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Year In ReView: Vanyaland’s Top 25 songs of 2016

This was an odd year for music. As Vanyaland senior writer Daniel Brockman details in his annual Year In Pop roundup, the two-way highway of comings and goings produced a wealth of in-crisis pop, solemn rock, and schizophrenic hip-hop alongside a cruel abundance of iconic deaths and life-lessons from rock's dinosaur guard. And as this Vanyaland contributor list proves, it was another wildly eclectic and eccentric year of sound, proving that genre restriction is truly dead for those who still actually care. For our Top 25 Songs of 2016, we pitched and polled our writing staff about their favorite tracks of the year, then condensed each list for a composite ranking. Below are the results, with the song's nominator doing the honors of telling us why the song cracked the list in the first place. It may not be perfect, but it's ours, and it's worth more than just taking a Chance on.

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23. Springtime Carnivore, “Face In The Moon”

Greta Morgan had a pretty solid 2016. The Los Angeles songwriter and vocalist teamed up with La Sera’s Katy Goodman for an entire album of punk covers, and we wouldn’t be surprised if that effort showed up on a few Best of 2016 lists. But while we enjoyed fresh takes on familiar tracks like “Where Eagles Dare” and “Bastards Of Young,” we realized Morgan’s true brilliance and beauty in her Springtime Carnivore project. Sophomore album Midnight Room featured 10 tracks of ebullient pop, but none better than standout jam “Face In The Moon”, a sprawling guitar- and piano-rock number that glistens like the stars she gazes at and, oddly enough, fills the void left by Rilo Kiley’s breakup. Morgan’s sweeping vocals and innocent delivery give “Face In The Moon” a timeless feel; we know it won’t be the last we hear of her, but we’re sure we’ll still be asking her to play this one a decade down the line.

— Michael Marotta

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