#1
Future Islands: “Balance”
[from On The Water / Thrill Jockey] 

I don’t want to over think this one. 

“Balance” is not just what I consider to be the finest song of 2011, it’s one of the most exciting, gratifying, energizing and well-crafted songs I’ve ever had the pleasure to listen to. 

I love this band. They make me love and appreciate music even more than I already did.

Now go, play the song. Then play it again. And to be safe, play it a third time. You’ll see what I mean.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#2
James Blake: “I Never Learnt To Share”
[from James Blake / A&M]

I wrote earlier in the list about my love of artists that harness the ability to manipulate one line of a vocal and rework it into a small masterpiece of a song. In 2010, the world was quietly introduced to James Blake over the course of three small EPs that barely registered a blip on the radar. This past year, it became quite difficult to escape hearing about his debut full-length, his collaboration with Justin Vernon and the subsequent rise of the dubstep genre. (One of my favorite voyeuristic games to play throughout the year was to watch as people who previously had no interest in dubstep declare it to be the greatest thing imaginable only to completely disown and shun it as a sham fad just a few short months later. Priceless.)

“I Never Learnt To Share” revolves around one line: “My brother and my sister don’t speak to me, but I don’t blame them.” In the grand tradition of the only Ernest Hemingway story that I personally enjoy (“For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”), Blake has said everything in one cleverly crafted line. The possibilities of what that one lonesome line could mean are infinite. They are completely up for grabs regarding their interpretation. Underneath this repeating line of dialogue, Blake creates a landscape of song that travel in and out of each ear, revolving and bending tones until they reach sonic breaking points. The song quickly evolves into a steady driving rhythm as the beat is added and then just as quickly devolves into total disarray and dissonance until the 3:41 mark when the track explodes and becomes positively anthemic.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#3
David Thomas Broughton: “Staying True”
[from Outbreeding / Brain Love] 

“My body is so crap, I’m staying true to my will and the way that I would like to be,” is the key line that ties all of “Staying True” together. This is a tormented affair frought with daddy issues, the burden of a difficult adolescence and the emotional and physical scars that continue to remain years later.

David Thomas Broughton sings with an permanent ache in his voice that makes each successive listen to this track an even larger overall emotional experience. I really have no desire to make any attempt at breaking this song down into it’s components. All of the pieces are right there in front of us. Take a listen and put them all together. It’s a wholly rewarding experience.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

Being that we live in the same somewhat small major city, there exists the potential for me to run into the members of YACHT at some point. Honestly, I’m not totally sure what I would make of seeing one of them outside of the context of their musical life. Something about them has always struck me as somewhat…alien? I don’t mean that in a bad way at all, I promise. I guess a better way to say it is that seeing one of them at Stumptown grabbing a coffee to go would be akin to bumping into a unicorn while on a stroll out in the woods.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#5
Timber Timbre: “Black Water”
[from Creep On Creepin’ On / Arts & Crafts] 

On one of my recent listenings to Timber Timbre’s “Black Water”, I loudly exclaimed, “I LOVE HIS VOICE! NOBODY ELSE SINGS LIKE THIS!”

And it’s true, nobody else does.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#6
tUnE-yArDs: “Bizness”
[from W H O K I L L / 4AD] 

If you aren’t charmed by Merrill Garbus’ work as tUnE-yArDs, her backstory or just her in general, then there is a distinct possibility that you have no soul. W H O K I L L as a whole shows what can occur if you allow yourself total creative expression and don’t let any of your fears hold you under water. For a woman who comes across as such a sweetheart in the various interviews I’ve read and heard, Garbus is a brutal force to be reckoned when it comes to her music. The execution of W H O K I L L is unlike anything else that was released in 2011.

At the early part of the year, I was convinced that I would not hear a greater song for the remainder of the year than I had found in “Bizness”. At the same time, that’s not to say that the five songs that are ahead of it on this particular sense are better. In many ways, they aren’t. Actually, in most ways, they aren’t. “Bizness” transcends pop music and enters a realm unto itself. Part protest song, part avant garde masterpiece, part lesson in musical theory, part primal scream session, it’s a song that urges you to queue it up again the second it finishes playing just to have the opportunity to go back and make sure you really did hear what you thought you heard. I really don’t know what else to say. This is a stunning piece of music.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#7
Cass McCombs: “Memory’s Stain”
[from Wit’s End / Domino] 

After reading a few different publications’ attempts at interviews with Cass McCombs at various points over the course of the year, I’ve come to a conclusion about what those in the press should ultimately do to deal with his penchant for being difficult and cagey with interviewers: just leave him alone. McCombs released two brilliant and totally varied records in 2011. For that reason alone, just leave him be. Let him exist in his various hovels around the country and record music when he wants to. Don’t fucking frighten him off for good. We need him.

Out of the wealth of music that McCombs graced us with in the past year, none show off it’s creator’s  ability to mix the meaningful with the maudlin more succinctly than “Memory’s Stain”. A song made up of half deep introspection and half chastising hipster touchstones, it’s chorus also conjures up frightening echoes of Elliott Smith in it’s overall execution. The emphasis of the ending of each vocal phrase shows that McCombs is an artist that is deeply devoted to even the smallest of details of is craftsmanship. 

Again, leave him alone. Let him work. Let him amaze us.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#8
Therapies Son: “Touching Down”
[from Over The Sea EP / Transparent] 

Every time I hear that first moment in which the lead guitar line of “Touching Down” slides in to join up with the slow building piano chords as they march along, my heart leaps. There’s something contained in that line that would be impossible for me or anyone else to explain without experimenting with the right mixture of drugs. It’s as if every bit of nostalgia tucked away in the nooks and crannies of my brain comes spilling out all at once.

Therapies Son is the recently incarnated project of one Alex Jacob, a 19 year old from Van Nuys, California. The project was birthed by Jacob as a literal sort of therapy to deal with the end of a romantic relationship and was initially thrown out amongst the internet by Jacob himself just to see if anyone liked it. It’s clear that Transparent made a clever move in snapping this young man up right away.

[click to see all songs from the Top 40]

#9
Des Ark: “My Saddle Is Waitin’ (C’mon Jump On It)”
[from Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker / Lovitt]

I approached my first listen to Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker with a small amount of trepidation. I had been warned that I probably wasn’t going to like it by someone who knows my tastes incredibly well. For good reason, those instincts should have been spot on, but something about Aimée Collet Argote’s fearlessness at wearing her heart on her sleeve completely charmed me. Ok, admittedly, everything about her music charmed me.

“My Saddle Is Waitin’ (C’mon Jump On It)” opens with the line, “I wanna die with a halo on my head for all my friends,” and doesn’t back down even once on the notion that it’s difficult to be the perfect person that your friends expect you to be. There’s no resolution, there’s no happy ending, there’s no waking up to a brighter tomorrow. This is wallowing at it’s melodic finest and I wouldn’t have it any other way.