A shortlist just for fun: Blue Hawaii, Caribou, Das Racist, Dragonette, LCD Soundsystem, Robyn, Sally Seltmann, Stars, Sugarland, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, the Thermals, Sharon van Etten, Vampire Weekend, the Very Best, Kanye West, and Yeasayer.
And then a real list:
10. jj - No More You (The-Dream cover)
i fell in love with a real heart-breaker
I think Alex called it "midnight music." Piano snowflake music, pinecone bird music. They sell the sadness of it.
9. Crystal Castles - Not in Love ft. Robert Smith (Platinum Blonde cover)
I saw your picture hanging on the back of my door
The right chorus, the exact right voice to balance that electric scream. Pathetic musical fallacy; the notes tell you there's a storm outside.
8. Warpaint - Undertow
nobody ever has to find out
what's in my mind tonight
"His wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song."
7. Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Company
but i fell for you, honey, as easy as fallin' asleep
The clip-clop in the piano, the banjos on "honey jar." Like she snuck out of Ys and got lost in New York somehow.
6. Phoenix - Fences (Poindexter Remix)
she's been building up a castle in l.a.
A soft touch to this one. A little spacey, a little dreamy, but mostly it just rolls along. They bring the "Naive Melody" flutes and everything.
5. Los Campesinos - A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte
both were far too needy not to fall for the other
They've shifted a bit from the youth-in-despair thing, but they still make it all so serious, so deadly. They keep the stakes high, these ones.
4. Hot Chip - I Feel Better
maybe if we'd never come this way, then we would live and prosper
but i doubt it
A shelter song, a warm bed song. You can't cover the earth in cloth, but you can always still cover your feet in cloth.
3. The National - England
you must be somewhere in london
you must be loving your life in the rain
The National can use a brass section with so much more restraint than other bands. The weight of history, the solemn dignity that makes you feel bigger as it makes you feel smaller.
2. Tokyo Police Club - Not Sick
get comfortable, get unfrustrated
So much bounce, so poppy. This song sounds like a party.
1. Superchunk - Learned to Surf
i can't hold my breath anymore
i stopped swimming and learned to surf
A power song. A song for action time and for celebration time.