Brockett Blog

If pressed for an album of the year for 2012, I couldn’t give you one. Singles dominated the day, and a change in career and daily schedule meant I couldn’t find the right way to dig into entire albums. That meant finding few outstanding songs on my own, and relying on reviews, podcasts and friends to cull the best of what was presented in 2012. Still, there’s enough for everyone to share:

“Parted Ways” by Heartless Bastards

So straight-ahead rock as to invoke the tired truism of a band on the road, “Parted Ways” re-finds the reasons that such inspiration could be so fruitful. Great guitar work and handclap undercurrents infuse the plaintive vocals with such energy that the whole thing bursts beautifully at the 3:30 mark. It should be noted that the official video is terrible, which is especially disappointed given the evocative video treatment for “Only For You,” another great cut from Arrow.

“Silence” by The Ting Tings

If you wanted to write off The Ting Tings, you would say that the band combined some catchy electropop backings with enough bratty vocals to work on something as great as “That’s Not My Name,” and little else. But “Silence” makes such a reduction seem so very stupid. They put a wall of sound together piece by piece, and the patience pays off with a moment of pure ecstasy. It’s as if the Ting Tings are an animated band, reminiscent of Josie and the Pussycats. And at the 1:45 minute mark, the camera pans to the skies and the Buddy Christ of Dogma fame joins in on heavenly synthesizers.

“Grew Up At Midnight” by The Maccabees

Maybe it was exposure to Donovan’s “Catch the Wind” at an early age, but I’m a sucker for delicate songs building to crescendos that belie such soft beginnings. This song is relentlessly nostalgic, unrepentantly precious, and it works for every moment. The same cannot be said for the rest of the album, but we’ll always have “Grew Up At Midnight.”

“Simple Song” by The Shins

A cursory glance at end-of-year lists didn’t include many mentions of The Shins’ latest album. It could be legitimate opinion of quality, the lack of recency for a February release or that Shins fans have outgrown their initial fans while the new generation gags on any tangential reference to Garden State. But they’re missing out on an expertly crafted single, at the least. The squiggly guitar(?) line hidden behind James Mercer’s vocals really makes the song, as it adds a bit of dissonance to such polished surroundings.

“White to Red” by Fenster

“Restraint” would be the key word for this song, with “evocative” close behind. The simple melody burrows into your head, where the haunting vocals and tambourine-laden can really do their damage. I especially appreciate the unique ways the backing vocals complement the song when any rogue element could threaten the established fragility. An astute music supervisor in television or film could really crank up the creep with this as a soundtrack.

“The World is Watching” by Two Door Cinema Club

The version of myself from the year 2003 would have worn out this song. Then again, that version also paid good money for Travis’ 12 Memories, so he wasn’t always so trustworthy. It’s got everything a sadsack romantic could want, with nice-guy vocals hoping you won’t notice how egocentric (“You could be the one to set me free …”) the lyrics can be. And despite all that, these guys know enough to pump up the tempo just enough to make it absolutely irresistible. We can change, but only so much.

“Plumage” by Menomena

This band would have made my best of 2007 list with “Wet and Rusting,” a great song if for no other reason than the refrain, “It’s hard to take risks … with a pessimist.” “Plumage” is similar in how it bounces between the soft and the loud, and zigs when the odds clearly favor zags. Ultimately, what you think of this song depends on how you view the horn interlude halfway through the song. The rest of the song is such that it turns this potential mole into a beauty mark, capped by this lyrical gem: “I once was tragically hip and beautifully fine / Now my beautiful hips are tragically wide.”

“I Love It” by Icona Pop

That this song played on MTV’s “120 Minutes” isn’t an upset. (That someone still DVRs the show in its prime 5 a.m. Friday timeslot would be the bigger upset.) No, the surprise about this song is that I first heard it on NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast. Here I download thinking I’ll be getting the latest breathless updates on Jason Lytle’s solo career, and this song steps right up, exclaims, “You’re cute!” and proceeds to punch me in the face. It’s the cocktail Sleigh Bells continually attempts to brew, using overpowered synths to wear down your senses and reach some instinctual place that isn’t so self-conscious about such exclamations of youth and life.

“Great Love” by Vacationer

In some ways, the beat behind “Great Love” is almost as wonderfully dumb as the one in “I Love It.” It thuds along with a grandfather clock’s consistency, which allows the insistent main vocals and ethereal backing vocals to really shine. This song just edges out the Vampire Weekend-esque “Be With You” that closes the Gone album to earn the Vacationer spot on the list.

“Swaggs” by Mount Carmel

This stuff is so retro the album cover is a knockoff of the 19-freakin’-72 Topps baseball card design. This can’t be new music recorded on old equipment. Someone found these reels when digging through old shoeboxes searching for Carlton Fisk rookie cards.

“Fate” by Young Man

A quick look at the YouTube comments for this video (“Quick, don’t look directly at them lest ye lose all hope for man!”) claims this song was used on Emily Owens M.D., which sounds about right. Individual sections of the song provide the proper amount of windswept winsomeness for a CW show. But as a whole, it’s a great journey befitting the song title, with gradual changes making even the slightest shifts seem like peaks and valleys.

My iTunes playlist for this year, titled simply “2011,” represents my favorite songs of the year. And it’s exactly double the size of “2010″ and “2009.” That’s a function both of great music and great access to music. I was guided to these songs by many sources, and am forever grateful for the recommendations. It took more consternation than is socially acceptable, but here are my favorite 10 songs of the year.

“Just a Figment” by Morning Teleportation

After listening to this song, I went ahead and previewed Morning Teleportation’s entire album. And it was exhausting. Just about every track shifts directions multiple times before calling it a day. But on this track, puzzle pieces fly through the air, falling to the ground in a perfect fit. There’s so much here that you can love multiple parts of the song. Like, say, the Castlevania-esque synthesizer at the 3:40 mark. But be sure to notice when things get especially crazy at the end. Amid a whirlwind of guitars, the plaintive horn keeps playing, giving method to the madness.

“Under the Gun” by Apex Manor

No song better exemplified the difference between “cost” and “value” than this one in 2011. For most of the year, Amazon dangled this perfect slice of guitar pop for free, hoping to entice listeners into checking out The Year of Magical Drinking. That album features some similarly stellar songs, including the languid “Coming To.” But I kept coming back to this uptempo rocker with the simple, insistent beat. It’s the type of song that makes you say, “They used to play songs like this on the radio!” then proceed to slap yourself for ever sounding so old.

“Goshen” by Beirut

This song represents one of my favorite albums on the year, Beirut’s The Rip Tide, and it features all the trappings: simple piano playing, sad-sack lyrics and almost a martial beat near the end to give the song enough life to allow denial of any accusations of depression should a friend or family member bust in when this is playing. “East Harlem” is the most quintessential Beirut track on the album, but “Goshen” is the highlight for me. (Odd fact: according to Wikipedia, more than half the states in America feature a municipality named Goshen).

“That’s Where You’re Wrong” by Arctic Monkeys

After careful consideration, this song wins the title of “Best Song in 2011 That Features ‘Blunderbuss’ in the Lyrics.” (Better luck next year, LMFAO!) Alex Turner, through his myriad musical projects, consistently showcases a talent for lyrics. On this song, the bassline serves as the steadying base for a mix of echoing guitar and tight drumming. I almost wanted to put Turner’s solo version of  “Piledriver Waltz” off the Submarine soundtrack in this spot for making a singalong of such odd non sequiters, but this song is built to withstand time much better.

“Gratisfaction” by The Strokes

Ten years in, The Strokes made a divisive album. And while I haven’t had a chance to examine all the Angles, “Gratisfaction” can stand on its own as a pop gem. As the commenters on this YouTube clip highlight, the song sounds so reminiscent of some FM rock staple of the past. The initial stutter calls to mind the great vocal trick in “Give Me Just a Little More Time.” It’s The Strokes with at least one pass of the comb through the hair, and it cleans up quite well. Plus, this made Edgar Wright’s Top 30, a guy who makes great movies and dates Anna Kendrick. His word should almost be considered gospel at this point.

“Go to Hell” by Raphael Saadiq

This is the album I listened to the most in 2011, a great collection of songs that arrived just in time to blare out the car window this summer. “Heart Attack” immediately demands your attention, but I came to look forward to this song the most. It’s a throwback in the best sense, with Saadiq’s most plaintive vocals, a classic incorporation of strings and some great backing vocals.

“Lucky Now” by Ryan Adams

This is Ryan Adams’ singer/songwriter side distilled down to its essence. I wasn’t blown away on first listen by the rest of the album, but this song stands with his best work over the past decade-plus.

“You Been Lyin’” by Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

You Been Lyin’ (Album Version)
My most quoted lyric from 2011? “They’re dropping bombs just to test the science!” The only thing more straight-ahead than the rock contained in this song is my line of sight when using the troughs at Wrigley Field.

“All Night, All Right” by Clive Tanaka y su orquesta

I’m not the biggest fan of processing vocals through electronic means, especially when it means just bumping up the tone-deaf to the level of barely competent. But I love how the vocals abandon any pretense of naturalism on this song, allowing it to become an electro-pop classic. The video in my head features a floor full of robots dancing their little batteries out at Studio 54.

“Codex” by Radiohead

Two of my favorite bands, Radiohead and Coldplay, both came out with albums in 2011. And while Coldplay disappointed in the way they decided to write big songs built for generic stadium venues, Radiohead’s King of Limbs disappointed in how the songs seem out of place when played almost anywhere. For want of a handhold, this album seems lost. Then “Codex” kicks in and tricks the mind into thinking that all that came before makes more sense. I choose to take the song out of its element and enjoy it on its own, and maybe the album will kick in for me sometime after 2011.

Other songs/groups receiving serious consideration: the return to form from The Dodo’s, the joyful ridiculousness of The Wombats, a damn fine debut by GIVERS, a heartfelt jam from The Rapture of all bands and two great songs from Noah and the Whale: Just Before We Met and L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. And … and … and …

The soundtrack to any of life’s events is one born of fortune: songs written and performed in the past relating in some fortuitous way to the events of the present. Moods captured in recordings reflect a reality that exists for the listener but not the artist.

Remembrances of Sept. 11, 2001 inevitably will touch upon the world of pop culture and how that world changed, and music certainly played a part in finding ways to represent feelings that those of us outside the immediately affected struggled to express. Two songs immediately come to mind, and they show how our memories can compress and extend time to fit our needs. The first – Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – became associated with the tragedy for both being played and not being played. The song showed up on an advisory list created by Clear Channel as a song to avoid broadcasting on the radio. The decision made as much sense in the moment as it does now, especially when compared to some of the obvious plane crash and apocalyptic songs also on the list. This became abundantly clear on television Sept. 21, when a fundraising telethon called “America: A Tribute to Heroes” featured Paul Simon performing the 30-year-old song and giving it a new context.

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As it turns out, there might be one side effect of Amazon’s excellent variable price promotions for mp3 downloads: a momentary lapse in value. As albums like the Beatles Anthology 3 sit on Best Buy shelves gathering dust at a $30 price point, Amazon has battled the iTunes juggernaut with an everything-must-go mindset. That means about 100 different $5 albums each month and hyped albums by well-regarded artists sometimes falling even lower than that in their release week. That they notify the consumer through Twitter feeds would be an example for a marketing textbook, probably an electronic version that is Kindle- and iPad-friendly so as to not be immediately obsolete.

But what about the product as it sits on your hard drive, in your iTunes library? How can paying $4 for Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs ever be wrong? I found out when sitting down with the album turned into something to do after the latest (free!) podcasts silently populating my feeds. And this from someone who frequently listens to songs on Neon Bible and won’t skip “My Body is A Cage,” even when working out! Thus, I still don’t have a handle on that album. But I do have a good idea of how excellent these songs are, in no particular order:

“Bushwick Blues” by Delta Spirit

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With music videos only reaching mainstream awareness when “Lady Gaga” appears on the Arial font in the corner of the screen or Cee-Lo uses profanity in interesting ways, television commercials have picked up the slack in melding existing songs to something worth selling. A couple of recent spots have cropped in the regular TV-viewing rotation recently, with varying artistic success. If nothing else, we can safely assume that at least these uses won’t result in $15 million lawsuits over the use of the songs.

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Before iPod playlists and after mix tapes, there were mix CDs … and I made a lot of them. This periodic feature will look at some of those CDs and see if my opinions and tastes have lasted longer than the cheap CD-Rs the songs were recorded on. And yes, this is a pretty clear rip-off of Nathan Rabin’s Then That’s What I Called Music series.

Title: Songs Without Points or Counterpoints
Inspiration: Lifelong affinity for bad wordplay
Creation date: August 2001
Album cover: Picture of CD creator doing a bad flip cannonball into great aunt’s pool

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Before iPod playlists and after mix tapes, there were mix CDs … and I made a lot of them. This periodic feature will look at some of those CDs and see if my opinions and tastes have lasted longer than the cheap CD-Rs the songs were recorded on. And yes, this is a pretty clear rip-off of Nathan Rabin’s Then That’s What I Called Music series.

Title: Benefits of a Day in the Sun
Inspiration: Unknown, sounded vaguely summer-ish
Creation date: June, 2000
Album cover: Promotional, artistic shot from Virgin Suicides movie, back when one wasn’t chastised for having a crush on Kirsten Dunst.

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I started the decade fighting through the odd phrasing of nme.com to discover the best new bands in the world (that somehow only made one album before disappearing completely – where did you go, Haven and Electric Soft Parade?). Those CD-Rs served as the soundtrack to my college work experience at the Northern Star newspaper.

I end the decade constantly perusing iTunes and Amazon, with aggregators like elbo.ws picking up the slack for new hype and maybe a free download. Like so many other music fans, the single has replaced whole albums in my music experience, as I take my whole collection with me … back to school one more time in a field that I hope won’t disintegrate by the time the next decade comes around.

Entries on my 2009 playlist came from a variety of places, including: MTV2′s Subterranean, the Sound Opinions podcast, NPR’s All Songs Considered, and USA Today’s Pop Candy podcast. It didn’t come from radio, which says equal amounts about me and pop radio. Maybe you’ll find a gem like I did at NME all those years ago, with 97% fewer British boasts.

“The Fear” by Lily Allen

“Thrill Me” by Soundtrack of Our Lives

“Fear” by Benjy Ferree

“Gimme Sympathy” by Metric

“Little Pieces” by Gomez

“Oscar Wilde” by Company of Thieves (and 2009′s music crush on a pretty lead singer, put over the top when a band references Rushmore)

“I’m Not Crying. You’re Not Crying, Are You?” by Dear and the Headlights

“Demon Woman” by Flight of the Conchords

“Cannibal Queen” by Miniature Tigers (this year’s “It would have been a hit in almost any other previous era” award recipient)

“Tightrope” by Yeasayer (off the much-praised compilation Dark Is the Night)

“Orange Shirt” by Discovery (The Streets referenced Altavista in “Push Things Forward,” and now Google has a good reference in this song; my Lycos jam remains unrecorded)

“Young Adult Friction” by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (ignore the overhype, because on at least this song, it’s worth it)

“Summertime Clothes” by Animal Collective and “Two Weeks” by Grizzly Bear (white music snob mandate)

Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

“I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked” by Ida Maria (I haven’t found a song I can love from her, but this, “Morning Light” and “Oh My God” all contain parts of greatness)

“Kingdom of Rust” by Doves (an old favorite; its appearance in Zombieland put it over the top for me)

“Lovers’ Carvings” by Bibio (part of the great genre known as “songs that could have been the soundtrack to odd documentary segments on Sesame Street)

“Longform” by the dodos

“Skeletons” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I like “Zero” as well, but probably listened to its wall of synths one too many times)

I woke up August 1 feeling pretty good. It was my 29th birthday, and some people remembered. After a workout to shave a few years off my number, I opened the day’s mail:

You just couldn’t wait 36 more years to make this offer, Time? I started spitting out “Time Mag-a-ZINE?!?!” then realized that only one man can pull off the proper cadence:

Reason one, of course, is denying paycheck opportunities for yours truly. But what about something much more important – references in classic songs? If we aren’t careful, some of the beloved soundtracks of our lives could end up as low-hanging fruit for future snarktastic VH1 talking heads. Take The Monkees’ version of “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone,” a simple, emotional romp that takes aim at the types of women who evolved into what Kanye later identified as gold diggers. What could snatch this pop gem from the ranks of the timeless? Maybe this line:

When I first met you girl, you didn’t have no shoes/
Now you’re walking ’round like you’re front-page news.

If print falls, what then? Will she be walking ’round like she’s on Google News? Or grabbing pageviews? If you don’t think this can happen, just tell that to the Five Americans. Their song “Western Union” still hasn’t recovered from the blow e-mail inflicted: