Tracks of the Year - Muddog Millionaire

I don't really have a theme to my picks, except that they are all definitely not Waka Flocka Flame. Just some good ol' accessible pop jams.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round



For a variety of reasons, Ariel Pink’s past work, while interesting, never really hooked my attention. While I’m a big fan of lo-fi music, it just seemed like there was too much missing under all of the fuzz of his bedroom tracks. Then I hear Round and Round and I’m floored. The clarity, the groove, the transitions, the chorus. Ask my Spelman 52 roommates, I played this song a lot (and apparently sang it in my sleep once). What if every chillwave artist followed the example of their godfather and learned to make some honest, catchy pop songs?

Erykah Badu - Window Seat



Madlib produced a few of the songs on Badu’s last album, but surprisingly this single put together by herself and James Poyser outshines all of them. Don’t get me wrong, Madlib is one of the most talented and forward-thinking beat-makers in the world, and to be honest, the beat in this track isn’t really much to think about. In fact, the beat is just simple and uninteresting enough to let Erykah take all the credit for the track. It’s pretty straightforward, but mmm mmm mmmmm...I can dig it. While it was mostly in the public eye because of the controversy of the video, it’s just a pretty beautiful song altogether.

Keepaway - 100



It clocks in at under 3 minutes, but there are enough elements in this song to make it worthy of listen after listen after listen. The wall of guitar at the beginning of the chorus, then the all-too-singable line, I don’t mean to weigh on your mind/I just hope you think of me when you get high, a wonderful song of hoping that someone is thinking of you obsessively thinking of you as much as you are of them.

Avey Tare - Oliver Twist



Everyone loves Panda Bear. How many bands are asking to have him provide his vocals for their bands these days? Then there’s Dave Portner. While he’s the other founding half of Animal Collective, it doesn’t seem like he gets the attention that Mr. Lennox gets these days. Is it because of any sort of lack of talent? Not at all. Oliver Twist is evidence of such. Builds up the track, eerie sample at the beginning, a thumping bass line, then 2:24, the beat builds while Avey argues with himself via some meeaaaannnn vocal pitch changes (much like the reason the second part of Kanye’s Blame Game is so good). The album took awhile for me, but really grew on me, but this one just caught me from the first listen.

Toro Y Moi - Blessa + Minors





I’ll be honest, I hate about 75% of chillwave. Like that Neon Indian album. I hate it. But the two opening tracks off of Causers of This perfectly capture exactly what is appealing of the genre: the woozy effects, the delay and drops on the vocals, the haziness of the layering, juxtaposed with the constant drum-machine beat. The man can harmonize with himself pretty well, too. The reason I did this as two songs is that both are very good. But the sudden transition from echoing synthesizer noises to the explosion of sound at the beginning of Minors, the dude just kills it. Wish I could link the two youtube videos together.