BY MIKE METTLER — JANUARY 1, 2016

Whether you choose to digest your music via 7-inch wax, digital streaming services, high-resolution downloads, and/or full-on 5.1 surround sound, this past year served up a score of tasty individual tunes for your ears to enjoy. In reverse order, here are The SoundBard’s Top 21 songs of 2015.

Re-Adrenalized: Def Leppard.

21. Def Leppard: “Blind Faith” (Bludgeon Riffola) Moody mellotron and a deft melodic touch make for a poignant sorta-ballad for these pop/rock/metal vets. “I’m covering over three octaves on that one,” Lep singer Joe Elliott told me back in October. This range rover strikes just the right chord as the self-titled album’s heartfelt closing track.

20. The Weeklings: “You Know What to Do” (Jem) Is it a Beatles outtake, or an original harmony-driven masterpiece? Only Glen Burtnik and his fellow fab four New Jerseyans know for sure, luvs.

19. The Connection: “Don’t Come Back” (Rum Bar) Classic garage punk kiss-off, with a few key hard stops to punctuate the point.

18. Grace Potter: “Delirious” (Hollywood) A supercharged Chic funkgasm that would make Prince squirm.

17. Jesse Malin: “Turn Up the Mains” (One Little Indian) Downtown New York slams into a super-Stoneslike rhythmic groove, complete with Bobby Keys-like sax wailing in the second half. Turn it up.

16. Michael Des Barres: “I Can’t Get You Off My Mind” (FOD) Silverheaded scorcher still has the rasp of ages.

15. Drake: “Hotline Bling” (Cash Money/Young Money/Universal) A.K.A., “You can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind…” 295 million YouTube viewers can’t be wrong… right?

14. Palmyra Delran & Bubble Gun: “No Time Like Never” (9 Volt Jolt) Ab-fabsolutely Bubbleicious! Like a beautifully time-capsuled ’60s smash come back to life.

13. Mercury Rev: “Rainy Day Record” (Bella Union) “For the first time in forever, I laid the needle down inside the groove… I hold my breath waiting for Side 2.” An instant callback to the rituals of youth basking in a modern revival, plus lyrical gems like “You can’t fool ol’ Peter Hook” and “Bring me the ear of Thurston Moore!” Rev’s Jonathan Donahue told me back in October, “Vinyl seems to be giving a lot of bands these days a second life. I think a lot of bands from those days never translated onto CD. That’s where the heartstrings were for me on that song. I tried to name a few of those groups off the top of my head.” A joy of listening that should never go out of stylus.

12. Lee Bannon: “Artificial Stasis” (Ninja Tune) From one of 2015’s most experimental, exhilarating, and challenging albums (Pattern of Excel) comes a song submerged in shimmery tones, echoes, and a foreboding sense of being right on the edge, with a fair dollop of imminent tippling present at every tick of the track.

11. Miami Horror: “American Dream” (Haven Sounds/Dine Alone) The perfect club track in waiting, commencing with sampled boops and burbles as the preface to the arrival of a clean acoustic-guitar-figure-and-chimes combo that sets up the instantly catchy melody. A male/female vocal blend repeats the phrase “American dream, won’t choo listen to yourself” (the word after “won’t” enunciated specifically as “to” only on the very last pass) while we raise a collective toast to the united states of bliss.

10. Eagles of Death Metal: “Save a Prayer” (T-Boy Records/UMe) In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, EODM’s cover of a thoughtful 1982 Duran Duran single resonates that much deeper with each passing moment.

9. The Weeknd: “Can’t Feel My Face” (Republic) …But I love it.

8. Vanessa Carlton: “Ascension” (Dine Alone) Haunting, elegiac end track to Liberman takes the piano songstress up into a stark, uplifting minimalist stratosphere.

7. Elle King: “Ex’s & Oh’s” (RCA) “1, 2, 3, they gonna run back to me…” Sweet vocal echo and her rasp/squealed “oh-oh-oh”s are just, well, killer. All hail the new Queen King.

6. Carly Rae Jepsen: “Warm Blood” (Silent Records/Giant Little Man) Call this definitely Carly Rae’s shining creative statement, as she balances exactly where to be breathy, whispery, and vulnerable for maximum emotional response. As Jepsen told me back in August, “First of all, credit has to be given to Rostam [Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, her producer], because he came up with the decision to change my vocal down and lowered the pitch to make it sound warped in an almost scary, Vampirish way. We both immediately liked it, in a creepy kind of way. The decision to sing it a pitch lower on the verse had to do with the fact that I had shown up one day, and my voice was a little shot. The idea was that I would come back and sing it ‘properly’ once I’d recovered, but we ended up getting married to how it sounded since my voice was kind of smokier, so we kept it.” What a Bloody fantastic decision.

5. Steve Forbert: “Big Comeuppance” (Rock Ridge) A song that went into immediate repeat mode as soon as I heard Steve finish the first line with “down to the ground-a.” Finely arranged with Forbert’s acoustic guitar, Robbie Kondor’s spot-on piano vamps, and ohhhhh, that tres-tasty Kami Lyle trumpet solo. You might as well you, you might as well you, you might as well now know. The songwriter’s songwriter does it again. “You have to reassess your research.”

4. Elle Varner: “Fuck It All” (RCA) I first heard this one over the end credits of a 2015 Season 2 episode of Power, grabbing me from the get-go. Yes, it was originally released in late 2014, but it didn’t hit me until mid-2015, so… fuck yeah.

3. Empire Cast Feat. Terrence Howard & Bre-Z: “Boom Boom Boom Boom” (Columbia) Another instant-grabber. The laser-sharp look in Terrence Howard’s eyes as he shares his demo with indolent son Hakeem and then young rap prodigy Bre-Z on Empire perfectly displays the abject hunger Lucious Lyon has to create another hit from the streets. Boom!

2. Adele: “Hello” (XL/Columbia) As in, “She had us at…” Yes, it was you we were looking for, Lady A. As soon as Adele got to belting the “hallo from the other side” chorus, I was fast in love. And yes, listen carefully, as that’s not a typo – Adele sings the title word as “hallo” on the choruses, just like she did on her Saturday Night Live performance on November 21.

1.  X Ambassadors: “Renegades” (KIDInaKORNER/Interscope) The top earwig of the year, thanks to massive airplay, being anointed the signature song for an ongoing high-profile Jeep campaign, and fist-pumping lyrics like “Long live the pioneers/rebels and mutineers” and “All hail the outlaws/Spielbergs and Kubricks.” As X Ambassadors singer/songwriter Sam Harris told me back in June, “Alex [da Kid, executive producer and KIDinaKORNER’s label head] came to me with an idea to write this song called ‘Renegades.’ He and I went into our own little world and started messing with the foundations to the track. We landed on this acoustic guitar one, and I wrote this hook over it. From there, I wrote most of the lyrics and just the foundational part, the acoustic guitar. After the song was all finished, everybody in the band came in and put their own little touches to it.” Read more of Harris’ stories behind the making of “Renegades” in our interview here on Digital Trends.

And that’s a wrap on 2015! Happy spinning, happy listening, and Happy New Year!!!