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Song of the Day #1,278: ‘Working On a Tan’ – Brad Paisley

Top Ten Songs of 2011 – #2

Brad Paisley’s This is Country Music is a typical Brad Paisley album. That means it features his patented blend of wry humor and heart-on-sleeve sentimentality, set to the sounds of a peerless backing band, led by Paisley’s own lead guitar heroics.

After discovering Paisley through his previous (and still career best) album, American Saturday Night, I snapped up everything in his discography and discovered that he’s one of the most consistent artists working today. You know what you’re gonna get from Brad Paisley, and it’s exactly what you want.

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Song of the Day #1,277: ‘Love and Hard Times’ – Paul Simon

Top Ten Songs of 2011 – #3

As my series of Paul Simon Weekends comes close to wrapping up, I hope I’ve made a strong case for his spot atop my list of favorite songwriters. For 50 years he has led listeners on a musical journey as sublime as it is ambitious.

I hope his latest album, So Beautiful Or So What, is not his last, but if that turns out to be the case, it would be a fitting end to his career. It’s a beautiful work, one of his finest, and it touches gracefully on themes or mortality and the afterlife.

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Song of the Day #1,276: ‘Road Song’ – Fountains of Wayne

Top Ten Songs of 2011 – #4

Fountains of Wayne has been churning out pitch-perfect pop songs for 15 years now, and in 2011’s Sky Full of Holes they might just have released their best collection yet.

This was a more tightly focused effort than their previous albums — less of a kitchen sink approach — and as a result, more satisfying overall.

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Song of the Day #1,275: ‘Copenhagen’ – Lucinda Williams

Top Ten Songs of 2011 – #5

Resuming my countdown of my top ten songs of last year, I arrive at a poignant track from Lucinda Williams latest album, Blessed.

Blessed came out early in 2011 and has been somewhat off my radar over the past several months as I listened to other new releases, but today’s SOTD, ‘Copenhagen,’ was an easy call for my top five.

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Song of the Day #1,274: ‘Father and Daughter’ – Paul Simon

When I wrote yesterday that I never revisit Paul Simon’s Surprise, I left out one major exception.

‘Father and Daughter,’ the album’s closing track, first turned up on the soundtrack to The Wild Thornberrys Movie before finding a home on Simon’s own album. I suspect he considered it too good a song to relegate to a soundtrack album from a little-seen kids films.

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