Jeannette Chin
DJ Koze - "Marilyn Whirlwind"
Being someone who likes to listen to electronic music because of the puzzle-piece like configuration of its elements, for me, the release of "Marilyn Whirlwind" marks the debut of a new level of possibilities in bass production. Through the blocky, symmetrical template of its 4/4 thud (via an almost engine-rev like bass and kick), Koze cleverly weaves in a diverse catalog of sounds as the track progresses. And further listens reveal subtle tempo changes and bass chord progressions. It's one of those tracks that appear repetitive on the surface, upon starting it, yet four minutes in you find yourself still listening to it. Pure audio alchemy.
John Hugar
Nine Inch Nails - "Came Back Haunted"
While How To Destroy Angels, and the soundtracks to The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were certainly compelling, it was great to see Trent Reznor recording music under the Nine Inch Nails banner once again. This was easily the best track off of Hesitation Marks. In classic NIN fashion, the tension build up in the first verse, then is released in the chorus, like pent-up rage being spat at the listener. A well-deserved hit, and Reznor's best single in years.
Cliff Parks
Daft Punk - "Lose Yours"Lose Yourself To Dance (feat. Pharrell and Nile Rodgers)
Sure "Get Lucky" was the song of the summer before "Blurred Lines" shamefully overshadowed it, but "Lose Yourself To Dance" was it for me this year. Nile Rodgers laid down the best guitar riff of the last few years for this Soul Train line dance worthy jam, and reminded us all why Johnny Marr named his son after him. Daft Punk's ambitious Random Access Memories was loaded with information and an album with a mission, but this jam was it's most straight ahead, pleasurable, and irresistible nugget.
Steven Gordon
A YouTube Vortex that either started with Thee Oh Sees or FIDLAR eventually introduced me to Shark? and the song “California Grrls.” It's a dark, guttural surf song made by tongue-in-cheek New Yorkers about a certain west coast sub-species. SPOILER: it's about girls from California. Super snide and catchy and accessible, too; it accounted for probably like 80% of my data plan the last couple months. Maybe I should have just paid for it instead of repeatedly smartphone jukeboxing it, but oh well ya live and ya learn. As a side note, “Minotaur” by Thee Oh Sees and “Cocaine” by FIDLAR are super-close runner-ups.
Jon Krol
The Impossibles- "Come Back"
I have to give props to fellow buffaBLOG writer, Mike Moretti, for turning me on to this band, and in particular, this track. Heartfelt lyrics, a beast of a chorus, and hooks that made my head spin, I probably listened to this song a hundred times this year. As someone who grew up loving that early 2000's brand of emo-flavored indie rock this was the clear-cut choice. I could have chosen a song that was abstract (esoteric lyrics and the like), or a b-side cut. Perhaps a track without the obvious pop inclinations. But at the end of the day, I know what I like. And this song spoke to me.
Ryan Wolf
Following my flip-flopping attitude toward my mid-year list, I am swapping out "Ya Hey" for "Higgs Boson Blues." Perhaps the Nick Cave and Vampire Weekend releases are not so different after all as they both deal with spiritual angst, dread, and longing in the Digital Age. Nonetheless, the chilling "ooohs" that propel the "Higgs Boson Blues" plunge deeper into the unnameable than most anything on Vampire Weekend's magnum opus (no easy feat).
The song icily reminds us that Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Johnson, Miley Cyrus, missionaries to Africa, and physicists at the superconductor in Geneva all inhabit the same world, where no thought, idea, or action is truly separable from any other. Great men die, pop stars float in swimming pools, and the universe carries on, fundamentally unaltered by our species' cultural shifts and scientific investigations.
Runners-Up: "Ya Hey," Vampire Weekend; "Afterlife,"Arcade Fire; "Down Down the Deep River," Okkervil River; "I Sat By the Ocean," Queens of the Stone Age
Nick Sessanna
Weatherbox – “Big News”
I have been repping this song all year and I don’t care who knows it. Between the impossibly irresistible guitar riff and singer/mastermind Brian Warren’s abstract-yet-relatable lyrics about how the entire world hates him, there’s really nothing about this song that isn’t flat out awesome. Listen and try not to get the alliterative “who got my bed bangin’ on the back of the board” stuck in your head for the next few hours. Recommended for fans of angular indie rock and 90s emo purists looking for something contemporary with sharp edges. Fans of Archers of Loaf, Say Anything, or Manchester Orchestra won’t be disappointed.
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