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.
Though Kendrick Lamar dominated this year’s Pazz & Jop poll, the runner-up didn’t fare too badly. Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit came in second on the list of top albums and garnered enough votes to take first place in most non-Kendrick Lamar years.
The Aussie’s first single, ‘Pedestrian at Best,’ takes the fifth spot in the singles poll. I featured it last April as part of my track-by-track review of the album.
Meet Me In Montauk 