Every year, I design what ends up being a 6-cd best-of-the-previous-year mix: 3 discs in the spring, 3 more in early autumn. I have several friends who want all six, another several who like to receive samplings therefrom. They’re good mixes, and since I already need to type up track listings, I’ve taken to sharing them here, for you to explore in whatever way you might enjoy.

I chose to let the first three discs be dominated by my 50 Favorite Albums list. The subsequent set will not be. All mix titles are lyrics from somewhere on the mix. Also, I’m completely cheating by including a 2011 Bad Lip Reading song on disc three. My reasons are that (1) I already had a Bad Lip Reading song on my 2011 mixes, (2) I didn’t hear this one til two years later, (3) it’s my mix and I’ll do what I want stop questioning me waaaah.

With a Spoon, He’s Prancing to the Sound

  1. Vienna Teng, Level Up  3:54
  2. Jolly, Lucky  2:38
  3. Boats, O Jumbotron  3:22
  4. Frightened Rabbit, Woodpile  3:25
  5. Bye Bye Blackbirds, Like a Thief  4:53
  6. Manning, Decon(struction) Blues  3:44
  7. Statuesque, Out Crowd  3:05
  8. Hidden Masters, She Broke the Clock of the Long Now  4:39
  9. Adam Ant, Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter 4:36
  10. Kobo Town, Mr. Monday  3:29
  11. Streetlight Manifesto, If Only for Memories  5:28
  12. They Might Be Giants, Nanobots  2:46
  13. Cold Crows Dead, Deadheads  3:05
  14. Los Campesinos!, What Death Leaves Behind  3:38
  15. Xenia Rubinos, Los Mangopaunos  2:49
  16. Jack o’ the Clock, a Lot of People are Dead Wrong Most of the Time  5:06
  17. Cloud Cult, Sleepwalker  4:35
  18. Redwood Plan, Panic On  3:01
  19. Vampire Weekend, Diane Young  2:41
  20. Paul McCartney, On My Way to Work  3:43
  21. Babe the Blue Ox, Self-Evident  5:18

a Treasure That was Fit for Fools

  1. Indelicates, Class  3:53
  2. Kanye West, I am a God  3:52
  3. dEUS, Girls Keep Drinking  3:48
  4. Ukandanz, Tezalegn Yetentu  3:24
  5. Magma, Tsai!  3:42
  6. Haken, Cockroach King  8:15
  7. Joan Armatrading, Tell Me  4:53
  8. Bob Wiseman, the Reform Party at Burning Man  4:29
  9. Half Past Four, Spin the Girl  2:46
  10. Birds and Buildings, the Dumb Fish  3:19
  11. Louis Logic, Look on the Blight Side  5:06
  12. Red Baraat, Private Dancers  4:20
  13. Polysics, Everybody Say No  3:14
  14. Dismemberment Plan, White Collar White Trash  3:35
  15. Lost World Band, Tongues of Flame II  2:54
  16. Throwing Muses, Sunray Venus  3:35
  17. New Model Army, Seven Times  3:24
  18. Robyn Hitchcock, Fix You  3:48
  19. Fear of Men, Ritual Confession  3:17
  20. Ford Pier, When We Were Poor  3:51

Spastic Golden Toys

  1. Future of the Left, Singing of the Bonesaws  4:42
  2. Scaramanga Six, the Bristol Butcher  4:56
  3. Of Montreal, Hegira Emigre  4:03
  4. MGMT, Plenty of Girls in the Sea  3:05
  5. And So I Watch You from Afar, Big Thinks Do Remarkable  3:52
  6. Icona Pop, I Love It!  2:39
  7. Bad Lip Reading, Morning Dew  3:57
  8. Shad, Remember to Remember  4:36
  9. Liam Singer, O Endless Storm  3:15
  10. These New Puritans, Fragment Two  4:24
  11. Reign of Kindo, the Hero, the Saint, the Tyrant, and the Terrorist  4:40
  12. Youn Sun Nah, Momento Magico  5:32
  13. Kacey Musgraves, Merry Go ‘Round  3:29
  14. Uncluded, Delicate Cycle, 4:15
  15. Burning Hell, Amateur Rappers  4:30
  16. Front Bottoms, Everything I Own  3:44
  17. Colour Me Wednesday, Shut  3:21
  18. Jumbling Towers, At the Cashier’s Station  3:43
  19. Ylvis, the Fox  3:30
  20. Sean Nelson, Kicking Me Out of the Band  3:38