Best Songs of 2017

Another year, another best-of list. 2017 was a solid year, musically speaking. So here we go...

"Star Roving" - Slowdive
2017 marked the creative return of the ill-titled and oft-mocked genre of shoegaze, with Slowdive and Ride leading the way. Both bands released new material after decades out of the spotlight, but it was Slowdive's self-titled album -- 22 years after their last one -- that tops my list this year. The lead-off single "Star Roving" is everything a shoegaze fan lives for: dreamy soundscapes and swirling guitars over a driving Krautrock beat. It's my song of the year.

"High Ticket Attractions" - New Pornographers
I've always been a fan of the Vancouver supergroup, but Carl Newman won me over with his great Song Exploder two years ago for "Brill Bruisers". Now the power pop and perfect hooks continue with this year's album -- the band's seventh -- Whiteout Conditions. It's the first one without Destroyer's Dan Bejar, and this track speeds along with purpose and some great synth riffs.

"Everything Now" - Arcade Fire
We'll stay north of the border for this one, and where Vancouver's New Pornographers scaled back a bit on this year's release, Montreal's Arcade Fire went all out. There is A LOT going on in this song -- including some sort of disco pan flutes -- but somehow Win Butler and his mates make it work. It's catchy, anthemic, and right out of the 80s.

"No CD" (featuring Rebel Kleff) - Loyle Carner
How many hip hop artists in their early 20s would rhyme about collecting records? Or hanging out with their kid sister? London's Loyle Carner does both on his debut album Yesterday's Gone. This track features an irresistible old school bass riff and some sublime rhyming -- he manages to rhyme No P's (as in pounds), old CDs, Old Jay Z's, ODB (as in the late Ol' Dirty Bastard), and --in a coup de grace -- OCD -- which clearly an artist this good must have more than a touch of.

"The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" - The National
Cincinnati's The National gets a much-needed jolt of energy on this track, with an aggressive guitar solo in the middle and that intoxicating guitar riff that repeats throughout. Lean and mean.

"Darling" - Real Estate
Jangle pop lives on in the Telecaster of Martin Courtney, Real Estate's frontman. This lovely tune kicks off the band's fourth album. But it hides the turmoil they went through over the past year --  firing their founding lead guitarist Matt Mondanile over allegations of mistreatment of women.

"Call the Police" - LCD Soundsystem
On his first album in seven years, James Murphy sings "We all know this is nothing". But this is definitely something; many music critics put American Dream at the top of their best of the year lists for 2017. As Murphy sings about Berlin there are unmistakable references -- I imagine both intentional and unintentional -- to David Bowie and even U2, both of whom famously had rich creative phases in the German capital. In fact, listening to this track you can almost hear Bono's earnest yearning in Murphy's voice.

"Pain" - The War on Drugs
Each year, there are albums with multiple songs that could make this list. A Deeper Understanding, the fourth studio album from Philadelphia's The War on Drugs, is that kind of record. I chose this track over "Up All Night" and "Holding On" because a couple of days ago, I decided it was my favorite of the bunch. I hear so many influences in the vastness of Adam Granduciel's music -- American roots rock, brooding Springsteen-esque lyrics, even British synthpop. Plus they were great to see on a late-summer night in Central Park.

"I Can Only Stare" - Sleigh Bells
Now for something completely different. The bombast of Derek Miller's music and Alexis Krauss's voice takes a pop turn on this song, which is about loneliness, isolation and longing for someone from afar. If that sounds like Morrissey, it's worth noting that Miller says he was trying to rip off Johnny Marr with the guitar parts on this song.

"Feels Like Summer" - Weezer
Every year needs a great summer song, and this was admittedly the most obvious choice. It may be 4 degrees in New York right now but that chorus still makes me want to roll all the car windows down and sing.

"Over Everything" - Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile
Pure slacker brilliance that builds to a crescendo of multilayered guitars. Don't let the casual delivery from both Barnett and Vile fool you -- these are two major individual talents who find a way to be better together. And why is there always a Kurt whenever there's a Courtney? Just asking.

"Money for Breakfast" - Spinning Coin
The Glasgow five piece has toured with Real Estate and Teenage Fanclub and with the debut release Permo, their influences are loud and clear: Big Star, Game Theory and the aforementioned pair are all here. As are fellow Glaswegians Orange Juice, and no surprise: Edwyn Collins produced this track.

"Bike Dream" - Rostam
The multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij left Vampire Weekend in early 2016 and his debut studio album Half-Light was released this past September. This song -- about the complications from dual love affairs (and perhaps a bad hangover) starts with a cello, drums and fuzzed-out synths -- all to serve in contrast to the sweetly-sung and deeply personal lyrics..

"Andrew in Drag" - The Magnetic Fields
Stephin Merritt marked his 50th year by releasing 50 Song Memoir, an autobiographical concept album featuring one song for every year of his life thus far. And if that's not monumental enough, he wrote each song in the style of the music that was popular at the time -- an incredibly rich endeavor. This bittersweet but very funny song is about a straight guy who falls in love with his best friend dressed up as a woman. And every line rhymes with drag.

"Airborne" - Cut Copy
Australia's Cut Copy released this track this summer ahead of their fifth album Haiku From Zero, which wasn't one of their best. Still, as a fan of the iconic Chic guitar riff that fueled countless pop songs (not the least of which is "Rip it Up" by the previously mentioned Orange Juice), I'm happy to add this one to the list.

"Charm Assault" - Ride
We'll end where we began -- the return of shoegaze. Oxford's Ride -- along with Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine -- are the genre's progenitors and 2017 saw them reach creative heights they hadn't seen in over two decades. Led by Mark Gardener and former Oasis bassist Andy Bell, Ride released Weather Diaries, their first album in 21 years. This song, the first single off the album, may lacks the swirling guitars shoegaze is best known for, but more than makes up for it with a machine gun-like assault that is anything but charming.

Farewell 2017 and hello 2018. I hope everyone is off to a Happy New Year, and let the music keep flowing.

Cover Me Volume 3

Here's another cover comparo:

It's the great "Are Friends Electric?" by Gary Numan's band Tubeway Army. In this country, everyone  remembers Numan for "Cars", but "Are Friends Electric" was a #1 hit in England and the first synth chart-topper in the post-punk era. Numan, it should also be noted, had a string of great tracks including "Down In The Park" as he became the first true synth rock star.

Thirty years later, Jack White formed the band The Dead Weather in Nashville with fellow Raconteur Jack Lawrence, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age. One of their more inspired efforts was a re-imagination of the Numan classic.

So it's Tubeway Army's 1979 original (from "Top of the Pops"):

Versus The Dead Weather's cover:

For me, it's not even close. It's the original all the way. And while I respect The Dead Weather's choice to cover this song, I can't get past the overwrought drumming by Jack White on this track, especially starting at the 3:06 mark and continuing through the end of the song. He just takes over and decides he's the biggest thing about the song, and it just kills the whole thing for me.

I may actually prefer Weezer's cover version better:

Songs of Summer

Memorial Day weekend is here... time for a look at some of the all-time best Songs of Summer.

And I'm intentionally excluding anything by the Beach Boys or anything older than me.

Let's start with a song that puts all of us Philly people in the right frame of mind -- Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's 1991 smash "Summertime". It was destined to be a true Song of Summer, and despite some funny styles and outmoded dancing, it still holds up. Although Will Smith's rhymes at times seem a bit forced ("As I think back makes me wonder how/the smell from a grill can spark up nostalgia"?)

Last Summer, the world couldn't escape "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. Even Weezer was bitten by the bug -- here's their version, live from August 4, 2011 in Costa Mesa. It's pretty true to the original.

(By the way,: Foster the People actually returned the favor a week later, covering Weezer's "Say it Ain't So" in Brooklyn and again in San Francisco and here. Total props to FTP for that classy move.)


This year, Gotye seems to have the inside track to Summer Supremacy with "Somebody I Used to Know".
But I'd argue that it's been ubiquitous all Spring so it may have peaked too soon.

Peter, Bjorn and Jon's "Young Folks" was everywhere in the summer of 2006.

But to me, the greatest summer song of all time remains "Steal My Sunshine" by the Canadian hip-hop band Len. Each year, Summer truly begins when I put the windows down and play this one.