Well — what a ten years it’s been! (You can help celebrate but donating to Never Again Action! For every $100 raised, I’ll premiere a brand new song!) Here are my favorite two songs of each year from 2011 – 2015.
2011 (Shane Sweeney’s The Finding Time rounded the list out at #3)
- John Moreland – “Low” (Everything the Hard Way) – You can see the beginning of his acoustic, stream-of-consciousness writing with “Gods.” With its themes of the futility of chasing rock’n’roll dreams, it makes sense that this Moreland’s final (for now) punk/Heartland rock album. While Moreland has revived his rock chops with Big Bad Luv, he and collaborator John Calvin Abney have begun to explore the stratosphere in LP5 in reqarding ways. Still, the tight structures and deliberate writing of Everything the Hard Way remains the most impactful for me in his last 10 years of work.
- State Champion – “Old Green Room” (Deep Shit) – I was instantly captivated by State Champ’s bizarre Southern gothic vision, musical formality, and intricately layered lyrics that read as much as a TS Eliot poem as the creative musings of a Southern college rock collective (unsurprisingly, I prefer State Champion.) Deep Shit is a frantic, melodic exploration of deep, deep mental illness – and ten years later, it’s still fresh and a helluva lot of fun.
2012 (See the full list here.)
- Rachel Brooke – “Faded Memory” (A Killer’s Dream) – While there are other albums on the 2012 list that have stayed with me emotionally or sonically, going back through them, I can see why I put this album ahead of them on the list. On A Killer’s Dream, Brooke creates a delicious alternate universe of honky-tonk parties, brazen women, and racy Southern Gothic tales. “Faded Memory” is the most tender song in the bunch, and I think it showcases Brooke’s storytelling. In the hands of a lesser artist, it would be maudlin. With Brooke, it’s a tearjerker.
- The Sparklers – “Gundifre and Confetti” and “Gingham” (Crying at the Low Bar) – Having this one on the Adobe & Teardrops’ all-time top 10 is a no-brainer. The hard part was picking only one song from the album to represent it. So I didn’t. Crying at the Low Bar is for sure in my all-time top 5. This album nurtured my heart through many a breakup and lonely bachelorhood in between relationships that were doomed to fail. Not a single note is out of place. The Sparklers’ power pop is gorgeous, heartbreaking, distant, perfect.
2013 (See the full list here.)
A couple of years ago I wrote an article for The Boot about the development of Americana as a formal, commercialized genre. If I had to pinpoint when that happened, this top 10 list seems to be it. Consequently, picking two albums from this list is well night impossible. Oh no – I got to listen to some of my favorite albums ever – again!
- Melody Walker and Jacob Groopman – “Betelgeuse” (We Made it Home) – Truth be told, I haven’t listened to this one in a while. But it’s always stuck in my mind as an example of an album by a couple with real love songs. Not the treacly joy of newfound love, but the steadfast commitment to truly seeing each other and building something together, no matter what.
- Two Cow Garage – “Stars & Gutters” (Death of the Self-Preservation Society) — It would not be possible to make a list like this and not include Two Cow Garage. Micah and Shane elucidate the corners of my soul better than I ever could.
2014 (See the full list here.)
- Robert Ellis – “TV Song” (The Lights From the Chemical Plant) — Robert Ellis needs his flowers and he needs them now. His work is nothing less than painterly, and this album introduced me to the heights Americana-inspired music could achieve when the walls of genre are demolished. “TV Song” is an absolute heartbreaker in the best way, because it’ll change how you approach life once you’ve experienced it.
- N.Q. Arbuckle – “Hospitals” (The Future Happens Anyway) — While TCG holds a special place in my heart, this is the album I go to for soul medicine. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because it’s bleak as hell. I’ve been waiting on pins and needles for the next NQ Arbuckle release, which should be any minute now. Joy, despair, and resolve: it’s all in this album.
2015 (See the full list here.)
- Norma MacDonald – “Blue As a Jay” (Burn the Tapes) — Between NQ Arbuckle and Norma MacDonald, my passion for Canadicana was sealed. If nothing else, Adobe & Teardrops has been an outlet for my low-grade depression and “Blue As a Jay” was an anthem of sorts for me for several years. I’m glad I don’t feel this way now, but I know I have felt, and will feel, seen when I need to be.
- Joey Kneiser – “Heaven Only wants Your Dead” and “The Good Life” (The Wildness) — This was another one where it was not possible to pick one song. Kneiser radiates such a powerful aura of enlightened wisdom in all of his work, and The Wildness feels like the most pure distillation of how one can find peace and still fight against the world’s injustices.
I think that following me on Spotify is a thing you can do to make sure you get a new playlist from me every Friday! You can also follow Tuesday Teardrops, a playlist of new and exciting songs that refreshes every — you guessed it — Tuesday! As always, buy music and/or merch directly from the artists because Spotify is a horrible and exploitative platform!
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