Monday, November 16, 2015

Rick's Top 10 From the Past 10 Years

A few years have gone by since this blog was visited regularly by a group of good friends who wanted solid recommendations from people whose taste they trusted. The original posters are all still connected, though their lives have deviated from one another's enough to inspire completely different tastes in music, movies, books, etc. In an effort to understand what we like and why, in the context of who we are now vs. a few years ago, Friends Recommend is back up and running, for now.

To kick things off, I present 10 of my favorite songs from the past 10 years. I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do.


-Rick



Summer Fiction – Throw Your Arms Around Me 

“Right from the start your warm embraces” 

Summer Fiction immediately conveys a sense of warmth. With its Belle and Sebastian-like album cover, and soft vocals, it seems both familiar and comforting. There are plenty of gems on this album, all of which you’ve sort of heard before. A waltz is still a waltz, but taken as a whole, the songs on this album really come together. Throw Your Arms Around Me is the capstone to the album, and is easily a song I could listen to on repeat. It’s worth mentioning that each song on the album is about one woman, and written from the perspective of a different of her lovers. Gimmicky, but it helped to win me over. 




Wye Oak – Shriek 

“This present seems infallible” 

There is a scene in Breaking Bad where Jesse Pinkman shoots heroin for the first time. The camera is above him as he lays flat on his back, and he’s shown floating up an away from his bedroom and out over the world, unaware of anything below him, but experiencing total and absolute bliss.  That perfectly illustrates how I fell when I hear Shriek. I lose myself in this song. I feel compelled to close my eyes and just float away to wherever this song takes me. This song is so layered and beautiful, it just takes you away from what’s in front of your face to an otherworldly dreamscape. 




Emily King – Georgia 

“I can’t stop hearing your name.” 

The more I listen to Georgia, the more unsure I am about it being on this list. It’s very basic, and isn’t as complex or as deep as some of the other songs here, but then it’s Georgia that I’ll be singing in my head for days. It’s another song that conveys warmth, and the strings and record scratchiness at the end make it sound like something you’ve heard in your grandmother’s house. There is something about the lyrics and simplicity of the song overall that just feels straightforward and mature. 




Father John Misty – Nancy From Now On

“Pour me another drink” 

Of all the Father John Misty songs, I could listen to Nancy From Now On over and over again. It’s unusual and intriguing. The upbeat music balances the darker lyrics. All of Josh Tillman’s self-loathing and offsetting cockiness that make all of his songs so soulfully upsetting are on full display here. Also, the chorus is reminiscent of Sexx Laws-era Beck, which is just perfection. 




Georges Brassens – Le Vent 

“The wind, I guarantee you, frets about it, and quite rightly, not in the slightest bit.” 

There is something so careless and unpretentious about the music of Georges Brassens. He sings about what he loves, and that comes through in his songs. I love the tempo and brevity of Le Vent. It’s jolty and jaunty, and it quickly gets out of the way. I start to miss this song as soon as it stops. 



Voxtrot – The Start of Something

“If I die clutching your photograph, don’t call me boring, it’s just cuz I like you.” 

I can still remember the first time I heard The Start of Something circa the mid 2000’s. It came on an online music streaming service, and I continued to listen for months hoping that it would come on again. Years later I remembered this band and found this song again, and around the same time they were releasing an album. None of their other songs lived up to this one. To me, it sounds like Morrissey if he were happy, but I don’t listen to much Morrissey, so I’m no expert. Like other songs on this list, The Start of Something expresses unbridled infatuation without apology. It’s honest and heartfelt, and it’s really really catchy. 



Sharon Van Etten – One Day 

“You don’t see me now. I don’t see you back.” 

Oof. Sharon Van Etten’s music is often melancholy and heavy. This is one of her lighter songs, but it’s still somehow absent of levity. Vague lyrics hint at themes of family, love, and friendship, but they are juxtaposed with phrases like “distance is fine,” “kicking myself,” “sick of trying.” There is something darker that I can’t quite discern, but the effect of the song is to still communicate all the emotional heft that comes with close relationships. To me, One Day brings the same sense of familiarity that the other songs do, but in an almost cripplingnway. Where George Brassens is a your grandpa’s pipe smoke, and Summer Fiction is the family quilt, Sharon Van Etten is the deep insecurity you feel every time you visit you whole family for the holidays. 



Emitt Rhodes – Tame the Lion

“He’s killing when we say no.” 

Like many folks, I first learned of Emitt Rhodes through The Royal Tenebaums soundtrack, but then never dug into his catalog. I finally corrected that severe error last year, and immediately grew a deep affinity for his music. I love an upbeat song about misery. I feel like I become more resilient when I hear a song like this that sounds happy but still explores and talks about trajedy and trauma. Tame the Lion is the epitome of buoyant-in-the-face-of-adversity songs. Try and stop yourself from singing along to “Little children live in Saigon, kneeling down on severed limbs.” 




Lhasa De Sela – Fool’s Gold

“Now use your silver tongue once more.” 

This one gets in my head and stays there. I find myself singing this under my breath, even if I haven’t heard it for weeks. I like the pacing of the vocals. Again, it’s the longing for honesty in the lyrics to Fool’s Gold that appeals to me. In the search for a vulnerable yet candid relationship, Lhasa De Sela isn’t victimizing herself or anyone in this breakup song, just calling a spade a spade. 




The TourĂ©-Raichel Collective – Bamba 

“…” 

What can I say about this song? Without lyrics, and being totally outside the genres of these other songs, it’s perhaps a bit out of place on this list, but I just really love it. It’s hopeful and contemplative. It’s peaceful and yet surprising. All of The Toure-Raichel Collective’s output is pretty amazing, but Bamba is the one song I gravitate toward the most. If I had to choose one song to listen to forever, this would be among the front runners. 




It's been real.

7 comments:

adam. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
adam. said...

We're back. I can feel it, we're back and it's really happening. Thanks to Ricky B!

Laundre said...

What a nice surprise!

mayohayes said...

I just stopped by hoping to find a book recommendation and imagine my surprise when I was greeted by a brand new post!

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