Song · The Strumbellas
“Spirits” by The Strumbellas
From the album Hope (2016)
“Spirits” by The Strumbellas appears on 19 radio countdowns from 15 stations between 2016 and 2026. It was first released in 2016 on the album Hope. Its best result is #7 on The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2016. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #18 alternative song of 2016, #4,622 alternative song of all time and #238 of the '10s.
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Video from YouTube (TheStrumbellasVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Spirits" was the first single the Canadian indie folk outfit the Strumbellas pulled from Hope, their third album, in 2016, with Dave Schiffman producing. Its video stages a funeral full of masked, costumed mourners with the band playing along, until the procession breaks loose into a lively parade in the style of a jazz funeral.
The song kept finding new lives on screen: it turned up in the film Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life that same year and in the trailer for Midnight Sun in 2018. Then in 2020 it went viral on TikTok in slowed-down and remixed forms, and that September the band answered with a fresh lyric video for all the newcomers.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 65 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 2016 | 91 |
| 2016 | 22 | CD101 Columbus, OH | CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2016 | 103 |
| 2016 | 7 | The Buzz Burlington, VT / Plattsburgh, NY / Montreal, QC | The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2016 | 99 |
| 2016 | 15 | SiriusXM Alt Nation National (SiriusXM satellite radio) | SiriusXM Alt Nation's 36 Biggest Alternative Songs of 2016 | 36 |
| 2016 | 24 | 107.1 The Peak Westchester County, NY | WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2016 | 107 |
| 2016 | 7 | 88.3 The Sting Cleveland, OH | 88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2016 | 88 |
| 2016 | 21 | X96 Salt Lake City, UT | X96 Top 50 Songs of 2016 | 50 |
| 2016 | 24 | 102.7 WEQX Southern Vermont and the Capital District of New York (Albany) | WEQX Top 102.7 of 2016 | 103 |
| 2016 | 59 | WRNR 103.1 Annapolis, MD | WRNR Top 103.1 Songs of 2016 | 104 |
| 2016 | 24 | 92.3 WTTS Indianapolis-Bloomington, IN | WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2016 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 583 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2019 | 83 | 103.3 The Edge | 103.3 The Edge Top 103.3 Songs of the Decade | 103 |
| 2019 | 496 | 94.3 WCYY | WCYY CYY 500 Most Played Songs (2019) | 500 |
| 2019 | 377 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2019 | 377 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2020 | 40 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | 102.1 The Edge Top 102 of the 2010s | 102 |
| 2022 | 291 | 101X | 101X 500 (2022) | 498 |
| 2025 | 568 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the 21st Century (So Far) | 714 |
| 2026 | 344 | 101X | 101X 500 (2026) | 500 |
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