The band at #20 creates formulaic, pop-driven rock & roll. That description doesn’t entice anyone I’m sure, but it’s the truth. There’s something to be said for music that hits all the right notes, is over-produced perfectly to the point of feeling clichéd, yet still manages to sink its claws into my psyche. And that’s exactly what Augustines have done. You may know them by a slightly different name, but they dropped the “We Are” part of their name in the buildup to the release of this album, their second, earlier this year.

Hit play on the video above. Ignore the fact that the it’s yet another exercise in cliché and just listen. Everything sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Normally I’m drawn to imperfection, as that is typically where the magic happens. But in the case of this Brooklyn band, the magic is in their unabashed embrace of rock and roll tropes from decades past. This song could easily have made Casey Kasem’s Top 40 in the 80s, and I would have gladly recorded it onto a cassette with my boombox, no doubt coming right before or after Mr. Mister.

The rest of the album is much like this. It falls into the guilty pleasure category for me, but I’m finding as I get older the “guilty” part is diminishing. I like what I like. And Augustines definitely fit the bill.

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21. El Pintor by Interpol
22. I Never Learn by Lykke Li
23. Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes by Thom Yorke
24. The Voyager by Jenny Lewis
25. Voices by Phantogram
26. Morning Phase by Beck
27. Hungry Ghosts by OK Go
28. Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels
29. Cosmos by Yellow Ostrich
30. Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady
31. With Light & With Love by Woods

2009-2013 Top 31s