Rankstravaganza 2013: My 30 Favorite Songs of the Year
20. “Devastate,” Amanda Shires
Though by all accounts happily married to fellow singer-songwriter Jason Isbell (more on him later), Shires wrote this song about relationship insecurity and suspecting that your lover has someone else on his mind. The demure Texan’s latest album doesn’t showcase her fiddling nearly as much, which is kind of a shame, but it allows her to explore some more fully fleshed-out roots-rock like this dark and stormy track.
19. “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire
Just in case you weren’t convinced that this seven-minute epic by the Canadian catharsis-rock® band was at least partially inspired by Berlin era David Bowie, the Thin White Duke himself showed up to contribute some vocals. There are other sources of inspiration on Reflektor, including the rara music of Régine Chassagne’s native Haiti, the alternative-dance beats of LCD Soundsystem (whose James Murphy co-produced the album) and, on this track, big, beefy tenor saxophone.
Arcade Fire performs July 30 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. [tickets]
18. “Holy Ghost,” Low
Duluth’s stalwart downer-rock® band went for a more organic sound on its 10th album, utilizing acoustic instruments, vocal harmonies and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who took the producer’s chair. This Mimi Parker-led track is maybe the prettiest, slowest song on an album full of very pretty, very slow songs.
17. “Sail to the Sun,” Wavves
I was never able to get into Nathan Williams’ little garage-rock project—or Surfer Blood or Best Coast or any of the other sun-blasted, overdriven noise-pop that emerged a couple years ago—until this song came along. Maybe it’s because the production on the San Diego band’s albums has gotten progressively more sophisticated. Maybe it’s because a bunch of reviewers compared it to In Utero. Whatever it was, Wavves finally clicked for me. That stupid extra V doesn’t even bother me all that much anymore.
16. “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster,” Thee Oh Sees
A few weeks ago, it sure sounded like the Bay Area’s most prolific, fuzzed out rock band was calling it quits, because gentrification. But a message on the band’s website says the group is not splitting up—just taking a break—and will release a new album in early 2014. Hooray! Oh, and this song is fuckin’ heavy, man. Heavy and scuzzy and chromatic.
15. “FOH,” Superchunk
FOH stands for “front of house,” referring to the public parts of a concert venue. Chapel Hill’s finest offers up a fast, uncomplicated rocker. Twenty-four years after their debut, the group can still throw down.
[free mp3 available as part of Merge Records Summer Sampler 2013 from Amazon]
14. “Out with the Old,” Maurice Tani & Mike Anderson
I first saw Tani, frontman for Bay Area country band 77 El Deora, at the 11th Annual Murder Ballad Bash at the Starry Plough in Berkeley and was blown away by his voice, which is like Americana incarnate. Tani is an equally strong songwriter. This is the lead track from a stripped-down, acoustic album that Tani recorded Anderson, 77 El Deora’s bass player, and it follows a gorgeous path that wanders from major chord to minor chord.
13. “City,” Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
San Francisco singer-songwriter Thao Nguyen’s band often gets pegged as alternative folk, and there is a fair amount of banjo on the group’s latest album, but this song is all about a snarling electric guitar riff, blasts of bass drum and a final, inspirational message: “Rest and be strong, wash and be clean, start a new year whenever you need.”
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down performs on Feb. 14 at The Fillmore in San Francisco with Sonny & the Sunsets. [tickets]
12. “Inhaler,” Foals
In lieu of an actual, coherent sentence, I’m going to list a bunch of music-critic jargon that you can assemble yourself: Oxford, indie, danceable, major-label debut, lead single, track, loud-quiet-loud, monster riff, metal-ish, math-rock, pizzicato guitar picking, builds, dynamic, rhythmic, propulsive, kick-ass.
11. “The Vampyre of Time and Memory,” Queens of the Stone Age
In 2010, QotSA frontman Josh Homme contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, had a near-death experience while undergoing surgery, and was confined to a bed for months afterward. There is “undead” imagery throughout the SoCal band’s latest album, but nowhere is it more prominent than this slow-burning track, which seems to speak to the emotional scars that Homme had to confront during his recovery. The song is a minor-key, glam-rock requiem. If you’ve always wished that there were vocals to accompany the first half of Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend,” this is probably the closest you’re ever going to get.
