Songs of the Year, Part I
Here's my top 5 songs of the year. W&C comrade Arild's are coming in part II.
1. 'Song for Zula', Phosphorescent
'Song for Zula' is such an epic six minutes that as soon as I heard it, it was game over. No other song's come anywhere close. It starts off dreamy, borrowing those famous lines from Johnny Cash: 'Love is a burning thing/And it makes a fiery ring....' and then it grows & grows from despair into some kind of gorgeous redemption. The whole song's like a dream, in fact, one in which you're clawing yourself out from a cage towards freedom, and when you're there – as the lyrics tell it – your feet are gold, your heart is white, and you're racing out on the desert plains all night. Pure exaltation. Amazing. A sidenote: all year I've thought that it reminds me of the long-lost 'Circle of Life' from The Lion King, in its shiny joyousness - which is a good (indeed, great) thing - why you laugh back there? It's true! So turn the lights down, turn the volume up (forget the video, which doesn't do it justice), and get carried away...
update: i've just finally re-listened to 'circle of life' and it's shit. oops. But 'song for zula' really isn't.
2. 'Byegone', Volcano Choir
In the past few years, Justin Vernon's discovered autotune and big, sweeping sound, and ditched the sweet warmth that made Bon Iver's early music so intoxicating – but hurrah, he brings both to his new band Volcano Choir. That's why I almost picked their sparse and gorgeous 'Alaskans' here – but I've been dreaming about long, distant voyages all year, so it had to be 'Byegone'. In its chorus, they bellow a hearty "Set sail," and we're at the seashore, looking out over the freezing water, getting ready to do just that, dangers be damned. Then there's the song's irresistible 'Game of Thrones'-y promise, with lyrics about 'knights of the northern lodges' and people being legends and such loveliness. And yet there's something else going on here, something painful and sad to do with real life relationships and "the north end of monogamy" - whatever that is – that's quite apart from the nautical wonder. The incongruous mix is brilliant.
3. 'Country of Illusion', William Tyler
Oh, really, any of 'The Impossible Truth', the album he released this year - because it's not as though things change much between songs. I've talked about William Tyler before; how he's the inheritor of the legacy of John Fahey, Robbie Basho et al - the complex, textured, 'dirtbowl psychedelia' (as the Quietus called it); and how, in channelling and creating such complexity, he's astonishingly gifted, and I reckon the best guitarist around these days. Takes some patience, but if you like american primitive guitar - and especially have an ear for it when it's cleaned up a little and the melodies shine and shine through the wild places it takes you to - check out William.
4. 'Play by Play', Autre Ne Veut
So incredibly sexy. Like some horny, needy, adorable bastard lovechild of 70s disco and 80s synthpop. Mmm yeah.
5. 'Time will Tell', Blood Orange
Ooh, many candidates for the all-important fifth place! Rhye's 'Open', Jagwar Ma's incredible glowstick banger 'Four', Arcade Fire's 'Reflektor',The National's 'Pink Rabbits', Dan Friel's bonkers 'Ulysses' and Waxahatchee's ''Swandive' – but 'Time Will Tell' gets it. Like Solange's 'Losing You', my favourite song from last year, which he produced, 'Time Will Tell' is Dev Hynes showing that no-one does that gorgeously breezy vibe better than him. It works so well because on the one hand, you've got him imploring you to just chill out, cos no-one's waiting for you anyway, 'don't be stressed out'...and man, it's like a massage, it is - and such wise words, too! But then, you've got him insistently crooning "come into my bedroom, come into my bedroooom"...and the overall effect, making you feel both smart and seduced, is just ace. 'Cupid Deluxe' comes and goes, but 'Time Will Tell' is properly mellow and sexy, and therefore great.
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