Top 20 Songs of 2016 (20-11)

Christmas is less than seven days away, and so it's list week here on The Album Wall! Here's what to expect between now and the weekend:

• Monday 19 December: Top 20 Songs of 2016 (20-11)
• Wednesday 21 December: Top 20 Songs of 2016 (10-1)
• Friday 23 December: Top 10 Albums of 2016

Below is the first half of my 'Songs of 2016' countdown. All of these songs (to the best of my knowledge) were released on full-length albums for the first time this year; some selections, such as #17, were available on singles/EPs prior to 2016, but as this is primarily a blog about albums I'm using the release date of each song's parent album in order to determine eligibility for this list.

(The above rule does mean that a few great songs are sadly absent from this top 20. Most notable are Phoebe's Lips by CHUCK, which first appeared on Happy New Years Babe in 2015 and was re-released as part of the My Band is a Computer compilation this year, and Fuck the Government, I Love You, which was the second track on Ariel Sharratt & Mathias Kom's Don't Believe the Hyperreal several months before it was the third track on The Burning Hell's Public Library. Fuck the Government was actually my 19th favourite song of 2015, so it would be kind of weird to include it in the 2016 list too.)

Without further small print, then, here are my top 20 songs of 2016 (part one):

20) Attached to the Lamp by Sat. Nite Duets

(from Air Guitar)

This is one heck of an opening track. I love the chugging pace, and I love how the words and the tune fit together like two pieces of K'Nex. "Maybe we could go back to Cleveland and play for the sound guy and the other band..." Playing a gig to an empty room never sounded like so much fun.

November Playlist: Winter's On The Phone

Hey everyone - it's December! But before you break out the Christmas hits, here are 10 non-Yuletide tracks that I really enjoyed listening to in November and that I hope you'll enjoy listening to right now.

1. Holy Hell It's Cold by Quiet Marauder

(from MEN)

I tend to revisit MEN (originally released in 2013 - read my three-year-old review of it here) every year at around this time, and this rib-tickling but also slightly sobering cut seemed like an appropriate choice given the current temperature outside.

2. Treaty by Leonard Cohen

(from You Want it Darker)

You Want it Darker - which it's probably safe to assume was written and recorded by a Leonard Cohen who knew that he would soon be dead - has a certain duality to it. Many of its songs make it sound like Len had made his peace with the world and was ready to go, but a couple of songs (including Seemed the Better Way and this beautiful number) suggest a certain amount of regret, a desire to go back and change something. More thoughts on You Want it Darker here.

Darker, Deeper

I was introduced to Leonard Cohen by my father. He used to play Len's More Best Of compilation around the house, thereby exposing me to songs like Everybody Knows, Take This Waltz and Dance Me to the End of Love (Dad's personal favourite) long before I heard older and perhaps more celebrated Cohen cuts like Bird on the Wire and So Long, Marianne.

This past Saturday, I was in the car with both my dad and my girlfriend Vicky. 1988's I'm Your Man was on the CD player, and I asked Dad - who I've only ever caught listening to post-1980 Leonard Cohen releases - if he'd ever heard the Canadian artist's earlier, more folk-influenced work. He replied that he had, but wasn't all that fussed on it; "you know me," he continued, "if it hasn't got any jokes in it then I won't stay interested for very long."

February Playlist: What Kind of Monster

Another month, another month-end playlist. Here's what I spent my extra-long February listening to:

1. T.I.W.Y.G. - Savages

(from Adore Life)

Don't mess with love. Or Savages, for that matter. Click here to read my review of their new album, Adore Life.

On Leonard Cohen's Early Work

I like Leonard Cohen a lot, but as I realised a few days ago, my knowledge of his repertoire is basically limited to the post-MTV era. The first song of his that I ever heard was Everybody Knows from I'm Your Man, and that track is pretty representative of how I think of Mr Cohen: a deep, earthy voice preaching messages of doom over several layers of synthesisers and, more recently, a lush mini-orchestra of rock and classical instrumentation. I've got Live in London, so I'm familiar with older tracks like Suzanne and So Long, Marianne and Bird on the Wire, but the versions I know were sung by a much older man than the Leonard Cohen who initially wrote and recorded them.

Besides, I bet the original version of So Long, Marianne didn't feature Dino Soldo and his SWEET HARMONICA SOLOS.

I listened to 1971's Songs of Love and Hate for the first time earlier this week, and it came as something of a shock. The voice is just about identifiable as Cohen's, but it sounds like he hasn't truly grown into it yet; I was speaking to Josh (a friend of mine and a big Leonard Cohen fan) about this last Sunday, and he agreed that Len is just one of those people who makes more sense as an old person. Cohen is to music what Ian McKellen is to acting; he's so good at playing wise, wizened wizards and elderly gentlemen that it's kind of bizarre to imagine him working in the same field when he was young.

Top 10 Albums of 2014

Time for the big one, then. I've already told you my favourite songs of 2014, and with that warm-up out of the way, I'm now ready to reveal my favourite albums.

Frankly, I can't quite believe that it's been a whole year since Quiet Marauder scooped top honours in December 2013, but a year it has been and we're about to find out who is following in their footsteps. We know that it won't be any of the bands from my Honourable Mentions list; those albums were good, but not quite good enough for the final list.

Without further ado, then, here are The Album Wall's Top 10 Albums of 2014:

10) Commune by Goat

World Music, Goat's first album, was pretty good, but I never managed to shake the feeling that it wasn't quite as good as I wanted it to be. Commune is a lot closer to being that album; it feels much more full-on and much more mystical than its predecessor, and that full-on mysticism is what makes Goat such a great prospect. That and the rhythms - I particularly like Bondye, which uses metal chains as a percussion instrument.

Standout Tracks: Talk to God // Bondye

Top 20 Songs of 2014

Great albums would be nothing without great songs so before I reveal my Top 10 Albums of 2014, I'd like to share some of the best songs I've heard this year. Some you will know, some you may have missed, but all of them are excellent and that's an Album Wall guarantee.

Just to clarify, any song is eligible as long as its parent album was released in 2014. That stonking new Modest Mouse song, for example, is not on the list; even though we're listening to it here and now in 2014, the new album won't be out until March 2015, and so as far as I'm concerned it's not a 'Song of 2014'.

Also, I'd finished compiling this list before Lampshades on Fire was made available to hear, so there we are. Now, without further ado, here are my Top 20 Songs of 2014!

20) Did I Ever Love You by Leonard Cohen

This song attracted a lot of criticism for its "bouncy country" section that "sounds like Mumford & Sons", but whatever - I still love it, and the contrast between those sad, achy verses and that abruptly upbeat chorus is one of the best things about it.

How I Spent My Sunday

Sunday, October 5 (Morning)

It's been a distinctly lazy Sunday for me thus far. I left bed briefly to make some toast and put some washing on, then it was straight back to bed to waste a few hours on the internet.

In bed is where I am when I remember that Wooden Arms are releasing their debut album, Tide, in the UK tomorrow. After a recommendation from Josh 'SCRIBER' Price, the band emailed me a while ago to ask if I would write something about the record. I said that I would, and so I decide that I'd better get hopping.

Sad Songs (Guest Post)

Happy September everybody! Today's blog seems very appropriate for the end of summer - Joshua Price, a.k.a. SCRIBER, has very kindly listed a few of his favourite sad songs. What better way to kick off the cold months?

Hi. My name is Josh and I write and perform in a band called SCRIBER. As he may have previously mentioned, Joel plays drums for us. He's very good. [Aw, shucks! - J]

The music we play is pretty sad and quite bleak. I have a song called Hopeless Lost; some of my songs have made people cry at gigs. After seeing me perform for the first time, my girlfriend asked, "Are you okay?"

As a person, I'm relatively happy and chirpy, but the music I listen to could certainly be shoehorned into the boxes marked 'Depressing' and 'Sad'. So, here are ten of the best sad songs I could think of:

The Spirit Was Gone by Antony and the Johnsons

Antony's voice truly is one of the most upsetting things to listen to. I mean that in a good way, kind of. He really resonates a kind of unique pain that I hope I never feel.

3 New Beginnings

I wanted to do an Easter-themed blog for Good Friday, but what exactly does an Easter-themed blog about albums look like? Easter doesn't have nearly as much good music as Christmas does - once you've listened to Jesus Christ Superstar, you've pretty much exhausted this holiday's repertoire.

I considered 'songs about chocolate' as a topic (Chocolate Jesus by Tom Waits, Chocolate by Tindersticks...that could have been quite a fun one actually), but since Easter is all about fresh starts and the arrival of springtime and fluffy bunnies and newly-hatched chicks and that sort of thing, I thought I'd do this one instead.

Here are three albums that marked bold new beginnings for the artists who made them. Each one represented a press of the reset button, a departure from the ditches that had previously been dug, or a shift onto new shores at the very least. Happy Easter!

Embryonic by The Flaming Lips

At War with the Mystics and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots weren't exactly anodyne AOR unit-shifters, but compared to 2009's Embryonic (and everything that The Flaming Lips have released since), those albums look like bubblegum. This album demonstrated just how weird Wayne Coyne and his merry men could be when they cut loose; out went the whimsical songs about autumn birds and karate girls, and in came a faintly nightmarish collection about goodness knows what. Pressing 'play' on this one and hearing Convinced of the Hex for the first time must have been quite an experience for anyone who expected another Yoshimi.