Previously:
100-91,
90-81,
80-71
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70. Milk Music - New Lease on Love
Probably the most straight-up ROCK song on the list to this point, Milk Music's under-publicized Cruise Your Illusion has its ups and downs, but it never gets higher than the power strumming that serves both as a bridge and an outro. Not that that's a bad thing; it's a hard act to top. Much like last year's Hospitality single Monkey had a guitar solo that was enough to vault it among my favorites for the year, this track's anthemic guitar work puts it here. It's a fun listen above lyrics that almost come out slurred. And that's fine, it's all just part of the song's party.
69. Savages - Shut Up
The introduction to this song's music video is not the introduction to the song on the album.
On the album, an ominous back-and-forth excerpted from the film Opening Night lends some supernatural, witch-like presence to the song. The music video features a softly but forcefully spoken poem-like intro that feeds into the Editors-on-PCP bass riff that kicks the song off at around 1:15. Savages quickly built a reputation for blisteringly intense live performances, and the video hopes to capture some of that feeling. It does, and it's probably the best presentation for a song like this: not laid over some vignette, a crunched story, but instead about the music and these four women who could rock the socks off any other band on this list.
68. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Regardless of exactly what you think about Arcade Fire's new sound, the introduction of this song as the first single ahead of the same-titled double album was striking. Arcade Fire constructed a persona built on music that was emotive and full of sound, but never had they presented anything quite this...dance-y. Sprawl II, the second-to-last track from 2010's The Suburbs, came kind of close, but it didn't have this psychotropic disco edge to it. It didn't have Bowie. It didn't feel like this strange new world of people with big ideas about music turning those ideas into something newly intriguing. The song is a bit long and loses some steam after Bowie, but not nearly enough to diminish its potency. Depending on where AF go from here, this is a pivotal song in their catalog, and one that probably deserves deeper analysis than I can give it.
67. Torres - Jealousy and I
Not since Interpol's Untitled have I heard a song that so completely and accurately
sounds like a cold, rainy night. From the moment the guitar kicks in, through the lyrics that smack of this chained-up, helpless feeling (Jealousy and I / we're two of a kind / and she's all mine) and past the gentle vocal wails that end the song, the urge to get wrapped up in a blanket is all-consuming. In the summer, listening to this song turns that into a desire to lie still beneath a ceiling fan. It's a paralyzing track, sung with palpable emotional intensity that reveals new facets of itself on every listen.
66. Haim - Falling
The sisterly trio - plus drummer Dash Hutton, don't forget about him - seem to have perfected a sound that seems both contemporary and based heavily in the late 70s or early 80s. And they're only one album into their careers! Falling, the lead track off Days are Gone, melds a call-and-repeat chorus over xylophonic keys, yelps of "hey!"and a swiftly plucked guitar. It's fun listen, sounding both of its time and in debt to those influences of decades ago.
65. Yo La Tengo - Ohm
There's symbolism in initially releasing this track over a simple time-lapse video of a tree. Nothing extraordinary happens in the video; the tree undergoes no massive transformation, the area around changes slightly, but there's no surprise twist. In a way, in matching up with the song's lyrics about accepting the bad with the good, it's visualized complacency. Ohm is a singular highlight from YLT's Fade, and is the first track I shortlisted this year. It's classic YLT with a bit of an ambient layering, and an easy, quick listen despite its seven-plus minutes.
64. Sky Ferreira - 24 Hours
Sky Ferreira's brand of pop isn't candy cane or bubblegum. She's already pretty thoroughly jaded for being just 21, but on a song like 24 Hours, she turns Eagle Eye Cherry's Save Tonight sentiment into some sort of dark electropop that still manages to be sentimental. It's about cognizance of the clock and approaching deadlines and maximizing the time you have, which is thinking ahead of the curve. Don't be fooled by appearances, though; there's a definite edge to this song. It may still be top 40-worthy, but that's not the aim.
63. Tegan and Sara - I'm Not Your Hero
Sisterly duo Tegan and Sara Quin made a lot of charming indie/folk pop, but rarely stuff
this poppy or accessible. It's a shade short of danceable, but certainly toe-tappable, especially as the chorus kicks in. Tegan and Sara are vulnerable and emotionally available here, and their lyrics are comfortingly honest and up front (I never walked the party line / doesn't mean that I was never afraid).
62. Washed Out - All I Know
I imagine there's a corner shop on heaven's main street that sells trips where you can drift among the stars and planets, all while Washed Out soundtracks your journey. Ernest Greene is a master of ambience, creating songs that are simultaneously relaxing and great, uh, bedtime music. All I Know is no different, with Greene's lyrics hazed almost to the point of incomprehension above his synths and looped guitar. The chorus demands to be listened to loudly, where the layers are at their most potent and can just take your ears over. It's blissful.
61. Austra - Painful Like
Viva Canada. Katie Stelmanis has one of the more unique voices on this list, its strength tempered by its inherent, wavering vibrato. Placed atop a rolling electro beat, Stelmanis cranks out lyrics that are bittersweet (Malice keeps calling / your palms keep on calming) and lustful (I held you in my underwear / someone might see but I don't care). It's impossible to resist Stelmanis's voice here, which finds all the right ways to convey the emotions of her lyrics while staying so original.
