As I explained in a post exactly five years ago, this exercise is picking my best songs of a year. I used to post weekly playlists in a single calendar year. But after a decade I took some time off, then posted new playlists again but less frequently than once a week. And over the years, even much less frequently.
So, tracking what used to be a "year's" worth of playlists means taking the same amount I used to post on my weekly playlist pace over a calendar year and tallying that as my "best of" the year. So this "year's worth" of songs actually took five years to compile.
Each "yearly" batch, whether it was then or now, is usually around 52 playlists and around 1,080 songs. In this case, my last 53 playlists comprise of 1.082 songs. So for the top 10% of that I've picked my favorite 108 songs of the year.
It was an eventful five years: lots of personal loss, including my beloved fox. But it was also a period of survival and perseverance and a new monkey and fox to shepherd me through it all. Below I write a little about all of those 108 songs, except for the 11 in this "best of" that I will write more about in my countdown of them.
I have included a few other versions, along with the original, of New Order's "Age Of Consent" in previous "best ofs" and Nakhane's otherworldly version breathes new life into it and is a worthy addition. Mal Waldron's haunting and harsh piano ballad "All Alone" was one of several songs near the beginning of this batch that carried me through the brutal heartbreak of losing my beloved fox. Egyptian Lover's "And My Heart Goes Boom" is lustful hypnotic early electro hip hop. Professor Johnson & His Gospel Singers' "Angels" was one of a handful of gospel songs to make this "best of" and the driving joy was infectious.
MF DOOM died about halfway through this series of mixes and one of them, with several of his songs, was a tribute to him. I was surprised how many great ones, some old favorites, had not already appeared on previous mixes. "Avalanche" is a non-album track credited to Madvillain, his group with Madlib and was a great mix opener. "Bad Boy" by The Jive Bombers is a sweet slice of 50s r&b that never got old. Another DOOM track I discovered, this posthumous, was the mysterious "Belize" with Black Thought, produced by Danger Mouse. Joyce Green's menacing "Black Cadillac" was one of a handful of great rockabilly discoveries over this mix series. "Boom" by Royce Da 5'9" with its fantastic DJ Premier production is one of those two decade old hip hop tracks I missed the first time around and loved finding later. Madvillain's "Bolder Holder" is a later version of their "Money Folder" and my favorite version of a few iterations I found. Both Tyler The Creator and Kayne West used an obscure soul sample around what sounds like a lost Jackson 5 song, but it was the former's version in his "A Boy Is A Gun" that I enjoyed most. "Bucking Bronco (My Love Is A Rider)" by Girls Of The Golden West found me through a compilation of salacious older songs, and while anything prurient is awfully subtle, I really love their harmony. Nearly as vintage and possibly even more charming is Rose Murphy's "Busy Line" complete with vocals mimicking a buzzing phone.
I always look forward to more Pusha T and his eerie "Call My Bluff' does not disappoint. "Carpet Crawlers" by Genesis was something I knew as a kid from classic rock radio but its strange beauty caught my ear again as an adult. The Miller Sisters' "Crazy Billboard Song" is certainly a novelty but sounds as great as it is silly. Just as "crazy" and deceptively simple is the obscure rockabilly tune "Crazy Date" by The Crazy Teens, and it demands placement on some great tv show or film. As much as I thought I knew all of Bob Dylan's work, "Dark Eyes" was a welcome discovery and of all the versions that made one mix, including his near-perfect take, my favorite is this version by The Proper Way & Carrie Meyers, which plumbs all the pathos on the page. "Darlin One" was a song I never listened much to off The Replacements "Don't Tell A Soul" until it made a recent mix and now made this best of as one of my very favorites of the past five years. The obscure cover of The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" by The Bobbi Boyle Trio is deceptively modest but the breezy and simple arrangement of such a heavy song makes it wonderfully unique.
Another song that's obscurity and weirdness screams "novelty" until it gets under your skin and its greatness unfolds is the bizarre "The Devil, My Conscience And I", a late 50s country/rockabilly b-side in which Billy Barton gives voice to all three titular characters to harrowing, hilarious and hypnotic effect. Travis Betzer's equally obscure dreamy indie pop song "Did U Ever Notice" sounds like a lost Brian Wilson track for peak Beach Boys. I've included some lovely versions of Fred Neil's pop standard "The Dolphins" over the years, including his, but none as great as the duet between Beth Orton and Terry Callier. Donald Height's gritty and soulful cover of The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down", where his spoken word punctuates his shouts, makes me wonder why he didn't have a bigger career. "Doomsday" by MF DOOM was one of a few of his that made this list where I was surprised I hadn't put it on a mix many years before when I first discovered it. David Crosby's passing spurred me to discover more of his stuff and my favorite find was this rare solo version of his Byrds track "Everybody's Been Burned". One of the few songs here that was both current and a smash hit was HitKidd & Glorilla's addictive " F.NF. (Let's Go)". Yet another DOOM track, this under the guise of Viktor Vaughn and on the one official Madvillain album, "Fancy Clown" is an old favorite that finally made a mix after his passing.
Protest songs seems to be a thing of the past, despite these past five years giving us more worth protesting than ever. I was bowled over by Ezra Furman's "Ferguson's Burning". Patti Smith makes romantic devotion sound so good with "Frederick". One mix actually had four great wildly different takes of "The French Inhaler" by Warren Zevon over the years but the original album version is what made the best of, and the lyrics seared into my brain. Much lighter from that same era, James Mason's "Funny Girl" is perfectly airy with vocals by Clarice Taylor. A good companion to that, by coincidence of my taste and alphabetical order, is Toto's groovy "Georgy Porgy (Disco Version)" with extended vocals by future star Cheryl Lynn. Kanye West's erratic persona sometimes obscures his early production genius, and the Nina Simone sampling "Get By" with Talib Kweli is a great example of it. The shambling demo version of Kris Kristofferson's "Getting By, High And Strange" is a perfect match to the lyrics. Ramon & The Crystalites' "Golden Chickens" is a great blend of classic reggae with spacey Sun Ra weirdness. I am surprised it took me the better part of two decades of mix-making for Paul Simon's "Graceland" to appear, but its middle-aged ennui hits harder now than it ever could. Arizona Dranes And Choirs' "He Is My Story" is a gospel stomper that could make a believer out of even me. Japanese Breakfast's cover of Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels" brings a new tender dimension to a song I loved as a kid. Speaking of childhood, I can't believe I don't remember Kenny Loggins' "Heart To Heart", with its Michael McDonald backing vocals. It sounds to my ears both nostalgic and new.
I dug into less well known early 80s British pop and the icy "Honour Among Thieves" by Chain Of Command was a recent favorite discovery. When I discovered the "original" version of Bruce Springsteen's version of "Hungry Heart", I was surprised to find that the more well-known hit version was not on one of my previous "best ofs". The original here is just slightly slower, before it was sped up for the album version to guarantee it as a hit. I'm not sure how different they are, let alone which I prefer, but I could not pass it up for this batch. Kamal Ahmed's bouncy 70s Bollywood track "I Am Very Sorry" is fun enough before Noor Jehan's loopy vocal kicks in, which for me had an indelible association with the mischievous puppy monkey who joined us around the same time I heard this. I actually considered more DOOM tracks, but could not deny his "I Hear Voices. Pt 1 (12' ver)" for this "best of". Teddy Grace, who recorded little more than a dozen songs in her short career has another that made one of my "best ofs" and is here again with the standard "I Thought About You" which somehow beat out even Billie Holiday's version to make this batch. Grab Grab The Haddock's sweetly melancholic "I'm Used Now" is charmingly low-fi but memorable. By contrast, Cocteau Twins' "Iceblink Luck" is a lushly bright ray of musical sunshine. I considered including here the more punchy Raincoats cover as well, but I could not leave out the funereal original version of "In Love" by Linda Smith, another haunting song that marked losing the original fox.
MF DOOM had to leave this planet for me to discover another non-album track, "Is He Ill?" with its surreal steel drum sound against his witty lines. Futurhythm's eerie "It Never Rains In Outer Space" is, for most of this dumb world I live in, a party killer. But for me, I couldn't hear enough of it. Puss N Boots is a three woman side project featuring Norah Jones and their take on Paul Westerberg's "It's A Wonderful Lie" added a sweet but tough edge to this wry song. I loved their wordless harmonies as much as how they sang it. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood's dreamy "(L'ete Indien) Indian Summer" is a song that wafts over you slowly but then doesn't go away. The aforementioned Kanye West can still create drama of the good kind musically and "Life Of The Party", with a fantastic opening by Andre 3000, is just that. I love playing early Hall & Oates for friends who are surprised at their early blend of folky r&b and there's no better example of it than the sweet "Lily (Are You Happy)". Jeff Beck's passing sent me back to Stevie Wonder's underrated "Looking For Another Pure Love" with subtle playing by Beck. Sheila E.'s "A Love Bizarre" is basically a Prince song and the long album version never drags. Trugoy The Dove's passing sent me digging for more De la Soul and I belatedly discovered the fun collaboration they did with Queen Latifah called "Mama Gave Birth To The Soul Children", with its typically insane Prince Paul production that marries the tv show The Jeffersons Theme with psychedelic guitar by Dennis Coffey.
Andre 3000 appears again with his rare and tender piano ballad "Me & My (To Bury Your Parents)", which hit hard around this time. One mix featured a few versions of Ray Noble's old jazz standard "Midnight, The Stars And You", all of which I enjoyed but none more than Deerhoof's sweet and spacey version. Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar seem to be pushing each other with the crazy but unforgettable "Mona Lisa". Joseph's cover of The Rolling Stones' "Moonlight Mile" was a sweet revelation and The Fifth Dimension's even more unexpected. Bob Dylan's late masterpiece "Murder Most Foul" was a contender for my top 11 of the year and also unexpected. Stephanie Mills' "Never Knew Love Like This Before" brings back warm childhood memories. "Never Mind" by The Replacements was another I was surprised to not make an earlier mix but it felt apt for this tumultuous time period. "Oceanic" is a bit of indie rock by Imaad Wasif with Two Part Beast that felt both modern but like a lost 70s classic rock song. Caribou's "Odessa" is great-sounding dance pop. The "vocals only" version of John Lennon's "Oh My Love" was one of a handful of songs I held close to my heart when I lost the original fox, the love of my life.
"The Old Ark's A'Movin'" by A.A. Gray & Seven Foot Dilly felt resonant as I started to rebuild my own ark of dogs. Aretha Franklin's passing, at the beginning of this series, led me to this amazing duet with Smokey Robinson she did live on Soul Train of his classic "Ooo Baby Baby". Edna Wright, formerly of The Honey Cone, had but one solo album but after hearing the sweet and charming "Oops! Here I Go Again" I wish she had done more. "Pain" with Future is a few years older than the other Pusha T track to make this "best of" and it is ferocious. I was happy to discover the Congolese rhumba guitarist and singer Tabu Ley Rocheau and I suspect "Pesa Le Tout" is just the first of his songs I will be captivated by. Thomas Leer's mysterious "Private Plane" has a Gary Numan feel but more subtly sinister. Patrik Fitzgerald's "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart" is a reminder that a punk song can be both a love song and acoustic, like a Violent Femmes song with less menace. It was hard to pick among a handful of favorite Freddie Gibbs songs for the "best of", but "Scottie Beam" with Rick Ross has such great haunting production from The Alchemist. I was thrilled to see Pavement live last year, which sent me scrambling back to their catalog to find what few pieces of musical gold hadn't already appeared on these mixes and the witty ""Shady Lane/J vs. S" is a perfect distillation of their music.
I have long been a fan of the small but dazzling oeuvre of Leon Thomas and "Song For My Father" was particularly resonant in this period. I was lucky to have the most "super deluxe" version of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, which afforded me the chance to hear various versions of Stevie Nicks' gentle ballad "Storms", of which my favorite was the most stripped down acoustic alternate take dated 6/2/79. The rare live a cappella version of The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields" by Odetta is as much of a show-stopper as it sounds on paper. Francois' delicately aching "Swimmers/Drifters" is as obscure as any of the previous rockabilly tunes here but feels like it should be a soundtrack or mixtape classic. Having grown up with R.E.M.'s music, I was surprised to find "Talk About The Passion" vault past others to becomes perhaps my favorite song of theirs. Paris' "The Devil Made Me Do It" is brutal rock-tinged golden age rap that deserves to be remembered more. The operatic version of The Carpenters standard "(The Long To Be) Close To You" by Isaac Hayes was worth making this best of even just for his offhandedly brilliant casual delivery of the line "stars fallin' from the sky when you walk by" which needs to be on some social media reel immediately.
"This Night Won"t Last Forever" is a nice late 70s soft rock song in the Dan Fogelberg vein by Michael Johnson and the original was a contender for this best of, but a cover on the same mix by Bob Dylan wins out for its ineffable sly blend of goofing on it (it was a rehearsal version, not for an album) and also somehow singing it with open-hearted sincerity, complete with a killer gospel back-up chorus. Speaking of that sort of chorus, Don Nix's "Three Angels" is the kind of 70s country gospel mash-up I am rarely immune to, especially with lyrics by him that demand this song becomes a standard. Bobbie Gentry's "Thunder In The Afternoon" is the definition of atmospheric, conjuring all the feeling implied in the title without weather sound effects. Wee, a journeyman soul singer equal parts Stevie Wonder and Sly Stone, has been in a previous "best of" but the album version of "Try Me" might be his best. A few Sun Ra tunes were in the mix to make this best of, and the most straightforward of those, but also the most emotive was the rare live track "Tryin' To Put The Blame On Me". On almost the other end of the emotional spectrum, T.I.'s "What You Know" is another now nearly vintage hip hop track from a couple decades back that only recently found me.
In a common theme, I am again surprised it took all this time for Elvis Costello & The Attractions' version of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding" to make a mix but I really needed to hear it recently more than ever. "Who Killed Bambi?" by a latter day version of The Sex Pistols with Edward Tudor-Pole singing somehow not only made this "best of" but almost made my top 11 of the year. It is not for everyone, like much of this list, but I played this consecutively as much as any song here, and none were more fun to sing along to. In a more somber and spiritual contemplation about death, it's hard to beat Blind Mamie Forehand's "I Wouldn't Mind Dying Was All". "The Yankee And The Brave ep.4" by Run The Jewels is the perfect song to run to. I was excited to see the reformation of Black Star and it was worth the wait. It was hard to pick a favorite but perhaps "Yonders" is it. I enjoy Jesse Malin's poignant cover of The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" even more than the excellent original. "You Used To Be Stevie Wonder" by the inimitable Peter Ivers is a song that somehow lives up to the odd promise of its title.
