Macromix 15

// songs of 2015 //

Track/ Rank

1/ 20 Janet Jackson, “Night”
2/ 19 Miguel, “Waves”
3/ 18 The Radio Dept., “This Repeated Sodomy”
4/ 17 Fetty Wap, “Again”
5/ 16 Evans The Death, “Expect Delays”
6/ 15 Beach House, “10:37”
7/ 14 Tinashe, “Dreams Are Real”
8/ 13 Dawn Richard, “Swim Free”
9/ 12 Colleen Green, “Wild One”
10/ 11 Hop Along, “Powerful Man”
11/ 10 Waxahatchee, “La Loose”
12/ 9 Jenny Hval, “Sabbath”
13/ 8 Chromatics, “Just Like You”
14/ 7 Kendrick Lamar, “King Kunta”
15/ 6 Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, “Sunday Candy”
16/ 5 Jazmine Sullivan, “Let It Burn”
17/ 4 Young Guv, “Kelly, I’m Not A Creep”
18/ 3 Girlpool, “Chinatown”
19/ 2 Susanne Sundfør, “Fade Away”
20/ 1 Björk, “History of Touches”


At just over 72 minutes, it’s the shortest Macromix in recent memory, and an unusually fun one to listen to, I think. Let me know your preferred format, and in the meantime, listen at Mixcloud and read more at Big Takeover.

If you’ve ever felt these mixes are a chore to get through, be assured that this one’s a breeze by comparison. Even the two songs that pass the five-minute mark do so only because they can’t bear to sacrifice a mood. Epic-tilting tracks have been banished to the album list. Look there for the likes of “Waltz of the 101st Lightborne,” “For A Day Like Tomorrow,” “Thought I Was A Spaceman,” “Underwater Wasteland” and “Last.”

I could say a lot about why it has to end with “Fade Away” and “History of Touches,” in that order, and not just because they’re my two favorite songs of the year. It’s not really a personal significance either, but in the silence that separates them, in the silence that disappoints “Fade Away” as triumphant finale and locates a drifting tendency that seems so impossible as the song thumps along, there’s a narrative I recognize instantly.


Noted:

Younger me might be displeased to learn that Gaz Coombes’ “The Girl Who Fell To Earth” and Idlewild’s “Radium Girl” (their boy-band moment) just missed the cut.

Like everyone else, my favorite Earl Sweatshirt song was “Grief” and my favorite Vince Staples song was “Lift Me Up.”

Once again, my favorite song on a Deerhunter album ends up being the shortest one: “Duplex Planet.” Finding that out was quite a journey. I’ll tell you about it someday.

If I’d had room for a cover song on the list, it would’ve been Yo La Tengo’s “Friday I’m In Love,” of course.

Anyone who saw Courtney Barnett live this year knows that “Small Poppies” is her best song.

Of the hundred other songs I could mention, let me mention… Speedy Ortiz’s “Raising The Skate”!

Here’s where I’d normally tell you that “I Really Like You” and “Run Away With Me” were among my favorite pop junk of the year, but since Carly Rae Jepsen is a critics’ darling whose album flopped, no need for an asterisk.