I Want To Be The One Who Knows The Best Way To Love You

As I am wont to do in December, here again is mix made from music released in the past year. This represents not what may be the best 2012 had to offer, but what I spent most of my time listening to. Even that is only a half-truth, as my ears were a-tuned less to new music this year and more to new-to-me music from days gone by than they have been in the past. This happens in your declining years, I'm told. At least I still have my youthful looks.

I'm pretty thrilled with the first song, and I hope you are too. It is certainly my favorite on the list. The sound of it is immediately familiar, yet uniquely Angel's. Like she plucked it out of the ether, still malleable, and shaped it with her voice. And what a voice - it has that distinctiveness to it that I find so affecting, like a Karen Dalton or a Dolly Parton. The song's album, Half Way Home, is it's equal and way recommended.

"Talking Empty Bed Blues" comes from a Woody Guthrie tribute album featuring four singer-songwriters, Yim Yames a.k.a. Jim James being one. I wouldn't call it the most balanced record I've ever heard, but it's plenty nice. I saw these fellers live and it was a similar story. And just like the record, "Talking Empty Bed Blues" was a real stunner. Love them harmonies.

This is kind of weird, but Andrew Bird's "Danse Carribe" reminds me of the music from the village festival in the beginning of the movie Willow, especially after the fiddle break around the three minute mark. This is not a bad thing at all.

The Dum Dum Girls are increasingly awesome, as there latest EP, End of Daze, indicates. "Lord Knows" may sound familiar to anyone who has ever heard "Crimson and Clover". This, too, is not a bad thing.

I hesitated to include Lykke Li's version of "Silver Springs", only because it's a cover. Firstly, a song from 1977 appearing on a 2012 mix, even if it was newly recorded and repackaged, feels like loophole. Secondly, I am not overly fond of covers. Especially Fleetwood Mac covers; let's leave excellent alone, shall we? But I gotta say I really like a Lykke Li performing this song and it'd be disingenuous to pretend I didn't listen to it a hell of a lot in 2012. As with the original, I find this song terribly heart-wrenching. Again, this is not a bad thing in the slightest.

Taken By Trees appeals to my ever-growing adult-contemporary side; the guitar sounds like the Weather Channel. Shockingly, this is not a bad thing.

"Losing You" and "Everything is Embarrassing" sound like companion pieces, despite being recorded by different artist. Unsurprisingly, they share a songwriter and producer, Devonte Hynes. Love the aural aesthetic going on here. Careful, they're catchy as hell.

The xx are known for making minimal, breathy, sexy music, but "Our Song" is minimal, breathy, and adorable. The lyrics are just the sweetest and the melody matches. I kind of want to hear a strummy, dumb, campfire version of it.

"Laura" is my kind of girl. I'm not sure what that says about me, nor do I care. She is immediately familiar. Lyrics and personality profiles aside, the build of this song is eloquent and classically fit. The album is a year-end standout and well worth your attention.

The transition from Bat For Lashes to this Philip Glass remix pleases me with how well it works. I chopped this four minute forty two seconds of music off the end of the twenty minute fifty second entirety of Beck's inspired remix of Philip Glass' work. You should definitely hear the whole thing. It's all I wanted to listen to for about a month, and as it takes just about the same time as my commute to work, that's pretty much what I did.

Cat Power is full of good advice on the extended "Nothin' But Time": "Never give away your body / Never give away your friends / Never give away what you always wanted / Never give in" and "The world is just beginning / You got nothing but time/ And it ain't got nothin' on you". In my odd and unaccountable mind, Chan Marshall is singing to a young girl who grows up to be Bat For Lashes' "Laura". Maybe because Laura is "more than a superstar" and I conflate that with Cat Power's line "It's up to you to be a superhero". In any case, I think this 2-chord epic, complete with false fade-out ending, closes the year well.

Enjoy the future, y'all.

Angel Olsen - The Waiting
The Tallest Man on Earth - To Just Grow Away
Yim Yames - Talking Empty Bed Blues
Andrew Bird - Danse Carribe
The Walkmen - We Can't Be Beat
The Shins - Simple Song
Dum Dum Girls - Lord Knows
Lykke Li - Silver Springs
Taken By Trees - Dreams
Solange - Losing You
Sky Ferriera - Everything is Embarrassing
Beach House - Myth
The xx - Our Song
Perfume Genius - Sister Song
Bat For Lashes - Laura
Philip Glass - NYC: 73 - 78 (Beck Remix) [detail]
Cat Power - Nothin' But Time

December '12 mix.zip