Top 50 Songs of 2011 | Songs 20-1

there's totally a lack of good NYE shots, so I'm recycling this one

Picking up where I left off the other day, here's my the rest of the entries on my year-end Top 50. If you missed numbers 50 to 21, click here, and if you missed the Honourable Mentions, click here.

20 | Memphis | "I Want The Lights On After Dark"

Memphis' Torquil Campbell will always have a soft spot in my musical heart, if only because he provides the male vocals for one of my favorite bands, Stars. Memphis is one of his side-projects, along with Dead Child Star, and if he can put out more songs like this one, he can keep doing as much side work as he pleases. There's an underlying sense of sexiness here - probably just from the come-hither delivery Torquil's always used for his romantic-pop stylings - oddly coupled with some palpable sense of fear or insecurity, denoted by the song's title. The "I was never really..."s he spouts only add to that sentiment, and the song is propelled by steady drum hits, tuneful guitar, and an uplifting chorus. Ending with repeated chants, the tune offers a lot, and stands as a testament to Campbell's formidable musical prowess.

19 | The Black Keys | "Lonely Boy"

"Machine-gun guitar". I'm pretty sure that's how Pitchfork described the opening stanzas of "Lonely Boy", and I really can't improve upon that description. The song starts off with that bang, and never lets up. Following the garage-rock ethos of the rest of The Black Keys' work, "Lonely Boy" is another feather in the group's cap - they make rock'n'roll seem easy.

18 | Fucked Up | "The Other Shoe"

A lot of these songs have little vocal quirks that really catch on with you and don't let go. Here, it's the relatively deadpanned initial delivery of "we're dying on the inside" over and over, a morbid proclamation that almost seems to build into confounding elation at some point. The lyrics are a real strong point on this track, as its one of Damian Abraham's better turns vocally, his yells and the guitars performing the perfect balancing act. "You can't be comfortable/with all the things about to fall" is another line that sticks with you, and they make sure of it, Abraham going overboard by yelping each word in the phrase in a neat see-saw fashion. The easy dismissal of Fucked Up is to call it screamo, but that ignores the amazing guitars, the great percussion, the skilled backing vocals, and the thoughtful concepts behind all of their work. "The Other Shoe" fits that just fine.

17 | Yuck | "Operation"

For the life of me, I can't figure out where these guys stole that catchy riff from. "Dun-dun-dunnn...dun-dun-dunnn...dun, dun dunnenenene....dun, dun dunnenenene". I tried Big Wreck, Sonic Youth, all the 90's bands I could think of that supposedly form the inspiration (source material?) for this bunch, but nothing was resembling what I was hearing in "Operation". Now, this isn't actually a story of discovery, since I still don't know why it sounds so familiar. It is however a testament that if you're new and you do something really well, a lot of people will think you probably stole it from somewhere else. Full credit to Yuck in that case for shredding so well on this song that I thought they were lifting riffs from other groups. When your shtick is that you're a 90's-mining rock band in the 2000's, being original is quite the accomplishment.

16 | Austra | "Lose It"

Ah, the keyboard is to die for here, at least until Katie Stelmanis' voice comes in and she puts her opera-trained pipes to work. As mentioned in the previous section of this list, what Austra is doing is unprecedented, layering otherworldly-amazing vocals over dance-y electro beats and bloops. "Lose It" is one of my favourite examples of that, with the various affectations of Stelmanis and the group's other singers coming to life spellbindingly over the propulsive electronic instrumentation underneath them. I swear I could listen to this song all day.

15 | Mother Mother | "The Stand"

Easy number one material here, and it probably is for a lot of people. The most interesting part of "The Stand" is that it's basically a naughty/philosophical/foreboding conversation set to song - and it manages to work astoundingly. It's unfathomably catchy, has some of the most memorable lines of the year (what's space like? "it's like paradise/spread out with a butterknife"...what?!), and that's even while there's all sorts of instrumental craziness going on around it; like, I swear I heard banjo and trumpet. There probably wasn't a more fun, funny, interesting, and awesome song this year. Maybe it didn't capture the top spot for best song, but it was certainly some of the greatest entertainment.

14 | James Blake | "The Wilhelm Scream"

I don't know if any of these songs gave me the shivers this year, but James Blake's performance of this song on Jools Holland's late-night show in the spring may have been the greatest live thing I haven't seen with my own eyes. To be able to reproduce electronic music so proficiently live isn't an easy task, especially given Blake's use of negative space in his recordings, valuing silence just as much as sound. The build is brilliant in an unnerving way, and Blake's lamentations on dreaming almost make you feel afraid of doing it yourself. For such a seemingly dreary song lyrics-wise, there's undeniable magic anchoring this song sonically, and it makes for the greatest kind of performance when married to James' top-notch singing. He may say he doesn't know about a lot of things in the song, but it's hard not to know this song was one of the highlights of 2011.

13 | Gauntlet Hair | "I Was Thinking..."

Fuzzed-out rock had an off year after so much success these prior few, and I have to say I missed it. I didn't discover these guys until the fall, but I'm sure glad I did. I've heard some Japandroids comparisons, but Gauntlet Hair is a different kind of beast - for one, there's a much sunnier vibe to their tunes, rife with bright guitar and the far-away-sounding vocals that are so synonymous with solar-tinged songs nowadays. "I Was Thinking..." is a weird tune in that I don't really listen to the music, and I barely know any of the words, even though I've played it dozens of times. I just kind of listen to the thing as a whole, almost as if the song is something that just "happens", and I'm there while it does so. I don't interpret it the same way I do other songs, or try to find or assign meaning, or pretend I'm playing guitars or drums or sing along to it. It just is. It's a strange thing for a song to be, and it's even stranger for something like that to be appealing musically, but its existence as a kind of "pleasant noise" doesn't really need to be explained. It's just pretty cool that it's like that.

12 | James Blake & Bon Iver | "Fall Creek Boys Choir"

Ah, I was wrong: it seems James Blake is making his fourth appearance on this list, not the three I thought earlier. The fact he does so with Bon Iver on this tune is just icing on the cake. Now even though many of the lyrics in this song are just as unintelligible as Gauntlet Hair's above, it's actually kind of fun to sing your own words along to it as best as you can guess: "I've been fucking up your road"? "I'll get foreclosed"? "Oh red phone"? I'm joking because it's hard for me to take this song seriously when it's Autotuned to the extreme, and when you can barely tell which one is James Blake and which is Justin Vernon. The saving grace is that the duo's choice of music to accompany their hilarious vocal romp is magnificent, and bordering on beautiful. If the Fall Creek Boys Choir was a real thing, I'm pretty sure they would dress really goofy, have laughably strange voices...and you'd somehow still love every minute of it.

11 | Grimes | "Vanessa"

Wait til 0:18 in, and once this song actually drops, it's five solid minutes of the neatest pop you'll hear all year. I don't know if I believe Claire Boucher's claims that she barely knows anything about reading or making music, but if she can make such amazing, sprawling tracks at such a young age with next to no experience whatsoever, then it's scary the kind of musicians (if that's even the right word) might come out of this digital age. Her voice isn't perfect, but that doesn't stop "Vanessa" from being a joyfully dark trip through electro-pop, keeping you wanting more from the up-and-coming artist. On a completely unrelated note to this song, I love that she called her EP "Geddy Primes". I'll leave you with that one for a minute...

10 | BRAIDS | "Lammicken"

BRAIDS ARE AWESOME. I don't know why they capitalize their name like that, but that's pretty cool too. Another group I saw perform live at Halifax Pop Explosion, their avant-garde musical stylings keep you guessing at which direction their songs are going to explore next, and their vocals keep you focused while the chaos builds around you, like on this particular tune. Basically four solid minutes of build, the payoff is astounding, and you'd be hard-pressed finding anything else this year or any other that sounds a thing like "Lammicken", or most of BRAIDS' other music for that matter. I love the direction they've chosen to take with their work, and this song is obviously no different, cramming a ton of emotion into one line repeated over and over again. Can't wait to hear what else this group has up their sleeves.

9 | The Rural Alberta Advantage | "Stamp"

It was hard to escape "Stamp" this year, and that was a great sign of success for The RAA. It was on the radio, the video was a cheeky hit, and the instrumental soundtracked a Molson Canadian ad of all things. 2011 treated these guys well, and even if their album had a few irrational songwriting quirks to it, it was great to see them make it on a bigger stage after putting out a debut album as stellar as Hometowns a few years ago.

8 | Hey Rosetta! | "Yer Spring"

Okay, now I remember getting the shivers to at least one song, because it was this one, on a drive home one night - and I'm pretty sure during their entire set when I saw them this summer, as they outperformed Broken Social Scene in my opinion at M Fest. "Yer Spring" is the perfect synthesis of Hey Rosetta!'s ballads and rockers, providing acute bursts of emotion alongside heartfelt lyrical swathes. "Oh man, I hate this part/when the car sails off the bridge/my knuckles white/my water rushing in...am I rising up?" just cuts through you, especially as Tim Baker's distinct voice repeats that last bit again and again, raising his own voice each time to mesh perfectly with the sentiment of the line. The various sections of "Yer Spring" are all shout-along-able, and the ebb and flow of the music makes it the perfect representation of the watery East Coast of Canada this bunch is from. Probably Hey Rosetta!'s crowning achievement right here.

7 | HEALTH | "Goth Star" (Pictureplane Cover)

So, this is kinda like a cover of a cover of a cover, as one of my friends pointed out that Pictureplane's original used Stevie Nicks' voice from a Fleetwood Mac tune for the distinctly-detached human voice sound-effect that pretty much makes up the chorus of both versions of "Goth Star". The greatest part about this song is that HEALTH is usually an industrial-electro-rock band, making squelching masses of guitar and drums somehow coalesce into something you can call music (and that description might belie the fact that I actually like their music). The surprise here of course is that the floaty vocals and tinkling sounds throughout completely throw off that notion of the band, and the fact that it's apparently one of their favorites to play live makes me feel oddly justified for liking these guys - it's like having a particularly talented friend you didn't know was also really good at something else.

6 | M83 | "Midnight City"

Somehow, this tune admirably follows up "Intro" on M83's album, which I gushed about in the Top 50-21 earlier. Anthony Gonzalez unleashed a masterpiece with "Midnight City", the snyths blowing the roof off of the song time after time, his vocals providing the in-between verses, and even throwing in a sick sax solo for good measure. The drum fills are another highlight on this track, coming in just before the instrumental chorus - which is something that deserves its own little write-up. It's always nice to see a song that draws on something like a non-vocal chorus as its proverbial earworm; that takes a lot of work by a master musician, or at least one with a keen knack for what's likely to get stuck in people's heads. Many people in the "indie" world may have probably become disillusioned by pop music's insistence on formulaic hits, progressing from verse to chorus to verse to chorus to break to chorus, one song just like the other. When that chorus instead transforms into something played and not sung, it throws that little bit of variance into the equation that elicits just the right amount of differentiation to pique your interest. "Midnight City" does exactly that exceptionally well - on Top 40 radio, "Midnight City" would have its titled repeated ad nauseum in whatever chorus its producers had chosen for it. Here, M83 lets the music do the talking, and benefits for it.

5 | Shooting Guns | "Public Taser"

Now, here's an example of song that let's the music do all of the talking. "Public Taser", and indeed Shooting Guns, came out of nowhere this year, and from the minute I heard the song, I knew I had a new favourite. I've already used adjectives like "bad-ass" and "awesome" all over the place here, and those just begin to describe this track. It makes me want to learn guitar. It makes me want to discover Black Sabbath for myself. It makes me want to grow really long hair and become a headbanger. It makes me want to do some kind of drug that would complement this song the best, so I could be on it and play this as the soundtrack to my trip. It makes me want to put it on in my car and take a drive around the city at night, or at least through some kind of montage like the start of a Sopranos episode. They say a picture is worth 1000 words? This song doesn't even have any - it just makes you want to do 1000 different cool things.

4 | Sloan | "Unkind"

Oh Sloan. They're so classic that when I first heard "Unkind", I thought it was some old song of theirs that had fallen through the cracks and resurfaced in time for me to catch it on Radio3 one random day. It's everything these guys have been doing so well for two decades. The guitar is fresh, the drumming provides that kick present in most of the band's work, and the lyrics are the usual fare - it's just the way that everything comes together that makes this song pure rock'n'roll bliss. I hope Sloan goes another 20 years, and keeps putting out amazing work like this that long from now too.

3 | Junior Boys | "Banana Ripple"

Wowowow. When I bought this CD and threw this track on, I just started involuntarily moving along to it, and I haven't stopped every time since. I swear the CD hasn't even left my car, and when I need a pick-me-up or something fantastic to listen to driving around on errands or when no one can agree what to listen to, this is what gets thrown on. It's so damn catchy, it's so perfectly executed, it's such a treat that you don't even realize that it's nine minutes long. I'm serious, there are maybe four or five other songs this long and this astoundingly listenable - and I mean that I've heard in my whole life. "Do" by Do Make Say Think, "Remind Me In Dark Times" by Shout Out Out Out Out, "It's All Gonna Break" by Broken Social Scene, and "Yeah (Crass Version)" by LCD Soundsystem are the only others I can think of, and nothing else is really close. That's really saying something for a song that only has two, maybe three distinct parts. Junior Boys don't capture you through endlessly looping dance beats, or mind-numbing vocal repetitions - they somehow combine their voices and the music into a compelling whole that you never truly tire of. I don't know if "Banana Ripple" is the biggest surprise this high on the list, but it's one of the most pleasant ones; a song I'll keep enjoying forever I hope.

2 | BRAIDS | "Peach Wedding"

After I saw BRAIDS play their show, I had to make sure I saw the band at their merch table, mainly to speak to their cute-as-a-button lead singer and tell her how much I enjoyed the show. Waiting for them to get there, I figured I'd buy the split 7" single they had for sale, mostly to help support the band. What I didn't realize was that along with that vinyl, there was a free download of the track "Peach Wedding" that was their side of the 7" (Purity Ring's "Belispeak" was the other). One neat and really geeky thing about the download was that while most high-quality songs are 320 kbps, and 8-12 MB large depending on their length, "Peach Wedding" was 831 kbps and 35 MB - I didn't even know such high quality existed in mp3's. Figuring I had a real gem on my hands without even listening to it, I grabbed my headphones and immersed myself.

Whoa. The waxing and waning of the snyth in the background, coupled with the water droplet sound effects splattering away in the background, added to the airy and beautiful singing, all rendered a completely spellbinding track. Why this hasn't even had on play on Radio3 is beyond me - it's BRAIDS' best work, which is truly saying something for a band that made the Top 10 for Canada's prestigious Polaris Prize for best album of the year. There is so much fearless emotion in "Peach Wedding", even though you have no idea what she's actually singing about, or even saying most of the time. That mercurial nature lends itself to a feeling of awe that overcomes you, being moved by something so unknown. I might be the only one who liked "Peach Wedding" this much in 2011, but anyone who hasn't heard it doesn't know what they're missing.

1 | Diamond Rings & PS I Love You | "Leftovers"

When I first put together this list, I put this at number one and never looked again. I kind of just left the list on my desktop for the holidays, and I was taken aback when I typed it out again for this blog - "I put 'Leftovers' at number one? Really?" Then I started to remember just why I loved this song: it's two of my favourite artists of the last couple years coming together for a rousing performance. Diamond Rings provides the vocal gusto, while PS I Love You bang their drums and strum their guitar in aid of the musical mission. Maybe it's the divergent styles - both musically and aesthetically - of the two different components as well. Diamond Rings is John O'Regan, a synth-utilizing, 80's-ish male diva who embraces gay culture and performs in Hammer Pants, full make-up, and gets pretty bejeweled on stage. PS I Love You is basically a drum and guitar duo banging out ferociously fuzzed-out tunes - and their most recognizable member is so because he tips the scales at probably over 350 pounds.

Anyways, I haven't spoken much about the music here because I think it speaks for itself: O'Regan deftly tells the story (genderless, as he always does) of a love interest who's traveling, or otherwise just away. "I've got your number and I've know that you've got mine/ten digits scrawled across upon your screen/and if you call I will be waiting on the line/ready to come over, I'll be leftover" may be quite simple, but the way Diamond Rings weaves the whole tale together and makes you feel part of it is the true accomplishment. Relatability is always essential to songs sticking with you and making a lasting impression, and if you've ever chased anyone (like I did for most of 2011), this song will speak volumes to you. So yes, "Leftovers" really was my favourite song of the year.

Top 50 Songs of 2011 | Songs 50-21

now that we're all done celebrating the new year...

Since there's no way I'm finishing this list once school starts, I'm gonna try to bang it out as fast I can. For a few reasons, I'm splitting it up into two parts - numbers 50 to 20 first, then 20 to 1 a bit later. Here goes:

(and if you missed the honourable mentions, you can find them here)

50 | Honheehonhee | "A. Is For Animal"

This one was just a random song I heard once or twice on CBC Radio3 (a great source not only for this list, but for my daily music diet), but it struck such a chord with me that I had to add it to my playlist on there. There's just so much going on, it's just the right side of alternative pop-rock for me, the drum flourishes are great, and the singing is oddly impassioned. Even the break around two minutes in adds a nice change-up to the song, and I can attest that it sounds just as good live, as I saw these guys at the The Seahorse during Halifax Pop Explosion this October. Honheehonhee is definitely a group to watch for.

49 | Handsome Furs | "What About Us"

The video is pretty risque for this song, I'll just put it at that. The song itself is relatively bleak, and follows the Handsome Furs' normal formula of electronic drumming, Dan Boeckner's by-now-recognizably distinct voice, and post-apocalyptic-like lyrics. Where the song might struggle for the first few minutes, it has an interesting turn at the 2:40 mark (feel free to skip ahead while playing any of these songs - if I'm recommending a particular section, it's probably the one that landed the song on this list anyways). At that point it shifts its musical perspective totally, slowing it down a bit, both instrumentally and vocally, and it becomes a bit of slow-burner. That second-to-last section is the saving grace for "What About Us", even if the lyrics on the album it's featured on aren't exactly hopeful for a similar type of saving.

48 | James Blake | "Limit To Your Love" (Feist cover)

James was no slouch this year, putting out a ton of music, and landing himself three spots on this Top 50. I took marks away because this is a cover (albeit of everyone's favorite, Feist), but that's not denying the fact this is a really solid song, showcasing much of the vocal talent that's made Blake much, much more than just a post-dubstep artist bleeping and blooping his way to a wider audience. The piano is deep, and the percussion is sparse, while still instilling a subtle tension in the song itself.

47 | The Rapture | "Miss You"

Good song, yay, blah blah blah...I'm using this space to wonder how and why The Rapture is one of the most overtly-Christian mainstream bands out there (and the only dance-punk outfit I know of)...but nobody calls attention to it! Not a hint in the Pitchfork review I read, other than to say that band used to be a Christian outfit. Umm, the lyrics on their album In The Grace Of Your Love (that isn't a hint right there) do everything but say "Jesus" and "God", though anyone who's heard of the The Bible could pick up on the obvious allusions. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing afoul here - the music is great, and you can sing whatever you want. I'm just saying that if I'm going to get preached to (and dance to it!) I wanna know beforehand, not as I'm snapping my fingers to a great bassline. Or I at least want someone else to notice the Christian themes, and point it out - you'd think it'd have happened by now in our increasingly secular culture. But suffice it to say that in my search for an answer or at least another view on the subject, looking up "The Rapture" and "Christian" renders millions more apocalyptic-themed hits than musical ones. So does anyone out there know? "God, it's me..." (Oh, and by the way, "Miss You" is one of the few songs on the album that doesn't tip its hand to the group's religious views, oddly enough.)

46 | Holy Ghost! | "Static On The Wire"

Alright, this is just strange now, because when I ranked the songs a couple weeks ago, I obviously didn't know I was gonna rant like that about "Miss You"...then follow it up with a group called Holy Ghost!...who are also The Rapture's labelmates on DFA Records (also home to eternal favorites LCD Soundsystem). That's all to say the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other, since I've never noticed any religious bent to Holy Ghost!, name aside. All I hear are the laid-back, smooth 80's stylings of this great song, which was my choice from their similarly great self-titled album. If you hear some Chromeo in this (especially three minutes in), it's not just you  - there's obvious stylistic similarities between the two groups. Whether it's "awesomeness" or "badass-ery" however, I have not decided. I just know you that you can really groove to this stuff.

45 | The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart | "Heart In Your Heartbreak"

I really enjoyed this album, and this song was one of the highlights for me, from the nimble lyrics to the jittery guitar. Another song I caught live at the Halifax Pop Explosion, it's great whether there or in the funny, kinda-precious video. Can't really say much more about this song; it's pretty much like that crush you have, but when you can't really put into words why you like the person so much if someone asks you - you just...do.

44 | The Go! Team | "Apollo Throwdown" (Star Slinger Remix)

I've tried to start way too many parties with this track, and it's just never worked. Why, I'll never know. It's got that stittering piano line, the fresh drum beat, the choir/kids singing that makes anything that much more danceably juvenile, and ridiculous lyrics along the lines of (as I hear them) "what's like a panther?" and "rockets to the left of me/bullets to the right of me/snakes to the back of me/spark the TNT". That sounds like it could get an entire revolution started - but not a dance party?! People, come on!

43 | Ohbijou | "Niagara"

From boisterous child-singing and shoutable lines, we switch to the ever-precious vocal beauty that is Ohbijou. The song is laden with fantastic strings, rendered just as nicely in a live setting since - you'll notice a theme here - I saw them play HPX as well. Lead singer Casey Mecijia is absolutely spell-binding as a vocalist, with a high-pitched voice that cascades over the fragile piano and drum hits in a remarkably light way the titular falls could never. When she needs to put emphasis or an extra bit of feeling into a verse, she does so admirably. "Niagara" is about as close to pure magic as any song on this list.

42 | Papermaps | "Reunion"

Piano. I'm a complete sucker for it, even from my formative musical days listening to rap music. The first few notes of "Reunion" completely draw me in that way, and the jovial group shouts of "I promised you a keepsake!" keep your interest piqued. I really wanted to feature this song because of the bittersweet lyrics, offset by the uptempo, happy-sounding instrumentals. I'm at that age where you start reflecting on your childhood and thinking about adulthood and everything it brings. This song hits that feeling square in the middle: "if we stage a reunion/would you come back anyway?" You're always going to miss someone as you grow up, and even though you may think of a high school reunion when you first hear this, you start to realize this song is about just one person. It's never clear if they were a lover or just a close friend, and that kind of ambiguity lends itself greatly to the relatability of the song. It's one of the more unexpectedly emotional tunes on this list - especially wrapped in the pop-rock fervor of its delivery - and I love it for that.

41 | Handsome Furs | "Memories Of The Future"

These guys are on the list three times, same as James Blake and another artist we've yet to get to. "Memories Of The Future" is much more upbeat off the top than the Furs' previous entry on this list, and it benefits from it. The lyrics are obviously forward-looking, but still no more optimistic than anything else these guys usually do. The music certainly helps make up for that lack, and the same kind of tempo-changing breaks are apparent here as with other songs by this husband-and-wife duo on the album Sound Kapital. Probably as Wolf Parade as anything Handsome Furs has put out, it's a nice testament to what they're capable of when they cheer up a bit instrumentally.

40 | Rococode | "Weapon"

Had I done this list a few months from now, this song would be way higher, but for the time being, it's only had so long to grow on me. In that span though, I've come to love the keyboard at the start, the complementary boy/girl harmony, and the oh-so-awesome "dry your eyes! dry your eyes!" yelps from the great female vocals. The latter is one of those weird things that takes a song to that next level, where you're like "well, that was good before, but now, it's just...wow". You never know what the element could be, or when it's going to come in, but when you hear it, it just hits you, and you're completely sold on the song. There's other things going on here that make this one of the better debuts of the year, but that shouting - of all things - is what stands out the most for me.

39 | WU LYF | "We Bros"

A few of the songs on here kind of serve as representatives for great all-around albums. This is one of them. While it may not necessarily be the greatest or most engaging song on WU LYF's strangely-titled debut, Go Tell Fire To The Mountain, "We Bros" captures a veritable feeling of togetherness implied by the title. There's the group-singing part, that's for sure, but the big drum and the album's imagery totally makes you feel like this is the kind of thing you would shout incoherently around a bonfire with a few of your best friends (and I stress the "incoherently" - if you can tell me what he's actually saying in any of WU LYF's songs, then I would be greatly impressed). When it comes to tunes that make you want to just stomp your feet and shout it out, this was near the top for the year: fervent vocals, driving guitar, endlessly-percussive drums - it's all there, and for six-and-a-half minutes at that.

38 | Purity Ring | "Ungirthed"

I had their single "Belispeak" on here, but then I recanted on that choice when I realized this bubbly tune was a better one to include on the list than a song about sleepless nights of bad dreams and drilling "little holes into my eyelids". Songs about the sun hitting your skin and getting "ungirthed" (whatever that means) are so much more pleasant, no? The stuttering beats are great, and serve as an appropriate introduction to the duo's style, a mixed-up kind of avant-garde electro dream-pop. Too-short at under three minutes, it's like those little pieces of sugary gum you keep popping in over and over when the last piece quickly runs out of flavour. Thank God for that little replay button on Youtube.

37 | My Morning Jacket | "Circuital"

This one kind of came into my life, then faded back out the way the song itself actually does. Everything that's great about My Morning Jacket all rolled into one seven-minute piece, I'm going to cop out and just leave it at saying you should give this one a listen and simply let it wash over you.

36 | Cults | "Abducted"

(Just a tip: skip ahead to 0:40, since the video takes a bit to get started). It was a toss-up between this song and the equally-catchy "Go Outside", but the clincher was the greater amount of emotion in this one, and the interesting technique of lifting the haze of the introductory part of the vocals, revealing Maddie Follin's stellar voice for all it really is. Another song representative of a solid album (albeit one without much variance in the tunes), "Abducted" - both song and video - tells an interesting story, and definitely one worth paying attention to.

35 | Fucked Up | "Life In Paper"

Ah, the other artist with three entries on here, and easily the most controversial of the bunch. I think the Toronto-based group was going for that when they named themselves Fucked Up, but then they went and got fronted by the most gravel-voiced hardcore singer I've ever spent any time listening to: Damian "Pink Eyes" Abraham. As lots of my family and friends can attest, this isn't the easiest album to put on with anyone else in the car, and it's not gonna soundtrack a party any time soon. But if you really take an hour and listen to this album, I guarantee it will be worth your time. The guitar tracks are amazing, highlighted by the mutli-layered assault on this tune. So long as you can push the somewhat-grating voice (it's really not that bad once you realize these guys are hardcore punk rockers, and this is what the genre simply sounds like) to the back of your ears, you'll be met with some of the best musicianship in any genre this year. Two other notes: I love this album as a favorite to win this year's Polaris Prize...and, when I went to these guys' show at HPX, my ear was literally ringing for three days afterwards. They're loud.

34 | Austra | "Beat And The Pulse"

Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun. When I first heard those notes on Radio3 - and this whole song in fact - I figured it was just another electro-artist flash in the pan. Then Austra kept getting played, and the amazing vocals of former opera singer Katie Stelmanis started to imprint themselves on my brain, and wiggle their way into my impressionable ears. This was Austra's year, and "Beat And The Pulse" is what got it started for them. It's enjoyably dark and ominous, spaciously haunting, and beautifully sung. There really wasn't anything else like these guys this year, and you'd be hard-pressed to find another electronic song fronted by a vocalist as talented as Stelmanis. I'm happy to say this isn't their only entry on the Top 50, and they deserve each one.

33 | Handsome Furs | "Repatriated"

The last of Handsome Furs' three songs to make the list, the relative positioning of the tunes means two things: I really enjoyed Sound Kapital more on a whole than the previous two albums by the duo; and, the songs were all good, but not great, seeing as they didn't crack my Top 30. Continuing the upbeat trend of "Memories Of The Future", this song is probably the finest on the album, and from the hint in its title, it sonically portrays the kind of deliverance those sung about in the lyrics of the album seem to be looking for. The elation they would find at such a thing is evident in the climbing guitar strums and the lilt of the usually-emotionless snyths. Somewhat unpleasant subject matter, really pleasant songs.

32 | James Blake | "Lindsfarne (Pts. I and II)"

Auto-tuned to heck and barebones as Blake's songs come, Lindsfarne works best if you were to set it to a slow-motion clip of Marissa shooting Trey on The OC. Yes, I watched that show. Yes, it was great until they killed Marissa off. No, I don't have anything else to say about this song. It's just pretty, okay?

31 | Jai Paul | "BTSTU" (Edit)

"Don't fuck with me/don't fuck with me". It's funny how a lot of songs become known and stay known for their innocuous use of swear words (dammit, I just realized I didn't include this amazing track, which does the same [for clarity's sake, I would have ranked it in my Top 10...I'm basically kicking myself for only realizing this as I write it]). Anyways, Jai Paul's "BTSTU" is great for more than just its initial vulgarity. The kaleidoscope of styles going on all at once is teetering on unlistenability, but to Paul's credit (or whoever did the edit - which is really just the addition of a dubstep-y bassline to the tune) he manages to pull it off, and even throws in a sick sax feature, just to turn the tables around and fuck with you instead. The crescendo this thing builds to is also impressive, and then...lasers?! This song should be this high based on brashness alone.

30 | Junior Boys | "A Truly Happy Ending" (Diamond Rings Remix)

Diamond Rings did a series of remixes earlier this year, and thankfully he chose a sparse Junior Boys tune (who make another appearance here on the Top 50) to play around with, rendering it an upbeat 80's kind of tune, the kind you could see soundtracking some equivalent of The Care Bears back then (yes, I just went there, and I meant it in the best way possible). The song is overflowing with Diamond Rings' signature style of electronic drums and synths, and it does wonders for the original track - just listen to it for comparison's sake. It's not only nice to see a song transformed in this sort of way, but it's also a pleasure to see that Diamond Rings is skilled not only at making his own music great, but improving the work of others as well.

29 | Fucked Up | "Queen Of Hearts"

Like trumpets calling you to rise, the guitars at the start of this song are unlike anything else I've heard this year. We already talked about Fucked Up, so the screaming is right there from the start, balanced only by the female vocals in the totally ridiculous chorus ("hello my name is David/your name is Veronica"), made sensical only by the knowledge that Fucked Up's album David Comes To Life is a multi-faceted rock opera of the grandest scale, both musically and conceptually. Again, pay close attention to the guitar tracks - they're catchy and appealing to my ear, and serve as the perfect foil to the grinding vocals of Abraham. Kind of how Veronica is to David.

28 | M83 | "Intro"

Okay, a few weird things going on. Easily the shortest artist and song title combo on this list (I notice things like this, and at this point, I'm fighting to just stay awake writing). Also, is this the best song named "Intro" ever? I think that's a legitimate question, because very rarely are these things anything more than instrumentals, or on a rap album, skits. This tune is as impassioned as any this year, the build-up is epic, and it musically dwarfs most of the rest of M83's double-album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, which is really saying something over that many songs. Zola Jesus lends some vocal help here, and it's a strangely effective pairing, her deeper voice completing Anthony Gonzalez's higher one, then a chorus of "oooooo"s rains down (but floats up?), lifting the tune to dizzying heights, before dropping it back into the realm of the rest of the album's songs. As rare as a good song called "Intro" is, it's even rarer to start an album off on this high a note - "Intro" is honestly, musically, emotionally - perfectly - suited to close an album, instead of open it.

27 | The Soft Province | "One Was A Lie"

The one song I couldn't find on Youtube. The Soft Province has parts from one of my favorite groups, The Besnard Lakes, who unfortunately didn't put out anything this year. Aside from getting decent play on Radio3, I didn't hear of these guys anywhere else, and it shows with the lack of any Youtube videos of this song at all. The same way I'm drawn to piano, if you can tweak a couple off-tune guitar strums just the right way, you've got me sold on your song. "One Was A Lie" has this in spades, with that guitar line coming in during the chorus, and keeping me rapt for the full five-and-a-half minutes, even without much else going on in the song. For such an unheralded group, this bunch did well to overachieve with this extremely pleasant, laid-back earworm of a track.

26 | Future Islands | "Balance"

Even though Future Islands' latest album On The Water didn't offer me much compared to their previous two outputs (two great, great collections of songs), "Balance" did well to live up to the oddly-hinged Baltimore group's reputation. Where On The Water as a whole suffers from too many slow-burners, "Balance" is immediate and fast-tempo, a style Future Islands had a lot of success with in my opinion in their prior work. Here, another one of those musical quirks rears its head; I'm pretty sure that's xylophone I'm hearing throughout, and I'll unabashedly say it's one of the cutest things I've heard in a song in a while. While the subject matter on the album is typically heavy, that childish ding of the keys makes you think of happier times past and more pleasant places you've been. Looking back, it's always better to remember the good stuff.

25 | Miracle Fortress | "Raw Spectacle"

One of the more ethereal entries on the Top 50, "Raw Spectacle" builds like crazy, leaving you in a state of always expecting some huge outburst that never truly comes. That type of sustained build is admittedly awesome, and the presque-moments that manifest themselves along the way get amplified by it. The verses may not be anything extraordinary, but the re-builds during the choruses are enthralling, and the vocals are slightly haunting, like the faraway yells in some kind of dream. Clocking in at six minutes, this song is like a musical painting of a dream (umm, yeah, I need to get to bed soon), some mural draping across your mind's eye, drowning out your senses in a manner that answers the album's titular question: Was I The Wave? Yes, yes you were.

24 | Yuck | "Georgia"

I don't know why this is here. I listen to it a lot though. Must be the singing the girl does.

23 | Great Bloomers | "Catching Up"

I can't separate this song and Papermaps' "Reunion" in my mind. The subject matter is very similar, even if the country-ish stylings of this song differentiate the two just enough. What's even creepier is how it's still not clear in this song if the person being sung about was a lover, or just a really good friend. In a way though, "Catching Up" is also the sequel to "Reunion", because it's what would happen if that song's main character did show up for the proverbial reunion. There's a steady guitar driving this tune, and it veers between alt-rock, alt-country, and pop somewhat jarringly, but the lyrics keep you on track and wondering what will happen next in the story being told. The same nostalgia inherent in "Reunion" is present here of course, but maybe it's the resolution that makes me appreciate this tune a little more - or at least the sense of closure it offers. Not to mention the actually closure of the song, mixing harmonica, "haaa-oooo"s and out-of-tune guitar by turn, then fading out like the bonfire the characters in the story are probably catching up over.

22 | The Rapture | "How Deep Is Your Love?"

I already had my Rapture rant, so I'm just going to point out how bad-ass this tune is to dance and snap your fingers to. The beloved piano is here again, plodding away without much help for a while, before the percussion (cymbals and handclaps to the rescue!) comes in and the whole thing just slow-burns its way through the dancefloor. There's still a lot of Christian imagery going on in the song, which makes it a bit of an incongruent listen at the club, but the driving nature of the song just keeps propelling it towards some sweaty finish of drenched shirts, tired feet, and loosened hips. And that's before you even get to the rebuild-ing break around 3:30 in, when a saxophone joins the melee and the whole things just goes bonkers from there on out. These guys might have church Sunday morning, but they're going all out Saturday night.

21 | Bon Iver | "Calgary"

"Holocene" may have been the bigger song off of this album (a Record Of The Year nomination from the Grammy's is usually indicative of that), but my favorite song off of Bon Iver's (mainstream) breakthrough album had to be "Calgary". It's rife with the auto-tuned weirdness Justin Vernon's seemed to espouse since For Emma, Forever Ago - which actually feels like forever ago now - but still has the acoustic flourishes that made his debut so enjoyable and heartfelt. The title, the instrumentation, and the the general vibe definitely lend a wintery feel to the song, and it's just a beautiful piece of music any way you slice it. It's agreeable, but not boring; different, but not off-putting. Kind of like Justin Vernon's beard? God I have to sleep.

Top 50 Songs of 2011 | Honourable Mentions

First of all, I love lists, and I can't resist posting my favorite songs of the year here. So as a little primer for the entire Top 50, here are the songs that I liked this year, but for one reason or another, didn't make the final list:

Malajube | "Synesthesie"

This is a weird one, because I loved it so much when it first came out that I went and got the whole album. I don't know if the rest of the songs let me down and dragged this one with them, but over time it's lost it's pop-y sheen to me. It's effervescently jaunty, and I can understand enough of it that the language certainly isn't a barrier, but I've resigned myself to simply liking this song enough to include it here - just not on my actual list of favorites.

Carly Rae Jepsen | "Call Me Maybe"



Wanna know why it's not the overt pop stylings of "Synesthesie" that turned me off of it? It's because this song is so ridiculously pop and twee that I should be looked at with the kind of questioning gaze an adult that still watches YTV would get - if that makes any sense. It's not even funny how juvenile "Call Me Maybe" is, but maybe that's what's so appealing about it: at worst, it makes you think back to high school and any good times you had as a teenager. The truly great part about the track however is the music itself. The strings are unprecedented in such a tune, and the rest of the music hangs back enough that it doesn't overpower her voice or the strings. Speaking of her voice, I guess Carly Rae was a former Canadian Idol contestant, so it's nice to see her turn out a great song like this. Her delivery at the start makes you think of just another Miley Cyrus/Disney star-wanna-be, but as soon as the beat drops in, she showcases her worthy pipes. I've wrote too much about it already, but suffice it to say "Call Me Maybe" was easily my guiltiest pleasure of 2011.

Asobi Seksu | "Little House of Savages" (Walkmen Cover)



I had to sneak this one in mainly because it introduced me to Asobi Seksu, a New York dream pop band in the guitar-feedback vein of My Bloody Valentine. The song itself stays quite true to Asobi Seksu's own music, with the guitars whirring away in the background. But the real magic starts when lead singer Yuki Chikudate drops her falsetto and puts on a typically great singing performance for her, making a great show of a tune originally done by The Walkmen. It may be grinding on the ears at first, but give it a minute and it opens up as a rewarding listen.

Russian Circles | "Mladek"

Unfortunately, the reverse happens here, with a very promising song taking a turn to a darker side, and in the process ruining some of the good will it had amassed in its opening instrumentals. About a minute and a half into "Mladek", a deftly nimble cacophony of inspiring guitars veers into the crunching abyss of instrumental death metal. I mean, I expected as much, seeing as that's the genre Russian Circles calls home, but for them to tease at such a premise, then rip it down one evil-sounding note after another - it was enough to make this song enjoyable, but not enough to land it a spot in the Top 50. The musicanship is obviously great on this track, and in changing up the mood, it spans a variety of emotions over it's nearly eight-minute runtime; so don't get me wrong, I like the song. Just pointing out that it's never that pleasant to be on a nice walk in the woods, then take a wrong turn and end up face-to-face with a grizzly - musically or in real-life.

The Strokes | "Under Cover of Darkness"

A blast to whistle. Probably a joy to play on guitar. A pleasure to imitate Julian Casablanca's whiny delivery. But just as with every song on this short-list, there's something that keeps me from making it one of my favorites. It's tough to pinpoint with "Under Cover of Darkness", because there really is so much to love. If I had to pick anything though, it's what has befallen all of The Strokes' music since their debut: it just isn't their debut. They've proven they'll never do anything as good or as iconic as Is This It, but damn if they haven't tried. Occasionally they end up with a pop-rock gem like this one. So even though part of me wants to appreciate this song for what it is, I can't listen to music or view it in a vaccuum. It's the very reason we make lists, rank things, or argue about them. And I list this one with the honourable mentions, rank it outside the Top 50, and argue that it's not as good as the rest of The Strokes' stuff, or the other 50 songs I liked better than it in 2011.