10. Dogleg - Fox
Again defying an easy genre pick, I have to say that this "post-grunge" ripper scratches every itch. From the intro choral wails, it's easy to get hooked. For me, this is a Japandroids effect, but even apart from anything even remotely related to Celebration Rock it's plenty fair to say this song goes hard enough on its own. It's hooky enough to be catchy and grab a casual listener (me) while also being raw enough to keep more ardent listeners from thinking there's a sellout vibe going on.
9. Empty Country - Southern Cloud
I will always miss Cymbals Eat Guitars. That's just an indisputable fact. But hearing Joe D'Agostino's voice in any project will keep me sated, and this standout from his solo effort reminds me of CEG in all the best ways. The distinct affect of his voice is on full display — it's hard to mistake that sound for any other outfit — but it's the nursery rhyme-like sway of the chorus that reels me in before it turns into a full-on improv shredfest, if only for a moment. There are edges to this song that blend so easily with its prettier aspects that it's hard to tell whether this song wants to stay all up in its feelings or turn into a full-grown badboy. Doesn't matter to me; song's a bop.
8. Perfume Genius - On the Floor
I don't know if I've heard a dance-rock song this unique since Franz Ferdinand's debut; a funky shuffle beat mingling with erotic tinges and spots of longing. It's easily my favorite Perfume Genius song — I'm far from an expert on his catalog — mostly because it blends dance and groove so well, and I think a lot of that is owed to the fluttering guitar that swooshes in and out of the verses and choruses.
7. Jeff Rosenstock - The Beauty of Breathing
As far as punk songs about being down in the dumps and generally aggrieved at other people go, this one's pretty bouncy! It's Rosenstock's submission to that meme with the bright pink house next to the black house (we need titles for these things so we know what the hell we're saying to each other). Through it all, even still, there's a glimmer or two of optimism that tries to match the brightness of the guitars and "oooh"-ing backing vocals. Sure, it all ends with a shouted "I'm so jaded, and that's why I'm so fuckin' sad" but you know what? I don't feel any sadder for listening to it. Guess that's what I get for focusing my nervous energy on the beauty of...music? Yeah!
6. Eve Owen - Mother
It's been a few years now since Daughter released new music — Elena Tonra's solo project aside — and there's been a distinct gap in the "soaring and wistful female vocal" corner of my brain in their absence. This song, and Don't Let the Ink Dry as a whole, scratches that itch just fine. One of the surest ways to get me fixed on a song, as you might have picked up on by now, is a song that builds to something. Layers stack and harmonize, or sounds grow bigger and spacier, or tempo picks up (or sometimes a little bit of all of that) and you've probably got me convinced. We have a little bit of all three here. The catharsis comes in the form of a "woo!" that hits just before the outro arrives, spinning and spiraling itself upward and outward, the emittance of once-anxious feelings that find themselves replaced by some sense of assuredness. It's the less-heralded of Aaron Dessner's production projects this year, but that doesn't make it inferior.
5. Hamilton Leithauser - Isabella
It's the second straight year of having an "Isabella" track reach the top 10, a fact that only I could remember or care about. This "Isabella," unlike Alex Lahey's, is not about a vibrator, so things are different from the jump. No, instead this "Isabella," like the other songs on The Loves of Your Life, is biographical and serves as a love letter of sorts not necessarily to the person it's about, but the moments in time their memory's attached to. It sounds like a celebration of what's passed and might never be again, instead of a lament that it's gone. The swaggering choral singalong from about 2:30 until just after 3:00, in particular, is a terrific stretch of music. It's really just great to hear that voice let it rip.
4. Retirement Party - Runaway Dog
It all starts with a feint. A deep, fuzzy bass note chops along before Avery Springer's voice chimes in and bounces along for a little in a somewhat muted way, kind of like playing hopscotch with your hands in your pockets. That doesn't last for long, as more pieces of the song begin to come together with drums at :45 and some guitar just before the 1:00 mark, and things only grow from there. The coil winds and winds until, finally, things erupt at 1:40. The grungy pop-punk overtones just beg for you to crank it through that build and guitar solo, and your reward is another bridge-and-build, instrumental only but no less of a rip.
3. Andy Shauf - Try Again
Context is important. By this point in The Neon Skyline, Andy Shauf's narrator and his small ragtag crew of barflies have been joined by the narrator's ex, Judy, and they've left their first bar of the night for their second (the album tells a wonderful story, please listen to the whole thing). And now in "Try Again," having painted the narrator as conflicted about seeing his ex again and missing her, while also remembering that she just wasn't very nice to him all the time, Shauf spins a yarn with banter you could absolutely hear smoothly but sadly tossed back and forth between two exes. All the while, his internal monologue positions himself "somewhere between drunkenness" and a whole host of sober-minded emotions as this late stage of the night unfolds in front of him. It's a gorgeous song with a heartbreaking story inside it; you'd be hard-pressed to not feel some kind of connection to this narrator, even if you don't have the rest of Skyline's story to draw from.
2. Fleet Foxes - Jara
You know from the moment you hear Meara O'Reilly's take on the opera singer from The Fifth Element introduce this song that you're in for something big. And while "Jara" isn't a space-opera and the keyboard-mapped vocal coos are about as "weird" as the song gets, that doesn't make it any less grand. Constantly harmonizing with a second track of himself, Pecknold's vocal performance here is the strongest on an album full of strong contenders (nodding at you, "Sunblind" and "Can I Believe You" and "Maestranza"). It's beautiful on an OG Fleet Foxes level, with the sophistication of a decade at the controls of this project and a considerably higher production budget. It's clear proof that this band is still at its peak, and maybe even still improving.
1. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Cameo
I'm one of the apparently rare-ish few who saw no step back from 2017's Hope Downs to this year's Sideways to New Italy, which might make me a RBCF fanboy...but I'll wear that badge if it means songs like this are the new norm. It is the musical embodiment of a weekend at the shore without a cloud in the sky, the windows down on a drive, 75 degrees on your face. It is a pleasant summer memory incarnate, and basically the ethos for RBCF's sound on the whole. It makes me feel great every single time I listen to it, and in a year where those feelings could be in short supply for all of us, I've got no better measure for this list.
