Annual Playlists

2016: I Would Rather Stay Awake

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We begin with the lead single from Leonard Cohen’s final album (to be released in his lifetime) which at the time summed up this cursed year aptly; we conclude with a meditative Velvet Underground cover that ended up Brian Eno’s first solo vocal track in over a decade. The year itself started with David Bowie’s death, infamously days after releasing his final album, represented here by “Lazarus” where he ponders his mortality with a directness almost revelatory coming from such an icon; many more high-profile deaths followed, from Prince to George Michael to Sharon Jones (here covering Greg Allman for a car commercial, a definitive version of that song) and Cohen himself.

Compared to 2015, this wasn’t as great a year for albums (except for this one) or singles. While long-awaited records like Tegan and Sara’s Love You to Death or Junior Boys’ Big Black Coat felt a little underwhelming in lieu of what came before from each duo, I played the heck out of both “U-Turn” and “Baby Give Up On It”. The Bastille single ended up as much of an earworm as “Pompeii” was a few years before. The Florence + The Machine song, a soundtrack cut, certainly didn’t feel like filler or a leftover from How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Underworld returned with an album that often resembled little of they’d done before while still fully sounding like themselves.

Elsewhere, veterans from Ben Watt and Wilco to Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Bird caught my ear alongside newer acts such as Mitski, Michael Kiwanuka (one of the few singer-songwriters who meshes well with producer Danger Mouse) and The 1975, the latter epitomizing an audaciousness sorely missing in a lot of modern pop (even if it doesn’t always yield positive results.) I’ve chosen to highlight the last song on cult British brother duo Field Music’s fine album Commontime. A lullaby of sorts, rich with ambiguity (it could conceivably be sung to either a child or a romantic partner), it promotes empathy and generosity, the act of putting others first while still reveling in the joy it brings to you both–a feeling its melody practically radiates. Eight years on (and on the heels of another likely contentious election), I’d rather remember 2016 for signs of life than an excess of death.

2016: I Would Rather Stay Awake

  1. Leonard Cohen, “You Want it Darker”
  2. Santigold, “Rendezvous Girl”
  3. Michael Kiwanuka, “One More Night”
  4. The Radio Dept., “Committed to the Cause”
  5. The Avalanches, “If I Were a Folkstar”
  6. Martha Wainwright, “Traveller”
  7. Ben Watt, “Between Two Fires”
  8. Whitney, “No Matter Where We Go”
  9. Parquet Courts, “Berlin Got Blurry”
  10. Bastille, “Good Grief”
  11. KT Tunstall, “Turned a Light On”
  12. Corinne Bailey Rae, “Stop Where You Are”
  13. Pet Shop Boys, “Burn”
  14. The Divine Comedy, “To The Rescue”
  15. John K. Samson, “Prayer For Ruby Elm”
  16. Florence + The Machine, “Wish That You Were Here”
  17. The 1975, “Somebody Else”
  18. Wilco, “Someone to Lose”
  19. Andrew Bird, “Truth Lies Low”
  20. Roisin Murphy, “Ten Miles High”
  21. Junior Boys, “Baby Give Up On It”
  22. Eleanor Friedberger, “Because I Asked You”
  23. case/lang/veirs, “Best Kept Secret”
  24. David Bowie, “Lazarus”
  25. Tegan and Sara, “U-Turn”
  26. PJ Harvey, “The Wheel”
  27. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, “Midnight Rider”
  28. Field Music, “Stay Awake”
  29. Lake Street Drive, “Call Off Your Dogs”
  30. Mitski, “Fireworks”
  31. Bat For Lashes, “Joe’s Dream”
  32. Underworld, “I Exhale”
  33. Brian Eno, “Fickle Sun (iii) I’m Set Free”

2015: There’s Beauty In Every Stumble

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A standout year for new music—I know, every year produces its share of great songs, but 2015 was for me another 1992 or 2004. I even sent out an annual mix CD to friends, something I hadn’t done since 2010 (and haven’t again at this writing.) The first half of this playlist mostly replicates that mix: a parade of perennials (Marling, Cracknell, Gryner, Sufjan, Metric, etc.) with a few one-offs and some newbies woven in (Vampire Weekend’s bassist’s side project Baio; Courtney Barnett cannily channeling The New Pornographers while still sounding like her eccentric self.)

The remaining songs are split between good stuff I couldn’t originally fit on an 80-minute CD (Grace Potter’s disco-rock extravaganza, Deerhunter’s cheeriest moment by far, the first good Madonna song in a decade) and, as always, gems I didn’t encounter until the following year or two: Susanne Sundfor’s superior Swedish synth-pop, Grimes’ ethereal, electro-sigh (still best in its “demo” form), Natalie Prass’ classy, out-of-time balladry, and of course, Carly Rae Jepsen’s blissfully, self-assuredly perfect and sophisticated teen-pop.

Mid-decade was a wonderful time for female-driven, left-of-center pop: Marina and the Diamonds referencing Kate Bush at her bubbliest, Florence + The Machine applying their power source to an irresistible Motown stomp, Christine and The Queens effortlessly inserting a rapid rap in French into their song’s bridge, Romy adding warmth and composure to her bandmate in The xx’s sampledelic anthem.

“Nobody’s Empire” deservedly leads off this selection. Released two months before my 40th birthday, hearing it was a shock in that, nearly two decades after If You’re Feeling Sinister, Stuart Murdoch showed he was still capable of greatness: the chiming piano hook, the melody’s immediacy, the organic build-up in the choruses that eventually soar with heavenly choral arrangements worthy of ABBA. He hasn’t come close to topping it since; that as of this writing he’s just published his first novel which is named after it tells you even he recognizes how special it is.

2015: There’s Beauty In Every Stumble

  1. Belle and Sebastian, “Nobody’s Empire”
  2. Marina and the Diamonds, “I’m A Ruin”
  3. Florence + The Machine, “Queen of Peace”
  4. Destroyer, “Times Square”
  5. Laura Marling, “False Hope”
  6. Baio, “Sister of Pearl”
  7. Calexico, “Miles From The Sea”
  8. Robert Forster, “A Poet Walks”
  9. Sarah Cracknell, “Hearts Are For Breaking”
  10. Twin Shadow, “When The Lights Turn Out”
  11. Emm Gryner, “The Race”
  12. Jose Gonzalez, “Let It Carry You”
  13. Roisin Murphy, “Unputdownable”
  14. Sufjan Stevens, “Fourth of July”
  15. Metric, “Fortunes”
  16. Courtney Barnett, “Elevator Operator”
  17. Hot Chip, “Dark Night”
  18. Jamie xx/Romy, “Loud Places”
  19. Susanne Sundfor, “Fade Away”
  20. Lianne La Havas, “Tokyo”
  21. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Boy Problems”
  22. Grimes, “Realiti (Demo)”
  23. Grace Potter, “Alive Tonight”
  24. Deerhunter, “Breaker”
  25. Natalie Prass, “Why Don’t You Believe In Me”
  26. Beirut, “Perth”
  27. Tanlines, “Pieces”
  28. Jason Isbell, “The Life You Chose”
  29. Madonna, “Joan of Arc”
  30. Lord Huron, “The Night We Met”
  31. FFS, “Piss Off”
  32. Christine and The Queens, “Tilted”
  33. The Radio Dept., “This Repeated Sodomy”
  34. Ivan & Alyosha, “It’s All Just Pretend”
  35. Years & Years, “Shine”
  36. Tracey Thorn, “Let Me In”

2014: Just Some Kid From Boston

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Look at all the great tracks from this year: Cibo Matto’s (artistically) triumphant return (not to mention Ben Watt’s, and Erasure’s, and Tori Amos’ and even Suzanne Vega’s!), sterling debuts from Betty Who, Lake Street Dive, Alvvays and Sylvan Esso, breakthroughs from Perfume Genius and Owen Pallett, best-songs-yet from Jessie Ware and Lykke Li, a spooky Lana Del Rey gem and even a collaboration from two of my fave artists (The Both = Aimee Mann + Ted Leo) with a leadoff single about my hometown.

However, it’s difficult to predict where an artist’s career will go on the basis of one good song. Future Islands’ monumental, Letterman-impressing leap forward created a template they’d return to again and again (with diminishing results unfortunately, apart from the occasional great single), while slacker extraordinaire Mac DeMarco and Todd Terje (with his splendid Robert Palmer cover aided by an aged Bryan Ferry) have put out little of interest to me since (in the latter’s case, he has barely put out anything, period.) On the other hand, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys seemed to crack the code on “American Interior” and his album of the same name while building upon it artfully with each of his subsequent releases, as did Nicole Atkins, whose “Girl You Look Amazing” is catchy fun further deepened by the genre experiments on her next two pretty great albums.

Still, while many of these remain on heavy rotation ten years on at this writing, “Late Bloomer” from Jenny Lewis’ The Voyager endures most convincingly. Clocking in at over five minutes, it’s almost a throwback to classic folk-rock story songs like “Maggie May” or “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” but filtered through Lewis’ delicately puckish demeanor; it also sports a melody so inviting and generous I’m surprised the song isn’t more of a standard a decade later.

2014: Just Some Kid From Boston

  1. Future Islands, “Seasons (Waiting On You)”
  2. The New Pornographers, “Champions of Red Wine”
  3. Betty Who, “Somebody Loves You”
  4. Cibo Matto, “10th Floor Ghost Girl”
  5. Mac DeMarco, “Salad Days”
  6. Gruff Rhys, “American Interior”
  7. Perfume Genius, “Queen”
  8. Lykke Li, “Gunshot”
  9. Lake Street Dive, “Bad Self Portraits”
  10. Jill Sobule, “Wedding Ring”
  11. Ben Watt, “Forget”
  12. St. Vincent, “Digital Witness”
  13. Nicole Atkins, “Girl You Look Amazing”
  14. Suzanne Vega, “I Never Wear White”
  15. Stars, “From The Night”
  16. Erasure, “Reason”
  17. First Aid Kit, “My Silver Lining”
  18. Tori Amos, “Trouble’s Lament”
  19. Lana Del Rey, “West Coast”
  20. Sylvan Esso, “Coffee”
  21. Owen Pallett, “The Riverbed”
  22. Leonard Cohen, “Almost Like The Blues”
  23. The War On Drugs, “Under The Pressure”
  24. Spoon, “Inside Out”
  25. Todd Terje with Bryan Ferry, “Johnny and Mary”
  26. Alvvays, “Archie, Marry Me”
  27. La Roux, “Kiss and Not Tell”
  28. Jessie Ware, “Tough Love”
  29. Clean Bandit with Jess Glynne, “Rather Be”
  30. The Both, “Milwaukee”
  31. Broken Bells, “Control”
  32. Jenny Lewis, “Late Bloomer”
  33. Damon Albarn, “Heavy Seas of Love”
  34. Royksopp, “I Had This Thing”
  35. Emm Gryner, “End Of Me”

2013: Love Me While It’s Still A Crime

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Between the Boston Marathon Bombing in April, a trip to Cuba (via a rare opportunity through work) in December and my getting married in September, this was an exceptionally busy year, though as always I still made time for music. Random Access Memories was easily my favorite LP of the year, but Heartthrob, Tegan and Sara’s aim-for-the-fences dance pop effort wasn’t far behind. While I don’t return to it as frequently today, leadoff track “Closer” is the first song that comes to mind when I think about 2013.

I also recall Haim’s Fleetwood Mac-goodness, Eleanor Friedberger’s disarming ode to being clumsy in love, unusually strong comeback singles from Alison Moyet, Pet Shop Boys and Paul McCartney(!), the loveliest Vampire Weekend song to date (though the later “Harmony Hall” gives it a run for its money), the most blissful melody you’ll ever hear from Washed Out, the year’s best, most idiosyncratic actual number-one hit (“Royals”), a choice cut from Goldfrapp’s better-with-each-year, atypically pastoral Tales Of Us, a Sam Phillips song as classic as anything on Martinis and Bikinis and Laura Marling convincingly staking her claim as a “Master Hunter”. 

This was also a time when happily anonymous pop singles (Atlas Genius, Fitz and the Tantrums, Capital Cities) carried the same weight for me as more eccentric and/or distinct declarations from Jessy Lanza, Sky Ferreira and London Grammar (both with and without Disclosure) and I’m not sure I could make the same claim a decade-plus later.

Speaking of eccentric/distinct, on my first listen of John Grant’s “GMF”, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing (the title is a NSFW acronym), but I knew it was a superb, self-deprecating anthem for the ages before it was over.

2013: Love Me While It’s Still a Crime

  1. Tegan and Sara, “Closer”
  2. Bastille, “Pompeii”
  3. Haim, “If I Could Change Your Mind”
  4. Daft Punk feat. Julian Casablancas, “Instant Crush”
  5. John Grant, “GMF”
  6. Disclosure feat. London Grammar, “Help Me Lose My Mind”
  7. Goldfrapp, “Drew”
  8. Jessy Lanza, “Keep Moving”
  9. Cut Copy, “In Memory Capsule”
  10. Sky Ferreira, “I Blame Myself”
  11. Eleanor Friedberger, “When I Knew”
  12. Alison Moyet, “Love Reign Supreme”
  13. Atlas Genius, “Electric”
  14. Camera Obscura, “This is Love (Feels Alright)”
  15. Pet Shop Boys feat. Example, “Thursday”
  16. Iron & Wine, “The Desert Babbler”
  17. Emma Louise, “Boy”
  18. Neko Case, “Man”
  19. Mavis Staples, “I Like The Things About Me”
  20. Fitz and The Tantrums, “Out Of My League”
  21. Janelle Monae, “We Were Rock and Roll”
  22. Lordes, “Royals”
  23. Paul McCartney, “Queenie Eye”
  24. Jason Isbell, “Traveling Alone”
  25. Yo La Tengo, “Is That Enough”
  26. Washed Out, “All I Know”
  27. Sam Phillips, “You Know I Won’t”
  28. Laura Marling, “Master Hunter”
  29. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Mosquito”
  30. Capital Cities, “Safe and Sound”
  31. Holy Ghost!, “Bridge and Tunnel”
  32. Vienna Teng feat. Glen Phillips, “Landsailor”
  33. Vampire Weekend, “Step”
  34. David Bowie, “Valentine’s Day”
  35. Florence + The Machine, “Over The Love”
  36. London Grammar, “Strong”

2012: My Life Has Just Begun!

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Many of these tracks were culled from two Spotify playlists originally posted at the end of said year: Someone Who Looks Smashing In Athletic Wear (a lyric from Sinead O’Connor’s ferocious (and not currently streaming) cover of John Grant’s “Queen of Denmark”) and You Enjoy Sucking On Dreams (a lyric from “Serpents”, the first Sharon Van Etten song I ever heard.)

Scanning my music library, I came up with a dozen more tracks I encountered in subsequent years (some of ’em in 2013, like “I’m Getting Ready” and “The Diaz Brothers”) and also made a few substitutions (“Sovereign Light Cafe” a more enduring Keane song than “On The Road”; Of Monsters and Men’s “Dirty Paws” one of my favorite songs ever as opposed to the merely catchy “Mountain Sound”) and a handful of subtractions (Deep Sea Arcade, The Shins, Regina Spektor)—by limiting this to three dozen tracks, process of elimination inevitably sets in (although I now fully, properly appreciate “Call Me Maybe”.)

Looking over what’s left, I sense a lack of cynicism and weariness I’ve cultivated in the years since—to me, this looks like an utopian ideal of an annual mix: career highlights from Saint Etienne and Stars (both of whom I saw in concert that year), great returns from such veterans as Aimee Mann, Dr. John, Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith and an excess of “rock” songs one can easily dance to, including Django Django’s Beach-Boys-on-Mars aesthetic, both Wainwright siblings (relatively) letting loose and Diamond Rings’ queered-up postpunk (which Marc Campbell at the time lovingly referred to as “Boy Division”.)

A few oddities here have continued to age beautifully: Claudia Brucken’s late-period Bowie cover, Fiona Apple’s round-robin that spectacularly closed out her fourth album and a cheeky, sublime novelty from The Ting Tings’s flop follow-up LP to their 2008 hit debut: “Next time I’m gonna get it right / I’m gonna paint my face like the Guggenheim,” yelps Katie White, incessantly. Fun fact: for a long time, I thought she was singing “play my bass at” instead of “paint my face like”; either way, it’s glorious gibberish.

2012: My Life Has Just Begun!

  1. Saint Etienne, “Tonight”
  2. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe”
  3. Tanlines, “All Of Me”
  4. The Magnetic Fields, “Andrew In Drag”
  5. Django Django, “Default”
  6. Diamond Rings, “Runaway Love”
  7. Stars, “Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It”
  8. Jens Lekman, “Some Dandruff On Your Shoulder”
  9. Jessie Ware, “Wildest Moments”
  10. Rufus Wainwright, “Bitter Tears”
  11. The Ting Tings, “Guggenheim”
  12. Hot Chip, “These Chains”
  13. Aimee Mann, “Labrador”
  14. Imperial Teen, “Out From Inside”
  15. Twin Shadow, “Run My Heart”
  16. Martha Wainwright, “I Wanna Make An Arrest”
  17. Leonard Cohen, “Darkness”
  18. Fiona Apple, “Hot Knife”
  19. Calexico, “Splitter”
  20. Sharon Van Etten, “Serpents”
  21. Gossip, “Move In The Right Direction”
  22. Dr. John, “Revolution”
  23. The Gaslight Anthem, “Here Comes My Man”
  24. Keane, “Sovereign Light Cafe”
  25. Bat For Lashes, “Laura”
  26. Michael Kiwanuka, “I’m Getting Ready”
  27. Ben Folds Five, “The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind”
  28. Patti Smith, “April Fool”
  29. The Mountain Goats, “The Diaz Brothers”
  30. Bettye LaVette, “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”
  31. David Byrne and St. Vincent, “Optimist”
  32. Of Monsters and Men, “Dirty Paws”
  33. A Fine Frenzy, “Now Is The Start”
  34. Field Music, “(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing”
  35. Claudia Brucken, “Everyone Says ‘Hi’”
  36. Beth Orton, “Mystery”

2011: All Sounds Like A Dream

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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

  1. Wilco, “I Might”
  2. Those Darlins’, “Screws Get Loose”
  3. Atlas Sound, “Mona Lisa”
  4. Beth Ditto, “I Wrote The Book”
  5. Jens Lekman, “Waiting For Kirsten”
  6. Jessica Lea Mayfield, “Blue Skies Again”
  7. Destroyer, “Kaputt”
  8. Emm Gryner, “Heartsleeves”
  9. Bon Iver, “Calgary”
  10. Iron & Wine, “Tree By The River”
  11. PJ Harvey, “The Words That Maketh Murder”
  12. Kate Bush, “Wild Man”
  13. M83, “Midnight City”
  14. The Kills, “Future Starts Slow”
  15. Junior Boys, “Playtime”
  16. James Blake, “Limit to Your Love”
  17. Lykke Li, “Youth Knows No Pain”
  18. Kavinsky featuring Lovefoxxx, “Nightcall”
  19. Paul Simon, “So Beautiful or So What”
  20. Lana Del Rey, “Video Games”
  21. Ivy, “Distant Lights”
  22. Lady Gaga, “Marry the Night”
  23. Florence + The Machine, “What The Water Gave Me”
  24. My Morning Jacket, “Outta My System”
  25. Cut Copy, “Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat”
  26. Raphael Saadiq, “Movin’ Down The Line”
  27. Laura Marling, “The Beast”
  28. R.E.M., “Uberlin”
  29. kd lang & The Siss Boom Bang, “The Water’s Edge”
  30. Danger Mouse & Daniel Luippi feat. Norah Jones, “Black”
  31. Meshell Ndegeocello, “Chance”
  32. Lindsay Buckingham, “That’s The Way Love Goes”
  33. Washed Out, “Amor Fati”
  34. An Horse, “Dressed Sharply”
  35. The Rapture, “How Deep Is Your Love?”
  36. Beirut, “Santa Fe”

2010: Spinning Around In Circles

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My 2010 top ten albums list is a good example of how such things are forever in flux. Only Laura Marling (then #4) made my 100 Albums project. I still love the top three although there are other Tracey Thorn and Charlotte Gainsbourg albums I gravitate towards. A revised list would likely include Fitz and The Tantrum’s still-stellar-in-spite-of-their-post-2013-output debut and maybe The Radio Dept.’s Clinging To A Scheme, especially as they’ve only released one full-length since (in 2016!)

Most of the selected tracks below are predictable (Belle and Sebastian, The New Pornographers and Goldfrapp on one of my year-end mixes? Who saw that coming?) Still, a few curveballs remain: actual pop/EDM hit “Stereo Love”, which I might’ve heard on Boston’s Kiss 108 while getting a haircut; “Shark In The Water”, one of my favorite one-hit-wonders (and it wasn’t even a hit here!); “This Charming Life”, Joan Armatrading’s best song in well over twenty years (not that I’ve heard much in the interim); and “Melancholy Beach”, a Gorillaz song you’d easily mistake for Blur in a blind listening test (I know, like most Gorillaz tunes.)

The early Obama era truly looks splendid now, if a bit naïve—a space where retro-soul (Fitz, Sharon Jones), eccentric art-pop (Field Music, Janelle Monae) and new wave-flavored side projects (Broken Bells, the track from Here Lies Love (more a disco pastiche, actually)) intersected and nobody gave a hoot as to whether they fit together: streaming was around the corner and for the most part, we were more than ready for it.

“Dancing On My Own”, however, completely owns this year (and I didn’t even hear it until that November at the earliest.) As solid as Robyn’s most recent album (2018’s Honey) is, nothing on it compares to what will always be her signature crying-on-the-dancefloor anthem, about which I would change absolutely nothing.

2010: Spinning Around In Circles

  1. The Divine Comedy, “At The Indie Disco”
  2. The New Pornographers, “Crash Years”
  3. Hot Chip, “Hand Me Down Your Love”
  4. Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Dandelion”
  5. VV Brown, “Shark In The Water”
  6. Belle & Sebastian, “I Didn’t See It Coming”
  7. Laura Marling, “Hope In The Air”
  8. Tracey Thorn, “Hormones”
  9. Vampire Weekend, “Giving Up The Gun”
  10. Broken Bells, “The Ghost Inside”
  11. Best Coast, “Boyfriend”
  12. Fitz and The Tantrums, “Breakin’ The Chains of Love”
  13. Corinne Bailey Rae, “Paris Nights/New York Mornings”
  14. David Byrne/Fatboy Slim feat. Theresa Andersson, “Ladies In Blue”
  15. Goldfrapp, “Alive”
  16. Graffiti 6, “Annie You Save Me”
  17. Janelle Monae, “Wondaland”
  18. Laura Veirs, “July Flame”
  19. KT Tunstall, “(Still A) Weirdo”
  20. Morcheeba, “Even Though”
  21. Spoon, “The Mystery Zone”
  22. Field Music, “Let’s Write A Book”
  23. Sade, “Soldier of Love”
  24. Edward Maya feat. Vika Jigulina, “Stereo Love”
  25. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, “I Learned The Hard Way”
  26. Guster, “Architects & Engineers”
  27. The Gaslight Anthem, “American Slang”
  28. Gorillaz, “On Melancholy Hill”
  29. Robyn, “Dancing On My Own”
  30. The Radio Dept., “You Stopped Making Sense”
  31. Scissor Sisters, “Invisible Light”
  32. Joan Armatrading, “This Charming Life”
  33. Deerhunter, “Desire Lines”
  34. Arcade Fire, “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
  35. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Bottled In Cork”

2009: Some Kind of Contact

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What was 2009 really like? Well, the oft-execrable Black-Eyed Peas spent 26 consecutive weeks leading the Billboard Hot 100 this year (with two songs); in happier news, Taylor Swift and the newly ascendant Lady Gaga also dominated radio, while Animal Collective topped the Village Voice Pazz and Jop album poll (no, really they did—never got their preciousness apart from a stray track here or there.) None of these appear on the below playlist, although it does feature artists who came in at #’s 2, 3 & 4 on Pazz and Jop (respectively, Phoenix, Neko Case & Yeah Yeah Yeahs.)

If any trend emerges from this mishmash of one-offs (who remembers “Sweet Disposition” and 500 Days of Summer?), indie singer/songwriter perennials (Metric, Jill Sobule, Andrew Bird) and still-hanging-on veterans (Pet Shop Boys, Chris Isaak, Super Furry Animals’ final album and what should have been Morrissey’s last hurrah), it’s an increasing propensity for lounge-pop, albeit in various guises: modern indie (The Bird and The Bee), jazzy easy listening (Pink Martini) and orchestral ’60s throwback (Camera Obscura), among others. Everything old’s also new (yet) again: Moroder-like synth-disco (Swedish duo Royksopp with Robyn’s crucial assistance), baroque retro-pop (Stuart Murdoch’s one-off imaginary-then-later-made-actual soundtrack via his God Help The Girl project) Kate Bush-influenced spooky splendor (Florence + The Machine, Bat For Lashes) and British new wave revivalism both snotty (Art Brut) and sublime (White Lies).

Throw in a handful of UK number ones (La Roux, Lily Allen, David Guetta with ex-Destiny’s Child-er Kelly Rowland) and you’ve got a shimmering time capsule of end-of-the-decade Anglophilia. Oddly enough, it took a few years for the one of the most Anglocentric, of-its-time tracks to fully register: Imogen Heap’s “First Train Home” is essentially Dido-influenced laptop music but those last, building fifteen seconds always get to me.

2009: Some Kind of Contact

  1. The Tender Trap, “Sweet Disposition”
  2. Florence + The Machine, “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)”
  3. Camera Obscura, “French Navy”
  4. Super Furry Animals, “Helium Hearts”
  5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Hysteric”
  6. Morrissey, “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”
  7. Jill Sobule, “San Francisco”
  8. Chris Isaak, “We Let Her Down”
  9. Bat For Lashes, “Pearl’s Dream”
  10. Pet Shop Boys, “The Way It Used To Be”
  11. The Bird and The Bee, “Polite Dance Song”
  12. Lily Allen, “The Fear”
  13. Metric, “Gold Guns Girls”
  14. Emm Gryner, “Young As The Night”
  15. St. Vincent, “Actor Out of Work”
  16. Vienna Teng, “In Another Life”
  17. La Roux, “Bulletproof”
  18. Andrew Bird, “Fitz and the Dizzyspells”
  19. Pink Martini, “Splendor In The Grass”
  20. Neko Case, “I’m An Animal”
  21. Kings of Convenience, “My Ship Isn’t Pretty”
  22. Gossip, “Heavy Cross”
  23. Phoenix, “Fences”
  24. Royksopp with Robyn, “The Girl and The Robot”
  25. White Lies, “Death”
  26. David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland, “When Love Takes Over”
  27. God Help The Girl, “Come Monday Night”
  28. The xx, “Night Time”
  29. Junior Boys, “The Animator”
  30. Serena Ryder, “Little Bit of Red”
  31. Art Brut, “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes”
  32. Tegan and Sara, “Hell”
  33. Bon Iver, “Blood Bank”
  34. Sondre Lerche, “Heartbeat Radio”
  35. Imogen Heap, “First Train Home”
  36. Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, “Goodnight Oslo”

2008: I’ve Been Calling Since 4:00 Last Night

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

It’s only 15+ years ago as of this writing, but it feels even further away. Whatever happened to The Ting Tings, Alphabeat, Nikka Costa and Duffy, anyway? Does anyone in the UK remember top twenty hit “The Journey Continues”, known to me only because it has heavenly vocals from Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell? Brazilian Girls have since put out a single album (ten years later!), Marit Bergman has long since returned to singing in her native Swedish and Portishead remains MIA to this day, suggesting Third might’ve been a fluke (although Beth Gibbon’s first-ever solo album is a prime candidate for my top ten of 2024.)

Regardless, 2008 had room for so much: an ‘80s pop star reinventing herself as an EDM diva (Cyndi Lauper), a ‘90s alt-rock star (Juliana Hatfield) collaborating with one from the ‘80s (The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler), a Tony Award-winning musical from one of the decade’s best (and more obscure) rock singer/songwriters (Stew’s Passing Strange), a ‘90s Swedish teen-pop fixture coming into adulthood (Robyn), new wave icons getting the band back together for one last hurrah (The B-52’s), Sam Phillips rediscovering her jaunty, droll strut, Sia before she went mega-pop, the back-to-basics lead single from REM’s penultimate album, the first collaboration between two post-punk giants in 27 years (Byrne/Eno), plus some significant debuts: Vampire Weekend (drawing a decisive line between Gen-X and Millennial pop), Hercules & Love Affair, Lykke Li and Fleet Foxes.

If making room for weirdos such as garage rock stalwarts The Dirtbombs and the venerable, inimitable Marianne Faithfull (covering Dolly Parton!) doesn’t fully get me off the hook for going out on Coldplay (their greatest hit, how could I not include it?), so be it. The Goldfrapp song remains one of my all-time favorites, and even that’s eclipsed by Martha Wainwright’s caustic, uber-catchy gem—brother Rufus arguably never bested it.

2008: I’ve Been Calling Since 4:00 Last Night

  1. Goldfrapp, “A&E”
  2. Alphabeat, “Fascination”
  3. Martha Wainwright, “You Cheated Me”
  4. Sam Phillips, “Don’t Do Anything”
  5. Mark Brown feat. Sarah Cracknell, “The Journey Continues”
  6. Calexico, “Man Made Lake”
  7. The Ting Tings, “Shut Up and Let Me Go”
  8. The B-52’s, “Juliet of the Spirits”
  9. Aimee Mann, “Thirty-One Today”
  10. Marit Bergman, “Out On The Piers”
  11. Fleet Foxes, “White Winter Hymnal”
  12. Brazilian Girls, “Losing Myself”
  13. Portishead, “The Rip”
  14. Hercules & Love Affair, “Blind”
  15. Robert Forster, “Don’t Touch Anything”
  16. Stew, “Work The Wound”
  17. She & Him, “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”
  18. Vampire Weekend, “M79”
  19. David Byrne & Brian Eno, “Strange Overtones”
  20. Cut Copy, “Hearts On Fire”
  21. The Dirtbombs, “Wreck My Flow”
  22. Juliana Hatfield with Richard Butler, “This Lonely Love”
  23. Lykke Li, “Dance, Dance, Dance”
  24. Duffy, “Rockferry”
  25. Marianne Faithfull, “Down From Dover”
  26. Cyndi Lauper, “Into the Nightlife”
  27. Nikka Costa, “Can’t Please Everybody”
  28. The Radio Dept., “Freddie and The Trojan Horse”
  29. Stereolab, “Three Women”
  30. TV On The Radio, “Family Tree”
  31. Hot Chip, “Made In The Dark”
  32. Robyn with Kleerup, “With Every Heartbeat”
  33. REM, “Supernatural Superserious”
  34. Sheryl Crow, “Out Of Our Heads”
  35. Sia, “The Girl You Lost To Cocaine”
  36. Steve Wynn, “Manhattan Fault Line”
  37. Coldplay, “Viva La Vida”

2007: Give Me Your Hand and Let’s Jump Out The Window

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

A weird year by any standard: of the handful of these I first heard on the radio at that time (Kate Nash, Iron & Wine, Plant/Krauss), the strangest (and most obscure) of them was Tunng, a British electro-folk collective: resembling laptop Peter Gabriel, “Bullets” somehow found regular rotation on WERS and stood out immediately. The National, Imperial Teen and Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings were more word-of-mouth discoveries (Pink Martini I became aware of via my parents.)

Otherwise, with each year, my mixes tend to feature more artists already familiar to me. In 2007, a few had put out their best work in some time (Tori Amos, They Might Be Giants, Suzanne Vega) while others made triumphant returns after extended absences (a remix of Tracey Thorn’s first single since Temperamental; Crowded House’s unexpectedly strong reunion album Time On Earth; Alison Moyet’s voice aging like a fine wine.) The Weakerthans were on their last, eloquent gasp (as were Rilo Kiley and the incomparable Ween), while St. Vincent, then a young upstart/Polyphonic Spree refugee was only hinting at a rich, varied catalog to come (as did The National to a lesser extent.)

Stars’ anthemic, 1980s-inspired pop arguably never peaked higher than with “Take Me To The Riot” (excepting “Elevator Love Letter”, of course) while The Shins, finally following up their great 2003 album Chutes Too Narrow evoked no one so much as… prime Crowded House (even if they didn’t call the song “New Zealand” after Neil Finn’s homeland.) Apart from that, nothing encapsulates the year better than a memory of taking the Amtrak into New York City that April, LCD Soundsystem’s epic Sound of Silver opener on my headphones providing a steady, hypnotic pulse across endless row houses and railyards of Queens—more apt for what I remember as an optimistic time than, say, Rufus Wainwright’s premonition of complications still way, way down the road.

2007: Give Me Your Hand and Let’s Jump Out the Window

  1. Stars, “Take Me To The Riot”
  2. Tracey Thorn, “It’s All True (Escort Extended Remix)”
  3. Bebel Gilberto, “Bring Back The Love”
  4. Fountains of Wayne, “Someone To Love”
  5. The Shins, “Australia”
  6. Kate Nash, “Foundations”
  7. Alison Moyet, “Can’t Say It Like I Mean It”
  8. The New Pornographers, “Myriad Harbour”
  9. Tori Amos, “Bouncing Off Clouds”
  10. Iron & Wine, “Boy With A Coin”
  11. LCD Soundsystem, “Get Innocuous!”
  12. Rilo Kiley, “Silver Lining”
  13. Crowded House, “She Called Up”
  14. Imperial Teen, “Room With A View”
  15. Andrew Bird, “Scythian Empires”
  16. KT Tunstall, “Saving My Face”
  17. Feist, “The Limit To Your Love”
  18. The National, “Fake Empire”
  19. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Rich Woman”
  20. The Bird and The Bee, “Fucking Boyfriend”
  21. Super Furry Animals, “Baby Ate My Eightball”
  22. Roisin Murphy, “Primitive”
  23. St. Vincent, “Paris Is Burning”
  24. Tunng, “Bullets”
  25. Rufus Wainwright, “Going To A Town”
  26. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, “Tell Me”
  27. Spoon, “Don’t You Evah”
  28. Tegan and Sara, “Back In Your Head”
  29. Pink Martini, “Hey Eugene”
  30. Richard Hawley, “Tonight The Streets Are Ours”
  31. They Might Be Giants, “The Mesopotamians”
  32. Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, “La Costa Brava”
  33. The Weakerthans, “Sun In An Empty Room”
  34. MGMT, “The Handshake”
  35. Ween, “Your Party”
  36. Suzanne Vega, “Anniversary”