So yeah, Spotify. This is the first year that I have not distributed CDs nor mp3 files. I have not edited mp3 metadata to change track numbers and list the genre as "Dan2___" so that these files could be easily searched and found. If someone demands it, I could still do those things, but it seems everyone has moved on to streaming services. I suppose the artists are technically making more money on my soundtrack then in previous years -- they're getting tenths of a penny every time you stream one of these songs, and when I mailed you a burned CD they earned nothing. But man, it would be cool if you bought a physical copy of at least one of the artists I recommend.
Stream this 2018 Soundtrack Spotify playlist at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2RYHPPIt9Swa7JeAGCPn2j.
Previous soundtracks can be found at https://open.spotify.com/user/djn2210 or https://tornadoslide.blogspot.com/2018/08/soundtracks-on-spotify.html.
I did make this cover art for the nonexistent CD/mp3s. It's a photo I took of the RCA dog, Nipper, sitting atop the Maryland Historical Society building in Baltimore.
The Sloppy Boys - Party With the Reds
I usually put songs that people might find annoying at the start of the playlist, dating back to when I’d burn these soundtracks to CDs, with the idea that it could be easily skipped before enjoying the rest of the songs uninterrupted. But man, if you skip this track, you are missing out on the finest portion of any song of this year of our Lord. I’m speaking, of course, about the breakdown in the middle of this song about soft pretzels. “They got those big pretzels, baby!” is repeated four times, and each time sounds sweeter than the last. Or should I say SALTIER?
Tove Styrke - Say My Name
NPR did a guest DJ interview with First Aid Kit, and one of the songs was this one from their homeland of Sweden.
Alex Lahey - Love you Like a Brother
I listen to Hayes Davenport host the podcasts “Hollywood Handbook” and “LA Podcast”. He was a guest on the “Who Charted” podcast and recommended Australia’s Alex Lahey, so I checked her out and I am happy to report that both of her albums are great. If my daughter wrote this song for my son, I mean, I would never stop crying.
Frightened Rabbit - Get Out
Their “Painting of a Panic Attack” album has been in my car since I bought it. Not because it was in heavy rotation -- it’s more that there’s plenty of room in the console for CDs now that I rarely buy the physical media. I saw it in there and listened to it on a trip to my local half-organic market (I had a coupon!). A few days later, Scott Hutchinson went missing, and a few days after that it was confirmed that his depression led to his death. “Get Out” sounded great when I saw them live, and I suggest you listen to it as loud as you can stand.
Cranberries - Analyse
Delores O’Riordan is dead now, too. Cool cool cool. I did the very basic thing where I listed to their greatest hits after she died, and goddamn The Cranberries were so good. Of course, I’ve always known that. I owned “No Need to Argue”. And owning that album paid off huge a few years ago, when the title of that album was the answer to the Final Jeopardy-type question to music trivia at a local shithole. We stole the win away from much better teams who knew obscure yet hip facts about Frank Zappa but couldn’t recall No Need.
MGMT - Little Dark Age
This song grew on me until it could not possibly grow any larger, for it is now very large indeed.
Hop Along - Fox in Motion
Jason Mantzoukas cited this band as a favorite while talkin’ music with the boys of the R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: Me? podcast, so I listened to their first album and their latest, and I recommend both.
boygenius - Stay Down
I liked Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker before they merged to form boygenius. Dacus appeared on the 2016 soundtrack, and Bridgers and Baker both caught my attention too late into 2017 to appear on last year’s list. Now seems like a good time to mention that while I usually try to break up the repetition of male vocalists with female ones in my soundtracks, the opposite was true this year. Women be singing!
CHVRCHES - Graves
I’ve liked each Chvrches album less than the previous one, but they’re still good. Like Wes Anderson movies?
Say Sue Me - But I Like You
The AV Club suggested this South Korean surf rock band. The albums I listened to were nice but lacked what I would call a single - this track comes closest.
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Someone Else’s Problem
This is the kind of guitar-driven alternative rock music that I struggle to find nowadays, when most up-and-coming artists are using synths and leaning into electronica. This album was released the same weekend that my family was out of town, so I was able to enjoy a rare instance of listening via the basement receiver hooked up to the sub and the good speakers, while watching muted college football.
R.E.M. - I Believe
The R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: Me? podcast began on February 21 and a new hour-plus episode appeared on my phone almost every week through September 4. I listened to every one. I walked around downtown Baltimore, seeing Mount Vernon and Edgar Allen Poe’s grave while listening to David Wain talk about his high school R.E.M. tribute band. That very night, before the Orioles/Royals game began, I recognized “Can’t Get There From Here” played from the Camden Yards PA system - an early R.E.M. song I never would have placed without the podcast. I drove from Taos to Albuquerque listening to Todd Barry relive his R.E.M. concert experiences. I, like, drove to work and back listening to this podcast, and listened to it while I played Star Wars Battlefront II on my PlayStation. I listened to it while I removed our old can lights from the ceiling and replaced them with LEDs. And what did I learn? A lot about R.E.M. And a lot about myself? Maybe not. I learned that I don’t dislike R.E.M., and I probably never did, though I didn’t like them as much as others, and I got sick of many of their songs, and I just never really liked any R.E.M. enough to purchase their records. I had a hard time deciding which song to put on the soundtrack. The podcast theme, “White Tornado”? “Can’t Get There From Here”? “Bittersweet Me”, a song I rediscovered? “Imitation of Life”, the song I remembered from the unique music video, and couldn’t recall the melody of until, after weeks of trying to get it out of my brain without cheating and listening to it, the chorus magically appeared? “Don’t Go Back to Rockville”, one of my favorites? I went with “I Believe” because it was the top choice of hosts Scott Aukerman and Adam Scott.
First Aid Kit - Hem of Her Dress
“Ruins” was my favorite album of the year, and I listened to it very much, and I made my kids listen to it in the car and even made them watch YouTube music videos of the singles. It was the one concert I attended this year. Soon after the album’s release, Corinne and I were talking about our favorite tracks and it led to this classic text exchange (my texts are on the right):
David Byrne & Brian Eno - Strange Overtones
Neko Case tweeted about this album on the occasion of its 10-year anniversary, so I gave it a spin and found this gem.
Okkervil River - The Dream and the Light
The new Okkervil River album isn’t exactly a return to form, but it does have two pretty good songs - this one and “Love Somebody”. If you don’t love the wailing saxophone in this song you can fuck right off. I mean, sure, to my untrained ear it sounds like someone pretending to know how to play the saxophone faking his or her way through it, but it still feels right.
Lucy Dacus - Night Shift
Many months before her EP with boygenius was released, I was enjoying Dacus’ solo album. I discovered on my March trip to New York that the cab ride from LaGuardia to Chris’ Brooklyn apartment is approximately the same length as the record. Just missing a spot on this playlist is the song Floyd and I sang along to on the radio in our Uber home that night, Styx’s “Renegade”.
