Highlighting the songs I've discovered, rediscovered, or repeatedly played each month. The order reflects an attempt to create a cohesive mixtape, not to rank the songs in any way.
The final edition of the 2012 mixtapes. Writing these has been a really illuminating and fun experience. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. Maybe there will be more to come in 2013--
1. Tame Impala - "Be Above It." I don't know what created my aversion to Tame Impala; I guess it's that I can't overlook the glaring similarities between them and the Beatles (specifically John Lennon). But since when do I only listen to 'original' bands? Ultimately my reservations faded, and I kept going back to this song: it's a light, floaty, psychedelic trip, which actually combines my favorite aspects of the Beatles' music: their easy-listening pop roots and eventual avant-garde experimentation. The mixture of the two elements actually avoids the pitfalls of pop and psychedelic music--over-simplification or excessive obfuscation, respectively--of which the Beatles were definitely occasional culprits.
I've actually had this experience of loving a band I initially hated: I once thought the Blood Brothers' music was pointless, incomprehensible screaming, but something kept bringing me back to "Trash Flavored Trash," the first song I heard from them, which bizarrely combines poppy song structures with hardcore. Then they became one of my favorite bands for several years. Moral: I guess I need to start listening to music I initially hate as much as the stuff I initially love.
