all the things you couldn't say, i'll do my best to sing (top songs of the year)
Why hello there gentle reader and listener. I've been rather awol all year in terms of music (helloformat hasn't been updated since February, my gosh) but I've compiled a list of my top 55 songs of the year. 55-26 are listed without order but 25-1 are in order and with my stupid, ridiculous rambly commentary and album artwork.
I originally went into this project expecting to compile 100 songs, but this year's been somewhat of a sonic letdown for me. Lots of good things were created and there is some amazing music that made its way to me this year, but I'm so picky sometimes and a lot of things had a rather navel-gazing feel that just rubs me the wrong way.
HOWEVER, AND YES THIS DOES REQUIRE CAPS THANKS FOR ASKING, MUSIC IS JOYOUS AND AWESOME AND MAKES YOU WANT TO FEEL FEELINGS AND BE A BETTER PERSON. And sometimes, whip your hurrrrrr.
HOW IT DO, ENJOY YOUR MUSIC.
FILE WITH EVERYTHING IN IT should you choose to want all of them without the annoyance of clicking individually. It's huge, as a precaution; it's 347.38MB
55-26, UNRANKED
heavens on fire - the radio dept. (shoegazing swedish indiepop)
my time - minus the bear (kooky experimental that gets you dancing in your seat)
older brother - pepper rabbit (ethereal dream pop)
all to all - broken social scene (canadian prog-ambient occasional chamber pop)
this plane (hugh crazy remix) - wiz khalifa (epic jit, underground indie rap)
next girl - the black keys (bluesy indie rock, with a crunch)
hold yuh (double dubplate) ft. gyptian - major lazer and la roux (dancehall dubstep mashup)
nobody's in love (xaphoon jones remix) - 2am club (funky new wave hiphop/poprock)
salt skin - ellie goulding (folktronica powerpop, and so lovely)
wave ya hand - nicki minaj (this years breakout emcee, flow and swag hip hop)
when i grow up (fever ray cover) - first aid kit (teenage swedish dreampop)
perfection - oh land (experimental danish dreamy indie-electronica)
i feel better - hot chip (string-and-synth laden eletrofunk poprock)
stay the same - the shoes (french electro bomb)
whip my hair - willow smith (oh yes, i went there)
blue truth - jamie woon (ambient soul dubstep)
love love love - avalanche city (minimal indiefolk that makes your heart swell)
21 guns - original broadway cast of american idiot (green day meets modern broadway arranging; clean, crisp voices and huge bombs of sound)
please hustler please - my sick uncle (star gazing mashup of lil wayne and the smiths)
poison and wine - the civil wars (beautiful soul-indie)
worry about you (xaphoon jones remix) - 2am club (beat heavy nouveau-synthy hip hop)
got this money - childish gambino (donald glover raps and croons)
modern drift - ekterklang (downtempo atmospheric glitchy danish indiepop)
write about love - belle and sebastian (twee indie pop with guest vocals from carey mulligan)
chapel doors - endor (soulgazing hand plucked indiefolk)
july (ft. daniela andrade) - paulo serapio (lovely sweet pop from a talented youtuber)
all summer - kid cudi, best roast, and rostam batmanglij (hip pop, summer jam)
over empathy (drake v crystal castles) - wait what (driving mashup with synth galore and trip-up rapping)
cosmic love - florence and the machine (worldwide breakout, blue-eyed baroque pop with heavy crooning and percussion)
i can hear music - she & him (retro alt-americana from the blue-eyed girl from 500 days of summer and m. ward)
TOP 25, RANKED
25. OOO - Fishing
This song has no lyrics, just clipped sound-bites of half-remembered words and grunts. The beat is crunchy toast as is the synth that just kicks in and it just keep going and going. It cuts into a lo-fi feel about two and half minutes in and it feels like being underwater and when it kicks back in twenty seconds later it is that glorious moment of surfacing and taking your first deep breath of air.
24. Daydream - Beach Fossil
I discovered this back in January and I just can't pass up jangly guitars and vaguely-incoherent vocals. There's a lot of experimentation here and it just sounds like the perfect song for a long summertime car ride montage, tipping your head against the glass and watching brightly colored things fly by your window.
23. Numb - Marina and the Diamonds
Pop wins, again. The chamber aspect of the strings and even the damn, plucky harp you hear "ding ding ding"ing in the background is euphoric. Her voice is light and airy on those high notes and jeez, could you ever imagine feeling doom and gloom while listening to this?
22. Said the People - Dinosaur Jr
So technically this was released in 2009 along with their album, Farm, but I found it in 2010 thanks in part to Skins. I'm not a heavy rock kind of person most times but something about the weight and finesse of this song speaks right to me. It soars and sinks and it's scratchy and lamenting and you just want to pick up a guitar and learn it all and sing your problems away.
21. Magic (ft. Rivers Cuomo) - B.O.B.
I won't even lie, this song is so bubbly and up-and-coming and I first heard it in a video for FC Gold Pride (oh god, my beautiful Women's Pro team; I miss you already ;__;) and I automatically associate it with good feelings like a popsicle on a hot day and the wind in your hair as you bike down a hill and a warm body cuddling yours when it's too rainy to go outside. His use of uncommon musical notation and the triplets he employs in his cadence are truely sublime sometimes and I just feel like dancing. MOVIN MAH HIPS LIKE YEAH
20. Videotape (Xaphoon Jones dubstep remix) - Radiohead
The original version of this song is so melancholic and sad and I listened to it endlessly in the fall of 2008, so much so that I couldn't listen to it for about eight months. This remix (can you tell I like Xaphoon yet?) holds onto the deep sadness but manages to rework the chords and beat into something so much more hopeful and escapist.
19. It's a Good Thing - CHOO CHOO
Jangly and joyful and boisterous and "yeah yeah" all over the place. Garage powerpop at its best. It's one of those songs that I don't find myself picking out to play but when it comes on I will never, ever skip ahead. It has enormous sticking power and I appreciate how much fun they seem to be having.
18. All These Things That I've Done (Killers cover) - Boston University in Achord
It's actually really hard to find tight, polished college a capella that also sounds like real people singing, but this group has a handle on both. You can hear all the voices, the beatboxers are crisp and clean, the harmonies are delightful, and it holds close to the original (which is honestly one of my favourite songs on the past decade). Get it, BU-A
17. Cameras - Matt & Kim
Goddamn, Matt and Kim can throw a good beat. It's massive and hard-hitting and there's those little wood block hits and tiny cymbal claps in the back and it narrowly misses pretentious territory and veers into self-reveling enjoyment and the vocals soar above and don't get lost. Touche pop, touche.
16. Sprawl II (Amazing Love rework) - Arcade Fire
I found the original of this song sublime on its own, but when I heard this reworked version I can't listen to the other the same way. It's sped up a bit and it just goes and goes and goes and when it finally hits with the extra synth it feels so good and dance-ready and like this huge sound wave is crashing over you.
15. Muny - Nicki Minaj
Nicki heyyyyyy. She's so inventive and has such a large arsenal of creativity and her approach to hip hop and rap has brought such interesting new music to the world. Her cadence alone is so distinctive, you always know it's her. This in particular employs a sub-continent beat on the drum machine and the synth has that repeating motif in the background. Her flow is insane and I just enjoy it so much.
14. Radar Detector (Xaphoon Jones remix) - Darwin Deez
I found this song the last day of 2009, so this counts for this year. One day is not enough to experience and fully enjoy this number. Darwin writes such simplistic lyrics and it's all right there, no metaphors to cut through or messages to decipher. Xaphoon's beats are quick and have that descending stacatto aspect that I just love love love. It's sweet and groove-heavy and I will enjoy it forever. It's a wonderful love song.
13. Are You Satisfied? - Marina and the Diamonds
I first listened to this when I went on a cycling adventure along the moors and that day was so bright and clear and I can still see the world stretched before me and the colours and wind and grass every time I listen to this song. It's so catchy and light (do I use that to describe Marina a lot?) and the instrumentation is clever and interesting, even after hundreds of listens. Some people find her voice "grating" but I don't hear it; I think this song could've easily gone the boring route with someone who has a more mainstreamed voice. It's lovely and it makes me feel joyous.
12. Cold War - Janelle Monáe
Jonelle Monae can do no wrong. HONESTLY. If you haven't seen the video for this song, you absolutely must. It's so powerful and beautiful. Her voice is a wonder and while it's surface-level danceable and easy enough to bop along to, it has lyrical content that just blows me away with its complexity. Even taken out of the context of her ARCHANDROID concept album, it makes a statement, and in a superb way. Everything about this song is tight, the instruments, her voice, the ambiance.
11. Generator ^ First Floor - Freelance Whales
The best opening track of the year. So pure, so optimistic, this song is the sonic equivalent of one or all of these things:
1) The brief yet endless lean in before a first kiss, that strange brew of certainty and potential, conclusion and introduction
2) A sunrise seen across a vast field, golds and greens that seep into and crawl across it.
3) The most perfect moment of your life, which could be 1 or 2 itself. Moments simple yet dramatic, sprawling yet perfect. Everything that is the simplest and truest form of the word "good."
10. You and I - Avalanche City
I have such a quiet love for this song; quiet and fierce. This is even better than 'Radar Detector' in terms of lovely, sweet lyrics that you just weren't expecting so they hit you right in that soft spot of your heart and you so severely wish that someone would say, or even sing, these things to you. It's not sad, or yearning, it's just sweet and simple and he just wants to say these things and let you know that if you were together, he would help you with all of these things and if you climbed up a tree and couldn't get back down, he would build a tree-house for your new life above the ground. Like, really?
9. Nike Boots - Wale
Sometimes you just need to get your BAMF face on and do some slo-mo action walk like Misfits and this song instills that badass-ness in me. The beat is ill beyond recognition and honestly it's probably always gonna be on my "So Fly You Could Never Even Dream of Touching Me" playlist. (Yes, that is a real thing, come look at my iPod). I use it during on-deck warm-up and I always go harder and push further.
8. Comes As You Were - The Bird and the Bee
Inara's voice is so ethereal that I could honestly listen to her sing anything and be content and pleased as punch. Greg's compositions are so delicate and effervescent that it just works perfectly. When the chorus refrain hits it's just so wonderful. I could listen to this for years. It manages to feel completely contemporary without being stuck in a certain musical time-frame.
7. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
This song is all about the beginning of summer and the promises of what's to come and everything you could ever want stretched out in front of you as far as you can possibly see. It's loose and buoyant and so fun and it just sounds good.
6. Fuck You - Cee Lo Green
This grew on me and now I just love it. Cee Lo can be slightly hit and miss for me at times but he is so on point with his latest album and this in particular. It's so musically removed from all of the genre-bending that is swirling around these days, in a class of its own. His voice is fantastically powerful and so unique and it's honestly the classiest-sounding kiss off.
5. Monster (ft. JAY-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver) - Kayne West
Kanye can be an arrogant dick, but he is a musical master. His creations are so anomalous and this is exceptional. The guest verses truly make the song though (hey Nicki with your song-stealing spit) and they are all so talented. This song is so huge without being cumbersome and it's just awesome.
4. The Cave - Mumford and Sons
They blew up this year and it was deserved. It's not often that a group can come along and get people interested in a sort blue grass-influenced twee indie chill-pop. This song just builds and it's just hnnnnng when the plucking hits about halfway in and it's just grows and grows and those backing harmonies are just divine.
3. White Sky - Vampire Weekend
So clever, and so damn cool. Those high falsetto notes are magnificent and the actual music is clacking and strumming and ahhhs and you can't help but feel a little lifted after this, like you just ran around in the hot summer sun and you're sinking into a comfy seat in the shade with a cool drink.
2. This Too Shall Pass - OK Go
They played in Manchester in July and I had the opportunity to see them and that is what solidified my love of this song for me. They stopped all the music for the let it go this too shall pass refrain and just had the audience singing it and it was this mass of people all on the same page and in complete unison screaming these words and it was so massive and important and this song just puts me back there every time I hear it.
1. I Am Not A Robot (Clock Opera remix) - Marina and the Diamonds
Twenty pounds I'm gonna say "light" again in reference to her voice. This remix is so inventive and interesting. I love the original like fierce and it takes me a while to even consider remixes of songs I'm attached to but this just plays with the music so well and it shifts when you aren't expecting and takes it off somewhere else and that's totally okay. HER VOICE IS SO LIGHT, MY GOSH. I didn't expect to love it so much but I honestly do. It's just swell.