It’s a little bit early to be deciding what my favorite music of the year was, but as a way to refresh my music journalism skills (I’m writing a column for the school paper every other week barring a heavy workload as a partership between the radio station and the paper), I thought I’d at least cover the tracks that have had the largest number of spins on my iPod this year, in no particular order.
If this list were to be just the top 10 most played tracks so far this year, all of the slots would be from The Noisettes’ latest album Wild Young Hearts. It technically doesn’t get released in the states until September but after hearing their cover of The Killers’ “When You Were Young” on Youtube and checking out the rest of their music, I was hooked and purchased a copy from the UK via eBay. I could go on and on about any of the tracks, but for the purposes of this list, I’ll limit myself to the only track Genius recognizes so far, the US lead single “Never Forget You”.
For all its veering between pop, rock, and alternative, my taste has a lot of nostalgia as well–I grew up listening to the oldies station whenever I was out running errands with my parents, so anything with a 60s/Motown sound is bound to get a listen. While a lot of groups just emulate the sound without adding anything of their own to it, the Noisettes successfully merge the elements of this sound with the indie rock leanings they showed on their first record. Never Forget You sounds like a lost Phil Spector track, and it’s really a killer track. I’m seeing the Noisettes live on the 5th (FREE SHOW!), and I can’t wait to report back.
Following in a similar vein, Daniel Merriweather’s Love and War merges 60s blue-eyed soul with some more modern elements to a certain amount of success. Also like the Noisettes, it’s still not technically released here yet. While there are a couple other tracks on the album I like, the duet “Water and a Flame” with Adele really sticks out, although his cover of the White Stripes’ “You Don’t Know What Love Is” is particularly killer as well. I’ll let the song speak for itself in this case.
I’m still getting used to Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest–I have a feeling the album’s going to grow on me by the end of the year like The Killers’ Day and Age did last year. There’s a lot of subtle layering going on, andI’m still taking it all in. “Two Weeks” (below, with one of the only non-creepy-music-video versions I could find on Youtube–seriously, it’s an unsettling video.) feels like a really ornate parade float passing by. It’s a weird blend of baroque-ish instrumentation and Beach Boys harmonies, and it works. There’s something highly ornamental about the song as well–I think it’s the plunky piano line running through it. If you like the track, look up “Southern Point”, another really good track on the album. My only complaint with the album so far is that it’s a little slow–no track really rises above mid-tempo, ever. Still, check it out if you like what you hear.
I found out about Phoenix by watching Saturday Night Live; my former roommate mentioned as we watched their performance that they sounded like something I’d listen to. Honestly, I was a little offended (he doesn’t really know my musical taste aside from a few CDs I’ve played in his car that I knew he’d be okay with), but I did at least look the group up to see if the album the songs were from was any good. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a pretty good album, and the 80s influences present remind me of John Hughes films–I think it’s the synths. While I like “Lizstomania”, the second single, “1901″, really grabbed me when I heard it played live on TV.
In a similar 1980s vein is Bat for Lashes’ Daniel. I respect what Natasha Khan’s doing with the album Two Suns, but I also can’t stand most of it (this track and the opener “Glass” excluded). Like “1901″, there’s something about the 1980s synths and strings that makes me think of movies like “The Breakfast Club” and “The Karate Kid” in a good way (the video’s a little weird/artsy on this one–you’ve been warned).
I can’t stand Animal Collective for the most part, but the song “My Girls” off of Merriweather Post Pavillion has too infectious a beat to pass up. I think the opening slow section lasts a bit too long, but overall, this track is awesome, even if I can’t stand any of the group’s other work.
Another genre anomaly on the list is Passion Pit‘s “Sleepyhead”. The album it’s off of, Manners, is a great blend of electronica and other influences; a couple of the samples (including the Bollywood clips in “Sleepyhead”) really add something different to the songs. For a different side of the group, check out “Moth’s Wings”.
I’m starting to run out of things to say for these songs (if you haven’t notices by the dwindling size of the introductory paragraphs), so I’m just going to leave the three tracks below with some artist info. St Vincent mixes orchestral influences and rock pretty well, especially on her latest album, Actor; M. Ward continues being an awesome folk guitarist with rock influences on “Stars of Leo” off of Hold Time; and Jon Hopkins warms up a genre I’m otherwise fairly cold to (Ambient Electronic) with the melody line of “Light Through the Veins”–it’s a shame the rest of Insides isn’t more like it.
Tags: Music