This isn't a list of my favorite songs that came out this year, but the songs that had the most meaning for me in 2011.
The Ticonderoga -Bowerbirds
"Old friend, give me back my hands. I'm the crutch that's missing, and you're the crippled little lamb. Those claws will get you; those teeth will take your life, but you wont know what's missing. This gift ain't giving. This wolf ain't worth the fight"
I remember listening to this song over and over for several days straight sometime in January. It was at a time when i felt i needed to say goodbye to someone who had a very present role in my life and it really moved something in me.
About Today (Live Version) -The National
"Tonight you just close your eyes and I just watch you slip away"
This song has always been such a simple and beautiful song to me that I've felt so vividly and it sang me to sleep many nights last winter. It's about the end of something being near, and knowing it.
Last Of The Famous International Playboys -Morrissey
"I never wanted to kill/ I am not naturally evil/ Such things I do/ Just to make myself more attractive to you/ Have I failed?"
New Orleans -Former Ghosts
"If you leave this city/ Take me with you/ Or don't look back"
I used to listen to this song laying on the floor of my dorm room until my roommate would come home and tell me to cut it out and "stop listening to that song, it isn't helping you". She was right, i eventually stopped listening to it but for a period of time last winter I'd sulk inside of that song.
Barnacles -Ugly Casanova
"I don't know me and you don't know you/ So we fit so good together 'cause i knew you like i knew myself/ We clung on like barnacles on a boat/ Even though the ship sinks you know you can't let go."
Knowing something isn't working but not being able to let go. I've had such trouble with that and it influenced a lot in 2011. This song always got to me.
Just Like Heaven -The Cure
"You/ Soft and only/ You/ Lost and lonely/ You/ Strange as angels/ Dancing in the deepest oceans/ Twisting in the water/ You're just like a dream..."
This song. It was the eye of the storm for me. I'm not sure if I love the song or what I associate with it more. There was a time last spring where listening to this song made me so happy but I can't listen to it anymore because it is reminder of what has been lost.
The EP -Owen
I couldn't pick just one song off of Owen's The EP. I remember a lot of special nights that happened with Owen as the soundtrack and I hope I never forget those nights.
From Russia With Love -Fences
"Somewhere there's an in between place/ A place where my face hasn't been erased"
I don't think there's anything special to me about the song itself but more of the memory attached to it. A night last spring when i wanted to get away from everything was spent in the back of my car with the heater on and that song stuck on repeat. I loved that night.
"Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold/ but with you forever I'll stay/ We're goin' out where the sands turnin' to gold/ so put on your stockin's cause the night's gettin' cold/ and maybe everything dies/ That's a fact but maybe everything that dies someday comes back"
This song is so hauntingly beautiful to me and it's my favorite Springsteen song. This summer I listened to it for three 24 hour periods and i sat and played it on my guitar for countless hours. There were some dark days this summer where i rested in the arms of that song. I don't believe I'll ever wear that song out.
Lucky Clover Coin -Rocky Votolato
"There's a world I wanna leave behind/ Where a sunset in a constant bloody winter/ Gives the only light"
There was a night this fall when my old ghosts got to me more than they usually do and someone very dear to me played this song for me and this song will always remind me of them/that night.
Do I Wait -Ryan Adams
"I could stay forever if I tried/ surrounded by things like a shadow in the light."
Ryan Adams is an artist who has meant something substantial to me since I was sixteen years old and sorting out all sorts of confusion. When Ashes and Fire came out this year I was a little aprehensive about it. The whole album could've been absolutely terrible but i wouldn't have cared, this song would've made it wonderful. There isn't anything remarkable about this song, it touched on something that was very real to me at the time. I couldn't stop listening to it.
I Don't Want To Grow Up -Tom Waits
"When I'm lyin' in my bed at night/ I don't wanna grow up/ Nothin' ever seems to turn out right/ I don't wanna grow up/ How do you move in a world of fog/ That's always changing things/ Makes me wish that I could be a dog/ When I see the price that you pay/ I don't wanna grow up/ I don't ever wanna be that way/ I don't wanna grow up"
I don't want to grow up. I don't. And there's somethign beautiful about an old man who is still saying that.
Sister K -Kelli Schaefer
"It might seem like we've no use for nostalgia/ I think you're right/ So we pull the anchor plot the course."
Kelli Schaefer's 'Ghost Of The Beast' came out this summer and it ended up being one of my favorite albums of 2011. There isn't a song on that album that I don't love. This song encouraged me to try to let go of something that I wanted to cling to and felt very sentimental about.
The Gaslight Anthem/The Horrible Crowes
These two bands, I don't even know where to start. Everything that TGA has done and 'Elsie' have been the soundtrack to my year. This is not the time or the place for me to express my love for TGA but it is there.
Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes/Monsters of Folk
I liked Bright Eyes back in highschool but Conor's writing took on a whole new importance to me this year. A lot of what he's written became very meaningful to me because of where I was at in life philosophically, spiritually and emotionally. His voice became a dear friend to me through many sleepless nights.
This was more for me than for you.
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