Spotify
Previously:
100-91,
90-81,
80-71,
70-61,
60-51,
50-41,
40-31,
30-21
20. Bad Bad Hats - Joseph
One of the tougher things to reconcile in relationships is the existence of attraction paired with impracticality. Here, we have a one night stand remembered, and the conflicting emotional fallout that follows laid out. How do you handle it? "I want you to remember / I want you to forget about me" sums it all up pretty succinctly, even as we feel that slight tug of longing ("Gimme back that night").
19. Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me
Okay, look, if you'd have told me in January that I'd be finishing up 2015 by putting a CRJ song anywhere near my top 100, let alone in
the top 20, I'd have tried to have you committed. I never gave CRJ a second thought in the wake of "Call Me Maybe," something that seemed like a fun-but-painfully-drilled-into-my-head one-hit wonder that drained credibility. So we'll call this my mea culpa, as the second
Emotion track to crack the top 100 lands here, and as far as I'm concerned, all credibility is back and more. From the M-83-reminiscent horn section to earnest, smooth peanut butter vocals and joyous child-at-heart (alright, enough hyphenating) chorus, the track feels youthful and vibrant, a wonderfully built and executed pop song.
18. Everything Everything - Distant Past
Jonathan Higgs has a really, really limber voice. Not only does he feature a lofty falsetto (which he flexes in nearly EE song), he can rip through lyrics like lightning. It'll take more than a listen or two to catch every turn of phrase and syllable in this track's verses and pre-choruses, an earbud assault that can feel a little overwhelming until the chorus smashes through the clouds. Add in a little supporting close harmony and some trademark weirdness and you have this group's version of artpop, and it's hard to call it anything other than distinctive. (Not on Spotify)
17. Lord Huron - Love Like Ghosts
"Yes I know that love is like ghosts / Few have seen it but everybody talks," is how this track opens, a simile that might seem trite when viewed on the surface. Fact is, comparing something universally desired to an uncertainty, a formless question, is sobering. Instead of getting sour about that thought, though, Ben Schneider and Co. quickly turn the track's direction from elegiac to almost celebratory, acknowledging the experiences lived to provide them with this apt comparison.
16. Chvrches - Empty Threat
When my first listen through
Every Open Eye got me to "Empty Threat," my first thought was that this was the band's play to take the next step, from burgeoning festival stardom to ubiquitous radio presence. This song can appeal to all markets and all corners of this country and beyond, mixing the most danceable of Doherty/Cook beats with movie closing credits synths and lyrics with sky-high aspirations. If this song doesn't end up making them universal - it was released as the album's fourth single this past October - it at least shows they can still energize a dance floor while shooting for more mainstream appeal.
15. Foals - A Knife in the Ocean
From the outset, it feels coiled, rattling and ready to strike. The choruses certainly do attack, roaring just like a disquieted ocean. "What came of the things we once believed? / All lost to the depths of a hungry sea," it laments, angrily, in a way that seems to deliver on frontman Yannis Philippakis's declaration that moments on
What Went Down will be "louder than war." It wails and gnashes teeth, passing through its nearly seven minutes with rather alarming alacrity, given how much time is spent on the slow burn. We all kind of hate the word "epic" anymore, but if a track was going to earnestly fit that label, this would be it.
14. Tame Impala - New Person, Same Old Mistakes
The second straight album-closing, six-plus-minute-taking track on this list gets the nod over its predecessor for feeling like a more cohesive product. Where "A Knife in the Ocean's" biggest strength was its towering presence, it could feel the slightest bit adrift (maybe by design). Here, the finale of the pop album disguised as a gentle psych rock experience hits all the marks, none more squarely than the final two trips through the chorus as an outro. Going psych with a touch of soul and, possibly, a dusting of boy band tendency, Kevin Parker rides this album off into the sunset with an extra dash of flair.
13. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Spat Out Spit
"Aly Spaltro Contemplates Our Animal Nature to Great Results" was never going to be a great song title, but that's the gist of things in the end. The lyrics don't often rhyme (typical of Spaltro's work as Lady Lamb), but the lyrical interplay with lines left hanging like that still never feels awkward, like it can elsewhere. This track feels like a recitation, a recollection of a dream or series of dreams put to paper and music, contemplations on just what makes and drives us. Maybe it's not that complex, but it feels like some grand hypothesis is formed and tested right in front of us. Psychology put to song? Whatever, I've already overthought it; the song is wonderful no matter its complexity, intended or otherwise.
12. Alabama Shakes - Future People
Brittany Howard's voice stars once again, this time in falsetto for a massive chunk of the song. A far slower burn than "Don't Wanna Fight," "Future People" instead finds Howard and her crew stabbing at us in choruses with abrupt strums and rattling our speaker hoods with heavily-fuzzed bass. All of it culminates in more sharpness, the last of it arriving via piano and repeatedly pounded notes as Howard's cry softens. It's intense and emotional, even with some unintelligible lyrics; there's a power behind the words that's universal.
11. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle
Baker caps off another group of 10 with a song that strikes the heart in a far more subtle way than her last entry, "Rejoice." There is no lead-in to an explosion of pent-up emotion here; it's a quick (sub-2:30) burst of soft self-reflection, a look in the mirror so focused and hard as to maybe be overly critical. There's some dark humor in the reflection ("Wish I could write songs about anything other than death"), and brutally direct imagery and recollection. As always, the mix of fragile sound with confident delivery makes Baker's voice captivating, even as the music remains simple. No need for bells and whistles when the main attraction has all the power it needs to hold your attention.
