As I’ve done since 2013, I’ve made a top 10 songs list for 2016. Same as always: it’s not all stuff released in 2016, and it doesn’t contain 10 songs. This year’s has 15 (up from 12 in previous years, because why not), and, as always, it’s music I discovered, rediscovered, or just listened to in 2016, whenever it was released. During the year, I keep
a playlist of songs, and at the end of the year I distill it down to the ones that define the sound of the year for me and my absolute favorites.

This year’s theme was cheezy 80s retro. And I don’t just mean classic synthpop, but also modern throwbacks and some true cheese. FM Attack’s Deja Vu got a lot of play this year, and most of the album is great, retro or not. But I have to make a special callout to Laser Dance’s Power Run, a truly stupid and awesome song. It’s so gloriously terrible, I at first thought it was a deliberate retro parody, but no, it’s actually from 1987 and, I guess, was composed in all sincerity. Stop whatever you’re doing and go listen to it.

Anyway, here are my 10* best songs of 2016:
– Depeche Mode: Fools
– FM Attack: With You Tonight
– Tears For Fears: Mad World
– Bomba Estereo: Soy Yo
– Fujiya & Miyagi: Serotonin Rushes
– Ibeyi: River
– Cat Power: Free
– Jungle Fire: Snake Pit
– LCD Soundsystem: Get Innocuous!
– Depeche Mode: New Life
– FM Attack: Activate
– Wild Beasts: Get My Bang
– Colder: To The Music
– Clive Tanaka y Su Orquesta: Neu Chicago
– Charles B.: Lack of Love

As I’ve done since 2013, I’ve made a top 10 songs list for 2015. Same methodology as always: it is music I discovered, rediscovered, or just listened to in 2015 (whenever it was released), and it includes 12 songs. Over the course of the year, I kept a playlist of interesting songs I heard. At the end of the year, I made two more lists: The Sound of 2015, the stuff I listened to and enjoyed enough that they define the sound of the year for me, and The Best of 2015, my absolute favorites.

If I had one musical obsession this year, it was with Klein & M.B.O., whose “Dirty Talk” was my favorite song in 2014. I could as well have put it on top this year; it’s in there, along with several more of their tracks. Not only did I listen to “Dirty Talk” while walking to work many mornings, it inspired me (along with “Acid Trax” and “Intro”, also on the list) to return to my live techno roots in my own music. The other thing that had an impact on my listening was KEXP’s day of Paul’s Boutique, which got me listening to that album and a lot of the songs it samples. My top album this year would have to be Yppah’s “Eighty One”, which I listened to in its entirety fairly often. Nothing else really broke through for me beyond single songs.

Here’s the list:
– Yppah + Anomie Belle: Film Burn
– Simian Mobile Disco: Audacity Of Huge
– Klein & M.B.O.: Dirty Talk
– LFO: Intro
– Beastie Boys: Shake Your Rump
– Rose Royce: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
– The Chemical Brothers: Go
– MC 900 Ft. Jesus: The City Sleeps
– New Order: Tutti Frutti
– Led Zeppelin: Poor Tom
– Klein & M.B.O.: Last Call
– Fujiya & Miyagi: Photocopier

In our ever-growing Perkosmith family tradition, Nora kept a playlist throughout the year of songs she was listening to, and selected her top ten at the end of the year. Both are on Spotify: Nora’s Best of 2015 and Nora’s Songs of 2015. I was sad that “Join in the Chant” didn’t make the top ten list, but it was fun driving around with her blasting it out the windows.

Nora’s top ten:
1. Stereo Total: L’Amour
2. Fumio Hayasaka: Rice Planting Song (from The Seven Samurai)
3. Kraftwerk: Numbers
4. Edvard Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King
5. Erasure: Blue Savannah
6. Fumio Hayasaka: Samurai Search (from The Seven Samurai)
7. Steve Martin: King Tut
8. Katy Perry: Firework
9. Michael Jackson: Thriller
10. Mark Ronson + Bruno Mars: Uptown Funk

We listen to a lot of music with Nora, and every year I keep a running playlist of whatever she’s currently listening to and compile and save it at the end of the year. This year, for the first time, Nora actually made her own “best of” list with my help. Here it is! If you see some overlap with my list, well, we listen to a lot of music together. The influence goes both ways; how do you think I ended up with “Happy” and “Everything Is AWESOME!!!” on my list?

– Erasure – Blue Savannah
– Falco – Der Kommissar
– Pharrell Williams – Happy
– Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
– New Order – Love Vigilantes
– A Tribe Called Quest – Ham ‘N’ Eggs
– The Cardigans – Lovefool
– Yaz – Situation
– Del the Funky Homosapien – Mistadobolina
– Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight
– New Order – Ultraviolence
– The Chemical Brothers – Swoon
– Erasure – Brother and Sister
– Eagles – Hotel California
– Tegan and Sara – Everything Is AWESOME!!! (feat. The Lonely Island)

As I did for 2013, I’ve made a top 10 list for 2014. I made one change to my methodology — I’m posting it in January instead of August — but otherwise, same idea: it is music I discovered, rediscovered, or just listened to in 2014 (whenever it was released), and it includes 12 songs.

Again, over the course of the year, I kept a playlist of interesting songs I heard. At the end of the year, I made two more lists: The Sound of 2014, the stuff I listened to and enjoyed enough that they define the sound of the year for me, and The Best of 2014, my absolute favorites.

A strong theme in 2014 was retro (or retro-sounding) dance music: italo disco (Koto & Hipnosis), old club hits (Klein & MBO have been cited by New Order as an influence), and modern retro-sounding stuff (Hercules & Love Affair). In 2013, New Order’s Movement and PC&L were big, as Peter Hook toured on those albums; this year, songs on Low-Life and Brotherhood were big with me, for a similar reason. 2014 didn’t have a dominant album for me (like Jagwar Ma’s “Howlin” in 2013); The Juan Maclean’s “In A Dream” probably came closest, with Hercules & Love Affair and Caribou right behind them. And for some reason, I got absolutely obsessed with “In The Air Tonight” last year.

Here’s the list:
– Klein & MBO – Dirty Talk (Greg Wilson Edit)
– Koto – Japanese War Game
– Husky Rescue – Summertime Cowboy
– The Juan Maclean – A Place Called Space
– Hercules & Love Affair – That’s Not Me (feat. Gustaph)
– Paris – The Devil Made Me Do It
– First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining
– Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight
– New Order – This Time of Night
– Caribou – Our Love
– Liars – Mess On A Mission
– Sugardaddy – Love Honey (Electro Version)

At the end of every year, pretty much every music critic, blogger, or enthusiast makes their list of top 10 songs or albums of the year. I usually don’t, but in 2013 I explored a lot more music than usual and decided to make a list too. There are a few differences between my top 10 list and most people’s though: (1) it is songs I discovered, rediscovered, or just listened to a lot in 2013; (2) it has 12 songs on it; and (3) it comes out in August instead of December.

In 2013, I made an effort to break out of my music habits of the last 20 years and listen to a lot of new music (thank you, KEXP, SoundHound, and Spotify). As I listened, I collected a mostly-unfiltered playlist of stuff I heard and tracked down. Toward the end of the year, I made two more lists: The Sound of 2013, the stuff I listened to and enjoyed enough that they define the sound of the year for me, and The Best of 2013, my absolute favorites.

Honestly, I probably could have just made Jagwar Ma’s “Howlin” the “Best of” list and it would be just as true. Howlin is easily my favorite album of the year and the best new thing I’ve heard in years. An old favorite, New Order’s “Movement”, makes an appearance as well, because I spent much of the year delving deeply into the sound of that album.

Anyway, for those without Spotify, here’s the “Best of” list:
– Jagwar Ma – Uncertainty
– Ana Tijoux – 1977
– The White Stripes – The Hardest Button to Button
– Wax Tailor – Say Yes (feat. ASM)
– Soft Metals – Tell Me
– Jagwar Ma – What Love
– New Order – The Him
– El Perro Del Mar – Hold off the Dawn
– Deltron 3030 – Pay the Price
– Weekend – Oubliette
– Phoenix – Everything is Everything
– Franz Ferdinand – Evil Eye