Ten Songs from 2011

1. Wild Flag - Future Crimes

Pardon my life this time.

The desperation and urgency that make rock and roll. Sleater-Kinney had it and now Wild Flag have it.

2. The Weeknd - Wicked Games (explicit)

I left my girl back home.

The voice sells it. Party 'til you weep.

3. Fountains of Wayne - Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart

All we want to do is go home.

You can hire the actor who fits the part, or you can just hire the best actor.

4. Sloan - Unkind

You haven't got a clue.

They do such a clean job of it.

5. St. Vincent - Year of the Tiger

My kingdom for a cup of coffee.

It's never easy.

6. Terius Nash - Form of Flattery (explicit)

Stop acting like a freshman.

Better to skulk away than to apologize.

7. Emmy the Great - Paper Forest

You're not unlucky, no, you're just not very smart.

All in staccato. We can say the song is high-strung.

8. Adam and the Amethysts - Dreaming

We waded through up to our waists.

A fantasy, I guess. Someone spent a lot of time on this one.

9. The Good Natured - Skeleton

Never speak of this.

A pile of thrills.

10. Gotye (ft. Kimbra) - Somebody That I Used to Know

Now and then I think of when we were together.

Storytelling, I think. The xylophone is infectious.


Some HM's that maybe should have made it
Austra - The Beat and the Pulse
Azealia Banks - 212
Bon Iver - Holocene
Class Actress - Weekend
DJ Khaled ft. Drake, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross - I'm On One
Drake ft. Rihanna - Take Care
Ronnie Dunn - Cost of Livin'
Kathleen Edwards - Change the Sheets
Florence and the Machine - What the Water Gave Me
Florrie - I Took a Little Something
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Frank Ocean - Novacane
David Guetta ft. Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj - Where Them Girls At
Heems - New York City Cops
Icona Pop - Manners
Kreayshawn - Gucci Gucci
Lana Del Rey - Video Games
Laura Marling - Sophia
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in Your Heartbreak
Purity Ring - Ungirthed
Release the Sunbird - Outlook's Anonymous
tUnE-yArDs - Powa
Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
Kanye West and Jay-Z - N****s in Paris
Wye Oak - Civilian

Ten Favourite Songs for 2010

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.