Cosmic's Top 27 Songs of 2011

[Cosmic Harmony]

#22

I Don't Want Love
Artist: The Antlers
Album: Burst Apart



Indie darlings rejoice for the Antlers have arrived. Gracing your inner ears we have the soothing upper register of singer Peter Silberman and the very mellow, trancy music that wraps itself around you like a warm blanket. There is nothing in your face about "I Don't Want Love". It is just the perfect level of subdued and reserved without being at all bland. It's a great way to kick off their "Burst Apart" album and certainly deserving of their spot on this list. ​

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

#21

Longing To Belong
Artist: Eddie Vedder
Album: Ukulele Songs


"Longing To Belong" isn't my actually favorite song off of Eddie Vedder's "Ukulele Songs" but I do think it's the best song off the album. The light strumming of the ukulele and the gentle tone of the lyrics beautifully contrast the unmistakable baritone voice that Eddie has and the low moan of the cello in the background. It's a very dreamy and peaceful song that ironically doesn't belong with any of the music Eddie is best known for or anything else that is really out there these days....and that just makes this song and album stand out even more.​

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

#20





L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N
Band: Noah and the Whale
Album: Last Night On Earth


I'm an absolute sucker for meaningful, uplifting songs and "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N" is absolutely prefect for that. With melodies that have striking similarities to "Lola" by The Kinks this song sheds light on the lives of Lisa and Joey in the verses and even though things are less than perfect for them life still goes on and they're fine with it. This song is just a great sing along song that makes me feel are sunny and warm. ​

 

[Aktivator]

nice list so far Cosmic.
I don't want love is one of my top 5 of the year.
Cage the elephant, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Noah & the Whale all great tunes this year.

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

Thanks, Aktivator. I'm glad to see someone is following along AND I'm even more glad to see that you like some of the new music that I like.

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

#19




To Whom It May Concern
Artist: Journey
Album: Eclipse



"To Whom It May Concern" has all of the creamy goodness that fans want out of their Journey ballads only with more lyrical substance. Unlike lovably sappy smashes like "Open Arms", this particular song isn't about romance. It yearns for a better tomorrow and hoping that "the world finds peace in my lifetime" is a sentiment that I can very much relate to. Musically my favorite part of the song is the harmonized synth and guitar melody that they play through much of the song and then later on the album in the song "Venus".​

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

#18




Any Man In America
Artist: Blue October
Album: Any Man In America



Blue October's "Any Man In America" is the song that summarizes it's namesake album perfectly and if you ask me it's the most spine tingling and enraged song on the entire the album. Lead singer Justin Furstenfeld sings and raps in this song and both are delivered in the kind of harsh whisper that has enunciating so clear that it can only come from sort of deep seeded rage that someone feels in the pit of their stomach and has been festering in there for so long that you are just too exhausted to express in any other way. The way Justin exposes such a raw nerve in this song is similar to Eminem, whom he credits in beginning of the song, and this is a beautiful example of influence coming full circle and I really do find that quite special.​

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

#17

Body and Soul
Artist: Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse
Album: Duets II



Tony Bennett has sang with everyone from Queen Latifah to Paul McCartney to Willie Nelson to Elvis Costello over his two duet albums and of everyone he's sang with on them his rendition of the classic "Body and Soul" with the late Amy Winehouse is my favorite. Since both Tony and Amy are jazz singers they fit together on this song quite beautifully with Tony's charming, gentlemanly vocals rooting them to the music as Amy delivers her deep, nonlinear lines with the most delicate of flare. Despite the vast generational gap between the two singers they harmonize beautifully. Now even though Tony is the 55+ year veteran I think Amy makes this song by taking it from a pretty sounding, slow jazz number to something far more heartfelt with a vocal style that simply cannot be taught.

I would have really liked to have heard these two do an entire album together...​

 

[Soot and Stars]

What I love about this (and yes I have been following intently ) is that you may be the closest to my taste musically in the forum and none of these great songs are going to be on my top 50 list. It just shows how much great music there is from this past year and I'm thankful to this thread for filling in the gaps I missed. For example, I haven't listened to any R.E.M. material since Monster but that song was great. Sad that it's on their retirement album. The other thing I noticed was that that was the first song I've heard from the Noel Gallagher band and I like it a lot better than the Beady Eye single I heard.

The three artist we share so far from this year so far in your countdown is Charles Bradley, Journey and Blue October. I'm not sure if any Charles Bradley will slip into my list yet but I really like him and the song you posted. A real standout as being the first REAL soul artist in forever! With Journey I enjoyed the whole album but as a whole. I'm not sure if I could separate that "one" track to spotlight it in a list though I like the one you chose. As far as Blue October, that's a great pick from the album and I'm really glad you like it. Honestly a LOT of songs are going to get neglected from my list off of that album as I've decided to pick only one song from a single artist (two maaaybe at max) as I was overwhelmed with how many albums had such gems this year).

I liked both the Cage and Dropkick Murphy tracks a lot and those are both bands I only glanced over before. As far as bands I'd never heard any music from out of The Antlers and Noah and the Whale I really like the Noah song. It reminds me off Counting Crows poppier stuff to me! The Antlers is too held back for me. Sounds kind of hipster and lacks any oomph IMO.

The Eddie Vedder and Amy Winehouse offerings aren't bad but I'm not quite as sold on them! I'm a big Pearl Jam fan when Eddie isn't being such a hippy. I've never liked Amy much but she does do a good job on that type of track!

Keep going Cosmic! I'm enjoying it for sure!

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

I know you're not the only one following me closely in here Sooty. The views keep climbing, just people don't post in here very often.

Well since I know that our list may not intersect very much that make me need to follow yours even more closely because I could have done an even longer list like yours but I only wanted each artist to make the list once (which made this tough at times because there were certain albums where I wanted to put every track on here ) plus I didn't feel like having this drag out forever because I have other projects coming down the line.

"Monster" I found to be kind of a disappointment compared to other R.E.M. albums but "Collapse Into Now" is a wonderful bringing together of everything I've loved about the different things R.E.M. has done in their career. And I'm really glad that you liked "Blue" because I wasn't sure anyone else would think it was as great a song as it is because it's almost entirely spoken word.

Well I like Beady Eye well enough (well....not well enough for them to actually make this countdown anyway) but it's to be expected that Noel's post Oasis project is going to sound better than Liam's because Noel can sing, play guitar, and wrote all of their songs for Oasis. What did Liam bring to the table, some average tambourine playing?

I've not actually bought Charles Bradley's album yet but I've listened to the whole thing more than once and even though all the songs are largely the same...it's a good same and "How Low" stands out in that sameness.

Journey's "Eclipse" was a bit tough for me at first because I appreciate that they can pull off the kind of heaviness that they had on that album but it lacked hooks that I expect from Journey though. "To Whom It May Concern" was one of the few that maintained that though.

There were a couple from Blue October songs that I wanted to pick but since the title track summed up summed them all up I figured it'd be the right one to go with even though it wasn't necessarily the more obvious one.

I think you should check out more of Cage the Elephant (especially that first album) and Dropkick in general. They don't have a huge range of songs by they can go from full on punk to full on Irish so that gives them plenty of room to run.

I've played Noah and The Whale for you before. Remember "The First Days Of Spring"? It's a big shift from "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.", huh?

And I know all to well that you don't like Eddie Vedder with a ukulele or Amy in general, but I'm sure there'll be stuff on your list that I'm not a fan of either so let's call it even.

When all is said and done I'm glad you're enjoying it so much and I hope other people are too (hint hint wink wink don't be afraid to speak up on what you love or hate everyone). And you know what, if you can put your list in the general rock lounge then so can I dammit it. I'm moving it!