Finally, it’s time for the annual playlist that caps off my countdown. Rather than do a ranking of favorite songs, I choose to compile what I think is a good representation for the year in music, all on an 80 minute CD-R. This year, many of my favorite songs were just too long to fit on this mix, (“Pyramids”, “Wasted Days”, “Hey Jane”, “Nothin’ But Time”, etc…) and of course I always have to leave off some of my favorites because of dead time in the track due to production techniques of its respective album.
Other notes: I managed to squeeze 20 tracks onto this years mix, up one from 2011. The lowest ranked album that has a song appear on the mix comes from an album I didn’t really care for, Port of Morrow by The Shins which was my #63 album of the year. In addition to that track, there are 3 other songs coming from albums outside my top 25. There are nine tracks representing my #11-#25 albums, and 7 tracks from my top 10 albums. As usual, the order of the Mixtape is not a ranking, but rather an order based on how the song appears on its respective album.
Below, you’ll see the tracklist, and after the jump you can listen to every track if you so choose. If you happen to be a Spotify user, I’ve also created a Spotify playlist of my Mixtape (not including “Wildest Moments” and “Tallulah” due to them not being available on Spotify), which you can link to below. Also included is a link to my Amazon.com list which has my entire top 25 albums of the year, nice and neat in a one page form (as well as access to my all my lists since 2001). And finally, for the 5th straight year I give thanks to Amy Boyd for providing me with the album art for my Mixtape. She’s now a Pentagram employee, making this album art the most legit thing on my blog right now.
So, there you have it for 2012. I’m already 3 albums into my 2013 releases, so if you’ll excuse me I’ve got some listening to do.
#5) Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory [Carpark Records; released 1/24/2012]
“I thought I would be more than this.”
“Wasted Days”
Remember emo? And I mean early 90’s emo, when it was an abrasive almost post-punk genre and before the likes of Dashboard Confessional co-opted it into their own brand of ooey gooey breakup songs. No? Well, considering Dylan Baldi, lead singer of the Cleveland Ohio four-piece Cloud Nothings, is only 20 years old, chances are he doesn’t either. But with Attack on Memory, his sophomore album, he could’ve fooled me. In a year when indie-rock got a nice kick in the ass from noisy, guitar drenched rock, Cloud Nothings started it all off in January when Attack On Memory was released to jaw dropping acclaim with its raw, youthful exuberance and intense darkness. But Attack On Memory isn’t just noisy, it’s damn catchy too, filled to the brim with hooks and melodies that channel some of those early 90’s emo/indie-rock acts like Fugazi, Braid, and Sunny Day Real Estate just to name a few. 90’s revivalism is something we’ve seen a good bit of in the last couple years, and whether intentional or not, Cloud Nothings have created an album that might be the flag bearer for that movement.
[“Wasted Days” – Attack on Memory]
#4) Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…[Epic; released 6/19/2012]
“How can I ask anyone to love me when all I do is beg to be alone?”
“Left Alone”
Seven years in the making, Apple’s fourth album, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (so yeah, let’s just go with The Idler Wheel…) might be her most striking album yet. The completely acoustic album is full of stripped down tension filled songs which serve her well by conveying a feeling of intimacy almost like she’s playing them just for you. These 10 tracks are a cathartic release for Apple, delving into her psyche in ways that has always characterized her music to this point, but on The Idler Wheel… she’s managed to expose herself in an even greater light by crafting such personal and poetic songs enhanced by idiosyncratic production techniques but certainly not devoid of melody. Apple’s albums are such an emotional release for her that you can understand the amount of time that lapses between releases and while it would be nice to get more Fiona Apple songs on a regular basis, we are all better off by waiting for what her catharsis dictates.
[“Werewolf” – The Idler Wheel]
#3) Japandroids – Celebration Rock [Polyvinyl; released 6/5/2012]
“When they love you (and they will), tell them all they’ll love in my shadow. And if they try to slow you down, tell them all to go to hell.”
“The House That Heaven Built”
The power of rock ‘n roll, man, that’s what this album is about. In a year searching for music that reaffirms the saving grace of rock music, Celebration Rock is it. And to think, this album almost didn’t even happen. In 2008, after a couple EP releases, Japandroids had just about given up and decided to release their debut LP Post Nothing and call it quits. What they didn’t expect was the amount of critical acclaim that album would garner (including a spot in my top 25 in 2009) which in turn lead to a renewed enthusiasm which is evident all throughout Celebration Rock. The Canadian duo produces in your face rock anthems with a celebratory spirit so palpable, you’d be hard pressed not to fistpump and sing-along to every “whoa ohhh ohhhh!” even at your most mundane moments. This is such a powerful and affecting listen with lyrics that in other hands might come across cheesy (“We don’t cry for those nights to arrive / We yell like hell to the heavens!”), but with these guys come across as inspirational. Celebration Rock, indeed.
[“The House That Heaven Built” – Celebration Rock]
#2) Grizzly Bear – Shields [Warp; released 9/18/2012]
“But I can’t help myself.”
“Sleeping Ute”
A few months ago a friend of mine asked me for some music recommendations and I told her about the new Grizzly Bear album. She made the point that she gets nervous when a great band releases a new album because she’s worried of a let down. I reassured her that in this case, she had nothing to worry about. With Shields, not only has Grizzly Bear wonderfully followed up their magnificent album Veckatimest (my 2009 album of the year), but they have one-upped it by crafting the best album of their career. There’s just something to be said for a band on top of their game, and right now I don’t know if there is another band on the level of this Brooklyn four-piece. Every single member contributes in ways we haven’t really seen before, and it’s in that synergy that Shields excels in its cohesiveness and sheer compositional beauty. Songwriters Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen seem to have peaked in a way that compliments each other perfectly, and at times Christopher Bear absolutely steals the show with his percussion (See “Sleeping Ute” and “Yet Again”), but at no time does any of this sound like it’s all thrown together, a testament to producer (and bassist) Chris Taylor. This is exquisite chamber pop produced in meticulous detail but completely natural, a remarkable album that shows Grizzly Bear has become the kind of band where you shouldn’t be nervous about a let down, but rather anxious for what they can accomplish next.
[“Yet Again” – Shields]
#1) Frank Ocean – Channel Orange [Def Jam; released 7/17/2012]
“Do you not think so far ahead? Cause I been thinkin bout forever.”
“Thinkin Bout You”
A few weeks prior to the release of his first proper album, Frank Ocean posted the liner notes of Channel Orange on his tumlbr, including a letter detailing his first love, which just happened to be an unrequited relationship with a man. This was a way to get out in front of all the questions that would undoubtedly surface once Channel Orange dropped and the lyrical analysis would begin. (Most specifically on emotional juggernaut “Bad Religion”, which details the aforementioned unrequited love in stunning fashion.) Keeping in mind Frank Ocean is part of a hip-hop community unfortunately known for its homophobia, his declaration of sexual preference was as significant as any moment that happened in the music industry in 2012. It’s in this intimacy and bravery that takes Channel Orange from a very good R&B album to a timeless classic.
The personal nature of Ocean’s songwriting is seen throughout all of Channel Orange in songs that capture his honesty, but are also some of the finest examples of alternative R&B, with their smooth yet unconventional structures. One of my favorite moments on any album this year comes not during a song, but during the transition between tracks. After a surprisingly bearable John Mayer solo that closes out my song of the year “Pyramids”, we’ve just been put through the ringer by the album’s 10-minute centerpiece, but not to be left off the hook, we’re directly led into the catchy beats of “Lost” and immediately re-immersed in this world Ocean has created. The wittiness and pure talent is in no short supply on Channel Orange (his voice on “Thinkin Bout You” is an absolute revelation), and while for the most part these are complex tunes not really built for radio play, their heart and power is something that can’t be ignored. Channel Orange feels like more than just an album, it feels like a groundbreaking moment in music history, not only a career defining masterpiece for Frank Ocean, but a genre defining work of art.
Now that the countdown is complete, all that is left is to present my 2009 Mixtape, an annual mix of the songs that helped shape the past year in music. This is maybe becoming my favorite part of my yearly top albums tradition because it’s fun to see what tunes I can pack into an 80 minute disc. I started doing this on my own just to make a mix cd of some of my favorite songs of the year to keep for listening in my car, but it has evolved into a way for me to kind of summarize the best music of the year in just a “mixtape” form, especially since I find it pretty impossible to do a ranking of the best songs of the year. And people seem to enjoy it, so here we are again. By the way if you want to see my complete top 25 Albums of 2009 on one nice, put together page, head on over to my Amazon.com list to give it a look.
So, here’s some stats about the mix. This year I packed 19 songs on the disc (down one from last year’s 20), but as usual this does not necessarily mean these are my 19 favorite songs of the year. There a plenty of songs that I had to leave off because they were too long, or maybe they just didn’t fit with the mix. Also, as usual the order here is how they appear on my mix, but it is not a ranking. The songs are placed based on how they appear on their respective albums. For this year, 9 of the songs are off albums in my top 10 (Antony & the Johnsons is the only top 10 album not represented). Five of the songs are from albums in my #11-#25 range and two songs come from albums outside my top 25. The lowest ranking album with a song in the mix is Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free by Akron/Family (ranked #44) with “River”. And finally, three songs (“Blood Bank”, “My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille”, and “It Gets Your Body Movin'”) are songs off of EPs, and thus came from albums not eligible to be in my rankings. Most of these songs have been featured somewhere on this blog in the past, or in the top albums countdown, but now here they are all in one place!
The picture above is thanks to Amy Boyd, who for the second year in a row has provided me with the album art for the Mixtape. Another fine job indeed. Today is her birthday (as well as Zooey Deschanel’s) so she also has that going for her. Enjoy!
———-
[“French Navy” – Camera Obscura :: My Maudlin Career]
———-
[“Blood Bank” – Bon Iver :: Blood Bank]
———-
[“1901” – Phoenix :: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]
———-
[“Two Weeks” – Grizzly Bear :: Veckatimest]
———-
[“River” – Akron/Family :: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free]
———-
[“My Girls” – Animal Collective :: Merriweather Post Pavilion]
———-
[“Young Adult Friction” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart :: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart]
———-
[“Crystalised” – The xx :: xx]
———-
[“Funeral Singers” – Califone :: All My Friends Are Funeral Singers]
———-
[“Now We Can See” – The Thermals :: Now We Can See]
———-
[“Stillness is the Move” – Dirty Projectors :: Bitte Orca]
———-
[“Don’t Haunt This Place” – Rural Alberta Advantage :: Hometowns]
———-
[“Never Seen” – Lightning Dust :: Infinite Light]
———-
[“Home” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros :: Up From Below]
———-
[“Two” – The Antlers :: Hospice]
———-
[“My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille” – Beirut :: March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland]
———-
[“Marrow” – St Vincent :: Actor]
———-
[“Sleepyhead” – Passion Pit :: Manners]
———-
[“It Gets Your Body Movin'” – Suckers :: Suckers EP]
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest [Warp; released 5/26/2009]
“While you wait for the others to make it all worthwhile, all your useless pretensions are weighing on my time.”
“While You Wait For The Others”
Much of the year’s best releases owe their success to a new found accessibility in the music, and no band refined their sound more from a previous release than Brooklyn’s (where else?) Grizzly Bear, whose 3rd album Veckatimest makes it to the top of my list as the best album of 2009. It wasn’t as if 2006’s Yellow House was a bad album, but it did peg Grizzly Bear as a ambient and boring band whose music didn’t really go anywhere, save for a couple excellent exceptions. However, the songs on Veckatimest don’t meander nearly as much and contain actual, honest to God, melodies. Grizzly Bear still retains their atmospheric tendencies and signature harmonies that characterized Yellow House, but the the songs are more traditional and much more memorable and strike a perfect balance between their experimental ambitions and straightforward pop to create an absolutely triumphant album.
You don’t have to look any further to find what Veckatimest does so well than the two opening tracks “Southern Point” and my song of the year “Two Weeks” which are rivaled only by the openers on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix as the best one-two opening punch of any album this year. “Southern Point” is the psych-folk opener led by Daniel Rossen that introduces the album in a way that almost seems like an appetizer for 11 tracks that follow. It leads into “Two Weeks” which is as standard of a pop song Grizzly Bear has ever written. An instantly memorable piano hook backs the entire song which is carried by glorious harmonies thanks in part to guest vocals from Beach House’s Victoria Legrand. From there the album wonders back and forth from orchestral tunes to other examples of sophisticated pop such as “Cheerleader” and “While You Wait For The Others”. Veckatimest is a meticulously crafted record in every sense, from its production to superb songwriting. It’s an album that many bands in similar boats as Grizzly Bear have probably tried to create, but not every band has the dedication and better yet, ability, to be able to create something so majestic.
A little something I like to do every year is dole out some awards for the music up to the halfway point of the year. Nothing too detailed, just a little summary. As usual for all my lists, the only albums I’m including are albums that I own and are currently in my itunes library. And of course all this can change as I listen to albums more, but this is what I’m feeling so far for 2009. Enjoy!
Animal Collective
Best, let’s say, 7 Albums (in order of release date):
Antony & the Johnsons – The Crying Light
It’s a beautiful and affecting listen, which was to be expected from Antony Hegarty. It was the first great release of the year and has stuck around to now. I already mentioned in my 1st quarter of ’09 wrap-up…nothing more to add to that really.
Once again, check my 1Q of ’09 post that mentions this release as well. People are starting to pick up on its brilliance but it will surely gain even more of a following once Frenchkiss reissiues it this August.
The only album of these 7 that I haven’t mentioned on the blog yet. The first 6 songs are hard to top. Longstreth tones down the weird just a bit, and it gets album of the year hype…go figure.
One of my most listened to albums so far this year. It doesn’t deserve any album of the year or even top 10 talk, but I think it deserves more attention than it’s getting.
They left behind their melodic pop hooks that made Peregrine so good, and went back to their post-rock instrumental days with bland results. Best description I’ve heard was that it’s like Explosions in the Sky tried to make an Appleseed Cast album…not what I was hoping for.
I just haven’t put enough time into this one to get a reading on it. Some of it has some early Built to Spill indie feel to it, which deserves my attention.
As far as I’m concerned, 2006’s Yellow House was a decent album, with a few songs, most notably “Knife” and “On a Neck, on a Spit”, that blew the listener away and at least put Grizzly Bear on the map. But, for me, it was a bit overrated as the album was devoid of many memorable moments and was, well, boring. A beautiful album yes, and it was certainly evident that there was something there that hinted at Grizzly Bear’s talent and potential, but as a whole, I put the album on the back burner and never really felt a need to come back to it. Enter In Ear Park, the 2008 release from Grizzly Bear’s sister band Department of Eagles. Led by Daniel Rossen and featuring 2 other Grizzly Bear members, I surprisingly felt a much greater connection with this release and considered it one of the best albums of the year, just barely missing out on my top 10. There were elements on this release that I felt could benefit Grizzly Bear, but who knew if that would ever happen, so in essence, I became a fan of Department of Eagles more so than of Grizzly Bear.
I didn’t pay any attention to Grizzly Bear news, including their Friend EP release in 2007, but knew they had a new full-length album in the works for 2009 and was sure I would at least give it a listen. My first sense of excitement surrounding the new release was hearing “Deep Blue Sea” on the Dark Was the Night compilation (also featured on the Friend EP as a Dan Rossen home recording) and noticing hints of what I hoped Grizzly Bear could become and despite the fact that “Deep Blue Sea” would not be featured on the new album, the hype for Veckatimest continued to grow. The album leaked in early 2009 to horrible quality, but continued to generate buzz. So here we are, three years after Yellow House and with a fantastic side project release in between, Veckatimest finally has its day, and alas, the foundation laid by Yellow House has been built upon to create an epic release, easily Grizzly Bear’s masterpiece, that is sure to go down as one of the year’s best and the album that takes Grizzly Bear to a new level.
After a week long debate with myself on whether or not I wanted to make the Saturday night trek down to Atlanta to catch the TV on the Radio and Grizzly Bear show at The Tabernacle, I finally caved in on Thursday and bought my ticket. I didn’t want to look back on this opportunity and regret passing it up, and when all was said and done, I was very happy with my choice. The day started out a little rough as about 30 minutes outside of Greenville, they guys I was with realized their gigantic, bright red, Live Nation provided tickets were still sitting on the kitchen counter. Luckily, since we left early enough hoping to enjoy some dinner and drinks before the show, we had plenty of time to turn around and go pick up the tickets, albeit that cut our pre-concert festivities short. About 4 hours after we originally left Greenville we finally made it to dinner at a fine “delightfully tacky” eating establishment close to The Tabernacle when the next bit of rough news came through that Dirty Projectors was no longer opening the show. This was a bummer, as Bitte Orca had just been released to rave reviews and talks of the fine show they put on had us all excited…oh well. There was no time to harp on the bad news though, as we were about to enjoy a fantastic show from a couple Brooklyn acts and two of the best bands going today. (No pics from the show though…sorry.)
Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear took the stage around 8:20 and started off with “Southern Point”, their fantastic opener on Veckatimest (album review coming soon!). This was honestly one of the highlights of the set for me as the song is instantly recognizable and really got me even more pumped about the upcoming set than I already was. The rest of the show featured a good mix of some of the highlights from Yellow House as well as all the fan favorites from Veckatimest. I was standing on the floor level to the right facing the stage and didn’t have a great view of the whole band but was able to see everything if I shifted my head a little to the left every now and then to see by the noggin of some fella and his girlfriend who got there about halfway through the set only to stand right in front of me and promptly ask me if they had already played “Knife”. Yep, they sure did…better luck next time. Meanwhile, the piano was just starting up for “Two Weeks”, so I told them at least you didn’t miss what’s maybe their best song. My best unobstructed view was of drummer Christopher Bear and I enjoyed watching him throughout the set as often times drums are the most underappreciated part of a band. So it was nice to see what he brought to the table and I went away impressed with his playing. I would loved to have heard more from Grizzly Bear as by the time “While You Wait for the Others” closed it out, I wasn’t really ready for them to be done, but they were just the opener so considering that, it was an amazing hour long (or so?) experience. A venue like The Tabernacle compliments their music perfectly being a band built quiet harmonies and not nearly as loud as what was about to follow.
TV on the Radio
Things started to get a good bit more crowded on the floor level in preparation for the TV on the Radio set and we actually ended up losing our spots and had to move back about 15 feet, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I was impressed at the amount of people at this show. The last (and first) show I went to at The Tabernacle was to see The Hold Steady and Drive By Truckers last fall, but that crowd was nothing compared to this which is actually kind of cool considering TVotR and Grizzly Bear are a couple northern acts and the show in the fall was headlined by true Alabama bred southerners Drive by Truckers. Good for you Atlanta! As TVotR took the stage, the first thing I noticed was the awesomeness of Kyp Malone’s beard. That thing is crazy and looks even more amazing seeing it person. I felt that the sound was a bit off for pretty much all of the set as TV on the Radio has to be a pretty tough band to get everything sounding perfect with the amount of stuff they have going on (just ask SNL). The vocals were muffled a bit, and the guitars just weren’t that crisp, but the energy and stage presence they brought to the set, highlighted by Tunde Adebimpe’s hand gestures and bouncing around the stage, was easily enough to overlook the slightly less than desired sound quality. And who knows, it may have just sounded like that from where I was standing. The band really hit it’s stride about 3 songs in during “Halfway Home” which is one of the many standouts from Dear Science,. But the absolute highlight of the entire night, for either band, was the best song TVotR has done (and will probably ever do) in “Wolf Like Me”. It was clearly the crowd favorite and what many had come to hear. And the band knew it too, as they gave their best performance of the set. Maybe the only thing that can rival that was the 2nd song of the encore, “A Method” which featured some members of Grizzly Bear. When all was said and done, the resounding feeling I was left with from the set was something every concert should do and that’s give you a feeling that life is good. Damn good. And while we may not quite yet be in the “Golden Age” TV on the Radio sings of, for a few hours one Saturday night in Atlanta, it sure as hell felt like it.
How about a song from each band? Well, here ya go. No, these are not live versions.
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 