White Winter Hymnal got more recognition for the Fleet Foxes, but their best song is Mykonos off their Sun Giant EP. The lyrics about a friendship broken are sang to perfection. As with most Fleet Foxes songs, the vocals stand above the instruments, but here they are pretty darn close meaning you will get enjoyment everytime you listen.  The song still moves me everytime I hear it, all 30+ times over the year.

From the start of the distortion, you know that you are in for something different.  Then the airy vocals kick in and you know it is going to be fantastic. Does the song make sense? Not really, but it is just too fantastic of a beat, vocals and instruments that it almost makes the top of my list.

Grapevine Fires caught me the first time I heard it.  In my post about Narrow Stairs, I talk about the possible interpretation of the song as a view into an arson's perspective or it is just a story about living with the fires of LA each year and not being able to do anything about it.  In either case, the melancholy comes through in spades with both the tone of the music and lyrics.

The most haunting song I heard all year, Rooks tells the story of a coming global disaster and knowing there is nothing you can do to avoid it.  Add to the lyrics vocals that match and amplify the tone of the song along with the horns that kick in during the middle of the song, and you have something pretty darn impressive.

With sounds combining a 60's jam and Caribou's electronic work, Gamma Ray presents some of the more interesting sounds for a song all year. As usual, Beck brings it all together perfectly both instrumentally and with his vocals.  While not as popular as his hits in the 90s, this does show that Beck can still get it done.