My Top Twenty Songs for 2015
This is terrible, as I bought 700 songs this year. I don’t know if I can really do “top twenty.” I guess I’ll call it “top twenty” and really mean “twenty of the songs I really loved but I could list two hundred more.”
1. “Winter” - Nieves. I know some of this is my Celtic folk background showing — this is very Dougie MacLean/ Old Blind Dogs — but I think it’s such a sad and hopeful song. Fun fact: I listened to it 93 times in a row while writing the last Adam Parrish POV scene in TRK.
2. “God’s Whisper” - Raury. This song feels like it’s both going somewhere and has been somewhere, just like my other ‘15 find Silver Firs’ “Away We Go.” Good for a road trip in an old Camaro. Probably I’d end such a Gansey-Blue playlist with “Nothing is Anything” by Wintersleep.
3. “This is Not a Game” - The Chemical Brothers, feat Miguel & Lorde. I was in love with this song from the first dire synth note at the beginning. Cinematic and cool.
4. “Elastic Heart” - Sia. I just. Desperate and bitter and pretty.
5. “You Are My Soul” - Manicanparty. This song is a little bit like “Elastic Heart” and “This is Not a Game” had a baby.
6. “Until We Go Down” - Ruelle. This was a good year for cinematic alt rock. Just put this one in a playlist with the previous three. I don’t know if this would be on the list if I hadn’t listened to it so much for the Raven King, but as it is a pretty fine Raven King song, I’ll leave it on the list.
7. “I Don’t Mind” - Inner Oceans. This song is just so lovely that I could puke.
8. “Brother (Kygo Remix)” - Matt Corby. There is something very ascendant about those repeated falsetto notes.
9. “No Harm is Done feat. Tunji Ige” - Christine and the Queens. This song was dubbed “Snake People Music” by one of my friends, right after he said, “You’re one of those remix people, aren’t you.” I am, I guess. I just find this song so after-dark sexy.
10. “First” - Cold War Kids. Perfect betrayed closing credits song.
11. “I Found” - Amber Run. If I hadn’t already puked over how pretty “I Don’t Mind” is, I’d puke now for this one.
12. “All Who Remain” - Beware of Darkness. Now here’s a great song to listen to while sulking in a dark room. “Echo” by The Lonely Wild is good to follow up for more sulking. Finish with Kishi Bashi’s cover of Beirut’s “A Sunday Smile” for more vaguely attractive ennui. No, wait, add “Forest Fire” by Brighton. That’ll sting. Go ahead and listen to that during the Noah scenes for the Raven King.
13. “Water” - Ra Ra Riot & Rostam. Perfect ironic closing credits song. I don’t know if I’ll make it waiting for this full album to drop.
14. “Counting Sheep” - SAFIA. These people are weirdos. This song is weird. Everything they do is weird. I feel weird when I listen to it. Can it be any slicker? I don’t think so.
15. “All the Kings” - Editors. And “Kings” by Tribe Society. This is two songs but because they both have the word Kings in them, I’m putting them on one line to put more songs on this list.
16. “Never Been in Love” - Cobra Starship. This song, plus Kids of 88′s “Just a Little Bit” plus Cayucas’ “Moony Eyed Walrus” can cure any road trip of any ill.
17. “Mainline (Jaytee Remix)” - One Day. Objectively, I know this song is terrible. Subjectively, I love it so bad. It goes next to HEALTH’s “Stonefist” and the Brevis Remix of Lil Jon’s “SYF” and Mt. Eden’s “Distance Kills” and Hudson Mohawke’s “100HM” and "Patient Zero” by Zomboy and “Me Bota Pra Dançar” by Edu K.
18. “A. M. A. (Eule Remix)” - Maps. I would drive to this for two thousand miles. And have.
19. “Hollow Tune” - Brick + Mortar. I once drove from Virginia to NYC listening to only this song over and over. True story.
20. AWOLNATION’s album in its entirety, particular “Jailbreak” and “I Am.” The first song struck me so hard while I was driving to Kansas that I had to actually pull over by the side of the road because I was not able to listen to it and drive at the same time.