I’m loving the snot out of my End Of Year playlist this year. It’s already painfully obvious which song will be my end of year song, because that’s without a doubt Steak Number Eight’s “The Sea Is Dying”. But the rest of it is pretty damn sweet as well.
If you’re interested & a spotify user, here’s the link.
If you’re interested and not a spotify user, here’s the list of songs (in no particular order):
Maybeshewill – “Co-conspirators” (instrumental, post-rock)
Just a terribly pretty song. I like the lyrics/movie quote, I like the buildup and the payoff. It’s not the best song of the year, but it is a song that I keep returning to on my playlist time and time again.
The National – “Exile (Vilify)” (indie)
From The Portal 2 soundtrack. Very fragile, very beautiful. I stumbled over the song when I was playing the snot out of the Portal games this past summer, and it just stayed in my preferred songs list all year long. That’s a good sign.
UNKLE ft Ian Ainsbury – “Burn My Shadow” (trip-hop)
Olli and I heard the song for the first time because it was on the soundtrack of the movie Repo Men. The drums are wonderful. I’m not a huge trip hop fan, but this song is excellent. Check it out.
And So I Watch You From Afar – “Search:Party:Animal” (instrumental, post-rock/metal/fuckknows)
It’s also tagged as ‘with my guitar i shall pierce the darkness’ on Last.fm and I think that’s a much better genre. The riff. Oh, that riff. <3
Parkway Drive – “Home Is For the Heartless” (metalcore)
Lost my fucking SHIT to their show at Graspop. One of the better metalcore singalongs ever made. This song and the one that comes right before it (“Karma”) are pretty often on repeat when I drive home from work. I also am not ashamed to admit that I bellow it along on top of my lungs as well. 
God Is An Astronaut – “Snowfall” (post-rock, instrumental)
Talked about this song before. It’s beautiful. One of the dreamiest songs I know.
Pearl Jam – “Black” (rock, grunge)
I started listening to this song in earnest because of the demise of Kink FM (it’s topped their Best Songs Ever list for years) and now I know why. Pearl Jam’s best work. And this is counting songs like “Jeremy”. Heartbreaking songs, beautiful.
We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Quiet Little Voices” (indie rock, alternative)
I’m not quite sure what draws me to this song. I think it’s the tempo of the song – rather upbeat. The lyrics struck me as something quite romantic, too. Until I really started listening to them and now it’s kind of creepy. It’s still hella catchy though; the kind of song you don’t mind having in your head for weeks.
The Ataris – “Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies” (alternative rock)
No idea where I dug up this song. I think I just kept listening to their album after digging up their rendition of “Boys Of Summer”, which I really like. This is also the kind of song I just dig, the kind that you sing along to. No idea. There’s no deeper connection, I just like it. “Call me on your long walks home, when drunken voices bleed into one!”
The Death Set – “We Are Going Anywhere Man” (…dance punk, apparently)
Heh, I played this song a lot during a time when I was heavily into the Popmundo Festival Prelims with Symphony of Agony. It is high-tempo and makes you feel like you can take on the fucking world. Love it. “Cause we are going fucking anywhere man, we are gonna see it through to the end!”:D
Kaneda – “Our Models For God” (instrumental, post-rock)
This song is a lot, but it’s not dreamy. It’s pretty intense, actually. It’s more along the lines of ASIWYFA than God Is An Astronaut. It’s a pretty epic song and a relative newcomer in the list. Love it to bits!
Avenged Sevenfold – “Welcome To The Family” (metalcore, hard rock)
My guilty pleasure this past autumn, I admit it freely. A7X rocked hard at Graspop, impressed me deeply… VERY skilled performers, they play so effortlessly. And this autumn I just started really listening to them. “Welcome To The Family” turned out to be the song for this year’s Nanowrimo. I wish I’d known this song during my first writing of the story, when it was still in English. It just fit so well with Joy that it’s not funny anymore. Less on the romance, more on the fuckedupness of the situation. Why the hell would you hook up with a terrorist, after all?
“Not long ago you’d find the answers were so crystal clear / Within a day you found yourself living in constant fear
Can you look at yourself now? / Can you look at yourself?
You can’t win this fight”
…thus my point.
Steak Number Eight – “The Sea Is Dying” (post-metal, progressive metal)
Yeah, well. I’ve already done an extensive piece on this song. I can’t plug it enough, because even six months later I still get goosebumps and a heavy heart every time the singer starts screaming out his grief. It’s STILL the most heartwrenching song I know. Maybe even more so than Killswitch Engage’s “Rose Of Sharyn”.
So, what does this say about my music taste? …I don’t know. Probably that I’ll listen to anything with guitars these days.
Music-wise, 2011 has been a pretty good year. Lots of strong new album releases, a slight shift in music genre taste… and most of all, a lot of brilliant music.
