Top 50 Songs of 2011

10. John Maus – “Believer” (Ribbon Music)
[single; from We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves] Buy at iTunes

As John Maus’ music is meant to drive us toward movements and actions that the world without it does not prompt, it is all in a sense asking us to be a believer, if only enough so that we stop thinking long enough to chant along and move to the music and go a little wild, wild enough to crack something loose in ourselves that needs to be cracked loose. “Beliver” is, then, a quintessential Maus song expressing quintessentially Mausian sentiments. The simple bassline delivers a sense of urgency straight off and as the sparkling, choral synthesizers intensify and explode into a haze of blurry light, belief is hardly a prerequisite to being overcome. – Tyler Parks

9. Atlas Sound – “Te Amo” (4AD)
[single; from Parallax] Buy at iTunes

Besides Frank Ocean, Bradford Cox is my favorite new singer of the season, which is funny obviously because he’s not at all new. He always sang on things, just not like this. His voice emerges from all the previous effects and twiddles with a soaring precision that reflects all the ice-blue light he says inspired Parallax. Technically, “Te Amo” is one of the lightest songs on this list; it’s just a piano loop, some ambient swirl and a woodblock-leaning beat that’s essential in the same way a laugh track is. But it’s extraordinarily lovely and introduced Cox the swooner, front and center in the strangest dreams. – Anthony Strain

8. Smith Westerns – “Weekend” (Fat Possum)
[single; from Dye It Blonde] Buy at iTunes

The first single from the Smith Westerns’ sophomore album, Dye It Blonde, proved that the hype surrounding the young Chicago band was indeed justified. “Weekend”‘s catchy guitar strumming, falsetto harmonizing and succinct structure make this track pure bubblegum. But it sure ain’t Bubblicious; its flavor lasts much longer than its brief three minutes, as there is a level of sophistication built into the pop ballad that gives the song some real staying power. The young trio subtly contemplates the pressures of conforming to society, the stability of blossoming relationships and life in a time of transition — all with an air of innocence that push the track further left on the ever important genuine-to-corny scale. Released as a single in late 2010, “Weekend” still sounds fresh, and, like frontman Cullen Omori sings, weekends are never fun unless this song is around. – Donny Giovannini

7. Wye Oak – “Holy Holy” (Merge)
[single; from Civilian] Buy at iTunes

Though it might not be the best song of the year, it is undoubtedly this year’s youth anthem. The lyrics are just ornate enough to make a sufficiently inspirational quote, but opaque enough to read pretty much any meaning or context into them. (Is it religious? Is it self-celebratory? Fuck if I know.) The screeching and repetitive guitar of the verse plays out at once anxiously and cautiously before being flush with an almost spontaneous joy in the chorus. Like the lyrics, none of it means anything exactly other than “these are your feelings, this is your life, it’s really nice outside, go do something about it, and succeed or fail at your discretion.” – Chris Morgan

6. Radiohead – “Lotus Flower” (tbd)
[single; from The King of Limbs] Buy at iTunes

It’s kind of strange for one of Radiohead’s music videos to hit harder than a new song or album. But the video for this, the first track featured from their latest DIY effort The King of Limbs, featured bandleader Thom Yorke singing and dancing along with the music in seemingly physically uncomfortable fashion. The damned thing somehow went viral, the visuals often spliced together with new, incongruous, genius audio selections. It’s indicative of just how far afield this track was for Radiohead, atypical even for these masters of the atypical. “Lotus Flower” was lifted from an album that may very well have made the least impact of any Radiohead release—even the process of collecting TKOL remixes seemed to last longer in the news cycle. It’s a rare Radiohead song, and probably their first single, that has Yorke’s chirping falsetto proudly on display from beginning to end. It’s built intriguingly, almost exclusively from that voice, a warm and wet rhythm track, and stuttering bass synths lifted from deep in dubstep. If what sounds like 60 percent of Radiohead could produce this, imagine what music obviously made by all five band members could have sounded like. – Adam Blyweiss

5. PJ Harvey – “The Words That Maketh Murder” (Vagrant)
[single; from Let England Shake] Buy at iTunes

Despite the anti-war song’s rich legacy in the annals of rock and roll history, the 21st century thus far has been littered with songs about war that are simply too preachy and inconsequential for their own good. Leave it to PJ Harvey to rise above this challenge in amazing fashion. By playing the narrator lost in a sea of bloodshed, Harvey paints a harrowing picture of soldiers falling “like lumps of meat” with “flesh quivering in the heat.” By the time we get to the coda, with Harvey’s upper register echoing in distress, she threatens to take her problems to the UN, but she’s all too aware of how futile it is. Much like the way a great war movie plays out, the blood, drama and debris speaks for itself. This shouldn’t be so easy to listen to, but musically it’s downright pretty. Set to Harvey’s beautiful reverberating autoharp progression which is played alongside hand claps, trombone and sax (also played by Harvey) as well as chants from longtime collaborator John Parrish, there’s little room for the carnage-induced nausea to sink in. – Chris Karman

4. Cut Copy – “Need You Now” (Modular)
[single; from Zonoscope] Buy at iTunes

I can’t say that Australia’s leading electro-pop group made Zonoscope into a better album than 2008’s In Ghost Colours. (Australia might agree, as the latter reached #1 on their national charts but Zonoscope only hit #3.) I certainly can’t say that this album’s opener was a big hit—”Take Me Over” and “Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution” were hotter singles. But the entree into this album sounds like a theme for a long walk or a drive off into the sunset, all staccato squelchy pads, majestic descending synths, and light cooing background vocals. It embodied not just Zonoscope‘s strengths but those of its predecessor. A song with so much life, it’s like your ears eating dessert first. – Adam Blyweiss

3. St. Vincent – “Surgeon” (4AD)
[single; from Strange Mercy] Buy at iTunes

It isn’t so strange that with all of her obvious talents and her penchant for making eccentric use of them that Annie Clark’s best song to date is both irresistible and a vortex of enigmas. She explains it like this: “I definitely wanted this particular song to sound like someone was kind of in a Benzedrine and white wine coma – like a housewife’s cocktail.” The inspiration for the brilliant, incising lines of the chorus were pinched from Marilyn Monroe’s journals and the operative operating metaphor is an apt fit for a song situated somewhere in the ether of an amply medicated mind momentarily dancing with itself rather than warring with itself. So there we are, our balance compromised, swooned on a couch with an ocean of memories and dreams beaming in through an imagined hole in our chest through which, we optimistically imagine, the pathological ones can be removed. – Tyler Parks

2. Real Estate – “It’s Real” (Domino)
[single; from Days] Buy at iTunes

Real Estate seems like a meaningless name for a band until you hear their music, and everything is connected into one perfect picture. In face perfection is what it’s all about. Real Estate conjures up the ownership society of American suburbia, whereas their music conjures the quaint, well-ordered calm of any given suburban neighborhood. The soft, almost childlike melody is the sound of perfect contentedness, of taking one’s blood pressure medicine. The whispered vocals fill every home like sunlight with their assurances that “it’s real.” Whether or not it is real (whatever it is) is hardly anyone’s problem, it just feels good to be told that from someone or something that apparently knows. – Chris Morgan

1. M83 – “Midnight City” (Mute)
[single; from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming] Buy at iTunes

There’s no hard and fast rule that says the Song of the Year has to be important, ubiquitous, or even really a pop song, though it’s an uphill battle if the song isn’t at least two of these things. M83’s “Midnight City” is most definitely a pop song, and appears at least on its way toward ubiquity, even if radio programmers still haven’t found a proper spot for it. As for important? Well, that’s debatable, of course, and synth-pop isn’t going to change the world. But everything that Anthony Gonzalez does, from the synth-gazer soundscapes on Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts, to the teenage nostalgia trip on Saturdays=Youth, sounds like it’s of the utmost importance at the very moment he’s performing it, that his future hinges on that very moment, and he has everything to lose. And “Midnight City” seems just that much more urgent.

A four-chord new wave anthem with a silky smooth saxophone solo carrying it out, “Midnight City” is right in Gonzalez’s wheelhouse. It’s M83 at its most M83, amplifying and adding layers of density to those gargantuan synthesizers, and aiming for immortality. It’s nothing so complicated really, and Gonzalez is merely singing about taking a drive through the city, and he could have very well left it at that. But he litters the song with lines like “The city is my church,” and there’s simultaneously more passion and affectation in his yelps. “Midnight City” is a screenplay within a song, and a statement that four chords and four minutes still can’t contain a song’s ambition. – Jeff Terich