My usual routine: ranking songs is even more trivial than albums, and although this list reflects my tastes to the best of my ability, I'd like to share some notes on it first. In an effort to condense the proceedings, artists are limited to one track on this list. While this does represent my favorite tracks over the year, many selections serve to accentuate acts that otherwise failed to produce high-ranking albums on that list. To prove these artists did at least ONE thing right this year, you will find them here. Before I delve into the actual list, I will provide a list of artists that fell short of the track list below and my forthcoming top 50 albums list.
Close-calls:
Close-calls:
The Men, IceAge, L.W.H., Dirty Beaches, Wolves in the Throne Room, The Roots,
The Field, Andy Stott, Robag Wruhme, ARMS, High Highs, Ólafur Arnalds
1. tUnE-yArDs - “Bizness”
2. Chad VanGaalen - “Sara”
3. Destroyer - “Kaputt”
4. Drake - “Marvins Room”
6. Real Estate - “Green Aisles”
7. St. Vincent - “Strange Mercy”
8. Shabazz Palaces - “Recollections of the Wraith”
9. PJ Harvey - “The Words That Maketh Murder”
11. Junior Boys - “Banana Ripple”
12. The Antlers - “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”
13. Fucked Up - “The Other Shoe”
14. Deerhoof - “Behold a Marvel in the Darkness”
15. Big K.R.I.T. - “Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism”
16. Gotye - “Somebody That I Used to Know”
17. Future Islands - “Before the Bridge”
18. Tom Waits - “Hell Broke Luce”
19. Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t - “Days Remain” (my live video)
20. Low - “Try to Sleep”
21. Lykke Li - “I Follow Rivers”
22. The War on Drugs - “Baby Missiles”
23. Wild Flag - “Romance”
24. The Strokes - “Machu Picchu”
25. Women - “Bullfight”
26. Jens Lekman - “An Argument With Myself”
27. Gang Gang Dance - “Glass Jar”
29. Mister Heavenly - “Bronx Sniper”
30. Bill Callahan - “Drover”
32. Burial & Four Tet & Thom Yorke - “Ego”
33. Jay-Z & Kanye West - “Who Gon Stop Me”
34. My Morning Jacket - “Holdin on to Black Metal”
35. Curren$y - “She Don’t Want a Man”
36. Childish Gambino - “Freaks and Geeks”
37. White Denim - “No Real Reason”
38. Atlas Sound - “Te Amo”
39. Jamie Woon - “Lady Luck”
40. Nurses - “You Lookin’ Twice”
41. Little Scream - “The Heron and the Fox”
42. William Elliott Whitmore - “Bury Your Burdens in the Ground”
43. Cass McCombs - “County Line”
44. Jamie xx - “Far Nearer”
45. M83 - “Midnight City”
46. Wild Beasts - “Bed of Nails”
47. Marissa Nadler - “The Sun Always Reminds Me of You”
48. Cymbals Eat Guitars - “Definite Darkness”
49. Richard Buckner - “Traitor”
50. Minks - “Cemetery Rain”
51. Danny Brown - “Die Like a Rockstar”
52. Grimes - “Vanessa”
53. Eleanor Friedberger - “My Mistakes”
54. Rich Aucoin - “It”
55. Gruff Rhys - “Shark Ridden Waters”
56. Clams Casino - “Motivation”
57. 13 & God - “Old Age”
58. Radiohead - “The Daily Mail”
59. Dark Dark Dark - “Long, Long, Long” (Beatles cover / soundcloud)
Junior Boys – “Banana Ripple”
Some of 2011’s best tracks are expansive works that push the boundaries of what we’ve come to expect from the artist or like-minded giants in their respective genre. These ambitious exercises in form typically fall into three distinct classes within the album format: Gang Gang Dance’s “Glass Jar” is a shimmery, burgeoning introduction to their alien world; Destroyer’s “Kaputt” is the coke-dream core, and title track, to Dan Bejar’s honest-to-Steely-Dan rock vocal breakout; whereas “Banana Ripple” is the elegant end song, a theme expanding red giant to Junior Boy’s typically minimalistic, synth-ridden indie R&B. The latter borders on twisting into a maximalist’s playground, as Jeremy Greenspan’s shrieking falsetto eventually poses a stark polyphonic contrast to the electronic squiggles. Elsewhere, he presents soothing tones in the same vein we’ve grown accustomed. But until now, we haven’t quite seen the Junior Boys exhibiting this level of technical prowess; their craft is consistently refined, sure, but never has it been such a centrifugal force. “Banana Ripple” is one of the year’s best, and a career watermark for the Canadian duo.
Kate Bush – “Misty”
50 Words for Snow’s longest cut, the 13-and-a-half-minute “Misty,” is notorious for its lyrical depiction of a lecherous, yet warmly affectionate, snowman. After building him – “roll his body / give him eyes / make him smile for me / give him life” – Kate Bush’s narrator is repaid by way of a surreal, sexual encounter later that night. Their love is tragically short-lived, as the winter wonderland spirit deliquesces, leaving behind “dead leaves, bits of twisted branches and frozen garden” on her pillow. Don’t worry; the strange subject matter is tactfully understated, unlike the rape scene in the atrocious 1997 horror comedy film Jack Frost. Bush’s gentle coos are bellied by her patient keys, presenting themselves like a modernized, extended take on Chopin’s Preludes. Jonathan Tunick’s orchestral arrangements briefly crop up as interludes, while Steve Gadd’s light drumming and cymbal splashes color the song’s tail end. It’s a terrific show, but thanks to added reinforcement from the official claymation clip of the song, we’ll always remember it as that one about Kate Bush sexing up a snowman.
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