2011 in music for me. I did not listen to many new things and few of the new things got to be played obcessively, among them:
St. Vincents’ Strange Mercy took over me since i gave it a second listen. It has the most addictive songs of this year. I love the way Annie Clark sings every line of each song. Like what happens with The National, it’s not just the words themselves or the instrumental sounds, it is the way the words are said and sung.
Fingerlings 4 has one of my all-time favorite songs: The Sifters. The song is stripped down to a guitar, but it is the words that carry it. The whole album was my company throughout hours of work, train trips or walking strolls.
This year, the Walkmen were that friend that never talks too much but, when he does, knows exactly what to say to put you on the right track. You & Me album, especially, helped me to put up with the constant rollercoaster this year was. Vamos à la playa was the song that put me on the mood every morning to pick up my bike and go to work. Seven Years of Holidays helped me to put up with the distance from all things familiar. I Lost You helped me to move on from all the people I lost and the person I though I would never get a chance to embrace. And the whole album kept me company in the most important day of the year for me, through a stroll at dawn in an empty after-party that a city had become.
2012 will bring a new Andrew Bird and, hopefully, new material from The National. So it looks like it’s going to be a good year.
