Here’s what I’m listening to these days, along with a few exceptions:
1. Songs I feel are safe for my children to listen to. The definition of “safe” varies based on the parents and the kids. For me, “safe” means (for the most part) that I wouldn’t mind if my elementary-school daughter sang the lyrics. One of my favorite songs this year is Phoenix – Trying to Be Cool (10). but “Tell me that you want me, tell me that you want me” is not something I want my 5-year-old singing. Are those the most offensive lyrics for a child to be singing? Of course not! But I can barely handle my kid singing along to Billie Jean. Speaking of things that shouldn’t be near children, here’s a remix of that song with R. Kelly.
2. Folk music–when there’s a guy singing about hills or cold weather or growing old or a country road, all while playing acoustic guitar, blues guitar, and/or mandolin, and your child says: “this song is boring.” I’m underxagerating slightly, but you get what I mean, right? Gregory Alan Isakov – Amsterdam (13), for example. Beautiful song but my kid hates it. Hey, when I was five I didn’t like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Or Bob Dylan. The Dad Classics. Generally, the Dad Classics are songs your kids don’t appreciate now but might later in life.
ALBUMS. My favorite album of the year is Bankrupt!, by Phoenix, the band from France that sings in English. Besides the aforementioned Trying to Be Cool, I like The Real Thing (6) and Drakkar Noir/Chloroform (2). I am cheating already; Drakkar Noir and Chloroform are two separate tracks, but they go together like…two French things that go together. Croissants and indifference. These two tracks are in a symbiotic relationship of synthpop and rattling bass. Together they make one of my favorite songs of the year, and so here I cheat by including them as one song.
I also enjoyed HAIM‘s album, especially The Wire (4), Falling (18), and the title track, Days are Gone. And so did my wife. But I’ll tell you what my wife didn’t enjoy: Este’s Bassface:
(source: NBC via Buzzfeed)
My third and final favorite album is John Mayer‘s Paradise Valley, and a classic example of the two types of music I identified earlier coming together. I don’t think it is as intriguing as last year’s album, but I love folk/blues music and I love songs that speak to themes that are family-friendly: friendship, aloneness, aging, discovery, adventure. Dad Music. Take Wildfire (1) at one end and Badge and Gun at the other. The former celebrates the value of togetherness with some slide guitar, the latter has horse clomps and explores aloneness. But both songs are kid-friendly in the sense that togetherness and aloneness are ideas they should explore. So it’s a very good album in that sense. I also like I Will Be Found (17) and Who You Love (9). My daughter thinks that last song is about her and her little brother. It’s cute.
Lastly–and this is probably most important–Mayer is a wizard with the guitar even on the simplest songs, and this is especially apparent at his shows. While it was on last year’s album, I love the extended live version of If I Ever Get Around to Living (Live at Red Rocks) (5), especially the back half. And Call Me The Breeze (14) is a great cover of one of my favorite blues songs by J.J. Cale.
LATE TO THE GAME, BAND EDITION. Here are some songs by popular bands I have never listened to before this year, which makes me an anti-hipster, which I guess makes me really really hip? I don’t know. The National – Pink Rabbits, Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know?, The Shins – Simple Song (3) and No Way Down. All good albums, too.
LATE TO THE GAME, SONG EDITION. Here are some songs from late 2012.
- Electric Guest – Troubleman (11). 9 minutes of goodness.
- Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams (15). Something weird: most of the songs on this album use a AABB rhyming scheme. No really, go take a look at the lyrics. Is that weird? I think it’s weird.
- Anselmo Ralph – Nao Me Toca. An Angolan dance floor number. No idea what he’s saying, but I think it’s “don’t touch me,” which is a reasonable thing to say in any language.
SONGS TO RUN TO. My favorite songs to run to this year are:
- deadmau5 – The Veldt. It’s 8 minutes long, which is nice when you are running.
- Kelly Clarkson – Catch My Breath. No shame.
- Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop. Tons of shame. Tons of it. This is the McDonald’s cheeseburger of music.
- Lorde – Royals (16) and Team. Are all her songs about how cool things are not cool? Not complaining, just wondering.
VIDEOS. My favorite video of the year is Capital Cities – Safe and Sound. I could watch this 100 times. I have already.
My least favorite video is for the previously mentioned Catch My Breath. DO SOMETHING ELSE, KELLY. Stop standing there for 4 minutes raising your arms in victory. I have a short attention span. Who was the director on this one?
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE. Okay, let’s play a game.
Songwriter A has penned tracks this year that use drugs, bubblegum, and a “spaceship coupe” as metaphors for sex and/or love.
Songwriter B has written songs that use vampires, boxing, murder, and a mental illness as metaphors for sex and/or love.
Which one is Justin Timberlake and which one is R. Kelly?
Wrong, they’re both Justin Timberlake.
Just remember: the next time you make fun of R. Kelly for writing songs called The Zoo, Sex Planet, and Sex Dolphin, remember that Justin Timberlake wrote a song with these lyrics:
Hop into my spaceship coupe
There’s only room for two (Me and you)
And with the top down
We’ll cruise around
Land and make love on the moon
Would you like that?
Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just dadsing out here, but are those useful lyrics for anyone over 15 years old and/or anyone who isn’t an astronaut? I’m not anti-metaphor. You could say I think metaphors are the spice of life, like in Kacey Musgraves – Silver Lining (12). Musgraves uses every single folk saying in one song but makes it sound right–I don’t know how, but maybe it’s that sweet voice of hers.
OTHER SONGS I LOVED THIS YEAR.
- Tegan and Sara – Closer (7)
- Andrew Belle – Sister (8)
- Sara Bareilles – Satellite Call (20), December, and Islands
- Autre Ne Veut – Play by Play. Hold on buddy. Buy me a drink first.
- The 1975 – Chocolate
- HAERTS – Wings
- CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share. I guess we’re using all caps now, every band? Is that what we’re doing?
- Typhoon – Hunger and Thirst. “Take your genres and shove them!” is what I imagine this band saying, right before they break up because no radio station will play their music.
- Delta Rae – Bottom of the River. This is an enjoyable video for such a heavy song.
- Washed Out – All I Know
- Jillette Johnson – Torpedo
- Phosporescent – Song for Zula
- Vampire Weekend – Step
- Postiljonen – Supreme