To the uninitiated, my annual remnants list is a distillation of all the songs from the previous year that I obtained after my self-imposed deadline. One of the songs (#5) is a song that was in my itunes last year before the deadline, but never added to my playlist for end of year consideration.
5. War is Coming (If You Want It)- Carseat Headrest
Carseat Headrest is a young musician who is already wowing the musical world with well crafted pop-rock songs. And then he goes an takes an old Lennon trope and turns it into a warning about the march toward war. Well done.
4. If All I Was Was Black- Mavis Staples
Taken under the wing of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, gospel matriarch Mavis Staples has seen a renaissance in the past few years, with this song being similar to the message of the Black Lives Matter movement.
3. Strong Woman- Jen Cloher
This was the last album on my list that I actually got to hear. I’m glad I waited until I’d listened to everything, because this song straight up rocks.
2. Mother Mother (Modern Burdens version)- Tracy Bonham
Without making sure this video is the same version as the one that appears on her 20th anniversary re-working of The Burdens of Being Upright, Bonham does a great job of updating the stresses of 1997 early adulthood with 2017 mid-life challenges…such as “Trump is winning”.
- Benjamin Franklin (Hamildrop)- The Decemberists
I said this when the song first came out, but of course Ben Franklin, in the world of Hamilton, would have been hip to the indie rock stylings akin to Colin Meloy! Good on Lin Manuel for sensing that, and great job to the Decemberists for nailing the track. Easily the best song of 2017 that I didn’t hear/didn’t come out until after the first day of Hanukkah last year.
