Rick McNulty is Producer and hosts Left of the Dial Friday night 7 – 11 p.m. and Uptown Saturday Night from 7 – 11 p.m. Here are his top 5 songs of the year:
1) Matthew Logan Vasquez – Same
With a string arrangement straight out of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and what sounds like the amen corner of The Raelettes threading throughout the song, I can’t get enough of this sweet stuff. Vasquez puts his prodigious lungs to good use. And I swear there’s a wonky Moog synth!
2) Thundercat – Show You The Way (ft. Michael McDonald & Kenny Loggins)
I love the recent revival of yacht rock and no one gets it more than Stephen Bruner (aka Thundercat), so much so that he asked the captains who invented the genre to join him on his sloop. It was a stroke of genius to literally introduce Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald on this track.
3) Childish Gambino – Have Some Love
It’s a pastiche, definitely, but if you’re going to appropriate something it may as well be the glory days of Parliament/Funkadelic. It’s a spiritual sequel to “Can You Get To That,” which is all you really need to know. Long live the P-Funk!
4) Sinkane – U’Huh
Sinkane is a well-traveled Sudanese-American who offers a fresh bit of optimism and something danceable for the coming end times. I want to believe him when he says “we’re all gonna be alright.”
5) Naked Giants – Ya Ya
Guitar. Thunder. More guitar. Repeat. For ever.
