I Am Gonna Make It Through Next Year: Six (or Seven) Songs for New Year's 2015

I've always enjoyed New Year's, not just because it's an excuse to put on a nice tie and get drunk on champagne, which I do quite like. New Year's is an opportunity to give your life a context. You can look back at the past 12 months, remember the good times, inspect how you could have handled the bad times better. And at the end of the night you get to toast to your friends, hopefully kiss somebody you like and start the next day with a bloody mary, some fresh perspective and a little hope for the coming year.

So in the spirit of New Year's, I put together a list of my favorite New Year's tunes (none of them are Auld Lang Syne, although I do quite like that song) feel free to add your own in the comments:

Charles Brown - Bringing in a Brand New Year

Charles Brown is, in my opinion, one of the greatest blues pianists andsingers. His version of "Trouble Blues" is maybe one of my favorite cool blues tunes of all time. He also put out a really killer album of Christmas tunes that is worth checking out next holiday season. At the end of that record he recorded this song, a jumpy, happy tune about partyin' and gettin' a little sugar from his baby on New Year's Eve. Nothin' wrong with that!

Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Auld Lang Syne

For whatever reason, 70s cheesester Dan Fogelberg's dramatic paean to New Year's Eve nostalgia and the lonely life of a musician hits me somewhere that feels so good. The song is basically about how he is in his home town and he runs into his old flame at a grocery store on New Year's Eve and they go drink a six pack in her car and catch up. It's worth listening to the end of this one for the extremely corny Yacht Rock sax version of Auld Lang Syne.

Jeff Buckley - New Year's Prayer

New Year's Prayer is off of Buckley's tragically unfinished second album, Sketches (for My Sweetheart the Drunk). This tune walks the wire between beautiful and dissonant in true Buckley fashion, layering his ethereal vocals over an almost funky guitar line. The whole thing was produced by Tom Verlaine who you might know from the band Television and who is one of my favorite musicians of all time. 

The Mountain Goats - This Year

While I don't know that this song is explicitly about New Year's Eve, I think this is a good one to listen to every year around the turn of the year. The chorus of, "I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me," alone is worth keeping in mind when you're sending the previous year packing.

Lawrence Arms - 100 Resolutions

Perhaps my all-time favorite song about New Year's. There has not been a New Year's that has gone by in the past 10+ years where I have not listened to this song at least five times on New Year's Eve/Day. A great tune about regret and hope from one of the best punk bands to ever come out of Chicago.

Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is? 

Forgive that horrible screenshot. Peggy Lee's tongue-in-cheek ode to disappointment seems like the perfect way to cap off 2014. I can't think of a better way to go forward into 2015 than to say: If that's all there is, my friends, then lets keep dancing. Let's break out the booze and have a ball. 

I hope you and yours have a fantastic New Year's Eve and an even better 2015.

edit: Can't believe I forgot one of my all-time favorite New Year's Eve tunes. D-Plan and Travis Morrison with a crystal clear image of loneliness on NYE.

RADARLANGUAGE Best of 2014 ...or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Listen To Guitar Solos

I haven't done this every year, but there have been a lot of killer records that came out this year. In no particular order here are some of my favorites:

Steve Gunn – Way Out Weather

Despite some side projects, Gunn’s true followup to his superlative “Time Off” continues the tradition of laid back, psychedelic vocals, excellent Takoma-esque guitar work and solid rhythm from John Trucsinski and Justin Tripp. Where Time Off was a straightforward trio record, Way Out Weather expands on the instrumentation and adds banjos, lap steel, harp and even some synthesizer.

Ryley Walker – All Kinds of You

I’ve been loving this record since I picked it up a few months ago. Walker, like Steve Gunn, has brought back the classic experimental folk/guitar soli style to the fore, biting of a nice chunk of Bert Jansch and Pentangle in the process. Seriously killer stuff.

Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels 2

I don’t need to say much about this record that hasn’t already been said. It’s one of the smartest, angriest and downright bangin’-est rap records I’ve heard in a minute.

Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron

Man of the Year and Collard Greens will climb inside of your brain and never leave.

The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream

This was a total surprise record for me. I would probably punch myself in the balls for liking this record 10 years ago. The dude distills the most indulgent and awesome things about 80s Tom Petty, post-Blood on the Tracks Dylan and Dire Straits and adds a healthy dollop of psychedelic fuzz. I was telling someone recently that this record made me like guitar solos (Television and Thin Lizzy notwithstanding).

Pallbearer – Fountains of Burden

Heavy, melodic doom. Another solid hitter from Pallbearer. Slowly creeping their way up my list of favorite metal bands.

Spoon – They Want My Soul

Rent I Pay is one of the best S1T1s in Spoon’s discography. And that’s saying something. This record is a little bit funkier and looser than Transference. In my opinion, Spoon is the best straight up rock and roll band around right now (further solidified by that stinker of an album Black Keys put out this year)

Tinariwen – Emmaar

Tinariwen record all of their albums in the desert. Due to political strife in their native Mali, they recorded Emmaar in Joshua Tree. Not only is this record killer, but I had the chance to see Tinariwen both this year and last year and they put on a HELL of a show. If you get the chance, go check out these desert blues badasses.

Chet Faker – Built on Glass

“Gold” was probably one of my favorite tracks of this year. Soulful, funky and weird in equal measure. This dude has the formula DOWN. Also this video slays.

Wye Oak – Shriek           

Jenn Wasner switched from guitar to bass on this record. The result is a little funkier, a little more tightened up without losing any of Wye Oak’s signature vaguely creepy, mournfulness. Also the bassline in The Tower is one of the most awesome basslines ever.

Dangers – Five O’Clock Shadows at the Edge of the Western World

I was telling a friend recently that I would put Dangers’ previous record, “Messy, Isn’t It?” up with bands like Refused in terms of willingness to just write brutal riffs and get real weird with it. Five O’Clock Shadows… despite its cumbersome name is another slab of fucking pissed off, literate hardcore. Like Everytime I Die if they didn’t buy into their own Southern Cock Rock Bullshit. Now that I'm out on the West Coast, I'm psyched to see these dudes live. Looks like a killer show.

I'm sure I left a lot out. Got bones to pick? Leave me a comment or flip me off in the street.