A special playlist this week. I think I finally got my Favorite Songs of the Year list hammered out yesterday. I’ll finish my write up over the weekend and share it early next week.

When I used to do a semi-private podcast, each year before I shared my favorite songs, I would do a review show counting down the #1 songs of all the previous years. Seems like a good way for me to share some good tunes with you.

Enjoy!

2004 – “Float On” – Modest Mouse. Famously the song I was listening to when S yelled at me that her water had broke, and it was time to head to the hospital. Nine hours late, little baby M had arrived!
2005 – “Going Missing” – Maximo Park. My social life went missing after I became a father. Hey-yo!
2006 – “Star Witness” – Neko Case. The song that introduced me to the treasure that is Ms. Case.
2007 – “Intervention” – Arcade Fire. A controversial year. As much as I loved this song at the time, a couple years later when I did my Best of the Decade list, it was knocked down by two songs that I had rated much lower initially.[1]
2008 – “The Modern Leper” – Frightened Rabbit. The year this not-so-merry band of Scots blew my mind.
2009 – “Whirring” – The Joy Formidable. Re-released two years later to wider acclaim, I was a cool “into all the music blogs” guy and loved this song the first time they unleashed it.
2010 – “FootShooter” – Frightened Rabbit. Every fucking line of this song is utterly amazing. All the other songwriters should have just stopped at this point.
2011 – “He Gets Me High” – Dum Dum Girls. Starting a hell of a run for Dee Dee and her pals; they claimed the #2 slot the next year.
2012 – “The House That Heaven Built” – Japandroids. Kick ass rock still exists.
2013 – “Holy” – Frightened Rabbit. Three-time champs!
2014 – “Red Eyes” – The War on Drugs. I can still listen to this song – and the album it came from – 20 times in a row.
2015 – “California Nights” – Best Coast. Bethany Cosentino’s entire career was a build up to this song.


  1. “Stuck Between Stations” by the Hold Steady and “Mistaken For Strangers” by The National.  ↩