Playlist: 10 Songs That Bring Me Joy (welcome to 2026)

Now, I tend to avoid doing Top 10 lists of anything musical, as orders of preference constantly change with moods, time and the like. But as 2025 concludes and 2026 hopefully dawns with some fresh hope and optimism, now seemed like a good time to pull together something a little more meaningful for my first playlist of the year.

There were some great things going on in 2025; lots that I am proud of, both personally, and with my family and friends - but, perhaps sounding a tad overdramatic, it was also a hard year at times...

Despite that, two things in life are guaranteed to make things better; my family (and friends) and music! So, now seems to be a good opportunity to pull together 10 songs that both mean something to me and generally make me feel more positive. Here they are - to try and start 2026 with a bang!

1. Half Man Half Biscuit: Westward Ho! (Massive Letdown)

First up - something fun, that always makes me smile.

Don't ever let anyone say that HMHB are a comedy band, because that would write them off as some kind of novelty act. What Nigel Blackwell has cleverly done for forty years, is fuse indie sounds with whip-smart lyrics; sometimes sardonic, sometimes biting, always clever and witty. He has carved out a niche as a musical prose writer extraordinaire - his subjects are probably only really accessible if you know / understand British culture, but if you do, you will always smile when you hear HMHB records. The music is always accessible though - Westward Ho! starts with some throbbing bass and a Joy Division-eque guitar riff, before we launch into lyrics about this small seaside town in Devon, that are largely taken from Trip Advisor reviews of it - and if you've been there, you'll understand....

Westward Ho! (Massive Letdown) - (audio only)

2. Energy Orchard: Belfast

This is a slightly leftfield choice for a positive playlist like this, but Belfast is such a big and powerful song about a hometown, warts and all. Written by original bassist with Energy Orchard, Joby Fox, it reflects a time when 'the troubles' were still at a peak (when would it ever end?) - but despite the pain all around him, he was a young man in love; "Belfast, how I know you so well. You're like heaven; you're like hell." The whole of their first eponymously titled album was just so great (most of the rest of which was written by the much lamented Bap Kennedy) - another one in the 'how on earth did they not become bigger' pile!

Belfast - (live on The Show, Belfast, 1989)

Here are a pair of tunes with 'happy' in the title - these have to go in.

3. Powderfinger: My Happiness

A slightly strange love song by this Aussie band, about being apart, resonates with me this Christmas holidays, with my daughter being back from university for her first break. "My happiness is slowly creeping back now you're at home. If it ever starts sinking in, it must be when you pack up and go." A feeling we'll get used to every holiday time for the next few years - enjoy them while they are home!

My Happiness (official music video)

4. Nada Surf: Happy Kid

This little tune is full of energy, although lyrically it actually sits somewhere between happy and sad (the album version reflects this with a slightly melancholic feel). As singer Matthew Caws tries to explain, "I'd rather be happy. I find it a challenge sometimes... [Happy Kid] it's just aiming right down the middle of a kind of directionless attempt at figuring things out." But I have gone for a session version that is particularly great and played with a more joyous touch, especially the way drummer Ira Elliot looks so flippin' happy as he executes all these wonderful little drum fills throughout the song.

Happy Kid - (live on KEXP, 2018)

Here are two wonderful songs from recent years that resonate with a message of anti-bigotry, that fill me with hope when the news brings me down...

5. Idles: Danny Nedelko

From the video, with Danny Nedelko on the right

The rise of right-wing nastiness and petty hatred, fuelled by social media, misinformation and casual racism has often filled me with nausea this year. Then I look back on this 2018 song from Bristol's Idles (Danny is a real Ukrainian immigrant and friend of the band) - seemingly brutal and punkish on the outside, but actually a song that is full of wonderful joy and spirit - and I am lifted. It is about immigrants and all the positive things they bring to this great country. Don't allow people to take away their stories, their existence, their hope; don't remove their humanity by reducing them to just a set of numbers (or compare them to insects).

"Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain, pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate... UNITY"

Danny Nedelko - (official music video)

6. Split Single: (Nothing You Can Do) To End This Love

Jason Narducy wanted to be an ally for his LGBTQ+ friends, so he wrote this song for Split Single's third album, 2021's Amplificado (an album that benefits from Mike Mills as guest bassist and distinctive backing vocalist). In the process, he also wrote an absolute banger - a straight-up joyous indie pop song that fills me with so much happiness, it remains my favourite song of the decade to date. It is so full of positivity and is a reminder that there is simply no need to become so hateful when speaking about others; everyone deserves a chance to love and be loved for who they are. So, just like the one before, don't choose the hateful way - choose positivity and love.

(Nothing You Can Do) To End This Love - (official music video)

Please remember, if you do nothing else next year, bring your empathy and the spirit of human kindness with you!

7. Simple Minds: Alive & Kicking

This was one of the first songs that got me into Simple Minds forty years ago. I have since gone on to prefer other parts of their catalogue, that have a little more subtlety and atmosphere, but there are myriad reasons why this song goes in here. It is anthemic - they may have swapped some of that subtlety to make way for an arena sized sound, but they had become masters of orchestration - this song ebbs and flows, building to crescendos and singalong choruses (and who can resist some la la la-ing). Also, my hometown team (Aldershot Town) went bust and were re-born, with this as their theme - they still play it before every home game some 33 years later. And lastly, my son has recently discovered it and it probably is somewhere near the top of his streaming most-played list for 2025.

Alive & Kicking - (official music video)

8. Split Enz: I Got You

Photo: Warner Music

Split Enz had spent a happy few years of the mid-70s ploughing the prog / art rock furrow, and flying the musical flag for New Zealand around the globe. Then, Tim Finn had the bright idea to invite his younger brother to join the band. So, 18-year old Neil Finn joined and within a few years had written I Got You, their signature hit record - and a quirky pop masterpiece to boot (and not the last he would write either). Not a bad effort - 8 weeks at number one in Australia, number 12 in the UK and just missing the Billboard Top 40 - and at that point (July 1980) the biggest selling single in Australian history.

I Got You - (live at the MCG, 2009)

9. Hoodoo Gurus: What's My Scene?

I recently re-discovered this little ditty from under-rated Australian rockers, Hoodoo Gurus. It was never a hit in the UK, but it rang vague bells when I heard it again, and leaves me wondering why I haven't listened to it every day for the last 38 years! It really is that good.... It's a rocking, hook-filled, catchy as heck, humorous search for one's identity and place in life - oh, and the video is a fun one too. If it doesn't bring you happiness, I am suspicious....

What's My Scene? - (official music video)

10. Big Country: In A Big Country

This version is from one of those gigs I wished I could have been at - New Year's Eve 1983 at the legendary Barrowlands - the only things preventing me from being there; the fact that I was only 10 at the time (and wouldn't have known much about them at the time), and the gig being 500 miles away in Glasgow! It is an anthem for dreamers. "In a big country dreams stay with you, like a lover's voice fire's the mountainside, stay alive". Big Country moved me like almost no other band ever could, especially live - and Stuart Adamson was, and will remain, my all time musical hero.