Kaputt and in particular, its title track is one of those perfect pieces of music I didn’t know I wanted until I first heard it, Dan Bejar’s previously irritably mewling vocals zeroing in on an ideal setting via a gauzy but urgent wash of electronics, yacht rock guitars and horn flourishes. Released weeks after the death of Gerry “Baker Street” Rafferty, it sounded like a passed torch, instantly negating all that time in between when such sounds were deeply unfashionable.
Some years back, I crafted a playlist called “21st Century Eighties” due to the sudden proliferation of stuff like M83’s 2011-meets-1986 anthem, Junior Boys’ glass-eyed take on a slowed-down ABC or Spandau Ballet (in music if not vocals) and Kavinsky’s perfectly icy throwback synth-pop made indelible by its placement over the opening credits of my favorite 2011 film, Drive. I suppose Iron and Wine’s Christine McVie pastiche and Washed Out’s Limahl homage could slot in, too, although Ivy’s house-pop resurrection owes more to the subsequent decade. Transcending any decade: Wilco’s catchiest tune (without Billy Bragg), k.d. lang’s finest ballad, Lana Del Rey’s still-startling debut, Emm Gryner’s breathless, crystalline pop and R.E.M.’s sweet last gasp. As for The Rapture’s urgent, exuberant dance-rock opus (also a last gasp from them), it’s not a Bee Gees cover—it’s much better than that.
And that’s not all! Don’t forget Jens Lekman’s cautionary note to the lead actress of a Lars von Trier film, spirited one-shots from alt-country rocker Jessica Lea Mayfield, garage punks Those Darlins’ and Aussie duo An Horse (it was the golden age of discovering new music through iTunes’ free Song of the Week), a skeletal, haunted Feist cover from James Blake, Beth Ditto making a beeline for the diva house dancefloor, My Morning Jacket offering rare words of wisdom that resonated with my then-36-year-old self, the eerie, Norah Jones-led “Black” (made immortal by Breaking Bad late that year), and of course, Kate Bush delectably daft as ever (if a little more subdued than in her The Dreaming days.)
2011: All Sounds Like A Dream
- Wilco, “I Might”
- Those Darlins’, “Screws Get Loose”
- Atlas Sound, “Mona Lisa”
- Beth Ditto, “I Wrote The Book”
- Jens Lekman, “Waiting For Kirsten”
- Jessica Lea Mayfield, “Blue Skies Again”
- Destroyer, “Kaputt”
- Emm Gryner, “Heartsleeves”
- Bon Iver, “Calgary”
- Iron & Wine, “Tree By The River”
- PJ Harvey, “The Words That Maketh Murder”
- Kate Bush, “Wild Man”
- M83, “Midnight City”
- The Kills, “Future Starts Slow”
- Junior Boys, “Playtime”
- James Blake, “Limit to Your Love”
- Lykke Li, “Youth Knows No Pain”
- Kavinsky featuring Lovefoxxx, “Nightcall”
- Paul Simon, “So Beautiful or So What”
- Lana Del Rey, “Video Games”
- Ivy, “Distant Lights”
- Lady Gaga, “Marry the Night”
- Florence + The Machine, “What The Water Gave Me”
- My Morning Jacket, “Outta My System”
- Cut Copy, “Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat”
- Raphael Saadiq, “Movin’ Down The Line”
- Laura Marling, “The Beast”
- R.E.M., “Uberlin”
- kd lang & The Siss Boom Bang, “The Water’s Edge”
- Danger Mouse & Daniel Luippi feat. Norah Jones, “Black”
- Meshell Ndegeocello, “Chance”
- Lindsay Buckingham, “That’s The Way Love Goes”
- Washed Out, “Amor Fati”
- An Horse, “Dressed Sharply”
- The Rapture, “How Deep Is Your Love?”
- Beirut, “Santa Fe”
Haunted Jukebox 