9. “We Can’t Stop,” Miley Cyrus (from Bangerz)
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Culture will always chase youth, because when you really get down to it, we’re all on the cusp, mentally of being half in diapers and half being in Depends; the best pop songs remind us of a fictional time when we were young and happy and free and powerful and felt a common euphoria amongst our age cohort. It never really happens that way and the eternal propagation of these types of songs by the Music-Industrial Complex is an assault on our right to be free-thinking humans — but fuck all that when this bitch comes on, I’m dancing with molly in a metaphorical manner every time.
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8. “Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay),” Sky Ferreira (from Night Time, My Time)
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She’s right; no one did. And she probably wasn’t — okay, that is, what with the heroin bust and the generally spotty behavior and whatnot. But fuck it, because this whole record is one of the most open-veined pop emoticons I’ve heard in a while, and this particular cry-it-out bitch-a-thon is the kind of tune that will get a lot of people through a lot of crappy situations. Preach it, sister.
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7. “Run To Your Mama (Live),” Goat (from Live Ballroom Ritual)
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This bizarre anonymous-and-masked Swedish collective made one of 2012’s best records with World Music, a long player that sounds like it bubbled up from the collective wet dreams of a thousand ’70s-and-world-music-obsessed record nerds. But who knew that they’d top that record with a goddamned live album? They did, and this thing is like they took every track back to school; this run-through of “Run To Your Mama” is like melting your face on the exhaust of a thousand seventies bong hits all at once.
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6. “Death Reflects Us,” Beastmilk (from Climax)
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These Norwegian Debbie Downers put out a few essential singles in the last few years, and this long-player, recorded right in Salem’s own God City by Kurt Ballou (just like the new Kvelertak) carries through on those records’ dark promise. Too emo, in the Echo & The Bunnymen sense, to be metal or punk, and too, you know, good to be emo, Beastmilk churn out gloriously dark driving anthems like it’s nothing special. Easily one of the more promising new-ish bands of the decade.
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