Much like I did last year, I wanted to compile a few top ten lists for the year (albums and films to follow), partially because I’m a nerd and like lists, and partially because there’s been plenty of great stuff this year that I’d like to recommend to you all. So without further ado, here’s my list of favourite songs of the year, feel free to talk about the selections, and any of your musical highlights/lowlights in the comments section.
Up until this point I’d not been able to make up my mind about Crystal Castles – I’m a sucker for any sort of retro-sounding synth, and Alice Glass’ confrontational attitude makes for a good read (even if it does mean that their shows are haphazard), but their songs just seemed a bit derivative and insubstantial. Baptism however is a wonderful thing – a religious tract delivered by a robot, it’s sort of a version of Battlestar Galactica that you can dance to.
Of course everything about the ‘witch house’ genre is ridiculous, from its gloomily adolescent aesthetic, to the ungoogleable band names (apparently †‡†should be written and pronounced as rrritualzzz), to the fact that nobody’s that sure if it actually is a genre or not. But as long as it keeps turning up tracks as aggressively uplifting as this, it’s still worth keeping an eye on.
In which the Oxford lads grow up a bit. Melancholy, epic and absolutely gorgeous – particularly in the second half.
4. Kanye West Featuring Bon Iver – Lost in the World
Kanye once again wheels out his brilliant production skills to turn something kind of lazy (in this case a track mostly built around a sample of Bon Iver’s auto-tune folk curiosity Woods) into something immense and euphoric.
Lovely, melancholic, sunny old-fashioned indie. I think I pretty much covered it all in my review of their album here.
6. Janelle Monáe Featuring Saul Williams – Dance or Die
I’ve not quite got the Archandroid, despite loving the concept behind it. If it didn’t seem quite so overdone I would have been raving about the album, but as it is it’s just quite a long album with a handful of great songs, of which this is my favourite (if she’d bothered to write an end to it, it’d be my song of the year).
Everybody likes Robyn, she’s feisty, funny and has a great ear for a pop hook. The Body Talk series may have verged on overkill, but still threw up plenty of highlights, including this.
8. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – I Built Myself a Metal Bird
Silver Mt. Zion (under the numerous variations of their name) have, throughout their career, lived in the shadow of their predecessor Godspeed You! Black Emperor (whose return this year was possibly the highlights of live music in 2010). Although they’ve yet to release an album that rivals anything under the Godspeed name, Metal Bird’s garage rock with a string section is a wild and fascinating six minutes.
Much like Warpaint, Norway is not anything particularly original or unexpected. It is sad, soaring and generally lovely though.
10. The Magnetic Fields – You Must Be Out of Your Mind
Realism may not have been Stephin Merritt at his best (sadly neither was his other offering this year, his score for the musical of Coraline), but lead track You Must Be Out of Your Mind was a good example of his ability to mix caustic wit with sweet melodies.
