CLICK ON THE IMAGES ABOVE: This will be my last list of 2010. It was going to be a “Best Songs of 2010” list, but that just seemed ridiculous given the number of songs I loved listening to over the past year. So, instead, here are 15 songs from 2010 that I am still playing today, and will be playing well into the next year and beyond. Above is an image-map, where you can “right-click” on the individual pictures and “open link in new tab” and it will take you to a streaming version of the song or a YouTube video. The songs aren’t in any particular order or rank. I really hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I have, and search out these artists. Be safe tonight and have a very Happy New Year!! Thanks so much for making Their Bated Breath such a success. Without you, I’d just be talking to myself. — David D. Robbins Jr.
• Uncles “Where Does it Sleep?”
Sadly, this is one of those New York bands that no one knows. But you really should. The lyrics on this duo’s debut record are just shy of Bob Dylan. Yes, I said it. And yes, I mean it. Just shy of Dylan, and definitely in the range of Joe Henry, early Counting Crows, Joey Kneiser’s “All-Night Bedroom Revival” and any other of the best American singer-songwriters you can think of. It’s a painful track about a heavy sadness, a spiritual deadening and trying to figure out how the past and present mesh. This sullen track has one of the most gorgeous pieces of writing I’d heard over the last year: “He was wary of the living, and their living pain / He saw the Virgin Mary in an oil stain / She cried / Where does it sleep? / I’ll wake it.”
• Sharon Van Etten “Love More”
Songs don’t get better than this. I heard it when it was first leaked by Van Etten in January. And it’s been on my mind ever since. I think it’s the best song of the year. The tone is somber and heartbreaking. Everything about it is delicate, a light-buzzing harmonium, a rustle of sandblock, light vocal reverb, resonating drums, and beautiful delayed guitar effects. It’s a lesson in grace and subtlety. The effect of Van Etten’s line, “It made me love, it made me love, it made me love more” is reminiscent of Van Morrison’s “to love the love that loves the love” in “Madame George”. The phrase is repeated, as if squeezed like an orange, to get out every drop of essential meaning. It’s beautiful, gripping and passionate.
• Wu Lyf “Spitting It Concrete Like the Golden Sun God”
This track makes anthem out of tribalism. The lyrics are as much screamed as sung. It’s hard to determine what exactly is being said in the lyrics, but it doesn’t matter. That’s part of the allure of tribalism. It’s the unity of the song, the sense of communal drive. Much has been made about the band trying to remain unknown. But in truth, it seems they just don’t play by the standard rules. And that’s just fine. The one photo of the band shows a bunch of people with bandannas around their faces, as if they were a gang or some new Zapatista movement. I love it. It’s a band unified in the task of making art.
• Baths “Lovely Bloodflow”
High falsetto done right can be hypnotic. Before I knew the lyrical opening of the song was, “Kick up my shit, you wanna”, I actually tried to sing the intonations while listening to the track in my car or in my apartment. Why do I tell you that? Well, again, it’s one of those songs that feels more like a tribal chant or mantra, working in tandem with modern electronica. You don’t really ever need to know what’s being sung as opposed to how the sounds make you feel. It’s so soul smooth. Notice the details too: a stuttering drum line and that sound like someone inhaling hard through their nose.
• LCD Soundsystem “You Wanted a Hit”
There’s a good deal of patience in this song. The heavy bass beat doesn’t enter until the second minute. It feels simple. Like some 80s-synth throwback. Then it kicks into gear, the synths fade, as hand-claps come in. Hard not to fall into the sway of it’s groove. The song is mouthy and goofy at the same time: “You wanted a hit? But maybe we don’t do hits.” There was a lot of pressure on James Murphy to come up with a brilliant record. And despite the naysayers, that’s just what he turned out. It’s melodic, fun, skilled, and what music should be.
• Morlove “Love Don’t Come Cheap”
Miss Emily Brown fronts this side-project, Morlove. This song is crystalline. Pure. Her voice is a fairytale of love. This duet with Corwin Fox is the serenade you’ve been waiting for. She’s another artist who isn’t known very well outside of her home country, Canada. But after you’ve listened to “Love Don’t Come Cheap” you’ll swear you’d never heard a voice and spirit so graceful. I’ve chatted with her a couple of times via the internet and she’s as gracious as her music. There’s a line in this song where Miss Brown sings, “And if that’s the way you look at love / Love will be hard to find / My love was honey / I find myself a lover with a mouthful of bees.” Mmmmm. How pretty is that?
• Janelle Monae “Neon Valley Street”
I swear this track must have been written by Monae with Lauryn Hill’s “Nothing Really Matters” in mind. It’s exactly that beautiful songbird style that made me fall in love with the voice that carried “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. It’s sweeping, old-school and lush as lush can be. What’s so lovely about “Neon Valley Street” is that it works as half love song, and half ode to music and the relationship between singer and fan. It’s stunning.
• Kanye West “Runaway”
I wasn’t as sold on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” in it’s entirety. But it had some moments of genius. Listen to those single, broken piano notes (reminiscent of the “Eyes Wide Shut” soundtrack) leading into the opening vocals on “Runaway”. The interesting thing about the highly successful Kanye is he isn’t the best rapper, doesn’t have the best voice, and often sticks his foot in his own mouth — but the guy has an amazingly creative mind. I don’t care what anyone says, but singing a toast to the “douchbags, jerkoffs, and assholes” is pretty funny. If you listen to the song closely, there’s also a seriousness to it. He’s essentially telling his girl to leave him, because he knows he’s a bad man. It’s a great song.
• David Dondero “Number Zero With a Bullet”
Dondero is another serious wordsmith. But this time he allows fans to get a little closer to the real artist behind the track. It’s about Dondero’s life as a version of Bad Blake. It’s about how hard life can be on the road for lesser-known musicians, with the occasional crappy manager, blown deals, and little fanfare. It’s a funny track, tinged with sadness. The sentiment is real. The song sounds so much like Neil Young. The lyrics are some of the best and most honest from Dondero: “I got too far out past jaded / I got under and overrated / Livin’ on the lam / Gone living on the limb / Kicking at the can / Now I’m cashin’ it in … / Fakes and cheats and hypocrites / So-called friends so full of shit / Tell me how you love me now / It’s no big deal so, anyhow.”
• Is/Is “Death Treat”
This Minnesota band is so good. They only have a handful of songs, but they’re all fantastic. “Death Treat” shows them in all their glory, raucous, wild, thoughtful, hazy and atmospheric. I just love the words and especially the melody of the driving lyric: “Death is a treat for her / She gave it to me / Somehow it seemed so sweet / Death is a treat for us, until we slow down / And put it out.” Okay, and I’m seriously crushing on the lead singer. Her voice is just so alluring. The sweetness of Sarah Rose’s vocals clash so perfectly with the wild drumming of Mara Appel. And much like Warpaint, this band’s ferocity begins and ends with having a sick bassist. Sarah Nienaber wields an axe like Billy the Kid wielded a six-shooter.
• Lykke Li “Get Some”
This is the best song Li has written. It’s a monster. It’s wicked, raunchy, and in your face like Peaches — only with real sex appeal. Who can forget that unabashed lyric, “Like a shotgun needs an outcome / I’m your prostitute / You gonna get some”? I was moderately a fan of Li before this. But now, I can’t wait to hear what she’s planning for 2011’s album. This might just be the shudder before the quake.
• La Femme “Sur La Planche”
This band is one of my three favorite new finds of the year, along with The Notes and Is/Is. I don’t know anything about their names, only that they’re from the French coast. Their female lead singer is the wild one among a band of guys. She’s even posted a video of herself screwing to one of her own songs, “X”. Yes, really. Conceptually, it’s pretty interesting stuff. Blurs a lot of lines. It’s La Femme’s version of a porno track, set to their own real porno. Funny. It’s fantastic stuff. Um, not the screwing part necessarily, but the music. But beyond the theatrics is an unreal talent for composition. “Sur La Planche” is a psychological surfer’s ode. The music is dark, racing, rhythmic, and entrancing. One of my favorite tracks of the year.
• Lower Dens “Tea Lights”
Lower Dens is Jana Hunter. It’s not much like her solo work, but the feel behind the new music is certainly hers. “Tea Lights” is a Chrissie Hynde slow-burn. It aches. It’s like that period when autumn slowly turns to winter, put to music. Their 2010 release “Twin-Hand Movement” is one of the most under-hyped records around. Admittedly, I wanted to put it on my best albums list, but I limited the number of records this year to fifteen. “Tea Lights” is one of the many standouts on the record. It’s foggy, fuzzed out drone-rock — with Hunter’s moods coating everything in a sullen beauty.
• Anais Mitchell and Justin Vernon “Wedding Song”
“Wedding Song” is an elegant piece. Like the Greek myth, Orpheus (Justin Vernon) and Eurydice (Mitchell) make plans for a wedding. This song is a vehicle for his pretty poetic wanderings: “Lover, when I sing my song / All the trees gonna sing along / Bend their branches down to me / Lay their fruit around my feet.” But Eurydice thinks more practically, posing questions about who realistically is going to get the work done. This is a wonderful imagining of one of the great myths.
• Warpaint “Undertow”
“Undertow” sounds like it was made with an ear bent toward Nirvana’s “Polly”. Listen to that line, “What’s a matter, you hurt yourself?” — reminiscent of “Hurt yourself / Want some help?” It’s a cool track, atmospheric, gauzy, dreamily romantic but with a roughened edge.
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