Wud Records: 20 Most Played Tracks of 2021

Posted in News on 04/01/2022

20 Most Played Tracks of 2021

We thought it might be fun to make two playlists of the 20 most played tracks of 2021, one each for SoundCloud and Bandcamp. We felt that such playlists would enable fans of our bands to hear what has been hot and to have the opportunity to enjoy listening to some of our most popular tracks of recent times.

SoundCloud
Wud Records had a very good year on SoundCloud. Activity was very slightly below what it was in 2020, and more than double what it was in both 2019 and 2018. We finished the year with over 3200 followers. It is very pleasing that more new fans across the world are discovering and enjoying the great music made by our amazing artists.

Making a SoundCloud playlist of the tracks that were popular there is easily done. To listen to the 20 Most Played Tracks of 2021 playlist at the SoundCloud website, simply click here to open that page in a new tab.

The 20 Most Played Tracks of 2021 were dominated by four acts. Dark Company and Flicker both achieved seven of the top twenty songs, Alchemeon four, and The Bastard Sons of Dennis took the other two. That result means the three active bands we have on SoundCloud are all represented, as is the most recently retired legacy act.

It is little surprise that Dancing in the Dark by Dark Company should be the top track of the year on SoundCloud. It spent six months on the top of our monthly charts and is still receiving enough love and streams to keep it in the top ten. We have been working on finalisng the Alien Heat album, from which it comes, and hope to release it this year.

Songs from various other Dark Comopany albums were popular in 2021. The other albums with tracks in the top 20 are Can of Worms, Rage in Heaven, Noir, Mind Dance and Old Hands. All apart from Rage In Heaven are work in progress that we aim to complete as soon as we are able.

Medicines from the album Rage in Heaven has been our most played song over the years. It may not have appeared on many of the charts in 2021, but like various other tracks it was consistently just outside. Fans continue to remember it, search for it and enjoy listening to it.

All seven of the Flicker tracks are the wonderful instrumentals from their much-loved album At Least 1000 Words. We are working on more tracks for Flicker’s second album, HappySad, and hope to bring some of them to you before long.

The four wonderful Alchemeon songs include previous chart toppers The Freaks (Shall Inherit The Earth) and Castrol GTX a-Go-Go. They are both from Alchemeon’s Live In Session Spring 2009 album, along with Orb. The space rock epic Born Of Stars comes from their live Winter recording.

The two remaining places were taken by The Bastard Sons of Dennis. The Furniture / Los Muebles is a comedy alternative folk flamenco epic. It is split into several parts and alternates with other songs throughout the entire Cherry Smoke Empire album. It is Part One (Overture) that features in the 20 Most Played Tracks of 2021, along with their wonderful acoustic funk and progressive rock song Good Times.

The whole uninterrupted version of The Furniture / Los Muebles is also available for download from Bandcamp by clicking here.

It is worth noting that these are only the most streamed tracks at SoundCloud, rather than the most popular. The total amounts of likes, reposts and comments have been ignored. Taking these other factors into consideration would inevitably yield different results.

Top 20 SoundCloud Tracks 2021

1. Dark Company – Dancing in the Dark
2. Alchemeon – The Freaks (Shall Inherit The Earth)
3. Flicker – Oily Road Hideaway
4. Flicker – Welcome to the Family
5. The Bastard Sons of Dennis – The Furniture (part 1: overture)
6. Flicker – Blown Away
7. Dark Company – Horizontal Hold
8. The Bastard Sons of Dennis – Good Times
9. Flicker – Farsight
10. Flicker – Beautiful Wings
11. Alchemeon – Born of Stars
12. Dark Company – Medicines
13. Dark Company – Cable Guy
14. Alchemeon – Orb
15. Flicker – Moonpath
16. Dark Company – Humpty Dumpty
17. Dark Company – Slave of Days
18. Dark Company – Failsafe
19. Alchemeon – Castrol GTX a-Go-Go
20. Flicker – Serendipity

Bandcamp
It’s been a reasonable year for Wud Records on Bandcamp. January was a fantastic month, and then things became quieter until we announced Dark Company’s 30th Anniversary, which caused a spike in sales again.

Bandcamp is the platform with the best ethos in the business. If you are not a member yet, it’s time to join.

One of the great features of Bandcamp is its Communities. You can join ours by clicking here. ;-)

In 2021, both our streams and sales were down slightly overall compared to 2020. The best-selling album was Flicker‘s At Least 1000 Words, and the best selling individual track was Minack from Flicker‘s work-in-progress HappySad album.

The 2021 chart sees a good spread of different artists with no one act claiming domination for the year’s Bandcamp streams.

Over at Bandcamp it is not so easy to make a simple playlist of our popular tracks. Instead, what we have done is created some sort of playlist here, within this very news post, for your listening pleasure. Simply clicking on the links below will allow you to play the various tracks.