Max's Top 3 Songs of 2015

This was a really good year in music, as you may have heard. I got 28 new albums that came out this year and 14 others that didn't. Altogether that's 42 albums, and approximating each at about 45 minutes long... well, that's quite a bit of music. And when I say "I got" I mean I bought or downloaded and own in my iTunes library. But if you think that's a lot, last year I got 34 and 21 new and old ones, respectively. That's 55 albums! What was I doing this year? Anyway, usually when I get a new album, I attempt to listen to it seven times before making a concrete decision as to how I feel about it. Obviously, I tend to develop certain feelings before the seventh listens and - sometimes - some albums don't make it to that many listens because they just ain't good enough. Rest assured, the songs below all made it to their seventh listens and more.

This year some of my all-time favorite groups came out with albums to varying degrees of success. Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie's efforts left me less than impressed, especially considering it had been eight and four years, respectively, since we had heard from them. Built to Spill and Sufjan Stevens wowed me, six and five years, respectively, since their last releases. Beirut dropped a 9-song, 29-and-a-half minute album after four years of waiting, dumbing down their formula and thinking we wouldn't notice. Wilco even came out with a free surprise album named Star Wars just months before the Star Wars movie came out! It was, unfortunately, not very memorable.

2015 was the year I listened to my first My Morning Jacket album. 2015 was the year I bought a Vanessa Carlton album. That's right, I said it: Vanessa Carlton. 2015 was the year the only band I still genuinely like from my adolescent years, Third Eye Blind, returned to the fold after six years of quiet - and they still sound great! 2015 was the year Ghostface Killah teamed up with Canadian jazz outfit BadBadNotGood and released a quiet, confident record that you don't even remember because it was released back in February. Ultimately, 2015: The Year in Music will probably be remembered as the year Adele sold a bajillion records and Kendrick Lamar blew everyone away with To Pimp a Butterfly. But I don't listen to Adele or Lamar, so without further ado, here are my three favorite songs of 2015.

1. Kurt Vile "Pretty Pimpin"

I didn't have my website or blog back in 2013, but this makes it two out of the last three years that Kurt Vile has made my favorite song. Like "Wakin on a Pretty Day," "Pretty Pimpin" is also the lead track from its respective album, but its vibe is very different. Where "Wakin" felt content to float along for close to 10 minutes, saying 'It's a beautiful day outside. Things are going on but I'm just gonna be me and roll with the punches,' "Pimpin" has more of an introspective tone to it. First of all, the lead guitar: where it wilted, lilted and felt very easygoing on "Wakin," it now feels like it's been tased and has shot Vile to life. The vibe it brings to the song - not always the case on the album, though, which is mellow overall - has the track feeling more vibrant than some of the stuff on his last album. But where Vile gets me most is the lyrics. You see the song title "Pretty Pimpin" and you're like, 'What? Is he gonna rap on this thing? Or what the hell is he gonna sing about?'

And it turns out Vile might be more perceptive than you think he's gonna be when you look at him. Remember: he's still alert even if he is adrift. This song is about Vile having that out-of-body experience when you get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, really take a good look at yourself and say, 'Damn. How did I get here? Who am I?' "I woke up this morning / Didn't recognize the man in the mirror," he sings. But he's got that wise man-charm about him, though: "Then I laughed and I said / "Oh, silly me / That's just me.""

For me, though, it all comes together as the song begins its outro. Vile changes the lyric slightly to "I woke up this morning / Didn't recognize the boy in the mirror." Gotta say, this hits me. Especially living at home, going to the same bathroom every morning that I did when I was little, I recognize that I'm still just a kid in a growing body. Sometimes I look in the mirror and see my (super manly) facial hair and my pimples (still?!) and I can still see glimpses of the kid that used to live here. But he's fading away as I'm trying to hold onto him.

So what is "Pretty Pimpin"? "Saturday came around and I said / "Who's this stupid clown blocking the bathroom sink?" / But he was sporting all my clothes / Gotta say, pretty pimpin." I might look different than I used to - a stranger to my old self, perhaps - but damn, do I look good. Time to wash up, go out and do the damn thing. And listen to my acoustic cover of the song, burning up the YouTube charts.

2. Tame Impala "The Less I Know the Better"

As of this moment, I have the exact same amount of plays in my iTunes library of this song as I do for "Pretty Pimpin" (25). I also think I could have included one of several other tracks from the album this song is from, Currents, on this list. In light of these admissions, we'll take these rankings lightly. Anyway, Tame Impala first made a huge impression on me with their last album, Lonerism, back in 2012, and I was extremely eager for this new one. Lonerism was categorized as psych-rock, pretty much, and you could hear the Australian group's influences from The Beatles to The Flaming Lips on that record. But whereas Lonerism rocked, Currents is kind of a synthy/dance record. Make no mistake, though: Kevin Parker is a consummate musician. He locks in on bass and still provides enough live instrumentation in addition to the 80s sheen he's washed over this project.

This song is a great example of his fusion of styles. The bassline, which begins the song, sounds so simple but is so effective. You've got the synth/keyboard stuff going on, but my favorite part of the song, musically, is the lead guitar at the end, going up and down between the different notes of the chord as he makes his confession: "I was doing fine without you / 'Til I saw your eyes turn away from mine." And who can't relate to that? This is a post-breakup song about trying to bury your jealousy when your ex has moved on and you haven't. I picture him out at night, old flame at the same place, muttering to himself and a little to his friend in order to get some reassurance that things will be OK. "She was holding hands with Trevor / Not the greatest feeling ever." A stretch for a rhyme? Ha! I don't care! I love it.

"Oh my love / Can't you see yourself by my side? / I don't suppose you could convince your lover to change his mind." Real convincing there, Kevin. But who hasn't had that thought, stupid as it sounds? He could be saying this to her in person, but I have a feeling he's just seeing her and thinking it in his head. It's truly a conundrum with someone you used to (or still) have feelings for: Try and figure out what they're up to, maybe find a way back in? Or turn it all off and shut them out completely to try and move on? Throughout the song, he's gotten small tidbits into his ex's life and though he divulges some ("Someone said they live together"), his conclusion is the title of the song.

"Come on, Superman, say your stupid line" is the last line of the song. It's great. We've all been in that situation where we have the chance to come through with something meaningful and we simply can't find the words or the courage to say the words. I, again, assume Parker is talking to himself here, trying to get his courage up to actually go up to this girl and win her back. If the rest of this album is any indication, he does not. (And how great is the music video, by the way?)

3. Sufjan Stevens "Should Have Known Better" Now, it's true that I've gone through each of these songs at least seven times, but this song is an outlier in that while it's one of the best songs of the year, I haven't listened to it much... because it's so damn emotional. This song is off of Sufjan's new album Carrie & Lowell, which deals with the loss of his mother and how he was raised as a child. Based on Sufjan's stories in these songs, it seems like his mother (Carrie) and stepfather (Lowell) had absolutely no idea how much impact they had on their child, shaping his worldview. He namechecks places in Oregon and sings about tiny details and moments from his boyhood that impact him to this day throughout the record, and I think this song is the crown jewel of the album.

The title and some of its placements in the song are funny to me, in a way. This is a very serious affair as he sings "I should have known better / Nothing can be changed / The past is still the past / The bridge to nowhere." But, no, he couldn't have known better! He was just a kid! Knowing how observant he is, though, it makes sense that he could look back on his childhood and place that blame upon himself, and that's why this works even better.

Stevens has sung about the tough times growing up in the care (or absence) of his mother before, and that's what he seems to be hinting at here. "When I was three / Three, maybe four / She left us at that video store." And right after that line, the "hm hm hm" that comes in is angelic, shifting the song to a plea to his mother to be his "rest" and "fantasy." He handles his past very gently on the album, not yelling at anyone for what happened to him, but massaging his history in order to see where it's gotten him today. And so, halfway through the song, positive imagery blooms.

"Don't back down / Nothing can be changed." It sounds like Sufjan is singing to himself again, like we saw on the The Age of Adz track "Vesuvius," where he begged himself: "Sufjan / Follow your heart." This time, though, he has proof of what lies ahead. "My brother had a daughter / The beauty that she brings / Illumination." This section of the song is somehow even more stunningly gorgeous than the rest, finally without the tinge of sadness.