HeiBräu’s Top 50 Tracks of 2011, #25-01
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25. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – “Belong” from Belong.
Channeling Corgan and the highs of Siamese Dream, “Belong” revitalizes 90s alternative in an opportune season of reclamation.
24. Fucked Up – “Queen of Hearts” from David Comes To Life.
“Queen of Hearts” tells the heartwarming story of sudden, star-crossed love in the ghetto, forbidden by the most novel of antagonists: a self-aware villain.
23. Braids – “Plath Heart” from Native Speaker.
“There’s no loving after / all this crap we’ve been through.” Though the chords be warm, the tone is wonderfully frigid.
22. Active Child – “Playing House” (feat. How To Dress Well) from You Are All I See.
Pat Grossi’s sparkling backdrop could break a heart by itself. Teamed with Tom Krell, it’s that much more affecting.
21. Kate Bush – “Snowed In At Wheeler Street” from 50 Words For Snow.
In my years of appreciating music, middle-aged love and loss have never seemed so captivating and romanticized.
20. St. Vincent – “Cruel” from Strange Mercy.
Annie Clark’s beautifully unvarnished guitar solos seem to get better and better (and this time, she plays one while tied up in her kidnapper’s trunk).
19. Thee Oh Sees – “The Dream” from Carrion Crawler / The Dream.
Thee Oh Sees have a vice grip on that riff, squeezing it for all its barn burning ichor.
18. Frank Ocean – “Songs For Women” from nostalgia, ULTRA.
A crushingly emotional story about subtle, tiring rejection and the stalled love it engenders.
17. Fleet Foxes – “Grown Ocean” from Helplessness Blues.
“Helplessness Blues” may be the go-to show closer for many subsequent Fleet Foxes tours, but no song could end this record so definitively as the surging, sunny “Grown Ocean.”
16. Panda Bear – “Last Night At The Jetty” from Tomboy.
That thing where everyone agrees you don’t need to trot out more reasons why we should all make time for Panda Bear.
15. Elite Gymnastics – “Omamori” from Ruin 1.
Omamori reads like a quaint trip to a Japanese market, but if you close your eyes, it sounds like a city of thousands rushing past.
14. WU LYF – “Heavy Pop” from Go Tell Fire To The Mountain.
On the culmination of Go Tell Fire To The Mountain, WU LYF evoke beautifully the energetic, hopeful ‘us kids’ sentiment that makes Arcade Fire so universally loved, right down to the shifting time signatures.
13. Kurt Vile – “Jesus Fever” from Smoke Ring For My Halo.
Kurt Vile’s remarkable wiles for melody will make your temperature rise.
12. Cass McCombs – “County Line” from WIT’S END.
Ignoring the pacing structure affirmed by decades of pop music, WIT’S END leads off with the paced, wistful “County Line.” I wouldn’t have it any other way.
11. Holy Ghost! – “Some Children” feat. Michael McDonald from Holy Ghost!.
You have to hand it to DFA for hearing Michael McDonald’s take on Grizzly Bear’s “While You Wait For The Others” and having the foresight to extrapolate “Some Children” from it. Talk about the revitalization of a career.
10. Destroyer – “Chinatown” from Kaputt.
Dan Bejar’s indomitable, weird popiness peaks on the supremely smooth “Chinatown.”
09. Wild Beasts – “Albatross” from Smother.
Beautifully crystalline, cold, and detached. “Albatross” follows at a distance, unflinching.
08. Yuck – “Operation” from Yuck.
They’ve drawn comparisons left and right to 90s lo-fi greats, but on the adamantine “Operation,” Yuck sound a lot more like their own confident selves than anyone else.
07. Girls – “Honey Bunny” from Father, Son, Holy Ghost.
Christopher Owens juxtaposes cocksure machismo with tender, bright-eyed hopefulness in a shimmering resurrection of 60s surf-rock.
06. Bon Iver – “Beth / Rest” from Bon Iver, Bon Iver.
The year of the saxophone was summarily predicted, but who could have forseen Steve Winwood redux being so meaningful?
05. Cold Cave – “The Great Pan Is Dead” from Cherish The Light Years.
Cold Cave fire on all cylinders for four straight minutes and never border on melodrama. What hooks.
04. Atlas Sound – “The Shakes” from Parallax.
“The Shakes” is the elecrifying genesis of Bradford Cox’s other self: an androgynous, unflappable stage persona. He has already straddled two decades and is arguably the most important songwriter of his era.
03. M83 – “Midnight City” from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
The blast of fervor from the late-breaking sax solo feels like the cold night wind in that city’s setting. It’s hard to imagine Anthony Gonzales ever writing a better song than this.
02. James Blake – “I Never Learnt To Share” from James Blake.
Not only is it the sharpest moment on the stunning James Blake, “I Never Learnt to Share” is a wounding, vulnerable piece of soul that brilliantly eschews meter and format.
01. Real Estate – “It’s Real” from Days.
It’s real, alright.
