serebro

Here are my most played, favourite songs of February 2014:

20. ASTR – We Fall Down

19. Dum Dum Girls – Rimbaud Eyes

18. Elephant – Elusive Youth

17. Neon Trees – Sleeping With A Friend

16. Broods – Coattails

15. Serebro – Mi Mi Mi

Unrivalled preposterousness. Catchy as all hell.

14. Tokyo Police Club – Hot Tonight

13. Balance & Composure – Enemy

12. Lover Lover – The Fire

11. Lord Huron – Time To Run

10. Bombay Bicycle Club – Luna

Not surprised this was the second single. Rae Morris and Jack Steadman sound fantastic sharing the vocals.

9. Cage The Elephant – Spiderhead/Cigarette Daydreams/Telescope

The more I listen to Cage’s latest album, Melophobia, the more I enjoy it. Their sloppy accessibility is alluring. These three tracks are my current favourites.

Spiderhead:

Cigarette Daydreams:

Telescope:

8. Vance Joy – Riptide

Wonderful, sunny, joyous, summery pop music.

7. Darlia – Queen of Hearts

Embroidered with grunge and pop fabrics. The result is one catchy tune.

6. Katy B – Everything

On her latest album, Katy B’s eschewed the synthpop sound that so many of her contemporaries have clung to of late. In its stead, she’s gone (almost) Full House, a considerable achievement as DJ Tanner is nowhere to be found. “Everything” is a stud.

5. Against Me! – Fuckmylife666

One of the many fantastic songs on Against Me!’s latest LP. Though I couldn’t stop singing the line, “Don’t wanna live without teeth, don’t wanna die without bite,” the lyric that hits hardest is, “is your mother proud of your eyelashes?” Slaying gender ideals one burn at a time, Against Me! are back and at their fiery best.

4. Magic! – Rude

So, so, so, so catchy. I don’t think I’ll be sick of this song for a long time — if ever.

3. Bombay Bicycle Club – Feel

The opening eastern rhythm is out-of-this-world sensational. The guitar riff that joins the fray at 2:38 ups the ante even further, making “Feel” one of the best songs they’ve ever done. Bombay Bicycle Club can, quite simply, do whatever they want with songs, sounds, and music, such is their talent. What makes it so thrilling is that it all sounds so effortless. BBC are a one of a kind beauty.

2. Maximo Park – Drinking Martinis/Midnight On The Hill/Where We’re Going

Maximo Park are a treasure I hold very dearly in my heart. I wish they were a massive band the world over — it’s what they deserve. I wish they had a big enough fan base in Toronto to tour here so I don’t have to trek to the U.S. to see them. I can’t be greedy with so many wishes though, as they’re the embodiment of what I want my music to be: catchy for days and weeks and years. And that’s exactly what Maximo Park have been, for years: hard-working, staunch melodists, indefatigably likeable. Every album they’ve released is charming and fresh, and their latest, Too Much Information, is no different. Per usual, a handful of unbelievably good tunes comprise the record, with “Leave This Island” and the three tunes below the big winners. One thing that separates Maximo Park from the rest is that there’s something special, something indefinable about their songs that prevents them from getting tired. “Books From Boxes”, “Postcard of a Painting”, “By The Monument”, and “Questing, Not Coasting”, among many others, have not reached a point where I haven’t enjoyed listening to them. I believe these new set of songs will have a likewise affect on me. This is what many people call magic.

Drinking Martinis

Midnight On The Hill

Where We’re Going

1. Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues/Black Me Out/Paralytic States

From the first moment I heard these tunes to now, I’ve been in awe. From a song and melody perspective, these collection of songs are on par with the indomitable “Trash Unreal”, “Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart”, and “The Ocean” from their seminal New Wave LP. From a personal, lyrical, and culture-commenting perspective, the songs are even better. Lead singer Laura Jane Grace (formerly Tom Gabel) has undoubtedly gone through a lot. But she sounds so invigorated, energetic, chomping at the bit to tell a (her?) story that I’m so bloody thankful Against Me! are still around and adorned with their trademark ferocity. Transgender Dysphoria Blues will assuredly end up being one of the records of the year when 2014 is said and done, and these three tracks, along with lead single “True Trans Soul Rebel”, are the big reasons why. Culturally, it’s an important record, and musically, it’s a beast that bellows loudly and froths with intensity. It already sounds like a classic.

Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Black Me Out

Paralytic States

Pop goes 2012 (or 2012 goes Pop, depending on your syntactical druthers) is one accurate way of describing the musical zeitgeist of the year. Like I always do, and have done since as long as I can recall, I’ve Embraced The Pop. From unadulterated teeny-bop pop, to sax pop, to Spurs’ Coach Pop, to soda pop, to synth pop, there’s been a tonne of pop to get cozy with recently. And the revelatory thing is that much of it has been really, really good. I can’t recall a year where so many “designed to hit” pop songs have been fantastic. Sure, some pop, maybe a whole bunch depending on the platform(s) from which you get your music, is lifeless and dull and space-clogging shite. But that goes for all music really, and of all forms of pop culture too. It saddens me a little that many people choose to focus on trite pop and paint the entire genre (or amalgam of sub-genres as it were) with an unnecessary-, superfluous-coloured brush. I love reading lists, and seeing what other people have found great in a given year, but it strikes me as uninteresting at best and dishonest at worst when lists that purport to be the “best of” an entire year make a point of ignoring so much from the jump. A great song is a great song, and can be so for a variety of reasons. My list is welcoming to all types of songs; I’ll take your coat, but you’ve got to bring your own hooks if you want to come inside.

2012 has been such a good year for music (the best I would say since I started thinking about listing songs back in 2006), that I’ve had to tweak the rules a little bit to shine a light on all the songs that deserve to have a light (however small) shone on them. I’ve decided to make my 2012 list The Year of Partnerships, or as 1997 would say, collabos. As such, many songs on this list have partner songs, just so I can fit in all of the year’s goodness without hating myself, so “Top 100” is a loose directive that’s massaged a few times during the proceedings. As far as the actual rankings go, the process was almost like throwing darts. A song that ranked in the 90’s could be argued for in the 20’s, and a song in the 60’s could be a top 10 song in another year. But this is not another year, this is 2012, the year where Psy Gangnam-Styled his was into our hearts and ears, Mitt Romneyed his way into a solid 2nd place finish, Usain Bolted his way onto golden Olympus Mountain, Cats cemented their role as world policy deciders and undisputed internet champions, Felix Baumgartner jumped off the top rope for a massive Jimmy Superfly Snuka flying elbow, and the world ended in a Blaze of Glory, just like Bon Jovi Nostradamused, twenty-something years ago… which brings me back on point — I want to get this list out before literally, Pop Goes The World (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zUUtf7gOe8)

Here is the first part of my Top 100 Songs of 2012 list, beginning with tracks that fell just short.

Honourable mention: Alanis Morisette – Empathy; Alberta Cross – Lay Down; Animal Kingdom – Strange Attractor; Ben Howard – Only Love/Esmerelda; Boys Noize – Got It (f. Snoop Dogg/OS Snoop Lion); Breton – Jostle; The Boom Circuits – Everything and Nothing; California Wives – Purple; Chrome Canyons – Generations; Danny Brown – Grown Up; Eels – Peach Blossom; Flo Rida f. Sia – Wild Ones; Fun. – Some Nights; Future Islands – Crish (Javelin remixxx)/Cotton Flower; Green Day – Let Yourself Go/Fell For You/Wild One/Amy; How to Destroy Angels – On The Wing; Julio Bashmore – Troglodytes; Kate Boy – Northern Lights; Katy B. – Anywhere In The World; Kesha vs. The Beatles – Tik Tok Together; Lana Del Rey – Body Electric; Lawrence Arabia – Apple Pie Bed; Lifehouse f. Natasha Bedingfield – Between The Raindrops; Lioness – The Night; Linkin Park – Burn It Down/Castle Of Glass; The Lumineers – Ho Hey; Mac Miller – Donald Trump/Knock Knock; Madonna – Gang Bang; Major Lazer – Get Free; Maps & Atlases – Important/Fever; Morning Parade – Youth/Headlights; Mother Mother – Let’s Fall In Love; MYPET – Pays To Know; The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather; Nicki Minaj – Freedom; One Direction – One Thing/More Than This/I Wish/Tell Me A Lie/Stole My Heart; Our Lady Peace – Heavyweight; Parade – Light Me Up; Passenger – Let Her Go; Phantogram – Don’t Move; Plants and Animals – Lightshow; Purity Ring – Obedear; Red Hot Chili Peppers – Magpies On Fire; Santigold – Disparate Youth; Six Organs of Admittance – Hold But Let Go; Schoolboy Q – There He Go; The Tallest Man on Earth – Leading Me Now; Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards; Tomas Barfod f. Nina Kinert – November Skies; The Tragically Hip – At Transformation/About This Map; Twin Shadow – Five Seconds; Villagers – Nothing Arrived; The Wanted – Glad You Came; Walk The Moon – Anna Sun; Yacht Club – Flash; Zammuto – YAY; Donkeyboy – Caught In a Life.

100. a) A.C. Newman – I’m Not Talking