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.
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