Friday, December 8, 2017

100 Songs for 2017: Outtakes Week (Day Five)



My 100 Songs for 2017 list comes out December 11! It’s … coming along nicely, I think. Regardless, between now and then, we’re shining the spotlight on some deserving songs that didn’t make the cut.

This is it. These are the Final Cuts. 100 Songs for 2017 comes out Monday. Thanks for reading.


Sofi Tukker - "Best Friend"

The final final cut. It's a good song. Maybe someday I'll be able to think of it as something other than an iPhone commercial, but today is not that day.

Bully - "Running"

The second-to-final cut, and it could not be more different than "Best Friend." Minimal production, ragged, frenzied, desperate. But it gets me. Planning to go see Bully at GAMH in February and I have no doubt they put on a vicious live show.

Foxygen - "On Lankershim"

Half "Tiny Dancer," half "Return of the Grievous Angel," and if you don't think that sounds wonderful then I feel bad for you.

The Front Bottoms - "Vacation Town"

You should never fact-check anything. There's a scene in 30 Rock where Liz is describing a romantic encounter to Jack and she says - or at I thought she said - "I gave him front bottom." So, whenever this band's name came up, in any context, I would invariably reply, "Good lord, Lemon, that's your worst quadrant!" Because I'm hilarious.

Turns out she really said "I gave him top front." Whatever, misquoting it all year made me happy.

Radiator Hospital - "Pastoral Radio Hit"

It's not catchy in the same sense as a Top 40 pop song, but there will be times I'll just find myself humming, "I've been in your head, been on your mind" even though I haven't even listened to this recently. It's low-key catchy, which I admit sounds like an oxymoron.

Sun Airway - "All In"

One review of this track mentioned its "saturated tropi-synths," which is just a reminder that music writing is just a contest to see who can invent the most new words.

Waxahatchee - "Never Been Wrong"

Waxahatchee showed up on the "Two Songs Rule" Outtakes post back on Monday, but ... whoops. Turns out there wasn't enough room for two songs from Out in the Storm, which is a shame, because it's so consistently excellent.

Thunder Jackson - "Guilty Party"

Look, I'm not complaining. I love NME wholeheartedly. I'm not accusing them of anything. But like 15% of their articles are absolutely written by publicists. Look at this:



A neutral observer did not write that. If they're going to keep the hyperbole turned up that high, they'd better be right, and on this one they are.

Broken Social Scene - "Skyline"

"Skyline" good, "Shoreline" still better.

Niki & The Dove - "Sushi King"

Always try to find room for Swedish weirdos on the list, but this year they fell just short.

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