Previously: 50-41
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40. The Mountain Goats - Cry For Judas
John Darnielle's 14th LP arrived with relatively muted fanfare, mainly because getting a release from Darnielle nearly every year is A) expected and B) usually of typically good quality, which doesn't raise much fuss. The early October release is the latest in a catalog of angry folk music that focuses a lot on coping with various things: emotions, broken families, etc. "Speed up to the precipice / And then slam on the brakes / Some people crash two or three times / And then learn from their mistakes," Darnielle sings of those haphazard moments we all live through (and, as hopefully follows, learn from). Laid out over a pressing drum beat and uncharacteristically high-mannered horn section, this song is more one to nod along with than head-bob, because it feels like, once again, Darnielle is just laying bare what we all feel sometimes.39. Hospitality - Monkey
I would tell you what story I thought this song might be telling if I had any idea what it's lyrics meant. I'm still not sure. There's probably some obtuse story being told here, but I'm not clued in. What I am clued in on, though, is one of my favorite guitar solos of the year in the middle of the song and a dirtier sound than Hospitality put forth through most of their debut, self-titled LP, released earlier this year. It's a little grimy, at least by their standards, and that seems to heighten the appeal before the song just spirals away as guitars seem to sound a siren before taking their time fading out. But really, though, if you can understand what story or message is being told here, feel free to let me know.38. Dirty Projectors - Offspring Are Blank
Introduced by a throaty, hummed chorus before the symphony of "ooh"-ing takes over and the vocals kick off with a throat clear, the lead-off track from Dirty Projectors' latest is characteristically strange. Dave Longstreth has a voice you either tolerate or grimace at - a fine foil to the smoothness of Amber Coffman and co. in backing - but its occasional wails work very well here, both in front of the pounding drums and exploding guitars and when the guitars switch to acoustic. It's funny and a bit off-balance, but that's the kind of thing this band has learned to do so well.37. The xx - Reunion
Everything the xx do is dripping with sex. The dual vocals croon and coo at you, at once enticing and dangerous. There's a sensual quality to their music that gets under your skin. This particular track has a Caribbean kick to it, with a steel drum playing a lead role in a large part of the song. Rolling the notes on the drum helps it fit in with the haziness of the song's beat, instead of poking holes in it with sharp strikes. It's a cold song song, one that almost makes you feel a wintry breeze in your hair as you listen, or at least one that makes you want to wrap a blanket around yourself before you get lost in its mist.36. Tall Ships - Gallop
I can't deny that, every time I play this song, I feel like I'm listening to some strange hybrid of Morrissey and Editors. Pitchfork's Laura Snapes summarized this song better than I probably could when she said of it: "Simply sung, it's a frenzied, post-rocky outpouring of thoughts that you will be familiar with, or will have had-- "Hope is hard to find when you don't know what you're looking for"-- that offers no solutions, but never presumes to wear hopelessness as a badge of honor." About right.35. Sun Airway - Laketop Swimmers
I've never bothered to figure out just what Jon Barthmus is singing in "Laketop Swimmers." I haven't much cared to. I don't put this song on to hear a tale, I put this song on to disappear. The Philadelphia synthpop outfit have crafted a song where I feel perfectly fine just floating along, right in line with the song's own unhurried pacing. The lyrical hook that brings in each verse is also poetically pretty. The song doesn't really evolve, but what's already existing is more than enough for my ears.34. Sharon Van Etten - All I Can
One of the ultimate slow burns of this year's music crop, "All I Can" is the latest in a line of heartbroken Van Etten parables. The woman does the varying emotions of heartache - from venom to apathy to misery - with such beautiful ease that it's almost easy to forget to commiserate as you admire the song itself. "All I Can" keeps building and building and building, adding parts, ramping up vocals that ultimately lead to some sort of cathartic outburst along the lines of: 'hey, this is me; I've been through this, this and this and am coping with it.' "I want my scars to help / And heal," she sings as she glides across the most painful transition in the recovery process: acceptance.33. Dum Dum Girls - Lord Knows
32. Icona Pop - I Love It
I did promise you an unabashedly giddy song in this mix, didn't I? Well, here you go. This highlight single from Swedish dance duo Icona Pop's debut EP "The Iconic" is an unrelenting joie de vivre, an "I don't care, I love it" attitude punctuated with those exact lyrics. It seems as though it's a big sigh of relief and happiness at the departure of some love interest from another time, but that all seems to play merely a supporting role for the happiness that is the song's ultimate motive. This song delivers in all facets.31. Shearwater - You As You Were
It's been a few years running now where I've hoped to one day be reincarnated with Jon Meiburg's voice. The man's soulful croon is the trademark of a band that made its strongest impression with 2008's "Rook," a collection of gray, coastal tracks with a damp mood. Here, on a highlight from this year's "Animal Joy," Shearwater seem to have taken a page from LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends," a track that made a master class out of rapid-fire piano being the foundation to a song's build-up. "All My Friends" was more deliberate in its build than "You As You Were" is, but that's not necessarily a drawback. Really, the comparison between the two songs ends at the piano, as Meiburg is singing more about the draw of bigger and better things to come than a somber reflection of growing old. It's a song to make you feel good about what's ahead, that the future isn't something to be feared as much as it's something waiting to be raced toward and embraced.
