Any time someone goes off on year-end lists — see Emily Nussbaum at the New Yorker, for a representative screed — I think of all the songs I love that I never would have heard without them. Today I listened to a playlist from Joe Long, whose best-of-‘11 list had been highlighted on the Rdio blog. It’s a great list, and not just because it overlaps somewhat with mine. After listening for a couple hours — it’s a long playlist! — the most gorgeous Byrdsian jangle-pop emerged from my headphones. As it turned out it was “Wonder Why,” by the great Bay Area folkies Vetiver, who released this song six months ago and apparently had no idea how to market it. Seriously, how did they not get one blog read by a normal person to post this song? (OK, Pitchfork mentioned it three-quarters of the way through a middling album review.)
But whatever. Are you listening to this song already? On repeat? Do you want to sit around the campfire with Andy Cabic for a few hours and have him sing this to you over and over again while you print out all those columns about how year-end lists suck and throw them into the fire? You might as well! What have you got to lose?
