2011 in Review: Commuter Music

As the calendar annually renews I have a couple of favorite activities, and each will lead to blog posts this week. The first is perusing what music has been collected through the year, and exchanging lists of favorites with friends. It not only affords a chance to create a playlist for myself that recaps the year (and doubles as a good party shuffle when we entertain), but also a chance to add some new music, culled from friends' lists.

This tradition (2010's list is here; and more commuter music musings are abundant here), was started by my friend Geoff, and I have wholeheartedly embraced it. The double bonus is the exercise provides content for this blog. Bloggers love it when an email to friends can double as a blog post. For the benefit of those friends who received the email and also read this blog (bless you!), I added some new content at the end. Stay tuned!

So, on with the show. Here are my favorite (commuter) tunes of 2011:

About three dozen songs comprise my favorites for this year. I will start with my hands-down favorite album of the year: Mine Is Yours by Cold War Kids. I loved every song. Louder Than Ever, Out of the Wilderness, and Skip the Charades were in heaviest rotation. Cold Toes on the Cold Floor is seasonally appropriate and worth a listen.

I'll also add that I loved everything I heard by The Civil Wars, though I do keep coming back to Barton Hollow, Birds of a Feather and Oh, Henry as keepers.

The Best of the rest (in no particular order):

• Lost in My Mind by The Head And The Heart 
• No Silver by Chris Bathgate
• Fixin' to Die by G. Love
• Crocodile Tears by little hurricane
• Alone in This Together by Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs
• Some Day Soon by Alexi Murdoch
• Don't Gotta Work It Out by Fritz & The Tantrums
• Dance Without You by Skylar Grey
• Arms by Christina Perri
• City of Refuge by Abigail Washburn
• Daphne by Lia Ices
• The Kind You Can't Afford by Madeleine Peyroux
• Strawberry Amazing by Miguel
• Sophia by Laura Marling
• WHALE by Yellow Ostrich
• Gray or Blue by Lee Coulter with Kate Vincent

Honorable Mention (songs from other years discovered in 2011):

• Used to Did by J Roddy Walston and the Business
• Revel in Contempt by Buke and Gass
• Greenback Boogie by Ima Robot
• Heart of Steel by Galactic
• You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples
• Around the Bend by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour (thanks, Keith!)

As for the kids, Maroon 5, Pitbull and LMFAO seem to be among Ben's and Mason's favorites, while Sam mixes it up with Rob Thomas, The Black Eyed Peas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Motley Crue and Lenny Kravitz.

Speaking of playlists, MapMyRide published my cycling mix earlier this year. Recent additions to that list include Moves Like Jager by Maroon 5, Dirt by WU LYF, Wonderland by Natalia Kills, Punching In A Dream by The Naked And Famous, and Die Trying by Art Of Dying.

If you have made it this far, I have wrapped up all of the above in a zipped 216MB bow. Help yourself to what you like, but please also support musicians with your wallet. Explore other offerings by these artists and let them lead you to musical discoveries. Please share your favorites in the comments, too.

Other 2011 paths to discovery:

• Bill O Writes: The Best CDs of 2011
• Bouv's Blog: The 2011 Holiday Mix
• Famous Blue Blog: Best of Uncharted Waters Part I, Part II and Part III
• GeekDad: The Nerdy Dozen: 12 Must-Hear Songs of 2011 (includes It Is Splendid! by Supercommuter)