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100-91,
90-81,
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70-61,
60-51
50. First Aid Kit - The Bell
Last month, First Aid Kit covered Simon & Garfunkel's
"America," a gorgeous and timeless song about two wanderers and the unsaid love between them as they travel on a Greyhound bus. It's hopefully a precursor to an entire album of S&G covers, as the sisters are one of the top candidates to successfully pull off such a thing, but even if that never comes to pass, we have "The Bell," a song that sounds like something the legendary duo might have come up with themselves later in their careers. You probably know the score with these two by now: sweet, folksy tunes with powerful and tight close harmonies. What gives this song an edge over most others is just how reminiscent it is of the aforementioned Simon & Garfunkel. It features the best melody and the best harmony on their entire album,
Stay Gold. It hearkens back to "America" with its talk of traveling, wandering, a vagabond-style phase of life.
49. St. Vincent - Prince Johnny
Annie Clark's haunting ode to some troubled soul is at once exculpatory and accusatory. The song's verses serve to describe various characteristics and wrongs perceived with regard to Johnny's lifestyle - "brag when and where and who you're gonna bed next" - but also acknowledging that he's human ("we're all sons of someone's") and trying to improve ("saw you pray to all / to make you a real boy"). It feels like a song for the misguided, speaking to those who might have lost their way. It's a straightforward slow jam, unique among the tracks on her self-titled release this year, that expertly complements its lyrics.
48. Hospitality - Last Words
Most of the tracks on Hospitality's 2012 self-titled debut were light-hearted, effervescent bits of indie pop, buoyed by Amber Papini's soft, easy vocals and Nathan Michel's airy compositional direction.
Trouble found the band looking in a different direction, and that was no more apparent than here, on a six-and-a-half minute track that finds the mood audibly more somber. Built upon a steady, unwavering bass line, a jittery guitar solo and a more hushed Papini, "Last Words" finds the band equally up to the task of austerity in their songwriting.
47. Real Estate - The Bend
Speaking of "know the score" with a band, I've found very few groups that are like Real Estate: so firmly established in a sound and style of song, yet inventive enough to make three full albums' worth of that same sound feel new from track to track. So, if you've listened to Real Estate before, you know what you're going to hear in this track, sonically. What's evolved are the lyrics; the first two albums found the band doubling down on the summery music style with coastal scene lyrics, but
Atlas is far more sober, more grounded in reality and acknowledging the passage of time. "The Bend" sounds as pretty as any other Real Estate song, coupled with an emotional sentiment that's new to the band, but sounds like it's executed by seasoned veterans.
46. Strand of Oaks - Goshen '97
A beautifully edgy piece of guitar-driven rock that's a biographical statement of contentment, "Goshen '97" is a clear standout from Tim Showalter's fourth full-length effort as Strand of Oaks,
Heal. Showalter was born in Goshen, Indiana, in 1982, something that seems like more than coincidence as his lyrics talk about the past before he was "fat, drunk and mean / everything still out ahead." Showalter seems like he's professing determination to keep pressing on - possibly in response to the car crash that injured he and his wife shortly before/during the recording of
Heal. Much in the way the context of familial death adds atmosphere to Arcade Fire's
Funeral, so does that concept of recognizing mortality find its way onto this track.
45. SOHN - Artifice
This might be untrue in a broader view, but at least as it pertains to what I listen to, there's no genre of music where it's more important to have both the left and right ears plugged in to the music than electronic, where mixing across the left, right and center channels feels absolutely crucial. I'm honestly not trying to be pretentious, I swear; something about the process feels more complex than any other genre to me, an uneducated outsider. So it is here with the second SOHN track on this list. There are an average of about five different layers happening at once during this song's chorus, reducing to two or three during the verses, jumping back and forth from ear to ear, never settling but never feeling out of control.
44. Field Mouse - Netsuke
An exceedingly pleasant bit of coherent shoegaze, Brooklyn's (now Philly's) Field Mouse have created a great blend of haze and breathy vocals that avoids a chorus and opts for a A-A-B build that makes its nearly three-and-a-half minutes feel like they're over way too soon. Rachel Browne's voice is tuned for this style of music, and comparisons to '90s shoegaze pioneers Lush feel apt, even if this particular track lends itself more toward the line of accessible pop.
43. Luluc - Winter is Passing
If you aren't unabashedly happy-go-lucky and over the moon about weather no matter what the season will be, chances are you look forward to the post-winter warm up more than any other climate event. Unless you just really like monsoons or something, I don't know. Anyway, if you're like a lot of other people, the feeling of late February/early March, when it's chilly in the morning but there's dew on the grass instead of snow, when there's a bird or two chirping to your ears instead of an arctic wind rushing past, when brighter things seem so much closer, you might be feeling more at ease. That feeling is captured here, in a short track with calming vocals and a sense of being at ease.
42. The Notwist - Kong
Something about the intro guitar on this track was immediately arresting to me the first time I heard this track. It's simple enough. The lyrical melody at the end of each line verse also feels captivating. It's also simple enough. There isn't much complexity in this song, and still it inspires some emotions that don't feel easily describable. This entire list is one big pot of subjectivity, but nothing feels more subjective than when I get to a song that's earned its placement based almost entirely on the feelings it evokes. How do you sell that if you're unsure yourself of exactly what you feel each time a track plays? I guess, in my case, I link to the song and implore you to find out for yourself.
41. Bombay Bicycle Club - Carry Me
Bombay Bicycle Club don't always do things conventionally, and when they step out and go for a weirder angle, this can be the result. Using the W word here obviously isn't implying something is wrong with this track; in fact, it's the unconventional sounds that make this track feel special. Crashing out of the gate with a chopped vocal line that bursts immediately pounding drums with a splash of cymbals and deep synths before echoes of fast guitar strums help carry (so to speak) the song to the second phase of its first verse. That seems like a bit much to read, and on first listen, the song might present as a bit wayward and formless, but repeat listens reveal a form that serves to build the song up to its emotional climax, when the song's chorus repeats atop all of that crashing percussion and synth, layered with backing counter melody and vocals. It's a surprisingly intense song that you can crank up and get lost in.
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