“I think every Braves postseason game I go to, the Braves win.”

He’s not wrong—the only Braves postseason game he has attended was the Acuña slam game against the Dodgers in 2018. It is also the only Braves elimination-game win I have attended…in many more tries. This is my most complete attempt to date to chronicle the futility of all the postseason and/or elimination games I have attended.

1. 2000 NLDS Game 3: Facing elimination against the Cardinals, Kevin Millwood gave up homers to Fernando Viña and Jim Edmonds (Mark McGwire also pinch hit in the game), and the Braves lost 7–1. Current Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby’s uncle Andy pitched two scoreless innings for the Braves in this one. (0–1 record)

2. 2010 NLDS Game 3: Tied in the series against the eventual World Series–winning Giants, Tim Hudson outdueled Jonathan Sanchez, who was having a career-best season for the Giants, but everyone remembers this game as the Brooks Conrad game, because the Braves 2B tied the record with three errors in a postseason game. Eric Hinske had a huge pinch hit homer to give the Braves the lead going into the 9th, but rookie Craig Kimbrel allowed a couple baserunners before Peter Moylan gave up the grounder through Conrad’s legs to give the Giants the lead. (0–2 record, 0–1 facing elimination)

3. 2010 NLDS Game 4: Now on the brink of elimination against rookie Madison Bumgarner, Derek Lowe actually had a decent start for the Braves, who were up 1–0 heading into the sixth when Cody Ross (who had seen a lot of the Braves previously as a Marlin) homered to tie the game. Brian McCann got the lead back (all he does is win) with a homer of his own, but Moylan was present for some more defensive trouble in the 7th, when Alex Gonzalez couldn’t make the throw to start a double play on a ball hit by future Brave Juan Uribe. Ross drove in the eventual game-winner against Jonny Venters. This would be Bobby Cox’s last game as manager of the Braves, and the Giants made a nice gesture to pause their celebration and recognize that. (0–3 record, 0–2 facing elimination)

4. 2011 Game 162 against the Phillies: Not a postseason game, but the Braves needed a win to force another game against the Cardinals for a wild card spot. The Phillies had wrapped up the division and used both Joe Blanton and Braves legend Cole Hamels in short outings, with both allowing runs to give the Braves an early lead. Craig Kimbrel’s control escaped him in the ninth with three walks. A sac fly by Chase Utley scored former Brave Pete Orr, and it took 13 innings for Hunter Pence to drive in the game-winner off Scott Linebrink. Freddie Freeman hit into a DP after a Chipper Jones walk to end the game and the season. I’m not going to count this as a postseason loss, but please know that I consider it one in my heart.

5. 2012 NL Wild Card Game. In 2012, MLB decided to add a second wild card team and force a single play-in game for the final postseason spot. Objectively it was a great decision from a competitive standpoint, emphasizing the importance of winning your division, which the Braves did not do, although under the old format they would have won the fourth playoff spot outright, having finished six games better than the Cardinals with 94 wins. What happened next was both a “first of its kind” game (the NL game started a few hours before the AL that year) and an “only in the postseason in Atlanta” game with the still-controversial Sam Holbrook infield fly call on what should have been a single by Andrelton Simmons against Dalton, GA native Mitchell Boggs. In 2014, MLB implemented the current replay system, although judgment calls like infield flies remain unreviewable to this day.

Anyway, the Braves were already down after homers by Allen Craig and Matt Holliday, but it felt like there was still some life in the game until the unfortunate call, which delayed the game because of the also-unfortunate collective fan response to trash the field. The Cardinals won the game, but at least they haven’t won the World Series since, and at the time they were the defending champs. This was unfortunately Chipper Jones’ last game (he went 1-for-5). The 2012 World Series MVP was future Braves mascot Pablo Sandoval. (0–4 record, 0–3 facing elimination)

6. 2013 NLDS Game 2: The Braves were the higher seed against the Dodgers in this series, as the Dodgers started a streak of 8 straight NL West wins that year, a streak that was broken only last week. Mike Minor, in his best Braves season, outlasted Zack Greinke, and Jason Heyward had a key 2-run single in the 7th, but the bullpen made this one interesting at the end. Craig Kimbrel closed out a Braves win, walking two in the ninth after having to come on in the 8th to prevent David Carpenter from losing the game. When the series finally did end in Los Angeles, then-manager Fredi Gonzalez notably left Kimbrel warming up in the bullpen while Carpenter lost Game 4. Just use your best reliever in the most key situation—it’s not that hard. (1–4 record, still 0–3 facing elimination)

The Braves faltered in 2014, finishing 79–83, firing GM Frank Wren on the day after they were eliminated from playoff contention. They installed John Hart as president of baseball operations, and with not-yet-disgraced John Coppolella (who was named GM after the 2015 season) pulling the strings, they embarked on a rebuild of a roster that I would argue still had a contending core of players, had they chosen to retain them. But they were put in charge and decided to do their thing, which meant trading Evan Gattis to Houston and the Upton brothers and Craig Kimbrel to the Padres, with the Upton deal yielding Max Fried, who shut down the Brewers in today’s game. Jason Heyward was shipped to St. Louis for Shelby Miller, who later yielded Dansby Swanson in a deal with the Diamondbacks. Nick Markakis began his tenure with the Braves that offseason. They signed reliever Josh Outman for nearly $1m—he did not appear for the major league team and thus recorded no outs. I say all of this to say that the Braves didn’t make the playoffs again until their second season in the new ballpark, so that NLDS game in 2013 ended up being the last one at Turner Field.

7. 2018 NLDS Game 3: Now six seasons into their NL West streak, the Dodgers were a complete powerhouse by this point, starting ace rookie Walker Buehler in this game after having already shut out the Braves at home in both Games 1 & 2. Having access to only two tickets at the time, I decided to take Ben to this game and Matt to the next, if the Braves won, and I don’t really recall the reasoning for Matt drawing the short straw. Sean Newcomb got the start for Atlanta, and it wasn’t great, unlike his previous start against the Dodgers, a no-hitter that was spoiled with two outs in the 9th by Chris Taylor (yes, I was also at that game).

Home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom plays a part in this one, which is usually never a good thing when talking about the impact of an umpire, but in this case it worked out for the Braves when Ronald Acuña Jr. hit the aforementioned grand slam in the 2nd inning after an egregious strike call that should have been ball four. The Dodgers tied the game in the 5th with homers by (of course) Chris Taylor and Max Muncy, but a Freddie Freeman homer in the 6th was enough to win it. Very mildly interesting fact: Cederstrom was the right field umpire for the 2000 Game 3 loss I attended 18 years earlier. (2–4 record, 1–3 facing elimination)

8. 2018 NLDS Game 4: This was Matt’s game to attend (oops), started by Mike Foltynewicz, but it wasn’t *that* Mike Foltynewicz game—just hold your horses for that one. The Braves pinch hit for Folty in the fourth inning, already trailing by a run against Rich Hill with runners in scoring position, and it paid off, with Kurt Suzuki singling to give them the lead. David Freese still had some leftover Cardinals devil magic, with his own pinch hit single to give the Dodgers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, and a Manny Machado homer would put it firmly out of reach.

This game had an “old friend,” with Matt Kemp back on the Dodgers after his time with Atlanta, and who knows, maybe Joc Pederson can return the favor this year (he was the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter for this game). Interestingly, Folty was relieved in this game by three other pitchers who have also started playoff games for the Braves, if you want to try to name them before I do in the next few sentences. Max Fried came on in the sixth inning specifically for one out to pitch to his future teammate Pederson. Julio Teheran pitched an inning and two-thirds; he started NLDS Game 3 in 2013, which was his only playoff start in nine Braves seasons. A.J. Minter pitched the ninth, and Minter’s incredible “opener” Game 5 start in last year’s NLDS remains the only start of his professional career, regular or postseason. (2–5 record, 1–4 facing elimination)

10. 2019 NLDS Game 5: Now it’s time for *that* Mike Foltynewicz game, the one that was over before it really started. The Braves battled in this series against the Cardinals and were tied 2–2 heading into this one with two one-run losses. Folty had shut out the Cardinals in Game 2 and was on regular rest to provide these results in the first inning and only the first inning of the game: walk to Dexter Fowler, sacrifice by future Brewer Kolten Wong, single by Paul Goldschmidt, single by a future Brave whose name does not deserve to appear here, error by Freddie Freeman to allow Yadier Molina on base, walk to Matt Carpenter, double by Tommy Edman. When Max Fried came on to relieve Folty after that, it was actually still a game at 4–0 if he managed to escape the bases loaded situation, but he allowed all three runners plus three more to score, and it was 10–0 after the first inning, as fans were still filing into the ballpark. We stuck around to see the 13–1 final score.

This game is also somewhat notable as the only game since the inception of the Tomahawk Chop that it wasn’t emphasized in some way by the team. They abruptly ended the practice of giving away foam tomahawks following criticism during the series from Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley, who happens to be a member of the Cherokee nation. This was the last home game of 2019, and no home games were played with fans in 2020. This year, they don’t play the music but do play a beat and put the tomahawk on the scoreboard, clearly signaling an expectation to chop. It’s too bad because this game would have given them a great chance to end a practice that has endured far longer than it ever should have, and you can expect there will be some cringe-inducing chops over the next couple of home playoff games. I’m just ready to move on from the chop and even the team name. Hank Aaron’s passing would have provided plenty of PR cover to rename the team the Hammers in his honor. The Braves have missed both opportunities.

Back on the John-is-cursed front, can you believe that Sam Holbrook was allowed to be the left field umpire *again* in a playoff game in Atlanta between the Braves and Cardinals, and it was in this game? I can’t believe it either, but it happened. In this game, of all games.

Anyway, that’s a 2–6 postseason record for me, 1–5 when facing elimination in those games, plus a bonus loss facing elimination from the postseason on the final day of the regular season. All but the first occurred during a single decade. Maybe the 2020s will be better? If you disagree, I’m accepting bids for my tickets to Tuesday’s Game 4.

Every year I write basically the same thing in this introduction—this year is no different.  My music tastes are mine alone, so this list is less of a proclamation about what was definitively the best music than it is simply a list of my favorites.  I’m not a real music critic, and you can find plenty of year-end lists that are more wide-ranging or that better fit your own personal style.

Nevertheless, I find it fun to chronicle my favorites for each year, and this is that list.  Hopefully you’ll find it interesting too. Below are some playlist links, if you want to kill two-and-a-half hours listening to some great songs (or 6.5 hours for the 2010s list). The full countdown, with a short write-up for each song, follows a new introduction for the year below. Also, both lists are in reverse order, so “Night Shift” is #1, not #40, on the 2018 list. Lastly, a word of warning—if you’re listening around kids, there are definitely a few songs you will want to skip.

Here are the playlist links:

Top 40 of 2018 (Google Play Music)

Top 100 of the 2010s (Google Play Music)

A note about criteria:

In order to be included on the list, the song should either be making its first appearance on an EP or LP in 2018, or it can also be a one-off single, since those songs are often later included on an album of some kind. Muse’s “Dig Down,” for instance, was on the 2017 list but would have been eligible again had I not already included it, since its first album appearance was on 2018’s Simulation Theory. I can’t say I perfectly adhered to this policy, but at least that is the idea.

That also means there will be some songs left out from year to year, since I don’t listen to everything that interests me right away (or at all—there is a lot of music). Some of these oversights will eventually be captured on my top 100 of the decade, which was notably the case this year with Wolf Alice. While I only had “Beautifully Unconventional” on last year’s Top 40 from their Mercury Prize winner Visions of a Life, I listened to that album and 2015’s My Love Is Cool extensively before and after seeing them live in April. I listened and loved those albums so much that Wolf Alice has now taken over my top artist spot for the decade from Alt-J, although “Tessellate” held its spot as the #1 song on my decade list.

About This Year’s List

Because I am a huge nerd, I devised a point system last year to rank this decade’s songs in a bunch of different ways, and I updated it for this year. 2018 ranks third among the individual years, behind only 2017 and 2013, so I feel good in saying it was a solid year overall.

In what has become an even/odd year phenomenon much like the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series in the early part of this decade, the United States took back over the top country position from the UK in 2018. It was the strongest year since 2011 for the old U.S. of A. (only in a musical sense, of course). It was also the strongest year on record for female vocalists or female-fronted bands, which are now just about equally represented with their male counterparts on my list.

Some staples of this list in prior years just missed in 2018, including lead single “Peach” from New Zealand duo Broods’ upcoming album, as well as songs from Alice Merton (whose debut LP is still forthcoming after 2017’s “No Roots”), Metric, The Joy Formidable, and Mutemath (which is currently a solo project from lead singer Paul Meany). I also couldn’t quite bring myself to include “When The Curtain Falls” from the divisive Greta Van Fleet. I like the song, if you could just detach it from the lead singer’s voice and give it to another band with similar technical skills.

There were also some 2018 albums that completely flopped for me, relative to expectations. Chvrches’ third album Love Is Dead aimed more squarely at mainstream pop and squandered some of their creative edge in the process. Arctic Monkeys’ lunar lounge concept album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, their first album since 2012, was also among my biggest disappointments. Alex Turner’s vocals were good, I guess, but it just felt like the rest of the band had very little to do.

Anyway, on to this year’s list:

40. Allie X “Science”

From a playlist construction standpoint, this maybe isn’t the ideal song to kick us off. It’s a slow-moving but beautiful pop song from the LA-based Canadian singer who goes by Allie X. Her genre is a tough one for me, because the floor is so low for pop songs with minimal instrumentation, but this one has a solid beat and creative lyrics to help it rise above its peers.

39. Jealous of the Birds “Plastic Skeletons”

The rhymes just keep on coming in this creative, visual song from Irish singer-songwriter Naomi Hamilton, whose second full-length album as Jealous of the Birds is due out in 2019. I’m not sure if this song will be included, or if she will leave behind the songs on her 2018 EP, so I’m including “Plastic Skeletons” this year.

38. Post Animal “Ralphie”

Perhaps it’s unfortunate that the first thing that comes to mind about Post Animal is “Steve from Stranger Things‘ band,” but that’s where we are. The guitars and chorus of this song are legitimately good, even if the band will forever live in the shadow of their guitarist Joe Keery’s other career as a star on one of TV’s best shows.

37. Jungle “Heavy, California”

“Busy Earnin'” from Jungle’s 2014 self-titled debut is still part of my regular listening rotation, so it would be tough to top that wonderful, funky song with anything new. Their 2018 follow-up For Ever is a valiant effort and actually exceeded my expectations, with several other songs (“Happy Man” and “Smile”) also contending for this list.

36. Maps & Atlases “Fall Apart”

Chicago-based Maps & Atlases came out of hiatus to record their first album in six years with 2018’s Lightlessness Is Nothing New. I wasn’t familiar with them before that previous album, but “Fever” became one of my favorite songs at the time, and I was eager to hear what else they had in store. Although I probably still prefer “Fever,” “Fall Apart” is the closest analog, with the same intricate guitars, but a stronger beat and more of a sing-along quality.

35. Snail Mail “Let’s Find An Out”

Snail Mail is nineteen-year-old Lindsey Jordan, and it’s easy to say that she is an unbelievable songwriter for her age. I didn’t love all of the songs on her critically-acclaimed debut LP Lush, but this short, simple one stayed with me as one of its strongest melodies.

34. Sunflower Bean “Crisis Fest”

It’s perhaps not the best way to create a timeless song, but writing a line in “Crisis Fest” about 2017 being a “big sick show” is certainly still appropriate in 2018. The young members of Sunflower Bean (each 22, as suggested by the Twentytwo in Blue album title) are practically oozing with cross-genre talent. Owing to its lyrics, this song has more of a punk feel, but Julia Cumming has a great, versatile voice, and the band deftly shifts from soulful to poppy songs without missing a beat.

33. St. Lucia “Bigger”

“Bigger” is more of the same upbeat synthpop from St. Lucia, one of a handful of bands that are never the top Wikipedia result when you search for them. Fortunately their music is interesting enough to make up for their SEO-unfriendliness. This single from their third album Hyperion has an appropriately big chorus and the sort of tight harmonies you might expect to result from the collaboration of a married couple. Jean-Philip Grobler started the band and still takes the lead, but it wouldn’t be the same without his wife Patti’s backing vocals.

32. Mitski “Geyser”

Some bands could use an editor to cut out several minutes of fluff and make their songs more easily listenable. “Geyser” suffers from the opposite problem, clocking in at just over two minutes but yearning to be twice that long. Mitski’s whole Be The Cowboy album is just 32 minutes long and also features “Nobody,” which was also a contender for this list.

31. Superorganism “The Prawn Song”

It’s not my favorite song of theirs, but “The Prawn Song” is the ideal introduction to the collective known as Superorganism, who met one another from across the world and gathered in London to record one of the most fun debut albums in some time. I don’t know if it was the first song they wrote together, but “Prawn” does reference their name and exemplifies what they do so well: leisurely-paced fun pop songs with delightfully weird accompaniment and a simple message to convey.

30. The Wombats “Turn”

There are probably five songs I could have included from The Wombats’ excellent album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, but “Turn” is better than most of them, with its strong mid-tempo beat and Matthew Murphy’s usual witticisms. In case you needed one, he slips in a reminder that you’re listening to a British band, as he talks about floating “anti-clockwise.” You can’t spell ‘color’ with a ‘u’ in a song, so I suppose this will have to work.

29. Interpol “The Rover”

Sad rockers Interpol make their first-ever appearance on my year-end list with a rollicking good song about some kind of crazy cult leader. The pulsating lead guitar part keeps the song from slowing down like so many others in this genre.

28. Courtney Barnett “Nameless, Faceless”

Her 2017 collaboration with Kurt Vile was pretty underwhelming to me, but 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel has more of the great dry humor of her amazing solo debut. There is no “Pedestrian At Best” on this year’s release, but it has more of a timely quality, with this song paraphrasing Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid’s Tale) in the chorus: “I wanna walk through the park in the dark; men are scared the women will laugh at them; I wanna walk through the park in the dark; women are scared the men will kill them.”

27. Sunflower Bean “Come For Me”

Their whole Twentytwo In Blue album gives the sense that bigger things are coming for Sunflower Bean. Julia Cumming has a great voice that she shows off only occasionally on the album, and Nick Kivlen does some wonderful guitar work, particularly in the live performances you can find online. So it’s no surprise that new single “Come For Me” is another positive step for the band, showcasing both of those strengths just a little more.

26. White Denim “Magazin”

White Denim have a knack for groovy rock songs, and they added some horns to the mix on this lead single from their 2018 album Performance. They’re an impressive group to watch live, although they somehow managed not to play a couple of my favorites when they visited Chattanooga in 2017 (how dare they). They have cycled through guitarists but have a good mix right now, with singer James Petralli also handling lead guitar duties.

25. Switchfoot “Native Tongue”

There’s not much more I can say about Switchfoot that I haven’t already said in the last 15 years. Their eleventh album is due in January, with this as the lead single. I’m not crazy about the gradual downplaying of their rock sound, but if I’m being honest, the early 2000s (my favorite era of theirs) is perhaps more of an outlier than the rest of their catalog in that regard, and any perceived decline is maybe more a sign of the times and/or my own tastes. Then again, I imagine it’s awfully hard to write as much music and Jon Foreman and have it not get stale eventually. “Native Tongue” still packs their unique spiritual-lyric punch, which is enough to crack this list. While you’re reading, send some happy thoughts and a prayer for keyboard player Jerome Fontamillas, who is recovering from surgery to have a cancerous kidney removed.

24. Foxing “Nearer My God”

It’s fair to look up and down this list and call me a sucker for harmonies. I’m not a Church of Christ traditionalist who believes you can’t praise God with instruments, but that background is forever a part of me and my musical tastes. So this song (which is not really spiritual, as the title perhaps implies) was basically a lock for the list after one listen. The synths and guitars are cool too and definitely add to the song, but the vocals stand out to me.

23. Django Django “In Your Beat”

I held this song out from last year’s list even though it came out as a single prior to the end of 2017, unsure whether it was going to hold up to repeated listening like the lead single from Marble Skies, “Tic Tac Toe.” It has held up. The lyrics are pretty simple, but the music behind it is great, especially when the synths drop into the chorus.

22. Speedy Ortiz “Lucky 88”

Like several others on this year’s list, Speedy Ortiz is appearing for the first time despite an acclaimed history. “Lucky 88” is a little poppier than their earlier tracks—I might call it accessible, but they means different things to different people—and it works well with the delightfully weird and dark twists in the lyrics. This version of Speedy Ortiz feels like an improvement, an iteration from their previous work and lead singer Sadie DuPuis’ solo album (as “Sad13”).

21. Hatchie “Sleep”

Hatchie doesn’t have a lot of songs to their credit (or is it just “her”? I never know about these groups that form behind a single singer), and this one still ranks just fifth in popularity on Google Play Music, but I prefer it to the rest of the Sugar & Spice EP. It has the catchiest verses and a nice harmony in the chorus, while “Sure” and “Try” are a little more on the bland side to me. The EP’s title track, which I was surprised to hear in a mall store recently (surprising because of the song, not because of the existence of a mall in 2018), was a near-miss on this list as well.

20. Khruangbin “Maria También”

This story makes about as much sense as anything else I have done this year: the most I have been able to expand my boys’ linguistic skills has been the result of a song with exactly one word in the actual lyrics, the name ‘Maria.’ It’s a phenomenal guitar and bass showcase that needs no words to possess a catchy melody. And it comes from a Texas band with a Thai name and a Spanish song & album title. Thanks to the screen in my car, my kids have learned the English meanings of six words in Spanish—the song and album titles—and hopefully also learned to appreciate a good instrumental song.

19. Indian Askin “BEAT24”

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this odd Dutch band, which released some singles in 2018 that barely interested me at all (“I Feel Something” and “On And On”). But then, in a nod to their depth, Indian Askin released an EP with just the B-Sides that I found more interesting: “Burning Blue” as well as this song. As one might expect, “BEAT24” has a pulsating beat with off-kilter lyrics and a delivery which altogether makes for a fun song. Their second full-length album, appropriately titled Another Round, is due out in January 2019.

18. White Denim “It Might Get Dark”

It feels as though White Denim haven’t taken a break in a while. This is their third straight year on my list, having charted with a one-off single last year as a follow-up to their 2016 album Stiff, and now they’re back again with more fun rock songs. As I note every year in this space, the bass parts always stand out, but I think it’s also the melody in this case. “It Might Get Dark” is probably one of the better White Denim songs for just getting me to sing along in the car.

17. Wilderado “Sorrow”

“Sorrow” had nearly dropped out of my regular listening rotation late this year when Wilderado released an acoustic version of their Favors EP, giving new life to those four excellent songs. I get the sense that they would be more popular in another era, or perhaps another genre (country), but I love this band where they are. The terrific harmonies and unique quality of lead vocalist Max simply work for me, whether in a rock song like this one or a seriously understated acoustic like my #3 song from last year, “Talking About Love To A Cigarette.”

16. Joy Williams “Canary”

When I think about the “big voices” in music today, the ones who come to mind are often undone (from my listening perspective) by weak songwriting or a lack of support around them. Adele’s “Hello,” for instance, has an absolutely stunning vocal, but the lyrics immediately felt so dated that I couldn’t keep listening to that song. Often with those strikes against them, there are usually only a few individual singer-songwriters on my year-end lists. It’s easy to make an exception here for Joy Williams, who belongs in that “big voice” conversation and has arguably now peaked in the third phase of her career (post–Civil Wars and post-CCM). The message of the lyrics feels timely as well.

15. Ten Fé “Single, No Return”

A light rocker with tight harmonies that typifies their sound, this one packs more of a punch emotionally than some of the other Ten Fé songs I have heard. Most of their other songs work similarly—this was just my favorite in 2018. Their second album is forthcoming and includes some other solid songs like “Won’t Happen” and “Not Tonight,” but this one looks like it will remain a one-off single.

14. Yonaka “Teach Me To Fight”

This band from Brighton have a real attitude, with other songs that are even more direct and combative than this song (such as the over-the-top “F.W.T.B.”), but “Teach Me To Fight” is probably the better song to serve as a statement of intent for the band. It features singer Theresa Jarvis’ best vocal performance and the band’s overall most cohesive idea out of anything I have heard from them so far, while also embodying the sort of attitude that discourages me from ever crossing them in any way.

13. Jade Bird “Love Has All Been Done Before”

There is a coarseness to Bird’s voice that keeps her from sounding like other young singers, but I mean that in a good way, because there is clear quality behind it. Most other young singers are also not as inventive, and she has written one of the best melodies of the year. As the song suggests, it’s often hard to find something new in a familiar landscape, whether in love or music, but we will strive for it, and I think she is well on her way.

12. Spirit Animal “The Truth”

The ties binding me to my 2000s-era rock-heavy past still have a thread remaining on these lists as we near the end of the 2010s. Spirit Animal sounds like something out of that era (they opened for Theory of a Deadman on tour this year, representing further confirmation), but this Brooklyn band is generally more interesting than what is left of that heavier genre. “Yeah!” and “Painkiller” are real departures, in a positive way, but it’s this throwback (mainly the opening riff) that reeled me in. As a bonus, I have listened to it enough times with the kids in the car that I can sing it when they try to cover up their wrongdoings at home—“don’t want to hear it, go near it, it’s a lie!”

11. Childish Gambino “This Is America”

Never have I seen a music video blow up quite like this one. In the wake of Donald Glover’s SNL appearance back in May, “This Is America” was immediately everywhere I looked, as people couldn’t stop watching and talking about how provocative it was. Everyone was right that it’s provocative (and also catchy), and that it Says Something about gun violence and being black in America. While I will never ultimately relate to the latter, and without diving into the specifics as to why it is important, I must say I’m glad to see someone other than The Onion tackling guns head-on in popular culture. As they so frequently put it, “No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.” This indeed is America.

10. The Wombats “Cheetah Tongue”

Few bands write lyrics so descriptive, almost viscerally so, and even fewer manage to combine that songwriting gift with an interesting melody or beat. Of course that’s what I’m saying The Wombats have achieved with this song, which aside from the lyrics wouldn’t have been out of place on rock radio a decade or two earlier, when the genre was a much larger part of our collective musical consciousness (and still clearly is part of mine). Their work hasn’t always resonated with me, which is perhaps a greater downfall of their particular style than it is for most artists, but it finally did in 2018.

9. Muse “Pressure”

The well of paranoia-induced we-are-the-oppressed lyrics is not dry yet, but let’s also not pretend this is on the same level as Muse’s early-2000s peak, from Origin of Symmetry through Black Holes and Revelations. This song (and 2017 single “Dig Down”) are the highlights of Simulation Theory, an album that is still definitely by Muse and more specifically Matt Bellamy, who remains one of the most talented vocalists and guitar players in the world. If I can coast so gracefully into my 40s, I will be doing quite well. Check out the video, featuring Terry Crews of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and a host of horror-movie references.

8. boygenius “Salt In The Wound”

Although their instrumental ability is not so fully on display, boygenius otherwise comes across to me like Nickel Creek—three artists who could record (and have recorded) as solo acts combining, harmonizing, and creating interesting songs together—all for the benefit of our ears. Their debut EP is six songs long and also six deep with quality, although I have included just one song on this list: “Salt In The Wound” takes the best of their melodies and harmonies and pairs it with a nice, slow, hard guitar. Lucy Dacus opens this song, but everyone gets a turn to shine, with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker splitting the second verse & the latter also providing the guitar. All three women of boygenius are in their early twenties, over a decade younger than I am, so here’s hoping I have a lifetime left to enjoy their collective work.

7. Ty Segall “Fanny Dog”

Proof that inventive lyrics are not a requirement for this list, “Fanny Dog” is nominally about Segall’s pet, but really it’s just a showcase for a solid melody, a fantastic guitar solo, and his skillful backing band. I haven’t done a deep dive into Segall’s prolific catalog, but it’s on my to-listen list after hearing this gem.

6. Lemaitre featuring Betty Who “Rocket Girl”

If I had to pick one song on this list that should have become a huge pop hit, this would be the one. Yet “Rocket Girl,” for all its Katy Perry–esque sound, doesn’t seem to have truly registered this year. The lyrics are good, Betty Who’s vocals are good, and the beat is catchy, so beyond a lack of promotion, I don’t get why it was not at least a moderate hit.

5. half·alive “Still Feel”

According to the band, this song was born out of a 50-song writing challenge, one that I will call a resounding success, since it resulted in a truly great tune. I could listen to just the isolated bass part and find it enjoyable. “Still Feel” is not on an album (yet), and the rest of their songs have more of a Twenty One Pilots sound, but this song has me hopeful about half•alive in general. It is a ton of fun and also has one of the best accompanying videos of the year. Maybe by next year I can get my kids to listen to it without immediately conjuring up their desire to listen to Portugal. The Man’s “Feel It Still.”

4. Superorganism “Everybody Wants to be Famous”

Queue up any of their live studio performances, which I highly recommend, and you will instantly see that this band simply likes to have fun. You can find arrangements of this song performed around a pool, in a library, or in a regular studio, with all sorts of accompaniments ranging from synths to soft drinks. “Everybody Wants To Be Famous” has the best combination of melody and coherent message on their superinteresting debut album.

3. Death Cab for Cutie “Gold Rush”

Easily Death Cab’s most interesting song since 2008 brought us their masterpiece “I Will Possess Your Heart.” The post-Walla era starts out strong, with Gibbard hitting all the right notes and showing his usual lyrical flourish above that pulsating, repeated refrain. Even if I don’t entirely agree with the premise of the song (How are we going to deal with urban over-population without a market approach to land management? Maybe they have better ideas?), the fact that this thought even enters my mind is probably a point in the song’s favor, rather than a detraction from it.

2. St. Lucia “Walking Away”

This is the song that, for me, makes St. Lucia more of a band than simply a project for its leader Jean-Philip Grobler. The synth/bass part and movements between keys are still fun after dozens of listens, which adds a new and more interesting layer to their usual tight vocals & harmonies.

1. Lucy Dacus “Night Shift”

Many of these songs have stuck with me throughout the year and held up after repeated listening. Most of 2018 had passed me by, however, when I first heard “Night Shift,” which was actually released before the end of 2017 as the lead single to Dacus’ second album Historian. It took only one listen to realize this was among the best songs of the year, and after a few more since then, it tops the final list. “Night Shift” clocks in at 6:31, so it is also the longest song on the list, but it doesn’t drag for even a second. It’s a beautiful, heart-wrenching song about dealing with a failed relationship, before the guitars kick in and turn it into something truly transcendent.

1. Acuña Mañana?

Will the Braves regret losing two weeks of Ronald Acuña’s production in an interest to gain that seventh year of control? It’s an understandable decision, but not one that is at all necessary, given the uncertainty of player aging and the buckets of cash flowing into each and every MLB team in 2018. I’m also past the point of caring about the Braves making the best financial decision and simply want to see the best team. This Braves team is probably not a real contender yet, but the window is opening, and we are inching closer to answering the annual playoff question with “maybe if everything breaks right.” The Phillies improved more than the Braves this off-season, the Mets are still Metsing around and stockpiling corner outfielders and injured pitchers, and the Marlins are a total catastrophe. The Nationals are still really good and should win the East again.

2. Catch The Fever

Can Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki repeat as the most valuable position player combo in baseball? That’s actually not hyperbole when you consider the only flavor of Wins Above Replacement that includes the impact of catcher framing, Baseball Prospectus’ WARP, where Flowers was among the league’s best in 2017. The impact of framing pitches is so significant that Flowers ranked as the 10th best position player in baseball, ahead of Buster Posey as the top individual catcher, with over six wins to his credit. Suzuki added nearly three wins of his own, making the Braves’ tandem a formidable one, and one that is only under contract for 2018.

3. Ozz-Fest

Ozzie Albies—I think he can be a light version of Mookie Betts, providing solid defensive value and more power than you expect out of a player with a small frame. It’s not really even a question of “will it all come together for him?” because it already did in his 2017 rookie season. He earned 1.9 wins in just over a third of a season, which is star-level production if he can simply repeat it for a full year.

4. So Many Pitchers

Can one or two of the young arms become more than just credible big league starters this year? If that proverbial contention window is ever going to fly open, it’s going to be when several real contributors emerge from the wave currently at AAA: Soroka, Gohara, Allard, Fried, etc. There’s another wave behind that group too, and hopefully there is strength in numbers.

5. The Old Guy

What is Julio Teherán now? Lest we forget the wily old veteran, 27 years of age, his 2017 ERA was not strong, but the underlying numbers told a different story for the Braves’ de facto ace. Julio posted the 24th-best pitcher season of 2017 using BP’s DRA-based PWARP, so if you subscribe to the theory that the thirty best pitchers in the league are aces by default, Julio was one in 2017. That is probably not what I would project going forward, but nevertheless, he is a solid pitcher under control for three more seasons at reasonable rates. If the young arms progress particularly well, perhaps there is still a trade scenario the Braves would entertain, but there is still time for him to succeed as a Brave.

That’s what I’m watching this year. Freddie Freeman and company have a year to get better before Bryce Harper moves on to greener (much $$$ greener) pastures than Washington D.C. has to offer, and the NL East gets truly interesting in 2019 and beyond.

This year, rather than dissect the ballot in such detail, I would prefer to simply lay out a couple observations, and then at the end I’ll leave you with the table of Hall of Fame ratings that I have compiled through the 2017 season. Here are the first two posts in the series, where I presented that system—one which was adapted from Craig Edwards’ work at FanGraphs—in detail.

2016 Baseball Hall of Fame

2017 Baseball Hall of Fame

The Problem of Expansion

One of the hallmarks of Hall of Fame season is the free column BBWAA voters get out of detailing their ballots. I enjoy reading a lot of these, but they are all basically the same column. What strikes me each year is how these talented writers, who recall brilliant facts and anecdotes in their regular columns, often fail to contextualize the ballot with information that is readily accessible about current players and Hall of Fame history.

An example to the contrary is this 2016 column from Neil Paine at FiveThirtyEight (link), who showed that the modern era is sorely lacking in quantity of Hall-of-Famers. Voters have utterly failed to account for expansion, and however unintentional their motives, they have raised the bar for induction to its highest-ever threshold.

Accounting for Recent Data

Perhaps because I have spent the last twelve years as an accountant, reporting on financial happenings of the most recent prior month or year, another aspect I find odd in the Hall of Fame discussion is how so little of it is devoted to year-over-year changes in HOF probability.

Put differently, dozens of players active in 2017 affected their chances of induction in some way. Joey Votto doesn’t need that many more six-win seasons to be a sure-fire inductee. Justin Verlander also made a move in the right direction. Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Beltran, on the other hand, were among the least valuable players in the league. Albert Pujols wasn’t just among them—he was the least valuable player—but he could play out his contract with a –2 WAR every year and still make it.

Writers spend most of their year covering current players, so this decision to reminisce solely about players on the ballot is understandable to an extent. But when is the last time you read an argument about Evan Longoria knocking on the door of the Hall? The 32-year-old former face of the Rays ranks 84th now in HOF Rating among post-1970 careers. He is several years removed from his peak, and the artificially crowded ballot will probably relegate him to afterthought status when his time comes, but that ranking places him among the top 1% to have played in this era of baseball, a remarkable achievement, and one which in my view is arguably Hall-of-Fame worthy.

Trout and Kershaw

Everyone knows Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw are special. They’re Hall of Fame locks once they reach the 10-year service minimum, even by the lofty standards of the BBWAA. But who else is in that category?

Between Longoria and Albert Pujols, there are six other players I haven’t mentioned who rank among baseball’s 1%:

1. Albert Pujols (8th)
2. Adrian Beltre (17th)
3. Clayton Kershaw (26th)
4. Chase Utley (28th)
5. Miguel Cabrera (29th)
6. Mike Trout (30th)
7. Carlos Beltran (36th)
8. C.C. Sabathia (40th)
9. Zack Greinke (64th)
10. Justin Verlander (65th)
11. Ichiro (66th)
12. Joey Votto (68th)
13. Evan Longoria (84th)

Kershaw and Trout are already in the top third of a percent of post-1970 players. Ichiro seems like a lock, and I think Adrian Beltre gets in too. But Chase Utley? He absolutely had a Hall-of-Fame peak between 2005 and 2009. Many of my fellow Braves fans have argued for Dale Murphy’s candidacy on the strength of that 1982–87 run. Utley is a far better candidate, and yet it feels like there will be considerable debate in six or seven years, when his time comes.

Saves Rule, Defense Drools

Mariano Rivera spoiled us all, being such a great closer for so long. But that doesn’t mean we have to put up with his less-transcendent peers taking up valuable ballot space. Rivera himself should be a polarizing candidate, ranking only 168th on the list of post-1970 players, with only six or seven seasons’ worth of starters’ innings to his name. He will undoubtedly waltz into the Hall in 2019. Trevor Hoffman (458th) may beat him by a year, which will finally give Jim Rice (106th) someone to look down upon.

On the flip side, we have the candidacies of Andruw Jones and Scott Rolen. Both will fall short this year, far shorter than they should, and in Jones’ case, perhaps far enough short that he will fall off the ballot entirely. Ryan Thibodaux’s latest update (link) has Rolen at 12% and Andruw at 5.3%, hovering just above the 5% cutoff. One of the thirty best players of the last half-century is going to fall 70% short by the standards of the exacting BBWAA. It’s remarkable, perhaps only rivaled by the writers’ oversight of Kevin Brown in 2011.

Future Ballots

Let’s assume four players are elected in 2018—which four can be up to you. Rivera is probably the only player elected in a landslide next year, although maybe Edgar Martinez and another player can squeeze into a down year on the ballot. Roy Halladay seems a likely candidate for posthumous induction in 2019. 2020 brings us Jeter, who will have been the face of the Marlins for two years by then, so who knows what might happen? By 2022, we could have twenty players eligible among the top 1% to have played since 1970:

• 2019: Rivera, Halladay, Berkman, Helton, Pettitte, Oswalt
• 2020: Jeter, Abreu
• 2021: Hudson
• 2022: A-Rod, David Wright (if he doesn’t return), Ortiz

All are worthy candidates in my view, but will the Hall notice?

Top 500 since 1970

Here’s the full list:

Every year I write basically the same thing in this introduction—this year is no different.  My music tastes are mine alone, so this list is less of a proclamation about what was definitively the best music than it is simply a list of my favorites.  I’m not a real music critic, and you can find plenty of year-end lists that are more wide-ranging or that better fit your own personal style.

Nevertheless, I find it fun to chronicle my favorites for each year, and this is that list.  Hopefully you’ll find it interesting too. In years’ past, I would post a Spotify playlist, but I switched to Google Play Music a couple months ago (true shuffle and will link to that instead. You can also find my top-100 of the 2010s updated with this year’s songs. Also, both lists are in reverse order, so “Tessellate” is #1 on the 2010s list, not #100. Lastly, a word of warning—if you’re listening around kids, there are probably a few songs you will want to skip.

Top 40 of 2017 (Google Play Music)

Top 100 of the 2010s (Google Play Music)

40. Beck “Colors”

Album: Colors

Beck shows how nimble he is as a musician on 2017’s Colors, a pop-minded departure from 2014’s Morning Phase. The title track has a similar feel to lead single “Dreams,” which has been around long enough that it made my year-end list in 2015 at #12. “Up All Night” and “WOW” round out the singles from a very strong album overall.

39. Portugal. The Man “So Young”

Album: Woodstock

Woodstock is a fine album overall, probably one of the year’s best, with several other songs falling just short of this list, and one still to come. “So Young” is a highlight and is one of the slowest-tempo songs to make this year’s list.

38. To Kill A King “Spiritual Dark Age”

Album: The Spiritual Dark Age (forthcoming)

To Kill A King have a way with dark imagery. I was first introduced to them with “Love Is Coal” from their 2014 EP, and “Spiritual Dark Age” is slated as the title track for their upcoming third LP in 2018. The chorus sounds like something off an early Mumford and Sons album.

37. BNQT “Restart”

Album: Volume 1

BNQT is an indie supergroup, at least if you go by Wikipedia (or their own Twitter bio). It’s pronounced “banquet” because why not, and spelled that way presumably because Google searchability is important (also see: CHVRCHES). I don’t know about super, but they’re a solid band made up of parts of Travis, Midlake, Band of Horses, and (most notably to me) Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos. It’s Eric Pulido of Midlake who takes the lead on this nice, driving lead single.

36. Black Honey “Somebody Better”

Album: n/a

Black Honey has released several solid singles in 2017 without a full-length album to their name. Presumably their debut LP is forthcoming, and I’ll be anticipating it highly if this song—and “Dig” and “All My Pride” and “Hello Today”—are an indication of what will be on it.

35. Bad Sounds “Wages”

Album: PHRESSSH (EP)

This song probably tends toward guilty pleasure territory, but those verses can really get you moving. As usual, there are a few songs featured on this list from the latest FIFA video game release—this is the first of three—with “Tic Tac Toe” and “Deadcrush” also representing that game’s annual excellent musical lineup.

34. White Denim “No Nee Ta Slode Aln”

Album: n/a

I like frontman James Petralli just fine, but White Denim seem to be cycling through guitarists of late, and it is unclear why. The downside when I saw them live over the summer was that they didn’t play half of the songs I like, and this is not Dave Matthews Band, whose catalog allows them to get away with that sort of thing at any given live show. White Denim is still good, and this one-off single after last year’s album release is an indication that they are capable of churning out quality songs seemingly regardless of who is playing guitar. One reason: Steve Terebecki always plays a fun bass part.

33. Wolf Alice “Beautifully Unconventional”

Album: Visions Of A Life

Wolf Alice’s second album Visions of a Life is an odd collection of songs ranging from the crass (“Yuk Foo”) to shoegaze (“Heavenward”), but this is a relatively straightforward rocker, and it’s the highlight for me. Singer Ellie Rowsell also features later on the list, having backed up Alt-J’s vocals on several tracks of RELAXER, but here she shines with her own band.

32. Temples “Uncertainty”

Album: Volcano

That bass line is so funky, I could almost listen to it without the rest of the song. During the early part of the year, I thought for sure this song was a lock for my year-end top 10. You might say it was a near-cert…no, I won’t do it. But I am serious, it’s a good song, and there is just so much good music out right now that it fell down the list.

31. Oh Wonder “Ultralife”

Album: Ultralife

“Ultralife” is the first song by Oh Wonder to catch my interest, in part because the duo always seems to sing the melody in different octaves, as opposed to attempting more complex harmonies. Otherwise, I like their sound. That complaint aside, it’s a fun, smart little pop song, and hopefully more like this one will follow.

30. Royal Blood “How Did We Get So Dark?”

Album: How Did We Get So Dark?

Next June I’ll get to see Royal Blood live for the first time, and this title track off their second album will be near the top of my wish list for their set, with its big, loud finish. On the strength of this sophomore album, Royal Blood have jumped into the #2 artist spot on my list for the 2010s, behind only Alt-J.

29. Evanescence “Imperfection”

Album: Synthesis

Aside from the new electronic angle, you could easily mistake this for a song from 2003’s Fallen, and if you know how much I listened to that album, that’s quite a compliment. The fact that “Imperfection” barely cracks this year’s top 30 is also hopefully a sign that I’ve managed to broaden my horizons a bit since then. Amy Lee can still make a chorus soar.

On the negative side, the new album Synthesis actually includes some of the hits from that 14-year-old album (and 2006 follow-up The Open Door), and if you have any nostalgia at all for Fallen, do yourself a favor and pass on the Synthesis versions. Lee recorded “Bring Me To Life” without Paul McCoy’s part, and it sounds like the half-song you would expect based on that information—when I first heard it, I had to stop what I was doing and queue up the original just to erase that travesty from memory. It’s abundantly clear from their efforts since Fallen that Lee and founding member Ben Moody (who left the band in 2003 and literally named a subsequent band We Are The Fallen) will never be able to replicate that early sound in their solo efforts.

28. Portugal. The Man “Rich Friends”

Album: Woodstock

Portugal. The Man has shown more longevity than the other famous native of Wasilla, Alaska—at least, I only know one other famous native of that town (pop. ~8,600). Incidentally the two have a backstory, as the band funded a skate park in their hometown which was opposed by then-mayor Palin. Anyhow, that has nothing to do with the song, which shows us that in a world of inequality, we can all have equally warped perspectives. I like “Rich Friends” somewhat better than the album’s mega-hit “Feel It Still,” which loses steam for me about halfway through.

27. Foo Fighters “Run”

Album: Concrete and Gold

Foo Fighters are not churning out rock hits at the same level they did from the mid-90’s to late-oughts, but they always seem to crack my list somewhere with a new album, and 2017 is no different with “Run,” one of their harder singles to date. They also had one of the few musical performances worth mentioning from the last year of Saturday Night Live, with their Christmas medley from the most recent show. Despite its recent acclaim, I’m not sure SNL has much to say that is very interesting or funny anymore, beyond whatever Kate McKinnon does. But the Foo performance was good.

26. St. Vincent “Los Ageless”

Album: MASSEDUCTION

St. Vincent (Annie Clark) always seems to take things one step beyond where I’m comfortable, and I realize that is often her goal, but she too often misses the mark for me as a result. On “Los Ageless” she reins things in just enough to be quite captivating. Lots of people can probably relate to having a love-hate relationship with places or things they encounter, but not many of us are talented enough to write and sing about it the way Clark does.

25. Alice Merton “No Roots”

Album: n/a

Her musical origin story is still somewhat of a mystery to me, but Alice Merton and this song have been rather inescapable for the last quarter of 2017. The chorus is probably someone’s (or a hundred someones’) Twitter bio by now, and she sings that catchy line almost effortlessly. There’s a bit of Florence + The Machine to her sound, although her lyrics (up to this point) lack the same bite.

24. Royal Blood “Hook, Line & Sinker”

Album: How Did We Get So Dark?

One song—still to come—stands above the rest on Royal Blood’s fantastic second album How Did We Get So Dark?, but there are so many quality tracks that it’s hard to pick just one or two more for a year-end list. If I have to make a choice, this is my second-favorite.

23. The Big Moon “Formidable”

Album: Love in the 4th Dimension

“Formidable” is the highlight of London band The Big Moon’s full-length debut, Love In The 4th Dimension, and it has arguably the best sing-along chorus of the year. They undoubtedly resent being singled out as such, but it’s neat to have an all-girl rock band on the list, since it is still a male-dominated genre. There’s no shortage of female lead singers in this year’s top 40 (I see 9–10, depending on how you count Oh Wonder), but it’s not half of the list.

22. Alt-J “In Cold Blood”

Album: RELAXER

Alt-J’s third album RELAXER is a step down in quality from their prior two, as they simultaneously went both smaller (on “3WW,” “Pleader,” “Adeline,” and others) and bigger in their sound, with this song’s horns and keyboard solo exemplifying the latter move. Their lyrical eccentricities will keep me coming back, but I’m hoping they’ll be able to find that happy medium a bit more often going forward. Unfortunately I think they still miss former bass player Gwil Sainsbury, who was not replaced after they toured in support of An Awesome Wave.

21. Mutemath “Hit Parade”

Album: Play Dead

“Hit Parade” could very well be the last hurrah for Mutemath on this list, since Darren King’s departure means the band no longer has the backing of the planet’s best drummer. It’s clear from this year’s album Play Dead and their prior effort Vitals that King’s virtuosity was taking a back seat to frontman Paul Meany. I like Meany, and this is a fine song, one that not coincidentally has been around for a couple years before making the cut for Play Dead, but we are a long way removed now from Odd Soul and the songs that for a couple years placed Mutemath atop my list of favorite bands. They were such a great live band, probably the best I have personally seen, and this song is a bittersweet reminder of an era that has come to an end.

20. Lucius “The Punisher”

Album: n/a

Their big album release was in 2016 with Good Grief, which had four or five worthy candidates for a year-end list, but Lucius tacked on one more excellent song in this calendar year. “The Punisher” is a terrific sing-along song, and while it has nothing to do with the incredibly dark Marvel character, there’s a little bit of Lucius’ own characteristic darkness infused within.

19. Hippo Campus “baseball”

Album: warm glow (EP)

I promise that the song title alone is not the reason it makes my list, although it doesn’t hurt. The song references my favorite sport, but what is more appropriate are its references to artists like Jackson Pollock, whose style is not coincidentally similar to that of Hippo Campus. Complex, maybe not always appreciated or understood, and that seems about right here (although maybe they shouldn’t be the ones pointing it out). I like the song—just don’t ask me to explain what it’s about.

18. Mojave Nomads “Creature Double Feature”

Album: Phases (EP)

Rock music is maybe not the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the state of Utah—even if you think music, Imagine Dragons and Neon Trees are more radio-friendly pop than rock—but this song seems both radio-ready enough and rock enough for Mojave Nomads to begin changing that. It has the groove, the guitar solo, the melodic falsetto vocals, and deliciously weird subject matter to catch on just about anywhere.

17. Minus The Bear “Invisible”

Album: VOIDS

“Invisible” is a catchy rock song with intricate layers of guitars, synths, and percussion—fairly standard for Minus The Bear. But let’s focus for a moment on the simple riff in the chorus. You don’t even really think about until it, but then one chord drops out the last time through, and now I can’t help but feel that chord every time I listen.

16. Milk Teeth “Nearby Catfight”

Album: n/a

I have no idea what this song has to do with a catfight, or what would possess a band to name itself Milk Teeth, but once you get over those minor hurdles, it’s easy to appreciate the song itself. The video is fantastic, simultaneously not what you expect when you listen to the song, but exactly what you would hope for after learning its title (which to my knowledge is not even referenced by the lyrics).

15. Wild Cub “I Fall Over”

Album: Closer

Nashville band Wild Cub assembled a wall of percussion with their debut 2013 alternative hit “Thunder Clatter,” but I like the melodies much better on their sophomore effort Closer, which features this single about our collective failure to love.

14. Gorillaz “Saturnz Barz” (feat. Popcaan)

Album: Humanz

I didn’t think Gorillaz would be a thing for nearly two decades when “Clint Eastwood” came out in 2001, but here we are, and here is Damon Albarn again creating some very cool songs that he probably never could have made with his bandmates from Blur. “Saturnz Barz” is unlike any other song on this list, with Popcaan’s Jamaican patois in the verses and Albarn providing the weird, mythological chorus.

13. Arcade Fire “Everything Now”

Album: Everything Now

It’s fair to say I have not been the world’s biggest Arcade Fire fan up to this point. There are a handful of indie rock vocalists I simply don’t care for—Win Butler is one of them, and The National’s Matt Berninger is another—so I have not been able to appreciate their music as much as many critics have. But I have to give Arcade Fire credit for a legitimately good song in “Everything Now.” I’ve seen some critics of their new album (also titled Everything Now) mention that their take on modern consumerism is too on the nose—maybe it is—but Arcade Fire have lacked the melodies and beats to interest me musically up until this effort, so I’ll take the current version.

12. Django Django “Tic Tac Toe”

Album: Marble Skies (forthcoming)

“Fun rhythms, melodies that weave in perfectly with the harmony, plus a few space sounds thrown in.” It’s safe to say the Djangos have a sound at this point. My kids would probably rate this song #1 if they were making their own list, and I’ll admit it is super catchy, but to me this is not quite on the level of “Default,” “Hail Bop,” or “Pause Repeat,” all of which seem certain to remain among my top songs of the 2010s.

11. Phoenix “Ti Amo”

Album: Ti Amo

Phoenix is not the band I would have expected to write the “song of the Summer,” whatever that is even supposed to mean, but “Ti Amo” certainly evokes a particular place and season. And fortunately in comparison to most of the songs so labeled, it also has the characteristic rhythmic guitar that have made Phoenix such an enjoyable band over the last decade. It’s such a perfect sound that I’m struggling to figure out how this song wasn’t included on the Italian soundtrack of Master of None, the Aziz Ansari Netflix show which was probably my favorite TV show of 2017.

10. Muse “Dig Down”

Album: n/a

Muse’s over-the-top sound may wear on me at some point, but it hasn’t yet. “Dig Down” is their best song in a half-decade, even if it is basically the same song structure and sound as 2012’s more endearing “Madness.” It also relies maybe a little too much on the same basic lyrical ideas that have driven their songs since they peaked (in my view) on 2006’s Black Holes and Revelations, which remains one of my very favorite albums. I suppose there are worse hills to die on than those comprised of Matt Bellamy’s crescendos and guitar solos. Fun fact: Bellamy’s son Bing (with actress Kate Hudson) was born the day before my twins were born in July 2011.

9. Sløtface “Sponge State”

Album: Sponge State (EP)

Sløtface’s debut full-length album Try Not To Freak Out was fine, but it was also a tad underwhelming because they simply didn’t include their best songs to date. “Empire Records” made last year’s list, and I’m including “Sponge State” here instead of the newer stuff. They still have the too-cool-for-school lyrics—”I’ve been thinking about that summer we discovered Bon Iver. His friends just say that’s not his name…”—but “Sponge State” also shows off the great rock instrumental chops I was hoping they would feature a little more on that album. The overall sound never quite materialized for me on “Magazine,” “Pitted” and others that were in my listening rotation for a while this year, but ultimately they never stuck.

8. The Shins “Half a Million”

Album: Heartworms

I’m a relative latecomer to The Shins, James Mercer’s project that in its various forms has been recording since my middle school days. 2012’s Port of Morrow was my first real exposure to them, and it contains one of my top songs of the decade in “Simple Song” (#2 on my latest list). Nothing on this year’s Heartworms quite reaches those heights, but “Half a Million” comes closest. It’s an interesting thought, that this song about a songwriter’s dilemma so perfectly encapsulates Mercer’s unique voice and lyrical style.

7. Franz Ferdinand “Always Ascending”

Album: Always Ascending (forthcoming)

Leave it to Franz Ferdinand to come up with a danceable song featuring the Shepard tone, which I would have thought was on no one’s sampling wishlist, save maybe Christopher Nolan (who used it in Dunkirk). They’ve been writing these types of creative, dance-rock songs for a decade and a half now. Next year’s album (for which this will be the title track) will be their first in five years, and this song has me hoping it will be worth the wait.

6. Manchester Orchestra “The Gold”

Album: A Black Mile To The Surface

At some point I need to get down to Atlanta and see Manchester Orchestra live, since they basically are a lock for my top 10 in every album release year, and they hail from my home state. Geography is ever-present on A Black Mile to the Surface, with “The Alien” representing North Georgia and this song containing the titular gold mining references to the DUNE facilities in South Dakota and East Illinois. It’s more than just references, though—”The Gold” is a heartbreaking song about a relationship that went off the rails.

5. Cut Copy “Black Rainbows”

Album: Haiku From Zero

Cut Copy has a critically acclaimed history dating back over a decade, but “Black Rainbows” is the first song they have written that stuck with me for any length of time. It’s the same path taken by Animal Collective, a band which appeared for the first time on my 2016 year-end list with “FloriDada” after a similarly long period of acclaim. Cut Copy have made that leap here with a song which contains my favorite bass groove of the year.

4. Death From Above “Freeze Me”

Album: Outrage! Is Now

Dropping ‘1979’ from their name helped trim some of the fat from Death From Above’s sound, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself about the oddly-named Canadian duo, which previously charted on my list with 2014’s “Crystal Ball.” That was a fine hard rock song too, but “Freeze Me” is on another level, one of the best songs of the year.

3. Wilderado “Talking About Love To A Cigarette”

Album: Singles (EP)

Every year one or two bands capture my attention out of seemingly nowhere, and Wilderado fits that mold for 2017. This slightly country-sounding band is actually from L.A., not the South, as I might have guessed initially from their sound. This incredible song caught me at the tail end of 2016, but not in time for my year-end list. It’s not a complex song, but their harmonies—particularly frontman Max Helmerich’s voice—are mesmerizing.

2. Alt-J “Deadcrush”

Album: RELAXER

You can read up on the lyrical backstory yourself, but it’s simple, creative, catchy, historical, and weird in all the ways that make Alt-J one of the most distinctive bands out there, even if I’m not totally on board with their general trajectory away from the sound of their 2012 debut An Awesome Wave. I got to see them in person last month, and while they will likely never be known for high energy performances, they play well, their live arrangements are strong, and it was overall an excellent show. Alt-J nearly top my year-end list for the second time—as mentioned earlier, “Tessellate” (from An Awesome Wave) is my #1 song of the decade to date.

1. Royal Blood “Lights Out”

Album: How Did We Get So Dark?

Royal Blood are sort of anti-indie rock, with no air of pretentiousness to their writing at all, and it’s literally just two people in the band—Ben Thatcher on drums and Mike Kerr singing and playing bass. They will live and die by their riffs and melodies as a result, and obviously I think both are great in this case. “Lights Out” is not only their best track this year, but the best track period.

Closing Thoughts

2017 was the third year this decade in which the UK outpaced the good old USA in overall quality, using a points system that weights higher-ranked songs more heavily than the rest (see this Google Sheet with 400 rated songs for details). Weighted by population, the UK is a clear leader—three counties in England (London, East Sussex, and Oxfordshire), plus Scotland, beat all US states outside metro New York and L.A.—and London alone rates as more productive than any region of the US other than New York.

Of course English-speaking countries dominate the list, with Australia and Canada represented at least once in each year since 2012, when I began ranking at least 40 songs per year. Cut Copy (Melbourne), Death From Above (Toronto), and Arcade Fire (Montreal) carry those torches this year. At least one band from a primarily non-English speaking country has made the list each year over the same period, although they all sing in English: Sløtface (Norway), Phoenix (France), and Alice Merton (Germany) meet the criteria for 2017 (although Merton is half-Irish and has lived around the English-speaking world).

Compared to other years this decade, 2017 was among the best in quality, which makes sense when you consider that I’m rating songs based on my current tastes, which continue to evolve. However, my #1 song this year for the first time did not crack my top-10 for the decade. That’s not a negative in my book, since we are now in the decade’s eighth year, and there was more than enough strength at the top of this year’s list to last in my final decade list, coming two years from now.

Introduction

Here’s the quick version of the intro:

The ratings below use a hybrid rating of WAR and “points” which represent accumulation of high quality major-league seasons. It uses FanGraphs WAR for batters and a hybrid fWAR/RA9 WAR for pitchers (batting WAR included). Although I wouldn’t be strict about using such a system, it is a good smell test for identifying which players belong in the Hall. Craig Edwards introduced this approach at FanGraphs for his review of the 2016 ballot.

My own philosophy on the Hall of Fame is (a) big-Hall and (b) PED- and character-agnostic. In other words, I wouldn’t limit the Hall to inner-circle greats, and I think on-field factors should be the primary evaluation method for who deserves to be enshrined, regardless of what the official ballot says about character.

2017 Ballot Overview

There are usually a dozen or so newcomers to the ballot for whom inclusion on the ballot simply represents a career longevity award. This year is no different, and the following players should be pleased simply to be recognized on the ballot: Derrek Lee, Tim Wakefield, Edgar Renteria, Melvin Mora, Carlos Guillen, Casey Blake, Jason Varitek, Orlando Cabrera, Pat Burrell, Freddy Sanchez, Arthur Rhodes, Matt Stairs. The first couple guys on that list had better careers than I remember—go back and look at Lee’s 2005 season, for instance—but they are probably not anyone’s definition of a Hall-of-Famer.

These new guys may receive a few scattered votes, but I don’t find them particularly compelling candidates: Mike Cameron, J.D. Drew, Jorge Posada, Magglio Ordonez. Cameron was very good for a long time and deserves to be listed in that tier. Javier Vazquez would have belonged in this tier too, and he represents a pretty glaring omission from the ballot, given some of the other players who made it. The remaining debuts—Pudge Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Vlad Guerrero—should receive strong consideration, and I will consider them below. I’ll cover my 2017 ballot first and then get into some ephemera at the end: active players, future ballots, etc.

My 2017 Ballot

The table below this section shows all the players who are currently on the ballot, plus notable players (in the top 250 by HOF Rating) who will become eligible over the next five years. A number of other players will likely be on the ballot based on the Hall’s “Future Eligibles” list, but I’m only including the ones who will warrant some consideration.

For 2017, I ranked the entire ballot; for future years, I ranked just the players who would merit induction on my theoretical ballot. The ranking goes deeper than 10 every year, illustrating either the silliness of the ten-player limit, the quality and depth of the ballot, or both (you decide). I’m not projecting who will get in, or conversely, who will fail to reach the 5% threshold to stay on the ballot. Red highlights in the rankings indicate that the player will have exceeded 10 years on the ballot. It’s 15 years in the case of Lee Smith, the last remaining player for whom the old rule applies.

View the whole spreadsheet here (link).

Inner-Circle Greats

Barry Bonds (1) and Roger Clemens (2) are two of the greatest players of all-time, and as a person who came of age mostly in the 1990s watching them at the peaks of their respective careers, the Hall of Fame borders on farce without them.

Both carry the baggage of PEDs, which brings up at least two questions for reconciling that problem: (1) Is the usage of PEDs (or cheating in general) a disqualifying character trait, regardless of when it occurred (or whether it was prohibited by the league) and (2) if not, (a) what was the effect of the performance enhancement and (b) would they have been all-time greats without it?

The answers I have seen to these questions, at least from voters who do find their actions disqualifying, have been mostly unsatisfying to me. I don’t think we have the knowledge and sophistication to answer #2 in any kind of meaningful way. Some voters simply consider their careers before the first reported usage. Then I’m mostly against using character as a disqualifier. Every team, every year has bad apples from that standpoint, and we tend to overlook their personal traits and enjoy baseball anyway.

The bottom line for me is that Bonds and Clemens are clearly among the greatest players ever, and a Hall of Fame without them doesn’t adequately represent the era of my youth.

Other No-Doubters

Jeff Bagwell (3), Curt Schilling (4), and Mike Mussina (5) should clear any reasonable threshold for inclusion. PED speculation has followed Bagwell (and as far as we know, it never advanced beyond speculation), while Schilling and Mussina are under-appreciated due to the era in which they played.

Schilling also seems to be losing support because of his vocal alt-right political beliefs and the colossal failure of his video game company. Baseball-wise, Schilling’s career looks pretty similar to that of John Smoltz, who cleared the HOF voting bar rather easily by comparison. There’s probably only one topic on which Schilling and I would agree: he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Moose doesn’t have the postseason dominance of Schilling and Smoltz on his resume but is similarly qualified overall.

The other issue with starting pitchers, one which also applied to Kevin Brown’s unfortunate failed candidacy, is that voters seem to have unusually high standards for starters when compared to other positions. Here’s Craig Edwards again discussing the issue: link. There was a time when 300 wins was a HOF baseline. Setting aside the issue that pitcher wins tell us very little about pitcher quality, we are unlikely to see many more 300-game winners because modern starters don’t make as many starts or pitch as deep into those games as they did decades ago. The league has gradually begun to place more emphasis on pitcher fatigue and injury, and although we certainly don’t understand it well yet, our HOF standards should adjust so that we can still recognize the great pitchers of our time.

The Rest of My 2017 Ballot

Pudge Rodriguez (6) played in the era before catcher framing was measured, but if you believe his defensive value is understated by fWAR (I think it probably is), he’s a much stronger candidate than his HOF Rating would indicate, and he’s the sixth player on my ballot.

Tim Raines (7) is in his last year on the ballot, and early returns indicate an uptick in performance among new voters and returning voters alike. I’m optimistic that he will be inducted this year. Larry Walker (8) is actually quite similar from an overall production standpoint—even after you factor in having Coors Field as his home for half his career—Walker just did it in 80% of the games. It’s shocking to me that Walker isn’t considered a stronger candidate, with some voters considering him below relief pitchers and hitters who amassed more HR/RBI but did less of the other things that contribute to winning.

Edgar Martinez (9) was a phenomenal DH, a better version of David Ortiz before the latter became a superstar. DHs are not specialists in the same way as relief pitchers, which I am more reluctant to include, because hitting is exactly half of the whole game. He’s an all-time great and shouldn’t be penalized for not playing the field, at least not beyond what the value metrics suggest for positional replacement level. Gary Sheffield (10) was not as well liked and had PED attachments, but his Hall case is comparable. After the first few years of his career saw him shift around the diamond, late-career Sheffield also was a player who didn’t offer much defensively while swinging a big stick.

Would Include If I Could

On-base struggles kept Sammy Sosa (11) from true star-level production until the home run chase year of 1998, and after that point he declined defensively as he continued to put up truly elite power seasons. Power goes a long way, and he still (barely) makes my cut for the level of player I would induct. On a crowded ballot, though, he’s the first name after #10.

Manny Ramirez (12) was a special hitter but also was a truly bad defender. I’m not entirely sure whether playing at Fenway helped or hurt him in that regard, since he had less ground to cover but also had to deal with those caroms off the wall. He’s going to be dinged more than a typical PED offender, since he was busted after the testing program was implemented, and his Hall case is borderline enough that he seems an unlikely inductee. Manny would be the last player on my theoretical ballot this year.

Missed the Cut

Vladimir Guerrero is a Hall of Very Good player for me, a player who was more exciting than he was truly excellent, but he appears to have strong early support. Declining defense rendered him less than a star after age 30, and his last full season was at age 35, so he won’t be inducted for longevity either. He is younger than both Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey, two pitchers my preferred team will employ in 2017.

Fred McGriff‘s candidacy is also affected by my Braves fandom, and he deserves credit for having some excellent hitting seasons before offense spiked in the early-to-mid-1990s. By the time he reached the Braves in 1993, he was in the middle of his sixth consecutive 30-homer season. But alas, he played the easiest position in the field and never once topped 7 fWAR, so he lacked the sort of peak performance you typically see in stronger candidates.

Jeff Kent was an interesting offensive player for a second baseman, but he occupied the position more than he truly mastered it, and his hitting wasn’t quite good enough to make up the difference.

The cases of Billy Wagner, Trevor Hoffman, and Lee Smith are more nuanced than this, but their candidacies all fall short to me, based on their usage as (mostly) modern relievers. Smith had some higher-usage years, but he also wasn’t as good as Wagner or Hoffman. 70 innings per year, even excellent innings, is not a lot, and we know enough about the development of relief pitchers to understand that many closers end up in that role after being deemed deficient in some way as starters. Leverage isn’t enough to make up that ground. I am unimpressed by the accumulation of saves, which are often a function of manager whims and teammate quality as much as they are a reflection of talent. Nevertheless, Hoffman appears likely to get in, which will add to the Hall tally for former Chattanooga Lookouts.

Future Ballots

One reason it is important that the BBWAA elects at least a few players this year is because the 2018 class is so strong. Chipper Jones should have nearly unanimous support, but Scott Rolen, Andruw Jones, and Jim Thome also have compelling cases. Given enough spaces on the ballot, I would induct them all.

Roy Halladay joins the ballot in 2019 along with some more borderline guys: Lance Berkman, Todd Helton, and Andy Pettitte. The arguments for Mariano Rivera will be interesting—I expect he will have broad support—and he might be the one modern reliever worth inducting in my view. 2021 has a borderline candidate in Tim Hudson, and 2022 marks the first year of eligibility for both Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz.

If they are not inducted, we will lose Edgar Martinez and Fred McGriff from the ballot after 2019, then Bagwell and Walker after 2020, so the ballot is only getting more crowded over the next few years. 2020 has my deepest list, with 18 players, but that assumes no inductions between now and then. Of that group, I think Martinez and Bagwell will be inducted, perhaps even this year, and I hope Walker is inducted as well.

Active Players

No one’s inducting active players, but maybe we should go ahead and start readying the plaques for a few. Albert Pujols should be automatic, even if Angels fans never quite get the warm fuzzies at the mention of his name. Adrian Beltre is automatic for me, and he is still good enough to become that way over the next few years, for voters who are less likely to consider his strength on defense. Ichiro should be automatic as well, assuming we’re giving any weight to his Japanese career (I am).

I would induct Miguel Cabrera and Chase Utley if their careers were over today. Utley’s may well be, and he is another interesting case based on his early career defensive value. I feel similarly about Carlos Beltran—he should be in too. C.C. Sabathia is on the border for me, and with last year’s return to viability, perhaps he can string together a few more years and become more of a sure thing. Zack Greinke and Justin Verlander could last long enough as effective pitchers to make their cases compelling. Felix Hernandez was sitting at 90 mph with his fastball last year, but he’s also young enough and remains effective enough to figure out how to make it work. There are a few more names in that class of players who could easily have strong enough decline phases to warrant consideration: Longoria, Cano, Votto, etc.

Then we have today’s superstars, Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout. Disregarding the 10-year eligibility rule, I’ll argue that both should be in the Hall if their careers were tragically cut short today. Plenty of pitchers get hurt, so I might still take the under on 100 career WAR for Kershaw, but the fact that it merits discussion should show how phenomenal he has been. Trout needs to average only 5 WAR per year for 10 years to reach that mark by age 35, but he seems destined to blow past that into all-time great territory. “Only” is relative here—there are not many players who can get 5 WAR regularly—but Trout has played well above that level so far. If he remains healthy, even only as a shadow of early Mike Trout, he will be an easy choice for induction.

Josh Donaldson, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, and Alex Gordon cracked this top 250 list over the course of 2016, but I think we’re a few years away from discussing them seriously, if at all. Posey is going to be another case where his defensive/framing value probably outclasses his fWAR by a significant margin.

Again, January 18th is the day we find out who will make it in 2017. More candidates are deserving, but hopefully we will get at least four or five inductees.

Every year I write basically the same thing in this introduction.  My music tastes are mine alone, so this list is less of a proclamation about what was definitively the best music than it is simply a list of my favorites.  I’m not a real music critic, and you can find plenty of year-end lists that are more wide-ranging or that better fit your own personal style.

Nevertheless, I find it fun to chronicle my favorites for each year, and this is that list.  Hopefully you’ll find it interesting too. If you use Spotify as I do, I have created a playlist (link) that counts the songs down in reverse order.  You can also find my top-100 of the 2010s (link) on Spotify. Use those links if you have trouble seeing the embedded lists below.

Top 40 of 2016

Top 100 of the 2010s

Lastly, please listen through on your own before sharing with kids. Not all good music is kid-friendly.

40. The Naked And Famous “Higher”

Album: Simple Forms

TNAF regretfully is becoming further removed from the heights of their 2010 debut (“Young Blood” and “Punching In A Dream”), but “Higher” is still a credible facsimile. They have been overtaken by the likes of CHVRCHES in the electro-pop realm.

39. Fruit Bats “Humbug Mountain Song”

Album: Absolute Loser

This is a weird, folksy, confused song that is somehow also catchy. Fruit Bats had been a thing for a long time before I ever heard of them or this song, but I’ll listen a little closer in the future.

38. Digitalism “Shangri-La”

Album: Hills End

Digitalism works more in the area of electronic dance, which often doesn’t catch my interest, but my affinity for the FIFA video game series introduced me to this song, which plays out more like a straightforward synth-infused pop song. FIFA 17 has a killer soundtrack overall and is heavily represented on this list.

37. St. Lucia “Dancing On Glass”

Album: Matter

“How long until we learn dancing is dangerous?” is not a question you ever have to ask in the Church of Christ. We know all dancing is dangerous and is an immediate precursor to other illicit activities.* But I’ll forgive St. Lucia for asking, even if I personally cannot relate to dancing on any type of surface, much less glass.

[*Ed. Note: May not actually be true.]

36. Bastille “Send Them Off!”

Album: Wild World

“Send Them Off!” is a straight-up pop vocal performance that shines in the face of a somewhat underwhelming beat. The lyrics are typical Bastille, which makes them somewhat more interesting than you might otherwise expect out of a pop group. “Pompeii” it is not, but this is a solid song.

35. Mutemath “Changes”

Album: Changes

It’s not a normal album release year for Mutemath, and yet here they are. “Changes” is a one-off single included on their remix album of the same name, but it still stands out as one of the better tracks of the year. Unfortunately it is more of the same low-key electronic style that dropped Vitals down a notch from their previous work, at least in my view.

34. Glass Animals “Season 2 Episode 3”

Album: How To Be A Human Being

Maybe you have managed to procure one of the NES Classic systems this year, in which case you have been treated to a number of musical effects like the ones in this song. Beware becoming so lethargic that you are using “a cookie as a coaster.”

33. Paper Route “Chariots”

Album: Real Emotion

We are already up to three FIFA 17 songs on the list, but this band is also somewhat of a local connection. Paper Route hails from the Nashville area and is another group that has been around longer than I would have guessed. The vocals at the end of the song are the thing that keeps me coming back to “Chariots.”

32. Blind Pilot “Packed Powder”

Album: And Then Like Lions

The verses are great, showing the kinds of backward logic and rationalization that we all engage in from time to time. I mean, who doesn’t take a job as a tour guide hoping it will simply make them believe the things they’re saying? It’s interesting the paths we take to find self-confidence, love, a fulfilling career, all the things we want in life.

31. Local Natives “Past Lives”

Album: Sunlit Youth

I’m as guilty as anyone of spending my time trying to unravel how I got here, rather than simply being here. “Past Lives” explores that idea through an urgent vocal performance over an expansive beat.

30. Tall Heights “Horse To Water”

Album: Neptune

In a way, this song would have been a fitting opener to Neptune, Tall Heights’ major label debut, because there would be no doubt about the treat of harmonies in store for the listener. It’s difficult to entertain the idea that these guys were busking on the streets of Boston just a few years ago.

29. Lucius “Born Again Teen”

Album: Good Grief

I’m not convinced that the stereotypical “born again teen” mindset truly exists, but I get what they’re trying to capture. Lucius’ live performance of this song on Ellen was great, even if Wolfe and Laessig’s particular singing style—impassioned singing while facing each other at the same microphone—is a wee bit over-the-top. They still get bonus points in my book for being the singers on the recording of the San Fermin debut, which is one of my favorite albums of the decade so far.

28. Lanks “Golden Age”

Album: Viet Rose (EP)

I have no idea what makes “that sound” you hear on the recorded version of this song, but for better or worse, I suppose it’s part of the hook of the song. The bridge toward the end shows off Lanks’ range as a singer, and it’s outstanding.

27. Yeasayer “Silly Me”

Album: Amen & Goodbye

Thankfully this is a song to which I cannot relate, but it’s entertaining just how incredulous the lyricist is about the way his relationship is ending. Yeasayer is no stranger to unique instruments, arrangements, and sounds, and the live production of this song employs a fretless bass for our enjoyment.

26. Tall Heights “Infrared”

Album: Neptune

“Infrared” lacks the same sorts of harmonies that infuse Tall Heights’ other entries on this list. This track has more of a raw synth sound, and the lyrics take a turn toward the existential.

25. Broods “Free”

Album: Conscious

It’s a great song that doesn’t translate as well in the acoustic version that they always seem to perform in the various studio performances I have found. I like how the verses take the higher register while the chorus digs down into the lower reaches.

24. PLGRMS “Pieces”

Album: Pieces (Single)

The debut single from this Australian electro-pop duo actually came out in 2015, but since they have yet to release even an EP, I’ll go ahead and include it here. Vocalist Jacob Pearson lets it fly as the song gets to a crescendo at the end.

23. Two Door Cinema Club “Bad Decisions”

Album: Gameshow

While Two Door Cinema Club’s earlier singles were more fast-paced and guitar-driven, the bass drives “Bad Decisions” through the super falsetto verses into a big late guitar solo. Is it too cliché in 2016 to be pointing out how much we love instant information gratification? Maybe so, but I still like the song.

22. School of Seven Bells “Open Your Eyes”

Album: SVIIB

“Open Your Eyes” is the heartbreaking lead single off the album Alejandra Deheza completed and released in early 2016, after her bandmate Benjamin Curtis died two years prior, following an 11-month battle with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. Given the lyrics, it is chilling to consider that it was actually written in 2012, before Curtis’ death. Would that we all received such a fitting tribute.

21. Regina Spektor “Grand Hotel”

Album: Remember Us To Life

“Grand Hotel” is a playful and eccentric song about literal hotel guests from the afterlife. It’s a send-up of the film-making idiosyncrasies of Wes Anderson, specifically The Grand Budapest Hotel.

20. Lucius “Madness”

Album: Good Grief

Who doesn’t dream about reacting to being held at gunpoint? Maybe in 2017 Regina Spektor can write about an eccentric band instead of a director, and this song can be the jumping-off point for her riff on Lucius. For now we’ll settle for Lucius’ own version, which is quite good.

19. Phantogram “You’re Mine”

Album: Three

Here’s an example of “I saw them live a few weeks ago and can’t help but bump them up a few spots.” Don’t twist yourself up over the confounding double negatives. Just enjoy some of the dark, aggressive synth-pop-rock goodness that Phantogram continues to release every couple of years.

18. Jack Garratt “Worry”

Album: Phase

If one were to make a list of “impassioned performances of 2016,” would Jack Garratt take all of the top spots, or just most of them? Check him out on YouTube sometime to get a flavor of this one-man band. Here we have a song about not quite being over someone who is over you.

17. D.D Dumbo “Walrus”

Album: Utopia Defeated

D.D Dumbo is another one-man band, although his style is more experimental. “Walrus” is a gorgeous yet simple song, as he demonstrates by looping and stacking the parts on top of one another, in an NPR field recording from 2014.

16. Glass Animals “Pork Soda”

Album: How To Be A Human Being

This one is much better in a live recording than on the album, but either way, I doubt it is possible to listen to this song and get that nonsensical “pineapples are in my head” little earworm out of your head.

15. Phantogram “Same Old Blues”

Album: Three

There is a lot of synth-y electronic bass stuff on my lists these days, but Phantogram still has a unique sound to me within that genre. To you it may be the “Same Old Blues.” Forgive me for that, and just enjoy the drop where the guitar comes in.

14. Sløtface “Empire Records”

Album: Empire Records (EP)

Yes, the band has toned down their name from something that no one wants to say on the radio or type into a search engine. Setting that aside for a moment, “Empire Records” is a great little 90’s nostalgia song with a fun punk-ish sound and a nice bass part. This is a very promising group in general—I have just recently added “Sponge State” to my regular playlist but haven’t given that one enough time to sink in for a year-end list.

13. Wild Beasts “Tough Guy”

Album: Boy King

We’ve all come across the “Tough Guy” in some form, and man does that guy stink. This song has kind of a dirty feel that I assume is intentional, but it’s also catchy, with that odd style of percussion that (fellow Brits) Alt-J seem to have perfected.

12. Phantogram “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore”

Album: Three

Here’s a nice, positive uplifting song to get you through this not-so-kid-friendly portion of the list. Wait, nope, I found another one likening drugs to a relationship going off the rails. Phantogram now has a long list of songs I like, but this might be my favorite.

11. Jack Garratt “Surprise Yourself”

Album: Phase

The chorus is basically all ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ but it is still a fine song—another one from FIFA 17 and an instance where the soundtrack seems to agree with me that this (and not lead single “Worry”) is the standout song from Garratt’s debut album Phase.

10. Regina Spektor “Bleeding Heart”

Album: Remember Us To Life

Regina Spektor is possibly my favorite lyricist on the planet. Her writing has just the right amount of charm and off-beat creativity, and her melodies and vocals bring the lyrics to life in a way few other writers can match. “Bleeding Heart” is addressed in the second person to someone who has struggled to adapt to life, and it’s beautiful.

9. School of Seven Bells “Ablaze”

Album: SVIIB

While it’s maybe not the song on SVIIB that will tug most at your heartstrings, the lyrics are clearly still heartfelt, and the pumping beat and chorus of “Ablaze” makes it the standout for me on School of Seven Bells’ final album.

8. Glass Animals “Youth”

Album: How To Be A Human Being

There’s a deep sense of regret to this song that is relatable to me as a parent who has already watched five years elapse for my boys, in what seems like no time at all. Glass Animals have a way of making slow-to-mid-tempo songs musically interesting, with “Youth” standing out as a prime example.

7. Japandroids “Near To The Wild Heart Of Life”

Album: Near To The Wild Heart Of Life (due 2017)

Japandroids feel like one of those love-them-or-hate-them bands—noisy and not-so-melodic—but man can their songs pack a punch. “The House That Heaven Built” was a huge miss on my 2012 year-end list and has since climbed into my top 10 for the decade. “Near To The Wild Heart Of Life” is maybe not quite on that level, but it is still very much in that same vein of energetic and emotional hard rock.

6. Everything Everything “Distant Past”

Album: Get To Heaven

Maybe it’s cheating to include a song that was released on BBC Radio in February 2015 and was on last year’s FIFA 16 soundtrack, but since it’s my list, I’ll bend the rules. Get To Heaven was released stateside in 2016, for what it’s worth (maybe not much, in this digital age). “Distant Past” is like its album cover—very colorful, a little violent—and Jonathan Higgs’ frenetic vocals take us back to a time when things were, well, maybe not all that different than they are now.

5. Colony House “You & I”

Album: Only The Lonely (due 2017)

Colony House are the closest band on this list by proximity to my hometown. They are from Franklin, TN and are legitimately good, not just good locally. “Silhouettes” from their debut album was my #15 song of 2014, and “You & I” takes a step beyond that song. It’s sing-along worthy mainstream rock, and hopefully they will continue to expand their following with a new album due out in January.

4. White Denim “Holda You (I’m Psycho)”

Album: Stiff

“Holda You” is super unsettling from a lyrical standpoint, especially when the music is so upbeat and catchy. But that’s White Denim in a nutshell. The band went through some turnover since the last album, retaining only their colorful lead singer James Petralli and very good bass player Steve Terebecki, but the band’s sound remains. As the song’s antihero reaches his breaking point, newcomer Jonathan Horne’s guitar similarly takes off toward a wild finish.

3. Tall Heights “Spirit Cold”

Album: Neptune

I’m not sure how to explain that this song really soars toward the end, at least not without making a reference to this duo’s name. “Spirit Cold” is about being aware of what’s around us, good and bad, being informed and moved by it. The lyrics are genuinely interesting, but I think it’s cool if you just want to enjoy the harmonies, which are top notch.

2. Animal Collective “FloriDada”

Album: Painting With

I’m slowly coming around to Animal Collective’s critically-lauded catalog, and I have to admit that “FloriDada” is the first song of theirs that has struck me as both “creative” and “something I might want to hear again.” Evaluating the weirdness of Florida through the perspective of Dadaism seems strangely appropriate. I never would have thought of it that way myself, but there is indeed a weirdness worth celebrating about America’s vacation spot. The “Florida Man” punchline is one example of how it offends our sensibilities in a way that is not so different from Marcel Duchamp’s infamous “fountain.” There’s more to Florida than Florida Man, for sure.

1. Glass Animals “Life Itself”

Album: How To Be A Human Being

If you have seen my top 100 of the decade, you’ll notice that my favorite songs are also some of the strangest songs that make my lists. Sometimes a song is just “out there” and doesn’t really enlighten or entertain in any way, and Glass Animals can really toe that line sometimes. “Season 2 Episode 3” is one example that maybe leans more to the weird side. “Life Itself,” though, is engaging from the start, equally relatable lyrically and catchy musically. It’s tough not to bob your head to that unique beat, and the earworm factor is what eventually caused this one to win out over several worthy candidates for the top song of 2016.

There are other shows I have liked a lot, which probably were more consistent start to finish: Breaking Bad, The West Wing, and Friday Night Lights immediately come to mind. Those shows had their own outstanding episodes: “Ozymandias” from Bad season 5, and many more. Parks and Recreation was consistently terrific, starting in the second season. Maybe Brooklyn Nine-Nine will get there too. Mike Schur has been on fire for about 11 years now, carving out his niche as a master of heartfelt comedies and occasional baseball commentary, but it was Michael Scott himself, Steve Carell, who wrote this particular Office episode.

To jog your memory, here is what went down on Casino Night:

Toby tells Michael all the reasons it would be inappropriate to invite actual Boy Scouts to receive the charity money they are raising. Dangerous warehouse, school night, etc. Michael in his irrational hatred tells Toby, “I hate so much about the things that you choose to be,” loses to him in poker, and Toby tells the cameras he’s going to “chase that feeling.”

Michael tries to delicately handle his unplanned double date situation with Jan and Carol, neither of whom seem all that concerned with the other, even though we learn that Jan brought an overnight bag. Michael utters this line after realizing he has “two queens” for Casino Night: “I’m going to drop a deuce on everybody.” Indeed.

Dwight wears the tuxedo from his grandfather’s burial (“so, family heirloom”) and progresses his weird relationship with Angela by kissing her after a lucky roll at the craps table. She slaps him but smirks at the camera as she walks away. Dwight rationalizes helping Michael cover with Jan and Carol with this wonderful line: “Michael said, ‘We must deceive them, so as not to hurt them. And in that way, we honor them.'”

Michael explains his understanding of which types of jokes are and are not appropriate. “AIDS is not funny…believe me, I have tried…the Lincoln assassination just recently became funny.”

We are introduced to Kevin’s Police cover band “Scrantonicity” and learn he is great at poker. Kevin eventually loses to Phyllis on a hand where someone else had to tell her she had a flush, and after she had previously called clubs “clovers.”

Creed steals a lot of things and wins the grand prize, a refrigerator from Bob Vance (Vance Refrigeration), which he reveals is the first refrigerator he has ever owned. “I stopped caring a long time ago.”

Then of course, there is the main event, the brilliant and gut-wrenching roller coaster ride of Jim and Pam, which had been building for the entire series to-date. In this episode:

• They have a great time pranking Dwight over Jim’s supposed mind control abilities.
• They review wedding bands together because Roy wouldn’t (Jim knows what Pam’s mom would want!).
• Jim jokes about the bands reminding him he doesn’t have dreams, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
• Jim talks to Jan about his impending transfer (which seems entirely the result of Pam’s continued engagement) and tells the cameras: “I have no future here.”
• Pam talks about how well she gets along with unspecified “people” at the office, later admitting to her mom that Jim is her best friend at work.
• Roy is none the wiser about Jim’s intentions, telling him to look after Pam as he is leaving.
• Jim drops his bomb outside the office building. No more beating around the bush—he flat out tells Pam he’s in love with her: “I just needed you to know. Once.”
• Pam unconvincingly shuts Jim down, claiming he misunderstood their friendship, despite all her body language suggesting she is crushed. “I…can’t?”
• This scene immediately cuts back to Michael inside talking (bragging) about his own “love-triangle drama”—if only he knew what just happened outside.
• Back inside the office, for the final scene, Pam is talking to her mom on the phone in the dark. The series ended without giving us any indication what Pam’s mom told her to prompt this response: “Yeah, I think I am.” Am what?!?!? In love with Jim too? Going to marry Roy anyway? WHAT?!?!?
• Jim follows Pam back into the building, kisses her, and Pam reciprocates after a brief hesitation. Cut to black.

Thanks to this episode, anticipation of season three of The Office was probably the activity that consumed me third-most during Summer 2006, but only because that was also the year I got married and found a job. Which reminds me, I have an anniversary coming up…

Most everyone who writes about baseball writes a Hall of Fame post around this time of year, evaluating the ballot and explaining their own. I will do some of that, but mainly I want to use this post to point out a couple resources that have increased my interest following news about the Hall, then modify them for my own use.

If you don’t follow baseball news, you’re probably not reading this post. Another Baseball Hall of Fame class has been elected, and Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza will be enshrined this summer for their fantastic careers. I’m happy for both.

Cool Hall of Fame Stuff

If you know much about me, you know I am fascinated by any reasonable analytical approach to baseball. As with every aspect of baseball, there are people using an analytical approach to Hall of Fame voting.

• Jay Jaffe and his JAWS system have been around for a while. Here is his 2016 ballot write-up. Basically JAWS takes the Baseball-Reference version of WAR and averages career WAR with the player’s 7-year peak. Not bad.
• Craig Edwards of FanGraphs has posted a two-part series (Part 1, Part 2) this year with an fWAR-based point system that doesn’t try to define a set peak period, but rather assigns points for each season based on the degree of the player’s performance above average (2 WAR).
• Ryan Thibodaux meticulously keeps track of the public ballots and tweets updates @NotMrTibbs.

I think Craig’s approach strikes the best balance I have seen between peak and longevity, the two aspects of a player’s career which often define his Hall of Fame candidacy, so I’m using it as the basis for my own system.

My Approach

This section gets a little technical.

I took Craig’s approach and made a few tweaks of my own. As I mentioned, Craig uses FanGraphs WAR, which I like for hitters but not for pitchers, for the purpose of looking retroactively at a player’s career.

FanGraphs uses FIP instead of ERA as the basis of its pitcher WAR, which makes it more skill-based and more predictive than if they used ERA. However, I’m confident enough in pitchers having the ability to influence contact that I prefer using the hybrid (50/50) FIP and RA9-WAR (which FanGraphs also publishes) to a strictly FIP-based WAR. I prefer 50/50 to the straight-up RA9-WAR because I also believe defense matters. It’s not a perfect approach, but it will work for evaluating an entire career.

I am also including pitcher hitting in my numbers, which is not something typically evaluated for pitchers. But those hits happened, and in more than a few cases, hitting value bumps a pitcher’s overall season WAR into a different tier.

The Rankings

I used this system to rank the top 250 players whose career started after 1970. This catches most everyone who has played or been elected to the Hall of Fame since I started seriously following baseball in the 1990s. On the list below, you will see the player’s career WAR and HOF Points, using Craig’s system with my own WAR tweaks. As Jay and Craig have both done, I averaged the two to come up with a HOF Rating.

There are two additional categories of information I am providing in addition to the point totals and ratings:

1. IN: Hall of Fame induction year, for players already enshrined.
2. OUT: Whether the player is still active, recently retired (with eligibility year), or currently on the HOF ballot. For players already off the HOF ballot, this is the last year they were included on the ballot. Years highlighted in red indicate that the player was not on the ballot at all, or is not projected to be on the ballot by this list from the Hall of Fame.

I also expanded the list beyond 250 in a handful of cases to include everyone who was on the 2016 ballot or who is projected to be on the next several ballots.

The Top 250 players since 1970

Hall of Fame Philosophy

This is the part where I give you my personal philosophy for who should be in or out of the Hall of Fame. I won’t rehash these arguments in detail but will at least let you know where I stand.

First, I’m a big-Hall guy, meaning that I think the Hall of Fame should be open to more than just the inner-circle baseball greats. I think it is not unreasonable to suggest that as many as three or four players out of every new class of retirees belongs in the Hall. This is not a revolutionary idea, but it is contrary to the way a lot of current voters still treat the Hall.

Second, I’m PED- and character-agnostic. I don’t think voting for Bonds, Clemens, McGwire and others has to be a vote for their character (and yes, I’m aware that the official HOF voting criteria includes a character clause). These are among the best baseball players of all time, and they are the players I care to see someday when I hopefully pay the Hall a visit. I am also dubious of anyone’s ability to clearly determine who is “clean” or “dirty” with regard to PEDs—at least among players who have not admitted use—and I choose not to make those judgments myself. There are likely PED users already enshrined in the Hall. There are definitely terrible human beings in the Hall, just like there are probably terrible human beings playing for the team you root for. I simply don’t care to make the Hall a moral issue.

Third, on the topic of “specialists” like closers and DHs, I am more likely to vote for the latter than the former. Modern closers simply do not pitch enough innings to have an all-time great impact on the game, even when you consider the leverage in which they are used. It would take someone truly transcendent in that category to get my attention, someone like Mariano Rivera. Hitting, on the other hand, is still a huge part of the game, and players like Edgar Martinez I think deserve serious consideration.

Overall, when you look at the HOF Ratings of the top 250 players, I think it should take a rating of around 45 to warrant serious consideration for the Hall, and probably in the 50–55 range for me to actually vote you in. That’s roughly 50 players from the group that has retired within the last 20 or so years.

My Hypothetical Ballot(s)

On the list below, I have included everyone who is currently on the Hall ballot as of 2016 or who will be eligible through the Class of 2021 (players who retired after the 2015 season). Griffey and Piazza are not on the list because they are in, but I have them #3 and #5 in 2016, respectively.

My ballot assumes no one is elected and does two things:

1. Ranks all the players on the ballot in each year.
2. Notes which of the players would actually receive my vote (which may be more than the 10 the Hall allows on a ballot). Those players are highlighted yellow.

You will notice red highlights for years after the player’s tenth year on the ballot. I am not projecting who will or won’t fall below the other threshold for being removed from the ballot (polling under 5%).

More Fun Stuff

Active Players

For one exercise, I thought I would filter the list of 250 for only the currently-active players and make a few additional observations.

• A-Rod has had plenty of detractors throughout his career, first for the massive contract he signed with the Rangers, and later for the PED use, but he is an inner-circle baseball great.
• Albert Pujols would be an automatic Hall of Famer if he retired today.
• Chase Utley will deserve very strong consideration. I would vote for him, but I suspect it may take the voters a while to recognize his accomplishments.
• I’m probably also inducting Beltre, Cabrera, Beltran, and Ichiro if they retire tomorrow. Sabathia and David Wright are the borderline guys to me.
• Clayton Kershaw, at least by my own criteria, is already very close to completing his Hall of Fame case.
• Mike Trout is one more Trout-like season away from being a borderline candidate at the age of 25.
• Injuries stink. Johan Santana and Cliff Lee are so close but probably won’t make it.

Oops!

Next, let’s consider players from this era who probably shouldn’t have been inducted. The list below is filtered for players who are in with a rating under 50.

I would keep Eck in, but the other three are errors even from a big-Hall standpoint. Jim Rice is the only really bad induction choice by the BBWAA since 2001.

Should Have Been In

For this last exercise, I’m filtering the list for players with a rating above 50 whose time on the Hall ballot has already expired.

It’s not a terribly long list, but there are some very good candidates who were overlooked. Brown had the best case of the group, but I think you can make a strong argument for any of these players.

That’s all I have, but hopefully you found this to be a fun exercise. If not, how did you make it all the way to the end?

I write basically the same thing in this introduction every year.  My music tastes are mine alone, so this list is less of a proclamation about what was definitively the best music than it is simply a list of my favorites.  I’m not a real music critic, and you can find plenty of year-end lists that are more wide-ranging or that better fit your own personal style.

Nevertheless, I find it fun to chronicle my favorites for each year, and this is that list.  Hopefully you’ll find it interesting too.

This year I’m not bothering to rank albums as I have in the past.  I find that as my leisure time is spent more and more on my kids, staying in shape and on “leisure work” for church and other side pursuits, I don’t really listen to many albums in full anymore, and this exercise should reflect that.

I’m not going to include links to music videos anymore either.  You can find these songs on YouTube, Spotify, or your streaming service of choice.  If you use Spotify as I do, I have created a playlist (below) that counts the songs down in reverse order.  You can also find my top-100 of the 2010s on Spotify (link), which I plan to keep reasonably up-to-date.

Now then, let’s go through the list, starting with the songs that barely missed the cut (in alphabetical order by artist).

Just Missed

Borns “Fool”
JR JR “In The Middle”
Mumford & Sons “Believe”
Purity Ring “Begin Again”
St. Lucia “Dancing On Glass”
Twenty One Pilots “Stressed Out”

40. Muse “Dead Inside”

Album: Drones

Muse is not scaling the same heights they were in 2006 with Black Holes and Revelations. Both The Resistance (2009) and The 2nd Law (2012) were a step down from their best, and Drones is yet another notch further downhill from those albums. “Dead Inside” finishes a bit too much like their last album’s lead single “Madness,” and it lacks the punch of that track, which is still among my favorites of this decade. But it’s still bombastic in its own way and thus very clearly and likably Muse.

39. Romans “The Agony and The Ecstasy”

Single only

English Pop/rock/soul singer Romans broke out on his own this year after starting out as a featured player in rap/R&B.  You mostly won’t find those genres on my lists because I don’t enjoy them the same way I do rock/pop/electronic music.  This song has a guitar part, but it’s really all about the voice, which was enough to just sneak into my top-40.

38. Finish Ticket “Color”

Album: When Night Becomes Day

The lead single off of this San Francisco–based group’s album is about as mainstream a rock single as possible.  Brendan Hoye’s vocals are strongly reminiscent of Sameer Gadhia of Young The Giant, another California band, and Finish Ticket opened on Twenty One Pilots’ 2015 tour, which might give you a sense of the direction they want to go.

37. Nothing But Thieves “Wake Up Call”

Album: Nothing But Thieves

Nothing But Thieves has the feel of Muse without the crazy guitars (which I like about Muse) or paranoid lyrics (which I could take or leave). So it’s a rangy vocalist (Conor Mason) fronting a backing band which may also have some playing talent that has not yet fully formed. With that caveat, I still plan to download their debut album when it is available stateside (it already debuted overseas). “Wake Up Call” is the lead single, although if you play sports games, you may be more familiar with “Ban All The Music” from Madden or “Trip Switch” from FIFA this year.

36. CHVRCHES “Clearest Blue”

Album: Every Open Eye

In a way, this is the title track to CHVRCHES’ excellent second album, in the sense that it contains the “every open eye” lyric.  It’s the third single off the album, and for me, the third-best song.  No one really does electro-pop at their level, and this pulsating, layered song is a prime example of their talent.

35. Florence + The Machine “Ship To Wreck”

Album: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

It has all been downhill for me since Florence Welch debuted her band in 2009 with Lungs, but since that is still one of my favorite albums of the last 10 years, she has had a long way to fall.  “Ship To Wreck” has a little more of a fast-driving beat than lead single “What Kind Of Man” and is a slight favorite to me, but both are solid songs. Her voice is still fantastic.

34. Mutemath “Monument”

Album: Vitals

Placing only two songs on my year-end list might qualify as a letdown for Mutemath, which has occupied a spot at the front of my virtual music catalog for the better part of six years now, after the release of Armistice of 2009 got me interested in the band and introduced me to their self-titled 2006 debut. The entire Vitals album dials down the frenetic drums from the ridiculous heights of Odd Soul, and since Darren King has always been my favorite part of the band, Vitals just doesn’t hold up to the rest of their albums for me. “Monument” is the lead single and (as with every song they do) is different live—it comes off a bit muted on the record.

33. Passion Pit “Lifted Up (1985)”

Album: Kindred

I guess we can indulge Passion Pit in wanting the main title to be something other than just “1985,” but the part of the chorus discussing the relative quality of said year is the earworm for me. Passion Pit is indeed an earworm factory of a pop band, but with actual interesting lyrics compared to most of the chart-toppers. (I’m looking at you, “Hello.” Adele has an incomparable voice, but in what alternate version of 2015 is it believable that a 27-year-old person uses a land line? It ruins the whole song for me.)

32. Frank Turner “Get Better”

Album: Positive Songs For Negative People

There’s nothing special about the backing band, but the hook+lyrics+delivery combo make Frank Turner pretty compelling to me, at least on this song.  I was not as big a fan of 2013’s “Recovery,” even though this song is pretty much cut from the same cloth, a little bit more direct and violent than your average rocker.

31. Metric “The Shade”

Album: Pagans In Vegas

Apparently 2009 is the theme of this portion of the list. As with Mutemath and Florence + The Machine, 2009 was also the year I was introduced to Metric, through their album Fantasies. I still prefer songs on that album like “Help, I’m Alive” out of their overall body of work, but “The Shade” is the most interesting song they have released since then.

30. St. Vincent “Teenage Talk”

Single only

I will admit not really “getting” critical darling St. Vincent completely, but “Teenage Talk” is a very accessible song that shows off both her range and lyrical talent. This song was a one-off release in 2015 following her acclaimed self-titled album in 2014. I don’t watch the show but understand it was featured on Girls this year.

29. Twenty One Pilots “Tear In My Heart”

Album: Blurryface

Twenty One Pilots are hit or miss for me. I’m not a huge fan of the verse-chorus-entirely-different-song progression they frequently employ, including in this song. Other groups like “fun.” use this style, and it often throws me out of the song instead of adding an interesting wrinkle to it, a problem of being too clever by half. But this one is pretty inventive and interesting in spite of that technique.

28. Ash “Let’s Ride”

Album: Kablammo!

The best guitar solo on my list usually rates a song higher than #28, but those couple of seconds far outshine the rest of the song, which a catchy tune but nothing truly special from this veteran Northern Irish trio.

27. San Fermin “Parasites”

Album: Jackrabbit

This is the first of four entries from San Fermin, who also happen to be the only band on the list that I managed to see live this year (at Miller Park in Chattanooga). Their sophomore album Jackrabbit was less structured but just as good as their debut. As a baritone sax player in my band days, it is hard to stay objective about this song in particular, which features my former instrument of choice.

26. Muse “Mercy”

Album: Drones

The thing I loved about “old” Muse was their ability to combine (a) hard rock guitars and bass with (b) soaring, powerful vocals and melodies (c) in an accessible way. Lately they have done more (c) at the expense of some of their other talents, and “Mercy” is probably as close as the Drones album gets to combining all three elements.

25. Atlas Genius “Stockholm”

Album: Inanimate Objects

The Atlas Genius blend of rock/electronic alternative is right in my wheelhouse from a genre standpoint. Their high points aren’t generally up with the very best of that genre, but the Jeffery brothers are pretty solid all-around. Looking back, I’m not sure Inanimate Objects is as strong as their 2013 debut When It Was Now, but “Stockholm” is probably my favorite track on either album, with a unique melody in its chorus.

24. Superhumanoids “Norwegian Black Metal”

Album: Do You Feel OK?

The lead single from Do You Feel OK?—”Anxious In Venice”—is an interesting song in its own right, but the winner from this album is “Norwegian Black Metal.” As a synth-pop song written in English (the band is from Los Angeles), it is curiously void of any of those titular elements, but it is a good song nonetheless.  Presumably the title is some kind of reference to the cult-like early 90s scene that birthed the modern black metal genre (as well as some gruesome violence), although I can’t say I get it completely.

23. Telegraph Canyon “Why Let It Go”

Album: You From Before

Horns and a funky bass line rule the day over the subdued, brooding vocals of “Why Let It Go” from Fort Worth folk-rockers Telegraph Canyon.  Put together, it’s an interesting song with a couple of different hooks throughout the verses and chorus. If you search for it, make sure you include the “why,” lest you get stuck in a mind-numbing YouTube hole of Disney covers.

22. San Fermin “Emily”

Album: Jackrabbit

Singer Allen Tate provides the groove for this one, an R&B-sounding song which represents the genre-bending nature of San Fermin’s music. My boys were always asking to hear this one, just to listen for the horns.

21. Modest Mouse “Lampshades On Fire”

Album: Strangers To Ourselves

From the moment of Isaac Brock’s first vocals, “Lampshades On Fire” is unmistakably Modest Mouse. Eccentric as ever, and catchy as anything they’ve written, save perhaps “Float On.”

20. Broken Bells “It’s That Talk Again”

Single only

Whether it’s with The Shins or Broken Bells, James Mercer cuts to the heart with his lyrics, and “It’s That Talk Again” is another perfect example.

19. Kid Astray “Cornerstone”

Album: Home Before The Dark

Look up a live version of this song, and you’ll have trouble finding the people in the video amidst all the keyboards. Even if it’s a bit overkill, I like the sound of this Norwegian synth band, and “Cornerstone” is the first of their two entries on this year’s list.

18. Foals “Mountain At My Gates”

Album: What Went Down

The title track of What Went Down is a little too much for me, but “Mountain At My Gates” is just a catchy rock song that would have fit well with “Inhaler” or “My Number” on 2013’s Holy Fire.

17. Passion Pit “Until We Can’t (Let’s Go)”

Album: Kindred

There are few stronger pop writers than Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit.  “Until We Can’t” is a beautiful upbeat song about two people trying to make a failing relationship work. Lines like “Where you live can cause you suffering, guess that’s something else that’s wrong with our room” make this more than just a catchy tune.

16. Northern Faces “Wait, Wait, Wait”

Album: Northern Faces

One of my boys’ favorite songs of the year, “Wait, Wait, Wait” certainly is a clapping pop-rock tune. The bass and guitar function like additional voices in the song, more than just a rhythm section.

15. Purity Ring “Push Pull”

Album: Another Eternity

Megan James’ vocals make this pop song soar over the unique triplet electronic beat, generating the sound of flying after the verse’s “climb up in the air” line trails off. I would like to see Purity Ring diversify themselves a bit from the overtly adult themes of this and other songs on Another Eternity, but it’s a cool song.

14. Civil Twilight “Holy Dove”

Album: Story of an Immigrant

I saw these guys open for Mutemath in 2012, and they were impressive enough, even if they are not in the same league as live bands. “Holy Dove” is a nice step in Civil Twilight’s forward progression, although 2010’s “Letters From The Sky” is still their most memorable song.

13. Boxed In “Mystery”

Album: Boxed In

Good luck getting the opening line of the chorus out of your head, “Check a little later, and I will go…” The off-beat piano keeps it moving, and the breakdown is pretty cool too.

12. Beck “Dreams”

Single only

“Dreams” is easily Beck’s catchiest song since the days of “Loser” over 20 years ago, probably even better, and certainly an improvement over the songs on 2014’s Morning Phase, which never really caught me.

11. Rationale “Fuel to the Fire”

Album: Fuel to the Fire (EP)

If there is one song I might regret ranking so low this year, it’s probably “Fuel to the Fire,” a passionate cry from the debut EP of London singer Rationale. Such a unique voice.

10. CHVRCHES “Leave A Trace”

Album: Every Open Eye

With typically beautiful vocals from Lauren Mayberry, “Leave A Trace” is an excellent lead single showing a bit of evolution from their last album’s sound but the same piercing lyrical style. “Take care to leave a trace of a man”…ouch.

9. Django Django “Shake & Tremble”

Album: Born Under Saturn

Django Django might have the most distinctive sound right now that isn’t predicated entirely on the singer’s voice. Indeed, Vincent Neff blends perfectly into the harmony, and the bass and piano drive along this excellent lead single from Born Under Saturn.

8. Nothing But Thieves “Trip Switch”

Album: Nothing But Thieves

Conor Mason somehow manages to carry Nothing But Thieves despite steadfastly refusing to enunciate. There’s not really a comparable voice in mainstream rock, and with hooks like this, Nothing But Thieves should be able to thrive for quite a while.

7. Kid Astray “Diver”

Album: Home Before The Dark

Synth hooks and a nicely moving bass line back up a strong upbeat lyric and easy sing-along pop chorus. The bridge is the kicker for me, though.

6. Courtney Barnett “Pedestrian At Best”

Album: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

Undoubtedly the most creative lyricist on the list, Courtney Barnett zings back and forth between uncertainty and self-deprecation (“I’ve tried my very best, I guess”), disgust (“I think you’re a joke”), and even a little cultural commentary (“Daylight Savings won’t fix this mess”). It can be hard to keep up with her at first, but this song rewards your persistence.

5. Django Django “Pause Repeat”

Album: Born Under Saturn

My son Matt has recently started requesting this one by name, so I’ll probably be playing “the Pause Repeat song” on, well, repeat. Piano, drums, harmony, everything just comes together wonderfully here.

4. San Fermin “Jackrabbit”

Album: Jackrabbit

As I was saying before, Jackrabbit is less of a concept album than San Fermin’s eponymous debut, the album with an almost unbelievable Canadian Rockies origin story. Ellis Ludwig-Leone proved he wasn’t a one-hit songwriting wonder with terrific tracks like this one all over their 2015 follow-up. “Jackrabbit” shows as much pop sensibility as anything in their arsenal, yet it makes terrific use of the entire eight-piece ensemble.

3. CHVRCHES “Never Ending Circles”

Album: Every Open Eye

The first song (second single) from Every Open Eye has punishing synths and another inventive and infecting chorus. Right from the start, Mayberry and company cast aside the expectations with a not-so-subtle reference to their debut album, and her confidence is striking throughout. I’m not sure they will ever write another “The Mother We Share,” but this song would be a crowning achievement for many other bands.

2. Mutemath “Used To”

Album: Vitals

I can appreciate that Mutemath want to focus on songwriting over technical prowess every now and then, but not every song on Vitals is as strong as “Used To” without the crazy drums. It’s a simple lyric and message well-delivered by Paul Meany, and there are a few nice Darren King touches throughout the song. It all builds to a soaring final chorus at the *clap clap* end.

1. San Fermin “No Devil”

Album: Jackrabbit (Deluxe Edition)

A late addition to the deluxe edition of Jackrabbit, it’s the strongest song on the record for me. Allen Tate sings in my range, so I love the songs where he is the featured vocalist, but the whole band really comes together for a powerful, introspective, genre-defying song, the best of 2015.