Around the Year in 20 Songs

This Christmas, my folks got me Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music (thanks, mom and dad). It’s a carefully culled collection of eighty-four “folk” songs recorded between 1927 and 1932. Cracking open the record-sized booklet and reading Greil Marcus’s essay about the tunes included within and Smith’s alchemical methods of compiling them, I couldn’t help but think of John Crowley’s Little, Big, a novel that manages to similarly conjure mysterious wonder from apparent ordinariness.

In Smith’s original notes for the anthology, he writes about each song in headline prose. It’s a little-big way of introducing these timeless tunes, and I thought it might be a fun exercise to apply to some favorite tunes of 2011. Here are twenty of the songs I played over and over and over this year.

Arctic Monkeys “Black Treacle”– PLAYING AT REGAL PACE OF COLD MOLASSES, BAND CONFECTS SICKLY SWEET BRIT-ROCK

Coldplay “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” – GO AHEAD, TURN UP WORLD BEATER’S LATEST AD FOR YOUR EMOTIONS

Cults “Abducted” – GUY/GAL DUO CAPTURES SIXTIES GIRL-GROUP SOUNDS

Cut Copy “Take Me Over” – AUSSIE DANCE-EROOS CONJURE GHOSTS OF MEN AT WORK

Destroyer “Savage Night at the Opera” – SLOW MOTION DRIVE THROUGH EIGHTIES TAKES RIGHT TURN INTO POP MAJESTY

The Drums “Money” – DESTITUTE SINGER WANTS TO BUY YOU SOMETHING, BUT THERE’S A CATCH

Eleanor Friedberger “My Mistakes” – FIERY FURNACE GOES SOLO, RECALLS BIKE CRASH, LEARNS A LESSON

The Horrors “Still Life” – SHIMMERY, ENTRANCING CATHEDRAL ROCK FOR SIMPLE MINDS FANS

Jay-Z/Kanye West “Why I Love You” – OVER CAESAR-KILLER HOOK, RAP KINGS MUSE ON POWER, PARANOIA, AND PAYBACK

Jens Lekman “An Argument With Myself” – SWEDE HAS LATE-NIGHT BICKER WITH SELF; INTERNAL CONFLICT HAS NEVER SOUNDED SO CATCHY

M83 “Midnight City” – HOLY S#%$!

Stephen Malkmus “Senator” – OCCUPY YOUR EARS WITH CAUTIONARY TUNE ON WHERE WE’RE HEADED AND WHAT OUR LEADERS WANT

Neon Indian “Polish Girl”– MORE VIDEO GAME PSYCHEDELIA FROM INDIGENOUS TEXAN: LET’S PLAY!

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart “My Terrible Friend” – CURE-LIKE TUNE JUST, LIKE, HEAVENLY GOOD

Paul Simon “The Afterlife” – ICON’S TAKE ON GREAT BEYOND IS GRACEFUL RETURN TO FORM

Kurt Vile “Jesus Fever”– ESCHEW THE FLU-SHOTS, JESUS FEVER LIFTS HEAVY LIDS TO DREAMY SKIES

The War on Drugs “Baby Missiles” – GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING WITH JERSEY MASH-UP OF BRUCE AND YO LA TENGO

Washed Out “Amor Fati”– CHILLWAVE PIONEER DESTINED TO CALM LISTENER’S NERVES WITH WARM SYNTH BATH

Wilco “Standing O” – ROUND APPLAUSE FOR CHUGGING ROCKER FROM NO DEPRESSION STALWARTS

Wild Flag “Romance” – PUNKY PAEAN TO MUSIC’S POWER IS POP PERFECTION