With my picks for best albums of 2011 posted last week, what I’d like to do now is share a playlist of my favorite songs for the year. This isn’t a strict ranking of the best songs – it’s just to hard to quantify individual songs – but rather a collection of great tracks from 2011 releases I haven’t talked about already. I also went with a playlist this year, rather then a top ten list, so that I could share a wider slice of the music that captured my attention.
Colby’s Top Songs Playlist for 2011:
“My Mistakes” -Eleanor Friedberger, Last Summer. St Vincent’s album received a lot more critical attention then Friedberger’s but I don’t think Annie Clark put out anything as good as this deceptively catchy song.
“Little Talks” – Of Monsters and Men, Into the Woods EP. We’ll have to wait and see what this group does with their first full-length release coming out next year but the first track of their EP is super catchy folk-pop.
“By Your Hand” – Los Compesinos!, Hello Sadness. As you might guess from the album title, these guys have adopted a darker tone (lyrically, anyway) but I like it – I think it gives their music better staying power and this album was close to making my “Best of” list.
“Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster the People, Torches. Definitely the most mainstream song in my playlist but Sarah loves this track and I have to admit I can’t help but whistle along.
“Kids” – The Features, Wilderness. Kind of similar to “Pumped Up Kicks,” but I like that this song’s got more noise, less pop.
“Let’s All Go to the Bar” – Deer Tick, Divine Providence. You might recognize John J. McCauley’s voice from the Middle Brother album I talked about but with his main band Deer Tick, they put out another strong alt country album dripping in booze.
“Codeine” – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Here We Rest. “If there’s two things that I hate, it’s having to cook and trying to date.” This song makes me realize country music may be at it’s best when it speaks from the jaded old man inside us all.
“Hard Times” – Gillian Welch, The Harrow & the Harvest. The sound for this album wasn’t anything different for Welch, just a continual maturing and refining of the song writing craft and this song will be added to her list of classics (which is already pretty long).
“Tenere (The Desert, My Home)” – Bombino, Agadez. For me, 2011 was the year of discovering incredible guitarists from the world music scene. With Tinariwen’s album Tassili and this release by Bombino, I may have no idea what they’re singing about, but the amazing guitar work is universal.
“Art of Almost” – Wilco, The Whole Love. Somewhere down the road they will make a “Best of Wilco” album and narrowing down the catalog to an album’s workth of songs will be insanely difficult. I guarantee this song will be on there. However, I have to agree with my friend Scott who said that this first track on Wilco’s new album is “too rad… It makes me disappointed in the rest of the album.”
“Hold On” – Alabama Shakes, Alabama Shakes EP. This band shares some things (unique female voice, indie-rock sound rooted in traditional blues/soul, a reputation for great live shows) with one of my favorite bands of the last five years – The Heartless Bastards – and I’m excited to see how they follow up this incredible first single.
“Bright Lights” – Gary Clark Jr., The Bright Lights EP. Yes, very similar to The Black Keys sound but with a little less blues and a little more R&B – plus a guitar style that I think Jimi would appreciate.
“Sunrise” – Childish Gambino, Camp. I like quite a bit of this album and Glover shows it takes a special rapper to drop references to NPR and pull it off.
Not More Music Crap? 