Tag: Favorite Songs (Page 4 of 6)

“The Rifle’s Spiral” – The Shins

There are a lot of smart guys making smart guy music these days. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. But no one does it better than James Mercer of The Shins. 

Mercer shut The Shins down for seven years and did other things. But when he got them back together, it was like they had never left. They can still make brilliant pop.

“Endless Shore” – Melody’s Echo Chamber

A warm summer day evening, sun just beginning to set. A drink in your hand. Reclined in a chair on a deck or perhaps lying in a hammock. You just relax and let the world spin. Because at that moment, everything is perfect.

“Wrist Rocket” – Wussy

One of the great, under appreciated bands in American rock music. Like so many of their songs, this is a highly literate, wonderfully crafted song about the angst that appears when your lover loves someone else.

“Sixteen Saltines” – Jack White

It’s been three years since Jack White appeared on my year-end list. Which is significant because he appeared on my favorites list, one way or another, every year from 2003 to 2009.¹

His first solo album, Blunderbuss, is excellent, and it was difficult to pick a track to represent it. In the end I went with the most White Stripes-y song of the bunch.² This was also a song that garnered White a fair amount of criticism, as some suggested the lyrics were indicative of some serious lady issues by White at best or were anti-woman at worst.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I always hear this as a light hearted, tongue-in-cheek song about the holes men dig for themselves when we get obsessed with a particular lady. “Spiked heels make a hole in a lifeboat”? We put ourselves in that position, fellas. Jack’s just shining a light on the troubles out hormones can get us into.

But he does have some issues, make no mistake. Fortunately he’s turned those issues into great rock ’n’ roll for over a decade.

This video is pretty f-ed up, though.

“Watch The Corners” – Dinosaur Jr

The guitar solo is a lost art, rendered less meaningful as music split into a million sub-genres. Sure, you’ll hear the occasional solo, but often it’s some heavily produced, saccharine regurgitation of Eddie Van Halen’s solo for “Beat It.”

So when you hear a real guitar solo, one that gets into your skull and works its way down your spine, it really stands out.

There’s nothing fancy about this song. It’s pretty much what J. Mascis and his buddies have always done over their nearly 30-year career together. What makes it great are Mascis’ two epic guitar solos. He never forgot how to shred, and here he destroys, catapulting an otherwise fine but unmemorable song into one for the ages.

“State Hospital” – Frightened Rabbit

Frightened Rabbit have released full-length albums in 2008 and 2010. Each year they nabbed the top spot on my favorite songs list, with “The Modern Leper” doubling as my favorite song of the last decade. So this is a bit of a disappointment for them, I’m sure. In their defense, this was the title track of a five-song EP, with their third LP set for release in February. They have hope for 2013, I guess.

Not that this is a bad song, obviously. In the past lead singer Scott Hutchison has filled their albums with confessional songs of his most pathetic romantic failings. For the first time, he’s turning his eye to the world around him. Or at least to fictional characters not based on him. Here he shares the “most threadbare tall story the country has ever heard,” about a girl born into misery who can’t quite seem to escape it. Instead of his fucked up self-pity, it’s a girl living a fucked up life. Changing the subject does not change his way with words. As long as they are fucked up, he’s brilliant.

If it is any consolation to the band, this video is my favorite of the year. It takes the inherent drama of the song and cranks it up to 11.

“Broken Arrows” – Francisco The Man

Plenty of artists brought the rock in 2012. We’ve already heard from Bob Mould and Corin Tucker. We will still hear from other artists who made sure that the spirit of rock was present. This track, though, takes a slightly different approach to rocking.

It begins as a fairly standard alt-rock piece. Jangly electric guitars. A decent-enough melody. Nice vocals, although the lyrics are difficult to pull out of the noise.

But then, about two-and-a-half minutes in, it evolves into something else: A psychedelic jam session that is utterly brilliant. The elastic bass line is a perfect counter to the looping, spacey guitar solo, holding it just tight enough so that it doesn’t escape orbit. And the gentle fade away at the end allows you a moment to breathe deeply and recover.

It’s not complex. It doesn’t try to change the world. But those last 3:30+ thoroughly entranced me.

“Capricornia” – Allo, Darlin’

Speaking of songs that are perfect for summer…

Here is an impossibly gorgeous song about the bittersweetness of leaving things you love behind in order to chase your dreams.

“You Kill” – Eternal Summers

Some bands name themselves after their sound, the Clash being the most famous example. That is the case for the Eternal Summers, who make shiny, happy music to be played endlessly over summer weekends. Take this song, for example, which tells the story of the beginnings, and endings, of a romance. Doesn’t it sound like something you would want to hear, ohhh, a million times while you wasted your summer away at the neighborhood pool?

“Answering Machine” – Scout

The most controversial song in the countdown. But only because of my silly music rules.

Should a cover, a song both written and made famous by someone else, get consideration as one of my favorites for a given year? Often I would say no. But when it is as exceptional as this one, I say yes.

The 1984 original was a classic Replacements song, sounding as though it was recorded after a marathon drinking session. Paul Westerberg’s voice was shredded, the guitars tuneless noise wailing behind him. It was a drunken, late-night call to a lover far away that would be regretted in the morning.

Here, though, Ashen Keilyn discovers tenderness and sweetness in Westerberg’s lyrics and brings them out for all to hear. She took a love song written for punks, drunks, and the other late night denizens of clubs and bars and turned it into a song for everyone. It may not quite be Siouxsie and the Banshees reimagining “Dear Prudence” or The White Stripes destroying “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.”

But as far as covers go, it’s pretty great.