Top Songs of 2012 – #4
Some Nights, the sophomore album by New York City band fun., was one of the most creative and dynamic releases of the year, a blend of indie rock and Queen-inspired bombast that never pauses to take a breath.
The big hits on Some Nights were the millennial anthem ‘We Are Young’ and the epic title song, with its fantastic multi-track harmonies and military drum beat. But my favorite song on the album is a deeper cut.
Top Songs of 2012 – #5
Contrary to the title of his latest album, Out of the Game, Rufus Wainwright got very much back into the game this year with his first pop release since 2007.
His last album was 2010’s All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, a collection of somber ballads for piano and vocals that was very much informed by the sickness of his mother, who died just before its release.
Fifteen years before swing music hit mainstream pop culture through bands such as the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Joe Jackson put out his own album of swing covers called Jumpin’ Jive.
Jumpin’ Jive was Jackson’s fourth album and it was released just three years after his debut. It was followed a year later (in 1982) by Night and Day, his most successful record (which featured ‘Steppin’ Out’ and ‘Breaking Us in Two’).
Today’s track is one of my favorites from U2’s mostly forgettable 1997 album, Pop. It has a sleek, sexy groove, courtesy of Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton’s subliminal rhythm section that kicks in about a minute and a half into the song.
I’ve always thought that this song is mixed too quiet for general consumption. If you listen to it on anything other than good headphones in an empty room, you’re going to miss half of it. And I think I mean that more as a compliment than a complaint.
Top Songs of 2012 – #6
One of my happiest musical memories of 2012 was the reunion of Ben Folds Five thirteen years after their last album together. Their new record, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, sounded exactly like a Ben Folds Five record should sound a decade later — it wasn’t a flashback so much as an evolution.
It’s funny how the addition of a drummer and bassist who rarely contribute to the songwriting can change a band’s sound. The difference between the four Ben Folds Five albums and Folds’ solo work is really just the men behind the instruments. But Darren Jesse and Robert Sledge combine with Folds to form a musical alchemy that elevates the whole package.
