Best Songs of 2011

My fascination with year-end lists has a distinct starting point:  the last week in 1966 when WABC in New York broadcast their 100 top hits of the year.  Aided by my sister Betsy, we set down the song titles as they were played on our kitchen radio over several days.  While we got the top 20, inevitably there were gaps;  what were #37 and #82 anyway? Where did “Sloop John B” and “Secret Agent Man” fit in?  It was an extremely satisfying puzzle for a music loving 12-year old.  The next year though, we just sent away for a printed copy.  So much simpler. 

My roster of the best songs of 2011 is shorter and less radio-friendly than that 1966 list headed by the Association’s “Cherish.”   Hope you’ll find some thing to enjoy at least as much as that gem.

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1. Bell XI, Velcro – None of this countdown stuff.  This one was #1 with a bullet and I wore it out.

2.  Garland Jeffries, Coney Island Winter – Where did he go after “Wild in Streets”?  To Brooklyn, evidently.  Nice to have him back.

3.  Mayer Hawththorn, The Walk – When he first came up, I thought he was goofing on blued-eyed soul.  He’s deadly serious and you should be, too.

4.  Anthony Hamilton, Woo – Sit still.  Go ahead, I dare you.

5.  Bombay Bicycle Club, Shuffle – A genre-defying indie tune that will make you put the top down, head for the beach and smile all the way. 

6.  Movits, Sammy Davis Jr. – Swedish rappers.  I will say no more. 

7.  Adele, Rumor Has It – I like my Adele slinky.  This one is way better than “Rollin’ in the Deep”

8.  Toro y Moi, Still Sound – Biggest, baddest bass line of the year. 

9.  Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX,  I’ll Take Care of You – Covered by Drake and Rihanna, this is the original.  Is it ever.

10.   Foster the People. Pumped Up Kicks – I loved it just as much when it was all over the radio this summer as when it was a breakout indie hit last winter.

11.   Jill Scott with Anthony Hamilton, So In Love – Somebody open a window, it’s hot in here.  Tammy and Marvin had nothing on these two.   

Best Albums of 2011

2011 was a weird and wonderful musical year when new music looked both backward and forward.  This list is as varied as any I've compiled, a measure of a restless time in popular music:  there's career topping work from a classic folky, re-energized Southern California rock, smart British "art rock", American power pop, electronic sounds rooted in classic soul and, of course, actual classic soul. 


There were a slew of other recordings I could have also recommend, some you're likely already listening to: solid disks by Ryan Adams and Wilco (long since shaking their "alt country" past), followup albums by Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes that surpass both their impressive debuts, and of course Adele's fine 21.  But the eight disks below gave me special pleasure with the freshness of their sound, the insight of their lyrics or their genius for reinventing the familiar.

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Paul Simon, So Beautiful Or So What  -  Simon turned 70 this year and it shows.  Not in any diminished creative power -- au contraire.  This is a disc as original and listenable as as his best, right up there with Graceland and Hearts and Bones (a desert island pick).  But this is the kind of music only possible after a richly lived life, a meditation on angels, saints and everyday miracles, animated by the poly-rhythms that have fascinated him since "Me and Julio...".  But sit down. You need to actively listen to this music just like in 1973.  Lucky for us, nobody told Paul the album form was done.

Dawes, Nothing is Wrong, Dawes -  And speaking of 1973, here's a band that will put you right back in the front seat of your first car, listening to the Eagles on the radio -- not the fat, coked-out, Hotel California Eagles, but the lean, young Desperado Eagles. There are big debts here to Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Warren Zevon, too, with the stinging guitars, the high, tight harmonies and the lyrics about misadventure in Southern California.  In songs like "Time Spent on Los Angeles" or "Little Bit of Everything" they neatly capture life poised between the cool and the desperate.  

Elbow, Build a Rocket Boys - There's really no US equivalent to the UK Mercury Prize, awarded annually for the best UK or Irish recording.  But the list of nominees, never mind the winner, is always a great guide to smart, original pop and rock that stretches boundaries (think Radiohead and PJ Harvey).  Elbow won the 2008 Mercury and this disk got them nominated again in 2011. I know, you never heard of them.  Just start here, with the voice of Guy Garvey channeling Peter Gabriel on a disk about childhood.

Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX, We're New Here - A remix album?  Really, Jack?  You betcha.  Gil was a spoken word visionary, whose "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was  the 1970 well-spring of rap; "The Bottle" was the coolest tune you could spin at a party in 1974. But then he disappeared, derailed for decades by addiction and madness that he never shook.  He returned to recording before he died this year and on this disk, the British producer and artist Jamie XX remixes his last one from 2010.  With a dub and techno vibe that's worlds apart from Gil's earlier work, this sounds beautifully haunted by his ghost -- a world-weary specter.  Rest in peace, Gil.

Fountains of Wayne, Sky Full of Holes,  -  Just when you think you've had enough of FOW and their smarty-pants pop ("Stacey's Mom"), they tone it down and remind you that they are the genuine article, song craftsman as gifted as Cole Porter.  There, I've said it.  Because in their wry, observant wordplay, this is the tradition they tap, even if they package it in a "Cheap Trick" wrapper.  This is a simple pleasure that in a perfect world would be all over the radio.  Listen to "Action Hero", "Workingman's Hands" or "Acela".  Cole should be flattered.

James Blake, James Blake - Hypnotic.  There's simply no other word for James Blake's self-titled disk. I hear echoes of D'Angelo's 2000 masterpiece, Voodoo. But this is not a hip-hop album.  Instead it has an other-worldly soulfulness, a spare electronic setting and a call-and-response rhythm that hails from a church somewhere on the south side of the twilight zone.

Real Estate, Days - It's hard to believe these guys share New Jersey with Bruce Springstein, but here they are, proud sons of Ridgewood. They weave a musical spell with strummed guitars that's a little bit hippie stoner and warm as the Avalon sun.  Echoes of the Beach Boys and Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac.  Get me to the beach.

Anthony Hamilton, Back to Love - This year's soul man for me, Hamilton has been recording for nearly twenty years.  If radio still worked the way it did back in the day, you'd have a shelf full of his disks sitting right next to Al Green, Bobby Womack and Marvin; all like Hamilton have R&B voices that can beg, plead and shout. Full of new quiet storm classics, there's nothing "neo" about this soul.

Best singles list still to come for those of you with short attention spans.

Best Music of 2008

You’ve just put away the Phil Spector Christmas CD with all the decorations, so it’s time to fill the house with the new sounds from the year just concluded.  Banish thoughts of meltdown, Madoff and the Mid-East and feed your head with music, “the food of love.”  Herewith, a “best of 2008” selection to get you started, from your opinionated friend and aspiring music critic.  Play on. 

Albums

1.  For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver, – Bon Iver is Justin Vernon and he sets a magical wintery mood (“bon hiver,” get it?) that’s irresistible.  Ignore the nonsensical lyrics (“Only love is all maroon/gluey feathers on a flume”); this is the way indie folk sounds right now.  A bit of musical alchemy, “For Emma” will make you feel like you did at 17, forever ago. 

2.  Just a Little Lovin’, Shelby Lynn -  You there by the stereo: put down the Nora Jones right now!  Dusty Springfield, you will recall, was the blue-eyed soul singer from the sixties who killed “Son of a Preacher Man.”  Lynn has the Alabama roots that Springfield would have died for and here, covering Dusty’s signature songs, she bests her, hands down.  If there is a sexier song than her version of “I Only Wanna Be With You,” I haven’t heard it. 

3.  The Way I See It , Raphael Saadiq -  This is the real deal, new soul music (with big debts to Marvin, the Delphonics, and Curtis and the Impressions) that will make you dance in the kitchen with your sugar momma or daddy when there’s no one else home.  Ooh ooh, baby baby.

4.  That Lonesome Song , Jamey Johnson -  When you put this on, people will stop what they are doing. “Country? What are you listening to this for?”  Ignore them.  Johnson is a bad boy with a broken marriage and bad habits (“The Southern Baptist parking lot/was where I’d go to smoke my pot”). Savor how different this sounds from all your other tunes and how much fun it can still be to piss people off with your music.

5.  Sugar Mountain,  Neil Young  – Released in ’08, this is Young bootlegging his own live recording from Ann Arbor in 1968.  He was 23, had just left Buffalo Springfield and wouldn’t join Crosby et. al. for another year.  With these spare but carefully wrought songs, it’s clearly time to add him to “The List” with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.  (Thanks Rob Burt for this one).

6.  Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes – In a world where rap-influenced rhythm seeps from every pore, here’s an interesting idea – harmony.  With an undeniable debt to the Beach Boys and My Morning Jacket, the best of these songs have the quality of “American Beauty” or “Music from Big Pink” – they sound old even as they are brand new.  

7.  People Gonna Talk, James Hunter  – A bit of a cheat, this was released in 2006 but it was new to me this year and I wore it out. I hear whiskey and heartbreak, Van Morrison and Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. Sweet. 

Singles

1.  Kanye West, Flashing Lights – Impress your children; savor his genius.

2.  Radiohead, House of Cards – They gave this away?

3.  Raconteurs, Salute Your Solution – Your really loud song for 2009. 

4.  MGMT, Time to Pretend – “Let’s make some money/find some models for wives”

5.  Vampire Weekend, Oxford Comma – They drop the f-bomb in a song about fussy rules.

6.  Duffy, Mercy – This girl can sing.

7.  Mike Doughty, Fort Hood – Another war, another protest song. Let the sun shine in.

8.  Say Hi, Zero to Love – I dare you not to sing this in the car.

9.  She & Him, I Should Have Known Better – Beatles, channeled by Zooey Deschanel

10.  Raphael Saadiq, 100 Yard Dash – Push “Play”. Move hips.

Best Singles of 2010

At the corner bar in my mind, this is what was playing on the jukebox this year:

1.  Fuck You, Cee-lo – A gleefully profane, irresistible sing-a-long.  And you thought “Crazy” was fun.   

2.  Modern Man, Arcade Fire – “Maybe when you’re older you will understand.”  Not me. 

3.  Radio Daze, The Roots – Prince, Gil Scott-Heron and War all rolled into one. Groove of the year from the best band around.

4.  The Mystery Zone, Spoon – I hear the long echo of the Beatles and the Kinks in this oblique little gem. 

5.  The High Road, Broken Bells – A dreamy classic from the mashed-up marriage of the Shins and Danger Mouse.

6.  Bring Me Home, Sade – Pain and sadness never sounded so sweet.

7.  I Need a Dollar, Aloe Blacc – Top-notch neo-soul, complete with falsetto and horns. 

8.  Your’re Not Alone, Mavis Staples – Sounds like a two hundred year old spiritual in Mavis’ hands.   Beauty.

9.  Coffee Spoon, Cold War Kids – Is this a love song? Is a good thing to be a coffee spoon?  

10.  Teenage Lighting and Lonely Highways, Dean & Brita – Dean Wareham channeling the Velvet Underground.  A dark one for last call.

Seasonal Bonus:

 11.  Getting Ready for Christmas Day, Paul Simon – Paul sings a 2010 Christmas song with a Mississippi Hill Country feel.  Timeless. 

Best Albums of 2010

This was a year of rediscovery for me:  “The Promise” revealed the brilliance of  Springstein’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” Kings of Leon reminded me why really loud music is so much damn fun.  And Kanye West showed me once and for all why we should care about whatever we call his music now.  

In 2011, the world was a raw, dangerous place, full of economic hardship and spilled oil.  The best music of the year offered no deliverance from this, but insisted that we live in the world as we find it, right here and now. 

Albums

1.  This is Happening, LCD Soundsystem

James Murphy’s 2010 creation was a crazy stew of new wave and techno, spiced with Kraftwerk and Talking Heads, and a whole lot of disco.  At its best, with “I Can Change”, “Dance Yerself Clean” and “Home” it throbs loudly in the way that best driving music does and then brings you up short with its humor.  I think it scares my children that I like this so much. I know it scares me. 

2.  Contra, Vampire Weekend

This album makes me giddy.  It moves along at a breakneck pace, with an unerring rhythmic sense informed by ska, reggae and afro-beat.  Someday someone will record these songs at a slowed down pace and reveal their knowing insights and heartbreak.  Until then, hold on for the smartest, best ride in pop music. 

3.  High Violet, The National  

Matt Berninger sings in a baritone that’s unlike any other voice in rock. He growls about the middle stretch of life: youth gone, adulthood full of ambiguity.  There’s a surprising optimism buried here inside songs with a dark sound, songs of resilience and perseverance played on jangly guitars. 

4.  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West

OK, I get it now.  West is Stevie Wonder for a new century with a restless musical imagination and a terrific talent for surprise.  This is rap music that will keep you interested with its melodies, breathtaking samples (The Byrds, King Crimson, Manfred Mann, Smokey!) and, with songs like “All of the Lights” or “Runaway”, riveted to see what comes next.  Unlike Stevie, he’s got a potty mouth, a deep pessimism and an ego the size of Montana, but that is the sound of the zeitgeist.

5.  Interpreting the Masters Vol. 1, The Bird and the Bee

What’s not to like about a note-for-note recreation of the greatest hits of Hall and Oates?  Not a thing.  Is it ironic?  Who cares?  The winsome, breathy wonderfulness of Inara George (daughter of Lowell George of Little Feat) nearly tops Daryl and John.