Dork's Bangers of the Year (So Far): 50-41

It's the first ten tracks in our Q1/Q2 stock take of the biggest bangers.

We’re more than half way through the 2018 auditing period, Dear Reader. That means it’s time to pull down the shutters, call in the staff, and do a stock check on the only thing that counts. Cold, hard Bangers.

We’ve run the sums, calculated the co-efficients, and come up with our definitive top 50 tracks of the year so far. You can read the full run down now in the new issue of Dork, or keep pace on readdork.com over the next few days as we count down.

Obviously there are rules to this countdown. You can read them here.

Featuring appearances from the likes of Black Honey, Peace, Pale Waves, Years & Years, Chvrches, Spring King and more, here's the first 10 to make the cut.

What they say: “Bad Friends is a still in time - when you feel just as lost in a moment as you are lost in an internal conflict between your ever-changing feelings for the wrong people. It’s about ultimately craving something that makes you alive. Sonically we wanted to create our own Frankenstein’s monster of pop music that felt equally wrong as it is right” - Izzy B Phillips

What they say: “Lay It On Me’ is telling someone if they need you, you’ll be there,” says Ethan. “You’ve been away and distant, but now you’re back.”

What they say: “’Animal’ takes you two hundred miles an hour, and by the end of it, you’ve got rid of all the demons. You’ve shaken them all out,” starts Tarek Musa before adding a smile. “It’s a workout.”

“Guitar-wise, it’s inspired by Pantera. Not that it sounds anything like it. I was really getting back into heavy music,” explains Pete Darlington, who set out to write 100 riffs for this record.

What they say: The song was produced by Steve Mac (Ed Sheeran / ‘Shape Of You’). On working with the mega-producer, the band says: “‘Miracle’ is the only song from ‘Love Is Dead’ that we didn’t write and record in the States, instead producing it in London with Steve Mac. Steve is such an intuitive writer with such a killer ear for melody and working with him felt very easy and natural. He makes space for everyone in the room and really pushes people to try things and go outside of their comfort zone, in a good way.”

What they say: “This song is about the colours of the heart that live under the cool pastels and monochrome chequers,” says frontman Harry Koisser. “It’s about the bright primary stubbornness and unsophisticated optimism that won’t stop squirming toward true love. It’s a 100% real life true human emotional time capsule being unearthed for me. It was something I was desperate to say to somebody but obviously didn’t have the courage.”

What they say: “I want to take people on a wild and wonderful adventure through my dreams to a world that’s very different from our own. I’ve been thinking about this place for a long time, a place to tell stories from; about identity, sexuality, celebrity and performance.” - Olly Alexander.

Words: Jake Hawkes, Martyn Young, Stephen Ackroyd