Part 2 of my Top 10 Songs of 2011. This time with videos. Part 1 is here.
5. “Bottled in Cork” – Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. With a marijuana-induced video to match.
4. “Heart Attack” – Raphael Saadiq. Who knew that 1/3 of Tony!Toni!Tone! could produce this fantastic, Wilson Pickett-style pop song?
3. “Bloodbuzz Ohio” – The National. I have no idea what Matt Beringer is singing about, there’s something about bees and Ohio, but it’s haunting and brings you to a dark, syncopated place. My friends spent a fortune just to watch them in Singapore, and to this day I regret not going.
2. “Terrible Love” – The National. Indescribably sad and haunting and brings me into Transatlanticism territory, a song that makes me so sad I can’t even finish it. It takes an ocean not to break / It takes an ocean not to break.
1. “Poison and Wine” – The Civil Wars. Uncomfortably honest and exquisitely sung. It’s about what it means to love, and what that costs, and that you’d pay it anyway, gladly, because it’s fucking worth it.
