The Dozen: 2012’s 12 Best Tracks

Yeasayer – The Devil and the Deed

Aliens listen to this during sex.  Fact. The Devil and the Deed is an artificial aphrodisiac, and I can’t think of another song like it. It’s like digitized Danny Elfman crossbred with a genetically modified bull on heat. Yeasayer sweated sex into a vial, and the resulting potion has a Jekyll/Hyde effect upon the bloodstream. I feel a little dangerous when exposed to this. Do be wary.

Wiley – Can I Have a Taxi Please?

Do you know The Irony of it All by Streets [MV], where Mike Skinner raps from both the POV of a beery hooligan and a pontificating stoner? This is like that, but with a background beat that sounds like boulders of ice being stacked upon Tronotronic grids. Wiley phones for a taxi, playing the part of an idiot playboy,  badass beefy bouncer, middle-class white dude (rather hilariously), before finally guest-starring as himself when things get all Jerky Boys and chaotic. Never has the act of phoning for a cab sounded quite so Kafkaesque…

Squarepusher – Energy Wizard

I forgot this guy existed. I think Squarepusher did too, disappearing up himself in a jazz and noodle stupor over the past decade. His Ufabulum LP was a welcome return to form therefore, with this the standout jungle cut.