1/3/2016

It's that time of year again.

The beginning. Which also means the end.

I'm particularly at ease as I sit down to write this list this year. It's the kind of thing that's an annual source of self-inflicted stress. While the AOTY list is a list that anyone who fancies themselves any kind of music "expert" or "critic" must be able to accomplish, I dread the work that it requires to reflect, write, compile. This year, though, it wasn't hard to find a free moment and begin typing. I knew most of this in my head, I had considered it several weeks before when I knew January was creeping closer. I kept a running Post-It list and refreshed my ears with a Spotify playlist. And I'm excited to put it out there, all this music that has meant so much to me.

2015, perhaps more than any other year in my adulthood, carried more emotional trials than I could have anticipated. I dealt with heartbreaks I could not predict. I faced fears I had been running from since I was an adolescent. I let people in. I let go. I ran farther, wrote faster and kissed harder than ever before. I gave up bad habits and picked up better ones, and I picked myself off the floor. I found surrender, I found self-love, I found the freedom and lightness a human can attain when you break your mind out of the fences of expectation, and now it is 2016, and I find myself still fighting for all of this, but with degrees of anticipation and confidence and the good kind of nerves, and I am encouraged. Most people reading this do not know most things about me; most people do not know most things about anyone, least of all strangers on the Internet, but if you are reading these words right now you can probably gather that that my lifeline (as it is maybe for you too) through all of this in life is music.


10) If I Should Go Before You - City and Colour

A late-year release that continues to captivate me, I didn't fully realize the brilliance of these songs until I had the chance to hear them live. And then I heard what I should've the first time - sweeping, elegant rock songs, with a timeless, bluesy feel, and Dallas Green's sorrowful interpretations of life and love. From the opening bars of the dark, groovy "Woman," you can tell this a record that uses the best of ingredients in the rock band pantry - heavy rhythm section, masterful solos, top notch vocals and hook-filled choruses. But mostly what I love about this record is how the sentimentality still steals the show.

Bound for trouble from the start
I've been walking through this old world in the dark
All along right by my side
There you were shining, my ray of light 
~Lover Come Back

9) Permanence - No Devotion

When the day started to drag, when the week started to feel dull, this was the record to play to pick it up again. An indie favorite among a certain post-emo scene, the kind who might still care who Geoff Rickly is, the No Devotion record encapsulates a sound that's both reminiscent of a past era and somehow still trendy, walking one of my favorite lines. I love how synth-pop permeates the guitar parts, how new wave that sound is, matched with dark chords and stirring harmonies at the high-end of Rickly's vocal range. This record surprised me by how much I liked it, how fun it was to listen to, and also how unseen it was given its overall depth compared to acts in the same kind of genre. 

Ten thousand summers
Cannot replace what we lost when you went away
Ten thousand summers
In the grass
And though it's getting dark
Remember this will pass
~10,000 Summers

8)Carrie and Lowell - Sufjan Stevens

So many Sufjan fans fell by the wayside when his grand plans for a 50-album, 50-state spree stopped after two, myself included, as "The Age of Ads" and his BQE tribute didn't seem to have the same heart. But Stevens' musical brilliance, and poetic truths, shone through this year in the most surprisingly stunning ballad collection, a heartfelt, intimate tribute the love and loss and pain and quiet, awkward, awesome moments that make up family. It's just too beautiful. When I listen to this record, I feel like it's OK to be curious and shy and passionate about the ones you love.

Do I care if I survive this, bury the dead where they’re found
In a veil of great surprises; hold to my head till I drown
Should I tear my eyes out now, before I see too much?
Should I tear my arms out now, I wanna feel your touch
~The Only Thing
7) Run Wild - Lydia

Another one that really surprised me by how much I wound up listening to it. Lydia was a band I got into purely by Pandora association, despite knowing they lurked somewhere in the mid-aughts emo scene I'm so fond of. Choosing to get into them shortly before this release was somewhat serendipitous but also somewhat misleading - the Lydia that existed 10 years ago isn't the one that put out this radio-friendly, poptastic, shimmering party serenade. But I love it, oh how I love it, from the stammering chorus of "Follow You Down" to the wide-eyed dance rhythms of "Late Nights." Something about this record set the tone for a light and breezy ride, no matter how dark and heavy I felt, no matter where I was going.

I don't want to keep your heartache
And I don't want to feel your ghost
And I don't even know where we will go
Yeah, I'm just trying to make it home
~Late Nights

6) Pageant Material - Kacey Musgraves

There's so much to love about this record, which is one of the sweetest, funniest, smartest offerings country music had to offer in 2015 and one of my favorite morning sing-a-longs. Kacey Musgraves has a strong wit, sharp tongue and killer voice, wrapped in an aw-shucks-stoner attitude that makes her songs so original and listenable and just overall delightful. Her take on gossipy neighbors and nosy friends shows a mature mindfulness that you're more likely to read about on yogi websites than hear about in a country song, setting her apart from the usual heartbreak heroines. Musgraves is only two albums in but she's only getting better - and more sure of herself, too, if the "Dime Store Cowgirl" anthem holds up.

I ain't exactly Ms. Congenial
Sometimes I talk before I think,
I try to fake it but I can't
I'd rather lose for what I am than win for what I ain't
~Pageant Material

5) Peripheral Vision - Turnover

If ever there was a darker, dreamier record this past year, I hadn't heard it. Turnover came out of nowhere, relatively, to put out one of the most outstanding LPs in the alt-indie scene, one that cut through stereotypes of bands in the genre and threw down a new standard for moody yet upbeat tracks. This record soundtracked many a lonely night, injecting a shot of needy hopelessness right when it was needed, but in the most melodic fashion. There's a depth in production here that creates a really full sound, but still lets you pick out the guitar parts. So much delay!! And so cohesive, which is why I think it was so easy to listen to time and time again. "Peripheral Vision" is a tribute to the complications and anxieties in relationships, the kind that we all wish we could avoid, but if this is where the stumbles gets you, maybe it's worth learning your way through.

Would you come here and spin with me?
I've been dying to get you dizzy,
Find a way up into your head
So I can make you feel like new again
~Dizzy on the Comedown


4) American Candy - The Maine

This one really sneaked up on me. I had never listened to The Maine before "American Candy." What I discovered was the purest pop rock I'd heard since radio-friendly All-American Rejects tracks in high school, excellent parts and succinct playing. A perfect balance between light and dark, this record grapples with issues of anxiety and self-consciousness and stereotype better than any I've heard in ages, without being too obviously "fuck-the-man." Why it's not on other top 10s, I cannot say. Something this well-executed ought to be recognized - there isn't a bad track on this record, and it never left my rotation since it came out in the first quarter of the year. In a scene jam-packed with releases, that's not nothing.

Sometimes I feel as though I'm going mad when
I get a touch of saccharine on my lips
I hate the taste on my tongue too damn sweet
I don't fancy american candy, american candy
~American Candy

3) Something More Than Free - Jason Isbell

This record contains my favorite song of the year, the one that I played on repeat the most, with the chorus that still brings tears to my eyes. I was so obsessed with this record when it came out, and while I listen to it less in full, I still think it's one of the best showings of the year, with every track showing how timeless and tireless Jason Isbell's sound is. While his breakthrough on "Southeastern" gave us all a taste of what he is capable of as a songwriter and introduced us to his own personal angels and demons, "Something More Than Free" gives us more of a look into how he sees the world and what matters in, things like working hard and loving true.

"You thought God was an architect, now you know
He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that’s all for show goes up in flames
In 24 frames"
~24 Frames

2) Astoria - Marianas Trench

The top two were really hard for me this year to balance out, because they both hit me in the gut. So consider this almost a tie...and consider them both the kind that lived up to high expectations. Marianas Trench may not be a well-known act in most music circles, and that might be the biggest oversight in critical estimations. I think Josh Ramsay is a brilliant modern pop composer and if you disagree, I guess you've never heard a little song called "Call Me Maybe." He is a production master - and he shines brightest in his own band, Marianas Trench, who write epic after epic after epic. This one might their strongest yet - clearly 80s inspired, and clearly heavy on the drama. But it's tight as hell when it comes to hooks. How "One Love" isn't tearing up the radio stations, I don't know. In the past month or so since I bought this record I've listened to it almost every day, and it only gets better. It only cuts deeper. "Astoria" makes me smile, it makes me cry, it gives me shelter, it makes me a fighter. If ever there was a band that proved pop music as a genre exists beyond what's on the charts, it's Marianas Trench, and if there was any rock album in 2015 that lifted my heart to places I didn't think it could still reach, it was "Astoria."

"Don't remind me what the price is when left to my own devices
'Cause I'll find out in all due time what happens to never say die"
~Astoria
 

1) No Closer to Heaven - The Wonder Years

When "The Greatest Generation" came out in 2013, I couldn't help but think that this big-sounding, on-the-rise rock band from Philadelphia, my favorite active artist, had the makings of a voice of a generation. When "No Closer to Heaven" dropped this year, I knew that inkling was spot-on. Dan Campbell has turned his musings outward, and this record finds pondering the sick, sad world around us as much as his own place in it. The band followed its strengths with this record, and they've wound up with some of their best-ever songs, like "Cigarettes and Saints" and "Stained Glass Ceilings." This is not a record for the faint of heart, as it has its fair share of thrashing and screaming, as well as some disturbed imagery, from car crashes to drug overdoses to gun violence. But in this aggression is a ferocious heart, one that refuses to quit, colored by drum rhythms for days and dueling guitar solos. To me, this is the essential combination for punk rock - an American critique offered by the minstrels of its lower middle class, and loud-as-fuck playing. But there's something else that that phrase "punk rock" doesn't quite capture, and that's literary-level vocabulary, narrative-style scene setting and that particular brand of maturity that only comes from traveling to mental depths so low, and so dark, and surviving them. No one does it quite like The Wonder Years does, and no band ever will.

This god damn machine; hungry and heartless.
My whole generation got lost in the margin.
We put our faith in you. You turned a profit.
Now we’re drowning here under your waves.
~Cigarettes and Saints


Honorable mentions, for lack of enough listening to properly rank:
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit - Courtney Barnett
Vitals - MuteMath
Traveler - Chris Stapleton
All Your Favorite Bands - Dawes
Dealer - Foxing
1989 -Ryan Adams (listened a lot, but didn't feel quite right to rank. Best cover album of all time, tho, for sure.)

Past years:
2014
2013
2012
2011

11/23/15

 
"Been missing my roots
I'm getting rid of the flash
Nobody needs a thousand-dollar suit just to take out the trash
Ain't gotta be alone to feel lonely
I'm gonna turn off my phone, start catching up with the old me
It's high time
To slow my roll
Let the grass just grow and lean way back
It's a fine time
To let it it all go
I've been too low, so it's high time."
~High Time
Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material  

In what appears to be a few short years Kacey Musgraves has gone from a just-hatched country star to one of the most interesting female songwriters of this era -- in my estimation, at least. Her latest album "Pageant Material" is one that has steadily grown on me over the past few months - from a few cursory listens to singles that caught my ear, to listening through the album a few times through headphones. What I hear is not the standard country-girl songwriter that Musgraves, at firsts glance, appears to be, but rather a storyteller sharing her perspective of her upbringing, her opportunities, her growth, with as much honesty and wit as one can muster.

Like, she's legitimately funny, which is something that is so hard to do in lyrics. But in her blunt, quiet way, Musgraves shares a perspective that is patient as much as it is eyes-wide-open, and with that comes a sense of humor. Musically, these aren't exactly country radio primetime, in the way Maddie and Tae or Kelsey Ballerini have secured for the time being, but I think they're more elevated than that - there's quintessential lap steel, more than a few whistling and handclaps for a honky-tonk vibe, and some really beautiful falsetto moments. "Pageant Material" is a collection of songs that are all well-composed individually, but ones that stand together stronger. A chorus as tongue-in-cheek as "Biscuits" rings a little more true and honest followed by the serious wondering about self-doubt and self-love in "Somebody to Love."

The thoughtfulness behind a call to a life-well-lived "Die Fun" is dually noted, as is the occasional unfortunate truths that we feel about our loved ones outlined in "Family is Family." But what strikes me as most unusual, and unique, and worth celebrating about "Pageant Material" is how Musgraves chooses to focus on so many other topics rather than romance. Not that she can't write a love song - "Late to the Party" was instantly one of my favorite tracks - but she tackles so many other realms of thought and feeling, ones that speak to finding her place in the world as an adult and a woman and a person of many persuasians, rather than as simply a woman who is looking to love and be loved.

Once during a music class in high school, probably my junior year, a teacher asked us what most music was about. The answer, written on the white board in blue marker, was "Love." That's what sells records, Mrs.Hamilton told us. And she wasn't wrong, that's what pulls at our soul the most, those are the feelings with struggle with the most....but there is so much more to us than that, even as artists to explore. With "Good Ol' Boys Club" and the title track, Musgraves stakes her claim as an intelligent writer, an observant citizen of our modern age, and a damn wry lyricist.  But she also doesn't run from matters of love and companionship, rather, she puts them in context of a life as colorful, adventurous and open-minded as she frames herself to be.



"Let's put a little more in your glass
Walk around and spend all our cash
Just let me grab my poncho, I don't care where we go
If we speak the language you know we don't even have to come back
We can't do it over
They say it's now or never and all we're ever gettin' is older
Before we get to heaven, baby let's give 'em hell
We might as well
Cause we don't know when we're done
So let's love hard, live fast, die fun."
~Die Fun,
Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material 

5/30/13

I'm such a sucker for a good country song. Like seriously, and I don't care what that does to my pop-punk, rock-n-roll credibility. If it's not from the heart, it's not for these ears, and sometimes nothing's got more heart than a good country tune.

Enter Kacey Musgraves, who is winning over radio waves and critics and iTunes and girls like me, or however you measure music success these days. She's the one behind this beautiful song, "Merry Go' Round," this sad-town tale of the broken young girl. The first time I heard it, on a static-strewn radio station coming back from Lancaster, I knew I had to hear it again.

Get More: 

Merry Go 'Round (CMT Listen Up), Kacey Musgraves, Kacey Musgraves Videos

I could see why someone would put Musgraves in that slightly gimmicky category of a lot of other new female country singers, the kind who make no apologies for their cavalcade of redneck references and get them brandished on merch and tweeted by tweens. In most scenarios and songs, that's not my cup of tea. But with Musgraves, especially on "Merry Go' Round," I hear the sadness in her voice more than I hear any act. I can feel the dust on the roads and the chipped paint on the trailer siding, and I can't help but sing along to the quite brilliantly crafted chorus. Exploring the rest of her songs, I find them incredibly honest and far more introspective than you'd expect, and the references aren't there for decoration so much as they're reflecting her reality.

(Also: Kacey plays not just guitar but banjo, as I saw in this performance. And to the many who've picked up the four-stringed step-child of string instruments because of bands like Mumford and Sons, it was definitely a backwoods redneck country thing first, so reconcile that with progressive ways.)

"We think the first time's good enough.
So, we hold on to high school love.
Sayin' we won't end up like our parents.
Tiny little boxes in a row.
Ain't what you want, it's what you know.
Just happy in the shoes you're wearin'.
Same checks we're always cashin' to buy a little more distraction.

'Cause mama's hooked on Mary Kay.
Brother's hooked on Mary Jane.
Daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary.
We get bored, so, we get married.
Just like dust, we settle in this town.
On this broken merry go 'round and 'round and 'round we go
Where it stops nobody knows and it ain't slowin' down.
This merry go 'round."

~Merry Go' Round
Kacey Musgroves, Same Trailer, Different Park

UPDATE:  Sooooo I just learned Kacey co-wrote "Undermine," the song from the TV series "Nashville" that I was totally obsessed with and completely fell in love with...here is Kacey performing it. I like her even more now; again, honest, and introspective and cuts straight to the heart of the emotion. "Undermine" is a rather inspirational song that doesn't sacrifice hurt or humanity to show strength. Truly beautiful and fun to sing.



"Sometimes good intentions don't come across so well 
Got me analyzing everything that ain't worth thinking about 
Just 'cause I ain't lived through the same hand that was dealt to you 
Doesn't make me any less, or make any more of you

I wouldn't trade my best day 
So you could validate all your fears
And if I've only got one shot 
Won't waste it on a shadowbox, I'll stand right here

It's all talk, talk, talk, talkin' in the wind 
It always slows you down when you start listening
And it's a whole lot harder to shine 
Than undermine.

First mile is always harder
When you're leaving what you know
Won’t blame you if you stay here
Waving to me as I go
Always wished the best for you
Thought that you would see me through my wildest dreams
Yeah, the ones you thought I’d never meet

Still, you would trade your best day
Just to have your way
All these years
And if you only had one shot
Maybe all this talk
Would disappear

It's all talk, talk, talk, talkin' in the wind 
It always slows you down when you start listening
And it's a whole lot harder to shine 
Than undermine."
~Undermine
Kacey Musgraves, as performed in February 2013