Previously:
100-91,
90-81,
80-71,
70-61,
60-51
Spotify Link
50. Portugal. The Man - Atomic Man
Proggy without being off-putting, Atomic Man is the best song off P.TM's Evil Friends. I'm not sure if "Atomic Man" is supposed to be some sort of hero, but the song rushes forward at the start like a speeding bullet viewed in slow motion. There's energy there, but it's constrained and paced. It builds up slowly, starting with drums, then a strummed guitar, then a picked guitar, then bass, and finally the vocals, coated with a fine layer of white noise. It's a fun song until it starts winding down, when the mood suddenly becomes somber and even a bit glum. Tracing the arc of a hero from ascendance to downfall? Maybe.
49. St. Lucia - The Night Comes Again
It floats in gently, opening When the Night with an atmospheric synth bed. And then Jean-Philip Grobler's lyrics come in, get layered and introduce the rest of the music. And just like the previous tracks from this band on this list, it's a wonderful mix of tropical 80s-type sounds. The lyrics are just the same basic chorus, with an adjustment or two, four times in total. But this isn't a song about the lyrics; this song's placement is based almost exclusively around how it sounds, with layers and layers of fun and nuanced music that make it super-easy to play on repeat.
48. Lorde - White Teeth Teens
A lot of teenagers who write music and have it played focus on things that revolve around being, well, a teenager. But the thing that has (and hopefully will continue to) set Lorde apart in this realm is that her songs seem like more than just some precocious teenager who has a touch more self-awareness and less Big Label whitewashing. She has that, but songs like this are lyrically deep. It attacks the issue of cliques without ever getting mopey or bitter, all while staying shrouded in this dark-pop mist Lorde has on many of her songs not named "Royals."
47. Sam Smith - Safe With Me (not on Spotify)
Few newcomers this year have wowed with their pure vocal power than Sam Smith, the 21-year-old tenor with an ear for mixing crooning pop with VIP room drug haze. His debut LP is expected next year, and is buoyed on the shoulders of massive hype brought on by an EP that contains tracks like this, a song that stays current by doing things like pitch-shifting, but manages to avoid getting too cute and does the smart thing by letting Smith's vocals be the real star of the show. Dude can sing.
46. Janelle Monae - We Were Rock n' Roll
There's maybe no other performer on this list who can put on a show like Janelle Monae. Her live energy and unique personality make everything she does an experience, including songs like this. Even out of the context of her skit-filled albums, tracks like this stand out for combining parts rock, gospel and disco to make something irresistible. It's in keeping with the rest of what she does, after all.
45. Haim - The Wire
Haim are quickly gaining the reputation, for better or worse, that they get
super into their music when they play. When you hear songs like this, mixing some elements of 70s rock like Fleetwood Mac or The Eagles (hey, I like The Eagles) with a slight country twang, you can understand and see how easy it is to get into them live. Do they look a little ridiculous sometimes? Do an image search of "Haim bass face." But the music's worth getting into like that. Who knows, maybe when you hear that bass lick or ending solo, you'll contort your face into something magical as you play air guitar along with it.
44. Haerts - Wings
Actually released as a single in late 2012 and then officially as part of the Hemiplegia EP this year, Wings is Haerts at their best and the biggest reason why they're such an exciting act to keep an eye on into next year. They've said in interviews that being classified as "pop," a classification which they only barely fit into, isn't a dirty word for them. And that mindset seems reflected in their music; what pop elements are there are embraced and mesh nicely with the more shoegaze-y aspects of the track. It's a happy medium.
43. Grizzly Bear - Will Calls (Marfa Demo)
We should all be so lucky to be able to record music good enough to compile an entire album and consider a song like this a bad fit, relegating it to an internet release leading up to an expanded reissue of the album it apparently wasn't up to snuff for. Shields, Grizzly Bear's excellent 2012 album, is full of great tracks, and EP tracks tend to have something about them that makes their omission from the album proper apparent. Not here, as the raw, lo-fi aspects of this song with Droste's sincere lyrics and cooing verse vocals before the emotional explosion of the chorus are solid through and through, even as-is (you can hear crickets chirping in the background).
42. Julianna Barwick - Forever
What's maybe the most aurally blissful sounding song on this entire list ends up at this spot, and it's been a struggle trying to figure out if I'm severely underrating it, or if it's actually placed just right. That's probably more a testament of what's to come on what's left of this countdown, because this song truly is immersive, expansive. It takes the best elements of every relaxing piece of spa muzak and shines them up, combining wafting, unintelligible vocals that only feel like they're barely there with early-era Sigur Ros-style music in the back.
41. Lucius - Wildewoman
The harmonies are BACK, and they're in full throat. The whole song exists for the chorus, especially the second one, after which the vocals transition into exciting yelps of "hey-ey." The draw of Lucius is now and will always be the way Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe sing together, and this is where they sound their best.
