Annual Playlists

2025: The Dead Don’t Die

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Since art can be a necessary distraction, I did not take music for granted this year. Although I spent much of its second half listening to 100 previously unheard albums saved to my streaming library, I also kept up with new releases. To encapsulate 2025, I’ve included selections from all of my top ten albums and fifteen honorable mentions plus twenty more that run the gamut from one-offs (Romy’s declaration of free love, veteran Eurodisco producer Cerrone’s energetic collab with Christine and the Queens) to album cuts (Japanese Breakfast conjuring convincing 90s shoegaze vibes, Alison Goldfrapp leading off her second solo album with her fizziest song in at least 15 years) and isolated miracles like Natalie Bergman’s Nancy Sinatra-meets-Shelby Lynne songcraft or Jamie xx sampling/transforming my favorite old discovery of this year, Terry Callier’s beguiling 1972 gem “Dancing Girl” (itself also featured heavily in the film Sentimental Value.)

The average artist age here likely mirrors my own Gen-X soul, which is not to say I was resistant to the Millennial charms of Chappell Roan’s horny take on Shania Twain, Brooke Combe’s dance apocalyptic or Yves Tumor and NINA (of Bar Italia) aesthetically smashing together to create a joyful noise. Still, when someone as established or venerated (or just plain old) as Tunde Adebimpe (of TV On The Radio), Andy Bell (of Erasure) or even ex-Go-Between Robert Forster puts out a first-rate track, I take notice. You don’t have to be an aging music geek to love Wet Leg’s snark-punk and My Morning Jacket’s gleaming Supertramp pastiche (granted, not everyone will); reheated nachos or not, few could deny the monumental, glorious nonsense of “Abracadabra” as an entirely necessary distraction amidst a world coming apart.

You’ve likely heard the Lady Gaga song without even seeking it out, so instead, I’ll highlight a choice cut from the lead singer of Wilco’s 30-track triple album. I almost can’t not like a song for this title alone but I also love how succinctly it sums up the primal allure of rock (or punk or rap or “insert genre here”) without being pretentious about it. In these messy times, we don’t need reverence or pensiveness but raw, loud, unfiltered emotion and release—“I wanna feel everything,” indeed.

2025: The Dead Don’t Die

  1. Brooke Combe, “Dancing At The Edge Of The World”
  2. Wolf Alice, “Wild Horses”
  3. Cut Copy, “Belong To You”
  4. Ivy, “Fragile People”
  5. Stereolab, “Melodie Is A Wound (Edit)”
  6. FKA Twigs, “Girl Feels Good”
  7. Lady Gaga, “Abracadabra”
  8. Romy, “Love Who You Love”
  9. Mekons, “Mudcrawlers”
  10. Perfume Genius, “It’s A Mirror”
  11. Patrick Wolf, “Jupiter”
  12. Jeff Tweedy, “Lou Reed Was My Babysitter”
  13. Bartees Strange, “Sober”
  14. Hatchie, “Sage”
  15. The Weather Station, “Mirror”
  16. Jamie xx, “Dream Night”
  17. Blood Orange, “Mind Loaded”
  18. Destroyer, “Hydroplaning Off The Edge Of The World”
  19. Jens Lekman, “With You I Can Hear My Own Voice”
  20. Japanese Breakfast, “Honey Water”
  21. Saint Etienne, “Glad”
  22. Natalie Bergman, “Gunslinger”
  23. Pulp, “Got To Have Love”
  24. Andy Bell, “Dance For Mercy”
  25. Cate Le Bon, “Mother of Riches”
  26. The Tubs, “Narcissist”
  27. Matt Berninger, “Inland Ocean”
  28. Cerrone & Christine and the Queens, “Catching Feelings”
  29. Maria Somerville, “Stonefly”
  30. Suzanne Vega, “Flying With Angels”
  31. Anna Von Hausswolff, “Struggle With The Beast”
  32. Haim, “Down To Be Wrong”
  33. David Byrne, “What Is The Reason For It?”
  34. Yves Tumor & NINA, “We Don’t Count”
  35. Chappell Roan, “The Giver”
  36. My Morning Jacket, “Everyday Magic”
  37. Wet Leg, “Catch These Fists”
  38. Robert Forster, “Tell It Back To Me”
  39. Yola, “Amazing”
  40. Florence + The Machine, “The Old Religion”
  41. Pearl Charles & Tim Burgess, “Gone So Long”
  42. Tunde Adebimpe, “Somebody New”
  43. Alison Goldfrapp, “Hey Hi Hello”
  44. CMAT, “Euro-Country”
  45. Doves, “Southern Bell”

Fifty for 50

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As I reach another milestone birthday this coming week, I’ve added a postscript to the annual playlists I posted throughout 2024, selecting one song from each for a Franken-Mix that spans my entire life to date. I often included the track originally featured with a YouTube link in each playlist, but made the occasional substitution (starting off the entire mix with ideal album closer “Just Another High” just felt wrong).

Taken together, there’s no rhyme or reason apart from the concept itself. Even by not repeating any artists, I still couldn’t find room for *all* of my favorites (apologies to Sam Phillips, Leonard Cohen, Pet Shop Boys, Concrete Blonde, Erasure, Emm Gryner, Donna Summer, etc.) If anything emerges, it’s a rough snapshot of my taste in music cultivated over a half century. One could argue “Upside Down” sort of anticipates “Poor Fake” or that “Don’t Leave Me This Way” and “Free Yourself” are kindred spirits, but that was not the intention of including them here.

From the landmark Mermaid Avenue, an album where Billy Bragg and Wilco crafted music for Woody Guthrie lyrics, enjoy “California Stars”, a song my husband and I have bonded over and a tune that stands the test of time, not sounding exactly like 1998, 1968 or potentially 2028 for that matter.

Fifty for 50:

  1. 1975: Bee Gees, “Jive Talkin’”
  2. 1976: ABBA, “Knowing Me, Knowing You”
  3. 1977: Thelma Houston, “Don’t Leave Me This Way”
  4. 1978: Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights”
  5. 1979: Supertramp, “The Logical Song”
  6. 1980: Diana Ross, “Upside Down”
  7. 1981: Grace Jones, “Walking In The Rain”
  8. 1982: The B-52s, “Mesopotamia”
  9. 1983: The The, “This Is The Day”
  10. 1984: Rubber Rodeo, “Anywhere With You”
  11. 1985: Kirsty MacColl, “He’s On The Beach”
  12. 1986: Prince, “Kiss”
  13. 1987: New Order, “Temptation (Substance version)”
  14. 1988: Sade, “Paradise”
  15. 1989: Neneh Cherry, “Buffalo Stance”
  16. 1990: Deee-Lite, “Groove Is In The Heart”
  17. 1991: The KLF Feat. Tammy Wynette, “Justified and Ancient”
  18. 1992: 10,000 Maniacs, “Noah’s Dove”
  19. 1993: The Judybats, “Ugly On The Outside”
  20. 1994: Freedy Johnston, “Bad Reputation”
  21. 1995: Jen Trynin, “Better Than Nothing”
  22. 1996: Cibo Matto, “Know Your Chicken”
  23. 1997: Catherine Wheel, “Satellite”
  24. 1998: Billy Bragg & Wilco, “California Stars”
  25. 1999: Fiona Apple, “Paper Bag”
  26. 2000: The Avalanches, “Frontier Psychiatrist”
  27. 2001: Ivy, “Edge of the Ocean”
  28. 2002: Sleater-Kinney, “Step Aside”
  29. 2003: Stars, “Elevator Love Letter”
  30. 2004: Sufjan Stevens, “To Be Alone With You”
  31. 2005: Saint Etienne, “Stars Above Us”
  32. 2006: Marit Bergman, “No Party”
  33. 2007: The Shins, “Australia”
  34. 2008: Martha Wainwright, “You Cheated Me”
  35. 2009: Florence + The Machine, “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
  36. 2010: Robyn, “Dancing On My Own”
  37. 2011: Destroyer, “Kaputt”
  38. 2012: Of Monsters and Men, “Dirty Paws”
  39. 2013: John Grant, “GMF”
  40. 2014: Future Islands, “Seasons (Waiting On You)”
  41. 2015: Belle and Sebastian, “Nobody’s Empire”
  42. 2016: The Radio Dept., “Committed To The Cause”
  43. 2017: Jens Lekman, “Evening Prayer”
  44. 2018: Twin Shadow, “Too Many Colors”
  45. 2019: Kelsey Lu, “Poor Fake”
  46. 2020: Christine and the Queens with Caroline Polachek, “La Vita Nuova”
  47. 2021: Cassandra Jenkins, “Hard Drive”
  48. 2022: Jessie Ware, “Free Yourself”
  49. 2023: Everything But The Girl, “Run A Red Light”
  50. 2024: Alison Moyet, “Such Small Ale”

2024: Abandon The Crowd

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We’ve reached the end of this year-long project where I posted an annual playlist every week in chronological order. I kicked it off acknowledging my uncertainty as to how comprehensively one could sum up a single year in 30 or 40 songs; 50+ weeks later, I don’t have a definitive answer to that question, only confirmation that each year produces a wealth of great tunes—it’s all a matter of seeking them out or, more specifically, remaining open to discovering them.

As noted in my Best Albums of 2024, this year was a particularly taxing and chaotic one (as will most national election years be going forward, I fear.) Music (and art in general) provides, if not a reason to endure it all, at least some comfort and enjoyment. The power of a song you want to play over and over again is not to be denied or underestimated. Thus, the return of simple but utterly transcendental pop music (Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, even the first Billie Eilish song I’ve unabashedly loved) felt as inevitable as the disco/dance revival from four years before. If some artists couldn’t sustain such a vibe over an entire album, bite-sized highlights such as Jamie xx’s Robyn-starring sonic whirlwind or Aussie jangle-pop outfit Quivers’ precise, invigorating 1980s pastiche provided abundant nourishment.

Increasingly and (given the times) predictably I gravitated towards music that offered relief and a sense of blissful escape: Real Estate expertly channeling Big Star and The Go-Betweens, Kacey Musgraves edging further into folk-rock worthy of prime Sheryl Crow, Michael Kiwanuka reemerging after a five-year absence on a bed of lush and gently effervescent soul. Still, there’s tension in the gap between the pillow-soft soundscapes of Cigarettes After Sex, Hurray For The Riff Raff and Arooj Aftab and the spikier dissonance of Nilufer Yanya, Father John Misty and an ever-musically-evolving Yola. Splitting the difference between these poles is another returning veteran: while Alison Moyet’s reimagining-tracks-from-her-past-catalog project Key yielded enough varied results for it to just miss my top ten albums list, “Such Small Ale”, one of its two new songs offered solace in its arresting melody and Moyet’s undiminished voice but also urgency in its rejection of complacency, compelling us to think about where and how we find (and remain open to finding) meaning and purpose in this crazy, frustrating and occasionally sublime world.

2024: Abandon The Crowd

  1. Hurray For The Riff Raff, “Alibi”
  2. Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
  3. The Last Dinner Party, “The Feminine Urge”
  4. Father John Misty, “She Cleans Up”
  5. The Cure, “A Fragile Thing”
  6. Gossip, “Real Power”
  7. Jamie xx/Robyn, “Life”
  8. Yola, “Future Enemies”
  9. Tindersticks, “New World”
  10. Arooj Aftab, “Raat Ki Rani”
  11. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, “The Bells and The Birds”
  12. Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham, “Crying In The Night”
  13. Pernice Brothers, “Who Will You Believe”
  14. Gruff Rhys, “Peace Signs”
  15. Quivers, “Never Be Lonely”
  16. Beabadoobee, “Take a Bite”
  17. Alison Moyet, “Such Small Ale”
  18. Kacey Musgraves, “Cardinal”
  19. Nilufer Yanya, “Like I Say (I Runaway)”
  20. Camera Obscura, “Big Love”
  21. Cigarettes After Sex, “Baby Blue Movie”
  22. Beth Gibbons, “Floating On A Moment”
  23. Laura Marling, “The Shadows”
  24. The The, “Cognitive Dissident”
  25. Cassandra Jenkins, “Clams Casino”
  26. Julia Holter, “These Morning”
  27. Michael Kiwanuka, “Floating Parade”
  28. Waxahatchee, “Bored”
  29. Another Sky, “Playground”
  30. Pet Shop Boys, “Feel”
  31. Billie Eilish, “Birds Of A Feather”
  32. Vampire Weekend, “Prep-School Gangsters”
  33. Brittany Howard, “Prove It To You”
  34. Suzanne Vega, “Rats”
  35. Orville Peck, Kylie Minogue & Diplo, “Midnight Ride”
  36. Real Estate, “Flowers”
  37. Pond, “(I’m) Stung”
  38. Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”
  39. Jessica Pratt, “Life Is”
  40. Maggie Rogers, “Don’t Forget Me”

2023: We Won’t Go Quietly

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Like the previous year, 2023 was one of returning, seeking some resemblance of “normal”, navigating a post-pandemic world with caution but also hope. A number of artists made literal returns as well, none more spectacularly than Everything But The Girl—on hiatus since the turn of the century, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt had both foraged solo careers worthy of their past work together. Fuse, their reunion as a duo triumphed by picking off where 1999’s Temperamental left off while also feeling fully attenuated to this moment. Its third single, “Run A Red Light”, was its most striking with an enthralling sense of space and reverberating piano chords, conveying wisdom and maturity without coming off as stodgy.

Other veterans adjusted to the times by either translating past sounds into the present (Christine and the Queens’ channeling trip-hop; Emm Gryner (along with relative newbies Molly Burch and U.S. Girls) finding solace and also inspiration in “yacht-rock”) or taking adventurous leaps into the unknown (PJ Harvey, who hasn’t ever made the same kind of album twice; The Clientele crafting an indie-pop cantata of sorts; Kylie Minogue, genuinely in sync with the latest club culture enough to put Madonna to shame.) Depeche Mode, Ben Folds, Sparks and Blur released their sharpest singles in decades while Robert Forster offered up a late-career gem that could easily serve as an epitaph: “See how far we’ve come,” he concluded in “Tender Years”, rendering it with more resonance and depth than one would ever expect from such a potential cliché.

In trying to remain an active listener, I am still devoted to finding new sounds: Yves Tumor’s hooky, onomatopoeic experimental pop, Bar Italia’s moody-yet-catchy, post-punk/college rock hybrid, Jungle’s postmodern retro-soul, Meg Baird’s dreamy, lingering, sighing extended instrumental, Gabriels’ gender-queer slant on gospel and funk and The Tubs making good old jangle-pop that’s uncommonly crisp and fresh. Corinne Bailey Rae’s Black Rainbows (here represented by the hypnotic, loping “Red Horse”) is a major advance, a challenging, far-reaching collection with a scope her previous work barely hinted at; it’s currently in the running for my favorite album of the decade. Also revelatory: Romy’s “She’s On My Mind”, its house piano hook and samba rhythm an irresistible match for her dancefloor yearning which blossoms, builds and gradually turns euphoric in the end.

2023: We Won’t Go Quietly

  1. Yves Tumor, “Echolalia”
  2. Jamila Woods/duendita, “Tiny Garden”
  3. Robert Forster, “Tender Years”
  4. Gabriels, “Offering”
  5. ANONHI, “It Must Change”
  6. Christine and the Queens, “Tears Can Be So Soft”
  7. The National, “Tropic Morning News”
  8. Bar Italia, “Changer”
  9. Alex Lahey, “The Sky is Melting”
  10. Sparks, “Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is”
  11. Shamir, “Wandering Through”
  12. Emm Gryner, “Loose Wig”
  13. Jenny Lewis, “Psychos”
  14. Ben Folds, “Winslow Gardens”
  15. Romy, “She’s On My Mind”
  16. Everything But The Girl, “Run A Red Light”
  17. Meg Baird, “Ashes, Ashes”
  18. Slowdive, “Kisses”
  19. Molly Burch, “Heartburn”
  20. The Clientele, “Blue Over Blue”:
  21. Depeche Mode, “Ghosts Again”
  22. Caroline Polachek, “Welcome To My Island”
  23. Lana Del Rey/SYML, “Paris, Texas”
  24. Mitski, “My Love Mine All Mine”
  25. The Tubs, “I Don’t Know How It Works”
  26. Sufjan Stevens, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
  27. Wilco, “Evicted”
  28. U.S. Girls, “Only Daedalus”
  29. PJ Harvey, “Prayer At The Gate”
  30. Jungle, “Back on 74”
  31. Jessie Ware, “Begin Again”
  32. Boygenius, “Not Strong Enough”
  33. CMAT/John Grant, “Where Are Your Kids Tonight?”
  34. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “When We Were Close”
  35. Blur, “The Narcissist”
  36. Arlo Parks, “Purple Phase”
  37. Corinne Bailey Rae, “Red Horse”
  38. Tennis, “Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight”
  39. Kylie Minogue, “Padam Padam”
  40. Jake Shears, “Last Man Dancing”

2022: Extraordinary Colors

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The year I came back, heck, we all came back from the dead even if the pandemic wasn’t technically over. Still, with such irrevocable change, all we could do was go forward. In that regard, Jessie Ware’s “Free Yourself” best summed up 2022: an invitation to the dancefloor (among other activities), a commandment more than a request, it pleaded for renewal, self-expression and cathartic release. An advance preview of her 2023 album That! Feels Good!, it was also a natural progression from 2021’s best song, “Like I Used To”: “Keep on moving up that mountaintop,” indeed.

Even if their albums didn’t crack my top ten, a number of veteran acts put out exceptional singles this year: Beach House fine-tuning their dream-pop gauze with “Superstar”, Alison Goldfrapp returning as a guest on Royksopp’s burbling epic “Impossible”, Hurray For The Riff Raff’s searing, anthemic “Pierced Arrows”, Regina Spektor still a delightful weirdo on the tip-top whimsy of “Up The Mountain”, even The Dream Syndicate, having now released as many albums in the past decade as in their original 1980s incarnation proving their continued worth with “Damian”—as brisk and cool as an evening wind.

Among artists new to me in 2022: Hatchie, whose “Quicksand” pays homage to late Cocteau Twins and gets away with it for being as precise and pleasurable as late Siouxsie and the Banshees; Alex G, an indie weirdo crafting jingle-worthy jangle pop on “Runner” while managing to turn the lyric, “Load it up, know your trigger like the back of my hand” into a sing-along hook; Anais Mitchell, composer of Broadway smash Hadestown returning to her roots as an incisive yet ethereal folk-pop singer-songwriter, and The xx’s Oliver Sim in his solo debut, a sly, queer commentary too jaunty and droll to fit in his band’s discography (and presented to best effect in Yann Gonzalez’s short film Hideous.)

Also: Tears For Fears reunited and made an album that didn’t suck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs reunited and made an album that was at best inconsequential save for the dramatic, searing “Burning”, Junior Boys returned with Waiting Game which lacked actual tunes expect for the evocative closer of a title track and First Aid Kit showed they’re ready for world domination even if the Fleetwood Mac-worthy “Out of My Head” wouldn’t actually accomplish it. Both venerable Canadians (Alvvays, Stars, Destroyer) and Australians (Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Darren Hayes) alike contributed solid additions to their catalogues, as did American Father John Misty whose “The Next 20th Century” posited the flipside of Ware’s rejuvenation—a quietly sinister, panoramic and prescient view of a radically changed world.

2022: Extraordinary Colors

  1. Jessie Ware, “Free Yourself”
  2. Hurray For The Riff Raff, “Pierced Arrows”
  3. The Dream Syndicate, “Damian”
  4. First Aid Kit, “Out of My Head”
  5. Alvvays, “Belinda Says”
  6. Hatchie, “Quicksand”
  7. Beth Orton, “Fractals”
  8. Destroyer, “June”
  9. Beabadoobee, “Talk”
  10. Andrew Bird, “Inside Problems”
  11. Stars, “Capelton Hill”
  12. Big Thief, “Simulation Swarm”
  13. Alex G, “Runner”
  14. Cate Le Bon, “Remembering Me”
  15. Regina Spektor, “Up The Mountain”
  16. Arctic Monkeys, “Body Paint”
  17. Jenny Hval, “Year of Love”
  18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Burning”
  19. Orville Peck, “C’mon Baby, Cry”
  20. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Talking To Yourself”
  21. Tears For Fears, “The Tipping Point”
  22. Calexico, “Harness The Wind”
  23. Hot Chip, “Guilty”
  24. FKA Twigs, “Killer”
  25. Wet Leg, “Wet Dream”
  26. Sylvan Esso, “Alarm”
  27. Sharon Van Etten, “Mistakes”
  28. Royksopp/Alison Goldfrapp, “Impossible”
  29. Angel Olsen, “Go Home”
  30. Father John Misty, “The Next 20th Century”
  31. Steve Lacy, “Bad Habit”
  32. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, “Bounce Off The Bottom”
  33. Florence + The Machine, “My Love”
  34. Beach House, “Superstar”
  35. Junior Boys, “Waiting Game”
  36. Spoon, “Lucifer On The Sofa”
  37. Darren Hayes, “Let’s Try Being In Love”
  38. Metric, “All Comes Crashing”
  39. Anais Mitchell, “Brooklyn Bridge”
  40. Oliver Sim, “Run The Credits”

2021: Take A Deep Breath, Count With Me

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You could be forgiven for thinking of 2021, then labelled a year of “languishing” by the New York Times as one of stasis where music was concerned. We took comfort in artists making unexpected returns—most miraculously, ABBA with their first album in forty years, the patchy but true-to-form Voyage (with its legitimately great single “Don’t Shut Me Down”) but also long-awaited new stuff from Kings of Convenience (after an absence of 12 years), Arab Strap (15), Liz Phair (11), Jose Gonzalez (6) and other acts adhering to the usual 3-5 year cycle between releases, from Aimee Mann and Martha Wainwright to Tori Amos and Twin Shadow.

Fortunately, many of my favorite tracks came from out of the blue: Mia Doi Todd’s loving yet sharp boho paean to the “Music Life”, The Felice Brothers keeping in check with the gallows humor of the times on “Jazz On The Autobahn”, Emm Gryner (with help from Rob Wells) going giddy EDM-pop with “All Love All The Time”, Rufus Wainwright also taking to the dancefloor with his Ampersounds collaboration “Technopera”, The War on Drugs perfecting their anthemic retroisms on “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” and Middle Kids offering up their own anthem for the ages with the bighearted “Stacking Chairs”.

I want to single out three more songs. First and foremost, resembling Jane Siberry speaking/singing over Kaputt-era Destroyer, Cassandra Jenkins’ breakthrough single “Hard Drive” emerged as both a wonder and a turning point. Arriving when I (and many other people) needed it the most, it beautifully conveyed renewal and resilience following such an extreme period of turbulence and loss. 

When I first heard “Chaise Longue”, I immediately pictured Wet Leg as Brit versions of the disaffected teens played by Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke in the 2017 film Thoroughbreds. Thankfully, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers were far droller than that, their mostly spoken post-punk a prospect both familiar and, in this climate, totally refreshing. Strung together with quotable, cheeky lyrics (“I went to school, and I got the big D”), their debut single was a gas and a tonic to all of this year’s troubles.

In the past, I’ve casually admired both Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen but never would’ve guessed how sinuously their voices would blend together. In this standalone duet, against a Springsteen/Spector-like wall of sound, they sang of a will to survive that many of us could relate to following a year-plus of crisis, heartbreak and uncertainty. “Like I Used To” was both a lament and a promise, the yearning in Van Etten’s and Olsen’s voices deeply resonant as we looked to the future.

2021: Take a Deep Breath, Count With Me

  1. Wet Leg, “Chaise Longue”
  2. Liz Phair, “Spanish Doors”
  3. ABBA, “Don’t Shut Me Down”
  4. Emm Gryner/Rob Wells, “All Love All The Time”
  5. Cassandra Jenkins, “Hard Drive”
  6. Japanese Breakfast, “Be Sweet”
  7. Gruff Rhys, “Mausoleum of My Former Self”
  8. Lindsey Buckingham, “On The Wrong Side”
  9. Rostam, “4 Runner”
  10. Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen, “Like I Used To”
  11. Ampersounds feat. Rufus Wainwright, “Technopera”
  12. LUMP, “We Cannot Resist”
  13. Quivers, “Gutters of Love”
  14. Kings of Convenience, “Fever”
  15. Field Music, “No Pressure”
  16. Aimee Mann, “At The Frick Museum”
  17. Mia Doi Todd, “Music Life”
  18. Arlo Parks, “Black Dog”
  19. Yola, “Stand For Myself”
  20. Arab Strap, “Here Comes Comus!”
  21. Julie Doiron, “You Gave Me The Key”
  22. Caroline Polachek, “Bunny Is a Rider”
  23. John Grant, “Billy”
  24. Tori Amos, “Flowers Turn to Gold”
  25. Molly Burch, “Control”
  26. Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine, “Back To Oz”
  27. Middle Kids, “Stacking Chairs”
  28. The Coral, “Lover Undiscovered”
  29. Virna Lindt, “Once”
  30. Lord Huron, “Not Dead Yet”
  31. The War On Drugs, “I Don’t Live Here Anymore”
  32. Twin Shadow, “Alemania”
  33. Martha Wainwright, “Hole In My Heart”
  34. Pearl Charles, “What I Need”
  35. The Weather Station, “Tried To Tell You”
  36. Another Sky, “It Keeps Coming”
  37. Jose Gonzalez, “Visions”
  38. Saint Etienne, “Penlop”
  39. Fruit Bats, “The Balcony”
  40. The Felice Brothers, “Jazz on the Autobahn”

2020: Follow The Light

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What more can one say about this most abnormal year? That, like any other, there was still an abundance of good new music? So many songs did their part in keeping me as sane as they reasonably could: droll, clever wordplay from Rufus Wainwright and The Radio Dept., neo-disco from Kylie Minogue, Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Roisin Murphy etc., sharp ‘80s revivalism from Future Islands and Of Monsters and Men and comeback singles from actual ’80s acts like Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, and the Pretenders whose distinct sound proved as durable as the expert pastiche of it A Girl Called Eddy essayed on “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart” (this artist picked a heck of a time to finally release a follow up to her 2004 self-titled debut.)

Still, Covid unquestionably cast a pall over so much, from surprise early drops of long-awaited albums from Fiona Apple, Fleet Foxes and Owen Pallett to records from this period that can’t help but feel like remnants of it. The acclaimed but incredibly anxiety-ridden music Apple put out seemed almost too prescient for such a stressful time while Phoebe Bridgers’ melancholic, quietly apocalyptic sketches (I nearly included “I Know The End” instead of what remains her most crystalline melody) ended up a definitive shared musical experience for indie-pop listeners of that time. Personally, I was even more enthralled by such left-field discoveries as Kate NV’s loopy, experimental Russo-pop and Shamir’s unprecedented hybrid of The Who as if fronted by Tiny Tim.

Three more singles that kept me afloat, in the order of first hearing them: U.S. Girls’ obscenely catchy and tongue-twisting “4 American Dollars” (all together now: “I don’t believe in pennies, and nickels, and dimes, and dollars, and pesos, and pounds, and rupees, and yen, and rubles, no dinero”), Christine and the Queens’ triumphant and euphoric title track to their La Vita Nuova EP and, with help from vocalist Leon Bridges, The Avalanches’ “Interstellar Love”: wrapped around an ingenious sample of the Alan Parson Project’s “Eye In The Sky”, it was, if not exactly the sort of the magic this group trafficked in on Since I Left You twenty years before, just as effective as that touchstone of 21st century pop.

2020: Follow The Light

  1. Haim, “The Steps”
  2. Kylie Minogue, “Magic”
  3. Jessie Ware, “Save A Kiss”
  4. A Girl Called Eddy, “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart”
  5. Lianne La Havas, “Can’t Fight”
  6. Perfume Genius, “On The Floor”
  7. Pet Shop Boys, “Will-O-The-Wisp”
  8. Erasure, “Nerves of Steel”
  9. Real Estate feat. Sylvan Esso, “Paper Cup”
  10. Waxahatchee, “Lilacs”
  11. Laura Marling, “Held Down”
  12. Ivan & Alyosha, “Wired”
  13. Rufus Wainwright, “You Ain’t Big”
  14. Ben Watt, “Figures In The Landscape”
  15. Future Islands, “For Sure”
  16. The Radio Dept., “You Fear The Wrong Thing Baby”
  17. Katie Pruitt, “Expectations”
  18. Troye Sivan, “Easy”
  19. The Avalanches feat. Leon Bridges, “Interstellar Love”
  20. U.S. Girls, “4 American Dollars”
  21. Calexico, “Hear The Bells”
  22. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, “She’s There”
  23. Fiona Apple, “Cosmonauts”
  24. Destroyer, “It Just Doesn’t Happen”
  25. Phoebe Bridgers, “Chinese Satellite”
  26. Kate NV, “Plans”
  27. Pretenders, “The Buzz”
  28. Dubstar, “Hygiene Strip”
  29. Washed Out, “Too Late”
  30. Nicole Atkins, “Forever”
  31. Fleet Foxes, “Sunblind”
  32. Shamir, “Diet”
  33. Dua Lipa, “Physical”
  34. The Beths, “Jump Rope Glazers”
  35. Sylvan Esso, “Runaway”
  36. Cut Copy, “Like Breaking Glass”
  37. Owen Pallett, “A Bloody Morning”
  38. Christine and The Queens feat. Caroline Polachek, “La Vita Nuova”
  39. Roisin Murphy, “Something More”
  40. Of Monsters and Men, “Visitor”

2019: Could This Be… A Forgery?

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I tend to romanticize 2019 as a more innocent time, but that’s a trap—even without the global pandemic-to-come, the world was still a mess and I dealt with both civic and personal issues by seeking stimulation and comfort in film, books and music, just as I always had (and continue to do so in an ever-messy world.)

The first two tracks below are my favorites, both by new artists and completely out of left-field: Orville Peck, a queer, fringe-masked Canadian cowboy crooner, and Kelsey Lu, a Charlotte-born, African-American freak-folk original. Peck’s vocal on “Dead of Night” blatantly recalls Roy Orbison, Morrissey and Chris Isaak but when he shifts into his higher register on the chorus, it gives me chills like nothing Roy or few things Chris ever did (and like the Moz hasn’t in decades.) “Poor Fake”, on the other hand, instantly achieves soulful dancefloor splendor when the beat kicks in at 0:34 and approaches Kate Bush-levels of delightful eccentricity in its subject matter (counterfeit art) and bonkers spoken-word section. Peck’s gone on to semi-stardom, recording a duets album this year with the likes of Beck, Kylie Minogue and Willie Nelson; at this writing, I’m still waiting for a follow-up from Lu.

Other discoveries this year: Cate Le Bon’s pleasant/peculiar Avant-pop where at times her vocal recalls no one so much as Patti Smith (!); Weyes Blood’s own brand of Avant-pop, as if Aimee Mann and Brian Eno had a daughter; Steve Lacy’s Prince-meets-Daryl Hall comedown; Maggie Rogers’ compulsively singable declaration of desire; Yola’s retro baroque complete-with-harpsichord-soul (“Faraway Look”, an inspired choice to conclude the rebooted, fourth season of Veronica Mars) and Aussie Alex Lahey’s triumphant power-pop complete with a Clarence Clemons-esque sax solo.

Albums that nearly made my 2019 top ten (Vampire Weekend, Hot Chip, The Divine Comedy) are represented by their best songs, as are spottier full-lengths that were slight let-downs (Jenny Lewis, Marina (now “and the Diamonds”-free, somewhat to her detriment), Carly Rae Jepsen, The New Pornographers.) Also, more tracks not attached to an album at all: Sufjan Stevens’ released-for-Pride-month chillout anthem, an orphaned Florence + The Machine song preferable to anything on the previous year’s High As Hope and another delirious disco epic from Roisin Murphy.

Also, I was delighted to rediscover a few songs I hadn’t listened to much since then: Robert Forster’s consideration of his own status as a semi-semi-popular artist, a track from a reformed, older-and-wiser Dream Syndicate and a lovely, final sigh from the now-defunct Chromatics. 

2019: Could This Be… A Forgery?

  1. Orville Peck, “Dead Of Night”
  2. Kelsey Lu, “Poor Fake”
  3. Jenny Lewis, “Wasted Youth”
  4. Tegan and Sara, “Hold My Breath Until I Die”
  5. Robert Forster, “No Fame”
  6. Bat For Lashes, “Kids In The Dark”
  7. Steve Lacy “Hate CD”
  8. Deerhunter, “What Happens To People?”
  9. Marina, “Handmade Heaven”
  10. Andrew Bird, “Manifest”
  11. Vampire Weekend, “This Life”
  12. Belle & Sebastian, “Sister Buddha”
  13. Cate Le Bon, “Home To You”
  14. Raphael Saadiq, “This World Is Drunk”
  15. DIIV, “Skin Game”
  16. Of Monsters and Men, “Wild Roses”
  17. Calexico/Iron & Wine, “Midnight Sun”
  18. Roisin Murphy, “Narcissus”
  19. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Want You In My Room”
  20. Lana Del Rey, “Norman Fucking Rockwell”
  21. Cigarettes After Sex, “Heavenly”
  22. Chromatics, “You’re No Good”
  23. The New Pornographers, “Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile”
  24. Guster, “Don’t Go”
  25. Holy Ghost!, “Anxious”
  26. The Divine Comedy, “Absolutely Obsolete”
  27. Weyes Blood, “Everyday”
  28. The Mountain Goats, “Younger”
  29. Hot Chip, “Spell”
  30. Yola, “Faraway Look”
  31. Alex Lahey, “Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself”
  32. Florence + The Machine, “Moderation”
  33. The Dream Syndicate, “Bullet Holes”
  34. Maggie Rogers, “Burning”
  35. Sufjan Stevens, “Love Yourself”
  36. Michael Kiwanuka, “Piano Joint (This Kind of Love)”
  37. Sharon Van Etten, “Seventeen”
  38. Charly Bliss, “Chatroom”
  39. Imperial Teen, “How To Say Goodbye”
  40. The National, “Light Years”

2018: This Gorgeous Mess

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Emm Gryner and Tracey Thorn are as good as any bookends to summarize my musical tastes: in 2018, the former offered yet another in a decades-spanning string of brilliant pop singles, “Imagination” tapping into the neo-psychedelic wonder of Wendy and Lisa (or, to cite someone less cool, prime Bangles); the latter, ex-(and future!) Everything But The Girl vocalist capping off her solo career-to-date with the sort of epiphany all too rare in modern pop: “Someone’s singing and I realize it’s me,” she discovers while spending an evening with friends, drinking, dancing and thriving on the “Dancefloor”.

Plenty of great, late-career triumphs this year: Neneh Cherry, Inara George (of The Bird and The Bee), Robyn’s return, Sam Phillips applying her timelessness to an ever-relevant problem, Chaka Khan still very much the dancing queen, even Paul Frickin’ McCartney, still good for one great song per LP. Some nifty discoveries too, like Tracyanne & Danny (first overheard in a Pier One Imports!), an isolated track from former Vampire Weekend member Rostam, queer odes to losing one’s virginity both jaunty (Ezra Furman) and euphoric (Troye Sivan), crisp, ‘80s-revival jangle-pop from (take a deep breath) Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and sharp ’90s-revival alt-rock from the awesomely-named The Beths.

An earlier version of this playlist spotlighted Eleanor Friedberger’s “Make Me A Song” with its simple, indelible hook of “I could love you more” and I could easily do the same for my favorite Lana Del Rey track, dropped nearly a year before it resurfaced on her 2019 album (also my favorite of hers.) However, I can’t deny Twin Shadow’s “Too Many Colors”, an alternate universe number one hit buoyed by a killer hook and a sparkling arrangement. The man also known as George Lewis, Jr. has since branched out into other sounds and influences (reggae in particular on Twin Shadow’s self-titled 2021 LP); I don’t blame him since “Too Many Colors” is a perfect distillation of his previous retro synth-pop aesthetic.

2018: This Gorgeous Mess

  1. Emm Gryner, “Imagination”
  2. Lana Del Rey, “Mariners Apartment Complex”
  3. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, “Talking Straight”
  4. Kacey Musgraves, “High Horse”
  5. Sam Phillips, “American Landfill Kings”
  6. Eleanor Friedberger, “Make Me A Song”
  7. Neneh Cherry, “Kong”
  8. Chaka Khan, “Like Sugar”
  9. Inara George, “Slow Dance”
  10. St. Vincent, “Fast Slow Disco”
  11. Christine and The Queens, “The Walker”
  12. Troye Sivan, “Bloom”
  13. Paul McCartney, “Dominoes”
  14. LUMP, “Curse of the Contemporary”
  15. Amen Dunes, “Believe”
  16. Sunflower Bean, “I Was a Fool”
  17. Jessie Ware, “Overtime”
  18. First Aid Kit, “It’s A Shame”
  19. Janelle Monae, “Make Me Feel”
  20. Gruff Rhys, “Frontier Man”
  21. Twin Shadow, “Too Many Colors”
  22. Florence + The Machine, “Patricia”
  23. Calexico, “Music Box”
  24. Rostam, “In A River”
  25. Natalie Prass, “The Fire”
  26. Lake Street Dive, “Shame, Shame, Shame”
  27. Metric, “Now and Never Now”
  28. The Beths, “Not Running”
  29. Lord Huron, “The Balancer’s Eye”
  30. Ezra Furman, “I Lost My Innocence”
  31. Field Music, “Daylight Savings”
  32. Robyn, “Ever Again”
  33. Neko Case, “Bad Luck”
  34. The Decemberists, “Once In My Life”
  35. Tracyanne & Danny, “Cellophane Girl”
  36. Tracey Thorn, “Dancefloor”

2017: It’s Been A Long, Hard Year

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In 2017, for the first time as an adult, I suddenly lost two close friends (one to a heart attack, the other, cancer.) “Try Harder” by Mavis Staples offered some solace. Repeatedly wailing “Don’t do me no good to pretend / I’m as good as I can be,” over a primal, guttural guitar riff, Staples’ (then 78!) catharsis inspired me to keep moving forward in the midst of personal loss (and it must be said, national unrest.) So did Iron & Wine’s slow-building “Call It Dreaming”, The War on Drugs’ shimmering, better-with-every-year “Pain” and Alison Moyet’s declarative late anthem “The Rarest Birds”.

For the first time, I’ve gone up to forty tracks because I just couldn’t leave anything out: not the topical, propulsive anthem from the ever-unpredictable Canadian All-Star indie collective Broken Social Scene (with Metric’s Emily Haines on vocals), Alvvays crafting their own kind of lithe post-punk, Tori Amos proving as durable as ever with a seven-minute walk into the deep dark forest, a gem from Slowdive’s surprisingly durable self-titled reunion album or a song from another British group’s own reunion album, The Clientele’s Music For The Age Of Miracles. I had never knowingly listened to the latter until “Lunar Days” once popped up on shuffle on Spotify; I immediately fell for it and now count them among my favorite bands.

As for Jens Lekman (from whom the world is still waiting for a real follow-up album): only he would ever write a song about a man at a bar showing off a 3-D model of a tumor surgically removed from his back to his friend and a waitress or render it both so jubilant and melancholy, inserting almost ridiculously bubbly “doo-doo-doo’s” within a blue-eyed funk/disco arrangement. And there’s something in the way he sings the lyric I’ve co-opted for this playlist’s title that nearly destroys me every time I hear it.

2017: It’s Been A Long, Hard Year

  1. Iron & Wine, “Call It Dreaming”
  2. The National, “The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness”
  3. Laura Marling, “Soothing”
  4. The Clientele, “Lunar Days”
  5. Grizzly Bear, “Losing All Sense”
  6. Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie, “Sleeping Around The Corner”
  7. Perfume Genius, “Wreath”
  8. The War On Drugs, “Pain”
  9. Jessie Ware, “Your Domino”
  10. Sylvan Esso, “Die Young”
  11. Waxahatchee, “Never Been Wrong”
  12. Ted Leo, “Used To Believe”
  13. Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Deadly Valentine”
  14. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Cut To The Feeling”
  15. Tennis, “My Emotions Are Blinding”
  16. Goldfrapp, “Tigerman”
  17. Mavis Staples, “Try Harder”
  18. Aimee Mann, “Patient Zero”
  19. Lana Del Rey, “Love”
  20. Saint Etienne, “Magpie Eyes”
  21. Alvvays, “Plimsoll Punks”
  22. St. Vincent, “MASSeduction”
  23. The xx, “Replica”
  24. Slowdive, “Sugar For The Pill”
  25. Stars, “We Called It Love”
  26. Spoon, “Tear It Down”
  27. Tori Amos, “Reindeer King”
  28. Sufjan Stevens, “Mystery Of Love”
  29. Joe Goddard feat. SLO, “Music Is The Answer”
  30. Lorde, “Perfect Places”
  31. Sparks, “Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)”
  32. The Mountain Goats, “Rain In Soho”
  33. Chromatics, “Shadow”
  34. Nicole Atkins, “If I Could”
  35. Alison Moyet, “The Rarest Birds”
  36. Cigarettes After Sex, “Apocalypse”
  37. Jens Lekman, “Evening Prayer”
  38. Haim, “Little Of Your Love”
  39. Broken Social Scene, “Protest Song”
  40. Destroyer, “Le Regle du Jeu”