Saturday, December 29, 2018

Shanies: Song of the Year

Since the top 10 album of the year award is a bit of a pain to pull together, the song of the year is likely my favourite award. Laziness aside, it also pushes me to really deconstruct a song and consider it from so many angles and interpretations. Usually this is also one of the hardest awards to decide on since I'm comparing such dissimilar tracks, but almost inevitably, one song wins out, if only for the repeat factor of how frequently I listened to it in the past year.

A past shower on the album of the year award and previous runner up to song of the year, White Denim took this year's award with the masterfully funky Double Death. For me, what ultimately makes this song work is that it is a heavy, riff-rock track, only played in the styles of soul and funk. That description is basically WD's sound in a nutshell, however, for some tracks it just works more. From the saxophone jamming over the entire track to the infinitely head-bobbable beat to the uncontrollable hook matched by both guitar and bass to the joyfully macabre lyrics... Double Death is straight up my jam. It's the kind of song that without even trying puts you in a good move and gets your ass moving a bit.

Honourable mention goes to Dirty Nil's Auf Wiedersehen and to Unknown Mortal Orchestra's American Guilt, but for my money... drop this track and get yerself movin.


-And my body keeps on ticking back, in my vestigial heart