Gayngs – Cry – This project isn’t new, but I’m finally listening to Jagjaguwar uber-band Gayngs.  Members of Bon Iver, Megafaun, The Rosebuds, and Solid Gold combine with rappers, songstresses, and a jazz sax player to create a 69bpm experiment in sound and collaboration.  The record, as you’d imagine, is pretty schitzo, but the successful moments are pretty special.  At the moment, I’m substituting this song for “Time After Time” at the end of Romy & Michele [watch it, muted, as you listen to this song].  It’s a beautiful, lurching slow dance. Time dragged to nearly to a halt. The camera spins, panning slowly across a sea of friends, then starts to ascend. As the screen fades to black I wonder to myself if everything in the world is suddenly right, or gone woefully wrong? [from Relayed|buy]

[Listen to the whole thing on a Spotify playlist here]

**added 1/16: Gotye – Somebody I Used to Know – This was my fifth-most listened to track of 2011, but somehow never ended up in my ‘Best of’ playlist that I compile over the course of the year. And then I forgot about it yesterday. The list is the list, so I’m not going to kick anyone out, but I thought I’d mention it. If you just found out about Gotye this year, you can read two pieces I did on him back in 2007 [here and here]**

25. The Civil Wars – Poison & Wine
24. Theophilus London – Why Even Try (RAC remix)
23. The Forms – Steady Hand
22. Jamie Woon – Waterfront [listen]
21. Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx – Night Call
20. NewVillager – Lighthouse
19. The Lonely Forest – Turn Off This Song and Go Outside
18. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Morning Thought
17. Mute Math – Cavalries
16. Son Lux – All the Right Things
15. Gillian Welch – The Way It Will Be
14. Wye Oak – Civilian
13. David Bazan – Virginia
12. M83 – Midnight City
11. The Hood Internet – Without Kimmi (Usher vs. Twin Sister) [listen]

10. Keegan DeWitt Thunder Clatter | there’s a giddiness about this song and I quite enjoy. It smacks of bright raindrops on rooftops, of children spinning hands-held around a fire. The guitar was giggling; the leaves were rustling; it was written in the fall…

9. Penguin Prison Don’t Fuck With My Money | it seems every year, I go gaga for a Prince wannabe (Fyfe Dangerfield and The-Dream in 2010, Sam Sparro in 2008) and PP is this year’s entrant. It’s simple, really. Just take some emphatic synth, a booty-wiggling beat, some uber-exuberant vocals, and a ridiculously catchy chorus and you’ve got $$$. And don’t fuck with it!

8. Phantogram Don’t Move | every little thing clicks in this song, even the click itself at the end of every measure. Random samples come together in harmony. Electrofuzz can be a little annoying and in-your-face these days, but this is decidedly restrained and refined, plus it’ll make your toes want to tap in defiance of the song’s title.

7. James Vincent McMorrow We Don’t Eat | despite all the hype James Blake received this year, I prefer the raspy bare soul of this scraggly-bearded Irishman. A single piano note resounds throughout, lending context to the growth around it. [listen]

6. Miracle Fortress Everything Works | i do not fault (and rather enjoy) Miracle Fortress’ usual dreamy harmonized, beach boys-meets-the-clientele fair, but this is decidedly more straight-forward. With a beat, an arpeggiation, a hand-clap, and an overt channeling of Talking Heads, magic can happen. [listen]

5. Bon Iver Holocene | descriptions for Justin Vernon’s frigid falsetto folk have long since passed the point of hyperbole. He’s revealed before that he writes some songs mad-libs style, plugging in words for no other reason than because they sound good. Sometimes the multi-tracked whisp-like vocals unravel just enough to render the lyrics unintelligible anyway. But sometimes, there’s a line, or a word, or a breath, that cuts through the fog, through my skin, through my heart. And I realize the rest just doesn’t matter.

4. Scattered Trees Bury the Floors | Nate Eiesland has sung eloquently about grandparents passing before. I don’t know exactly what he’s speaking about here, but all I can think about is my own grandmother.  I imagine the pace-like tambourine to be her footsteps alongside mine. I can’t help but be moved by the melodically droning organ, the gravelly crescendo of harmonies, and “the stars, the stars, and the light on your face, replace the words on a page, to remind me, to remind me of…” [listen]

3. Beyonce 1+1 | before she debuted this song on Idol, Beyonce introduced it as “her favorite song” and I’ve got to admit that it’s mine too (of hers, anyway). Co-written by The-Dream (figures), it’s simply an incredibly moving expression of emotion from one of the signature voices of our generation.  This is “I Will Always Love You” with some serious gravitas. Kevin Costner would have had no shot with this lioness.

2. Bombay Bicycle Club Shuffle | “once you get the feeling, it wants you back for more…” this song put ants in my pants and made me do the boogie dance (all the way to france?). The recurring piano sample, the babbling bass and dancing vocals, the swirling insistence of it all literally propel me towards euphoria. [listen]

1. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | from the first furtive strum to final sigh of the guitar, this song spins gold from the plain straws of our common existence and laying claim to a place amongst its tiny recesses. Even in my heart, I could never have as accurately expressed the doubt and wonder at my future as this song so easily and beautifully does. [listen]

*view my lists for 2010,  2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006.

*Find the tracklists for Blankets V.1, V.2, and V.3!

I wrote this blip in October of 2006, a fact that only cements the reality of the time that has elapsed between then and now. Somewhat tragically, I could write an identical passage about Wesafari today and still be almost 100% factually correct. The slight statistical anomaly is actually the most important part: there is now a follow-up…

Wesafari might be the ultimate local band. Amazing(ly), obscure. A treasure you feel priveleged to know about. A small part of you just wants to keep them in your pocket forever, but the bigger part wants them to play packed rooms in every town. For the dynamic healing power of their music to fix scores of unsuspecting and previously unhappy people. For the artistic process, the sweat and tears and time it takes to make something great, to all be worth it in the end. This industry sucks so bad right now, it blows my mind sometimes that bands that fit Wesafari’s description (of which there are few) even exist at all.

Being such a huge fan of Alaska, I was almost afraid to listen to Sea Survivors. The fear was short-lived. Like Alaska‘s “Shooting Stars” before it, “Lions” is a killer opener here , but with a key difference: it’s not Alaska. My interest piqued, I plowed onward. A few things stand out. One of the only negative things I can say about Alaska is that it is relatively short (9 tracks). Survivors comes in a healthy 13 tracks long and is immaculately paced. Newest band member Trina Mills lends her vocals to a few songs, most notably “Eye for an Ideal”, where she and Rick Wright do a little back and forth round that I loved.  This still sounds like the Wesafari I love, but it’s warmer, more hopeful and lush. A little more golden. If Alaska was a snow drift lean-to, Sea Survivors is a blanket, beckoning you from the chaise lounge, ready to bring the heat back into your life.

Listen:
Lions
Matchbox
[from Sea Survivors|buy]
Shooting Stars
[from Alaska|buy]
BONUS TRACK!!
From Glacier to Sea
[live on KEXP]

*view my lists for 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006.

5. Spoon – Transference
“Out Go the Lights“
I wrote in January that Transference was Spoon “going back to the drawing board and crafting another flawless spectacle out of tinfoil and toothpicks” and the record has only gotten stronger in the days between. Spoon’s music does not have to be shiny to speak. There are tracks here that sound like they were recorded in the living room by a tape recorder in the kitchen, by old newspaper speakers, by black and white and grainy gramophone. It matters not. This band exists in its own world, and we listen and judge it to be good, convention be damned. While some songs end up sticking in your head, Spoon has rarely been a singles band. This album is loose and free, dark and light, gritty and brave. 2010 simply marks a new vintage of the same old Spoon.
[buy on iTunes or Amazon]
4. Vampire Weekend – Contra
“I Think UR a Contra“
Two seconds into Contra, I came full-circle on Vampire Weekend. I’d been unfair, a victim of my own pretentious bullshit. I refused to like their self-titled debut, buying instead into the vicious backlash sprung forth from the sudden fawning of the press and fans alike. I wrote off their revolutionary “afro-beat” sound because I thought it was a gimmick, and because I didn’t want to associate with the annoying, whiny Brooklyn hipsters who were adopting it as their anthem. Contra changed all that. This band is simply too good to endure a sophomore slump. Along the way Ezra Koenig has become this generation’s Rivers Cuomo, a musical savant in a cardigan, practically inventing his own genre. It’s a fact quickly confirmed by the most telling of occurrences: rampant haters and copycats. Contra is quick, tight, and brilliantly bright. And if you’ve written them off too, I’d urge you to reconsider. Everyone deserves a second chance, after all. [buy on iTunes or Amazon]
3. Faded Paper Figures – New Medium
“Rewind“
It’s probably unfair to say Faded Paper Figures are currently outdoing Ra Ra Riot at their own game (namely by writing better songs), but I guess I just said it. Guy/girl vox, synths, glockenspiels, tambourines, and probably the kitchen sink mark many parts of New Medium, but the reason it works is the carefully-paced exhales opposite these wild inhalations. Owl City got a lot of press by copyin…errr…filling the void the Postal Service abandoned by never following Give Up. With most audiophiles, Owl City is something of a joke now, nothing but a dumbed-down facade of the Postal Service aimed at 13-year-old girls. We should have been looking to Faded Paper Figures all along. New Medium, and ’08′s Dynamo before it, provide a proper and logical progression from Give Up. It’s a unique, melodic and honest record. A truly dynamic long-player of an album. Bravo. [buy on iTunes or CDBaby]
2. Field Music – (Measure)
“In the Mirror“
David Brewis can do very little wrong in my eyes. No matter the supporting cast (he released one of the best records of 2008 on his own) or the country he lives in (Canada for ’07′s Tones of Town, now back in England), he continues to craft incredible smart-pop. Imagine ’90s cult-pop icons Jellyfish with less Queen and more Beatles. String samples and time-signature magic are hallmarks, but the best part has always been the melodies and expert arrangement of all the pieces. It’s dizzying and disorienting at times, but when the resolve comes around, an incredibly satisfying listening experience. [buy on iTunes or Amazon]
1. Darwin Deez – s/t
“The City“
I spun this record more than any other this year, so much so that my wife grew to love, then loathe it because of Darwin’s almost-annoying level of catchiness. It plays with the attitude of a 19-year-old thrust into the world, determined to pierce the fog of adulthood with the powers of light, innocence, exuberance, confidence, whimsy, adoration, and wild love. Where there was once darkness, there is none to be found. Darwin’s re-evolution is upon us. [buy on iTunes or Amazon]