Rankstravaganza: My 30 Favorite Tracks of 2012

10. “Would That not Be Nice?,” Divine Fits

Can a supergroup be greater than the sum of its parts? Who cares! When those parts are as great as Spoon and Wolf Parade, the end result is going to be pretty fantastic. Britt Daniel of the former and Dan Boeckner of the latter teamed up for a project that combined all their best attributes into one rhythmic, spacey jam.

[free mp3 available via SoundCloud]

9. “That Dangerous Age,” Paul Weller

I didn’t fall quite as hard for the Modfather’s latest release as I did for Wake up the Nation, which made my Top 10 albums of 2010, but this song is as potent as anything on that previous outing. With it’s “shoop” vocals and fuzzy keyboards, it achieves the same retro-minded-yet-forward-looking balance the British rock veteran achieved last go-round.

[Arctic Monkeys remix available as free mp3 via Under the Radar]

8. “Call My Name,” Ghost & The City

Three local acts made it into my Top 30 this year, and Ghost & The City has the honor of holding the highest position. Led by the gruff-voiced Ash Maynor, this Oakland group is classy but still a little rough around the edges. It’s best classified as a big band, but it isn’t about nostalgic purity or re-creating the sounds of the swing era. It’s more like a twisted take on a variety of bygone influences, from jazz to Motown, with the latter really shining through on this track, which was released this spring as a single.

[free mp3 available via ghostandthecity.com]

Catch Ghost & The City live at 9 p.m. Feb. 1 at Uptown Nightclub in Oakland. Click for details.

7. “Every Single Night,” Fiona Apple

Singing about how messed up her brain is isn’t exactly new lyrical territory for Fiona Apple, but the bare-bones minimalism of this track was something of a surprise. There is little here other than sparse celeste chords and her raw, exposed vocals—a brave way for her to begin her fourth album. By now we should all expect Apple to take chances and defy expectations, but it’s still thrilling every time she pulls it off.

6. “Tuck the Darkness In,” Bowerbirds

The last time this North Carolina alt-folk group showed up in one of my year-end lists, I compared it to the rustic, acoustic beauty of Bon Iver. This time, it sounds like they’ve taken some grandiosity lessons from Arcade Fire. Everything builds, layer upon layer, until the song explodes in a cathartic, blissful wall of sound.

[free mp3 via Dead Oceans]

5. “Sleeping Ute,” Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear is the space where indie rock and modern classical music meet. The Brooklyn band doesn’t just write music, it composes it. Listen to that crazy 12/8 time signature on this piece. I mean, I think it’s 12/8. I can’t even count the damn thing.

4. “Closer Than This,” St. Lucia

Hey, 1988 called to say this song is awesome. You like keyboards? You like harmony-rich choruses? Well, me and 1988 think you ought to drop whatever it is you’re doing, listen to this song, and tell all your friends about New York musician Jean-Philip Grobler and his bedroom-pop project.

St. Lucia is opening for Ellie Goulding at 8 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, but it’s already sold out so I guess you’re out of luck.

3. “You’re the Kind of Girl,” Lee Fields & The Expressions

Lee Fields has been making soul music since the 1970s. This is some sweet, sweltering romance right here: “I never met a girl so cool, so fine and in control, looking like a centerfold.” Men, I’m surprised all of our wives have it left us for this guy.

[free mp3 via Rolling Stone]

2. “Draw a Crowd,” Ben Folds Five

I’m not proud of the fact that this is the No. 2 song on my list. While I am thrilled that Ben Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee reunited this year for their first album since 1999, this track is probably the most immature thing they’ve ever recorded together. I can’t help it. Just listening to that syncopated piano line at the beginning takes me straight back to my middle school years when I listened to nothing but Billy Joel. The fuzzed out bass and  vocal harmonies take me back to freshman year of college, when blasting “Underground” earned me the grudging respect of the sophomores on my floor. And the song contains my absolute favorite couplet of 2012: “I only wanted to be Stevie Wonder, but I’ve got to settle for this vanilla thunder.”

Catch Ben Folds Five live at 8 p.m. Jan. 31 at The Warfield in San Francisco. Click for tickets.

1. “Star of the Age,” Shearwater

On first listen, this is an unassuming song. Oh, sure, the chords are dramatic and Jonathan Meiburg’s voice is as dark and commanding as ever, but when it’s done washing over you, you’re initially left without many specific impressions. At least that’s how it worked for me. It’s almost like my subconscious figured out this was a great song and kept driving me back to it before the rest of my brain caught up. The lyrics, it turns out, read like something out of a forgotten volume of Blake or Keats:

Oh shining world!
Where nothing is happening
But what is in our minds
The swelling stars of the age
But still my life
the only relieving light
In the spinning darkness of our lives
Is when I see you again
In the moonlight
In the starlight
In the sunlight
And I believe it again

See? Doesn’t that remind you of English lit class? The music, meanwhile, takes its cues from the more intellectual corners of ’80s rock. That decade wasn’t all dance-pop and New Kids on the Block, after all. The Austin band’s eighth album is strong all around—as we’ll see in my album rankings—but this closing track really tops it off, taking listeners to the pinnacle and then dissolving into shimmering arpeggios. Keats would have liked it, I bet.

Bonus Track: Best Non-2012 Song Discovered in 2012

“The Birds Would Understand” (2011), Putnam Smith

Portland, Maine, folksinger Putnam Smith keeps everything acoustic on this track, which ought to please traditionalists, but the banjo is frenetic and syncopated enough satisfy the indie rock kids. Not that it comes off as calculated in the slightest—it’s just a good ol’ honest music with a pulsing beat and wide appeal.

[free mp3 via Bandcamp]