This post was originally written in February 2017: “I keep looking for something that I think I have lost.” This line makes my eyes well up with tears when I think of it in the… More
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #6 “Nightfall” – Anchor & Braille
Former Anberlin vocalist, Stephen Christian, AKA Anchor & Braille, went with a very chill synth-pop-meets-Washed Out sound on 2016’s Songs For The Late Night Drive Home, and I think it’s fits him perfectly. “Nightfall” would quickly emerge as my favorite track off the album, and then watching my then 4 yr. old dance along with such a care-free spirit to this song in the living room only added to my partiality.
“Nightfall’ sounds like a track that would’ve hit number 91 on the Billboard singles chart in 1987, and that’s just how I like my pop music–catchy and captivating, but with a tinge too dark for the masses (The hits of The Cure being an obvious exception).
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #7 “This Deep” – Postiljonen
Mia Boe’s vocals + trap beat + “woo’s” + chill guitar and synths = winning combination. This song makes me want to sit back and not do a thing. I should probably not jam this one at work. Postiljonen had another song in my top 16, check it out and read more about the band, if you haven’t already.
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #8 “Krystal Cove” – Waterfront Dining
“I don’t really like describing my music as any genre. I like to leave that up to the listener. “, the artist know as Waterfront Dining tells me. His sound really could be described as partially fitting into many genres, but he comes away with a sound that is distinctly Waterfront Dining…unless, that is, you thought it was the original performer of the song. Waterfront Dining sample hunts and crate digs until finding a sample he likes, then he edits it, loops it, alters it, and mixes it to make it his own. What it usually comes out sounding like is something extremely nostalgic and relaxing. It acts almost as a time warp for me. It’s like I get to hear new 80s and 90s music, but in the latter 2010’s.
I asked Waterfront Dining what stands out to him about this track and he said “I love the synth sounds in this sample, and the atmosphere and lyrics. This track and album as a whole really marks a turning point in the way I began editing my songs as this album was one of the first where all of the edits were basically transparent.” And it’s true, Melodies & Mermaids was the first release of his where everything sounded perfectly pieced together to the point that you’d have no clue the music was the result of tinkering with old songs.
If you enjoy this song, check out Waterfront Dining’s extensive music catalogue. Go see how many songs you can find that sound like they should’ve been #1 hits in the 80s and early 90s, there’s lots and lots of them.
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #9 “Russian Dolls” – Weaver At The Loom
By Dan Smith of Weaver At The Loom.
Russian Dolls? I had to think for a moment to find the best way to explain this track. I don’t like to attribute too much objectivity to any one song. I have always loved how songs take on a life of their own when people interpret them from their own unique perspectives. A bit of a rorschach test type phenomenon. The original concept though was about the different degrees to which people connect with each other. Everyone has layers to themselves, from guarded to intimate, we keep people at different proximities based on how well we connect with them. This gave me an image of people as Russian Nesting Dolls, layers of the same person within a person. So, I guess, interpreting relationships through that concept, it seems like a rare occasion when you connect with someone on that inner level, even more so as you get older. The imagery of this song is describing a moment when you get to reconnect with someone who you have one of those deeper-level bonds with; about appreciating that connection and making time for that moment. Less philosophically, it’s about hanging out with a good friend you haven’t seen in awhile, picking things up as if no time has passed, and making space in the busyness of life to let that moment breathe.
Keep up with Weaver At The Loom here.
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #10 “Copter” – S U R V I V E
In 2016 I started to enjoy spending a lot of my free time reading, which resulted in more appreciation for instrumental music. It’s so much easier to have tunes going while you’re reading if there’s no words to the music to distract you from the words in the book.
I’ve loved synth music for several years now, so a four piece synth band caught my attention and appreciation from the beginning. Two members of S U R V I V E are responsible for the soundtrack to Netflix’s popular Stranger Things series, without which I probably never would have known of these guys. Take a listen to my favorite song from their album RR7349.
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #11 “Take My Breath Away” – Klimt 1918
It feels a bit weird having a cover song on this list, but I couldn’t not include one of my favorite cover songs in recent memory. Plus, I’m a sucker for a thick, hazy, beautiful, atmospheric track and this one definitely fits that criteria.
You know the original version, released by Berlin on the Top Gun soundtrack in 1986…big hit and whatnot. Well Berlin, Klimt 1918 done taken you big hit and made it sound much BIGGER.
Klimt 1918 are not the first band to make a fantastic cover of this song, Copeland might still have my favorite version, but it’s very close. The fact that I enjoy multiple covers of “Take My Breath Away” so much just goes to show that it’s just a flat-out excellent pop tune to begin with, and I bet almost anyone would enjoy at least one of the three versions mentioned in this post.
16 Favorite Songs of 2016: #12 “I Am Not Yours” – Owel
Owel are obviously one of our favorite bands to post about here at Ineverglow, but what’s not to love? This New Jersey band infuses lots of Radiohead and Sigur Ros into their brand of emotional rock tunes. While I like the music of the aforementioned seminal bands, I truly enjoy the music of Owel more. I know that’s a blasphemous statement to those who pray to the gods of indie-rock, but we like what we like. Maybe they haven’t made an album as great as OK Computer yet, but give me everything Owel has released over all of Radiohead’s other albums. Yes, that includes Kid A.
I’m just gonna let Ineverglow contributor David Martin take it from here, cause let’s be real, no one can verbally pick apart a song like he can. From his review of the album, Dear Me: “The album’s first half concludes with a six-minute epic that was another one of the first tracks to really grab my attention. While crescendos galore are all but guaranteed on an Owel record, the one in this song may be one of the band’s most devastating, as the entire song seems to be trying to wean two lovers off of the idea that they are each other’s soulmates and saviors. The way Jay sings it is so beautiful, yet his words are so devastating as he underscores the temporary nature of their relationship: “Though we suffer from the same disease, we both suffer differently/And though I do adore, you are not my cure/And I am not yours.” It seems almost nihilistic at first, but there’s something compelling in how he relinquishes a sense of ownership here, as if to say we never know how long we truly have to share with someone, and worrying about that could sabotage the potential beauty of the shared time we have left. Owel gracefully reminds me on this track of why I’m glad they’re not a heavier rock band. The guitars and drums get incredibly loud as this one boils over, but the way they started with a graceful, melodic approach before shifting the tone of the song and blitzing us with a wall of power chords is a great example of less being more. I get chills when Jay slips into a startling falsetto right near the end: “This is not your heart to break… You’ll break it anyway!” A lot of rock bands going for this emo of a climax probably would have screamed that line. And it would have sounded predictably goofy. But the way he sings it here is, quite appropriately, heartbreaking.”
