What a moody musical year! It was hard not to be, given [arm sweep in the direction of the internet and news media], and that was absolutely reflected in the music that struck a chord with me.
(Hey, I'm writing this in the future! 2021! Donald Trump isn't president anymore but some other bad stuff happened, but you can also listen to this mix on Spotify!)
1. Drive - REM
I finally got Automatic for the People at the end of 2017, and early in the new year, I was on a late-evening errand, driving the dark, wooded back roads of a Minneapolis suburb, locked into this song's atmosphere. I'd heard it dozens of times on the radio over the years, but this time it kicked my ass. The layering of elements, starting with Peter Buck's spare ostinato guitar, adding sequentially the bass, the vocals, the drums, and piece-by-piece, the string section, before the bottom drops out and we're left with the core group, gives the whole thing a dark, Southern Gothic feel. The lyrics, meanwhile, are preaching self-motivation and participation; reportedly Stipe was inspired to write it by his involvement encouraging youth voting in the early 90s. So we're kicking off the year with grim, politically tinged determination. FEELS ABOUT RIGHT.
2. Finesse (Remix) - Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B
New Jack Swing was the style of pop music when I began listening to current pop music, and I love the textures of the beat programming, the characteristic sampled orchestra hits. Two of my favorite cassettes of the day were Rhythm Nation and the Ghostbusters II soundtrack. So this song was a tidy little pile of catnip. That the video pays tribute to In Living Color, which I spent years sneakily watching in the basement on Sunday nights, is a cherry on top.
3. Modern Love - David Bowie
Another familiar song that grabbed me anew, this time while watching a trailer for Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's "Frances Ha" during a Letterboxd crawl. One of the most danceable Bowie tracks.
4. An Insult to the Fact Checkers - They Might Be Giants
TMBG have been so prolific in the teens that they've been hard to keep up with. This was my favorite track off the first of three (!) albums they released last year.
5. The Joke - Brandi Carlile
Absolute stunner of a song, my favorite of the year. Play it loud. Carlile has described this as a response to the 2016 election, and the sense of shock and defeat that so many of us felt. It's beautifully hopeful at a time when signs of hope are scarce. Writing this in September of 2019, I can say: Congressional Dem leadership, you are letting this song down! Get your head in the game!
6. Maria Tambien - Khruangbin
The spacey, reverb-heavy, mideast-inflected instrumental funk I didn't know I needed. (See also this fun video on youtube of them playing through a dozen hip-hop hooks and other influences.)
7. Make Me Feel - Janelle Monáe
2018's horniest summer jam continues Monáe's streak of excellence. There were several excellent tracks on Dirty Computer, but I gotta go with this one for its clear Prince influence and tick-tock tongue-clucking.
8. Under the Wheels - Calexico
Saw a reference describing Calexico as "desert noir," which I like. This song is a mood piece of fear and anxiety in a threatening, unstable society, set to a reggae beat that reminds me of the first Gorillaz record.
9. Keep Yourself Alive - Queen
This jumped out at me during a rewatch of Freaks & Geeks, in the scene in which a terrified Sam climbs a pyramid of cheerleaders. It was an excellent non-literal use of what I sort of considered a backbench Queen song. (This was months before Bohemian Rhapsody used the song for the band's first gig with Mercury.)
10. Nothing Compares 2 U - Prince
Given Prince's reticence to open his vaults for public consumption, I have mixed feelings about his estate's mining of same. BUT! There is so much good stuff in there, and I love being able to hear his original demo for this song. This means that the Sinéad O'Connor version we almost all heard first was chronologically the third significant recording, after this one and the obscure album version by The Family. I still think O'Connor's is the best, but it's interesting hearing these different interpretations and what they choose to emphasize. Not surprisingly, the demo bears a lot of resemblance to the live version Prince released as a duet with Rosie Gaines a few years after the big hit.
11. Over and Over and Over - Jack White
Jack White can keep releasing bottom heavy, fuzzy, guitar-hook driven songs, and I'll keep enjoying 'em.
12. Lash Out - Alice Merton
Merton's got a hell of a voice, similar in range and power to Florence Welch, and here it's well-suited to belt out an anthem of frustration and anger. Again, something to which I responded strongly 2018.
13. Street Fighter Mas - Kamasi Washington
I enjoy that saxophonist Kamasi Washington is crossing jazz over into the pop world, and especially dig the cinematic sweep of this track. Washington describes this as his personal theme song for his hypothetical career as a professional arcade gamer. Check out the video, which is absurd and funny, and while you're at it, check out Washington's statement about his background with Street Fighter.
14. I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) - Aretha Franklin
Wasn't super familiar with this one prior to Franklin's passing in August, but a college classmate posted it on Twitter. I'm very grateful for that, because it's tremendous.
15. Curtains - Elton John
The end credits of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" tend to be anachronistic for the show's 1950's setting, which is fine, as it introduced me to this song that feels like it's all a grand, slow-building intro for four and a half minutes, and then feels like a grand outro for two and a half minutes.
16. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette" special drew my attention to this moving, anthemic march about finding the strength to go on through highs and lows.
17. A Pearl - Mitski
Mitski's sound on this track seems to have stepped out of a time machine from 1995 and hooked up with a horn section, and I love it.
18. Suspirium - Thom Yorke
Gentle and creepy. I didn't see the movie until earlier this year. It was ok. Honestly, the opening credits sequence, set to this song, was one of my favorite bits.
19. Humility - Gorillaz ft. George Benson
A sunny, summery track about loneliness. There are hints of a political subtext, given that writer/singer Damon Albarn has spoken out against the isolationist strain of recent western politics. Despite adoring the Gorillaz first album, each subsequent one kind of has to sneak into my attention. This time around, that came via Matthew Perpetua's characteristically fine writeup of the song.
20. Love It If We Made It - The 1975
And we end with this song's observation on our troubled times, structured a bit like a narrowly-focused "We Didn't Start The Fire," though less on-the-nose. It strikes a hopeful, if not exactly certain tone for the future, and I cannot think of a better way to finish this mix of my musical 2018.
(Bonus track: Into The Trap - John Williams / London Symphony Orchestra
I don't usually list out all the also-rans that I cut from the mix, but I did want to note a song that I had on for most of the year but finally cut when I was finalizing the playlist. Both kids got into Star Wars this past year, and this is one of my favorite pieces of music from the original trilogy. As such, I listened to it A LOT.)
1. Drive - REM
I finally got Automatic for the People at the end of 2017, and early in the new year, I was on a late-evening errand, driving the dark, wooded back roads of a Minneapolis suburb, locked into this song's atmosphere. I'd heard it dozens of times on the radio over the years, but this time it kicked my ass. The layering of elements, starting with Peter Buck's spare ostinato guitar, adding sequentially the bass, the vocals, the drums, and piece-by-piece, the string section, before the bottom drops out and we're left with the core group, gives the whole thing a dark, Southern Gothic feel. The lyrics, meanwhile, are preaching self-motivation and participation; reportedly Stipe was inspired to write it by his involvement encouraging youth voting in the early 90s. So we're kicking off the year with grim, politically tinged determination. FEELS ABOUT RIGHT.
2. Finesse (Remix) - Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B
New Jack Swing was the style of pop music when I began listening to current pop music, and I love the textures of the beat programming, the characteristic sampled orchestra hits. Two of my favorite cassettes of the day were Rhythm Nation and the Ghostbusters II soundtrack. So this song was a tidy little pile of catnip. That the video pays tribute to In Living Color, which I spent years sneakily watching in the basement on Sunday nights, is a cherry on top.
3. Modern Love - David Bowie
Another familiar song that grabbed me anew, this time while watching a trailer for Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's "Frances Ha" during a Letterboxd crawl. One of the most danceable Bowie tracks.
4. An Insult to the Fact Checkers - They Might Be Giants
TMBG have been so prolific in the teens that they've been hard to keep up with. This was my favorite track off the first of three (!) albums they released last year.
5. The Joke - Brandi Carlile
Absolute stunner of a song, my favorite of the year. Play it loud. Carlile has described this as a response to the 2016 election, and the sense of shock and defeat that so many of us felt. It's beautifully hopeful at a time when signs of hope are scarce. Writing this in September of 2019, I can say: Congressional Dem leadership, you are letting this song down! Get your head in the game!
6. Maria Tambien - Khruangbin
The spacey, reverb-heavy, mideast-inflected instrumental funk I didn't know I needed. (See also this fun video on youtube of them playing through a dozen hip-hop hooks and other influences.)
7. Make Me Feel - Janelle Monáe
2018's horniest summer jam continues Monáe's streak of excellence. There were several excellent tracks on Dirty Computer, but I gotta go with this one for its clear Prince influence and tick-tock tongue-clucking.
8. Under the Wheels - Calexico
Saw a reference describing Calexico as "desert noir," which I like. This song is a mood piece of fear and anxiety in a threatening, unstable society, set to a reggae beat that reminds me of the first Gorillaz record.
9. Keep Yourself Alive - Queen
This jumped out at me during a rewatch of Freaks & Geeks, in the scene in which a terrified Sam climbs a pyramid of cheerleaders. It was an excellent non-literal use of what I sort of considered a backbench Queen song. (This was months before Bohemian Rhapsody used the song for the band's first gig with Mercury.)
10. Nothing Compares 2 U - Prince
Given Prince's reticence to open his vaults for public consumption, I have mixed feelings about his estate's mining of same. BUT! There is so much good stuff in there, and I love being able to hear his original demo for this song. This means that the Sinéad O'Connor version we almost all heard first was chronologically the third significant recording, after this one and the obscure album version by The Family. I still think O'Connor's is the best, but it's interesting hearing these different interpretations and what they choose to emphasize. Not surprisingly, the demo bears a lot of resemblance to the live version Prince released as a duet with Rosie Gaines a few years after the big hit.
11. Over and Over and Over - Jack White
Jack White can keep releasing bottom heavy, fuzzy, guitar-hook driven songs, and I'll keep enjoying 'em.
12. Lash Out - Alice Merton
Merton's got a hell of a voice, similar in range and power to Florence Welch, and here it's well-suited to belt out an anthem of frustration and anger. Again, something to which I responded strongly 2018.
13. Street Fighter Mas - Kamasi Washington
I enjoy that saxophonist Kamasi Washington is crossing jazz over into the pop world, and especially dig the cinematic sweep of this track. Washington describes this as his personal theme song for his hypothetical career as a professional arcade gamer. Check out the video, which is absurd and funny, and while you're at it, check out Washington's statement about his background with Street Fighter.
14. I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) - Aretha Franklin
Wasn't super familiar with this one prior to Franklin's passing in August, but a college classmate posted it on Twitter. I'm very grateful for that, because it's tremendous.
15. Curtains - Elton John
The end credits of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" tend to be anachronistic for the show's 1950's setting, which is fine, as it introduced me to this song that feels like it's all a grand, slow-building intro for four and a half minutes, and then feels like a grand outro for two and a half minutes.
16. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette" special drew my attention to this moving, anthemic march about finding the strength to go on through highs and lows.
17. A Pearl - Mitski
Mitski's sound on this track seems to have stepped out of a time machine from 1995 and hooked up with a horn section, and I love it.
18. Suspirium - Thom Yorke
Gentle and creepy. I didn't see the movie until earlier this year. It was ok. Honestly, the opening credits sequence, set to this song, was one of my favorite bits.
19. Humility - Gorillaz ft. George Benson
A sunny, summery track about loneliness. There are hints of a political subtext, given that writer/singer Damon Albarn has spoken out against the isolationist strain of recent western politics. Despite adoring the Gorillaz first album, each subsequent one kind of has to sneak into my attention. This time around, that came via Matthew Perpetua's characteristically fine writeup of the song.
20. Love It If We Made It - The 1975
And we end with this song's observation on our troubled times, structured a bit like a narrowly-focused "We Didn't Start The Fire," though less on-the-nose. It strikes a hopeful, if not exactly certain tone for the future, and I cannot think of a better way to finish this mix of my musical 2018.
(Bonus track: Into The Trap - John Williams / London Symphony Orchestra
I don't usually list out all the also-rans that I cut from the mix, but I did want to note a song that I had on for most of the year but finally cut when I was finalizing the playlist. Both kids got into Star Wars this past year, and this is one of my favorite pieces of music from the original trilogy. As such, I listened to it A LOT.)
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