There’s a certain thrill that comes with having no idea what to expect before firing up a song. Everything on the Pazz & Jop poll so far has been a known quantity, even if I’d never heard the song. I can pretty much guess what a Missy Elliott song is going to sound like before hitting play.
But tied for #14 on the 2015 poll (following Jack U and Justin Bieber, who fall at #13 with ‘Where Are U Now’) is a song called ‘Sunday Candy’ by a band called Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment.
I don’t know that any of my favorite artists have quite the effect on me that Tift Merritt does.
Maybe it’s the intelligence and humanity in all of our songs, the generosity of spirit, the earnestness and warmth. Maybe it’s her rich, welcoming vocals. Maybe it’s just the fact that she’s the only one of my favorites I’ve met in person, and I’ve met her twice.
The Random iTunes Fairy seems eerily prescient lately.
Last week she served up a song from the Grease soundtrack the very day Fox aired its live performance of Grease. And this week, in the middle of my Pazz & Jop rundown, the Saturday selection is the opening track of Liz Phair’s 1993 album Exile in Guyville, which topped that year’s poll.
Carly Rae Jepsen shows up at #11 in the Pazz & Jop poll with ‘Run Away With Me,’ the song I had at #10 on my own year-end list.
In the twelfth spot is a track by Grimes, the Canadian indie artist. This is the sort of choice that was typical of a list like this one a decade or so back, when alternative and indie artists were the critics darlings and hip-hop didn’t get much respect.
The next three spots on Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll of 2015’s best singles are all tracks I’ve featured on the blog.
Fetty Wap comes in at #7 with ‘Trap Queen,’ another song and artist that I simply don’t get. At #8 is ‘Uptown Funk,’ which is officially a 2014 song but received enough votes for its early year run that it still made the list. And tied for #9 is Adele with her smash hit ‘Hello,’ one of the only songs in the top ten that doesn’t have a target audience of high schoolers.
Meet Me In Montauk 