the street with your headphones on. All of a sudden, a DeLorean materialises out of thin air, flux capacitor in tow. A crazy-eyed, crazier-haired scientist opens the gullwing doors, demanding to know what year it is. You find yourself unable to respond, so the gentleman grabs your headphones, fitting them over his ears, getting a taste of what it is you’re listening to. He hears massively reverbed drums, a prominent bass groove, a chorus of male voices, and an enormous synth riff tapped out on a harsh synth string pad.
“Ah,” he says, “1985! I’m home,”
Alas, no, Doc Brown, you’ve missed your target by a good 35 years, despite what the music says. This is Blossoms with ‘There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)’, the Stockport quintet’s glassy-eyed stare at the Ghost of Relationship Past, as she haunts you on a night out.
From the off, you know what you’re in for, as the synth stabs away at five notes before being joined by the full ensemble, transporting you back in time to the 80s, in a way that only Tom Ogden and co. or the aforementioned DeLorean can. The rest of that synth lead goes exactly where it needs to, backed by both guitar and vocals, dancing around the keyboard like a gamer entering a cheat code – presumably the code for infinite replays of the song in your mind. Good luck shifting this one from your brain.