Year-end mixtapes, er, mixdiscs, er, mix-iTunes playlists….everybody’s got one. (I suppose the coolest of the cool get ’em pressed up on vinyl these days.)
Not that you asked, but here’s mine.
And, with turnabout being fair play, I will ask for yours feel free to submit it in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
The keys, I’ve always felt, are not only selecting favorite songs from the year, but also ones that capture/re-recreate the place and time for you and then, probably above all else, pacing, and segues. (The pace here, for example, goes from quieter rootsy stuff, to upbeat rock-leaning pop stuff, to more acoustic-oriented pop stuff, and back down to quieter, more string-oriented stuff.)
I could take some time linking this list to death, but I won’t. If you wanna hear it as sequenced, consider it a build-it-yourself project. A good thing to just go buy a few tracks once in awhile, eh?
OK, then:
1. Overture Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet
(overtures are a lost art, happily revived here)
2. Chip Of A Star Chatham County Line
(can’t beat a catchy banjo riff and a high sweet tenor)
3. Murder In The City Avett Brothers
(the song to put on Scott and Seth’s gravestones)
4. Lonesome Joe Whipsaws
(pedal steel to die for, and a simple story to live for)
5. Wrong Guy Mando Saenz
(the voice…and the melody…mesmerizing.)
6. Sing Glen Campbell
(the voice and the melody again, fully polished in this case)
7. Supernatural Superserious R.E.M.
(it’s all about those counterpoint vocals in the chorus)
8. Yes We Can will.i.am
(possibly the best campaign song ever recorded; it’s the MUSIC, stupid!)
9. Always A Friend Alejandro Escovedo
(a perfect single by an artist known best for albums & live performances)
10. Broken Tift Merritt
(deceptively effortless, irrepressibly catchy)
11. Antarctica Weepies
(“a crisp breeze sweeping across the glaciated landscape,” I wrote in ND #75)
12. You Don’t See It Duhks
(hey, the new singer’s pretty good)
13. I Was A Daughter Basia Bulat
(building, dancing, sweeping, swirling, transcendent.)
14. Time Lapse Lifeline Maria Taylor
(she knows how to ride repetition both musically and lyrically as a groove)
15. Color Of A Lonely Heart Is Blue Old 97’s
(somehow the bass player keeps writing the ones that stop you in your tracks)
16. The Monument Valley Drive-By Truckers
(“A grasp of the ironic nature of history” now that’s a line.)
17. A Few Honest Words Ben Sollee
(forthright, straight to the point, and very precisely 2008.)
18. Plan To Marry Lucinda Williams
(Kurt B. Reighley said it all about this one)
19. It’ll Happen Punch Brothers
(nevermind The Blind, this is the beauty)
20. Beaten Wings Colm Mac Con Iomaire
(always, always, always end with an instrumental. especially one this good.)
Total Time: 1:17:44. (Just enough to burn snugly on an 80-minute disc.)
How ’bout yours?
