“Year-End Mix” Archives

My Favorite Songs of 2018: Fine China, Damien Jurado, Khruangbin, Low, The Mary Onettes, Ride, Silk Demon & more
I listened to a lot of music this year; these 21 tracks were the ones I kept coming back to with each passing month.

My Favorite Songs of 2017, Featuring Cloakroom, Grails, Lingua Ignota, Mount Eerie, Slowdive & more
This mix is a collection of songs that helped me get through the year — that encouraged, uplifted, challenged, and yes, moved me.

My Favorite Songs of 2016
2016 sucked in many ways. But there was beautiful music to be heard in the midst of the year’s ugliness.

My Favorite Songs of 2015, Part 5: Honorable Mentions
These songs may not have been in my top picks but they still deserve notice in their own right.

My Favorite Songs of 2015, Part 4: Noah, Pure Bathing Culture, RAIJ, The Soft Moon, Sufjan Stevens & U.S. Girls
Sleepy trip-hop, atmospheric indie-electronic, religious experimental folk, harrowing post-punk/EBM, mournful folk & experimental electronic rock.

My Favorite Songs of 2015, Part 3: Kendrick Lamar, Lightning Bug, Luxury, Makeup & Vanity Set, mewithoutYou & Native Lights
Incendiary hip-hop, soaring shoegaze, aggressive indie-rock, poignant synth-wave, thought-provoking emo & atmospheric rock.

My Favorite Songs of 2015, Part 2: Eons D, Carlos Forster, The Green Kingdom, Grimes, Holly Herndon & In Gowan Ring
Soulful hip-hop, lo-fi psychedelia, ambient dub, soaring electronic pop, abstract electronica, and otherworldly neo-folk.

My Favorite Songs of 2015, Part 1: Alphaxone, Blackalicious, CFCF, Rob Clouth, Cold Showers & The Declining Winter
Ominous ambience, funky hip-hop, pan-global instrumentals, crushing electronica, elegant post-punk, and forlorn post-rock.

My Favorite Songs of 2014, Part 3: Sun Kil Moon, Todd Terje, Temples, Wovenhand, “Weird Al” & More
Post-punk shoegaze, confessional ballads, solo piano, psychedelic pop, and more. Oh, and Weird Al as well.

My Favorite Songs of 2014, Part 2: Grouper, The Hotelier, Damien Jurado, Remedy Drive, The Roots & More
Acoustic folk, emo done right, soulful electronic pop, twee, ’80s synth ballads, hip-hop, and more.

My Favorite Songs of 2014, Part 1: 2:54, The Choir, Chromeo, Desiderii Marginis, Flying Lotus, Ben Frost & More
Swirling shoegaze, Christian psych-rock, dark ambient and industrial, ’80s-style disco pop, and more.

My Favorite Songs of 2014: A Preview (Sort Of…)
None of these songs are actually on my year-end list, but they easily could’ve been.

My Favorite Songs of 2013, Honorable Mentions: Lockets, Jensen Sportag, Savages & more
Soaring ’80s pop, charming modern classical, brooding indie-rock, atmospheric sludge metal, dreamy R&B, and more.

My Favorite Songs of 2013, Part 2: Club 8, Sigur Rós, Infinity Shred, Makeup and Vanity Set, and more
Tropical dub from Sweden, blistering post-rock, contemplative ambient jazz, emotional drones, an electronic journey through space, and more.

My Favorite Songs of 2013, Part 1: Arcade Fire, Mary Onettes, My Bloody Valentine, Daft Punk & more
Featuring gloriously mopey ’80s pop, robotic heartbreak, shimmering dreampop, late night ambience, and the return of a music legend.

My Favorite Songs of 2012
This year’s list spans from apocalyptic post-rock to black metal to EBM to psych-pop to synthpop.

My Favorite Songs of 2011
Fifteen songs (plus ten honorable mentions) that stood out from the rest in 2011.

My 2010 Mix, Part One
Listed in such a way as to make for a nice listening experience if you were to listen to them as an actual mix.

My 2009 Mix, Feat. Aarktica, Animal Collective, Bat For Lashes, The Mary Onettes, meWithoutYou, Sufjan Stevens & more
These are my favorite songs of 2009, the songs that stuck with me and continued to challenge, inspire, and entertain me throughout the months.

My 2008 Mix, Featuring Portishead, Sun Kil Moon, M83, Lansing-Dreiden, Pallers & more
These are simply my favorite songs of the year, ones that never got old but continued to excite, challenge, and inspire.
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All ReviewsI've also written for Christ and Pop Culture, ScreenAnarchy, Filmwell, and Christian Research Journal. I pay the bills by creating beautiful user interfaces and websites for Firespring and Red Bicycle.