2016's Best Tracks | Vol. 12

Typically, this is the time of year where I get to do my pro bono publico writing; some charity print to dust off the pages of this hastily graying website, which originally (and goofily) was founded to register the thoughts of an aspiring music blogger. Instead, it got re-dedicated somewhere along the line to a different topic entirely, leading to some other rad things; some big opportunities that felt (and still do!) like the crest of the mountain.

But charity in this age seems like a chore, it being the very eve of Trump's America. And I'm weary of traveling for the holidays. And this list becomes obsolete in seven hours or thereabouts, so I'm on a strict deadline. But its mostly because I just want to dad-out and drunkenly listen to vinyl with my beautiful and interesting wife when my kids finally fall into their temporary comas for the night. So I'm busy. But not so busy that I can't present the Best 101 Songs of the Year for the 12th time.

I hope you enjoy.



Happy New Year.

The Best Tracks of 2015: Vol. 11

Sure, I could parse every moment of 2015 and compartmentalize them into sections of the year that played out in my favor, while others did not.  Then thoughtfully prose on about why certain events, whether positive or negative, rocketed a song's cachet into the top 50 or the top 25 or even the top 10.  But that would be recapitulation of the last 10 years since the alpha list of the Top 101 began in 2005 -- and also take up a shit load of time like it did last year when I was still only mono-offsprung and duties like this were kept to kill the spare time between an actual career and a hopeful one instead of recent dad duties like reprogramming my four year old to stop being a hater and coddling the next ultra-entitled mecha-millennial two-month-old.

In other words, creativity has got to be preserved within this limited-functioning brain of mine, as the imminent exhaustion of A1 dadding and B-minus husband'ing creeps, my residual imagination is now reserved only for paying gigs.  For that, you can read a proper list here in the Austin Chronicle. 

Thusly, here is [AA]'s Top 101 of 2015 without the stale practice of any kind of introduction, a vainglorious portion of personal reflection, or bombastic self-promotion to read [AA] in the form of print journalism.  Enjoy, yeah?

[AA]'s 10th Annual: Best 101 Tracks of 2014 | PART IV of IV | The Top 25

Part I (101 - 76)
Part II (75 - 51)
Part III (50 - 26)

… So this brings us to the Top 25, which is all anyone who's a list-hound like I am cares about.  Maybe you clicked a few of the artists with familiar names just to see if something escaped your radar, but otherwise, this is the cream of the cream.  Everything below is clickable and none of it contains the word/s 'Broken' or 'Bells'.

But a bit of advertising before I let you drown in the narrative of 2014's melody:

Expect more brewery profiles on [AA] -- not an Iliad of work, mind you -- but some stuff to rouse the overgrown toddler that is the Austin beer scene.  Things are in the works for profiles on Jester King, The ABGB, and Oddwood Ales, along with our disclosure of the "Official Beer of Austin".  If you don't see something you like on [AA], do not be discouraged, as the piece may have been elevated to The Austin Chronicle, which we've begun contributing to infrequently. 

Yes, [AA] is still our pet project -- the secondary fermenter if you must.  But if you're really interested in smelling the boil, listen to Draught Punk, and follow [AA] on Twitter.

PART IV of IV | The Top 25 of 2014

25 - Slow Club | Tears of Joy from Complete Surrender: No Slow Club after 9PM iffin you want to stay a person without triplets. Its that sexy.

24 - Hamilton Leithauser | I Don't Need Anyone from Black Hours: Thats right Hamilton, you don't need anyone to help you make an unofficial Walkmen album. Indefinite hiatus, sure, but definitely awesome.

23 - Damon Albarn | The Selfish Giant from Everyday Robots: Hard to imagine that critics were harsh on Damon Albarn's solo effort, but I thought he aced it.  The imagery with the song title, piano, voice, and lyrics is truly heroic.

22 - BØRNS | Electric Love from Candy: LA-based Electro-rock by way of Michigan, this shockingly solo (because of the density) act came from so far outside our sonic scanner, we were forced to recalibrate our music mediums.

21 - Timber Timbre | Hot Dreams from s/t: Huge tip-o-the-hat to our friend Matthew at Song, By Toad for presenting this song on one of his Toadcasts this year.  If you are looking to subscribe to something awesome, witty, and musically vanguard, you should adhere to his podcast on iTunes.

20 - Father John Misty | Bored In The USA from s/t: Man, we thought this song was a huge joke at first, but when we had the time to properly dissect it, we realized its misunderstood genius, because, frankly we can relate.  The Billy Joel homage is subtle and classy.

19 - Twin Shadow | To The Top from s/t: Uplifting, gospel-y music, which to us, means its a good song to drink a beer in the shower to.

18 - Phantogram | Black Out Days from Voices: Absolutely floored us during this year's SXSW on a meager two-song set.  Black Out Days at 9am is like a double Monster Energy injection.

17 - Lykke Li | Never Gonna Love Again from I Never Learn: Lykke Li continues to expose our weakness as sensitive pussies who absolutely adore beautiful arias about love.

16 - Morrissey | Staircase At The University from World Peace is None Of Your Business: The thing about Morrissey is that he is so hatable like Jamies Winston, and yet so fucking excellent like Jamies Winston.  We just don't even …  yet, we continue to pledge our unencumbered devotion to Him.

15 - Damon Albarn | Heavy Seas Of Love from Everyday Robots: One of our favorite pseudo-subgenres of music is something called Northern Soul, which is essentially just underground 1960s Detroit Soul that was embraced by Englanders.  This song, though not true to Northern Soul form, is a cool bluesy tribute.

14 - Interpol | All The Rage Back Home from El Pintor: El Pintor didn't absolutely jump out at us as a stellar record, but this leaked single sure as fuck did.  Wowow.

13 - Real Estate | Talking Backwards from Atlas: This song is so simply arranged and so smartly self-aware, that it is 2014s 'most perfect' song.  Its the same formula that makes something equally simple, yet perfect -- like a pale ale -- top Best Of lists by simply holding form.

12 - Warpaint | Disco//very from Warpaint: Our stripper song, if we were ever to be in desperate financial need for lawyerin' school.  Dibs.

11 - The Rural Alberta Advantage | On the Rocks from Mended with Gold: Canadians, man -- when they're neglected, they can write a tune like a burr in the loins.

10 - Wild Cub | Shapeless from Youth: When [AA] are the executive producers of a John Hughes reboot, like Ferriss Bueller or Sixteen Candles, this will be our lede. 

09 - Phantogram | Celebrating Nothing from Voices: This will make your sex mix that is one song long.

08 - Sun Kil Moon | Ben's My Friend from Benji: The most limp-dicked, whitest song ever created, which makes it a fantastic narrative that is entirely lovable because we love blue crab cakes and The Postal Service too.

07 - Run The Jewels | Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) ft. Zack De La Rocha from Run the Jewels 2: Good thing for RtJ they released their amazing album when they did because they almost didn't make this prestigious list.  Forever h/t to John @partyends for championing them since the beginning.

06 - Spoon | Rent I Pay from They Want My Soul: Album of the year?  Yeah, probably. But the tease of this song in the run-up to They Want My Soul was the best 10 seconds of audio this year.  Damn, that was seriously infectious.

05 - Tokyo Police Club | Argentina (Parts I, II, III) from Forcefield: An eight-and-a-half minute TPC song sounds like the worst gag ever, but man, if you can take it seriously, it really becomes a clever song.  We were VERY serious about it at the [AA] offices in 2014.

04 - FKA twigs | Two Weeks from LP1: Without question, the one song on the entire list that will make you feel cooler having heard it.  Lyrically and musically, the gem of 2014.

03 - The Orwells | Who Needs You from Disgraceland: Despite the depressing act of business waged on fans of this song, its has massive cultural cognizance that is truly genius when one considers it was written by 17-19 year olds.  Its an amazing record on an amazing album.  Lets just hope Apple doesn't abuse it.

02 - Future Islands | Seasons (Waiting On You) from Singles: There was just no truly discerning diagnostic measurement between track #2 and track #1 in 2014.  This was on heavy and frequent rotation all throughout our year, and nary was there a moment when once started, it didn't have the opportunity to finish.

Which brings us to [AA]'s #1 song of the year, an enormous honor shared with the following tracks since 2005: 

2013: Daft Punk | Doin' it Right 
2012: Beach House | Myth
2011: Wu Lyf | We Bros
2010: LCD Soundsystem | Dance Yrself Clean
2009: Fanfarlo | The Walls are Coming Down
2008: MGMT | Time to Pretend
2007: Radiohead | Videotape
2006: Phoenix | Consolation Prizes
2005: Sigur Ros | Hoppipolla

… which is ...

01 - Taylor Swift | Shake It Off from 1989: Holy shit, right?  We totes know!  Nothing is gonna make you mooove like this chorus, and above everything else at the music branch of [AA], we value musical kinetics. Truly, Taylor Swift adheres to the indie-approved style craved by the scene kids and the guilty-pleasure awkwardness of beer dads alike; Swift has earned herself the distinction of a true crossover artist.  Haters gon' hate, hate, hate.


Happy new year, happy listening in 2015.  Drink everything.

Fin.

[AA]'s 10th Annual: Best 101 Tracks of 2014 | PART III of IV | #50 - #26

Part I (101 - 76)
Part II (75 - 51)

Three posts in four days seems like a flurry of activity and it is for a guy on vacation … but this is really important shit and I wanted to make sure this year-end best-of list got to you in time to salvage your entire year.  You're welcome!

First bit of business in this episode is a spoiler alert.  No where on this list will you find anything by Jack White because Jack White is fucking incessant.  In fact, Jack White hasn't made a worthwhile piece of music since people were still doing internet searches on Alta Vista.  In short, fuck Jack White.  You can't be on my list.  

But on a more relevant tip, you know what other artist also sucks, but whom also seems to be on a shitload of worthy year-end lists?  Sylvan Esso.  I literally can't think of a single situation where I would prefer to listen to Hey Mami over any other piece of music, and that includes Jack White.  I would actually prefer to listen to Jack White over Sylvan Esso, thats how bad it is.

And if you haven't heard either of these albums this year, feel free to take my word on both of em.  It's like when your mothers warned you not to stare at the sun or drink poison.  Sometimes at the behest of curiosity, its better to just take them at their word.

At least there wasn't an Avett Brothers release this year.  There wasn't was there?

Anyway, now onto the meaty part of [AA]'s Top 101 of 2014

PART III of IV | #50 - #26

50 - Broods | Mother & Father from Evergreen: Kiwi pop that very fortunately wasn't buried by American satellite radio.

49 - Little Boots | Taste It from Business Pleasure EP: Female electroclash is our weakness.

48 - The New Pornographers | Champions Of Red Wine from Brill Bruisers: Great effort by the Canadian indie legends, in large part because most of this album sounds like it was recorded drunk, which is how the greatest artists should always do it.

47 - Future Islands | Back in the Tall Grass from Singles: Underrated band, underrated dance moves.

46 - Tennis | I'm Callin' from Ritual in Repeat: Saccharine sweet female indie pop is our weakness.  An [AA] gig favorite from 2014.

45 - Strand of Oaks | Goshen '97 from HEAL: Our pal BeertownAustin would smash his computer into bits  if we didn't give him credit for introducing us to Strands of Oak. Fine, dude, they're really good, mkay?  Go brood about something else now.

44 - Fat White Family | Is It Raining in Your Mouth? from Champagne Holocaust: One of the white hot artists of SXSW 2014.  These dudes appear to be certifiably nuts.  Makes us miss Wu Lyf.

43 - We Were Promised Jetpacks | Bright Minds from Unravelling: The second selection from WWPJP on our list. In our top 3 favorite acts at SXSW 2014. These Scots do music very well.

42 - Kevin Drew | And That's All I Know from Darlings: Yep, this list is strewn with Canadians. Beautiful Canadians.

41 - St. Vincent | Birth In Reverse from St. Vincent: We could be the only folks in the indieverse who are not an unapologetic St. Vincent extremist, she's just okay -- however, this song is a totes jam and should be played liberally.

40 - The New Pornographers | War on the East Coast from Brill Bruisers: We didn't say this was gonna be a diverse list, but The Pornos just made a solid album and its our duty to let you know it.

39 - Chromeo | Old 45's from White Women: No srsly tho.  We haven't seen this many Cunucks on a list since You Can't Do That On Television was sweeping the Kids Choice Awards in 1983.  Chromeo's album was our hidden gem this year.

38 - PHOX | Slow Motion from PHOX:  Well, no.  Maybe this one was.  This whole album deserved so much more attention.

37 - The War On Drugs | Red Eyes from Lost in the Dream: On a lot of lists for album of the year.  We won't take it that far, but this was definitely a noteworthy song.  They lose a bunch of cred points though, for being Mark Kozeleks bottom bitches in '14.

36 - Kishi Bashi | Manchester from 151a: A touring member of the band, of Montreal, his music has a ton of depth and lyrical embedding.  Good stuff. 

35 - Owl John | Stupid Boy from Owl John: Owl John is the side project of Frightened Rabbit's guitarist/vocalist Scott Hutchison, and its aces.  The Scots typically win indie music, and when these are just the side projects, its easy to see why.

34 - Lo-Fang | When We're Fire from Blue Film: We felt like we were some of the first people out there in the blogosphere to blow up Lo-Fang in 2013 (he even made our top 101 last year). His debut album in 2014 was good, but didn't have as much lasting power as we first thought.

33 - The Antlers | Intruders from Familiars: Another candidate for Top 3 gigs in 2014, a list that spans 20 acts.  Familiars is genuinely in our Top 3 albums of 2014, though.

32 - Young Ejecta | Welcome to Love from The Planet: Wowzers, we fell immediately in love with Leanne Macomber, one half of Young Ejecta, which is a side project of hers when not recording with Neon Indian.

31 - TV On The Radio | Careful You from Seeds: Our most anticipated album of 2014, which held expectations for us that couldn't be possibly lived up to.  Nonetheless, the album is pocked with nifty little songs like this one.

30 - Tennis | Never Work for Free from Ritual in Repeat: Sweet, delicious, upper crust, female-lead, indie pop.

29 - Pixies | Greens and Blues from Indie Cindy: Shite album, which again, could never meet our anticipatory demands, but this is an amazing song reminiscent of the Bossanova era.

28 - Delta Spirit | Language Of The Dead from Into the Wide: Our drunkest show of 2014, we don't even remember if they played this song before we hailed an Uber, but we wanna say we did and it was killer.

27 - The Antlers | Parade from Familiars: Gospel music for the Church of Chillwave.

26 - Spoon | Inside Out from They Want My Soul: Second selection from Spoon on our list. They own our soul.

… to be continued.

[AA]'s 10th Annual: Best 101 Tracks of 2014 | PART II of IV | #75 - #51

Read Part I of IV here.

This year, Weezer came back reincarnated as … Weezer, which my some of my buddies thinks is awesome, despite all of the schlock they've released since The Green Album -- which in of itself is still pretty debatable as properly vintage Weezer album (I say, "sorta").  Regardless, its hard to deny that they've gave it a "good job, good effort" Los Angeles try.  

That is the basic premise of Part II.   Here are a number of decent Tuesday afternoon office jams, and a smattering of Friday night boozing ones.  We are confident that you will be able to tell the difference between the two.  We hope you like it, although you have to understand that sometimes we make a Pinkerton, and sometimes we make a Hurley.

PART II of IV | #75 - #51

75 - Weezer | Go Away from Everything Will Be Alright in the End: Heavy guitars, griping lyrics, and love themes.  We'll take it.

74 - Kasabian | Eez-Eh from 48:13: Some of the lyrics are trite, but its anthem-y and British and makes you want to take your shirt off like you're in 1996 Ibiza.

73 - Work Drugs | Time from Insurgents: Is retro-synth still a genre?  Dunno, we think it is, so it made our list.

72 - Generationals | Gold Silver Diamond from Alix: Retro-synth with added drum track.

71 - Sam Smith | Money On My Mind from In the Lonely Hour:  Took me a long time to accept that people on Facebook were crazy about Sam Smith because literally nothing breaks on Facebook.

70 - The Drums | I Can't Pretend from Encyclopedia: Still waiting for another jam like "Money", but we've always dug their sound nonetheless.

69 - Tokyo Police Club | Hot Tonight from Forcefield: This album wasn't TPC's tightest effort, but there are some great songs on there that sound like [AA] guilty pleasure '3rd Eye Blind' if they were a junior high band.

68 - Spoon | They Want My Soul from They Want My Soul: Finally getting into some serious face music.  The whole list is littered with Spoon, but we wouldn't allow more than three on it.

67 - The Fresh & Onlys | Who Let the Devil from House of Spirits: In a year without a BRMC album, this filled the gap nicely.

66 - Foxygen | How Can You Really from … And Star Power:  Honestly, we're shocked that Foxygen still were on friendly enough terms with one another to even record a second album.  Even though its mostly a complete mess of a record, there are still some interesting songs like this one.

65 - Kendrick Lamar | i from i: We must have been in a weird mood when making this list, as this is the most likely track on the list to have a Santana credit -- who is also on our list of Top 3 most overrated things ever, along with Reggie Bush and Tex Mex.

64 - Sharon Van Etten | Every Time the Sun Comes Up from Are We There: This track would be a nice theme song for a writer on a port wine bender.

63 - Bishop Allen | Start Again from Lights Out: Every damn year, there is an album that we are immediately giddy about, then come to our senses.  That was Biship Allen's 2014 effort.  Still, its a nice Brooklyn-y sounding track that we're sure someone in their early 20s relates to.

62 - Fanfarlo | Cell Song from Let's Go Extinct: Each time we re-listen to this song, we are reminded how 1) disappointing Fanfarlo's latest album was, and 2) how we've disrespected this song by being low on the list because its pretty great.

61 - Wild Cub | Thunder Clatter from Youth: This year we saw Wild Cub open for Vampire Weekend at Stubb's and they were literally the most appreciative band in history.  The band acts exactly like their music, and so we think its genuine.  And good.

60 - Wye Oak | Before from Shriek: The first band with a multiple spot on our list.  This album surprised us with how intense it was.  Definitely one of those drinking songs were were talking about.

59 - Paws | Erreur Humaine from Youth Culture Forever:  One of my pals in Scotland produced this track and it is fucking excellent, as one in Scotland might say.

58 - Sisyphus | Rhythm of Devotion from S/t: A Draught Punk selection from Episode 11 with our friend Jacob of Austin Sessions; its a strangely addictive hip hop collab by Sufjan Stevens, Serengeti, and Son Lux.

57 - Dum Dum Girls | Too True to Be Good from Too True: One of the indelible hits of SXSW 2014. We fell in love many, many times during this gig at Mellow Johnny's.

56 - Robert Schwartzman | It's You from Palo Alto OST:  Robert Schwartzman is the former lead singer of Rooney, which is a band with close ties to both Sofia Coppola and The O.C., which is everything this blog wants to be about. 

55 - Ages and Ages | Divisionary (Do The Right Thing) from Divisionary: Draws the fine line between naively monotonous and overwhelmingly cheerful.  Why not both?

54 - Jamie T | Limits Lie from Carry on the Grudge: Jamie T sure does sound different than the last time we heard 'im!

53 - Stars | Turn it Up from No One is Lost: Every single album Stars makes is crappy except for one song.

52 - Los Angeles Police Department | Cave from S/t: We don't know who this band is either, but just try to resist the gravitas of this song.  Us too.

51 - Alvvays | Adult Diversion from S/t: Totally Camera Obscura-lite, but their themes, melodies, and vox are completely on-point.


... to be continued.