Spotify
Previously:
100-91,
90-81,
80-71,
70-61,
60-51,
50-41,
40-31
30. Chairlift - Romeo
Chairlift frontwoman Caroline Polachek has said that "Romeo" is grounded in the mythology surrounding Atalanta, a woman unwilling to marry anyone unless they defeated her in a footrace. Someone eventually did, but only with divine help in cheating, the basis for any good and lasting relationship. While Polachek admits the myth is the song's thematic base, the inclusion of a "Romeo" in the chorus is placed to make the feeling more universal and relatable: Dating can be a damn
chore in the wrong circumstances, and the tactics some feel are necessary in the process can be downright negative or even mean. And so then we have this, a spritely bit of synthpop that sounds much happier than either allegory that inspired it.
29. Kyle Craft - Black Mary
One of the coolest things about Kyle Craft's sound is how versatile it is, periodically. You could just as easily imagine Meat Loaf belting out this song in the '70s as you would figure it has a home squarely in these weird modern times of ours. Craft's blend of glam and bayou rock with a smashingly unique voice that rarely ever goes below redline makes every track on
Dolls of Highland a captivating listen, but the back porch/CCR-ish aspect of this song mixed in with the glam boa threads that run through the whole album make this a standout.
28. David Bowie - Lazarus
Losing David Bowie, inevitable a thing as it was and is for any one of us, hit so many people in so many different walks of life so squarely and forcefully that you could almost feel the entire world simultaneously stagger. He was a distinct, unique, inimitable force who has inspired countless artists - and others! - and will continue to inspire after his passing. On what ends up being his final new full-length release,
Blackstar, Bowie is everything he ever was: Unabashedly unique, creative and daring. Featuring a team of jazz musicians, with prominent brass and firework drums constantly providing support, Bowie unleashes a towering piece of music that, whether he
really intended to do so or not, stands as a fitting epitaph for his body of work: Full of life and vibrant personality, even when faced with death.
27. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Magneto
With any luck neither you nor I will ever fully comprehend the kind of event that fuels the writing and production of this song. You and I will never reach such a depth, ones only descended upon as a result of profound tragedy (in this case, the sudden death of Nick Cave's teenaged son). The song, like a lot of Cave's work, isn't necessarily "sung," but the brokenness of the delivery and the notes within hold within them all that darkness we dare not experience for ourselves. This is a song that requires a headphone listen to fully take in, it's quiet guitar strums and low-lying fog of ambient backing drawing you in, its murkiness nearly impenetrable. This kind of bleakness, set forth both plain and metaphorically in its lyrics, likely won't improve your day. But there's a black beauty to this track I can't deny, and a, well, magnetic feeling I have toward it. Something about Cave's delivery, along with context, makes this particular death-focused song of his that much more poignant.
26. Flock of Dimes - Everything is Happening Today
Jenn Wasner does a little bit of everything. She has her main rock project Wye Oak with Andy Stack, a solo side project of synthpop under the name Dungeonesse and this, a separate solo project that blends both of those other worlds into something that, somehow, manages to be its own entity: Flock of Dimes. And on this year's full-length
If You See Me, Say Yes, we have a star track about those moments when life catches up to you, but instead of it overwhelming you, it invigorates you. A counting of blessings, a taking of stock, whatever you might want to call it; this sun-soaked bit of lazy river synth verses marries comfortably with rock-minded bass overdrives and drum rim clacks in its chorus to produce something almost whimsical.
25. Justice - Safe and Sound
While maybe no longer the group to turn dance music on its head like
Cross seemed to indicate they might, Justice certainly know how to make a damn beat. A choral overture of the melody leads us into the fray before a popped bass line just bowls the whole thing over, rolling from the pulpit out onto the dance floor. It's raucous and fun, even if the edges that captivated so many people earlier in their career have been smoothed over, that doesn't diminish just how damn
groovy this thing is.
24. Harriet - Inheritance
I like to think I'm consistent about some things. Disco drum beats? That's one thing that'll almost always give you a boost on my lists, and this song is swimming in them. Its lyrics tell a story of disillusionment and misdirection, informed by events in singer Alex Casnoff's life
as told to Billboard in an interesting interview. There are the usual laments of the mix between art and capitalism and where the line stops being blurry, but the message is delivered with such pop vigor that it feels like a fresher perspective. Really, I can't find a better word to describe this song's feeling than "fresh." So fresh. Freshhhh.
23. School of Seven Bells - Open Your Eyes
Evoking images of Savage Garden with its rapid-fire lyric delivery and emotional base, the lead single off School of Seven Bells' final effort reads like a more serious, compassionate take on something in the vein of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me." The bubblegum is gone, but the feeling of "I'm here for you" is made more profound in its absence, and it's less about a binary situation of romantic jealousy than it is about pure companionship in some trying time. "Open Your Eyes," as a title, has a bit of added meaning in the wake of Ben Curtis's death, and it's tough to shrug off the bit of biographical touch Alejandra Deheza has in her words and the impact their friendship had on her.
22. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Wish
What is "brotherhood?" Is it purely biological? Fraternal? How is a bond like that formed, and how can you talk about it? Like with every CEG song, a close look at
the lyrics is warranted, partly because Joe D'Agostino's delivery leans itself toward the occasional slurring of speech, but also because the intricacies of every story told beg to be understood clearly. The song both sounds and reads like a romp through town, like that arc in the new Gilmore Girls where the 30-Something Gang just rips through Stars Hollow? (Yeah, I only just watched that recently, what gave me away?) This song is like that; a night on the town and the strengthening of a deep bond, only with the added dark turn of the eventual withering of said bond and the onset of regret with the passage of time. It wouldn't be CEG without some sort of sobering moment, after all.
21. Shearwater - Backchannels
In introducing this song during Shearwater's session
at the KEXP studios earlier this year, Jonathan Meiburg described "Backchannels" as a "song about chasing away the voice that tells you that sometimes the very best thing you can do is kill yourself." Really busting out the optimism with this last handful of tracks in the list, huh. But Meiburg's message is a strong one, and his point is one that deserves this attention and addressing. As bleak as that idea comes across, the ultimate idea is that you're ridding your mind of that demon in the end. This is a song of support, of compassion and empathy, and seems to come from a place of understanding. Meiburg doesn't seem to shy away from the implication that he's had such an experience, and is using said experience to lend a hand. Meiburg's voice is ever-soothing, and his is of the timbre that can deliver this sort of message and have it come across with a properly gentle amount of force. And the takeaway is an optimistic one: Maybe we all have our own "unraveling days," but there is always someone out there willing to lend a hand, and things won't always be so bad.
Next:
20-11
