No. 1 - Fucked Up - “The Other Shoe” 

Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life is about love, death and hopelessness in late 70s England, but despite the setting, all the feelings the album encompass apply to today’s woes. It’s a time where’s everything is just fucked and “The Other Shoe” knows this. I only knew the chorus and otherwise didn’t know what the other lyrics were until recently. For a song on a rock opera, it’s vague and doesn’t apply to plot or whatever, instead it captures a feeling and is a call to arms for a hero; “We need a Peter, we get a Paul/At least Judas had some balls. /To make a move on these building doubts”, but acknowledges that there’s a reason why no one is there to guide us: “It can’t be comfortable when you know the whole thing’s about to fall.”. Our generation is often chastised for being narcissistic and apathetic, but this song proves it wrong. 

No. 2 - Iceage - “White Rune” 

I don’t have a story to describe the first time I heard this, but it’s probably lame and involves me watching clips of the Simpsons on youtube. But you’ve heard the “I was there when I heard this” story, and “White Rune” sounds like it’s going to be talked about 20, 30 years down the road, the point where a bunch of kids decide to pick up guitars and start making beautiful noise. Electrifying, pulsating and unforgettable.

No. 3 - Tyler, The Creator - “Yonkers”

In a move that alienates my core base, makes me lose followers and get hateful messages, I put “Yonkers” in my Top 10. I don’t want start another unnecessary think piece on what Odd Future and it’s constituents stand for. Instead, I’m focusing on the song itself,  and before the brouhaha that subsequently came with it after it came out. “Yonkers” is one of the most unique and interesting tracks to come out, a psychotic meditation on Tyler’s personal issues containing an instantly memorable beat; a song that would start the most annoying hype cycle of 2011. 

No. 4 - The Men - “()”

The Men are a Brooklyn band that mean fucking business. No bullshit at all. The centerpiece on their blistering album Leave Home is almost frightening, with it’s churning guitars and incomprehensible shouting that leaves an undeniable impression on the listener. When was the last time an indie band was this hard? It’s like a manifesto that is out to destroy the last ten years of indie rock and start anew. In one of the cockiest moments in music this year, the band overtly steals Spacemen 3’s riff to “Revolution” in the bridge, and quotes another SP3 song, “Take Me to the Other Side”. It’s an invite to an ugly, abrasive world and it’s one hell of a place. 

No. 5 - John Maus - “Believer” 

In 2011, John Maus, a college professor, became one of the faces of the lo-fi-noise-pop-not-chillwave clusterfuck thanks to his terrific album We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (catchy, ain’t it?). The closing track on this album, “Believer” is Maus’ anthemic counterpoint to his buddy Ariel Pink’s ironic “Round and Round”. Whereas AP showed disinterest (well, to me at least), Maus seems to really feel he’s making a big difference with this song. 

No. 6 - The War on Drugs - “Baby Missiles”

It’s sounds like somethings you’ve heard before, but you’ve never listened to it. The War on Drugs are rooted in the heartland rock of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, but WoD add their own identity to it, thanks to the instantly memorable synth riff. “Baby Missiles” sounds like the best song not to be played on classic rock radio. 

No. 7 - Cut Copy - “Need You Know” 

With Zonoscope, Cut Copy has solidified itself as one of the finest dance music acts in… well, maybe, ever. This fantastic opener really needs no description. It’s a great song, duh. 

No. 8 - Ducktails - Killin’ the Vibe 

Released during the dead of a torrid winter, Real Estate’s Mathew Mondanile Arcade Dynamics was a wonderfully weird record that felt perfect for a summer day. The album’s centerpiece “Killin’ the Vibe” is an oddly woozy and warm track that sounds like it’s being made by a commune and not by one dude in his bedroom. A warm and welcoming track that rivals Mondanile’s work in Real Estate. 

No. 9 - The Rapture - “How Deep Is Your Love?”

To quote LL Cool J, “Don’t call it a comeback”. The Rapture’s best song since “House of Jealous Lovers” is a welcome return to form for the band, and it’s fitting that their latest rebirth is on the label that made their name, DFA. However, the song is decidedly different than the pulsating and paranoid “Jealous Lovers”, but it’s The Rapture very own “I Will Survive”, with it’s uplifting chorus and pay-off at the end, a fitting song for a band that was pretty much left for dead not too long ago. 

Time to do all those stupid lists. I’ll do my top 10 songs of the year first. Then you schmucks better listen to my radio show tomorrow as I do my favorite albums. Then I’ll post little blurbs about my Top 20 albums of the year sometime later. 

No. 10 - Battles - “Ice Cream”

It’s a shame that Tyondai Braxton left the genre-bending Battles, and things didn’t feel the same on their latest Gloss Drop, as the band seemed to have lost something of an edge to their music. That’s not to say the band has become worse or anything like that. If anything, the band now has become something of a less difficult and easier to approach band, and “Ice Cream” is the perfect mix between pop sensibilities and experimental sounds.