It’s the new year, which means it is customary for bloggers and journalists to post unscientific, poorly thought-out lists of the best and worst bits of the previous year. Allow me to present my own such list: at Jumbled and Jivey, we prefer to chase bandwagons and leave the overthrowing of the social order to Jello Biafra.
Music Video of the Year: Janelle Monae – Tightrope
We open with this category simply so we can have this particular video right up at the top of the article. I first saw this video in late spring, but I’ve gone back to it again and again over the year. Built around a song that really should have been the song of the summer, it marries a remarkable visual style to the best music video dancing since Thriller.
Song of the Year: Zeus – Greater Times by the Wayside
No embeddable video for this one, but you can watch it over here.
Clocking in at exactly one minute, this bite-sized ballad still manages to sound sweeping and expansive. This is songwriting at its most economical.
Album the Year: The Limiñanas
This album is drenched in a smoky French cool that this American can only dream of. This debut album is packed start-to-finish with jangly, atmospheric, and deceptively simple songs. There were other things this year that I may have listened to more, but nothing that could transport me quite so much as this record.
Plus, with its pearlescent colored vinyl, the record looks as unique as it sounds.
The Hilarity Award: Pharcyde – Ya Mama
Ah, the eternal verisimilitude of the ‘ya mama’ joke. Is there nothing it can’t make unreasonably offensive?
Yeah, it’s from ’92, but it’s new to me.
The Earworm Award: Lady Gaga – Bad Romance
Gaga has been writing by far the best stuff on mainstream radio for the past couple years, as proven by the sheer volume of covers out there. While “Telephone” may have rattled through my head for much of the spring, “Bad Romance” takes this award for having caught the ear of musicians everywhere.
I also have to give Gaga a great deal of credit for the skill at which she can get a rise out of people. She has built a media persona for herself more systematically and meticulously than any artist since Marilyn Manson, and people go out of their way to pour out vitriol about her in conversations. Almost every music video on YouTube, regardless of its age, will contain a lament about Lady Gaga.
The Chameleon Award: Phoenix – Lisztomania
I still don’t know how it’s possible for a song to get simultaneous play on both ‘adult contemporary’ and ‘new rock alternative’ stations, but it’s a catchy song, nonetheless.
