It’s a Process – My Favorite Music of 2012

NOTE: On Friday, I’ll release the results of the 2012 Music Survey. Today, here are my favorites of the year.

This has been an eventful year for me and my family. In retrospect, it seems like we experienced 4 big events: I got a job in California, we had a baby, I defended my dissertation, and we moved back to the Bay Area. But, more accurately, those were 4 processes we experienced over months, and in the case of completing a PhD, finding a great job in academia, and moving back to the Bay, they were processes that we experienced mentally over years. Yes, the processes culminated with a bang* (a defense meeting, an offer letter, a drive across the country), but they were still processes.

No doubt, you have experienced something in your life that was the punctuation mark at the end of a long process: a marriage, a graduation, a championship, making a brisket in a smoker.  And if you’re like me, you sometimes look back at the process and say: that’s where the substance was. The big moment at the end is often made public, but the process can be lonely at times, or at least, it offers time for introspection,

Listening to music is a process; it doesn’t happen at a moment in time, and this is especially true when we approach it retrospectively. For example, if I ask you what music you listen to while you study, it’s likely that you will pull up an amalgamation of memories, not one specific instance when you listened to one specific song. And if it does happen, you brain might actually be fooling you into thinking that it pulled up a specific memory, when it hasn’t.

It’s rare for me that I remember a song at a certain moment in time, but rather I associate music with past processes. I think this is common for most people. There’s no need for me to explain which songs and albums remind me of everything I did this year; that’s boring and personal and I don’t think anyone cares. One thing I will talk about, though, is the music that was instrumental (get it?) in completing my dissertation, as that might have some value to others.

I completed my dissertation in 50 minute chunks, aided by certain albums that I now consider the biggest bargains in iTunes history (both released in late 2011). Above all, the Moneyball Soundtrack by Mychael Danna, clocking in at over 60 full listens, if my computer’s play count is to be believed. Everyone works to soundtracks, right? That’s what I’m guessing. Other soundtracks I enjoyed while working, but which aren’t from the last 18 months: The Social Network, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Simpsons Movie, and the soundtrack to the old video game, Medal of Honor. The rule here is there are no rules: if you can get good work done while listening to it, then listen to it.

My other favorite study album of 2012, which I thought I was done with late last year,  but apparently I wasn’t: Bon Iver’s self-titled album is designed, I think, to make humans think about snow or cabins or apple cider or wool sweaters or other peaceful things, making it good for getting work done. And oddly enough, while I listen to hip hop almost exclusively while running, this was my favorite album to run to as well, especially during the cold mornings around Town Lake in Austin last winter. Thanks, Justin Vernon, for making something that worked in two very important spaces for me. Other albums I

Now, onto my favorite albums. Each of my three overall favorite albums of the year sounds like it was recorded in a cabin, or it actually was. My top album is Brandi Carlile’s Bear Creek, which I would describe as polished, packaged American folk rock, and I mean those modifiers as compliments, not insults. It’s a well-made album with both sheen and soul, which I think are hard to get in the same package. It was recorded in a cabin, coincidentally named Bear Creek; how about that? Also, it doesn’t hurt that my daughter loves this album.

My second album of the year is John Mayer’s Born and Raised. I’m partial to John Mayer, so I saw this one coming, but not in the way that I would have imagined. This is a folk pop album, which was somewhat unexpected to me, after a turn in the blues arena followed by a nondescript radio-friendly effort in 2009. The whole moving-to-Montana-after-saying-lots-of-silly-things-in-the-media thing worked, in my opinion. This disc is mature yet approachable, and after reading about the influences of the album, I went and listened to some American classics that I had never experienced much of before: Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, and CSN&Y, for example. So I have a new album that I enjoy very much, and I discovered some old classics.

And my third favorite album is Bon Iver. Again, recorded in a cabin.

These three albums are examples of the kind of music I would have described using terms such as boring, pointless, slow, simplistic, or old-people music just a few years back. I don’t know if I have matured or softened, or if I should say something like “I’m getting old,” which sounds really stupid at my age, but my tastes have broadened and I’m happier for it.

So there’s a heavy folk tint to my top 30 songs of the year, and here they are, in some sort of weird order! Thanks, musicians, for making something for the process.

NOTE: You can listen to most of these songs using the embedded Spotify playlist at the top of this post.

 

HOME

Queen of California (1), by John Mayer, and Hard Way Home (2), by Brandi Carlile. Two folk songs about home that also sound right when you’re moving your stuff across the Southwest (which I did this summer, twice). I love the pedal steel and love songs that sound like trains. Is that stupid? I don’t care.  Also, speaking of home, Home (9) by Phillip Phillips, and San Francisco (30), by The Mowglis.

LIKE MIKE

My two powersongs this year both use a list of famous Michaels to make a point. That’s weird, right?

Sunrise (3) by Childish Gambino
My s*** be Jackson, Jordan, Bolton, Keaton, Tyson: 5 Mikes (5 mics is a perfect score on an album from The Source Mag)

N***** in Paris (21) by Kanye West and JAY Z
Pyscho, I’m liable to go Michael, take your pick:
Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6

So, as you may have guessed, these are the two songs on this list that have the red EXPLICIT label next to them. Also, one of those words is so offensive that it’s not even blanked out on some Top Songs lists, it’s just completely removed; like, the song is just called “Paris” on Billboard. Does anyone else feel like a major poser when they listen to hip hop? Anyone else? Just me? Okay I’ll keep my headphones in. If you want a clean version, check out Niners in Paris. It’s awesome.

I’M GETTING OLD, PART 2

Including my number one choice listed above, I have noticed that many of my top choices are about maturation and atonement and a willingness to say that I can be better. That Wasn’t Me (4) by Brandi Carlile, Born and Raised (5) by John Mayer, and I’m Getting Ready (7) by Michael Kiwanuka. Also, a song that I didn’t care for when I first heard it, Shadow Days (15) by John Mayer. But I like it now. I don’t feel like explaining why, which is kind of silly in a post as long as this one.  It’s my guilty pleasure song of 2012, and you don’t have to explain why you like guilty pleasure songs, even when you think you shouldn’t. Also, The Wind (23) by The Fray.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Songs about making sure your life has meaning. Which is a good thing. 100 (8) by Brandi Carlile, and then a host of songs by Brandon Heath:

Wait and See – Acoustic (13) (a new version of his song from 2009)
Diamond (20)
The Harvester (28)

And then, the appropriately titled It’s a Process (10) by Mychael Danna from the Moneyball soundtrack. Can you have a powersong in the middle of a study album? That’s what this was. 80 words per minute!

Well, I’m gonna breeze through the latter half. Here we go:

CONSIDER LISTENING TO THESE SONGS IF: 

• Thinkin Bout You (19) by Frank Ocean if you like R&B and falsetto.
• Take a Walk (11) by Passion Pit if you like a good beat.
• Some Nights (17) by Fun if you like music. Seriously, this is a fun song.
• Nothing is the News (25) by Damien Jurado if you like a little blues guitar in your 1970s-cokelines-sounding songs.
• In Your Light (16) and Save Me (18) by Gotye if you like hand claps and nonsense harmonies, which I do!
• Sovereign Light Café (24) by Keane if you like old Keane, because this sounds like old Keane.
• Apartment (14) by Young the Giant if you are wondering where the alternative rock is on this list. This is as close as it’s going to get.
• If I Ever Get Around to Living (12) by John Mayer if you like when songs switch up their sound in the middle, or whatever that’s called in official music terms. You have to be patient with this song. Is anyone still reading this?
• State of Grace (22) by Taylor Swift if you like U2’s guitar delay thing
• Everything Has Changed (29) by Taylor Swift if you like duets, which I usually don’t, as they usually have too much Peabo Bryson.
• The Future (27) by Teen Daze if you like house/electronic. Not a very creative description. Sorry.
• Sleepless (26) by Flume if you like house/electronic that will give you a weird headache. No seriously, it gives me a headache, but I like it. Kind of like ice cream.
• Michicant (6) by Bon Iver. One of my favorite songs of the year and I have no idea what he is singing about. Let me look it up…okay, I looked up the lyrics and I’m confused and I think I’ll go back to just enjoying the song.

 

*or in the case of a birth, started with a bang heyooooooo!