A Look Back At My Top Songs of 2011
Ever since Spotify became available to us Americans, I’ve built an annual playlist of some of my favorite songs from each year.
The eligibility rules are as follows:
- Must be released that year (So songs that I was late in discovering are shit out of luck)
- I must have listened to it that year (So I can’t go back and add songs to enhance my street cred)
- One song per artist (Which means a lot of great songs get left off)
Without further ado, in no particular order, my 2011 playlist with my commentary written in December 2015:
M83 - Midnight City
The ubiquitous “it” song of 2011 — at least from where I was listening. The driving melody makes this song impossibly catchy. What made “Midnight City” more than just an earworm were the very cool dueling vocals between those crashing strings. And if that’s not enough, there’s a goddamn sax solo to top it all off.
This song was ahead of its time in both production and vocal stylings and you can hear its influence all over the place in 2015.
The Horrible Crowes - Behold the Hurricane
Brian Fallon, like his idol Bruce Springsteen, wasn’t satisfied in his band achieving massive success. Three years after The Gaslight Anthem blew the eff up behind the stellar The ’59 Sound Fallon released Elsie with his side project The Horrible Crowes.
The angry, forlorn “Behold the Hurricane” was the lead single off the album and for my money the strongest track. Fallon punctuates lyrics like “Silhouettes they haunt this house / Like your memory haunts me now” with a chorus capped off with a giddy “Oh-OH-OH Oh-OH-OH.” The clashing tones make this song interesting and it was just different enough from Fallon’s work with Gaslight to deserve its own recognition.
Polar Bear Club — Screams in Caves
One of my favorite post-millennial punk bands (at least before their disastrous attempt at selling out with 2013’s Death Chorus), PBC rocked 2011 with the stirring Clash Battle Guilt Pride. Looking back now, the opening track “Pawner” has stuck with me more than “Screams in Caves” but that doesn’t mean I regret picking the latter. “Screams” is a great example of how PBC spun together singer Jimmy Stadt’s raspy vocals, tight instrumentals, and inspirational lyrics.
It’s a two-part song — the first half an upbeat call to action centered around “If you want a friend for life / Just listen to me.” The second half slows down with a repeated group vocal culminating with “Left like melting snow and came back tough as leather.”
A classic bro-punk anthem.
Childish Gambino — Heartbeat
2011 was the year that Donald Glover went from being that funny guy on Community to the Renaissance man whose alter ego Childish Gambino put out one of the best hip-hop albums of the year.
“Heartbeat” drives through Childish’s inner monologue about a purely sexual side relationship with a dance beat that rises with his sung vocals on the chorus.
Glover reaches peace with the end of the affair at the end of the song with, “I wish we never fucked and I mean that” and then still makes us laugh with, “But not really, you say the nastiest shit in bed and it’s fucking awesome.”
Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford-Sun & Moon
Trance music around the turn of the millennium was at its best when it urged you to stop dancing and stand singing your lungs out with your hands in the air. Exhausted, sweaty, stuffed together in to a club with a few thousand others before dawn, there wasn’t anything else like it. It was transcendence.
The London trio Above & Beyond were among the best at this form. One of their first hits, “Satellite,” might be the peak of the form. Their Group Therapy in 2011 was the beginning of them leaning toward a sound more suited for the common masses — what it is now called “EDM.” But this album still had it, and Sun & Moon with its sad mournful bellows is one of the great trance anthems.
Its chorus rises and dares anyone to resist crooning along with Richard Bedford, “I’m sorry baby / You were the sun and moon to me / I’ll never get over you / You’ll never get over me.” It’s heartbreak but in that moment and the rising synths that follow, we aren’t alone.
Lil Wayne feat. Rick Ross — John
The weakest song on this list. Not one of Lil Wayne’s nor Rick Ross’ Top 10. My favorite track off Tha Carter IV, which is a shadow of the Tha Carters that preceded it.
Looking back, there’s three reasons I think I was drawn to this song:
- The weird 50s scifi melody that flows around the beat
- The hilarious Rick Ross refrain “I’m not a star / Somebody lied / I got a chopper in the car”
- The Lil Wayne couplet “Big B’s / Red Sox” which appeals to my baseball allegiances
Sometimes you really just want to listen to a dumb ass rap song, and this fits the bill.
Lupe Fiasco feat. MDMA — Coming Up
Piano is one of the most underappreciated instruments in rock music (see most any Bruce Springsteen song) and Coming Up is an example of piano being used to great effect in hip-hop. Four notes with a little snare and horns drive this song from start to finish.
Of course, the beat is helped along by Lupe Fiasco with his dynamic flow really carrying this track through its verses to MDMA singing the hooks.
Rap Genius describes “Coming Up” as “Lupe Fiasco’s attempt at the uplifting club record,” and while it was never a big club hit, it struck a chord with me and remains a very enjoyable listen to this day.
Jay Z and Kanye West-Ni**as In Paris
The beat that launched millions of embarrassing, frantic, flailing dance moves.
The biggest single (sorry “Otis”) off the greatest luxury rap album of all time.
The middle finger to pious critics of Jay and Kanye’s excess.
The song that gave us “Psycho: I’m liable to go Michael, take your pick / Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6.”
The only reason anyone remembers the movie Blades of Glory.
The classic.
Friendly Fires — True Love
Friendly Fires are one of England’s best electro bands and I could’ve picked three songs from 2011’s Pala if not prohibited by my own rules.
“True Love” is 3 minutes 15 seconds of clashing synths, grooving bass lines, and soaring vocals. Ed Macfarlane answers the call of “All I want” with “Is to feel true love” with convincing passion and impressive skill as he powers through on bass. It’s a performance that Sting wouldn’t be ashamed of.
Frank Ocean-Swim Good
Before there was 2012’s channel ORANGE, there was Frank Ocean’s breakout mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra and its best song “Swim Good.” In a preview of what was to come, Frank shows off his stylish take on the R&B genre with his hip-hop aesthetic and acrobatic vocals.
He flows through the verses like a rapper who wishes he can sing, but in an exciting twist, actually can (even referencing Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreak).
The chorus is a classic declaration of giving up on the world “I’ma bout to drive in the ocean / I’ma try to swim from something bigger than me / Kick off my shoes and swim good.”
The bridge builds on the drama as he warns anyone off from pursuing him “I’m goin off / Don’t try stopping me / I’m goin off / Don’t try saving me / No flares / No vest / And no fear / Waves are washing me off.”
A great reminder of Frank’s talent and the desperate wait for his second studio album.
Cut Copy-Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat
On the Australian side of the electro world, the deans of the genre chose 2011 to release their followup to 2008’s tour de force In Ghost Colours.
Zonoscope’s lead single is Cut Copy’s most accessible and appealing song. It invokes summer love with a funky beat, light synths, and happy vocals.
It’s a light, fun song and truth be told I don’t have much else to say about it.
Drive-By Truckers-I Do Believe
I mostly remember this song for its inclusion on the TV show Justified. In a shoehorned, awkward scene, Walton Goggins’ character Boyd is laying at home listening to it.
Drive-By Truckers are a continuation of the great American music tradition of Southern Rock coming out of the great mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. (One of its core members is Patterson Hood, the son of David Hood the bassist of The Swampers, as in “ Now Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers / And they’ve been known to pick a song or two.”) Their 2001 concept album Southern Rock Opera, particularly “The Southern Thing” and “Three Great Alabama Icons,” is one of the greatest examinations of Southern culture in any form.
“I Do Believe” is a fun little ditty that sings of love gone by without the weight of social conscience, but still with a sense of place. It stretches to the poppiest edge of the Truckers alt-Southern-rock formula and doesn’t define the band, but hell it’s a nice little song.
The Jezabels-Endless Summer
Another Aussie entry but an indie rocker this time. The Jezabels were already unmissable with their three previous EPs, but with 2011’s Prisoner Hayley Mary’s virtuosic voice was fully unleashed upon the world.
If Mary was a baseball player, she would be called a “five-tool player” — her vocals calls to mind autotune or some other trickery. And then you hear her live and get your breath taken away…
Needless to say, I listened to The Jezabels A LOT four years ago, which made their limpid sophomore album The Brink even more of a disappointment. Luckily there is hope…their third album and shot at redemption comes out in February.
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Stay tuned for future musings on my 2012, 2013, 2014, and when it’s ready, my 2015 playlist. If you’re inpatient or interested in my other playlists, check out my Spotify account here.