Chris and Qualler's Top Songs Listulator

Top Songs of 2007 (#s 5-1)

2008-03-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

Every year I plan on dedicating myself more to keeping these countdowns on track and every year something keeps me from it. I've now gone more than a month since writing my penultimate post. Pat has pestered me many times and I honestly don't know how I was able to write about a total of 95 songs evenly throughout two months (which totally tricked me into thinking I'd achieve my goal this year) and now have had this month-long hiatus before I finally get to writing about these five last songs. The only reason I can muster up is insufficient at best - these five personal and beautiful songs have affected me so deeply this past year that I have no idea how to linguistically emote how I feel about them. But no more excuses, no more procrastinating - here goes nothing:

05 "Wake Up, It's the Nineties" The New Trust Dark is the Path Which Lies Before Us [Slowdance]

"I really don't care who knows!"

Apart from a nebulous and very general interest in politics and the never-changing political landscape of this country, I can't say I feel “passionate” about many issues. This mostly stems from deep-rooted apathy and a substantial lack of faith in people of power ever doing anything that's not in their best interest, or in the interest of the set of ideologies they believe they should have. One issue, however, that for whatever reason has always completely maddened me in this country that views itself as inviting to people of all backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, and beliefs, is its downright hatred for the GLBT community. A piece of me feels awkward about implying political leanings on an otherwise neutral forum, but I feel I need to be honest as it relates directly to the song at hand. How does the birthplace of revered heroes of equalization between peoples like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln still manage to find a new (not to mention already subjugated) demographic to spit on with such blatant disregard? Have we learned nothing from our past? I'm sure this could be said for many other problems with this nation, but this one cuts me so deep because it seems the most plainly obvious to me, with no other reason to perpetuate it other than illogical and nonsensical beliefs originating in no kind of reality. As I step off my soapbox, I would like to simply point to the hilarious title of this driving and unyielding yearning anthem, which expresses my (and so many others') sympathies on the subject way more intellectually and personally than I ever could. As the highlighted lyric implies, the only thing that can be done is to give the powers that be the equal amount of blatant disregard as they are giving those they persecute, and hope some day some figure is lifted up to denounce the political hatred that is plaguing this community, and respect is given in return – I will not be at ease until everyone joins in the uprising.

04 "The Song is the Single" BARR Summary [5RC]

“Everyone knows that rock and roll is the language of night / but this got made in the day.”

I began with a stream of consciousness and I have a feeling I will end with it. I kept hundreds of ramblings and poems that I would write during classes, study hall, during long nights at the box office at work, during sick days sitting upright in my water bed (that was awkward and comfortable at the same time). The pages sometimes fell out, I found them later, taped them back in the little black books that I covered with magazine cut-outs – pictures of bands and frames from movies snipped outta Entertainment Weeklys, a subscription I got for Christmas one year. I'd think about rock and roll and I'd think about Quentin Tarantino and I'd be influenced and I'd just simply be attracted by the aesthetic, lost in wonder without ever analyzing. But I learned that part later – when I was older, and off on my own. It was a terrible time where I was lonely, only connected to people through cords and digital messages. I heard drums and bass and keys in my dreams as I slept with my guitar nearby. I missed my band, I missed how it all fit together, even when I yelled at them one day and drove off (it was raining, how very Cusack is that?) and then I cried on the side of the road. You see, the tears and the rain were quite symbolically similar. I sucked it up because I loved them, because the sweat I excreted when I was with them derived from the words I wrote in those little clips-covered black books – I tried to sing them through an amp, but I was never loud enough. How can one be loud enough with a voice when you're left speechless by being with these three guys. These three guys who compelled me to write more and more bad stream of consciousness poetry and write more and more too simple and uninformed guitar parts. At least I thought they were such, because I never really knew what I was doing. Kind of like when I was writing in those little black books. Weird: usually people call little black books the things they write girls' phone numbers in. I'm glad I didn't have girls' phone numbers in high school, because that would meant less time with the band. I should have written about them more in those books. There were worth more time than any of my pseudo-crushes. BARR brings me back to the basics. There we go again with the poorly-worded trite stream of consciousness.

03 "A Paw in My Face" The Field From Here We Go Sublime [Kompakt]

Moment @ 2:39

Here's the last Qualler and Brigitte's wedding song. I feel kind of bad about making sure DJ Pushkar from Radio K brought the CD (it was the only one he had with him, otherwise the rest of the night's playlist was stored digitally), also because neither Qualler nor Brigitte had even heard The Field at that point and it was their freaking wedding, but it was totally worth it nevertheless. Sure when the soft instrumental minimalist dance number faded up during the night's dance, everyone looked confused except Pat and I. Sure as its repetitive loops circled around and around the speakers seemingly going nowhere to the untrained ear, more and more people left the dance floor. Luckily, I had been prepared. Armed with glow sticks in my tuxedo jacket pocket, I grooved toward the mass of acquaintances and friends that were still going strong, giving the song a chance, and I handed them out to the beat, one by one. Thanks to another good friend Amy, we already had an array of props (wacky hats, feather boas, wands, etc.) to complement the swirling glow sticks. I told Pushkar to pump it up, imagined everyone in slow motion underwater, and by the time that incomparable moment (as noted above) made the song come to its apex, I had officially reached complete and utter nirvana. I don't know if I had ever been more content with my life than I was when that moment came – I looked up at the ceiling, pivoting my feet and my heart to the point of synchronizing both with the Swedish DJ's kick drum pulses. Everything around me dissolved into blurs and fuzzy shadows, and I experienced eternity inside two of the most glorious minutes of my time on this Earth. There were invisible lights that catapulted my body through the art museum's ceiling, dispelled the gravity from our atmosphere, put me at one with both the stars and the ocean floor, and calmed my soul to the point of sitting just atop my skin – the interior and exterior of my being coexisting as one. The blanket of our universe folded over during those two minutes of ecstatic musical bliss and I became my infant self, my current self, and my future death all at once. There was no time or space; no work or stress; there was only love.

02 "Soil, Soil" Tegan & Sara The Con [Sire]

“And I won't take any other call.”

The best love songs are ones that communicate both the beaming positive aspects and quivering negative aspects of being in a relationship. It feels one-sided and empty to only pour one's heart out in a single denial-soaked direction. I am beyond lucky that I am in love and have been for a while now, and while I of course have reservations about professing it once again on this otherwise neutral forum, I feel I must for the sake of the song. This is where T&S hit me, and it does nobody any favors to sugar coat it, censor it, or edit it for the sake of keeping people from gagging in response to lovey-doveyness. Because this isn't your average lovey-doveyness. This is the cold hard truth of desperately loving another person. Let's get the obvious out of the way: Jessica, if you read this, my heart wobbles – almost explodes if it weren't for your love equalizing it – when I listen to this song by my lonesome and have your beautiful face lingering in my head. This is not where this song ends, however, regardless of its minute-and-37-seconds running time. There are tremendous amounts of touching love songs that I have put on mix CDs for you with only you in mind, but never has a song so truthfully expressed the rainbow of emotions we go through together, hand in hand, since the song we call ours (“Consequence” by The Notwist). From the months you spent away in Florida as I awaited your return in Minnesota, only having your voice on the phone and the letters you sent in the mail to grab hold of, to the nights we spend apart while you dedicate your life to helping women in need by learning law and volunteering at an outreach center, to the times we are able to spend together and miscommunicate to the point of yelling and pretending to ignore each other. All of those lonely and dark times we spend apart and together do us some vicious harm at the time. It feels like we're at the bottom, curled up on the floor with a wall between us, but when I remember the good times...when I remember your laugh or your energy...your confidence or your strength...or your warm tangible arms holding my face...all you need to say is “talk to me.” I come out from my wallowing, from my shut down mode, deleting the distance between us, and I say your name – because I know you're there waiting for me. And I will always be there waiting for you. Some day I hope we can dance together to this song in fancy clothes, with our friends all around us, and overcoming the delicate brokenness that invades our lives every day. Because it is from dirt that we come, and it will be dirt to which we return – I want to spend these days away from the soil only and everlastingly with you.

01 "All My Friends" LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver [DFA/Capitol]

“If I could see all my friends tonight.”

I can't imagine how terrible it looks to put another song above the one that I dedicate to Jessica. If I could give two songs the number 1 spot, I would. In the end, I felt this was most important to put at the top of the hundreds (possible thousands?) of 2007 songs that I listened to this year because my relationship with Jessica isn't just about love – it's also about undying and unequivocal friendship. Not only this, but my friends also play an integral part in my well-being and eternal happiness. For me, breaking up with a close friend (which usually just means growing apart for many) rivals breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend. I can't imagine ever letting go of the people I have bonded with since I considered myself mature enough to have a long-lasting friendship (for me, I think this was anyone that had a deep effect on me from 5^th grade onward). While never a crazed LCD fanatic by any means, this song so perfectly embodies everything that is going on between my close friends and I (as well as several other pre-adults I assume, as this song as landed at the top of so many year-end lists) that I really didn't mind that this year's #1 song didn't come from an artist I had already considered myself a huge fan of, as it usually has in the past. [Pause] As I take a break from writing this description to browse the lyrics of the song for a lyric to place atop this passage, an epiphany suddenly hits me so hard I almost feel the rest of my body magnetized to my heart. Having listened to this song dozens of times already, the instant I looked at the lyrics, I immediately remembered what had been the most important line for me. Every time this song's outro squeals to its dissipating halt and James Murphy coarsely screams it atop the agitating piano and skittering percussion, my body breaks down and at least one tear escapes my eye socket before I can regain composure. Whenever I think of them (and you should know who you are if you're reading this, plus there's way too many to list here, plus listing isn't what this is about – ironically enough), I so desperately want them to be near me that I violently curse the hundreds of miles of freeway the keep us apart for the majority of every year. One Saturday evening in particular that I had spent alone in a fit of “I want to be alone” brought me to a crying fit of temper tantrum proportions, as I realized I wanted to be anything but alone. I wished so much that I could have all of my friends in one place – their ridiculously hilarious jokes and irreverent carefree attitudes comforting me at that very moment before I descended into another night of depressing sleep. It's not just that we have a good time when we're together, it's that the innumerable amount of good times together (cue me wishing we had been keeping up with the 5,643 Stuffs list – or whatever the number was) have amassed a balloon of love and respect that we have for each other that we don't even need to express with words to each other. It just is – and it just stays that way, waiting for the next time we can be together again, like no time has passed at all. Maybe those were the day, or maybe those days just simply have to settle for being far and few between as we grow up, grow apart as adults, but stay together at heart – ensuring we keep piling on the good times when we can afford to book that plane ticket to fill up that gas tank. Oh but I said there was an epiphany somewhere in here – because all this is old news that I just needed to document. The epiphany is this – I haven't completed this list until now – and tonight I actually do get to see my friends. As I close up this computer after I press “Publish Post” I'll be on my way to Chicago to see two of my best friends in the whole world – and I have already dedicated a portion of my Spring Break to seeing three other really good friends of mine. This is fate – this is why unintended hiatuses happen sometimes. And I plan to make sure I see the rest of you sooner rather than later. I love you all – please stay just the way you've always been.

Top Songs of 2007 (#s 10-6)

2008-02-28T16:45:00.000-08:00

10 "Beyond the Dying Light" God is an Astronaut Far From Refuge [Revive]

Moment @ 1:18

The only instrumental post-rock song in the top ten and it's all the way at the bottom. Unusual for me, but I don't like to focus on the negative in this space. This song packs the most wallop out of all the great instrumental post-rock that I've listened to for nowlikephotographs in the past year, no contest. I may be repeating myself, but it might just be that my favorite kind of song (regardless of genre) is capable of conveying epic sadness and still be powerfully melodic and lively. This song fulfills those prerequisites without flinching. Every transition feels like I could crumble to the floor on my knees and acquiesce to the wonder of life just as easily as it inspires confidence and strength in me to leave my proverbial stoop and face the day - and destroy it mercilessly. Not only this, but every sound is meticulously crafted and melded together exquisitely - it's very otherworldly and spacey (hence the band's apt nomenclature) but still organic, as if a song could live, breathe, and dominate aside its human creators. Keys wobble ferociously through precisely e-bowed guitars and crisp percussion as it walks through a simplistic journey that's been told before, but never with this much sheer volume and intensity. And yet, as mentioned, it's all controlled elegantly by this unknown outside force, making it equal parts fictionally cinematic and based in reality.

09 "Is There a Ghost" Band of Horses Cease to Begin [Sub Pop]

"I could sleep."

This might be as big as minimalism gets. I remember the first time I heard Idlewild's 100 Broken Windows and thought, "Hey, he's just singing the same lyric over and over." The more I listened, the harder it me..."Hey, he's singing the same lyric over and over!" The more I heard it, the more I understood it. Language is great and everything, but as my instrumental inclinations might indicate, almost always the trite (your fault, language!) phrase "less is more" rings true. As every inch of this song unfolds, not much changes and nothing terribly complicated arises to twist the song around surprisingly, but this is what is so affecting. Loneliness (or the fear of never being truly alone) is never an intricate series of connections and deep realizations. It simply is. Constant worry. Dread. Focusing on one aspect of life and never letting yourself let go. It gets louder, it gets deeper, it gets said a million times - in your head, on paper, on a voicemail message. But never ever does it go away. Until you cut yourself off. This is the only way the haunting dissipates. While you may never be alone with your loneliness, you can get yourself together with silence, ending, stop. It's not a conclusion, but it's a chance to breathe. Now sleep. If you can.

08 "Muscle'n Flo" Menomena Friend and Foe [Barsuk]

"Well I'm not young / but I'm not through."

It's impossible to even start writing about this song while listening to it. I can't stop closing my eyes and belting out the me vs. the world lyrics so loud that my neighbors might start complaining. Seriously, google the lyrics, sing out for four minutes with brazen confidence and you'll feel ready to take on anything or anyone afterward, including (but not limited to) the universe. What's even better is that this song is cemented proof that Menomena are the masters of stopping and starting instrumentation for the maximum possible effect (both emotionally and aurally). The doubly-layered drums hiccup through the right and left channels, then the frenetic bass hops around uncontrollably, then the cautious slide guitar slinks in for a brief spotlight, followed graciously by a chirping piano tickle, and finally joined all together by the crunchiest guitar that ever still sounded pretty and masterful in it sloppiness. But wait, what's this? An entirely new set-up of hymnal organ and sexy baritone sax! Praising and getting horny have never gone together so well before. The return of the off-kilter percussion and sparkling piano only sound more welcoming the second time, along with the march-of-thousands final chorus bringing back the firm but sporadic guitar. Never has a song been so easy and fun to dissect instrument by instrument and also served as a perfect escapist shout-along.

07 "Mapped By What Surrounded Them" The Twilight Sad Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters [FatCat]

"She's cut herself with stained-glass window."

An abstract and emblematic horror story in song. It's about time. Frightening imagery is usually something left to the metalheads and industrial kids, so I'm glad I don't have to give up beautiful sounds to hear disturbing stories of blood and ghosts in my music anymore. If I could choose a guitar loop to soundtrack my funeral right now it would probably the one present at this song's opening. It replays like a reliable shoulder to cry on underneath the blended loud ambience and pummeling drums, and every few measures you can grab an aural glimpse of it, and it's so satisfying every time you do. Perhaps even more satisfying, however, is latching onto the buried and shaken narrative that singer James Graham lets exude out of him reluctantly but powerfully. A mysterious past lies within a house where the spirit of a young girl (and the memory of her death) pervades the life of our narrator until his world falls down around him, as does the instrumentation. Suddenly he's escaped the violence that came with the distortion, he's back in the primrose garden, walking around in circles - yes, but attached to a feeling in his past he will never let go until he gets her back. When he calls out to watch Emily dance just one more time, a voice is sunken below trying to convince him he's already gotten the only joys he ever will have of her. His only choice is to let the static envelop him as he dies fighting for that which he will never have. As we all do, just a little bit, every time we cry at a nostalgic picture from long ago.

06 "Deserter" Matthew Dear Asa Breed [Ghostly International]

"Just keep on searching / And I'll be uncertain"

The only low-key sleeper of this stallion group of five. And of course it's closest to the top. This song is so intimate that I almost feel like it shouldn't ever ever be in the "Dance" section at any record store. It felt dirty and deeply wrong when I found it that way a few months ago. This is electronic music for you and you alone. Not a room full of people having fun. Not to say it's depressing. It's actually remarkably positive for a song about losing track of your life. It has this warm and bubbly air about it, full of blips that inject your heart rather than your ears, that is infective beyond reproach. More so than this, however, is the steady rhythm section that puts me in a motionless trance (much emphasis goes to the word "motionless") almost immediately when this song begins. It's so relaxing and calming that while other songs on this list I've praised for lifting me up out of my body, this song brings me down so low to the ground that my entire presence is located around my ankles and the floor. I feel so tiny and minuscule, but in a completely satisfying way. When I feel this small and insignificant, I feel most at peace with myself, my life, and my surroundings. I've taken beatings through the blaring noise of life for so many years that I just want to appreciate the view and leave the answers for later, because where they will always be - in the future.

Next week: the final five.

Top Songs of 2007 (#s 15-11)

2008-02-21T17:39:00.000-08:00

15 "Pull Shapes" The Pipettes We Are the Pipettes [Interscope]

"There's a whole floor before us, just for you and me."

It's starting to be a trend. Every year there's a song that reminds me of one of my bestest friends, Patrick Arthur. He's the only one who comments on these posts, so it makes sense that he's the only friend that gets "his own song" on the countdown. But "Pull Shapes" is not just a reminder of him, I literally cannot think of anything other than how much I unabashedly love this man when I hear this song. And it's not even his favorite Pipettes song! And while this whole album may not be one of my favorites of 2007, most certainly my favorite music discussion of the year was between Pat and I as we went through this record track by track, rating each song, entering into a discourse regarding each melody, each Pipette (regarding both their hotness levels and vocal presence in the group, okay so mostly hotness levels), etc. But it all comes back to this song, because of our constant "Pull Shapes" vs. "Your Kisses are Wasted on Me" debates, plus I was the one who got the DJ at Qualler's wedding to download this song so he could play it and Pat and I danced our hearts out together as it blasted through the speakers, playing air violin during the outro freakout and ending the song with a giant hug. Damn, P. Arty, you got me all bleary-eyed.

14 "Falling Slowly" Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova Once: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Columbia]

"We've still got time."

So Pat gets a song, and now so do the movies. Jessica will get her song later in the countdown to prove my heterosexuality (as one must in this day and age when confessing a deep but platonic bromance of any magnitude). But first, 2007's greatest movie and most definitely my favorite musical of all time jumps up to #14 on the list, the highest a soundtrack song has made it since 2003's "Phone Call" by Jon Brion, from the Eternal Sunshine... soundtrack, which was my #1 song that year. I've always gotta have that song from a film that makes me sink into my seat in the theater, feel affectation take over in digital surround sound, and just totally lose myself into a puddle of a gooey despair/joy mixture, and many songs from Once did this for me, but predictably the track that brings the two romantic leads together is the one that hit me the hardest. But it's not just that it's when the two finally "connect" in the film, it's that they're connecting because of the music! It's so insanely beautiful that finally a musical has not only used its music in a very literal and neo-realist (read: NOT Hollywood) manner, but that the lyrics to said song have nothing to do with what's going on in the moment. They are vague and mysterious, leading us to what may happen down the line, but what's more important is the priceless melody that is keeping them together in that music shop, singing and loving the act of playing together.

13 "Rugla" Amiina Kurr [Ever]

Moment @ 2:28

There's a reason that these women are Sigur Ros's backing band. They practice restraint when Sigur Ros cannot. They exemplify playfulness when Sigur Ros cannot. They somehow strike the perfect balance between restfulness and crowdedness. This may sound crazy, but have you ever felt your sense of self float out of your body? Kind of like a spiritual experience, but more mental or psychological? I'm well aware no part of my essence actually removed itself from my skin and bones when I saw this song performed live in the austere environment of a still Varsity Theater, but I swear that I felt the world's gravity disseminate from my mind, allowing muscles to relax I never knew I had. The inner workings of this song's clean electric guitar, shiny keyboard, and tension building string section all folded into each other, creating a dense weaving of fibers that dug their way into my stress-filled head, collided with my brain tissue, and ever so gently pulled (much like a filter through a pool drain) through my being and the end result was a sense of clarity undefinable by the English language. As the Icelandic murmurs and quivering saw lead me through the song's final act, I had never felt so removed from the cage that is the human body before in my life. It was more transcendent, it was the beginning of a new life right before my ears.

12 "Lump Sum" Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago [Self-Released]

"We will see when it gets warm."

Turns out ghosts do make music. There's few songs where I can still honestly hear for the first time and say they had something in their sonic palette that I had never heard before. "Lump Sum" is one of only two songs I heard for the first time in 2007 (the other song is in the top 5 of this countdown, stay tuned) where I seriously sat back, took a deep breath, and thought to myself, "what in bloody hell is that?" The man doesn't just layer his soft acoustic drama-wrought anti-ballads, he slices slabs of crusted ice and melted souls through one another until they create a patterned yet chaotic collage of a semblance of undead music. The more noticeable half of this song is a driving, tapping, and brushing percussion topped with a start-and-stop suspenseful acoustic wrangling - this is the part where the human runs away for his life in an out-of-focus, color-drained shot on a hand-held camera. The other half of this song glides and cuts through the aforementioned portion with blood-red eyes and a frosty sheen, sterile ambience piled upon feral forest noises, slowly encapsulating the human without him/her ever knowing that it was gaining on them. Listened to loud enough, it becomes both frightening and deathly powerful - leaving us in a shocked and sullen state all at once, feeling left alone in the snow - whether it was an outside force or ourselves that put us there we may never know.

11 "Oh Be One" Oh No! Oh My! Between the Devil and the Sea [Dim Mak]

"Yes, you are my only hope."

No, I am not nor have I ever been "obsessed" with Star Wars. This does not change the fact that I did cuddle up under the blankets of a fort when I was little and watch the first A New Hope at least a couple times, feeling the pain of Luke - so forced into all that ruckus so fast and with so many expectations. All he wanted was his Uncle Ben to help guide him through this painful process of becoming himself, and he couldn't even have that. Sure, it turned out to be for the better in the long run, but oh how I could feel for that kind of suffering of lacking the hope when hope was the only thing that could keep you going, especially as a child. The cherubic smallness of this song reverts me back to a time when I couldn't reach the counter, when I couldn't fathom pain enough to talk through my problems (only throw a temper until I felt better), when I couldn't do much of anything but strive to develop. It's remarkably unsettling how vividly these feelings come back as I enter adulthood, thrown away from being the educated and now into being the educator, tossed aside from my family base in Midwest as they set up new roots on the East Coast - as if now it's my turn to set up roots on my own. Where is my only hope? Sometimes it feels like it's not there, but I can only repeat the refrain, calling for my Obi Wan: "you're my only hope." Luckily, on the right days, along with the right people, my Obi Wan does answer and gets me through many a sleepless night full of wonder and unknown.

Next week: #s 10-6 of the Top 50 Songs of 2007.

Top 50 Songs of 2007 (#s 20-16)

2008-02-14T17:08:00.000-08:00

20 "Apartment Story" The National Boxer [Beggars Banquet]

"I'm getting tired / I'm forgetting why"

The whitest band you know. Upon first listen, this sounds like the definition of music for cubicle weary suburban white people. It's sad, but not too sad. Interesting, but not too interesting. But just as your everyman, who from an outside perspective seems like they have a comfortably boring life, needs to inject some adrenaline and spontaneity into his/her life, they also need to crawl deep inside something familiar from time to time. This song defines that feeling to me. The stress that consumes me and separates me from the realization that I have it better than so many other people stays real and absurd when I listen to this song. The mumbling middle class ruins everything for themselves, waiting for it only to get ruined further, but it never does. We follow mindlessly rushing away our lives, until we feel our hearts burst into our throats in the final chorus and we finally get it kicked into our head violently (and how necessary that modifier is) to make us slow down, calm down, and stay inside for one more moment of clarity. Then we better the face the real day, without perfectly produced melodies and guitar apexes.

19 "Smother + Evil = Hurt" The Kissaway Trail The Kissaway Trail [Bella Union]

"A thought less is a thought more needed."

I imagine our protagonist regaining consciousness on a boardwalk, a cut on his upper lip. He wipes the salty sleep from his tired eyes, shakes the past from his weathered hair, and rises triumphantly. In his peripheral, a boy's golden balloon slips from its owner's frail hands, and like the clouds capture the latex sphere, our protagonist is magnetically pushed toward the sea, which is still tame in the morning light. Just as his feet splash into the water and it looks as if he's about to let the ocean envelop him and take him away, he cuts a 90-degree angle and marches through the beach front, the camera turning with our protagonist, revealing a chorus of angels walking in unison with him, determined and hopeful. We can only see profiles, as if they have been beaten down to halves of once whole beings, divine or otherwise. As the stroll gets longer, our protagonist and the angels become more awake, seemingly gathering energy from their endeavor, never exhausting themselves. Our protagonist stops, sees something we cannot. He falls to his knees. The angels surround him, closing in him more with each note surpassing the group overhead. Our protagonist struggles with what will surely be his final decision in his life, but we know not what this decision is. Tears well up in his face, the angels dissemble in even flow, and he might never know if what he did was indeed the right thing. We never do.

18 "Leyendecker" Battles Mirrored [Warp]

Moment @ 0:42

I like this record. I don't love it. It's fun to listen to and will mess with your head in the best way experimental melodic music can, but it never reaches down deep into your head or heart. It's more concerned with robotics than humanity, and I can't even fully support that. This track, however, was lifted into the light for me to see courtesy of a rap remix that I don't particularly like, but at least it brought Battles into a human tint for me. Ortiz raps on top of the creepy snaking guitar and awkward beat, "I don't know what you call this, hip hop, rock, I just know it feel good...and it's New York." I've only been to NYC once (a year ago), but I couldn't agree more. And it's not just that the place is awkward, creepy and snaking, and I am constantly worried about what's coming up next when I'm there, suffocated, and belittled by architecture. No, I also feel a profound appreciation for the behemoth city when I'm there - something that I know only become strengthened when you reside there, as a few of my close friends can attest to. It slides under your skin, becomes a part of you and your identity, it's unlike anything else ever created by man, to the point where you wonder if the city is living on its own, ready to attack or be your guiding light depending on its mood, your mood, and your neighbor's mood on any given day. It's surreal and still connected to me like living tissue.

17 "Sad Song" Au Revoir Simone The Bird of Music [Our Secret]

"I want to remember the places that we left."

I hate it when unassuming songs with just a tinge of distinct personality ultimately come out flat and uninspired. With just a few tweaks on the melody, that's what could have happened with this song. And that's what makes it that much more powerful. It crawls into your ears with a beautiful set of layered keyboards and lilting multi-girl vocals, just soothing enough to calm you down, but as it approaches the chorus, it melts your torso into oblivion, reminding you of the power of suppression versus melodrama. There's nothing chaotic or exorbitant about this song, it's just pinched and perfected enough to make for the best song you could forget about so easily if you don't a) listen to the lyrics, b) watch the accompanying music video - link above, or c) listen on headphones absurdly loud. Plus you better catch those synthesized horns at the end, or David Lynch (the band's supposed #1 fan) will never dance with you. You know you want to hear a sad song, because we're all alone at various points in our lives, leaving only our memories to work in filling our minds. This song makes sure you can do that and still have a solitaire rock out party. Get your sad on.

16 "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" Okkervil River The Stage Names [Jagjaguwar]

"She glows just like grain on the flickering pane of some great movie."

Okay, so I'm taking that quote out of context. He's talking about how there's no scene like that in the epic non-movie that is our life. But it's just my personal favorite of a ridiculous number of exquisitely crafted cinematic couplets. This is without a doubt the best lyrically written song of the year, with depressed passion, inescapable romanticism, desperate longing, and all at the cost of compulsively shredding vocal chords along the way. It's a harsh realization, waking up and realizing the lack of filmic qualities in our day-to-day anti-conflicts, fake resolutions, and bitter and regret-filled character developments. This isn't exactly the subtle understatement that is usually lauded for its simplicity and not needing hordes of attention called upon it, but it's the sound of a band not softly or silently walking away from or into a life they begrudgingly accept. No, this is the sound of hostile takeover by a crowd of youthful mavericks, refusing to see the light of day be extinguished by placidity. There must be a fight for that which does not exist. If we don't make a sound, how will we ever be heard? It's not about change, it's about calling out for it, even at the dimmest possibility of insurrection and climactic glory.

Next week: #s 15-11.

Top 50 Songs of 2007 (#s 30-21)

2008-02-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

30 "Snake Mistakes" Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings [Carpark]

"My dad is so cool / he is the coolest dad in dad school."

I, like so many others, have been interminably smitten by Deacon ever since I heard his twisted synthesizer and saw a photo of his wicked Fred Flintstone t-shirt. However, I did not know how unforgettable he would turn out to be until during his performance of this song the first time I saw him live, he screwed the song up halfway through, scolded himself for not knowing how to use his iPod shuffle correctly, and said "I'm not going to let this ruin it." He immediately got his sound back together, and the entire crowd was forgiving as hell - joining his exclamation and proclamation of never-ending fun, and partied even harder when the song came back together. I know it should be expected that musicians should not let slight screw-ups phase them on stage, but as you might know, Deacon refuses to use a stage on tour. His being down with a bunch of sweaty kids wearing bright clothing, screwing up at our level, let everyone coalesce so beautifully that I felt so much togetherness in the moment his crazy music flew back in my face and I started dancing my heart out all over again. See this man live and smile for the rest of your life.

29 "March Against the Savages" Lights Out Asia Tanks and Recognizers [N5MD]

"Save her."

Probably the only song on the countdown that was nowhere close to my radar for best songs of the year, but I kept listening to the album it was on over and over again, thinking "when am I going to fall in love with a song on here?" This band is responsible for my #1 song of 2003, which was also basically the reason I fell in love with instrumental music in the first place. Almost all of the songs on their new one has vocals, but I loved the singer's sparse placement and soaring quality, so that wasn't a problem. It was a beautiful and pleasant-sounding record, but no one track leaped out at me...until I stopped my car in the driveway one brisk fall afternoon and paid attention to this track's bassline, which doesn't even come in until the midway point. For an oeuvre that is so full of desolation and infinite black holes, the plucky uplifting bass part turns everything around just in time for the most gut-wrenching climax of a song whose rising action seems all pretty fluff for so long. Wait for it, the payoff is so worth it.

28 "Los Federales" Signal Hill EP [Self-Released]

Moment @ 0:56

Another unique situation for a song to get on the countdown: I made a random mix CD of instrumental tunes in the spring just to keep in my car for "mood music," i.e. a CD of language-less music to put in to calm myself down on overly stressful days. This song would always catch my ear whenever it came on, but I could never for the life of me place who it was by. But I never remembered when I got home to check my iTunes playlist to see who it was by or what it was called, for whatever reason. So I just kept hearing these perfect mid-tempo guitar ballets on days I wanted to escape the world into a void, and the balance of the shimmering, the neglected, and the embarrassed danced through my ears like flawless melodies across an open field of reckless abandon, and I always felt so completely at peace when the four-and-a-half minutes were up. But it took me forever to find out it was this little DIY California band, so understated they could go unnoticed by the whole world, and it seems like they'd be just fine with it, by the calm yet sad sounds of their instruments.

27 "Headup" Apparat Walls [Shitkatapult]

"I'm feeling better now."

The nectar of this song is bookended by such quietness that it really demands your full attention in order to grasp its brief and transcendent journey. One small distraction and that breathy ambient scream will come out of nowhere and you'll ask yourself, "why haven't I been listening more closely?" The trepidation of the piano and solemn jerkiness of the sequencer lead into an orgy of headphone-ear fornication as guest vocalist Raz gets buried in a whirlwind of candy-coated dust and static rattling off the attempts to escape a world of put downs and leave behinds. It becomes so filled with presence you begin to wonder what happened to that ignorable skittering beat and smooth croon at the beginning of the song. If there ever were to be an award for a song that metaphorically went from 0 to 60 in the quickest amount of time, it would definitely go to Mr. Apparat and his deftly honed skills that make sadtronica become more than a silly made-up genre by some kid who makes a long list of his favorite songs ever year.

26 "Little Bit of You in Everything" The Rentals The Last Little Life EP [Boompa]

"There's a little bit of you I keep with me."

People sure do complain a lot when a beloved musician starts making music they don't like anymore. So much so that I think it's often overshadowed when a beloved musician goes away, then comes back with material that was just as strong as "their old stuff." Matt Sharp didn't get the hype he deserved when he and his rented brethren returned this year with newly recorded songs full of the same clever Moog and heavenly female back-up vocals that made them an honorable Weezer offshoot in the mid-90s, but still with a distinct newly found direction - acceptance and smoothness in replace of resentment and business. It's so simple and comforting in fact, that it feels like (and this is so rare that when it happens, it's beyond rewarding) I've actually grown in step with a musician I've so deeply respected for numerous years. Matt was the goofy kid in 96, the depressed kid in 01, and now he's the mature and optimistic kid in 07. Let's keep this up, Matt, I'm with you all the way.

25 "Beautiful Life" Gui Boratto Chromophobia [Kompakt]

"It's a beautiful life."

It's never good when the first thing you read about a song before you even listen to it is that it will change your life. Woops, sorry if you haven't listened to this one yet. But at least I will expound upon the statement for you, unlike the unmentionable blogger who did the same to me. You see, I saw and heard the generic phrase "beautiful life" over and over again when reading about this supposedly revelatory track as I was listening to it for the first time. It lost meaning and relevance almost immediately and I never gave it another thought. Decent song with a bright and unique keyboard effect, but could have done without the Benigni-esque naivety or blindness. Then one day, of course grumpy and sick of the world, I go looking in my iTunes for a benign but long song to lull me into a much-desired after-work nap, and I find this. I actually remember verbally challenging this Brazilian to cheer me up with his circular vision of absolute completion of mind and body before I pressed play and closed my eyes. Turns out, when you're so angry that you put the music on too loud and try to sleep with sun still pouring through the slits of your blinds, Boratto's unadulterated and unfiltered take on life will turn you around quicker than any pep talk or motivational book ever could.

24 "Control" Kid Sister Control EP [Fool's Gold]

"Turn / Stop / No / Control."

I am usually a sucker for angsty girls spouting poppy rhymes over twisted production for approximately one month after I hear each for the first time (M.I.A., Lady Sovereign come to mind quickly), then I get tired of the shtick quick. That is of course until I heard this track by Kid Sister. She seems to be the only one putting the music in front of the issues or the reputation. Somehow I can imagine her actually putting her entire self into this song, tweaking every piece of delivery until it becomes a full-fledged masterful piece of hip-pop. The guy-girl exchange that sits atop the hand clap chorus flows in and out effortlessly, the squeaks and twists of her verses are molded with the utmost, err, control, and the airy bridge completes another summer song that could be put on repeat forever and I could never get sick of it. That's saying a lot for a list that lacks rhymes and turntables in over 95% of its contents.

23 "City of Echoes" Pelican City of Echoes [Hydra Head]

Moment @ 0:59

Regardless of totally not hardcore it is according the legions of people who have disassociated themselves with the Chicago instru-metal outfit over the year may claim, Pelican still balance the heavenly and the hellish better than anyone else. Unfortunately, I don't listen to music like it's an X-treme sport, so I cannot sympathize with this rabid group of black-clad darkness enthusiasts, so I'm one of the wusses left to enjoy Pelican in my argyle sweater in my semi-suburban condominium. Oh well. I am proud to say I can live with that outcome, because this song may just say everything perfectly about the balance between light and dark (us fans of all things medium might call it "gray") that good vs. evil stories have been trying to say with words for centuries. The journey from purity and innocence into a realm of unquestionable diabolism glides with such ease that when the pounding bass drum and rabid devil-worshiping distortion kick into high gear, it becomes a pleasure rather than an assault. Before you know it, you're realizing just how close opposites are to each other, as if they were born from the same womb.

22 "Ice Cream" Muscles Guns Babes Lemonade [Modular]

"I don't know how to react or if I should fight back."

How can one be so passionate about such a dumb topic? Don't get me wrong, I love ice cream as much as the next sane person, but I could never finagle enough brazen strength and courage to dedicate an entire song (and an anthemic and totally serious one at that!) to the food, much less anything edible. It seems wrong in so many ways, but this Australian manages to make it sound equally hokey and completely and effectively sincere in an almost completely synthesized song. It sounds like it should be a joke, but I swear it's not! From the apathetic breathing exercise that introduces and interrupts the song to the Ace of Base sirens in the chorus, you hear these gimmicks and want to dismiss them, but you can't, because he's constructed such a perfect way to express the notion of "screw the world I'm going to do what I want and what I want is ICE CREAM," that you cannot do anything but shout at the man along with him. It's mind-boggling.

21 "The Evil That Never Arrived" Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline [Kranky]

Moment @ 0:55

I'll be the first to admit that ambient music isn't for everyone, and this is about as ambient as it gets on the list. There's seemingly nothing going on here except pretty yet menacing flourishes of computerized strings and synths, but the best part about the legendary Texan duo is their use of silence. I know how ridiculous that sounds, but if you seriously take a moment to take in this song with no other outside influences and you pay attention to the moments in this song where there is no sound, all of a sudden the sound that surrounds the silence becomes suspenseful. It becomes enchanting. It becomes otherworldly. It sucks you in and finally every other time you may have heard the word "minimal" and brushed it aside, you might just now rethink everything. This is what happens when we are left with close to nothing - we adapt and train ourselves how to enjoy the little that is there. Brian Eno, possibly the most famous ambient artist ever, said that ambient music has to be as engaging as it is ignorable - to do this is to fully realize and hear sound again for the first time, by stripping it away and starting again from square one.

Next week: #s 20-16.

Top 50 Songs of 2007 (#s 40-31)

2008-01-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

40 "Can I Get Get Get" Junior Senior Hey Hey My My Yo Yo [Rykodisc]

"I'm busy bee but I'm taking it easy."

I never thought a second Junior Senior album would hold up. I was skeptical to hear their new single after having the record finally released in the states after much delay, but they are just too sincere and genuine in making joyous pop music to pass up. Usually I let people have their opinions when it comes to sugary dance-pop (because I can often sympathize with the disgust), but if you can go through listening this whole song without smiling and/or bopping your head along, you might as well die now, because life has nothing to offer your kind. The scary thing is, there's no hyperbole there. That's how much I believe in this song. In fact, it's the epitome of the kind of song that is perfect for a wedding (Qualler and Brigitte's wedding to be exact), where you can hear it, jump out on the floor, forget all ambition, and just pump those cabbage patch arms like there's no tomorrow. Cuz there's not, there's only now.

39 "Confusing Possibilities" Six Parts Seven Casually Smashed to Pieces [Suicide Squeeze]

Moment @ 4:57

Ah the band that wrote the song Joe and I named our instrumental radio show after. They are still consistently writing the most relaxing instrumental guitar music on this blue world. Not only this, but if you let yourself get engaged by the charming melodies, they become characters playing in a scene together. In a moment of pause, the skittish pizzicato scurries away into the corner as the bully horns' shadows grow more ominous, the droopy slide mopes in the background, and the flighty harmonics finally overtake the youngsters with a boost of distorted bass to close out our story. There's so much going on in this modest yet epic tale, but it never clouds up the mind, always allowing for breathing room. Shut your eyes on a bright afternoon and listen to this song - surely a beautiful movie will project on the back of your eyelids.

38 "23" Blonde Redhead 23 [4AD]

"All things we love will die."

I fell in love with this song when I saw the stately trio play it live on Conan. Of course you will not be able to find this online, but if you ever see a Conan rerun with Blonde Redhead playing, watch it. When the drummer started programming Kazu's vocals and suddenly there were a sheet of "na-na-na"s buried into a wall of shoegaze entanglements as the frantic drumbeat spiraled out of control and there were still only three people on my TV screen, I practically lost my marbles. The mysticism, the detached anger, the existentialism, and the beleaguered acceptance all implode into a warped energy unheard of to these ears. Seeing and hearing but not believing while being unable to fall asleep at 12:35 in the morning on a weekday, I felt strangely okay and twitchy all at once. Definitely unforgettable.

37 "Backed Out on the..." Kevin Drew Spirit If... [Arts & Crafts]

"Everyone can write this song / they can't write you and me."

Did the subject of this song back out on the cause...or...did he/she back out on the cocks? This seems to be the topic of debate surrounding the lyrics of this song, and it's brilliant. It's two songs in one! Either it's a great proletarian Screw You song, demanding respect, loyalty, and passion amongst the people or it's a fantastic choral refuting of the male masculine identity in our society. Doesn't really matter, because there's one thing that this song obviously is - a party song. Once again, I didn't realize the genius of this song until I saw its corresponding video (linked above) and saw how much the guys from Broken Social Scene were having fun with Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis and a bunch of other crazies just by rocking out. And this is some rocking out that defies categorization - if you love guitar solos, it's for you. If you hate guitar solos, Mascis is the man to change your mind about it. And if you love loudness, this is for you, and if you loathe loudness, this is one song that makes you want to shout with glee "YOU CANNOT WRITE ME!"

36 "Tournament of Hearts" The Weakerthans Reunion Tour [Epitaph]

"Why can't I ever stop where I want to stay?"

Nasally singing can get to me, and yet I could listen to John K. Sampson's wheeze away for the rest of time and enjoy every second of it. It's because his whine is exploding with a tremendous kind of hope - one that is full of despair and yet still infinitely caring for every human being on the planet. It's not a one man guilt show with The Weakerthans, it's about finding the power in feeling down. This is probably way more emo than a little rant on a pop-rock song should be, but the fact is that this song is not only another perfect gem in the catalog of a near-perfect band, but it's the homonym of "right off" and "write off" followed by a heart-pounding "no never never ever ever" every time. It brings me back into a state of patience and allowing life flow into me like it's only just begun. This is how much a song can save my life.

35 "It's O.K." Howard Hello Howard Hello & Greenness [Sickroom]

"It's all right / I'll go / tonight will be no more."

Ever since my obsession with instrumental music began, I've become even more engrossed by instrumental songs that just happen to have lyrics. This sounds ridiculous, I'm well aware, but hear me out. Instrumental songs exist to exude a progression of feeling, a tone, a unique orchestrated set of abstractions while songs with lyrics try to say something to the listener. So when a song with lyrics tries to do what most instrumental songs succeed at without trying to directly tell a story, bring a message, or even a set of symbols, it's breathtakingly refreshing. All you feel when you listen to this song is both a tone and a story: rejection (the blow to the head intro), followed by frantic self doubt (the overlapping voices and off-kilter wandering), finally resulting in nervous acceptance followed by a deep breath (rising blissful instrumentation).

34 "Part 1 (Movement 4)" The Bird Ensemble Migration [Self-Released]

Moment @ 4:25

Speaking of non-instrumental instrumental bands, The Appleseed Cast surely would rank up there if they didn't so explicitly tell stories/produce linguistic images in their lyrics. And here we finally have the instrumental Appleseed Cast in The Bird Ensemble. Guitars that sparkle beyond eternity in earnest, yelping layers. Crashing drums that could be at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and still be heard like the marching in of angels on Earth. It's cacophonous and heavenly at the same time, and it swells with such confidence and shine that it feels like it literally is a sound from up above, except distilled through a DIY band in a Tennessee basement with only average recording equipment. And yet, it's almost better that way, because it feels like gods interacting with the common man, becoming sprightly rather than overly dramatic, cherubic rather than mighty.

33 "Summersend" Misha Teardrop Sweetheart [Tomlab]

"When you love someone / you wait for them too."

I am just now realizing that it might not be about sending love to someone on a summer's day from far away, but the more likely interpretation of the compounded title is the end of a summer's romance. So many double meanings in the countdown! The summer romance angle might seem played out, but this delightful bubbly tune knows how to tweak it just right: in one version of the story in my head, a boy is waiting for his girl while counting dandelions in the grass as the sun beats down on his back, giving her the benefit of the doubt that she's actually coming and this absence isn't the beginning of the end. In another, they are separating ways on the last day of the summer, planning to wait for each other, but they've already started missing each other, and thus have already started the waiting process. Is this the end or has the end already begun? If they never get together, at least they will have known they waited, and thus, they have truly loved. The shy vocals overcoming their tininess is only the icing on the cake.

32 "Woozy With Cider" James Yorkston The Year of the Leopard [Domino]

"And I'll be happy because we won't be taking anything too seriously."

This is the problem with the word "pretentious." Someone hears a Scottish guy mumbles over a melodica and a dramatic keyboard lilt without actually listening and suddenly they're a poster child for melodrama. As if people couldn't be deathly serious and still have a light attitude toward life. I think that the people that truly do "serious" music the best are most comfortable with the silliness of life. It's the people that find too much comedy and absurdity in life that have anxiety and depression issues. They're the ones that are consistently uncomfortable in their own skin. When you get get relaxed, stay relaxed, and appreciate the unsteadiness of life, and communicate it artfully or overtly when you're over thinking on a rainy day, then you've achieved nirvana. Yorkston did with a couple electronic loops and a stream of consciousness of images and memories and conversations with loved one - it just takes a little time and open-mindedness to let go and still stay real.

31 "I Am John" Loney, Dear Loney, Noir [Sub Pop]

"Got a heart full of plans but nowhere to run."

And here we go with the first song on the countdown that has made me cry. I could have sworn there was a song before this one, but here we are all the way at #31 and no tears. Amazing, considering how I used to be called "Captain Emo" an inappropriate amount of times...in public. Nevertheless, the first time I listened to this song on headphones and heard the sobbing snare drum and childlike xylophone/clarinet duet getting louder and louder, I started feeling (sigh) emotion build up inside me like no one's business. Then when he goes into that piercing falsetto at about 2:14, my jaw trembles, my heart opens up, and puppies and flowers burst out of it onto the floor, flooded with eye juice pouring out of my sockets. I feel like my metaphorical clothes are shedding, leaving me metaphorically naked on a dirty city street at sunrise, left completely vulnerable and surprised that the damn song ends so damn early. "Someone fix me," I scream, and there's no one there but Johnny, and I'm there for him.

Next week: we continue with #s 30-21.

The Top 50 Songs of 2007 (#s 50-41)

2008-01-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

50 "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger" Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? [Polyvinyl]

"My mind rejects the frequency / it's just verbosity to me."

With their third song landing on a yearly countdown of mine (after "Your Magic is Working" and "So Begins Our Alabee"), Of Montreal have very sneakily become a staple in my life. They are consistent, prolific, and somehow still manage to top themselves in ridiculousness with every new album they put out. Without even mentioning the killer sugary keyboard swoops and skittery-to-the-max synthetic drum freakouts, there is an even bigger highlight. This song has one of those choruses that manages to flow so smoothly and unforgettably that it all goes by in the blink of an eye. The first time I heard this song I knew I was once again smitten with the wackiness of Kevin Barnes and his troupe of bubbly noisemakers.

49 "From Nothing to Nowhere" Pinback Autumn of the Seraphs [Touch & Go]

"Revision / Ray of vision / ray vision / cosign my letter."

Who knows what he's actually saying when this song gets pumping into action. Who cares. The fact is that it's Pinback (formerly on a countdown with "Fortress") masterly weaving countless plucky guitar melodies and cherubic angsty vocal harmonies together until it resembles the most complicated musical knot that anyone can untangle by just pulling one string at a time. Depending on what singer and/or instrument you're listening to, the song can mean anything from "I feel superhuman" to "I feel like a failure," or both. The fact that some genius with too much time on his hands synced this song up to the dancing scene from The Breakfast Club only makes the dichotomy of the song's power and meaning that much stronger. When else do you feel powerless and unstoppable? When you're a teenager.

48 "Reciting the Airships" Eluvium Copia [Temporary Residence]

Moment @ 0:23

I've always been interested in the keyboard, but no one artist has ever reinvigorated my interest in the traditional piano like Eluvium has. How his melodies are so simple yet so captivating and devastating is beyond me. This song in particular breathes like a cold winter sunset, expertly descending from its inception into a bed of airy strings only to climb ever so softly into a cloudy oblivion. Crumpled paper, creaking chairs, and swirled synths soon enter the picture and by that point, you're on a different planet, experiencing this song like you experience a sad memory that you're happy you still have, and will hopefully never let go.

47 "Oh Ana" Mother Mother Touch Up [Last Gang]

"I'll be God today / hold my head under that bath and breath away."

I have no idea how a band that recalls both Wheatus (the voice) and Primus (the spastic bass) made such a perfect song, but they did. The lightning-speed acoustic guitar is just another reason why this song should not work at all, but it's also the morose backbone for a great first-person perspective story that unfolds like some cross between a nightmare and the biggest drama your closest group of friends has ever undergone, testing relationships, boundaries, and how far one's willing to go without knowing why they are willing to go so far. It's the ultimate testament to feeling your life spinning out of control, having no choice but to let it spin violently and unconscionably until you had to settle for realizing the errors of your ways until it's too late.

46 "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Mirage Remix)" Indeep After Dark [Italians Do it Better]

"And if it wasn't for the music..."

Turns out the original version of this song is older than dirt - actually it was first released in 1983, the year I was born. If I knew this before I put this remix on the countdown, I probably would have disqualified it. But it's too late now as I always vow to never change the list after it's finalized and the playlist is burned to CD. I seriously thought this was just another Italian post-retro-disco-punk song on a compilation full of modern acts like Glass Candy and Chromatics, remixed by another modern post-retro-disco-punk artist, but it was just a post-disco band that had a modest hit that even Mariah Carey covered at one point. How postmodern of a world do we live in when a remix can make a song from 1983 sound like it just came out in 2007? Absolutely crazy, but regardless, you need to watch the TV performance of the original (hyperlinked above) and watch that bass player, who also plays the character of the DJ in the song. Pitch perfect in every possible way.

45 "With Friends Like These" Aqueduct Or Give Me Death [Barsuk]

"Who needs friends like these..."

I'm going to be brutally honest. And so should you. No friendship I think is complete (anomalies exist, I will admit) without a moment where your eyes just bug out and you think to yourself, "whyyyy????" This is how friendships work, whether we like them to or not. If you're a close friend of mine, I've probably been mad/bewildered/confused/upset with you at some point in time to the Nth degree and vice versa. Everyone talks about how beautiful their friends are or why can't we be friends or what have you, but no one points out this very important facet of deep intimate friendships. You care about people, and just like lovers and family members, you're going to writhe them sometimes for whatever reason - they talked behind you behind your back, they dated someone that is a total douche, or they just ditched you when they promised to hang out with you. It's these kinds of deep hatreds that keep friends together and let people connect with each other and realize how much they love their friends in the first place.

44 "Drop Me Off" Pela Anytown Graffiti [Great Society]

"You are the fortunate one in this song."

Powerful voices seem to be rarity to me. Lyrical or instrumental intensity tends to usually pack the greater punch and the degree to which a singer actually utilizes their vocal chords doesn't often factor into my love for a song. The simplistic yet effective sparkling-turned-aggressive guitars and concentrating and rising drum work certainly complement Pela's vocalist, but it is the sweat and strength in the voice of Billy McCarthy that makes me hit the steering wheel at every chorus and my heart tremble as he breaks into falsetto at the climax/outro. Taking on all the pain that should be spread across two people into his one throat and becoming possessed by melancholic demons of solitude, McCarthy spews out enough emotional breakdown ecstasy for an entire room full of broken hearts. The listeners is indeed the fortunate one in this song.

43 "Panic Attack" Tunturia Maps [RCD]

Moment @ 2:27

I don't believe I've ever had a panic attack, but the closest I ever got to having one I believe was right before I, in a daze, took off driving in my car late at night and had this song (and the rest of the album for that matter) blasting through the stereo. I don't even think I knew this song was called "Panic Attack" when, after the unnamed incident, I shoved this CD into the play and this, the opening track, came tumbling out of the speakers as I sped angrily/confusedly through the pitch blackness. It's the feeling of being rushed, being crowded, being shoved into a place where nothing could ever feel right in a million years, and where no matter how far or how fast you drive away, you never feel more than an inch removed from unpleasantness. And all the while, I would have never wanted any other sound to graced my consciousness than this song, full of the best nervous guitar riff ever, taunting drums poking and prodding at your inflating sense of self, and the simultaneously noisiest and most graceful comedowns in between all the senseless mayhem.

42 "The Piano" PJ Harvey White Chalk [Island]

"Nobody's listening."

Singer-songwriters have never been my bag. Luckily, PJ Harvey knows that stamping your birth name on your music doesn't imply that you have to be subtle, modest, or boring. Ghost stories tend to come up a few times in the countdown this year, but this is probably the one ghost story on the list that actually sounds like a ghost story - creepy pitter patter percussion, lurking-in-the-next-room thumb piano loops, and even a respite for a keyboard that sounds like a dead child playing with its dusty toys from an ancient past. Oh and of course there's PJ's howling wail that anchors the multi-layered piece, desperately calling for peace when war has already broke out between four souls - the killer, the killed, and the shaking witnesses: mommy and daddy. Never has a song been able to give me the shivers, nightmares, and sounded so beautiful. Here's to realizing that music can be scary and enjoyable at the same time.

41 "The Opposite of Hallelujah" Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala [Secretly Canadian]

"I picked up a seashell / to illustrate my homelessness / but a crab crawled out of it / making it useless."

Also a theme on the countdown are songs that were played at what was quite certainly the event of the year (hell, probably of the past 4 years), Qualler and Brigitte's wedding. Sometimes it's infuriating when bright happy pop songs have depressing lyrics, but Lekman knows how to be depressed, find the humor in it, and make a funner-than-thou song about it all. It's a win-win-win situation. No matter how you feel about weddings, when this song came on, even if you didn't know how to dance to it, you wanted to. This marked the beginning of songs that most of the crowd didn't know, but kept the crowd in the mood of celebration nonetheless. All of a sudden everyone (yours truly included of course) dipped with every tambourine hit and smiles abounded every time the strings came in, and partners took arms with each other when the ukulele bumbles in like a cartoon broom sweeping up the joint. It was remarkably glorious, like the final scene in Rushmore, everyone being together, loving the togetherness of it all, and feeling pure joy in the moment, regardless of anyone's feelings before they walked onto that dance floor, depressed or not.

Next week: the countdown continues with #s 40-31.

So Close to the Top 50 Songs of 2007

2008-01-15T14:12:00.001-08:00

75 “Need Your Needs” Georgie James Places [Saddle Creek]

I've never liked a guitar that sounded like this, but it's just so fun that it's undeniable. Plus, pop songs that have verses, choruses, and post-choruses that are all equally infectious are a rarity. Dig that lone hand clap!

74 “Lake Michigan” Rogue Wave Asleep at Heaven's Gate [Brushfire]

A song so pretty and glossy from a band I've never found to be anything more than mediocre that it makes me question my own judgment when I sing along screaming the obviously wrong lyric "get off my 'stache!" Oh well, I cannot deny what I love.

73 “Crossing Line” The Sea and Cake Everybody [Thrill Jockey]

As the video suggests, I wish I could listen to this song blaring while laying in the bed of a truck staring up at the summer sky. Being able to follow along with Sam Prekop's slacker ramblings is just the icing on the cake. What a roaring low end!

72 “Circumstances” Magic Bullets A Child But in Life Yet a Doctor in Love [Words on Music]

This is the definition of jangle pop. That guitar sounds so much like a ray of sunshine it could burn your skin with its brightness. Warbling about commies and/or coffee with a voice that almost demands wild hand gestures to accompany it, the song as a whole is delightfully reserved and modest while still being energetic and engaging.

71 “Huntsman” Tulsa Drone Songs From a Mean Season [Dry County]

My mother got me a dulcimer for my college graduation. Weirdness aside, it's an amazing instrument and its tiny percussive melodies are woven throughout this happy droning rocker, along with a saw, a hypnotic e-bowed guitar, and steady confident drumming. The fadeout literally is the sound of drifting off to sleep.

70 “Bronson” Calla Strength in Numbers [Beggars Banquet]

I don't know if that is a marimba or a synthesizer getting busy underneath the tense acoustics of this grower of a morose pop song, but whatever it is, it digs its way into your skull along with the falsetto ooohs of the chorus. And when the song falls apart midway through, suspense and delicate left-right panning brings it all back to the death rattle of the snare drum.

69 “Accident & Emergency” Patrick Wolf The Magic Position [Polydor]

I see this as a turning point in the list. Here's where the songs change from simply "great" to "mind blowing" and these 19 songs are what convinced me to go all the way to 100 this year. So many bells and whistles going on in this song that it never gets tired: whooshes and high-pitched sequencing and blasting horns are all cherries on top of cherries on top of Wolf's whipped cream.

68 “On & On” We All Have Hooks for Hands The Pretender [Afternoon]

It's quiet, so make sure you've got it turned up to get the full effect. Isn't it depressing when people who are younger than you kick your ass in songwriting? Yes, but it's also invigorating to hear such fervent youth encapsulated into two minutes of pure love for life, with a guitar strummed faster than the wind and an organ slammed with the fingers of a giant.

67 “I Kissed the Dirt + She Kissed Her Bobtail” Guitar Dealin With Signal and Noise [Onitor]

Forget what I said earlier about left-right panning - this is the song right here to get your fix. And who ever thought to hook up delay pedals to acoustic instruments is a bloody genius - this is the sound of riding your bike through lush green grass, falling over silently, not caring, and pulling dandelions all afternoon until your best friend shows up and you go get ice cream.

66 “Comfy in Nautica” Panda Bear Person Pitch [Paw Tracks]

It seems most people find an overt sense of warmth in Panda Bear's music, whereas I find not just that, but also a healthy serving of uneasiness and briskness. This is what makes the music so unforgettable, and this song in particular, because it's coming at you from all directions with a voice that is heavy, a beat that is ominous, and loops that overstay their welcome. Can't shake it.

65 “Alone Again” Illinois What the Hell Do I Know? [Ace Fu]

La-las, bum-bums, or ooh-ahs are a surefire way to be remembered if used correctly. With a dirty slide guitar and clean vocal melody accompanying two out of three of these nonsense syllables, this song demands an intimate listen by your lonesome, as the title implies. When it's over, you'll feel refreshed, reflective, and smiling - happy and emo can belong together.

64 “D.A.N.C.E.” Justice Cross [Downtown/Ed Banger]

Justice have proved themselves to be the only DJ duo to actually have learned something from listening to Daft Punk - dance songs can indeed be sugary as hell, make you want to bust a move, and listen carefully all at the same time. Every aspect of this song could be listened to on its own, from the Jackson 5 vocals to the soulful strings to the funky bass, and still be complete.

63 “Above the Clouds Lies Eternal Sun” Joy Wants Eternity You Who Pretend to Sleep [Beep Repaired]

An afternoon nap this summer made me fall in love with this song. Sun (apparently a theme in this countdown) was pouring in through my red curtains, it was humid with a breeze from the oscillating fan, and this song was playing softly from my dresser. The hi-hat that comes in halfway through practically lifted me off my bed in a spirited haze and blasted me away.

62 “Pearl” Maritime Heresy and the Hotel Choir [Flameshovel]

Davey's voice plus a dream-pop guitar duet make for an angelic listen. Listen to what that guitar does at 1:22 and hopefully your heart will burst like mine did. It continues to burst my heart multiple times throughout the song with multiple different riffs, including at 1:39 and 4:21. Add the fact that Maritime has never crafted such an epic tune and you've got quite a sprawling gem.

61 “Phantom Mountain” Laura Veirs Saltbreakers [Nonesuch]

First you've never heard a bass so confident and angry, and then all of a sudden there's that same melody, only this time played by either a cello or upright bass and you're like, "no, that's definitely more confident and angrier!" And then you get riled up, your fist pulsing along with the infrequent maracas, Laura's sexy ululations telling a tale of confusion and imminent death.

60 “Reasons to Go” Last Days These Places are Now Ruins [N5MD]

Field recordings can either detract from a song or add a necessary level of realism and naturalism to it. Obviously the sounds of cars rushing by, faint police sirens, and pages turning all contribute to the latter option here. It's four minutes that force you to slow down, close your eyes, and breathe with more attention. By the time the xylophone pops in, you should be ready.

59 “All My Heroes are Weirdos” !!! Myth Takes [Warp]

If you've never seen !!! live, then your life is not complete yet. I've probably rambled on about this in my writings on "Dear Can" and "Intensify" in years past, but this past year I officially sweat the most in a public place ever at their show here in the Minneap. This is the first time where I've latched onto one of their songs that's so in your face, but then again, I've never sweat that much either.

58 “Monster” You Say Party! We Say Die! Lose All Time [Paper Bag]

A choral arrangement is not the same thing as all the band members singing the same lyrics in unison. YSP!WSD! know that. Not only do the slightly off-kilter mountains of gorgeous female vocals act as the song's high point, but when they sing about tearing out the strings connected to our hearts, it's one of those moments in song where the world crash down and as long as my headphones were still on, I wouldn't care.

57 “Mirador” Efterklang Parades [Leaf]

Rock bands don't usually sound like chamber orchestras, so when they do, the average listener is awakened with both a sense of urgency and a fragile cinematic soundtrack filling the room. Woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussion pound through your eardrums with a rare whirlwind candor until it all dies down and a yelping troupe of solider singers take over at 2:26 for yet another one of those screw-the-apocalypse moments.

56 “Little Victories” 65daysofstatic The Destruction of Small Ideas [Monotreme]

Every time I listen to this, the production sounds soooo wrong that it's right. Not until the synth kicks in at 0:55 does anything start making sense and even then, everything still sounds at totally the wrong volume or in the wrong speaker. It's so magnificently screwed up that every crushing electronic or dirt-laden guitar that leaves and re-enters makes a devastating impact.

55 “Prescilla” Bat for Lashes Fur and Gold [Caroline]

Like dulcimers, harpsichords don't get enough play now that Quasi has left us. With every strum on the beat of the rudimentary percussion, I get chills - and the sultry vocals don't hurt either. Especially when, like old one-hit wonder White Town's "Your Woman," the chorus is so awesomely pronoun-ambiguous - "she really loves him, Prescilla" - who loves who?!?!

54 “Developing Active People” Via Audio Say Something [Sidecho]

It's almost impossible to make a ballad this catchy without being overly sentimental. This song treads that line so well you'd think they've spent year perfecting this song...and they have! I first heard a version of this song as a shining light on an otherwise mediocre charity compilation two years ago, so when I heard this song come up again this year, complete with expertly matched vocal harmonies, bubbling synths, and slinky guitars, I nearly fainted.

53 “Son of the Son of the Kiss of Death” The Narrator All That to the Wall [Flameshovel]

Once a straight-up emo act, it's more than comforting to hear this ferocious Chicago band evolve more and more in the right direction with every record, staying angsty without being whiny. You can just imagine the eyes widening in the audience and on stage every time the vocals strain or legs jumping in the air every time the snare gets a double hit. Then those faint strings? Oh swoon!

52 “Lovely Allen” Holy Fuck LP [Young Turks]

Traditionally, a loop is a fragment of sound repeated over and over again for underlying unification of a song or part of a song. But when your band is ostentatiously named Holy Fuck, a loop is a nuclear orgasm, compacted by the world's top scientists into aural form, for use in this song. All those wires and keyboards have to be just for show - there's no way an actual human created these noises without the help of some form of divinity or science fiction.

51 “Walcott (Insane Mix #2)” Vampire Weekend Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa Demos [Self-Released]

And we've officially entered the terrain of countless "impossible to not sing along to" descriptions. If you have two ears and a heart, even if you've never been to Cape Cod or had someone near to you disappear to there, you will want our mysterious protagonist Walcott to get out of Cape Cod by the end of this song. You'll also want to hear more synths that sound like they're broken paper shredders and fake drums that sound like looming cuddling monsters.

Almost the Best 50 Songs of 2007

2008-01-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

Soon I, 1/7 of the Pop Culture Blogulator, will bring you my obsessive Top 50 Songs list, now a yearly tradition that hopefully most of my friends are aware of, for the year of 2007. Before though, my compulsions have risen to dangerous levels this year, as I bring part 1 of a 2-part teaser: #100-51 of the Best Songs of 2007. This is a first time event, so enjoy #s 100-76 today, and if you know me - you should know how to get these songs by now. Check back in soon for regular updates, including #s 75-51, and then the most beloved Top 50 Songs after that...also, you can check out videos for the songs that are linked.

100 “I Want Your Love” Chromatics Night Drive: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Italians Do it Better]

Straddling the line between creepy and sexy = hard to do.

99 "(Even if You Die on the) Ocean" Saturday Looks Good to Me Fill Up the Room [K]

Dudes who can't sing given yet another chance, and it's so adorable.

98 “Opr8r” Shape of Broad Minds Craft of the Lost Art [Lex]

Wait for it...where did that vibraphone come from? In a hip-hop song? I can dig it.

97 “Misfits and Mistakes” Superchunk Misfits and Mistakes 7" [Merge]

Most earnest song to ever be inspired by a movie based on a TV show about a mustachioed carton of french fries and his dimwitted food item friends, and only released on vinyl.

96 “Outside of This Car, the End of the World!” Le Loup The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly [Hardly Art]

One man sounding like a million, each second more layered than the last.

95 “23 Years Too Late” Wire Read & Burn 03 [Pink Flag]

Punk, industrial, legendary, British, and epic. I never thought those would all go together so well.

94 “4,738 Regrets” Trans Am Sex Change [Thrill Jockey]

Listen to this right when the sun rises and your day will be a good one. Promise.

93 “The Plot” White Rabbits Fort Nightly [Say Hey]

Okay so I'm officially not pissed anymore about The Walkmen turning to crap, because now we have this, the real sequel to "The Rat."

92 “Crash, Crash, Crash” Prinzhorn Dance School Prinzhorn Dance School [DFA]

Can any other song get you revved up in 39 seconds with only two voices and a snare drum? I thought not.

91 “Fire Fire Fire” Dappled Cities Granddance [Dangerbird]

Lackadaisical pretty boy pop band makes the best "I don't care that the Apocalypse is coming" song I've heard in a while.

90 “Azure” Akira Kosemura + Haruka Nakamura Afterglow [Schole]

Chimes, backwards tape looping, and the most beautiful piano lines to ever come out of Japan.

89 “Archangel” Burial Untrue [Hyperdub]

Dance music for aliens. Sure the whole abduction process would be scary, but it would be worth it for the killer metallic zero gravity rave that would follow.

88 “Men's Needs” The Cribs Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever [Warner Bros.]

Dumb sloppy guys manage to somehow make a fun and crsip song about sexual politics. Warning: this song may be on repeat forever if you listen to it once.

87 “Absorb the Lip Gloss” The Hood Internet The Mixtape Volume One [Self-Released]

You say, "I hate that lip gloss song." No you don't, you just wish it had Marnie Stern's eyeball-popping fretwork underneath it. Trust me.

86 “The World Outside” Maserati Inventions for the New Season [Temporary Residence]

File under: I don't smoke pot, but if a song ever made me wish I did...

85 “Rainbowarriors” CocoRosie The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn [Touch & Go]

Is she rapping? Not really, but on top of those clicky samples and soothing synths, it's the perfect kind of vocal melody, especially accompanied by the cooing of the chorus.

84 “Always on the Telephone” The Ladybug Transistor Can't Wait Another Day [Merge]

Slide guitar I can handle, not to mention when it's used judiciously. But a saxophone? That just blows me to smithereens. Reminds me of Rob Lowe in St. Elmo's Fire - it's that hot.

83 “Shim Sham” Imperial Teen The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band [Merge]

Now if only I could see my 12-year-old crush Kennedy from Alternative Nation to say a half-witty joke every time I listen to this song, my nostalgia for 1995 will be complete...

82 “Once and Never Again” The Long Blondes Someone to Drive You Home [Rough Trade]

It almost sounds like Save Ferris, but minus the ska (somehow possible): "Nineteen, you're only nineteen for God's sake, you don't need a boyfriend!!!" Try to listen to this without screaming that out.

81 “Welcome, Ghosts” Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone [Temporary Residence]

I almost died when these guys, the biggest instrumental band in the country, played this song on Conan O'Brien. So weird not to see a microphone on stage at a late night talk show - plus Conan said he loved it! (I know he always does, but I want to believe he actually did).

80 “Modern Lover” Coco B's Coco B's [K Double]

I yearn for the days that Nada Surf could churn out a perfectly innocuous yet anthemic pop-rock gem. Luckily, Coco B's pick up when the former went off to too-bland-land.

79 “Gimme Gimme Gimme” The Dirty Projectors Rise Above [Dead Oceans]

Cocteau Twins channeled by Animal Collective channeled by Antony and the Johnsons channeled by angels demons in a rapturous battle, intertwined, making love and war simultaneously.

78 “She's the One” Caribou Andorra [Merge]

Re: the title and the song's corresponding message. Whether you're an idiot and need the reminder or you take solace and renewed happiness in hearing the trite yet true words as if it's the first time you've realized it, this is the song to do it for you.

77 “Handwriting” Bottom of the Hudson Fantastic Hawk [Absolutely Kosher]

Tiny and simple lo-fi song with the biggest heart and charm - and it's about the little things. Do a little and it will do it a lot.

76 “ASA” Caspian The Four Trees [Dopamine]

Each note is crafted with care, love, dedication, and is simmering beneath, waiting to explode. And when it does, it's oh so smooth and transcendent.

Qualler Can Do LIsts Too! (Qualler's Top 10 Songs of 2006 + Top 19 of 2005)

2007-02-21T19:53:00.000-08:00

Actual, shmactual, Shakira still shook me this year. In my first year as a "professional", I managed to get less connected to the music that I love, and that is something that needs to be fixed in Twenty-Aught-Seven. And since you never got to see what my numbers 30-1 were from last year, I'll also summarize in list form what I had for numbers 19 through 1. For the first time, debuted here, ever.

10 "according to plan."
i love you but i've chosen darkness.
fear is on our side.
secretly canadian.

"in a perfect world..."

Speaking of perfect, here's what The Killers should be -- creepy, menacing, lots of reverb, and artistic. Scratch that, ILYBICD (yeah, check the acronym bitches!) is the thinking man's Killers.

9 "islands sink."
chin up chin up.
this harness can't ride anything.
suicide squeeze.

"perfume forms the life on the interstate."

I spent a lot of time from September through December making a long interstate drive to Chicago and back and this song got me through many chunks of Wisconsin, whether it was through my head or blasting on my speakers. The repetition of the verse-bridge-chorus and chugging drums remind me a lot of the multiple McDonalds down I-94 in Wisconsin. Comfort food for the road, indeed, in the musical sense.

8 "excellent news, colonel."
bound stems.
appreciation night.
flameshovel.

"i'm gonna be doing a great deal of work in that very field."

This is the best disjointed boy-girl vocal rock music this side of The Fiery Furnaces. And the multiple movements make it the Paranoid Android for the harried 21st century post-graduate professional. That's right, Radiohead, in the 21st century, robots don't control everything, at least not yet.

7 "punkrocker" (ft. iggy pop.)
teddybears.
soft machine
big beat/atlantic.

"i'm bored with looking good."

I'm pretty sure this song is commentary on being a punk rocker in one's Honda Civic. It is just edgy enough to sound like some of that heavy metal in the suburbs, yet lame enough to fit in a real life car commercial. Iggy Pop has never sounded more bored declaring himself a punk rocker. It doesn't matter -- even in suburban hell, we can all listen to the music with no fear. Also, this song fills the Guided by Voices void left by their breakup very well.

6 "in my arms."
mylo.
destroy rock and roll.
breast fed.

"is my heart beating? yeah."

This one takes me back to the clubs in Copenhagen, where people spoke a mixture of English, Danish, Greek, and the one unifying language was the language of LOUD DANCE MUSIC THAT REPEATED ITSELF. Naturally, 99% of the music there was garbage, but the 1% was as good as this song. Also, this is one of the most touching love songs of the year. Now DANCE, hipster, DANCE!!!!!!!!!

5 "winter."
caroline.
murmurs.
temporary residence.

"if we hold onto each other, life would be complete."

If you're noticing a pattern of delicate longingly sad sounding songs on the top of this list, you're a smartypants. I made it through a year of my now-fiancee being on the other side of the world by making her mix CDs that ended with songs like this, the kind of songs that guide you into sleep and guide you into hope. Caroline's voice kind of sounds like the alien that would descend from her spaceship and be swept into the guy from Sigur Ros' arms.

4 "the funeral."
band of horses.
everything all the time.
sub pop.

"at every occasion, i'll be ready for a funeral."

When you have old relatives who are near the end, you do feel like at every occasion you'll be ready for a funeral, and songs like this get you ready. Soft, melancholy, chiming guitars give way to an avalanche of noise (i.e. EMOTION!) One can never really be ready for a funeral, and this song is the best living proof of that feeling.

3 "borneo."
the fiery furnaces.
bitter tea.
fat possum.

"let me tell you why i think i love her: she knows you always take the bye week dome home team to cover."

The Fiery Furnaces are my absolute favorite band in music today, so I admit that I am a little biased. But, come ON! A kalidescope frantic pop song involving Eleanor Friedberger getting bored in her apartment, stealing her roommate's credit card, and eventually flying to Sydney to keep gambling and then ending up in a casino in Borneo until a bulldozer killed her?! It makes no sense and yet makes perfect sense.

2 "a bird in hand."
owen.
at home with owen.
polyvinyl.

"you know what you are to me. don't make me say it over and over again."

This is the song that made me realize that I was ready to be engaged. "when I put my arms around you, i mean it. when i'm too drunk to stay up with you, i mean it. when i slam doors 'cause i'm pissed at you, i mean it. when i put on a suit and say 'i do,' i mean it." This lyrical centerpiece is surrounded by Owen's trademark chiming acoustic/electric guitar orgasmatron and multi-tracked vocals. Suddenly, I realized that I was where I was supposed to be. Yes, it's that good.

1 "tearing up the oxygen."
maritime.
we, the vehicles.
flameshovel.

"tearing up the oxygen to find one another."

In a year of throwbacks and reminscing back to my college years, it was a great surprise and joy to find that Maritime, the band that was spawned from two of my all-time favorite bands The Promise Ring and The Dismemberment Plan released an album that was not only familiar sounding, but really damn good. Davey Von Bohlen, one of the nicest musicians out there (remember, Paal and Ben, when we talked to him for ten minutes after seeing Maritime?) has never sounded as happy or content as he does here. And the band is not forcing anything, a'la Wood/Water (forced depth). A simple guitar, synth, drums and bass will do, and the most gorgeous chorus and closing of their respective musical careers. If "Why Did Ever We Meet" by Das TPR was the album that ushered me out of my hometown and into college, then this song is the song that brings me into "the real world." I should be so lucky.

And for those completists out there (i.e. me, Chris), here is the rest of last year's list:

19. Stars - Yr ex-lover is dead
Bittersweet breakups. Nevermind, just plain bitter.
18. Architecture in Helsinki - It's 5
Bouncy bouncy! I feel joy. I'm also five.
17. Her Space Holiday - The Weight of the World
Electro-poppy at its finest.
16. Royksopp - Only This Moment
For those who are abroad, only this moment pulls us together.
15. The Fiery Furnaces - The Garfield El
I get thrown into a time machine occupied by an old rickety piano that rocks. Faster hammers! David Lynch as pop music.
14. The Most Serene Republic - (Oh) God
I actually think I had one of those I-can-feel-God experiences listening to this watching the sunset the day an extended family member died. Blissful.
13. Caribou - Yeti
Leaves crunching, stuff happening.
12. Wolf Parade - I'll Believe in Anything
Rocktown.
11. The Long Winters - Delicate Hands
Beautiful chamber pop circa Out of Time era R.E.M. That's the best compliment a popster can get.
10. Black Mountain - Modern Music
Post-classic rock. Me likey.
9. Deerhoof - Running Thoughts
More rocktown.
8. Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
Monsters?
7. Animal Collective - Grass
Bouncy meta-pop is the new something-or-another.
6. Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (shoreline)
Rocktown, part III.
5. Why? - Gemini (birthday song)
"When we're on different sides of the globe, I thought we'd keep our veins tangled like a pair of mic cables." Best lyrical song of the year.
4. M83 - Don't Save Us From the Flames
The broken glass is so beautiful.
3. The Decemberists - The Engine Driver
If you don't love me, let me go. The apex of The Decemberists' existence.
2. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
All things go.
1. Wilderness - End of Freedom
Drums echo, guitars chime. Little did I know that the end of 2005 was truly the end of freedom (i.e. college).

chris 5-1

2007-02-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

05 "bad news."
owen.
at home with.
[polyvinyl].

"whoever you think is watching you dance from across the room / they aren't."

out of anyone on the planet, i've been jealous of mike kinsella's (aka owen) guitar skills. his precocious yet experienced plucking grabbed my heart and mesmerized it when he was in american football and now his slowcore/softcore bedroom project continues to take me to a place where i am the only thing that matters. my heart wrenches to the beat of many many songs and artists, but owen songs like "bad news" are the only ones that do it simultaneously with a fresh breath of calm and cool air. i've never felt more relaxed and emotional while listening to music than i have while listening to owen. and this song, with its power to hypnotize and realize the self through airy coos and extended repetitive outro, makes me smirk as it says "fuck you" to the other and concentrates on bettering the self, away from all outside forces. this is as full as one man gets and oh if i could only be mike.

04 "apocalypso."
mew.
and the glass-handed kites.
[columbia].

"care-line / care-lines thumbed it up."

i have probably said "this is THEE best song to sing along to on this countdown" five or six times already due to absolutely killer choruses. well this isn't really a song to sing along to so much as it is a song where you literally feel like you're on drugs when the chorus comes blasting along, swirling through your eyes with demolishing guitars and rhythm section and the prissiest sounding danish voice to be the sweet whipping cream on top of your arsenal of a rock song. oh and is that a xylophone? YEAH IT IS THE BADDEST ASS XYLOPHONE YOU'LL PROBABLY EVER HEAR. some songs don't get down under your skin on a emotional or psychological level but just are so viscerally and aesthetically pleasing that you could listen to them on repeat until you pass out from playing air guitar. this is one of those songs. and i do think i'm making some sort of progress (possibly ironically) as i continue to enjoy the pleasantries of pop guilt-free. here's a song and even a band full of possible (nay, probably) pretense and i'm loving every second of it without pretense. this is wuss rock, without question, and i will love it for what it is, because yes - i am a wuss. who loves to rock.

03 "don't say you don't."
maritime.
we, the vehicles.
[flameshovel].

"there are bodies extending around us all."

the promise ring were one of my first forays into indie rock as a high schooler. listening to their succinct pop gems on very emergency never really made me think they'd still be part of my life at 23. but here we are and lyricist davey and drummer dan's new band maritime is going on like they haven't aged a day but have learned a fountain of wisdom since their heyday as "the milwaukee emo band." like our previous entry, this song's chorus packs a whallop i did not think i could handle the first time i heard it. and by this i mean my first initial reaction was "whoa this is the smoothest chorus i've ever heard davey's raspy voice choke out." more listens begat more listens begat more smiles on my face begat more lame attempts at me replicating holding notes out far longer than i could ever imagine holding notes out. but underneath this melodic maturation lies a song where urgency and emergency still lie, a man who wants the truth fast nowquickwithouthesitation. we've kinda accepted it because hey, we're out of college and high school now and our lives that we created back then are now controlling us rather than doing the actual creating that brought us here in the first place. don't forget to do what you got to do and be truthful to yourself and others. otherwise you'll just keep doing what you don't wanna do. and lord knows i'm doing some of that right now. geeze it's so simple it's like a novel my middle schoolers could understand! so why is it do hard to do?

02 "railroad cancellation."
don caballero.
world class listening problem.
[relapse].

moment @ 4:42

"what's going to be my #1 instrumental song of the year?" just like i never thought i'd still have the promise ring somehow still in my life, i never thought this would be a question i'd be dying to answer every year. the first "modern instrumental" i can remember listening to is "madman" by silverchair in the 7th grade. i didn't think much of it except "huh he sure likes to show off how much distortion he can put on his guitar" and "haha he's going crazy MUSICALLY like a madman might LITERALLY." somehow this has all come full circle with don caballero's song. one night before i went to DJ a wedding this summer, i was listening to this song for the first time, thinking it was merely going to be another solid entry in this "epic instrumental rock" genre i have so keenly become attached to since i first heard explosions in the sky and my heart broke in two with no misleading language confusing and covering the heartbreak. as i started thinking about how my life was going to change - i wasn't going to be able to sit here late at night "working" by listening to music before i went to get paid a nice sum of money by simple pressing "play" for four hours. i would have to leave this office full of music behind (at radio k) and go on to my next attempt at consuming time in my life - teaching. i starting doubting myself for the first real time. no language though - just emotions. just things bubbling up into my head, into my veins, into my face. i wasn't finished feeling, so i pressed repeat and started drumming with two pens on my desk. as the song went on, i drummed harder and harder, trying to get rid of all this thought, diminishing language one pen hit at a time. my arms started hurting and getting red from accidentally hitting them on the desk too. i wished i had real drumsticks. i'm not a drummer, but pounding the crap out of stuff while guitars conduct my thrashing sure makes everything feel better sometimes.

01 "noi boi."
the velvet teen.
cum laude.
[slowdance].

"the night will pass on and we'll no longer think on / what it was or what it wasn't."

i had this whole long this written trying to forcibly connect all of these varied and equally important reasons why this song has resonated with me so much this year to the point of becoming my favorite song of 2006, but i threw it all away (unlike the other entries, which are merely unedited ramblings that i don't look twice at before i press "publish"). the truth is, i can't make it all come together for this song. i've thought about and listened to this song probably the most in comparison to the other 49 and yet still no words make sense for it. so i'll just start listing the things that make me love this song so much and most of them i think don't really make any sense when just listed but somehow pertain to me on some kind of level that i do not have the ability to articulate: this year their drummer died of cancer, there are no surprises with this song structure, there is so much passion behind his voice and his simple words, the keyboards remind me of a dear friend who i hope to someday write music with again, i tremble with love, sadness, joy, loneliness and my bones turn to jello when i listen to this song. it's everything i've ever wanted and everything i'm deathly afraid of into the most concise 3.5 minutes ever recorded in audio form.

thus concludes this year's countdown for me. bring it on qualler! you still got it? please keep checking the blogulator as i plan on starting a new music-related regular feature called "new song / old record" in which i do pretty much exactly what it sounds like: tell you about a new song i'm into and an old record i've rediscovered and fallen in love with all over again.

chris 10-6

2007-02-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

10 "been here before."
jeremy enigk.
world waits.
[reincarnate].

"only in your eyes a sudden need denied / i sympathize."

you might notice that as we get higher on this list, the more deeply personal these songs get. i may or may not be adequately giving glimpses into how these songs affect and reflect my life in motion throughout the monumental year that was 2006 (but isn't every year?), and this is something i want to remedy for these top 10 songs. jeremy enigk symbolizes a lot in my life but first and foremost, he is intrinsically attached with the feeling of my eyes welling up and enduring an unbearable amount of emotion. he is responsible for two of my best friends meeting and falling in love (if only on a infinitesimal level). and that's heavy, because i love both of those friends so much that my heart starts beating fast when i think about how much they love each other. also, when seeing him perform this song live with my dearest jerksica by my side, i think it was the only time this year where at the artist's concert i sang along at the show to the point of overwhelming emotion and connection with the music (ESPECIALLY that organ stab) and had my girlfriend next to me smiling at me while i was being ridiculously entrenched in the moment. and not smiling just because she thought i was being ridiculous. hence why they used to call me captain emo.

09 "bering."
talkdemonic.
beat romantic.
[arena rock].

moment @ 0:35

the first time i heard that string riff that hits at the above moment, my eyes blinked in slow motion, the camera panned around me until it centered on me and did a vertigo shot until we cut to a flash-forward of me running down a leafy sidewalk. still in slow-motion of course, the camera followed my lower legs as my black dress shoes hit the pavement over and over while my pants fluttered in the crisp air like sheets hanging out to dry. when the keyboard kicks in, i abruptly stop and gasp for air, lurching my body backwards in my tracks, looking like i've just seen a ghost. my mouth agape, i drop my tan leather bag to the ground, the strap flailing in the air, sliding gently off my fingertips. the camera switches to a shot of ______ slightly out of focus, but it's there. i've just noticed it. i need to get a grip. i need to think. i need to act. i need this life, this _____, this _____, this _____, because without it, i will sink. every once in a while a song comes along that makes my life feel like a character revelation scene in a film, and this is indeed one of those songs. luckily it also kicks me in my ass and gets me to end my escapist film and get living.

08 "too much happy wet hair."
love of everything.
superior mold and die.
[record label].

"you oughta be on top of me, but you're just too bloody."

this was one of the last of many in-studio performances i had the pleasure of witnessing as i ended my time as music director at radio k this summer, and it quickly became my favorite in-studio performance EVER because of the version of this song that bobby burg and his ragtag band put together for us on tape. bobby looks exactly like what you would after hearing this song: cherub-like, shy, modest, unassuming, etc. but the passion he exudes when performing is absolutely unequivocal to 99% of musicians, even the really emo ones that cry when they sing. while his music is twinkly and all those other lo-fi and twee adjectives you would normally attach to this kind of music, the pure feeling of joy eventually overriding all feelings of regret and shoulda-been-shoulda-dones splattered every limb of my body and every artery of my heart when he sang this song for us. cale parks of aloha purposefully stumbled through his piano part to bring back the clumsy feeling of youth and tourmate cex (and his accompanying female singer) crooned the highlight lyric of the song without mics while sitting cross-legged on the dingy radio k couch with gigantic grins on their faces. and bobby, with his eyes closed, meticulously (yet allowing for hisses and pops of course) looped his guitar and his mouse-like voice (singing both through the mic and through his guitar pickups) and then set his guitar down, took out what looked like a fisher-price camera and took pictures of us recording them in the sound engineer's booth. when he did that, with his baseball cap sitting loosely on his head, and sampled the sound of the flash going off through the song, and then deconstructed it all to bits, i was the one with gigantic smile on my face. and i had never felt youth and innocence so pure rekindle back into my body and heart than i did at that very moment. thank you bobby.

07 "many times i've mistaken."
joan of arc.
eventually, all at once.
[record label].

"off-white is the new white."

geeze these things keep getting longer, don't they? if you're still with me, i'll buy you a drink sometime. bobby is also a friend, labelmate, and sometimes-member of this collective, which if you're really my friend, you should know that joan of arc's singer, tim kinsella, is my favorite lyricist and frankly, poet, of all time. the way he twists words carelessly/carefully and effortlessly/effervescently has always made me view him as the ultimate artist that (while many many people and critics despise him) is the best as straddling the line of experimentalism and accessibility. and everybody should also know my deep hatred for the acoustic guitar, so i was wary when i heard about a joan of arc album based mostly around it. thank god sam zurick is also one of my favorite guitarists and can make even the blandest of instruments sound alive and sputtering/spattering across your ears like a flimsy raincloud bursts around town, almost as if it's following you. and the strings, dear god the strings, gently rise the song up toward normality and sea-level at every chorus, but soon enough, like everything in life, it drops out. eventually, all at once, we are left with the same as what we had before, only tinted differently. it may look the same, feel the same, taste the same, sound the same, but it's the same old crap we've always had and will have for all time. bof!

06 "always for you."
the album leaf.
into the blue again.
[sub pop].

"i've chased this day."

damn, i haven't actually READ these lyrics until now and now i'm tearing up. i am usually a member of the faith that believes instrumental bands should stay instrumental (and some vocal-based bands should try going instrumental), but the album leaf is one of the only exceptions to this rule. yes, his voice is mediocre. and yes, i also thought that his lyrics were mediocre and could get more across with a simple keyboard melody or guitar repetition. i specifically thought this about this song for a long time. and then for some reason, it all hit me. TAL's brilliance at sound production makes his voice into a looming omniscient voice of reason and the lyrics are so simple that you might just miss their significance if you glance over them or just let them go in and out of your ears as "another love song." but after much inspection, i have discovered an important connection between my love for music and my love for the people in my life. we listen to music that makes us comfortable (and for some that might be music that is not inherently "comfortable" to listen to for most), music that reminds us of what we love, of what's worth living for. same goes for people. we surround ourselves with people that make us comfortable (and sometimes those people aren't necessarily considered "comfortable" to everyone), and like music, if we spend enough time with these people, we will never forget them. everything will start reminding us of them. like a song like this one with a catchy hook that doesn't leave your head for hours on end. i'm glad my loved never leave my head and everything reminds me of them.

check back for the LAST five songs of the countdown very soon!!! and then finally you will indeed get what i'm sure you have ACTUALLY been waiting for -- qualler's top 10 songs of 2006.

chris 15-11

2007-01-31T17:31:00.000-08:00

15 "as far as forever goes."
i'm not a gun.
we think as instruments.
[city centre offices].

moment @ 3:15

as much as i love songs that build and build and build and build, because usually the payoff is so insurmountable and godly, but what blew me away about this song was its anti-climax. the pressure and tension rises and rises and rises as plastic drums blend effortlessly into smack-dabbing snare punches and the fragile guitar noodling fills itself with more and more swells and angry slides and hammer-ons. yet when we get to the last 45 seconds of the song, back to nothing. it was all a set-up. nothing's that rewarding. i realized the non-traditional arc of this song on my way home from student teaching earlier this spring after having heard it once before on my way to student teaching. depending on how you listen, it can either told pump you up or completely destroy all of your ideas of self-worth, doing things that matter, etc. i'm not a gun put the realism into pretentious instrumental music like none other.

14 "in my arms."
mylo.
destroy rock & roll.
[rca].

"is my heart beating? yeah."

for someone that doesn't dance unless it's at a wedding or a !!!/out hud show (RIP BTW), it definitely takes a lot for a true dance track to get under my skin (in a good way) and make me boogey on down physically and cerebrally. there are fluorescents on the album cover for a reason - you cannot ignore this AND it's the post-ironic mid-late 00s, so cheesy-to-the-extreme is cool again. at first sure, just let the ignorable 2-step multi-layered keyboard riffs sit in the back of your head, but like lemon jelly at their best, a loop slowly rears its head and gets all up in your business until your ears become your world. but what lemon jelly don't do is audio pulsations, gyrations, sweat nations, groove salutations. your smile is so bright it's blinding my eyes, so i will drop down and bust a worm on your asses as i inwardly celebrate life, loss, and being ridiculously crazy in love.

13 "i'm moving on."
human television.
look at who you're talking to.
[gigantic].

"i've got sand in my eye."

i usually never wait so long for a song to get going. at least not a power-pop song. and especially not a power-pop song that recalls a lo-fi mashing of gin blossoms and the band from the adventures of pete & pete (they're called polaris, if you were wondering). and usually when songs take this long to get going i recommend that listeners make sure to observe and absorb the ambience that the song requires you to endure before getting and funky in the pants once it finally peaks all over your face. but this song...this flawless flawless song...you've got to turn up your stereo/headphones as loud as they'll go and LEAVE IT THERE. i know i know, that sounds very detroit rock city of me, but when the steady yet depressed snare leads you through a valley of reverb and squiggly bass, you will follow blindly. there's no better song to listen to with your eyes closed than this one in 2006. you will know when to open them. trust me. OPEN.

12 "this harness can't ride anything."
chin up chin up.
this harness can't ride anything.
[suicide squeeze].

"we are one-night stands that can't walk away."

this song and this band in general so often glide swiftly between the categorizations of "competent yet un-noteworthy" and "mind-blowingly introspective and literally makes life more worth living" that it's really worthless trying to decide which one they fit into the most. the fact is, on the best of days, this song was there for me to put on repeat and go back and forth on over and over and over again. and no matter how mediocre i ever decided it was, it still had everything i've ever wanted in a pop band: a cacophony of pretty guitar and keyboard sounds, strings coming in at just the right time, perplexing lyrics that are more worried about sticking out than fitting in with the music, and an overall sense of overwhelming joy and fuck-it-all-i'm-gonna-rejoice-regardless-ness.

11 "long distance call."
phoenix.
it's never been like that.
[astralwerks].

"your capital letters keep me asking for more."

if you ever were enough of a white sissy to listen to new radicals (or hell, even worse innocuous skinny arms-rock like jason mraz), there is finally a song that you can love and still be considered a hipster. and while i have no idea why pitchfork would put their stamp of approval on a song so loaded with priss you can literally feel the faux-hawk forming on your head, i do know that this song is too immaculate to ignore. the crispness of every sound so carefully placed into its little spot, it almost makes you think maybe this guy doesn't miss this chick as much as his words suggest. but while the afore-blogged boat song is the most fun to sing along to throughout the whole song, this song boasts the most belt-along-able CHORUS, and if you get yourself to go along with his croon, you'll find that even the most immaculate of humans can feel on the edge, but as implied, poise is always more important. keep yourself together and you won't fall apart. simple, right?

qualler should DEFINITELY be coming in with his pre-written blog post on his top 10 songs and a re-cap of his list from last year. FOR SERIOUS THIS TIME. and #s 10-6 are coming up soon soon soon...

p.s. today's cat picture comes as a suggestion courtesy of mr. harry bram stroker's spankula

chris 20-16

2007-01-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

20 "i believe in your victory."
this will destroy you.
young mountain.
[magic bullet].

moment @ 1:27

only really ethereal adjectives can describe how i feel when listening to this song. no words strangled together to make sentences make any sense to put here when referencing the gloriousness that is this perfect instrumental. so here we go: glistening, otherworldly, celestial, heavenly, transcendent, angelic, utopian, ghostly, apparitional, phantasmal, boundless, infinite, enduring....huh, i guess there is a sentence i could fangle together: if a song soared down from above to my dying body and jolted life into me one more time if only to look at my life as if it was not mundane and meaningless for one more newly born second before i became a pile of ashes, it would surely be this song.

19 "hearts and stars."
super xx man.
x.
[hush].

"i'll wait around until you calm down."

the shortest song on the countdown, it still packs a whallop. and i absolutely despise the flute, yet this song brings me down from whatever drama/stress/stupidness that may be interfering with my happiness and chilled-out-ness, no matter how absurd. "i'll do something for you no matter what." how hard is that? i'll be there and i won't freak out when you're freaking out. i'll talk to you if you talk to me. i'll be here with a smile on my face when you can't be. just freaking do it. i'm here, we're friends, in love, family, whatever, so see it. but i'm here if it's gonna take time, and sometimes it will feel like a chorus of me singing over a fairy elf-like piano riff like everything's a freaking larf (and it is), but eventually it will seem like it all happened in a-minute-and-a-half and it will be a blip on your radar. but you won't be a blip on mine.

18 "last cans of paint."
boat.
songs that you might not like.
[magic marker].

"i won't pick up the telephone / cuz there's 900 people and they're all alone."

quite possibly the most fun song to sing along to on this list. the vocal melodies are such a brilliant mixture of sadness, madness, and geeked-out glee that you just want to grab your hair and air drum a million times harder than the actual slacker that's doing the job, belting out the chorus like you're trying to turn yourself inside out through your mouth. and while the execution is far different, this song reminds me of why i'm still in love and always will be with pavement. you can care passionately about what you say, who you're talking to, what you think, but still not care about how it's received. this song is so tiny it hurts and yet it means the world to me. we are all little people with little voices, but we say things we mean. you choose whether or not to listen, not those sending the message.

17 "sweet sweet heartkiller."
say hi to your mom.
impeccable blahs.
[rebel group].

"we still both like the smell of anything night blooming / and she cuts through necks like a ginsu."

no that is not a metaphor, this song is actually about vampires!!! how cool is that?! i've always thought say hi to your mom were harmless pleasant indie pop, but this song is probably one of the best songs that tell a story that i've ever heard. don't you hate it when you're a creature of the night and you fall in love with another vampire and then the feeling becomes so strong that you have some wicked bloodlust and just give in and drink her blood, because you know that stuff will be the best tasting blood you'll ever get. but then ah dammit she's dead. and you've got to live forever (literally) without her! that's the pits. huh, i guess it could be a metaphor, but whatever, VAMPIRES!!!!!! you'll be smiling inside a minute if you take a minute and let these quiet popsters tell you this story - you might even join in on the handclaps.

16 "the warning."
hot chip.
the warning.
[astralwerks].

"hot chip will break your legs / snap off your head."

oh man i can just feel the love for these songs getting stronger and stronger as we inch toward the top. and i apologize for this doubleshot of violent songs, but as everyone knows, friendly music + violent lyrics = inevitable genius. plus, if there's one thing that's better than a song about vampires falling in love and then one drinking the other's blood, it's a song about a malfunctioning musician android thinking it's human and then going on a killing rampage when it finds out it's not. the story here is a little more subtle, and i'm mostly extrapolating this from the uber-poetic lyrics, but c'mon...you've got bobbly wobbly keyboards and the kiddish click-clack of the percussion taking you on a little trip through the song as our humble narrator bumps into strangers and introduces himself as a "mechanical music man," and every time brings him to chorus about his band beating you up to the point of funeral. and then the malfunctioning high-pressure high-volume bridge that's so painfully disjointed it hurts? but don't worry, those sparks/xylophones are notes of acceptance of living in a world without true melody, as long as you know we're all going to die from it.

we're getting close, #s 15-11 will be up soon!!

chris 25-21

2007-01-23T16:06:00.000-08:00

25 "anti-anti."
snowden.
anti-anti.
[jade tree].

"getting down in the town that makes no sound / you say there's nothing wrong but i can't hear it."

one of the few songs on the countdown where at first i was like, "this is tolerable," and then upon a ridiculous amount of forced listenings thanks to radio k, it eventually changed my life. ESPECIALLY when i was like, "i wonder if i'd like this more with headphones on. so i scrounged through some mp3 blogs and found a high bit-rate copy of the song, put the 'phones on, and almost immediately orgasmed thrice. from the just-outta-the-bag-crisp drumming to that simple guitar melody that hits just the right notes to curl my heart like toes during sex, i had been had by slacker interpol wannabes. but the difference is rather than merely sounding like brightly giving up (antics), it sounds like giving up brightly and longingly (turn on the bright lights).

24 "the first song."
band of horses.
everything all the time.
[sub pop].

"we've suffered enough."

very appropriately, this was the FIRST song that changed my life this year. 2006 had come along and i was starting to feel everything i had worked for at radio k was coming to an eventual close and due to 2 years of musical overexposure, i had basically disliked all music, longing for my high school days of death cab and d-plan where i was passionate and crazed. i remember it clearly - i was in my office at the station, exhausted beyond belief from grad school and working mundane music director tasks. i put in another random cd, seeing that the best music assistant i could have ever asked for (pushkar, now music director) had highly recommended this band of horses cd. as my ass hit my chair from doneness-with-life and this song's sprawling sparkling chords started a sudden and steady beat, i felt comfortable. when the chords started building and the joan of arc guitar line accompanied a six parts seven lapsteel to an epiphany of a chorus, i literally FELT resurgence in my body. music is good. music is there. music in me.

23 "nefi + girly."
asobi seksu.
citrus.
[friendly fire].

"awaiting an audience /we're waiting on ornaments."*

this song was probably going to be more like 30-something or 40-something on the list. then i played it for my great friend pat while visiting him in chicago. one of my favorite things about my great friend pat is how he reacts to and falls in love with music. ever since i've known him, pat and i and his car have had many interactions with both awesome and terrible music. whether it was in his geo metro listening to the self-titled verve pipe album trying to make it through "kiss me idle" without pressing "next track" or playing mum at full blast and laughing joyously when the harmonium kicks in, listening to music with pat in the car is the BEST. and when i played him this song thinking it was a surefire way to win pat's heart (ridiculous drumming, spacey guitars, and a cute-as-all-get-out female singer) and his eyes widened and he slapped his forehead when the hi-hat was tickled faster than a cheetah, i said, "thank you asobi seksu." *i don't care if this is actually what they're singing or not. it's what i hear.

22 "what's the altitude (feat. hymnal)."
cut chemist.
the audience's listening.
[warner bros.].

"she gave me head / phones / said, 'have you heard this sound?'"

whoooaaaa that's pretty high on the countdown for a hip-hop song on a list compiled by a suburban white kid who felt nervous buying "license to ill" on cassette. this is one more reason why hip-hop by djs FEATURING rappers is so much better than a single rapper's attempt at overshadowing mediocre dj work with mediocre lyrics. especially when it's some guy named hymnal who's a brilliant cross between mf doom and del tha funky homosapien, AND actually has something to say while being goofy and fun at the same time. let's not forget the demented acoustic guitar lick and cowbell that will become an automatic reprise throughout your day if you listen to this song even just once. the dirty fake-vinyl crackle and old-school "YEAH!" in the background are just two more reasons why this is, to date, my favorite hip-hop song ever. obviously not too big of a deal, since it's still just #22, but it's one more step toward me wanting to listen to and absorb more and more hip-hop in the future.

21 "it fit when i was a kid."
liars.
drum's not dead.
[mute].

"i aim my eyebrow into a question."

when the singer with the lowest unaltered voice in the history of avant-rock (and probably rock music in general) "sings" the aforementioned silly yet admittedly creepy lyric, the pause that precedes it always scares the CRAP out of me. i've never heard a song that has made me feel so tense and scared AND was pleasurable to listen to at the same time. the methodic and barbaric percussion and low-end in this song do something to one's listening experience that film music does a subconscious level when you're engrossed in the cinema experience, but this song DEMANDS your attention. it will slit your throat and drink your blood if you ignore it. and if you think it's over before the doom organ slinks on out of nowhere, then your life will be over before you know it. the looming baritone singer will forget about scaring you and hypnotize you with his thom yorke falsetto until you submit to his lulling, swooning, transfixing death tune. BEWARE!

qualler might show up any second with his top 25 songs of 2006 so keep on the look out if you're sick of reading my pathetic diary entries!!! oh and of course, #s 20-16 are on deck.

chris 30-26

2007-01-18T17:32:00.000-08:00

30 "in the morning."
junior boys.
so this is goodbye.
[domino].

"too young."

the perfect synthesis of glitch and pop sweetness. it's like if the postal service wrote songs you could make love to, rather than writing songs in response to not getting any. the kickdrum swoops backwards into your brain and the slits and swipes of the production make the vocal breathing percussion tingle in your ears and speak depths of sexual tension and frustration to the simple yet neverendingly problematic question of: "why does age matter?"

29 "way out."
ellen allien & apparat.
orchestra of bubbles.
[bpitch control].

"way out is hard."

i can't help but think of this song as a response to the dumb-dude-just-doesn't-get-it jerktronica of the aforementioned junior boys song. rather than getting uptight, ellen does exactly what the title says: finds a way out. it may be just as dark and tense as the narrator's faux reality in "in the morning," but it's also smooth, revelatory, and slightly/continually blooming. this is as techno as orchestral/epic electronica gets, with beeps and non-stop kick-claps, but the processed bass-heavy strings and the mildly distorted guitar hint at a life without another like oneself (that is, a life worth living).

28 "party."
el perro del mar.
el perro del mar.
[control group].

"i just want to be a part of you."

like benoit pioulard recently demonstrated, and now el perro del mar, singer-songwriters would really be taken more seriously and would be a lot less boring if they learned how to multi-track their boring guitars and boring vocals. luckily el perro del mar has one up on benoit because her voice is NOT BORING AT ALL. the waver, the quiver, the sexy hesitance crawl up my spine like a weeping spider. and then the chorus of specifically placed boop-boops and la-las back her up like an army of "fuck yous, we're going to party by myself"s. the right-left division of the electric and acoustic guitars make this the perfect anthem for when you're trying to be yourself, but you can't help but be yourself. division of the self is the new unity of the self.

27 "peloria."
decembers architects.
,apiary ennui and curiosas. the brew shakes.
[say & stay said].

"good riddance to genius."

originally recorded in 2001 (finally released in a VERY small dose in 06) and it shows. i heard this band do a live session on radio k's local music show when i first moved into the dorms and i remember unpacking my ridiculous vhs collection and hearing this band and thinking "oh man do all minneapolis bands love mineral and the dismemberment plan?" unfortunately, they didn't, but i never forgot this band and when i received this cd just weeks before retiring my post as music director at radio k, this song floored me and brought every moment i've loved about music throughout my entire college career rushing through my head and my heart, and i died from being just THAT emo.

26 "tuscan."
ecstatic sunshine.
freckle wars.
[carpark].

moment @ 0:33

ah, youth. poorly recorded and poorly played rudimentary guitar hooks plague this song and yet it literally implants copious amounts of ecstatic sunshine into my ears. with only two electric guitars stuck on an exact clean/distortion combo, this song goes through more phases than the moon, never getting complicated, but never concentrating on one delightful phrase for more than is necessary. it's so freaking simple and doesn't really tug at anything or stick with you yet it's the most refreshing instrumental song i've heard this year.

i'll bring #s 25-21 to you right quick! keep checking in and thanks for humoring me.

chris 35-31

2007-01-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

35 "triggering back."
benoit pioulard.
precis.
[kranky].

"turn off the station to multiply the tension."

hushed vocals and acoustic guitar? yawn. multi-tracked vocals, atmospherics, crossfading percussion, and acoustic guitarz? that's more like it. uppity and downity together at last. the cover of this record is forest green and washes of that color swirl through my head whenever i listen to this song.

34 "phantom limb."
the shins.
phantom limb [ep].
[sub pop].

"follow the lines and wonder why / there's no connection."

i have had a "they're pretty good" attitude toward the garden staters ever since i heard "know your onion!" the first week of my freshman year at college, and once the aforementioned zach braff barfatron blinded my eyes for eternity, i never thought i would ever think any more about the shins ever again. damn them to hell. this song is soooo boring if you wait for the good parts. so don't wait and listen to this song. do something else. the good parts will catch you. they're too simple for their own good, but the last 30 seconds in particular will cease your blinking and other activities if you let it enter your ears in just the right way. just give it a shot. i was skeptical too.

33 "the sky is everywhere, part 1."
actual birds.
vive la fantastique avec actual birds and friends. [casanova temptations].

"you can always touch the sky."

do not listen to this song with anyone else in the room/car. i did and it just made the song and the moment too awkward. this is a song so fragile that even the slightest of company will cause its purpose and function to elude you. it's tinier than the dust on your old cassettes, but it wants to be your friend so bad. it's the closest i'll ever get to hippie music/ethic and it almost scares me how grimey and "free" i feel when i listen to the scuzzy organ and gritty drums, but it's worth it when you can forget yourself for just a second to be by yourself and with this song and this song only.

32 "it is the law."
envelopes.
demon.
[brille].

"it is the law."

watch the adorable little guitar line wander around and prance and be harmless! keep watching...keep listening...WACKO SOCKO! here come his entourage of bright buzzy sounds that blast in your face with slop and silly, pitch-bending every which way as long as there's candy involved. wait, where'd it go?!?!?! where did all my smiley friends rush off to?!?! oh, it's the law that you can't be that ecstatic for too long...i understand. that's too bad.

31 "i never lose. never really."
belong.
october language.
[carpark].

moment @ 0:46

i don't know whether thinking of this song as "noise" makes it better or worse than considering it as "music." i've always disliked "noise music," everything from "noise rock" to "noise-core" - i've just never even considered myself pretentious enough to think music should hurt and you're only cool if your music hurts you as a listener because all other music is pleasant and has been done and "noise" is the only thing left to make. well these two guys somehow find a way to balance the two in the most gorgeous way imaginable. make yourself get through the whole song. if you wondered what the most truthful and unapologetic soundtrack to katrina would be (and these guys experienced it and wrote this album as a response to it), look no further. find hope and tragedy encompassed without using only pleasant sounds. it can be done, and still be pleasant.

i'll have #s 30-26 up later this week! check back!

chris 40-36

2007-01-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

40 "please visit your national parks."
oxford collapse.
remember the night parties.
[sub pop].

"forget forget forget those times / always cut through so easily."

if there is any song on this countdown that you should listen to as loud as possible and shoud along as loud as possible, it's this one. it reminds me of my days of being 12-years-old and jumping around, playing air guitar, spit shooting out of my mouth as i make so much racket in my room i get a headache and my mom checks on me to make sure i'm okay. and instead of me having this really "i'm so mad i'm so into this angry rock music" devil-look on my face, i've got a giant adorable grin and my hair's all messed up.

39 "something isn't right."
herbert.
scale. [!k7].

"and if the details are too much to comprehend / an e-mail's there on your laptop to see."

you just can't get much sexier than this. this cheese is so elegantly and minutely sculpted that you'd swear it was pure audio ivory. the pulse is your heart, the strings are her eyelashes fluttering through the air, the horns and guitars are your hands making the perfect moves around her flawless hips, the smooth verse is your entry to the dance floor, the stuttering chorus is your hesitation to make the move, and the hasty outro is your decision to dance alone. because it's not like you can do much with another human when you're making love to your headphones.

38 "air (featuring doom)."
dabrye.
two/three.
[ghostly international].

"at first he couldn't tell she had a chromosome missin / kept a spare somewhere."

last year, i introduced the first hip-hop song that made my favorite songs of the year list. this year, we've got two on the list and here's the first. apart from the general sci-fi spook-hop feel of this inspired yet modest masterpiece, there are two specific elements i think everyone should listen for, in order of obviousness: 1) the elongated keyboard walk up the scale that continually lifts the song into the back of your head and 2) the intricate po-mo tale that mc doom weaves possibly about a guy mistaking music for reproduction, religion, and drugs. see!!! hip-hop can be intelligent and still talk about runnin' smack, booty chasin' and thunkin' beats!!!! too bad the reverse is not true (i'm looking at you, pitchfork).

37 "1918-1926."
shogun kunitoki.
tasankokaiku.
[fonal].

moment @ 1:10

one drumkit, three keyboards, with mouths closed and aimed at the sky. oh and don't forget as many spoonfuls of syncopation that you can possibly come up with the aforementioned combinations of instruments, because you need as much as you can get in order to mess with one's brain as much possible while still feeling completely cohesive and unbelievably controlled. it is the melding and mixing of the machinations of humanity with the humanity of machinations, including all of the battles for achievement, progress, and hope that arise from this very conflict.

36 "rough gem."
islands.
return to the sea.
[equator].

"they want it fast but they don't want flaws."

it took me a while to forgive the unicorns for choosing the glossy over the lo-fi, but i think while the unicorns are better on an album level, this track blows any specific unicorns track out of the water due to its sheer magnitude and attention to the bones in our body that shake and rattle in giddiness in response to candy-coated orchestration. it's curiously downtrodden for being a confection for the ears, but when it all comes to a head in the last 30 seconds, it's made the slight trip down a greener-than-a-leprechaun grassy knoll a serene and unforgettable experience.

i love you because i know you'll come back to see #s 35-31 very soon!!!

chris 45-41

2007-01-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

45 "stay."
small sins.
small sins.
[astralwerks].

"you can stay if you want to / but you can't sleep in my bed."

if this song came out in 1998 instead of "closing time," i would have liked it a lot more. this stuff is soooo for 15-year-olds but i can't help but shout so loud in an awful falsetto along with the chorus. i'm such a priss. oh well. and the whining guitar in the background that sounds like your college roomate's old laptop being really loud and obnoxious while you're trying to study? what a sound!

44 "turn to the assassin."
junip.
black refuge [ep].
[teme shet].

"go repress your prudent side / it's beautiful but plastic."

jose gonzalez is fine. beautiful voice, beautiful guitar, but i wanted more when i heard "veneer." his band junip filled that void and added church organ, click-clack drums, and what must be some kind of wicked field recording. it sounds like a hazy day where you feel unbreakable, totally meshing together when they should absolutely not by any means. kind of like a lite-rock song singing about how you should go hire a professional killer to solve your problems.

43 "sunlit & ascending."
the appleseed cast.
peregrine.
[the militia group].

"you must come out."

i finally feel like the appleseed cast are from a different era in my life, and yet, i was still incredibly excited to hear this record. this is the only track that stands out to me from peregrine, but oh boy does it stand out. the drumming almost equals their past drummer in precision and whatthehellwasthatness and the guitars pierce the sky, eclipsing the mediocre storytelling. i cannot listen to them without imagining the beautiful outdoor concert that changed my life forever, with the sun setting against the madison lake. i cannot wait to see them again in a few weeks.

42 "bibo no aozora/04."
ryuichi sakamoto, jacques morelenbaum, & yuichiro gotoh.
babel: original motion picture soundtrack.
[concord].

moment @ 3:38

those three piano chords literally break my heart when i hear them. they might as well turn the sky grey while they're at it too. while the fountain's music was all about the moment, this song is all about infinity. allness, oneness, blah blah. i feel like i'm getting smarter AND sadder when i'm listening to it. then the strings and keys fall apart, out of sync with each other and then i just feel sad. i LOVE it. i sit here and i can't think of a retort for why it's okay to make music this sad and movies this sad and feel this sad and want to feel this sad, but let's just say "it's therapeutic in small doses." don't listen to this on repeat. and if you do, warn me so i can at least call the paramedic for you.

41 "according to plan."
i love you but i've chosen darkness.
fear is on our side.
[secretly canadian].

"in a perfect world / there are perfect places with you."

by the looks of the ridonkulous band moniker and album name, it doesn't look like we're getting much happier, does it? but truth be told, while they embrace the lite-gotheatrics of the 80s, they boast terrific depression and terrific groove-a-thons. the bass lines make me ooze headbobbing and the stealth snare makes me projectile vomit fist-pumps. a twinkle of desperate hope expels all notions of sadness for the sake of sadness too. maybe this is the reason why this genre was so beautiful when it begun (and also the reason why only a few bands, including ILYBICD, can gently transform the mold to their benefit).

#40-36 are coming up soon. keep checking in, thanks!

chris 50-46

2007-01-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

50 "light pollution."
dirty on purpose.
hallelujah sirens.
[north street].

"take the long way home / take the wrong roads."

possibly the worst live band ever and almost fell off the countdown because of this, but this recording is just too overbearingly and heartbreakingly beautiful to deny. their voices are almost broken and the drumming is barely competent, but the interweaving melodies and guitar sounds raise the song from "amateur" to "never-gonna-quit-my-dream" in under 4.5 minutes.

49 "andover."
bound stems.
appreciation night.
[flameshovel].

"we're headstrong / it's our fault."

speaking of on the brink of falling apart, this music is barely held together by its seams, but this time it's not coincidental. overly distorted chords, woozy keys, a drunken snare drum, and wavering male/female battle vox stumble through the stilted and almost-too-long song structure, until some incredibly layered catchier-than-thou master riffage brings the inebriation together and finally, you realize that it's got to go on for just a little too long, because missteps and wanderings are never concise. kind of like a run-on sentence.

48 "open cuts."
dwayne sodahberk.
cut open.
[tigerbeat6].

"i really want to hear the details / no, i really only want to hear the
sad parts."

don't crank up your speakers/headphones right away to hear the fragile acoustic plucking intro, because you will kill your eardrums when the washed-out fuzz busts in like it's the kool aid man. oh but what blissful and deathly romanticism becomes of this sadsack festival of a song. lo-fi and melodramatic, now that's real loneliness. never underestimate the strength of one man (and some haunting female backup vox), especially if he's got an arsenal of tools instead of a meager single acoustic guitar.

47 "death is the road to awe."
clint mansell with kronos quartet & mogwai.
the fountain: original motion picture soundtrack.
[nonesuch].

moment @ 7:36

never has a piece of a film score made me jolt out of my seat at a movie theatre. NEVER. until now. usually film scores get in my head and sit with me after the movie, but this score is all about the moment. just like the fountain itself, it's a flash before your eyes, just like how aronofsky manages to fit the ancient past, the present, and the distant future into a 90-minute music video. it breathes with you, but it's gone the instant the next second occurs, and suddenly the future is the present. and we've all lived nothing, but we are always living everything.

46 "lovers who uncover."
the little ones.
sing song [ep].
[astralwerks].

"won't you show us where your heart is?"

the longer i've gone without them, the more i miss sunday's best. thank god they've reinvented themselves, even if it's a new bright "indie-pop" sound, because their limitless energy can overshadow even the simplest of songs. when the verse, bridge, and chorus are all as catchy as each other, no listener loses. i bet they get tired from powerhousing the blasting chirping notes, and i even do just from listening to it, but that's a small price to pay for pop perfection.

check back soon for #s 45-41 and the initiation of qualler's top 25 songs of 2006 list!!! and please feel free to be even more nostalgic and look through our lists from last year, kept in mint condition below.

chris 30-01

2006-06-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

how's that for suspense and/or plot twists? yeah, it's pretty sweet. definitely not laziness.

HERE'S THE DEAL: qualler's nerdbox crashed a while back and he has no more list. i still do. he may or may not share what he remembers sometime in the future.

WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU, THE READER: enjoy a hurried, uber-belated rundown of my top 30 songs from last year. (i hope you remember how you can get these songs from me).

30 "maya."
this is a process of a still life.
light.
[firefly sessions].

moment @ 4:40

lifting the podium. post-trauma. pre-definition.

29 "cloud."
fischerspooner.
odyssey.
[capitol].

"i lost myself; you can't see how."

having sex. with gloves on. bright gloves for bright people.

28 "assassination polka."
zzzz.
palm reader.
[polyvinyl].

"i think i'm remembering that i was shot."

combustible celebration. a grass stain spreads. i disrobe.

27 "autumn into summer."
pelican.
the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw.
[hydra head].

moment @ 4:21

the bark ripped off the branches. eaten by way of melting. my face tingles.

26 "lavender."
oneida.
the wedding.
[jagjaguwar].

"all the while it's like i'm never ever there."

force is key. bring it up hard and then pour it away. with form.

25 "git."
skeletons & the girl-faced boys.
git.
[ghostly international].

"that was so teenage; this is heart attack."

weighted keys pulling down my hip bones. i get down in order to get around. shimmer.

24 "heartbeat."
annie.
anniemal.
[big beat].

"i won't forget the greatest time's ahead."

lip gloss is lighter. a firm shake. a wet car ride.

23 "one life to leave."
out hud.
let us never speak of it again.
[kranky].

"it fits us to die."

sleek mechanics. a rest reduction. can you press it just once?

22 "purple blaze."
ris paul ric.
purple blaze.
[academy fight song].

"the pen; the ink; the crayon to write it all again."

broken stream. destroy the fences and throw 'em in. pretend they're going somewhere.

21 "don't run our hearts around."
black mountain.
black mountain.
[jagjaguwar].

"what they said you could become; oh hit the lights."

this is as old as i get. perspiration, wrinkles, haze. it yawns.

20 "i'll believe in anything."
wolf parade.
apologies to the queen mary.
[sub pop].

"give me your eyes; i need sunshine."

demented grapefruits. they spark like light splitting through venetian blinds. shade.

19 "bees."
caribou.
the milk of human kindness.
[domino].

moment @ 3:32

some classic part of me. i can't process that shit. in a canoe, barely floating.

18 "dance 1."
kiss me deadly.
misty medley.
[alien8].

"you're standing up to the teeth and making out like a thief."

there is literally glitter all over me. three people smiling around me. a puff of cold exits me.

17 "men of station."
13 & god.
13 & god.
[anticon].

"we're troubled men just the same, but we're not as hell as you."

the glaciers are as warm as the blood in my veins. but they melt. they meld with us.

16 "the engine driver."
the decemberists.
picaresque.
[kill rock stars].

"there are powerlines in our bloodlines."

brushed up against a dusty book. my eyes burn, but like old lilacs burn. and ashes fill heads.

15 "connie."
el ten eleven.
el ten eleven.
[bar/none].

moment @ 1:55

from beneath my shining feet. i stretch. i fall and the gulf swallows me like summer does spring.

14 "delicate hands."
the long winters.
ultimatum.
[barsuk].

"i belong to someone gone before i was born."

just when transparence gave way to darkness. i always look back blinded. but unbound.

13 "oh mandy."
spinto band.
nice and nicely done.
[bar/none].

"i know nothing ever falls apart."

a sunrise at the end of an hour-long drama. feel synthetic. feel indestructable.

12 "vinyl words."
aoki takamasa + tujiko noriko.
28.
[fatcat].

moment @ 3:39

there is no nothing. only remnants of everything. take the scissors to your sternum.

11 "so much trouble."
matt pond pa.
several arrows later.
[altitude].

"it's hard to breathe buried in a pile of leaves."

a pinhole has potential. there is one piece that helps me feel. the space, not the stake.

10 "halo heads."
tristeza.
a colores.
[better looking].

moment @ 3:39

murders inside the walls. red lights burning the air. i stare, swirl, and dilate.

09 "end of freedom."
wilderness.
wilderness.
[jagjaguwar].

"what is ending?"

we're getting there. draw the shades because there has been only distance.

08 "born on the cusp."
american analog set.
set free.
[arts & crafts].

"it's bigger than love; oh it must be i know, because it always wins."

waking up. the stuff in your eyes feels slight. the bitter light.

07 "saeglopur."
sigur ros.
takk...
[geffen].

moment @ 3:59

punching whisps. an infantile brushstroke pours into me. there is no reason not to cry.

06 "(oh) god."
the most serene republic.
underwater cinematographer.
[arts & crafts].

"even this overpass sees more travel than us."

dis- vs. re-jointed. the crispness of the era/are/rae/aer/air replenishes and finishes she's.

05 "the shaping of a helpless joy."
saxon shore.
the exquisite death of saxon shore.
[burnt toast].

moment @ 3:10

crashing through shorelines. the breaths you take will burn your spine - free from body.

04 "rubber traits."
why?
elephant eyelash.
[anticon].

"i want to always be on film."

funneled pretend. these dreams are imaginings, not longings. cut.

03 "teen angst."
m83.
before the dawn heals us.
[mute].

"i hear the planet crying."

comets of you. thoughts are dispersed while limbs are disturbed; we can lay here.

02 "this year."
mountain goats.
the sunset tree.
[4ad].

"there will be feasting and dancing in jerusalem next year."

mini-this. pieces of future sprinkled on the field. i fear a presence.

01 "magnetic streetlights."
despistado.
the people of and their verses.
[jade tree].

"aesthetically reflects off your body how you see the world."

i am gone. slips away into new. i loathe music.

chris 35-31

2006-02-20T06:59:00.000-08:00

one of these backyard wrestlers is my list and the other is qualler's list (metaphorically).
you decide which one is ON FIRE.

35 "home."
six organs of admittance.
school of the flower.
[drag city].

"i never told no one else."

acoustic guitars are probably one of my least favorite instruments. so when someone writes a song that is not only gorgeous, but also destructive-sounding with an acoustic guitar, that's a pretty amazing feat. feedback cascades under and over the simple yet drastically mood-altering chord progression, almost as if there's a dying screaming voice in the background as the narrator confesses the unknown. someone obviously knows. you are a liar, sir. and you lie so well.

34 "7-8-9."
kill the vultures.
kill the vultures.
[locust music].

"got nothing but books got walls got nothing but walls got time."

my requisite hip-hop song of the year. i love the genre more and more every year, but still only one song sums up the year in hip-hop for me. grime is getting too glamorous but the ethic is still in this song without getting stretched or labeled. rhymes that are personal and literary without being self-centered crapmosphere. noisy broken chime loops and sunken drums only amplify this cry out to leave a stamp on the earth, the ocean, the sky, everywhere. but ultimately, we are only got nothing buts.

33 "hotline operator."
constantines.
tournament of hearts.
[sub pop].

"we'll put our blankets on the floor until the power gets restored."

no other song this year anti-builds as subtly and as artfully as this. dub reverb and wah pedal (two effects i would traditionally ban from all music) groove and shake slightly more and more violently as his voice fills with more and more nerve. there's is no escape for me but through verse. teeth grind and the kick drum pounds faster and faster. we are finally going somewhere. i realize who you are, therefore i realize who i am and what i will always be: like this song, i am over before i start.

32 "it'5!"
architecture in helsinki.
in case we die.
[bar/none].

"steal the feelings, don't focus on the flames girl."

fuckin' muppets. i know this is my 2nd muppets reference in this countdown, but that's the way this year has rolled. sorry muppet-haters. there goes animal bangin' on the hi-hat like it deserves a beating. and dr. teeth is jammin' out on the sax and the feather in his hat waves through the breeze. elmo yelps out the verses as janice and company come in at the chorus and make that eerily humanlike face that's shouting and smiling from ear to ear at the same time. you know what i'm talking about. and here comes piggy with her vocal solo - and yeah, you know we're clapping. because fabric and flesh coalesce as we realize youth and togetherness really are what we strive for as we age away.

31 "work and winter."
meredith bragg & the terminals.
volume 1.
[the kora].

"smiling as i feel our bodies align, yours and mine."

2nd song that both qualler and i share on our countdowns! that way you know it's EXTRA delicious. here's where i agree with wipert: i grope aimlessly for something "original" about this song to explain why it grabs ahold of me so tightly. i find nothing but myself in the song. there's nothing "original" about me. i'm just there, with every word, boring guitar strum and piano twinkling neutrally. but for me, it's anything but. it encompasses everything about how i survive, live, and dream. in fact, it's everyone. it's a "me" song for everyone. no wonder the most universal songs are boring as shit. how am i not myself? but for now, that's the last thought on my mind.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR AIM PROFILES TO LEARN HOW TO HEAR THESE SONGS!!!

Qualler 35-31

2006-02-17T17:01:00.000-08:00

I know. It's been too long. Get over it. I know you can when you see THIS!

Damn right. Me and Chris DO play Simpsons-style Clue, and we DO rock it Blogulator-style.

35. "Something"
Sam Prekop
Who's Your New Professor
[Thrill Jockey]

"i won't let go, so you know."

Ah, Prekop, ya old codger. According to Chris, members of The Most Serene Republic intersected with Prekop and basically said "Holy crap, Prekop, you rule," and Prekop, upon all accounts, sputtered, coughed, wrinkled his brow, spit in his tobaccey cup, chewed once, and said "Who the hell are you damned kids?"

34. "Since K Got Over Me"
The Clientele
Strange Geometry
[Merge]

"but everything's so vivid and so creepy since k got over me."

Oh man, it's about time chiming guitars made a comeback that didn't have to do with Chris Martin audiocrappin' all over us. But they aren't just chiming in the sense that they're high, Peter Buck-esque notes, they got the echo thing goin' too. And the vocals are pitch-perfect. Close your eyes and listen to it, and yeah, everything is so vivid and so creepy, but in that warm, brit-pop kinda way.

33. "Oh Mandy"
The Spinto Band
Nice and Nicely Done
[Bar/None]

"show me the re-run on the WB."

MANDOLIN! And lyrics about The WB. What a combo. I don't know what else to say other than the mandolin rocks hard on this one. Falsettos rock, too.

32. "Destroy Everything You Touch"
Ladytron
Witching Hour
[Rykodisc]

"destroy everything you touch today. destroy me this way."

Ladytron used to be all about the subtle lady-singer-as-robot thing with slinky beats and what not. Then this song destroys all of that in the first fifteen seconds. A euro-dance beat that makes you swear you're seeing strobe lights when you close your eyes. And yeah they still sing all cool-like. But hey, it's a lady-tron. What do you expect. ROBOTS.

31. "Pull Up The People"
M.I.A.
Arular
[XL]

"i got the bombs to make you blow. i got the beats to make you bang."

Ah M.I.A., you are so international, just like that dude from The Life Aquatic who sings David Bowie songs, and when I listen to you, I become a better, more well-rounded person. But seriously, M.I.A.'s producer Diplo rocks the shit out of the beat here with by far the creepiest production of the year, pulsing synth with enough rock to rock you. And M.I.A. is just kinda along for the ride.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR AIM PROFILES IF YOU WANT TO HEAR THESE SONGS!!!

chris 40-36

2006-02-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

peek-a-boo! our lists are full of surprises!

40 "the velvet cell."
gravenhurst.
fires in distant buildings.
[warp].

"to understand the killer, i must become the killer."

i'm sure there's some awful movie out there where the detective wants to get inside the killer's mind so desperately that he literally becomes the killer, or the twist ending is that the detective is the killer, but i just can't think of it right now. and it's so much better anyway when it's metaphorical and has driving instrumentation behind it. you can imagine your own beautiful noirish silent film in your mind when you close your eyes and listen to this song. oh and don't forget to add your own engimatic epilogue during the 2-minute instrumental outro!

39 "george washington."
stnnng.
dignified sissy.
[modern radio].

"i've never had an honest moment."

think about the similarities between politics and rebellious rock music's attitude toward politics (punk, post-punk, post-junk, whatever) when you listen to this song. it's scary how similar hateful, ignorant attitudes the two parties have. it's a playful yet deadly exercise in looking at multiple perspectives, and gets the root of the problem without even acknowledging. and we wonder why those rock against bush and future soundtrack of america compilations did little for their cause. oh artists. how a local band manages to rise above all of this and have the best guitarist and lyricist in town to boot is beyond me.

38 "young shavers."
giant haystacks.
blunt instrument.
[mistake].

"this is all there is."

what if pavement was from scotland and grew up on the minutemen instead of r.e.m.? finally some band is truly bringing back the slacker ethic to rock music and not faking it. "hey dude, that bass level is way too high." in response: "cool." sloppy guitars hanging barely together by the subdued drumwork and a slight need to recount youth without letting too may people know about it, including themselves. adolescence cannot be revisited, but at least it can be recreated musically.

37 "number 1."
goldfrapp.
number 1.
[mute].

"i'm like a dog to get you."

i've never heard a keyboard riff sound more like a saturday morning. upon first listen, this song sounds so plain and backgroundish. but you need to give it your full attention. i want everyone to give their full attention to all the songs on this list, but this one in particular needs you to stare at people living their lives while you sit back and concentrate on being yourself, listening to this song. at the closing fifty seconds, look in the mirror and realize you are filled with solid unadulterated calm joy. if you're lost between those states of content and happiness, this song is your anthem.

36 "yegelle tezeta."
mulatu astatke.
broken flowers: music from the film.
[decca].

moment @ 3:03

whether you loved or hated broken flowers, this song became a pervading soundtrack for your life for two hours. while goldfrapp demands full concentration, mulatu's free jazz groove demands to sit in the back of your ears, watching you, listening to you, providing you with a moment-by-moment musical dramatization of your stagnant life. you bop along with the rhythm section while the horns are the hiccups in your straight line. you stop, hesitate, but ultimately continue on until your life fades. but it ain't so bad, is it? LIFE BLOOMS IN ITS LACK, BIOTCHES.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR AIM PROFILES IF YOU WANT TO HEAR THESE SONGS!!!

Qualler 40-36

2006-02-08T20:52:00.000-08:00

Yeah yeah -- I don't have as many "cool" "intros" as "Chris" does. What have you, sons o'beeotches? Take this for a "photograph" to get you "interested" in this "psuedo-Blogulator post!"

Sadly, Hil' and gang don't appear on this list. But some other stuff does!

40. "Fuck You, Elton John"
Chin Up Chin Up
Chin Up Chin Up [Flameshovel]

"condition yourself that your conscience is a cordless. tear down your heart and build up a fortress."

Damn these guys can't sing worth crap. But that doesn't matter because HOLY CRAP they are TIIIIGHT. Chugging guitars that chime all over the place with like 17 different guitar parts going on that all seem to coincide. And crap they look hip as crap with jean jackets and while watching them live on a freakin' BED.

39. "One Zero"
Make Believe
Shock of Being [Polyvinyl]

"i'm making the bed with you in it. you need to incubate, just admit it."

Mike Kinsella scares the bejesus out of me. That's why I've had a hard time getting fully into Joan of Arc, despite Chris' obnoxious late-night calls pleading with me to just give The Gap a try or seven. But I can definitely roll with his "new band" (in quotations because it's basically just tha' Arc with sped-up tempos) and their frantic drums/time signature changes.

38. "Daft Punk is Playing At My House"
LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem [DFA/EMI]

"i'll show you da ropes kid, show you da ropes."

Don't believe that the indie crap is mainstream these days? Check this fun fact out: this here tune is the intro music for one Minnesota Twins sometimes-starting Shortstop, Jason Bartlett! Dude, the music guy at the Metrodome is totally into indie rock like LCD Soundsystem and Coldplay. Seriously, though, the LCD sets 'em up and knocks 'em down with this one.

37. "Work and Winter"
Meredith Bragg and The Terminals
Vol. I [Kora]

"smiling as i feel your breathing align -- it aligns with mine."

First off, Meredith's a DUDE. Crazy, huh. Second, The Dude Named Meredith nails everything that Ben "Plans? I Thought Our Album Was Called Plants? Oh Well, Lets Go With The Cover Anyway" Gibbard got wrong with the latest Death Cab album. That is, somewhat corny but heartfelt and meaningful lyrics, delicate melodies, and all-around gorgeousness. Way to go, Meredith, the dude.

36. "Black Grease"
The Black Angels
The Black Angels EP [Light in the Attic]

"so just kill kill kill kill."

What, STONER ROCK on the BLOGULATOR LIST? Wait, they're from Austin, TX, so it must be okay. Well, yeah, you're right. On paper, a slow, trodding song with echoey vocals repeating "kill kill kill" should be GARBAGE. But, kids, as Danny DeVito would say, it's all about the execution. The Black Angels can EXECUTE worth a thousand Danny DeVitos.

YOUR TURN, CHRISTOPH.

chris 45-41

2006-02-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

qualler and i love these songs almost as much as these commoners love each other (sooo much!!!):

45 "the soundless dawn came alive as cities began to mark the horizon."
red sparowes.
at the soundless dawn.
[neurot].

moment @ 3:11

i never knew the sound of a xylophone could foreshadow impending doom so well. glittery melodies brush away the sand from our eyes and we stretch and prepare ourselves for consciousness. as soon as we realize the life we've woken up to, the lead guitars sound like they're fighting against what we now know as the wreckage of morning that falls down so violently on us every 24 hours. whoa. epic.

44 "these re-occuring nightmares."
my project: blue.
ep.
[boompa].

"it's okay because we've fallen from our minds."

clap your hands say yeah are pretty good, but hopefully after they get over themselves, they'll end up sounding like my project: blue. or maybe if matt sharp ever got over all those girls, the new rentals album will sound kind of like this. but enough what ifs, the fact is that this is the best happy indie music in existence today. he's obviously torn apart over some girl just like the rest, but the difference is that the hand claps, doo-doos, spacey keys, psyche-out anti-guitar solo and shout-along outro give us the distinction between emotion and reality that we all need to learn.

43 "what else is there?"
royksopp.
the understanding.
[astralwerks].

"we cover distance but not together."

is she speaking english? can't wait to hear the new THE KNIFE cd, because i will again get to hear karen dreijer's sweet warbled-with-an-attitude voice. i don't know about you, but whenever i'm driving late at night on a foggy road in the middle of nowhere, i wish i would literally see a ghost from my past. royksopp pays attention to their shit too, because the beat is driving and the atmospherics are muddled and if you're wearing headphones and wade through the minimalistic epilogue, you'll hear the ghost!!! listen closely!!!

42 "the boat room."
mice parade.
bem-vinda vontade.
[bubblecore].

"the better one is the one who can breathe."

two songs in a row featuring sexy female vocals? who am i, p. arty? how this song sounds is how i wished corpse bride would have been. a warm yet pale duet between two parties distanced by death, but brought together through memory and music. the colorless guitar is the fading heartbeat, the cinematic looping xylophone riff is the sound of a neverending flashback. guest vocalist kristin anna valtysdsttir of mum is the voice in the dark corner of your windy bedroom. listen to her (and you will) and you will drown in your creation (and you should).

41 "the purple bottle."
animal collective.
feels.
[fatcat].

"sometimes i'm talkative and sometimes you're not talkative i know."

drugs blah blah pot hazy blah stoned yeah blah. fuck that. this song is about JUMPING. do you HEAR that floor tom? if gummi bears were still on the air, i would demand that this be their new theme song, because you KNOW that it's gummiberry juice in the purple bottle. it's GOT to be. i'm jumpin' all over my apartment just LISTENING to this, much less consuming the contents of which panda and avey describe lyrically. and metaphorical jumping around? FUCK yeah i'm experiencing that shit too.

Qualler 45-41

2006-01-31T16:37:00.000-08:00

45. "The Tulips"
Bloc Party
Tulips EP [Dim Mak]

"this could be an opportunity if you promise to let it go, cuz you're the one that i love."

A tensed-up high-hat, ringing guitars, and subdued vocals all build together, swirling into a frantic ending. Ah, brit-pop at its finest.

44. "Random"
Lady Sovereign
EVertically Challenged EP [Chocolate Industries]

"well, i'm right thurr', nah tell a lie cuz i'm right there, right hurr', nah, right there, now get off your churr, i mean chair."

That other foreigner chick with the letters in her name may be the easiest comparison, but Lady Sovereign sticks it to crappy American hip-hop and raps circles around Chingy and Nelly and all those other crappy suburbanite craptastic cuh-rappers in this sing-along tune.

43. "The Soundless Dawn Came Alive As Cities Began to Mark the Horizon"
Red Sparowes
At the Soundless Dawn [Neurot]

moment: 1:51.

Literally the sound of the sun rising. Sometimes, as we all know from reading this blog, music can say so much more than words ever can. Here, the simple guitar lick keeps building over a steadily increasing in volume rhythm section.

42. "Gimme Trouble"
Adult.
Gimmme Trouble [Thrill Jockey]

"no apologies, excuses, this is just to be expected."

I absolutely HATED this band the first time I heard them. Then I started grooving to the ultra-creepy-synth that sounds like an evil zombie robot running out of batteries. And hot damn, those echoing vocals scare the crap out of me. But it still makes me want to dance.

41. "Heartbeat"
Annie
Anniemal [Big Beat]

"feel my heartbeat trembling to the beat like a melody."

Norwegian power! And oh how powerful Annie is to the Norwegians. This song absolutely shouldn't be great, but somehow the mournful sounding organs in the background combined with the slow grooving beat just kills me. And if The Blogulator were to do a Smellden-style "hottest chicks" list, she'd definitely show up on it.

chris 50-46

2006-01-29T22:06:00.000-08:00

i look forward to doing this every year and now that i don't have to deal with the character limit of an aol instant messenger profile, prepare yourselves for the best top 50 songs countdown yet. so without further ado...

50 "empire."
treasure state.
migration.
[woodson lateral].

"why can't we just talk about the things that we don't talk about?"

i find it fitting that we start off this countdown with a take on a subgenre of music that has been following me since my real obsession with music first took hold of me. treasure state are one of the three or four post-midwest-emocore bands in existence today. they're actually from washington, but the sparkling neverending guitar lines that recall joan of arc, the earnest belted-out bassline and vocal anti-harmonies that recall das tpr, all the familiarities are firmly in place...but the difference is, in every breath that recalls hopelessness and giving up, it transcends beyond all of that because as they sing, "we needed it." and now it's time to push the fuck on.

49 "reunite on ice."
blood on the wall.
awesomer.
[the social registry].

"you gotta learn how to whisper before you shout, then you can be alone."

musical onomatopoeia is way better than actual onomatopoeia. the guitar actually sounds like it's on ice. there's ice fucking encapsulating it. constantly encapsulating and then the breakdown feels like it's getting crushed, cracking, and then freezing back into one piece again. and his voice sounds like he's the victim of all this tortured coldness. but as jigsaw has less subtly taught us, sometimes the victim is the one hurting himself, isn't he?

48 "the negatives..."
hood.
outside closer.
[domino].

"reassure me that life won't leave me behind, that songs aren't dead inside."

if qualler can make up genres, then so can i. this is dramatronica. there is dying and there is dancing. and i want to do both at the same time, and not in the same kind of way that i dance to the killers. with a quartet of strings knitting together broken beats and a broken body, falling and rising faster than waves at a seaside funeral. if we must die unhappy, we must die unhappy and pounding the earth with resistance.

47 "so begins our alabee."
of montreal.
the sunlandic twins.
[polyvinyl].

"i never want to be your little friendly abject failure."

you know that muppet babies episode where they shrink themselves with their imaginations and travel through scooter's body to try to figure out how to cure his cold? i mean when i was little, i used my imagination but never to such a degree that expressed my love for my friends such as the muppet babies did. they loved him and did not want to fail him as much kevin barnes loves and doesn't want to fail whoever he's singing to here. the "wuh-oh"s are the chorus of muppets calling out in solidarity and the bouncy skittery keyboards and electric drums propel the crew through the body to beat that fucking sickness.

46 "everybody sings."
supersystem.
always never again.
[touch & go].

"everyone cannot connect to each other."

if you got hit upside the head with a big chunk of plastic, would you think, why plastic? or would you just reel in pain and not think twice about the source of the pain? probably a little of both, depending on the velocity of the chunk of plastic. and the brightness/boldness of the plastic's coloration would probably come into play, as would the degree to which you could see the plastic before it came in contact with your skull. was it in your periphery? right smack in front of your dumb ass? were you in the dark? all of these are factors to consider when being hit with a synthetic bombshell (both figuratively and literally).

don't forget to talk to us on aim if you want to hear these songs!

Qualler 50-46

2006-01-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

50. "This Year"
The Mountain Goats
The Sunset Tree [4AD]

"i am gonna make it through this year if it kills me."

A simple piano riff building over the same guitar riff built over the same bass riff. Must be a boring, straight-forward piece of crap, eh? Doh, not at all. Simple, uplifting, and beautiful. Try to make it through this song without letting it kill you.

49. "City of Quartz"
Marianne Faithfull
Before the Poison [Naive]

"evil dancing through fire. whore of babylon. world famous clear ivory tower, longing for something numb."

Brigitte and I heard this song together for the first time sitting in my car, waiting outside Chris' house, drifting into sleep, and we both enjoyed the most peaceful/messed up lullabye of 2005. Marianne Faithfull's sounds like a peaceful witch having visceral sex with a music box while snow falls in the window outside.

48. "Brothers on a Hotel Bed"
Death Cab for Cutie
Plans [Atlantic]

"you may tire of me as our december sun is setting, because i'm not who i used to be."

Although Plans was in a whole as disappointing as we all expected it to be, somehow this song made it through, a mournful coda to the title track to their beloved 2003 breakthrough Transatlanticism. This is one of the few tracks where the lyrics don't make me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit, and the thick and affecting production makes you almost forget that this album is pretty much free of any meaningful guitar work.

47. "Cold as Hell" (ft. Beans)
Gheslian Poirier
Breakupdown [Chocolate Industries]

"with the clarity of a black cat on a white sofa, this shit is over."

Chilly, robotic sounding electro-hop (yes, I think I made that word up) beats are the perfect complement to Beans' jittery, dynamic rapping style. Check that synth and try not to do the electric worm on the dance floor.

46. "Never Win"
Fischerspooner
Odyssey [Capitol]

"if i was not me, i would hate me too."

Man, 2005 was all about the beginning of inDisco (indie + disco! Ha, I'm clever.) Fischerspooner's art-pop-dance-rock song goes down best blasting from your car stereo with everybody singing along the unforgettably catchy chorus and vocal breakdown. Bitter break-up songs have never been so suitable for the dance floor.