The 60 Critical Songs Of 2011

To my mind, the single has always been pop music in its purest and most vital form. At just the right time and place, any song can sound like the greatest thing in the world. So while I dutifully make my Top 10 albums list like a good little rock critic every year, what I really think of as my "real" year-end best-of is the list of my favorite songs. Interestingly, there isn't always a lot of overlap between the two lists: some albums are best heard as complete works, from start to finish, and many artists who are awesome at three and a half minutes don't always make great albums.

I find it encouraging that the music industry has been reverting back to where it was prior to 1967, when the single, not the album, was the focus. Per-track downloads, shuffle play, and most recently, streaming services have made it easier than ever to dip into and out of artist's catalogues a song at a time. This is particularly nice for hyperactive pop junkies like me: hearing one song will often strike some kind of obscure association that makes me have to hear this OTHER song immediately, and so on and so on. Back in the day, I used to sit on the floor in front of my stereo, surrounded by LPs, singles, cassettes and CDs, listening to three or four minutes at a time. Say what you will about iTunes, at least it cuts down on having to put things back in sleeves and on the shelves.

Because I think of singles in small-d democratic terms, these songs are presented in strictly alphabetical order: at any given time, any of these songs could be my favorite song of 2011. But if I'm being honest, the real headliners for me are James Blake's ghostly but soulful "The Wilhelm Scream" (a song title my inner film buff giggles at every time I see it), Surfer Blood's instant power-pop classic "Miranda" (hopefully the start of a renaissance for a beloved musical style that I think started to disappear up its own backside about a decade ago), Neon Indian's "Polish Girl" (hands down the best instrumental hook of 2011), Modular's "Zapatófono" (an Argentine band extending Stereolab's '60s cocktail-pop obsession), Kurt Vile's yearning "In My Time" (one of the few songs on this list that actually came out as a proper 7" vinyl single), and a pair of songs that make me unapologetically nostalgic for my early '90s college days, Yuck's "Get Away" and Soft Science's simply gorgeous piece of breathy neo-shoegazer pop "Closer To Me." That one may only sometimes be my favorite song of 2011, but I definitely think it's the prettiest song of the year.

If you're a Spotify user, you can hear our playlist featuring these songs.

(List compiled by Critical Mob's senior editor Paul Parreira and senior music editor Stewart Mason.)