Top 10 Songs of 2012: Honorable Mentions 

23 Dec 2012

Every year there are a few songs that I end up leaving off the top 10 list for one reason or another. Maybe it's the best song off of a great album, but it's just not quite my favorite. Maybe it's awesome, but didn't actually come out this year, so it would be cheating to add it. Maybe it's a song that I don't think is quite good enough to make the list, but I wanted to mention it for some personal or emotional reason. Or Maybe I'm just not discerning enough to really leave the song out of my list, so I use this as a cop out.

I've got five songs here that fit those reasons.

Regina Spektor - "All the Rowboats"

Regina Spektor's What We Saw From the Cheap Seats is really a great album. Loads of great piano-driven songs, often quite haunting.

"All the Rowboats" is the most haunting. It's a song superficially about the fine art in a museum, which shouldn't be the topic of a haunting song. But it is. Musically, it's got almost a horror movie feel to it, both with the piano and the drums (which I think are a combination of real drums and a drum machine and a voice).

I think "All the Rowboats" is probably also a precursor to a thread that winds through a lot of the music on this list in 2012: songs with interesting percussion. Keep that in mind as you listen to …

Fanfarlo - "Shiny Things"

Fanfarlo's sophomore album sounds very different on the surface from their first effort (which is an album that has only gotten better, I think). But it's really not that different. They're still singing these songs that are (mostly) about isolation and loneliness and none of those songs feel like they're about that.

Rooms Filled With Light replaced Reservoir's strings and woodwinds with more brass and synths and lots of really great little percussive touches. On "Shiny Things", it's the little wood block bits that punctuate the verses, followed by the build from this really quiet shimmery sound to when you hit the chorus, the big drum kicks that sort of drive the song home.

I was lucky enough to see Fanfarlo live a couple of times this year. You should do the same, if you get the chance.

The Lumineers - "Stubborn Love"

Every year, there's some folk-pop group that kind of blows up. Fleet Foxes. Mumford and Sons. Avett Brothers. The Lumineers.

I think their self-titled album had been out for a couple months when Amazon threw it up in a 99 cent album sale. I'd heard "Ho Hey" on an NPR or KEXP podcast, and figured "for 99 cents, what do I have to lose?"

It's a good album. It's got two great songs, "Ho Hey" and this one.

This reminds me a lot of Bon Iver from For Emma, Forever Ago. I'm not doing a great job of selling why this song made me so happy. I think it pushes all the little buttons that trigger the synapses in my brain to say "wow, I like this!" Strings, the call and response, sing-along chorus, it's just a fun song.

Nada Surf - "Teenage Dreams"

It wasn't until I'd seen this live a couple of times that it clicked. I don't think there's ever been a more upbeat, optimistic song, but you don't quite get that until you see Nada Surf play this, and they're happy and the crowd is happy, and you sort of go "Ok, I'm all in. You win."

Stephen Thompson of NPR put this album in his top 10 and I think he summarizes the band with the simple words that Nada Surf "may well be the world's least cynical band."

That pretty much sums it up.

This might be the world's least cynical song.

Tegan and Sara - "Closer"

The album doesn't come out for another month, which is why this is a cheat. Technically, this probably should be on the 2013 list, but whatever, it's my site.

This could easily have been a Robyn song, which I mean very much as a compliment. It's not a subtle song, at least lyrically. It's sort of a subtle song in that it sounds a bit like a song you would have heard in an '80s movie (when the nerds are restoring a rundown house, let's say).

This is the song that'll be pretty much running across all age groups and genres in the next few weeks. You'll hear it on the folky and alternative stations, due to Tegan and Sara's roots. You'll hear it right after Katy Perry. It'll be ubiquitous, and that'll be ok.