Part One

Part Two

All songs in a downloadable playlist.

5. Katy Perry- “Teenage Dream”- Until now, Katy Perry has been an artist singer figure associated with gimmicks. From kissing girls to dating celebrities to dressing like Betsey Johnson’s wet dream, her cult of personality has always been bigger than the songs themselves. So when the stadium pop of “Teenage Dream” leaked this year, the biggest surprise was that any other person could have done this song justice. That isn’t to say that Perry isn’t talented (or beautiful). What it does mean is that this is the first song she has performed that sounds timeless and wounded and universal. Of course, even the song’s honesty and vulnerability is calculated: This is the triumphant culmination of Dr. Luke’s year of meticulous structures and impenetrable melodies, crafted to reach focus-grouped perfection. And that manipulative quality is what eventually gets me singing along to the million-tracking vocal: I can see the strings, and all I want to do is wrap myself around them.

4. Delorean- “Stay Close”- The first time I ever heard Delorean was on their hypnotic remix of The XX’s slinky “Islands.” Most of the elements that highlighted their rapturous LP Subiza were present even then: the keys-on-lap insistent percussion, the fragmented vocal samples, the gradual build to a revelatory climax. Despite its high BPM, “Stay Close” took all of those elements and pole valuted over them. The pressing bass contrasts with a distant roll of a million angels high-fiving, and the melody dips underwater just before showering us with the sound of a Barcelona group truly finding itself.

3. Kanye West- “POWER”- I coach a basketball team, and the instrumental of “POWER” is the boys’ entrance song. Some coaches see entrance songs as distractions, but I think the sway of perfectly-chopped King Crimson samples, tribal chants, and epically bent guitar notes is a necessary evil to propel us to victory. West has always been able to play with the confluence of the sacred and the profane, and this one has as many Austin Powers references as it has elliptical suicide references. More importantly though, it’s rare that a song so relentless and brazen can be such a complex personal statement, but West has been willing and able to negotiate that space his whole career. In case you were wondering, my team won its first game by fifty-seven points.

2. The Morning Benders- “Excuses”- Remember when another song with an august intro, The Shins’ “New Slang,” showed up in a national commercial, and people wondered how such an insular, progressive song could show up in a huge corporation’s promotions? A lot has happened in indie rock since then, so it seems completely natural for a song as intricate and exquisite as “Excuses” to be the background to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Trying to improve upon the dynamics of the Wall of Sound is an arrogant, almost stupid thing to do, but it’s a challenge Chris Chu, the mastermind of The Morning Benders, takes honorably. When great art happens, it’s because a person was arrogant enough to believe that he could do something better than anyone else—even Phil Spector or Brian Wilson—and that the world needed what he was creating. The Morning Benders might never have another moment of inspired arrogance like this—they don’t on the rest of the album—but it’s a lot more than a pitch for chocolate and peanut butter.

1. Japandroids- “Younger Us”- Down the street from my house, there’s a dive bar that I check into once in a while. Kim, the groggy barmaid, knows the names of all the Mr. Bills and Mr. Joes who thumb away dollars on the video poker. Vinnies and Paulys jump from Jeep to pool table and leave with their $1.50 schooners still in hand. The bar can’t decide if, with its flat-screens and Super Bowl XLIV banners, it wants to give the impression that it’s new or if, with its Sinatra photos and dingy couches, it’s been there forever. It’s hard to tell which one of those designations is more true.

Kid Rock is the most popular artist on the jukebox, but that jukebox is also the Internet kind on which you can download whatever you want for extra money. Knowing this is a waste of a dollar, considering that I have days of music a block away—or even in my pocket—I sink quarters in anyway. See, a jukebox has a mysterious power that is still not obsolete. It merges the best communal aspect of music—what everyone’s currently experiencing together—and the best personal aspect—what your curated choice says about you. Especially with the Internet jukeboxes, you can force people to listen to whatever you want. But be careful what you wish for, because the majority still rules. Without exception (after Cam’ron), I play Japandroids’ “Younger Us” whenever I go to this bar. Not to show off, not even because I think the other patrons will like it. I play it because I’m hoping that one person has the breathless sense of discovery that I had when I first heard it. I play it because it captures the immediacy and desperation of the environment. I play it because I feel my age at that bar—trapped between the reckless energy of Vinnie and the docile complacency of Mr. Bill—and I have yet to find a song that captures this age as well.

Japandroids—yet another duo in a year filled with great ones—are defined by an essential, elemental energy, but that’s not enough to hang a band on. In a year filled with songs about nothing more than vague celebration, “Younger Us” reaches back to define a notion that is communal and personal. In a way the song is about sinking money into a jukebox, trying to replay what used to make you happy. Everyone in life makes the same exact mistakes, whether it’s chasing money instead of what you love, whether it’s not realizing what’s important until it’s too late. “Younger Us” is, quite simply, about the times when we know we got things right.