December 10, 2012

Best of 2012: The Songs


60-51
Porcelain Raft - "Shapeless & Gone"
Damien Jurado - "Museum of Flight"
Lord Huron - "Time To Run"
Andy Human - "Land of The Dinosaurs"
The Men - "Candy" // Stream
White Wires - "Down On My Own"
Breakfast In Fur - "Whisper"
Beach Fossils - "Careless"
Divine Fits - "Shivers" // Stream
Natural Child - "Blind Owl Speaks" // Stream

50-41
Burnt Ones - "Meet The Golden One"

Ty Segall - "Would You Be My Love" // Stream
FIDLAR - "Awkward Feat. Kate Nash"
Gentleman Jesse - "We Got To Get Out Of Here" // Stream
Tiger Waves - "Weekends"
Here We Go Magic - "How Do I Know"
Sic Alps - "Moviehead" // Stream
Shark Week - "If You Want Me To Stay (For A While)"
Foxygen - "Shuggie"

40-31

FIDLAR - "Cheap Beer"
La Sera - "Please Be My Third Eye"
So Many Wizards - "Lose Your Mind"
Deep Time - "Clouds"
Lands & Peoples - "Ghosts"
Ty Segall & White Fence - "I Am Not A Game"
Bare Wires - "School Days Are Over" // Stream

Natural Child - "DTV" // Stream

30-21
Hundred Visions - "Where Do I Sign?"
Line & Circle - "Roman Ruins"

Ava Luna - "Sequential Holdings" // Stream



Jessie Ware - "Sweet Talk" // Stream
Teen Mom - "I Wanna Go Out"
Haim - "Forever"

20-11
Eternal Summers - "You Kill"
Damien Jurado - "So On, Nevada" // Stream


King Tuff - "Unusual World" // Stream
Eternal Summers - "Millions"
Hospitality - "Friends of Friends"
Woods - "Impossible Sky" // Stream
Dum Dum Girls - "Lord Knows"
Plateaus - "Do It For You"

Pure Bathing Culture - "Lucky One" // Stream
The percussion on "Lucky One" sounds like a metronome converted into a drippy faucet, and it's over this simple yet insistent beat that Pure Bathing Culture unleash the most accessible and deeply addictive melodies off their debut EP. Like a paddle cutting into water, singer Sarah Versprille expertly carves and propels her way through clean-toned washes of guitar to deliver her sticky sweet resonating chorus: "Every time I stand up straight, I hear you calling her name."

Eternal Summers - "I Love You" // Stream
"You Kill" and "Millions" might seem like the clear cut singles on Eternal Summers' latest long player, but it's the quirky, spastic, and blissful fun of "I Love You" that shows off this band's truly original voice. When you fall in love, it's hardly ever a cool or calming feeling. Sometimes, as "I Love You" demonstrates, it's a primal surge where you just want to run screaming, arms flailing through the hallways, sidewalks, and streets like a crazed idiot.

Grass Widow - "Under The Atmosphere" // Stream
On "Under The Atmosphere," Grass Widow at turns sounds like a church choir, the riveting rhythm section of a surf rock band, and the post-punk torch-bearers of The Neo Boys. The polyphonic harmonies are nothing short of cosmic: a spine-tickling, mesmerizing, haunting, and vivid trip into space and beyond.



Fletcher C. Johnson - "Send Me Your Love"
Genre-hopping punk-rock weirdo Fletcher C. Johnson utilizes a candy-sweet falsetto on his infectious soul number "Send Me Your Love" that is as playful and comical as it is straight-faced and sincere. Be warned: this stirring number just breaks the two-minute mark, but it begs for instantaneous and continuous replays.


TV Torso - "No Idea Why"
"No Idea Why," off our favorite EP of the year, is an auditory confection of the highest order with its behemoth, pulsating, inner-ear-massaging bass, woozy tremolo-effected vocals, and punctuating sledgehammer drumming. Frontman Matt Oliver, who also runs the Big Orange studio in Austin, seems like a perfectionist that strains over every detail of the recording process. And that's a good thing, as "No Idea Why" might be his magnum opus.

Warm Soda - "Reaction"
The hip-shaking glitter-covered sound of glam-rock and the sharp ear-snagging melodies of power-pop have never melded as perfectly as in the first single from Oakland's Warm Soda. "Reaction" is all amplified adrenaline, syrupy coats of fuzz, and a giant arena-worthy chorus delivered with subtlety and charm by the muffled whisper of Matthew Melton.



Tanlines - "All of Me"
"Sing along when you need it," sings Tanlines on "All of Me." Consider the lyric a prescription from the doctor: when you're feeling shitty and your spirits are down, the bubbly upbeat synths and celebratory lyrics of this populist dance anthem prove to be a bonafide and infinitely refillable remedy.



Terry Malts - "Tumble Down"
"Tumble Down" contains the giant swirling kind of chorus that you shout from the top of your lungs. With the cutting simplicity of The Ramones and the giant fuzz-slopping tonality of The Jesus & Mary Chain, "Tumble Down" weaves a tale of kids drinking under the moonlight and falling down into the dark abyss below that represents growing up, falling in love, and perhaps more simply, life.


Father John Misty - "Nancy From Now On"
Josh Tillman's "Nancy From Now On" is a gorgeous track that shows off the singer's impressive range, but also more impressively, contains several of the weirdest and very best lyrical phrases of the year, such as "Pour me another drink and punch me in the face, you can call me Nancy" and "I got my right hand stamped in the concentration camp, where my organs scream slow down man."


Lace Curtains - "High Fantasy"
Part homage to and part conversation with Candy Darling, the Warhol regular and transexual subject of The Velvet Underground's "Candy Says," Michael Coomers' "High Fantasy" follows a simple guitar lick into a staggeringly thoughtful and nuanced slice of rock 'n' roll poetry that features what is simply the year's very best chorus: "You sit in judgement / Analyze my skin / Point out all of my imperfections / You romanticize the saints and fetishize familiar / Oh what a Judas you've become."



Lace Curtains

12 comments:

  1. Great list. Nancy From Now On is so underrated

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  2. I appreciate the post! I'm loving HAIM right now! I came across the video they have for "Don't Save Me" recently, and can't believe I hadn't found them sooner. Definitely check it out :) http://vevo.ly/TSvd6l

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  3. Thanks for just making my evening with this glorious playlist. Much appreciated! Tanlines, Porcelain Raft and Hospitality are the BEST! Lovelovelove this list.

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  4. PaRQuET CoURts !! Y'all bros need to jack this record.

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  5. There are blogs where I like about a third of what they post (e.g. Stereogum) and then there are blogs where I like about 90% of what they post. Everybody Taste is definitely in the latter category, and there are 60 great reasons why above. Thanks for all of the great music you've shared this year.

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  6. Excellent work this year dude, a lot of my favorite songs/albums/artists of the year came from ET. One of them though, The Tough Shits, ain't repped on this list. Just surprised, alls I'm saying. Keep on keeping. Ditto on Parquet Courts from the comment above. Also Royal Headache, Spider Bags, Boomgates, TRMRS, etc

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    1. Tough Shits will be VERY high on the best album list. To me, it's just such a perfect album, it's hard to separate any single track from the piece as a whole.

      Definitely need to listen to more Parquet Courts. Only heard "Stoned and Starving," which is hilarious.

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  7. namasté lantz45 http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-great-form/id414975612?i=414975667&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

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  8. Enjoying all of your end of year lists. It's great to find a music blog that has shares so much of my musical taste yet continuously provides me with new discoveries. Great work!

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  9. Fantastic list - thank you.

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  10. Although "Punch me in the face and call me Nancy" is a hard to beat opener, I like Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings better. Great list though! Lots of ones in there I hadn't heard before, and lots that validate my already excellent and totally humble taste :) I can't wait to see the 2013 list!

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