Saturday, January 8, 2011
Monday, December 21, 2009
The 250 Best Albums of 2000-2009
Well, here we are at the home stretch of the jlsdre 500: the 250 Best Albums of 2000-2009. Any surprises on this list? Probably a few, but like most lists of this nature, the top album/song/what-have-you is not much of a surprise (think “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Stairway to Heaven”). Even still it might be worth perusing if only to pick out one of a handful of obvious choices I’m sure I’ve missed. I will never forgive myself for those omissions. I could speak at great length and in great detail about most of these albums, but because of time constraints and general laziness I haven’t included comments for the majority of the list; notes for the top 5 albums, deep cuts for the top 25. Let’s go.
The 250 Best Albums of 2000-2009
250) The 1900’s, Cold & Kind, 2007
249) Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple, 2008
248) My Morning Jacket, It Moves, 2003
247) Young Jeezy, The Inspiration, 2006
246) Stones Throw Records, Chrome Children, 2006
245) Women, Women, 2008
244) Pictureplane, Dark Rift, 2009
243) jj, jj n° 2, 2009
242) Probot, Probot, 2004
241) Bloc Party, Intimacy, 2008
240) Silversun Pickups, Carnavas, 2006
239) The Used, The Used, 2002
238) The Dodos, Visiter, 2008
237) Action Action, Don’t Cut Your Fabric To This Year’s Fashion, 2004
236) T.I., King, 2006
235) My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade, 2006
234) Hard-Fi, Stars Of CCTV, 2005
233) YACHT, I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real., 2007
232) Royksopp, Junior, 2009
231) Talib Kweli, Quality, 2002
230) Death from Above 1979, You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, 2004
229) Common, Finding Forever, 2007
228) Lykke Li, Youth Novels, 2008
227) And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead, Source Tags & Codes, 2002
226) Editors, The Back Room, 2005
225) Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool, 2007
224) Prefuse 73, One World Extinguisher, 2003
223) Cymbals Eat Guitars, Why There Are Mountains, 2009
222) Blitzen Trapper, Wild Mountain Nation, 2007
221) Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, 2009
220) Vitalic, OK Cowboy, 2005
219) Psapp, Tiger My Friend, 2004
218) Jack’s Mannequin, Everything In Transit, 2005
217) Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest, 2009
216) D’Angelo, Voodoo, 2000
215) Vietnam, Vietnam, 2007
214) Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer, 2008
213) Feist, The Reminder, 2007
212) Danielson, Ships, 2006
211) Jay-Z, American Gangster, 2007
210) Deerhunter, Cryptograms, 2007
209) The Hold Steady, Separation Sunday, 2005
208) The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing, 2008
207) Tom Vek, We Have Sound, 2005
206) Lily Allen, It’s Not Me It’s You, 2009
205) Gorillaz, Gorillaz, 2001
204) The Decemberists, The Crane Wife, 2006
203) Coheed and Cambria, The Second Stage Turbine Blade, 2002
202) Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000
201) Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing, 2008
200) The Shins, Wincing the Night Away, 2007
199) Annie, Anniemal, 2004
198) The Stills, Oceans Will Rise, 2008
197) Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell, 2008
196) Lindstrom, It’s a Feedelity Affair, 2006
195) Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out Of This Country, 2006
194) Architecture In Helsinki, In Case We Die, 2005
193) 2 Many DJ’s, As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2, 2002
192) Under The Influence of Giants, Under The Influence of Giants, 2006
191) Rhymefest, Mark Ronson Presents: Man In The Mirror, 2008
190) No Doubt, Return of Saturn, 2000
189) Midtown, Forget What You Know, 2004
188) MGMT, Oracular Spectacular, 2007
187) Ladyhawke, Ladyhawke, 2008
186) Crystal Stilts, Alight of Night, 2008
185) The Boy Least Likely To, The Best Party Ever, 2005
184) Stars, Set Yourself On Fire, 2004
183) Skull Disco, Soundboy Punishments, 2007
182) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 2009
181) HEALTH, HEALTH//DISCO, 2008
180) Bright Eyes, Cassadaga, 2007
179) Nouvelle Vague, Nouvelle Vague, 2004
178) Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport, 2009
177) Calexico, In The Reins (With Iron & Wine) EP, 2005
176) Mylo, Destroy Rock & Roll, 2004
175) Chromeo, Fancy Footwork, 2007
174) Kings of Leon, Because of the Times, 2007
173) Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care, 2009
172) The Bug, London Zoo, 2008
171) Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs, 2008
170) Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog, 2007
169) Santigold, Southerngold, 2009
168) I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Fear Is On Our Side, 2006
167) Motion City Soundtrack, I Am The Movie, 2003
166) LCD Soundsystem, 45:33, 2005
165) Empire Of The Sun, Walking On A Dream, 2008
164) Kings of Leon, Youth and Young Manhood, 2003
163) Robyn, Robyn, 2008
162) Panda Bear, Person Pitch, 2007
161) Delorean, Ayrton Senna EP, 2009
160) Lightspeed Champion, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, 2008
159) The Black Eyed Peas, Elephunk, 2003
158) Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele, 2000
157) Two Gallants, What the Toll Tells, 2006
156) Matt and Kim, Grand, 2009
154) Clipse, We Got It 4 Cheap, Volume 3: The Spirit of Competition, 2008
154) DOOM, Born Like This, 2009
153) The Starting Line, Say It Like You Mean It, 2002
152) Madvillain, Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix, 2008
151) Neon Indian, Psychic Chasms, 2009
150) Boards of Canada, The Campfire Headphase, 2005
149) Lil Wayne, No Ceilings, 2009
148) The Movielife, The Movielife Has A Gambling Problem, 2001
147) Sunn O))), Black One, 2005
146) Girls, Album, 2009
145) Atlas Sound, Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, 2008
144) Taking Back Sunday, Tell All Your Friends, 2002
143) Gwen Stefani, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., 2004
142) Interpol, Our Love to Admire, 2007
141) The Decemberists, Picaresque, 2005
140) Basement Jaxx, Rooty, 2001
139) Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles, 2008
138) M83, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, 2003
137) The xx, xx, 2009
136) Arcade Fire, Neon Bible, 2007
135) Explosions In The Sky, How Strange, Innocence, 2000
134) The Juan Maclean, The Future Will Come, 2009
133) Sleater Kinney, The Woods, 2005
132) Ween, Quebec, 2003
131) Beck, Modern Guilt, 2008
130) CFCF, Continent, 2009
129) Cat Power, Jukebox, 2008
128) Pete Yorn, Musicforthemorningafter, 2001
127) UGK, Underground Kings, 2007
126) The Thermals, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, 2006
125) AC Newman, The Slow Wonder, 2004
124) Bun B, II Trill, 2008
123) Fall Out Boy, From Under the Cork Tree, 2005
122) Wilco, Sky Blue Sky, 2007
121) The Strokes, Room on Fire, 2003
120) Kanye West, Graduation, 2007
119) Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans, 2004
118) Chromatics, Night Drive, 2007
117) Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak, 2004
116) Titus Andronicus, The Airing of Greivances, 2008
115) Frou Frou, Details, 2002
114) Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2, 2009
113) Hammock, Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow, 2008
112) Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3, 2008
111) The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come for Free, 2004
110) Antony and the Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now, 2005
109) Lindstrom, Where You Go I Go Too, 2008
108) J Dilla, Donuts, 2006
107) Jimmy Eat World, Futures, 2004
106) Midtown, Living Well Is the Best Revenge, 2002
104) Royksopp, Melody A.M., 2001
104) Tapes ‘n Tapes, The Loon, 2005
103) Isis, Wavering Radiant, 2009
102) Yeasayer, All Hour Cymbals, 2007
101) Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair, 2008
100) Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago, 2008
99) The Killers, Hot Fuss, 2004
98) Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor, 2006
97) Queens of the Stone Age, Songs For The Deaf, 2002
96) Deerhunter, Microcastle, 2008
95) Blank Dogs, Under and Under, 2009
94) Doves, Some Cities, 2005
93) Kylie Minogue, Fever, 2001
92) My Morning Jacket, Z, 2005
91) Windsurf, Coastlines, 2008
90) The Go! Team, Thunder Lighting, Strike, 2005
89) Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes, 2008
88) Modest Mouse, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, 2003
87) Viktor Vaughn, Vaudeville Villain, 2003
86) The Shins, Oh, Inverted World, 2001
85) Wolf Parade, Apologies To The Queen Mary, 2005
84) Coheed and Cambria, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, 2003
83) Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days, 2004
82) Drummer, Feel Good Together, 2009
81) The Mars Volta, Deloused In The Comatorium, 2003
80) A Place to Bury Strangers, A Place to Bury Strangers, 2007
79) Cut Copy, Bright Like Neon Love, 2004
78) Thom Yorke, The Eraser, 2006
77) British Sea Power, The Decline of British Seapower, 2003
76) Amusement Parks on Fire, Amusement Parks on Fire, 2005
75) Weezer, Weezer (The Green Album), 2001
74) Wavves, Wavvves, 2009
73) Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Shake The Sheets, 2004
72) Air France, On Trade Winds EP, 2006
71) Air France, No Way Down EP, 2008
70) MF DOOM, MM…Food, 2004
69) Hot Chip, The Warning, 2006
68) Patrick Wolf, Lycanthropy, 2003
67) The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow, 2003
66) Sparta, Porcelain, 2004
65) The Avalanches, Since I Left You, 2000
64) Portishead, Third, 2008
63) Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds, 2006
62) Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion, 2009
61) Bloc Party, Silent Alarm, 2005
60) Clipse, We Got It 4 Cheap, Volume 2, 2004
59) Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene, 2005
58) Danger Mouse, The Grey Album, 2004
57) Cat Power, The Greatest, 2006
56) Various Artists, After Dark, 2007
55) LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver, 2007
54) Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand, 2004
53) Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whaleheart, 2007
52) Peter Bjorn and John, Writer’s Block, 2006
51) Radiohead, Amnesiac, 2001
50) Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak, 2008
49) Danger Doom, The Mouse And The Mask, 2006
48) Sound Team, Movie Monster, 2006
47) Washed Out, Life of Leisure, 2009
46) Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III, 2008
45) Saves the Day, Stay What You Are, 2001
44) Jay-Z, The Blueprint, 2001
43) Test Icicles, For Screening Purposes Only, 2005
42) La Roux, La Roux, 2009
41) The Anniversary, Designing a Nervous Breakdown, 2000
40) Radiohead, In Rainbows, 2007
39) Interpol, Antics, 2004
38) Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, 2005
37) My Chemical Romance, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, 2004
36) M83, Saturdays = Youth, 2008
35) Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend, 2008
34) The Strokes, Is This It, 2001
33) No Age, Nouns, 2008
32) The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, 2002
31) The Juan Maclean, Less Than Human, 2005
30) Jay-Z, The Black Album, 2003
29) Cam’ron, Purple Haze, 2004
28) Fall Out Boy, Take This To Your Grave, 2003
27) Japandroids, Post-Nothing, 2009
26) Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours, 2008
25) Lily Allen, Alright, Still, 2006
Choice tracks: “Smile”, “LDN”, “Friend Of Mine”
24) Kanye West, The College Dropout, 2004
Choice tracks: “Jesus Walks”, “Two Words”, “Through The Wire”
23) Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, 2006
Choice tracks: “View From The Afternoon”, “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”, “A Certain Romace”
22) Justice, (Cross), 2007
Choice tracks: “Genesis”, “D.A.N.C.E.”, “DVNO”
21) Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism, 2003
Choice tracks: “The New Year”, “Title And Registration”, “Tiny Vessels”
20) Clipse, Hell Hath No Fury, 2006
Choice tracks: “Wamp Wamp (What It Do)”, “Trill”, “Nightmares”
19) Burial, Untrue, 2007
Choice tracks: “Archangel”, “Ghost Hardware”, “Etched Headplate”
18) De La Soul, The Grind Date, 2004
Choice tracks: “Verbal Clap”, “Day Of Our Lives”, “Rock Co.kane Flow”
17) Girl Talk, Night Ripper, 2006
Choice tracks: “Once Again”, “Smash Your Head”, “Friday Night”
16) Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002
Choice tracks: “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”, “Jesus, Etc.”, “Pot Kettle Black”
15) Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere, 2006
Choice tracks: “Go Go Gadget Gospel”, “Crazy”, “Smiley Faces”
14) The Postal Service, Give Up, 2003
Choice tracks: “Natural Anthem”, “Such Great Height”, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight”
13) Jimmy Eat World, Bleed American, 2001
Choice tracks: “Bleed American”, “The Praise Chorus”, “The Authority Song”
12) Band of Horses, Everything All the Time, 2006
“The First Song”, “Wicked Gil”, “The Funeral”
11) The Hold Steady, Boys And Girls In America, 2006
Choice tracks: “Stuck Between Stations”, “Chips Ahoy!”, “Hot Soft Light”
10) LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem, 2005
Choice Tracks: “Tribulations”, “Losing My Edge”, “Beat Connection”
9) Madvillain, Madvillainy, 2004
Choice tracks: “Accordion”, “America’s Most Blunted”, “All Caps”
8 ) Ghostface Killah, Fishscale, 2006
Choice tracks: “Shakey Dog”, “9 Milli Bros.”, “R.A.G.U.”
7) Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It In People, 2002
Choice tracks: “Stars And Sons”, “Cause=Time”, “Shampoo Suicide”
6) Sufjan Stevens, Illinois, 2005
Choice Tracks: “Come On! Feel The Illinoise!”, “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”, “The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us”
5) Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights, 2002 – A gloomy, foreboding, atmospheric record leads off the top 5. That seems fitting; those are recurring themes among the top albums of this decade. I think one of the reasons I like this album so much is the way it is son interconnected with New York. This record is one of a number of albums this decade that seem inextricably linked to NYC (The Strokes’ Is This It, Jay-Z’s Black Album, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Fever to Tell, Crystal Stilts’ Alight of Night). I like that idea of tracing a city through a set of records. I imagine that’s the same way a lot of people thought about California in the 60′s and Seattle in the 90′s. This represents a grittier a darker New York than the one we heard with Is This It, but it’s still very much in control (dudes play in suits for fuck sakes) very tight. Its an evolutionary step between the halycon days of 2000 and early 2001 and the more realistic years of mid decade. It takes a better snapshot of NYC in 2002 than any snapshot band would take of the city in any year.
Choice tracks: “Untitled”, “Obstacle 1″, “Say Hello To Angels”
4) Kanye West, Late Registration, 2005 – Best hip hop album of the oh’s? I guess that’s what this ranking represents. A strong case could be made for several other albums to have that distinction, and the people debating in favor of other albums may not be entirely wrong. But no other hip hop album this decade transformed an artist more than Late Registration transformed Kanye. Kanye was famous before this album, but he was a superstar after it. He was a pop star. This is the album that gave him the critical currency to attempt Graduation, a more electro leaning, modern album, and 808s & Heartbreak, a complete 180 from anything he’d previously done. Late Registration allowed him to try this. This record gave us maybe his two most popular songs (“Touch The Sky” and “Gold Digger”), his maybe two most touching songs (“Heard ‘em Say” and “Hey Mama”), his maybe two best songs (“Crack Music” and “Gone”), and that leaves out “Drive Slow”, “We Major”, and “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”. Every song on this album is a hit.
Choice tracks: “Heard ‘em Say”, “Touch The Sky”, “Gone”
3) Arcade Fire, Funeral, 2004 – The only two albums on this list that have a better opening track than Funeral are the two directly ahead of it on this list. Both of them open with unique flourishes that immediately make the albums known to you. But no album pulls on your heart strings quicker than this one. The first track, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” hits an emotional high about three minutes in, a high that it takes the band nearly 16 minutes to rebuild, in track 7 “Wake Up”. Its a truly powerful moment. That pulsing synth undercurrent and Regine singing like some long abandoned ghost…it’s goosebumps music. And the whole album is full of it. I will admit that “Wake Up” is one of only three songs to ever bring me to tears. It was a tough day man, and I won’t admit the other two songs.
Choice Tracks: “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, “Wake Up”, “Rebellion (Lies)”
2) Daft Punk, Discovery, 2001 – It’s interesting to consider that the bands that produced the top two albums on this list lean on the concept of “the future” an awful lot in creating their music. They obviously go about creating and presenting that vision of the future in significantly different ways. Discovery is full of moments where it’s nearly impossible to prevent yourself from smiling. This music is grin inducing. It’s future hedonism. Electronic music, pumped out by mechanical men all in the hope of making you lose it on the deck of the space cruiser. This was the gold standard in French house eight years ago. Now it’s in the pantheon of the great electronic achievements of all time. It put Daft Punk in the conversation with Eno, and Kraftwerk, and Oakenfold. A dance album that transcended all genres and made Daft Punk the world’s most important electronic duo.
Choice tracks: “One More Time”, “Digital Love”, “Voyager”
1) Radiohead, Kid A, 2000 – No Surprises here. The winner is an album that’s almost ten years old already, and yet still sounds as if it’s on the cutting edge lo these many years later. It’s interesting to consider the times in which this album was released. September 11th hadn’t happened yet. People still bought SUV’s and the phrase “climate change” rarely entered daily conversation. No war in Iraq. TRL was still on the air and the Real World was in Seattle or Hawaii, I can’t remember which one for sure. Life was good. Radiohead was poised for a return to the top of the rock stratosphere with a more direct rawk approach than their last album, the bomb OK Computer. Or at least that’s what people thought. Instead we got a glitchy, atmospheric, ominous, triumphant, beautiful portrait of the world on the precipice of a new era. The world of 2000 looks very much different than the world we approach in 2010. Radiohead saw this coming sooner than anyone else ever did, and in the process created the soundtrack to the next century. It also created the last CD that ever mattered, CD being the physical peice of plastic. Other CD’s will invariably sell more copies than Kid A ever did, but they won’t have the hype, and the hope of the industry more than this album did. People figured this was the document that would reinforce what we all thought we saw in Radiohead. Instead it opened up a brand new world to us, and effectively closed the chapter on the world that preceded it.
Choice tracks: the whole thing really, nut in particular, “Everything In It’s Right Place”, “How To Disappear Completely”, “Idioteque”
…
So that’s it, the 250 best albums from an unbelievable decade that will come to an end in less than two weeks. I hope you saw some of your favorite records from the last ten years in the list, and I hope you take some time during the next nine days to go back and revisit all your favorite music from the decade.
We’ll back next week to put the finishing touches on the decade, counting down the best/worst videos, bands, songs, and album covers from the oh’s. Thanks for reading, everyone. Bung bung.
The 250 Best Songs of 2000-2009
Well, we’ve finally come to the culmination of why I exactly I got into the blog game. When I signed up for this blog 20 months ago, I did it mostly for a new hobby. I also had the thought in the back of my mind of a massive music countdown at the end of 2009, at the end of the oh’s. And now, here we are, ready to kick off the just like sunny day real estate 500: a countdown of the 250 Best Songs and 250 Best Albums of the past 10 years (2000-2009). It’s a work long in progress, long thought over. There were many classes, and meetings, and sleepless nights spent ordering these lists, and reordering. Sorting them, and filtering them. At the very least I listened to a lot of music and made a lot of mental notes. The original draft of the 250 Best Songs was 22 pages, 12 point font, single spaced. About 1000 tunes. Needless to say there was a lot of maintenance needed. I’m sure there are at least one or two obvious choices that I somehow missed, and I will be kicking myself for missing them. Though I would love nothing more than to dissect the following tunes at great detail, time constraints and general laziness prevent me from doing so. At the least, comments for the top 5 songs, links to video or sound for the top 50. Anyways, let’s go:
250 Best Songs of 2000-2009
250) 50 Cent, “In da Club”, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 2003
249) Funeral for a Friend, “Streetcar”, Hours, 2005
248) Royksopp, “Remind Me”, Melody A.M., 2001
247) Tony Yayo, “So Seductive (ft. 50 Cent)”, Thoughts Of A Predicate Felon, 2005
246) The Decemberists, “The Sporting Life”, Picaresque, 2005245) Hot Chip, “Look After Me”, The Warning, 2006
244) Rainer Maria, “Life Of Leisure”, Catastrophe Keeps Us Together, 2006
243) The Thermals, “Now We Can See”, Now We Can See, 2009
242) Built To Spill, “Liar”, You In Reverse, 2006
241) Deerhunter, “Agoraphobia”, Microcastle, 2008
240) Muse, “Stockholm Syndrome”, Absolution, 2003
239) Kings of Leon, “California Waiting”, Youth and Young Manhood, 2003
238) AZ, “The Format”, The Format, 2006
237) Rock Kills Kid, “Midnight”, Rock Kills Kid EP, 2003
236) The 1900’s, “Acutiplantar Dude”, Cold & Kind, 2007
235) Charlie Louvin, “Great Atomic Power (ft. Jeff Tweedy)”, Charlie Louvin, 2008
234) Maroon 5, “Makes Me Wonder”, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, 2007
233) The Early November, “I Want to Hear You Sad”, For All of This, 2004
232) Clipse, “Grindin’”, Lord Willin’, 2002
231) Punchline, “I Don’t Know”, Major Motion Picture, 2001
230) Adele, “Chasing Pavements”, 19, 2008
229) Frou Frou, “Let Go”, Details, 2002
228) Bat for Lashes, “Daniel”, Two Suns, 2009
227) Stars, “One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead)”, Set Yourself On Fire, 2004
226) Gym Class, “4th Period: Clothes Off! (ft. Patrick Stump)”, As Cruel As School Children, 2006
225) The Rapture, “House of Jealous Lovers”, Echoes, 2003
224) Young Jeezy, “Dreamin’ (ft. Keyshia Cole)”, The Inspiration, 2006
223) Slum Village, “Selfish (ft. Kanye West & John Legend)”, Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit), 2004
222) Eve, “Let Me Blow Ya Mind (ft. Gwen Stefani)”, Scorpion, 2001
221) Ciara, “Oh (ft. Ludacris)”, Goodies, 2004
220) Thom Yorke, “Hearing Damage”, New Moon Original Soundtrack, 2009
219) Passion Pit, “Sleepyhead”, Chunk of Change, 2008
218) Cat Power, “Love & Communication”, The Greatest, 2006
217) Psapp, “Curuncula”, Tiger My Friend, 2004
216) Under The Influence of Giants, “In The Clouds”, Under The Influence of Giants, 2006
215) Modest Mouse, “Float On”, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, 2003
214) YACHT, “See A Penny (Pick It Up)”, I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real., 2007
213) Daniel Bedingfield, “Gotta Get Thru This”, Gotta Get Thru This, 2002
212) Robyn, “Who’s That Girl”, Robyn, 2008
211) The Used, “Buried Myself Alive”, The Used, 2002
210) Editors, “Munich”, The Back Room, 2005
209) Coheed and Cambria, “The Crowing”, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, 2003
208) Fuck Buttons, “Surf Solar”, Tarot Sport. 2009
207) Lupe Fiasco, “Daydreamin’ (ft. Jill Scott)”, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor, 2006
206) Nas, “Black Republican (ft. Jay-Z)”, Hip Hop Is Dead, 2006
205) Cold War Kids, “Hang Me Up To Dry”, Robbers & Cowards, 2006
204) Reggie & The Full Effect, “Get Well Soon”, Songs Not To Get Married To, 2005
203) Bright Eyes, “First Day of My Life”, I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, 2005
202) Daft Punk, “Robot Rock”, Human After All, 2005
201) Punchline, “Heart Transplant”, Action, 2003
200) Something Corporate, “Konstantine”, Songs for Silent Movies, 2003
199) The Go! Team, “Ladyflash”, Thunder Lighting, Strike, 2005
198) The Ataris, “Boys of Summer”, So Long, Astoria, 2003
197) Interpol, “No I In Threesome”, Our Love to Admire, 2007
196) Empire Of The Sun, “Half Mast”, Walking On A Dream, 2008
195) 88-Keys, “Stay Up! (Viagra) [ft. Kanye West]”, The Death of Adam, 2008
194) The Bug, “Poison Dart (ft. Warrior Queen)”, London Zoo, 2008
193) Desert Sessions, “I Wanna Make It Wit Chu”, The Desert Sessions, Vols. 9 &10, 2003
192) Windsurf, “Moonlightsun”, Coastlines, 2008
191) Architecture In Helisinki, “Do The Whirlwind”, In Case We Die, 2005
190) Eminem, “The Real Slim Shady”, The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000
189) Hard-Fi, “Hard To Beat”, Stars of CCTV, 2005
188) Common, “Drivin’ Me Wild (ft. Lily Allen)”, Finding Forever, 2007
187) Justin Timberlake, “Cry Me a River”, Justified, 2002
186) The Mooney Suzuki, “Alive & Amplified”, Alive & Amplified, 2004
185) Sean Kingston, “Beautiful Girls”, Sean Kingston, 2007
184) Relient K, “Sadie Hawkins Dance”, The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek, 2001
183) The Fratellis, “Chelsea Dagger”, Costello Music, 2007
182) Two Gallants, “Las Cruces Jail”, What the Toll Tells, 2006
181) Queens of the Stone Age, “No One Knows”, Songs For The Deaf, 2002
180) We Are Scientists, “Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt”, With Love And Sqaulor, 2005
179) Wilco, “Pot Kettle Black”, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002
178) Thicke, “When I Get You Alone”, A Beautiful World, 2003
177) Alien Ant Farm, “Movies”, ANThology, 2001
176) Jimmy Eat World, “23”, Futures, 2004
175) Metro Station, “Shake It”, Metro Station, 2008
174) The Starting Line, “Saddest Girl Story”, With Hopes of Starting Over EP, 2001
173) Twista, “Overnight Celebrity”, Kamikaze, 2004
172) Feist, “I Feel It All”, The Reminder, 2007
171) Cam’ron, “Down And Out (ft. Kanye West and Syleena Johnson)”, Purple Haze, 2004
170) Estelle, “American Boy (ft. Kanye West)”, Shine, 2008
169) Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood”, Gorillaz, 2001
168) Radiohead, “I Might Be Wrong”, Amnesiac, 2001
167) Justice, “D.A.N.C.E.”, (Cross), 2007
166) The Distillers, “Beat Your Heart Out”, Coral Fang, 2003
165) Sunn O))), “It Took the Night to Believe”, Black One, 2005
164) Glass Candy, “Rolling Down the Hills (Spring Demo)”, After Dark, 2007
163) The Black Eyed Peas, “Let’s Get Retarded”, Elephunk, 2003
162) Panda Bear, “Bros”, Person Pitch, 2007
161) Jennifer Lopez, “I’m Real (Murder Remix) [ft. Ja Rule]”, J.Lo, 2001
160) Clipse, “Ultimate Flow”, We Got It 4 Cheap, Volume 2, 2005
159) Rick Ross, “Hustlin’”, Port of Miami, 2006
158) Junior Boys, “Hazel”, Begone Dull Care, 2009
157) Eamon, “Fuck It ( I Don’t Want You Back)”, I Don’t Want You Back, 2004
156) Dan Deacon, “Crystal Cat”, Spiderman of the Rings, 2007
155) Bloc Party, “Tulips (Minotaur Shock Remix)”, Silent Alarm Remixed, 2005
154) Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”, The Fame Monster, 2009
153) Girl Talk, “Smash Your Head”, Night Ripper, 2006
152) Fall Out Boy, “My Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner”, My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Heart, 2004
151) Death from Above 1979, “Black History Month (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)”, Romance Bloody Romance, 2005
150) HEALTH, “Problem Is (Thrust Lab Remix)”, HEALTH//DISCO, 2008
149) Ghostface Killah, “Shakey Dog” Fishscale, 2006
148) Wilco, “You Are My Face”, Sky Blue Sky, 2007
147) Lindstrom, “I Feel Space”, It’s a Feedelity Affair, 2006
146) M83, “Kim & Jessie”, Saturdays = Youth, 2008
145) Bright Eyes, “No One Would Riot For Less”, Cassadaga, 2007Broken Social
144) Scene, Cause=Time”, You Forgot It In People, 2002
143) Cut Copy, “Zap Zap”, Bright Like Neon Love, 2004
142) Sparta, “Breaking The Broken”, Porcelain, 2004
141) Iron & Wine, “Sodom, South Georgia”, Our Endless Numbered Days, 2004
140) Kate Nash, “Pumpkin Soup”, Made Of Bricks, 2007
139) Kings of Leon, “Taper Jean Girl”, Aha Shake Heartbreak, 2004
138) Katy Perry, “Hot N Cold”, One of the Boys, 2008
137) Death Cab for Cutie, “Crooked Teeth”, Plans, 2005
136) Mike Jones, “Still Tippin’ (ft. Slim Thug & Paul Wall)”, Who Is Mike Jones?, 2005
135) Midtown, “Find Comfort In Yourself”, Living Well Is the Best Revenge, 2002
134) Fall Out Boy, “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy”, Take This To Your Grave, 2003
133) The Game, “Hate It or Love It (ft. 50 Cent)”, The Documentary, 2005
132) DJ Khaled, “Grammy Family (ft. Kanye West, Consequence, & John Legend)”, Listennn…the Album, 2006
131) Gwen Stefani, “Serious”, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., 2004
130) Head Automatica, “Beating Heart Baby”, Decadence, 2004
129) Lily Allen, “Smile”, Alright, Still, 2006
128) Kylie Minogue, “Love At First Sight”, Fever, 2001
127) Jay-Z, “99 Problems”, The Black Album, 2003
126) Nelly Furtado, “Maneater”, Loose, 2006
125) Mylo, “In My Arms”, Destroy Rock & Roll, 2004
124) MF DOOM, “Rapp Snitch Knishes (ft. Mr. Fantastik)”, MM…Food, 2004
123) My Chemical Romance, “Helena”, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, 2004
122) The Roots, “The Seed 2.0 (ft. Cody Chesnutt)”, Phrenology, 2002
121) The Movielife, “Walking On Glass”, The Movielife Has A Gambling Problem, 2001
120) M83, “Noise”, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, 2003
119) Radiohead, “How To Disappear Completely”, Kid A, 2000
118) Chromatics, “Running Up That Hill”, Night Drive, 2007
117) Skull Disco, “Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos’ Apocalypso Now Mix)”, Soundboy Punishments, 2007
116) The Strokes, “Someday”, Is This It, 2001
115) Dizzee Rascal, “Fix Up, Look Sharp”, Boy in da Corner, 2003
114) Thom Yorke, “Harrowdown Hill”, The Eraser, 2006
113) Danger Doom, “The Mask (ft. Ghostface)”, The Mouse And The Mask, 2006
112) Phoenix, “1901”, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, 2009
111) Motion City Soundtrack, “The Future Freaks Me Out”, I Am The Movie, 2003
110) Solange, “I Decided”, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, 2008
109) The Veronicas, “Untouched”, The Veronicas, 2008
108) Nathan Fake, “The Sky Was Pink”, The Sky Was Pink EP, 2004
107) Spoon, “Sister Jack”, Gimme Fiction, 2005
106) St. Vincent, “Actor Out Of Work”, Actor, 2009
105) Basement Jaxx, “Where’s Your Head At”, Rooty, 2001
104) Arctic Monkeys, “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, 2006
103) The Receiving End of Sirens, “Planning a Prison Break”, Between the Heart and the Synapse, 2005
102) Taking Back Sunday, “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)”, Tell All Your Friends, 2002
101) The Strokes, “What Ever Happened”, Room On Fire, 2003
100) Radiohead, “Reckoner”, In Rainbows, 2007
99) Ted Leo, “Since U Been Gone/Maps”, 2004
98) Viktor Vaughn, “Let Me Watch”, Vaudeville Villain, 2003
97) TV on the Radio, “Wolf Like Me”, Return to Cookie Mountain, 2006
96) The Pipettes, “Pull Shapes”, We Are The Pipettes, 2006
95) Wilco, “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002
94) Wiz Khalifa, “All In My Blood (Pittsburgh Sound)”, Show and Prove, 2006
93) The xx, “Shelter”, xx, 2009
92) Arcade Fire, “Wake Up”, Funeral, 2004
91) Burial, “Archangel”, Untrue, 2007
90) Yeasayer, “Sunrise”, All Hour Cymbals, 2007
89) The Darkness, “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, Permission To Land, 2003
88) Air France, “Collapsing At Your Doorstep”, No Way Down EP, 2008
87) Wavves, “So Bored”, Wavvves, 2009
86) Atmosphere, “Trying to Find a Balance”, Seven’s Travels, 2003
85) Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks”, Veckatimest, 2009
84) The Avalanches, “Electricity”, Since I Left You, 2000
83) Bloc Party, “Banquet”, Silent Alarm, 2005
82) Bon Iver, “Skinny Love”, For Emma, Forever Ago, 2008
81) MSTRFRT, “Heartbreaker (ft. John Legend)”, Fist of God, 2009
80) Cam’ron, “Hey Ma”, Come Home With Me, 2002
79) Britney Spears, “Toxic”, In The Zone, 2003
78) Sufjan Stevens, “Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part 1: The World’s Columbian Exposition – Part 2: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)”, Illinois, 2005
77) Clipse, “Trill”, Hell Hath No Fury, 2006
76) Hercules and Love Affair, “Blind”, Hercules and Love Affair, 2008
75) Death Cab for Cutie, “The New Year”, Transatlanticism, 2003=
74) The Juan Maclean, “Give Me Every Little Thing”, Less Than Human, 2005
73) Dirty Projectors, “Stillness Is The Move”, Bitte Orca, 2009
72) Interpol, “Untitled”, Turn on the Bright Lights, 2002
71) The Hives, “Hate to Say I Told You So”, Veni Vidi Vicious, 2000
70) Dntel, “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan”, Life is Full of Possibilities, 2001
69) Sufjan Stevens, “Sister Winter”, Peace: Songs for Christmas, Vol. V, 2006
68) The Killers, “Spaceman”, Day & Age, 2009
67) Band of Horses, “Wicked Gil”, Everything All the Time, 2006=
66) The Streets, “Blinded By The Lights”,A Grand Don’t Come for Free, 2004
65) Lil Wayne, “Comfortable”, Tha Carter III, 2008
64) La Roux, “Bulletproof”, La Roux, 2009
63) D’Angelo, “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”, Voodoo, 2000
62) The Decemberists, “Valerie Plame”, Always the Bridesmaid: Volume 1, 2008
61) Holy Fuck, “Tone Bank Jungle”, Holy Fuck, 2005
60) Fleet Foxes, “White Winter Hymnal”, Fleet Foxes, 2008
59) Kanye West, “Love Lockdown”, 808s & Heartbreak, 2008
58) Animal Collective, “My Girls”, Merriweather Post Pavilion, 2009
57) Madvillain, “Accordion”, Madvillainy, 2004
56) Coheed and Cambria, “A Favor House Atlantic”, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, 2003
55) Daft Punk, “One More Time”, Discovery, 2001
54) Rihanna, “Umbrella (ft. Jay-Z)”, Good Girl Gone Bad, 2007
53) My Chemical Romance, “I’m Not Okay”, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, 2004
52) The Anniversary, “All Things Ordinary”, Designing a Nervous Breakdown, 2000
51) Jay-Z, “Ignorant Shit (ft. Beanie Sigel)”, American Gangster, 2007
50) Antony and the Johnsons, “Hope There’s Someone”, I Am A Bird Now, 2005
49) Boris, “Farewell”, Pink, 2005
48) The Decemberists, “O Valencia!”, The Crane Wife, 2006
47) Jimmy Eat World, “The Authority Song”, Bleed American, 2001
46) Friendly Fires, “Skeleton Boy”, Friendly Fires, 2008
45) Franz Ferdinand, “Take Me Out”, Franz Ferdinand, 2004
44) Justice, “We Are Your Friends”, We Are Your Friends EP, 2002
43) Holy Ghost!, “Hold On”, Hold On EP, 2007
42) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, “The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth”, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, 2005
41) LCD Soundsystem, “Losing My Edge”, LCD Soundsystem, 2005
40) The Stills, “Still In Love Song”, Logic Will Break Your Heart, 2003
39) Jay-Z, “Takeover”, The Blueprint, 2001
38) !!!, “Me And Giuliani Down By The School Yard”, Louden Up Now, 2004
37) The Shins, “Caring Is Creepy”, Oh, Inverted World, 2001 -The band that changed our lives.
35) Sufjan Stevens, “The Dress Looks Nice On You”, Seven Swans, 2004
34) Radiohead, “Idioteque”, Kid A, 2000
33) Kanye West, “Touch the Sky (ft. Lupe Fiasco)”, Late Registration, 2005
32) Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Maps”, Fever To Tell, 2003
31) MGMT, “Time to Pretend”, Oracular Spectacular, 2007
30) The Hold Steady, “Stuck Between Stations”, Boys And Girls In America, 2006
29) Ghostface Killah, “Nutmeg”, Supreme Clientele, 2000
28) The Flaming Lips, “Do You Realize??”, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, 2002
27) The Juan Maclean, “Shining Skinned Friend”, Less Than Human, 2005
26) Lil Wayne, “Lollipop (Remix) [ft. Kanye West]”, Tha Carter III, 2008
25) Nicole Atkins, “Maybe Tonight”, Neptune City, 2007
24) Madonna, “Hung Up”, Confessions On A Dance Floor, 2005
23) Kylie Minogue, “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, Fever, 2001
22) The Walkmen, “The Rat”, Bows + Arrows, 2004
21) Taylor Swift, “You Belong with Me”, Fearless, 2008
20) Beyonce, “Crazy In Love (ft. Jay-Z)”, Dangerously in Love, 2003
19) M83, “Don’t Save Us From The Flames”, Before The Dawn Heals Us, 2005
18) Patrick Wolf, “Demolition”, Lycanthropy, 2003
17) The Killers, “Mr. Brightside”, Hot Fuss, 2004
16) Vampire Weekend, “Oxford Comma”, Vampire Weekend, 2008
15) Royksopp, “The Girl And The Robot”, Junior, 2009
14) Peter Bjorn and John, “Young Folks”, Writer’s Block, 2006
13) M.I.A., “Paper Planes”, Kala, 2007
12) OutKast, “B.O.B.“, Stankonia, 2000
11) Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”, St. Elsewhere, 2006
10) Arcade Fire, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, Funeral, 2004
9) Justin Timberlake, “My Love”, FutureSex/LoveSounds, 2006
8 ) Three 6 Mafia, “Stay Fly (ft. 8-Ball, MJG & Young Buck)”, Most Known Unknown, 2005
7) Kanye West, “Through The Wire”, The College Dropout, 2004
6) UGK, “International Players Anthem (I Choose You) [ft. OutKast]”, Underground Kings, 2007
5) T.I., “What You Know”, King, 2006 – Best hip hop song of the decade. There may or may not be one song still left on this list by a hip hop duo, but that’s a pop tune. This is hip hop. No song better captures the sonic aesthetic of oh’s era hip hop better than this tune. It stands alongside tracks like “California Love” and “Straight Outta Compton” as cuts that perfectly symbolize the times of the recording. “What You Know” is practically awash in those murky synth lines, and the lines are nearly indecipherable, aside from the occasional, “What!” But the bass drives this song (it’s the ultimate windows down, summer tune) and the braggadocio in T.I.’s voice convinces us that we know do in fact know what he’s talking about, even if we don’t know what he’s saying (“Ok!”).
4) Kelly Clarkson, “Since U Been Gone”, Breakaway, 2004 – Even five years later, I’m still a little surprised at how good this song is every time I hear it. At the time it seemed completely implausible that a game show contestant could go on to make the best pop song of the year. At the time that made perfect sense. Christina Aguilera, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Shakira, were, even if not at their artistic peak, still commercially potent. And that doesn’t even bring up Britney, who was still not totally insane. But, game show contestant makes good with the decade’s most gratifying mature pop song this side of Justin Timberlake. Sure, she’s does say “I’m so moving on”, but who cares. Every time you hear this song you want to jump and down. Admit it.
3) Annie, “Heartbeat”, Anniemal, 2004 – Beutiful gem from the Scandinavian underground pop star. A perfect example of the expertly crafted, homemade electro that has come to dominate pop in the latter half of this decade. It’s a companion of the sound Robyn also tried to extract from the nordic snow. Where Robyn’s style is brash and jagged like icicles, Annie’s is more like an igloo, warm and enveloping. What is it about those harsh Scandinavian winters that makes such beautiful pop music?
2) OutKast, “Hey Ya”, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, 2003 – Best party song of the decade, or at least the best song to put on at a party. Who doesn’t know the words to this one? It sounds cliche, but it’s almost hard to imagine a time before this song, right? The word institution gets thrown around a lot, but that’s precisely what this song is. It might as well be a hula loop. Classic.
1) LCD Soundsystem, “All My Friends”, Sound of Silver, 2007 – Best afterparty song of the decade, or more appropriately best song to listen to after a party. This tune pracitcally oozes melancholy. And it’s even more of a downer if you’re listening to it right at that point where you if you’re not an adult, you will be one soon. Where stuff starts to seem strange in both directions. Marriage, that’s a little strong, but still isn’t a little tacky to play beer pong at a dinner party? “When you’re drunk and the kids look impossibly tan/you think over, and over, ‘Hey, I’m finally dead’.” But the whole thing swings on that final impassioned plea, repeated again and again, “where are your friends tonight?” Hey, where are your friends tonight?
…
Wow. Little bit of an upset there. Who thought it was gonna be “Hey Ya”? Not me, that’s for one. Hopefully you saw some of your favorite tunes up there. If you didn’t now’s the perfect time to listen to them one more time before the decade expires. Put the ones I missed in the comments.
Thanks for reading, or more likely skimming, everyone. We’ll be back tomorrow with the 250 Best Albums of 2000-2009. Who you think it’s gonna be?
Bung bung.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Best of Oh Nine
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any thing in this space, but it’s rolling around to the end of the calendar. What better time to kick off jlsdre’s year-end/decade-end celebration? We’re starting off with 2009, running down the best songs and albums of the year. Monday we’ll start the just like sunny day real estate 500 with the 250 best songs of 2000-2009, and wrap it up Tuesday with the 250 best albums of the decade. Then we’ll be back the following week to put a bow on the decade by counting down some other fun lists (best videos, worst songs/albums/artists, best album covers, etc.). So be sure to check back. Enough talk. More lists. Let’s start it off with the 25 best singles of 2009:
Honorable Mentions:
Dead Man’s Bones, “My Body’s a Zombie For You”, Dead Man’s Bones
DOOM, “Gazzillion Ear”, Born Like This
Jay-Z, “Run This Town (ft. Kanye West & Rihanna)”, The Blueprint 3
LCD Soundsystem, “Bye Bye Bayou”, Bye Bye Bayou –Single
The Thermals, “Now We Can See“, Now We Can See
25) Lady Gaga, “Paparazzi”, The Fame – I know, I know. I’ve done nothing but rip on her for the last year, making dick jokes (You know why she can’t dance like Beyonce? ‘Cause if she did her dick would fall out of her leotard.), and question why she gets extensive commercial radio play and MTV converage while other, more deserving “L”-named artists are mired in obscurity in America (La Roux, Little Boots, Ladyhawke). I certainly wasn’t the only one leveling these charges and, in my defense, “LoveGame” and “Poker Face” did nothing to prove me wrong. That all changed with “Paparazzi”, the first time where it seemed the music and the aesthetic met for the first time, without the aid of nauseating “Haus of Gaga”-like hype. I heard this song described once as the best song Madonna never made this decade, but she’s not alone; there are plenty of pop stars that never made a song this good this decade.
24) Jay-Z, “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)”, The Blueprint 3 / Eminem, “Crack A Bottle (ft. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent)”, Relapse / Drake, “Forever (ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem)”, More Than a Game – These three songs all share the 24th spot because in my mind they really all represent the same thing. Yeah, new stuff is great, but sometimes familiarity is better. Especially when some of the new stuff is as trite as it has been recently. In each of these songs there exists a moment that suggests we are not on the precipice of the End of hip hop as we know it; that, even if it doesn’t sound new, the old guard can still bring it when it has to. Jay-Z isn’t a crotchety old man. Eminem isn’t washed up. Dr. Dre is still relevant. We know none of this is true, but maybe it ain’t wrong either. We all were glad to hear Dre, Em and Fiddy together on a track. We enjoyed watching Jigga play cards with Harvey Keitel in the back room of an Italian restaurant, in the video for “D.O.A.”. And we definitely all went bananas when Eminem eviscerated Yeezy, Weezy, and Drizzy on his half assedline on “Forever”.
23) Bat For Lashes, “Daniel”, Two Suns
22) HEALTH, “Die Slow”, GET COLOR – There is no doubt in my mind that this track represents the high point for HEALTH this far into their career. It’s the first track they’ve ever made that wouldn’t seem that far out of place on commercial radio. Had this track came out in 1996, it’s a near certainty it would have been on this year’s Buzz Bin comp. Securing a spot as the opening act on Nine Inch Nails farewell tour earlier this year will probably go down in history as this band’s big break. Inspiration from Trent Reznor is evident in abundance on this ominous, dancey mindfuck. The best review I’ve read described the track as having “a hook that could have been fashioned from sheet metal”.
21) Kanye West, “Paranoid”, 808s & Heartbreak
20) Ida Maria, “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”, Fortress ‘round My Heart
19) Girls, “Lust For Life”, Album [NSFW]
18) No Age, “You’re a Target”, Losing Feeling EP – Another career highlight from an alum of the Smell in Los Angeles. Like “Die Slow” by HEALTH, this song could probably be described as the best they’ve ever done. But while HEALTH mined fresh genres and pushed their music in different directions for new sounds and textures, No Age focused more recontextualizing what they already had. “Die Slow” sounds nothing like anything from their previous albums. “You’re a Target” could have been a bonus track off last year’s Nouns albums. When you’re good at what you’re doing, don’t do something different. Do what you do well better.
17) Jay-Z, “Empire State of Mind (ft. Alicia Keys)”, The Blueprint 3
16) Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”, The Fame – Takes the blueprint for success from “Paparazzi” and tries it again with even more success. It is probably too early to project where things will go from here for Lady Gaga, and there’s a very good chance I will come to regret my next statement, but…after “Paparazzi” and “Bad Romance” I now have faith that the latest Lady Gaga song will be the best. That means we haven’t seen her peak. Not even close. Of course this assumes that songs like “Poker Face” are the exceptions and songs like “Bad Romance” are the rule. Maybe it’s still too early to make that call, but for now, “Bad Romance” is her career highlight.
15) Washed Out, “Feel It All Around”, Life of Leisure – What precisely is chillwave? I’m not sure. What makes it different than, say, glo-fi or dream pop? Is Scandinavian Balearic music technically chillwave? Air France seems pretty chill. Memory Tapes kind of sounds like the Tough Alliance. That’s pretty chill. Do genres even matter? Genre definitions drove music debate as much in ’09 as the actual music did, and I still don’t know what precisely constitutes chillwave, but this track seems to define what I think it means pretty well.
14) Matt and Kim, “Lessons Learned”, Grand – Kind of just an excuse to link to the best music video of 2009.
13) Fuck Buttons, “Surf Solar”, Tarot Sport – What do you think Fuck Buttons means? You’re exactly right. And this song sounds exactly like that. Disco balls hanging from the roof of the thunderdome.
12) Phoenix, “1901”, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Required on this list by law.
11) St. Vincent, “Actor Out Of Work”, Actor
10) Wavves, “So Bored”, Wavvves – I know, I know. It’s not music. And even if it were music, it would be way too overhyped and, really, not that good. He’s a spoiled kid from San Diego, with nothing to do but write songs about having nothing to do. Also, weed. How can he be taken seriously? Honestly, I’m still not sure if he can. But Nathan Williams (aka Wavves) was the Tiger Woods story of indie rock this year. It seemed every other week some unflattering story came out about him. Dude from Psychedelic Horseshit started printing up “Wavves Sux” t-shirts. Wavves makes an ass out of himself as SXSW. Then he flips the fuck out in Barcelona because of a poor soundcheck and gets a shoe thrown at him. Also, Vicodin and ecstasy. The resulting fall out forces his to nix his European tour. What? Wavves barely existed 13 months and he’s already canceling international tours. Fascinating. Also, the music is pretty good, too.
9) Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks”, Veckatimest – Runner up best video of the year.
8 ) MSTRKFRT, “Heartbreaker (ft. John Legend)”, Fist of God – Third best video of the year.
7) Dirty Projectors, “Stillness Is The Move”, Bitte Orca
6) The Killers, “Spaceman”, Day & Age – This doesn’t make me any happier than it makes you, but this is the best Killers song in years. Especially when you compare it to their previous efforts (“Human”, ugh.) and the tracks that followed it (“White Demon Love Song” from the Twilight OST. Double, ugh.). You know what my favorite part of the whole thing is? The fact that the Killers created this exciting, pulsing power pop powderkeg of a song complete with a sing-it-at-the-top of your lungs chorus and plenty of “oooh, oooh, ooohs”, but still managed to almost, almost, ruin it with a ridiculous spoken word (maybe?) bridge, “They say the Nile used to run from east to west.” Huh? They been doing that shit since, “I got soul but I’m not a soldier” but the ridiculousness of their ridiculous lines never gets old. Again, I said it almost ruins the song. By the time the drums come back in, you remember why you liked the song in the first place.
5) La Roux, “Bulletproof”, La Roux
4) Animal Collective, “My Girls”, Merriweather Post Pavilion – Absolutely beautiful song that echoes the sentiment of the times we’re living in better than any song I’ve heard in a while, “I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things, like the social stats/I just want four walls and an adobe slab for my girls”. At least, I think that’s what everyone wishes they thought. After all, rampant materialism was one of the horsemen that carried us to our current predicament. Regardless of sentimentality, the song is amazing: lush synths, head bobbing percussion, and those infectious “ooohs”. The closest thing to a pop song, on the closest thing AC may ever come to a pop album.
3) Friendly Fires, “Skeleton Boy”, Friendly Fires – Flashy disco track from the St. Albans trio. Also, the best dance song, or at least my favorite song to dance to, of the past year.
2) Taylor Swift, “You Belong with Me”, Fearless – What can’t she do? She conquers the Billboard charts. Annihilates Miley Cyrus during their duet at the Grammy’s. Gives teenagers a pop star to look up to that writes her own songs and doesn’t work for Disney, that often. Humbles Kanye West. Hosts SNL. And lands a country song on jldre’s best of the year list. Wow. Heck of a year. And that’s all true, except for one. The last one. Yes, Taylor Swift does have the second best single of 2009, but it ain’t country. It’s pure pop. Have you heard the pop remix of this track? How awful is that? You know why it’s so bad? Because the original was already a pop song, no remix necessary. What makes it country? The pickin’ in the intro? That guitar thingy that makes the “wahh, wahh, waaaahhhhh” sound? The banjo? The fiddle? It’s a song about teenage love, about unrequited teenage love. About listening to records in your bedroom and imagining the way things could be. That’s pop. That’s a pop song that’s been done about a million times. This time, the song just happens to be one of the best to ever do it. Also, I bet her hair smells like strawberries.
1) Royksopp, “The Girl And The Robot”, Junior – Enough with this light-hearted fun stuff. This is serious. This is the tale of a scorned lover from a dystopian future. A woman in love with a mechanical man, destined to love him, but simultaneously destined to receive no love in return. On the bright side, she does get MTV on future cable. A tragic story spun across menacing disco synths and skittering percussion. The tension is palpable. I think it’s fair to call this the most emotional song I heard this year. You can almost hear Robyn’s heart breaking, “In the night wait up for you/even though you don’t want me to/Go to bed; leave the lights on/What’s the use?” If disco is destined to return as the defining genre of the next decade (and I think it will, but they’ll never get away with calling it disco) this song may serve as the advance guard. In a decade Royskopp, always an eclectic duo, have successfully transitioned from carefree electro-pop and IDM to sinister disco, and this song is the culmination of that transition. Will it drive the direction of their future work. Who knows, but I suspect it will drive the direction of electronic music for years to come, even if no one knows it.
The 25 Best Albums of 2009
Honorable Mention
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse, Dark Night of the Soul
Dead Man’s Bones, Dead Man’s Bones
Isis, Wavering Radiant
Matt and Kim, Grand
Passion Pit, Manners
25) CFCF, Panesian Nights EP – Montreal based, Michael Mann (see Miami Vice, Heat, et al) inspired, atmospheric electro.
Choice tracks: “Crystal Mines”, “The Explorers”, “Color Dreams”
24) Double Dagger, More – South Baltimore hardcore. It was recorded in a vacant warehouse with no heat in the middle of winter. And it sounds like it. That’s not a bad thing.
Choice tracks: “No Allies”, “The Lie/The Truth”, “Surrealist Composition With Your Face”
23) Royskopp, Junior – The duo’s latest shows a tremendous advance of their electro sound.
Choice tracks: “Happy Up Here”, “The Girl And The Robot”, Vision One”
22) Meanderthals, Desire Lines – Ibiza inspired space disco collaboration between Norwegian group Idjut Boys and Rune Lindbaek.
Choice tracks: “Kunst or Ars”, “Andromeda (Prelude to the Future)”, “1-800-288-Slam”
21) Cymbals Eat Guitars, Why There Are Mountains – Spazzy, Modest Mouse and Pavement inspired, indie rock from the Staten Island (by way of Penn State, for one of the members at least) duo.
Choice tracks: “And the Hazy Sea”, “Some Trees (Merritt Moon)”, “What Dogs See”
20) Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest –
Required by law to be on this list. Choice tracks: “Two Weeks”, “Cheerleader”, “While You Wait for the Others”
19) DOOM, Born Like This – A return to the form that made him the most celebrated underground MC in the game.
Choice tracks: “Gazzilion Ear”, “Ballskin”, “Still Dope (ft. Empress Sharrh)”
18) Santigold, Southerngold – Unlicensed mash up of Santigold’s debut album and the best southern hip hop of the last five years. Brooklyn does, in fact, go hard.
Choice tracks:“You’ll Find A Way Player (ft. Andre 3000 & Bun B)”, “Shawty Is Starstruck (ft. The Dream)”, “Nann Lady (ft. Trick Daddy & Trina)”
17) The xx, xx – Hype! Hype! Best band of the next decade! Hype! This entry brought to you by the NME.
Choice tracks: “Crystalized”, “Islands”, “Shelter”
16) Lil Wayne, No Ceilings – Lil Wayne can still rap!
Choice tracks: “Ice Cream Paint Job”, “Break Up (ft. Short Dawg & Gudda Gudda)”, “Wetter”
15) Delorean, Ayrton Senna EP – Debut EP as a dream pop/techno outfit for the former emocore band from Barcelona.
Choice tracks: “Deli”, “Big Dipper”, “Monsoon”
14) Neon Indian, Psychic Chasms – Chillwave/glo-fi handbook from the glitchy Austin based outfit. Best description I’ve read: “It doesn’t sound like a cassette. It sounds like what you think a cassette should sound like.” It also kind of sounds like an AM radio playing “A Wonderful Christmas Time” having sex with a feedback pedal. Choice tracks: “Deadbeat Summer”, “6669(I Don’t Know If You Know)”, “Local Joke”
13) Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2 – A sequel that is not an embarrassment to the original. Even if it did take almost a decade and a half to put it out. C
hoice tracks: “House of Flying Daggers (ft. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Method Man & GZA)”, “The New Wu (ft. Ghostface Killah & Method Man)”, “Kiss the Ring (ft. Inspectah Deck & Masta Killa)”
12) Various Artists, Dark Was The Night – Indie compilation nirvana: Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, The National, My Morning Jacket, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Ben Gibbard & Feist, the Arcade Fire, Dave Sitek, and Beirut. And that’s just off the top of my head.
Choice tracks: “Knotty Pine (Dirty Projectors ft. David Byrne)”, “You Are The Blood (Sufjan Stevens)”, “Lenin (Arcade Fire)”
11) Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion – Possibly the closest this group will ever get to a true pop album and it is a triumph.
Choice tracks: “My Girls”, “Bluish”, “Brother Sport”
10) Blank Dogs, Under and Under – Post punk/’80s goth influenced lo-fi from the Brooklyn based solo project of Mike Sniper.
Choice tracks: “Setting Fire to Your House”, “Blue Lights”, “Tin Birds”
9) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Post punk/’80s goth influenced no-fi from the Brooklyn based outfit… That last sentence seems so familiar for some reason…
Choice tracks: “Come Saturday”, “This Love Is Fucking Right”, “A Teenager In Love”
8 ) Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care – Electro R&B from the Hamilton, Ontario duo.
Choice tracks: “Parallel Lines”, “Bits & Pieces”, “Hazel”
7) CFCF, Continent – Soundtrack ready electro from the Montreal based knob twiddler.
Choice tracks: “Raining Patterns”, “Invitation To Love”, “You Hear Colours”
6) Girls, Album – Surf rock from the San Francisco quartet.
Choice tracks: “Lust For Life”, “Ghost Mouth”, “Hellhole Ratrace”
5) Wavves, Wavvves – What else can be said at this point? I love this record, whether it’s music or just an elaborate ruse to steal $30k from Woodsist and Fat Possum. When it dropped last January it sounded different than anything else that existed in the no-fi/shitgaze genre. It was more hostile than No Age, more straightforward than HEALTH, and way sunnier than Abe Vigoda. It was noisy, so noisy than on at least one occasion I thought my computer speakers were broken. Over the last year I’ve heard Nathan Williams compared to Brian Wilson and Kurt Cobain and excoriated as a charlatan. I don’t think any of those tags are true, or fair for that matter. But there’s no doubt Wavves made the best album of the last year to listen to at a beach party while high on acid. Also, weed.
Choice tracks: “Gun in the Sun”, “So Bored”, “No Hope Kids”
4) Drummer, Feel Good Together – What a strange record this was. Here’s the backstory in a nutshell. Five drummers from eight bands (the Black Keys, Teeth of the Hydra, Beaten Awake, Party of Helicopters, Houseguest , Six Parts Seven, Ghostman and Sandman) get together to make an album. And it’s not going to be some sort of avant garde percussion ensemble. It’s going to be straightforward rock ‘n roll. Amazingly enough, this idea wasn’t a failure. Instead it takes the best from ‘80s hair metal, ‘80s wuss rock, and ‘90s indie/college rock and fuses them into something that sounds sort of like Pavement, maybe, if they listened to a ton of Foreigner growing up.
Choice tracks: “Lottery Dust”, “Mature Fantasy”, “Connect to Lounge”
3) Washed Out, Life of Leisure – There were three big musical movements that came to the fore this year. The top three albums each cover one. The first is chillwave/glo-fi. It’s the kind of music you might listen to as you come down after a rave. It’s also the sort of music you would expect to hear at a really cool beach party, perhaps in Malibu. It takes a lo-fi “feedback is as much an instrument as a guitar” approach to crafting immensely enjoyable, summery pop tunes. This leads to the second crucial element of the album, the unhurried, almost unfeeling aesthetic of the album. That’s not to suggest it isn’t warm; it’s bedroom pop at it’s finest, but it’s really fucking cool too. To the touch even, like condensation on water pipes when it’s really hot outside. Cool enough that it never questions its own very questionable sound quality. If they had pro-tools in 1985, we would have had this album a long time ago.
Choice tracks: “Get Up”, “Feel It All Around”, “You’ll See It”
2) La Roux, La Roux – The second big trend was homemade diva pop. Homemade, suggesting that the music is a clear result of the artist’s and producers own ideas and songs, as opposed to corporate or third party interests. Diva, suggesting a powerful female singer. La Roux creates meticulous pop songs, that sound perfectly at home in a year that will soone be gone, and usher in new and unknown decade. The songs sound as if they’re not so much recorded, as molded from plastic. It is not warm music. It’s a union of the harsh electronics of Kid A era Radiohead, the computer generated beats of Crystal Castles, and the skeletal Scandinavian pop ambitions of Robyn. It’s a declaration of pop independence in the last year of the most technologically advanced decade in history.
Choice tracks: “In For the Kill”, “Bulletproof”, “I’m Not Your Toy”
1) Japandroids, Post-Nothing – The third trend is the reappropriation of the aesthetics of no-fi and shitgaze for pursuits that decidedly do not sound like shit. That’s convoluted, I know, but my basic point is… In ’07 the bands that sounded like shit sounded like shit because they had to, they were broke. In ’08 the bands that sounded like shit sounded like shit because it was thing to do (this went out the window with all the Wavves controversy, or at least, should have gone out the window). In ’09 the bands that sound like shit aren’t really trying. JPNDRDS don’t sound like shit, but they realize that well worn recording equipment and plenty of distortion will give their songs a rawness and intensity that straight-from-the-diary lyrics and over-the-top screaming never could. That was the big fallacy in emo: how do you sound intense and personal when the music you play sounds like it just came through ab audio car wash (complete with undercoating). Nirvana figured this out 20 years ago. You can create meaningful power pop that will resonate far outside the local mall by giving your music a raw and brash sound. I’m not saying JPNDRDS are Nirvana. They have a hell of a long way to get there. But there music certainly shares more than a few familiarities with the alternative rock of Seattle in the late ‘80s. Maybe that’s because they’re from Vancouver. More likely, it’s because they know what it takes to make relevant music that tugs at your heart as much as it encourages you to bang your head.
Choice tracks: “Young Hearts Spark Fire”, “Wet Hair”, “Crazy/Forever”
…
That’s it for ’09. The best songs and albums of the last 12 months counted down from 25 to 1. Obviously, I didn’t listen to every bit of music released in the last year, so I’m sure there’s something I missed. Let me know what exactly I missed in the comments.
Monday starts the countdown of the best of the oh’s. We’ll start with singles then go to albums. Be sure to check back. Until then, thanks for reading everyone. Bung bung.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Best Albums of 2008
2008 was an absolutely tremendous year for music. Proof of that can be found in not who is included in the following Best Albums of 2008 list, but who isn’t there. Pop music avant garde masher upper Girl Talk is no where to be found in the top 25, but the individual responsible for the Feed the Animals knockoff managed an honorable mention. Gnarls Barkley, of 2005 best album St. Elsewhere and best single “Crazy”, also failed to place with their sophomore effort The Odd Couple. The internet was abuzz this year with alterna-folk balladeers Fleet Foxes, but they were only able to muster an honorable mention for their debut album, better than Peter Bjorn and John (of the 2007 best single “Young Folks”) can expect from their followup to 2006′s Writer’s Block, 2008 release Seaside Rock. No love here for Deerhunter either. And if you’re looking for Coldplay or the Killers, well then, you really haven’t been paying any attention to this blog. So, to finish out the year, just like sunny day real estate humbly presents its Best Albums of 2008. Like the singles list we presented last week, we’ll be counting down the top 25 albums of the year, and pointing out a few honorable mentions you may want to look into along the way. Let’s get started.
Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
You know, disco music gets a bad rap. But that didn’t stop Anthony Butler from crafting a sublime dance record based on the basic principles of disco: that bass lines are a lot of fun to dance too, and you can never have too many strings in a song.
Choice tracks: “Hercules Theme”, “Blind”, “Raise Me Up”
Cat Power made her indie bones on covers albums, and this year’s offering, Jukebox, didn’t disappoint. Bringing back the Memphis Blues Band to be her backing ensemble lent this album a gutsy, gritty feel, that seemed right at home with Chan Marshalls dusky, throaty vocals. She also took some chances here, covering classics by the likes of Sinatra and Hank Williams. It would be easy to pale in comparison to company like that, but Cat Power manages to give the songs a feel all her own.
Choice Tracks: “Ramblin’ (Wo)Man”, “Metal Heart”, “Naked If I Want To”
This album seemed to be on just about everybody and their brother’s top album list of the year (Rolling Stone had it at number 11, Spin listed at number five, and Pitchfork had it as their number one album of the year), and I suspect with time I will come to appreciate it more than this honorable mention reflects. Albums like this one, with their understated folksy ways, have a way of growing on the listener. Whether it was Band of Horses jammy Everything All the Time debut or Two Gallants country-punk on For Whom the Toll Tells, folk albums seem to have a way of aging like a fine wine: the homespun lyrics get a little more cozy and goshdarnit if you can’t seem to stop humming those haunting melodies. As for Fleet Foxes, it’s entirely possible this album hasn’t had enough time to stew between my ears, and thus winds up with an honorable mention. But don’t be surprised if it’s near the top for next year’s best of the decade countdown.
Choice Tracks: “White Winter Hymnal”, “Ragged Wood”, “Quiet Houses”
Hammock, Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow
A few years ago I read an article about John Cage’s As Slow As Possible, a composition consisting of eight pages of chord progressions meant to be played “as slow as possible”. A church in Germany undertook performing this piece on their organ starting in 2001 and lasting 639 years, with the latest chord change occuring in 2005. For humans this seems incredibly slow, but maybe for other animals it seems incredibly fast, like maybe whales, or perhaps the exact opposite, hummingbirds. Either way, that organ in Germany is currently playing a middle C, a C above middle C, and F# above that, with the next chord change scheduled for 2012. What does this have to do with Hammock? Well, they seem to operate under a similar ideology to John Cage, that the longer you allow the music to play, the more interesting things it will do. By letting chords play out at their own tempo, by slowing down the string arrangements, and amping up the reverb, Hammock have created a sonic lanscape awash in sound and have made something that sounds like dreams ought to.
Choice Tracks: “Gold Star Mothers”, “City In the Dust On My Window”, “Mono No Aware”
The fake Girl Talk, The fake Feed the Animals
I listened to this album for at least six months not realizing it wasn’t Girl Talk. When I was finally informed, I was furious that I had been duped and hadn’t actually been listening to anything created by Greg Gillis. The more I thought about it though, the more I ceased to care. I liked the album, right? So what if it wasn’t actually Girl Talk, and I had no idea who it actually was? It was still a great album full of catchy hooks and some of the best mash ups never perpetrated by Girl Talk himself. From the opening bars of “Low” laid over Linkin Park, to the sped up Kelly Clarkson “Since U Been Gone” to the Disco version of “Ayo Technology”, I loved it. So what if it didn’t have “September” by Earth Wind & Fire?
Choice Tracks: “Doesn’t Really Matter”, “First Time”, “She Wants It”
And now on to the Top 25…
25) 
Titus Andronicus, The Airing of Greivances
If living in New Jersey didn’t suck enough already, here comes Titus Andronicus, pointing out all the flaws in your life, poking holes in all your values, and playing their brash brand of glam rock in their garage at volumes so loud you can’t fall asleep at night. It seems TA take great pleasure in being the obnoxious punks that always seem to be cutting through your backyard, and lounging around the Barnes & Noble with nothing better to do than mock you and your recent purchase of the newest Dean Koontz novel. Yeah, they’re smart, so what? They still can’t play their instruments, and I bet they got beat up alot in high school. None of that matters to TA. They’re fine with the fact that they forgot more about Camus than you ever learned, and they’re fine with all the neighborhood dogs howling along to practice.
Choice Tracks: “My Time Outside the Womb”, “Arms Against Atrophy”, “Upon Viewing Brueghel’s Landscape With the Fall of Icarus“
24) 
Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing
A hip hop mixtape based around Seinfeld, full of references to Garfield, Alexander Ovechkin, Cleo Lemon, and featuring a cameo by Julia Louis Dreyfus? Sign me up. If we were looking for another young educated mc to take on the mantle of the role of Lupe Fiasco (by the way, we are) then we might just have found him. DC native Wale waxes poetic on racism today (“The Kramer”), the economic divide between black and white America (“The Manipulation”), and the proliferation of over-hyped under-talented mc’s being exploited by unoriginal major labels (“The Skit”), all over some of the best beats of the past two years. Cameos include fellow just like sunny day real estate top twentyfivers Bun B, Lil Wayne, and Pusha T.
Choice Tracks: “The Roots Song”, “The Crazy”, “The Artisctic Integrity”
23) 
Bun B, II Trill
Bun B has been riding sole since UGK partner Pimp C died last year from an accidental overdose on codeine cough syrup, but that doesn’t mean he has to operate as a solo artist. Bun B puts together the best roster of guest singers, mc’s, and producers found on a hip hop album this year. From R&B stars Sean Kingston and Mya, to star producers Swizz Beats and Jazze Pha, and too many talented mc’s to list. Bun B obviously misses his longtime partner, but this isn’t a requiem. If anything this album stands as a monument to the impressive wordplay spit by UGK, and the phenomenal production work they happened to be beneficiaries of. Bun B manages to swerve across eight lanes as he bounces from funereal remberances to snarled threats, and back again. If and when T.I. winds up in jail, and while Lil Wayne continues his dominace of the pop charts (can’t wait for the debut of T-Wayne’s He Rap, He Sing), don’t be surprised to see Bun B challenge as the king of southern hip hop
Choice Tracks: “Damn I’m Cold (ft Lil Wayne)”, “You’re Everything (ft Rick Ross, David Banner, B-Ball & MJG)”, “Swang On ‘Em (ft Lupe Fiasco)”
22) 
Lykke Li, Youth Novels
What is it with the Swedes seemingly producing the best pop music in the world? For a country with a population less than that of Ohio, and the tenth highest suicde rate among industrialized nations, they certainly seem to have their fair share of great pop stars. Lykke Li, is an amalgam of two of the more well know Swedish pop stars of recent vintage. She blends the devious braggadocio of international phenom Robyn, with the introspective yet playful lyrics of Annie, into an understated electro-pop-meets-the-Beach Boys kind of record that is just as listenable in the dead of winter as it is in the middle of summer.
Choice Tracks: “Dance, Dance, Dance”, “I’m Good, I’m Gone”, “My Love”
21) 
King Khan and the Shrines, The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines
Take two parts each Ike and Tina Turner, one part early Rolling Stones, one part New York Dolls, and one part Iggy Pop, and you’re left with something approximating the psych-punk soul vibes pumped out by King Khan & the Shrines. The Shrines are a combination of new and old. Put together by the mysterious King Khan, the lineup consists of ex-garage band, the Spaceshits bandmates, former session musicians for Curtis Mayfield and Bo Diddley, a German Trombonist, and an eccentric French organist. This is ultimate party music. If you’re not singing along to “Sweet Tooth” or laughing along to “Took My Lady to Dinner” check your pulse.
Choice Tracks: “(How Can I Keep You) Outta Harm’s Way”, “Welfare Bread”, “Destroyer”
20) 
Lindstrom, Where You Go I Go Too
WYGIGT is a three track, 55 minute epic. From the opening synth washes to the hurried beat at the end of “The Long Way Home” it feels like Lindstrom never has enough time to cram everything he wants to into this album. The 28 minute long opener never gets old, and by the time it ends, you’ll want to put it on repeat. Borrowing from a similar theme that M83 rode to glory in this year’s Saturdays=Youth, Lindstrom borrows heavily from 1980′s synth pop. But where M83 was more concerned with Breakfast Club like teen angst, Lindstrom instead focuses on the epic synth washes of Giorgio Moroder, and tries like hell to bring you to your feet for the better part of 55 minutes. I don’t expect too many DJs to spin a 28 minute long single, but Lindstrom doesn’t care. The song crescendos for 17 minutes, allowing only a five minute breather before unleashing the final six minutes in a harried race to the finish. Give me two hits of e and a ring pop and we’ll dance all night long.
Choice Track: “Where You Go I Go Too”
19) 
The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
We’re going to keep this one short because Craig Finn would want it that way. If you bought Chinese Democracy, here’s what I want you to do. Take the CD (or if you downloaded it online burn a CD, then delete it from your computer) and place it in the microwave. Microwave for 30 seconds. Throw away whatever’s left. Go buy Stay Positive, and enjoy legit rock’n'fuckin’roll.
Choice Tracks: “Constructive Summer”, Sequestered in Memphis”, “Navy Sheets”
18) 
T.I., Paper Trail
I’m still not 100% sure I downloaded the legit Paper Trail, but I’m pretty sure I got the gist of it. T.I. isn’t sorry he tried to but automatic weapons off of a federal agent. If anything this album is a big ‘fuck you’ to the Man. Sure you can arrest him at the BET Awards, but you aren’t going to keep him down. Returning to the form he perfected on King, T.I. spits confidently that he’s still on top of his game, and if you want to try and take him down, he’s waiting for you. The production is as immaculate as ever: lush synth and string arrangements swish over trunk rattling beats as T.I. marches a who’s who of the industry through the studio (R. Kelly, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Usher, Yung Joc). Sure he might wind up in the federal pen, but he’s going to have as much as fun as he can before he goes in. And, shit, R. Kelly managed to get off.
Choice Tracks: “What Up, What’s Happenin”, “Whatever You Like”, “No Matter What [Official Remix] (ft Yung Joc)”
17) 
HEALTH, DISCO
Like, how much fun is that cover? I know, right? Well, the music on the album is just as much fun. This album, full of HEALTH remixes by a bunch of lo-fi electronic outfits, masterfully unites the dance-kid and noise-kid scenes. There seems to some tenuous relationship between the two sides, where the dance bands try to be as punk as they can in their leather hoodies, and the noise bands dress in pastel v-necks and neon tank tops and those upturned hats volleyball players wore in the 80′s. Each side trying to out ironic the other side. Remember that kid at the Girl Talk show with the t-shirt that lit up? The trichromatic color scheme on the album suggests that this alsum is not for any one clique. It’s a unifier not a divider. The noise-kids will like it because none of the songs come easy; the dance-kids will like it because “Crimewave (Crystal Castles Remix)” is on it; and you’ll like it because you always thought it would be neat if Daft Punk made you work a little harder to enjoy the hooks. Just leave your headbands at home.
Choice Tracks: “Heaven (Pictureplane Remix)”, “Problem Is (Thrust Lab Remix)”, “Triceratops (CFCF Remix)”
16) 
Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak
This record could go down in history among the most profoundly important pop albums of all time, or it could be the last time we ever see an mc try to really emote on a record. Only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the synthesizers and drum machines.
Choice Tracks: “Say You Will”, “Paranoid”, “Street Lights”
15) 
Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
I can’t claim to be a diehard fan of these guys since I was pretty late to the Death Cab party. I got into them at the same time as everyone else did, after the first time I heard Transatlanticism. Unless you’re from Washington state or were a college DJ, and you claim otherwise, I don’t believe you. You’re like everyone else, you heard about them when Seth Cohen said they were his favorite band. Anyways, in those intervening years since I’ve become a fan, it’s almost like Death Cab and I are a married couple. Sure, we still love each other, but most nights we just brush our teeth, and go to sleep with our backs to each other. Maybe every other Saturday night we’ll do it. That’s what Narrow Stairs is: every other Saturday sex. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s still pretty great, and every once in a while you recapture a little bit of that magic that you remember from the days when you were still dating. On Narrow Stairs, that would be the evocative wordplay on “Your New Twin Sized Bed”, or maybe that little crescendo at the end of “I Will Possess Your Heart”. Sure it’ll never be like the first time you heard “The New Year”, but it’s still better than no sex at all.
Choice Tracks: “Cath…”, “You Can Do Better Than Me”, “Grapevine Fires”
14) 
M83, Saturdays=Youth
M83 has always been labeled with the term shoegaze, but I’ve always felt that was just lazy. Sure, his songs are more often than not awash in spacey reverb and canned drums, his lyrics are often whispered, and I can imagine in person his music takes on an epic loudness that headphones cannot duplicate. However, to call him shoegaze is to miss the point. M83 has always been prettier than shoegaze, even if he often integrates sadsack narratives into his lyrics. Nobody has ever made sad sound more fun. In that respect M83 is right on point in his latest effort, where he tries to recapture all the emotions and feelings of being a kid in high school. He cribs as much from John Hughes soundtracks as he does from modern electronic or ambient music on this album. The album is a synth wonderland of high school memories, as Anthony Gonzalez attempts to reconcile his memories of high school. On one hand all the reasons high school was great; on the other all the reasons he feels he needs to make a record like this one. In the end Saturdays=Youth is an electronic masterpiece full of all those people everyone remembers from high school. No one can sum up this album as well as the unknown narrator of “Graveyard Girl”: “I’m fifteen years old, and I feel it’s already too late too live. Don’t you?”
Choice Tracks: “Kim & Jessie”, “Couleurs”, “We Own the Sky”
13) 
Robyn, Robyn
This album was first released in Robyn’s native Sweden in 2005, but didn’t get a proper US release until March of this year. Unfortunately, anyone who was aware of this record probably already had it before its domestic release, and therefore this album pretty much slipped through the cracks this year, having already been given mad props three years ago. But since I would never download illegally, I waited patiently for this album, and it didn’t disappoint. Few female pop stars have ever released a more aggressive album. Sure, there are those artists that assert that they are, in fact, bitches, or claim to have keyed their boyfriend’s cars. But before you know it, they’re knee deep in a tearful ballad about how their last man walked out on them . Not Robyn. She doesn’t mince words; she knows what she wants, and she doesn’t hesitate to get it. Bouncing from synth line to synth line and canned drum beat to canned drum beat, Robyn won’t hesitate to call you a punk, bum, or bitch. And if you walk out on her, well shit, she’s just going to through your shit out, and go jack off one of your friends. She doesn’t mess around. Her more ungainly lines, are always tempered against beautiful production, and despite the blue language at times, Robyn is ultimately a triumph in pop craftsmanship.
Choice Tracks: “Be Mine”, “Who’s That Girl”, “Jack U Off”
12) 
Bloc Party, Intimacy
Let’s get this out of the way to start: Bloc Party sounds like Gang of Four. It’s actually illegal to write about Bloc Party without referring to Gang of Four, or using the term Gang-of-Fourisms. On this album, Bloc Party move away from their ’80′s doppelganger and find themsleves with a brasher, louder, more varied sound, full of electronic acoutrements, ridiculous drum beats, and all sorts of full on emoting from lead singer Kele Okerere. This album doesn’t have the controlled chaos of some of the bands earlier work, but what it lacks in ferocity, it makes up for in sheer catchiness. “Mercury” dashes across the lava of screwed up horns and strings, with the vocals siphoned through a filter of reverb and downtuned guitar. “One Month Off” dares you to sing along to the high school insult “I can be as cruel as you / fighting fire with firewood”. The band really shines in the more subdued moments; “Signs” and “Ion Sphere” are high points of the band’s career. Crystalline bells twinkle across the sky and subdued strings create a lush landscape on “Signs” that Okerere populates with scenes of a lost lover. “Ion Sphere” is a full on attack draped in keyboards and synthesizers. When the crescendo kicks in at about the four minute mark, you feel like you’re flying.
Choice Tracks: “Halo”, “Signs”, “Ion Sphere”
11) 
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Besides maybe Chinese Democracy, this was 2008′s most anticipated album, and it did not disappoint. I mentioned in the best singles list that if Lil Wayne told you tomorrow he was Jupiter, would you be surprised? I submit you would not. He’s undoubtedly the most perplexing mc in the game, and at the same time, universally presumed to be the Greatest Rapper Alive. It’s an unlikely combination. Biz Markie and Brotha Lynch Hung were goofy bastards, but no one would ever make the claim that they were the best hip hop had to offer. At the height of his fame Tupac was one of the most eloquent spokesman hip hop has ever had and, though he certainly had his quirks, few would ever doubt his sanity. Not so with Weezy. Lil Wayne is an enigma. He’s given away more music for free than most rappers ever make. He claims to have been on 700 songs in 2007 without ever having an official release and I kind of believe him. He claims to be a martian on “Phone Home” and I’m starting to believe that as well. It certainly makes as much sense as any other explanation I’ve heard for his, um, “abnormal” behavior. But here’s the thing about abnormal behavior: a lot of times it’s preferrable to normal behavior. Hip hop certainly could use more mc’s modeling their game after Weezy’s. If someday Lil Wayne is recalled to his home planet, at least we’ll have this classic to remember him by.
Choice Tracks: “Mr Carter”, “Comfortable”, “Let the Beat Build”
10) 
Portishead, Third
When I was back home a few months ago I had to go run some errands with my dad. We hopped into his truck and he turned the ignition. The radio turned on, and “Sour Times” started playing. I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Stunned. What was my dad doing listening to Dummy, a trip-hop album released in 1994, and one that I only came to appreciate it while at college ten years later. “This is Portishead!” I exclaimed enthusiastically, paused, then inquired, “How did you find out about Portishead?” He said he had heard it in a restaurant while on travel and had asked a waitress who the band was, then went out and bought the album. I think I was amazed more by the fact that Portishead was playing in a restaurant, than by the fact that my dad bought the album. Portishead has been an artifact for the past ten years, with only occasional revivals in popularity when a modern pop star namedrops them, like Kanye West did in an interview with MTV News prior to the release of Late Registration. Not only has 2008 brought us a resurgence in old Portishead (at least for my dad), but it also brought us new Portishead. Dummy still sounds as excellent now as it did when I first discovered it four years ago, but it is dated. It sounds like an album from 1994. So it was with trepidation that I listened to Third. But this album is surprisingly fresh. It’s bold and dark and deeply textured. It seemed to fit our times perfectly. Released in April, the rainiest of all months, this album seemed like a bellwether of our times, with its gloomy cover and even gloomier songs. It sounds like a haunted house. It’s perfect rainy day music, but it’s more than that. It is the rare album released by a band of the 90′s that holds up to their previous work.
Choice Tracks: “Silence”, “Plastic Smile”, “We Carry On”
9) 
Beck, Modern Guilt
Beck used to be fun. He used to play harmonica and sing about turntables. He danced and wore ascots. Sure, his songs were always a lot darker than most listeners picked up on, but “Devils Haircut” was undeniably fun. Beck’s old now. He has song named things like “Orphans” and “Soul Of A Man”. He’s gotten way more serious, and he seems to think a lot more about his legacy than he used to. However, none of that prevents Beck from making great music, and so what if the ice caps are melting, “Gamma Ray” was built for a pool party. Beck teamed up with Danger Mouse for this record and it definitely shows, in the tight percussion and even tighter bass lines. Danger Mouse brings his bag of tricks to the party but keeps the extraneous tweaks to a minimum. He gives into Beck on a few occasions with unnecessary drum breaks, but for the most part Danger Mouse gives this album a framework. It kinda works like a jungle gym that Danger Mouse helped put up. Beck might fall off the monkey bars and get the wind knocked out of him, but he sure does look good doing those penny drops.
Choice Tracks: “Chemtrails”, “Youthless”, “Walls”
8) 
No Age, Nouns
Probably the most talked about musical trend to emerge in 2008 is the noise-pop genre being cultivated by a host of bands in far flung locales like Columbus, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and most importantly, Los Angeles. Like punk rock in New York City circa 1978, the noise-pop movement seems to perfectly mirror the City of Angels. Sure it’s noisy and hazy, but there are those brief moments when the smog seems to lift and you can just make out the San Gabriel mountains. No Age, are masters at taking a simple rock’n'roll premise (in this case the guitar/drum relationship) and layering it with so much fuzz and reverb that you can barely make out the Brian Wilson-esque melodies underneath. Then all of a sudden the smog lifts, and you’re left with the hauntingly beautiful “Things I Did When I Was Dead”. No Age refuses to let you get comfortable, and immediately thrusts you back into a headrush of cymbals and distortion. It’s ok though, because those loud songs make you appreciate the quiet ones even more.
Choice Tracks: “Eraser”, “Sleeper Hold”, “Ripped Knees”
7) 
Rhymefest, Mark Ronson Presents: Man In The Mirror
I’m still not sure which of the three principal characters makes this album as good as it is. Is it Rhymefest and his lyrical acrobatics? Is it Mark Ronson and his tremendous production work? Or is it Michael Jackson who gives the album it’s source album (even if the album was put out without his permission)? Fest spits over MJ tracks from his days in the Jackson 5 all the way to the height of his popularity in the late ’80′s, bringing a strong game that is as socially conscious as it is just plain fun.
Choice Tracks: “Get Up (ft Wale)”, “Never Can Say Goodbye (ft Talib Kweli)”, “Breakadawn (ft Daniel Merriweather)”
6) 
Los Campesinos!, Hold on Now, Youngster…
A few years ago I was pretty much knee deep into emo. At the time I enjoyed it immensely, and even now with my tastes a little more mature, or at the least more elitist, I still look back fondly on the memories and still enjoy a number of the albums. But eventually emo and I started to grow apart. Sure, I downloaded the new Starting Line and Motion City Soundtrack albums, but I never listened to them. We had grown too far apart. At the time, I remember thinking, “I really like emo now, and I’m going to enjoy the fuck out of it. But realistically, I’m going to have to give this up by the time I turn 25.” Well, now I’m 24 and I haven’t listened to a new emo album in probably two or two and a half years. It got old. I respect their passion, and I still enjoy the way a number of the bands sound (even at my advanced age, it’s nearly impossible not to sing along to All Time Low), but I mean shit: how long can you really listen to a bunch of dudes yelling about killing themselves if they don’t get that girl they obsess about (or worse, singing about killing the girl)? Enter Los Campesinos!, a seven piece from Wales, that try to have as much fun as they can while singing about teenage heartbreak. I mean, you can’t be that angry when you have a violinist in your band can you? They seem determined to break down the walls that elitist indie enthusiasts (read: me) try to put up, like standing at concerts with your arms folded, or not smiling when you’re listening to music. Los Campesinos! are gonna do they’re damnedest to get your on your feet, even if it takes boy/girl call and response in the chorus and songs with exclamtion points in the title. And by God, they’re going to yell, and throw their guitars in the air, but unlike with Taking Back Sunday, you’re going to care when they do it.
Choice Tracks: “Death to Los Campesinos!”, “You! Me! Dancing!”, “2007: The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)”
5) 
Lightspeed Champion, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge
Remember Test Icicles? The guys with the ridiculous band name that broke up in 2006 because the Arctic Monkeys were hogging all their media attention? Got ‘em? Right, well one of them is back with a new project. After quitting the Icicles, Devonte Hynes moved to Omaha and started listening to Bright Eyes. A year later, he had Falling Off the Lavender, a minimalist indie pop record built around simple acoustic guitar, beautiful string arrangements, and Hynes’ introspective lyrics. Where Test Icicles were a bunch of punk kids that never took themselves or their music too seriously, going so far as to name themselves Test Icicles after they tired of the name Balls, Lightspeed Champion is a more mature project. I bet Hynes drinks organic tea now. A lot of people have compared this outfit to Bright Eyes, but that’s not really fair. Sure, they’re both signed to Saddle Creek, and they both have an affinity for that modern cowboy sound being perfected in Omaha, but Hynes’ album is more reserved. Where a lot of times Bright Eyes finds himself in Manhattan, or Mexico, or Glendale, or Brooklyn, it seems Lightspeed Champion is more at home in his bedroom. The songs may be simple, but they’re also beautiful and poignant and funny all at the same time.
Choice Tracks: “Midnight Surprise”, “Dry Lips”, “Everyone I Know Is Listening to Crunk”
4) 
Atlas Sound, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
If there’s been a running theme on this list it’s probably been the inclusion of bands that make some of the most beautiful and sonically accessible music today right alongside bands that don’t give a shit that they can’t play their instruments and want to make as much noise as possible. Atlas Sound brings these two seemingly opposites together in the dreamy Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel. The entire album is covered in a fine layer of fuzz on but that doesn’t stop the melodies from lifting through. Everything here sounds fragile, from Bradford Cox’s frail vocals to the twinkling bells in the background. It feels as if at any moment the entire album will fall apart, which it often does, in a good way. When the drum machines kick down the doors at about the two minute mark on “Quarantined”, you’ve been dying for it to happen. Someone can tell you a crystal vase is fragile, but until you smash it on the pavement of your driveway when your nine years old, you can’t know for sure.
Choice Tracks: “Recent Bedroom”, “Winter Vacation”, “Bite Marks”
3) 
Re-Up Gang, We Got It For Cheap, Vol. 3: The Spirit of Competition
Pusha T and Malice (collectively Clipse) have been conflicted the past through years over the trajectory of their rap career. They are still one of the most respected “underground” hip hop groups in the game, celebrated by everyone from street hustlers to pale indie nerds, and they’ve never ceased to keep it real, mincing no words over the fact that they sell coke. At the same time, their sound has always seemed bigger than the cramped clubs they’ve been playing; they make arena coke rap. On the best mixtape of the year, We Got It For Cheap Vol. 3, it’s no different. Malice and Pusha T play the understated bosses to Ab-Liva’s and Sandman’s boisterous enforcers. Rapping over the best beats from Graduation, American Gangster, and Only Built for Cuban Links, among many others, Re-Up Gang have no qualms about claiming to be the not only the dealers in the game, but also the best rappers alive.
Choice Tracks: “Re-Up Intro”, “Dey Know Yayo”, “Good Morning”
2) 
Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
Making the best electronic album of the year during a year that produced dozens of excellent electronic albums is no small feat. Cut Copy, a three piece electro-pop outfit from Melbourne, Australia, managed to do just that. The more I’ve grown to love electronic music, the more I’ve realized that it’s not so important that you know what sort of music you want to make, but rather that you know the right people to steal from. Take Justice for example. Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay were just graphic designers until they decided they wanted to make house music. So what did they do? They ripped off Daft Punk and made just like sunny day real estate’s seventh best album of 2007, (Cross). Cut Copy did the same thing. They stole equal parts Basement Jaxx, and LCD Soundsystem, and infused them with ’80′s new wave reminiscent of New Order and the Human League. The result is a spacey electro-pop masterpiece, full of pulsing bass, distorted guitar, gauzy synth lines, and haunting vocals.
Choice Tracks: “Out There On The Ice”, “Unforgettable Season”, “Strangers in the Wind”
1) 
Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy
Just kidding! No, the real number one is…
1) 
The Airborne Toxic Event, The Airborne Toxic Event
Just kidding. Again. I’m sorry. I can’t help myself. Ok here we go…
1) 
Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
Do they sound like early Peter Gabriel. I don’t know; maybe a little bit. Do they sound like Graceland era Paul Simon? Well they certainly nailed the African percussion part. Well, what do they sound like then? To be perfectly honest, like nothing I’ve heard before. During a year where it seemed every indie band was embracing either playing their music in as confrontational a manner as possible, or were using synthesizers at every turn, and during a year that major labels were producing, for the most part, drivel, in stormed Vampire Weekend. Here they were dressing like the Talking Heads and refering to themsleves as “upper west side soweto” and signing about Lil Jon. They were the least ironic band of the year, a band that focused less on being cool and more on producing catchy hook after catchy hook, daring you to sing along, even if they were rhyming reggaeton with the Colors of Benetton. Grounded by stellar keyboard work and toe tapping rhythms, VW were the band of 2008. Their shows sold out. They went on SNL. And then they played Glastonbury in multi-colored rain boots. How can’t you love this band?
Choice Tracks: “Mansard Roof”, “Oxford Comma”, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”
Well that’s it for the list. The last post of just like sunny day real estate for 2008. Thanks to all the readers for making our first year so great. And be sure to come back this time next year for the jlsdre 500: the 250 best albums and 250 best singles of the past decade.
Happy holidays, and thanks for reading, everyone!
Bung bung.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Best Singles of 2008
December is my favorite time of the year for music. Sure, the spring has the great acronymic band showcases like SXSW and ATP, and summer has all the big festivals, and it seems like fall gets all the biggest album releases, but December gives us the end of the year. And that gives us ‘Best Of’ music lists. Not only does it give us a chance to look back at our favorite music of the past year, but a chance to pick up on some stuff that we might have missed in the course of the last 11 months. In my case, that means reminiscing about Vampire Weekend and Tha Carter III and finding out about “White Winter Hymnal” and Titus Andronicus. And 2008 gave us a ton of great music. After a pretty sparse 2007, ’08 came in with a vengeance giving us debuts from the likes of aforementioned Vampire Weekend, Lightspeed Champion, and Los Campesinos!, career defining records by Lil Wayne and Kanye West, and a fresh vangaurd for the pop generation: from chart toppers like Katy Perry and Estelle, to psych-pop outfit MGMT, and boy band retreads the Ting Tings. Also, we got Metro Station, a new album by the Killers, and Chinese Democracy. You take the good with the bad, I guess…
“Swagga Like Us (ft Kanye West, Jay-Z & Lil Wayne)” – T.I., Paper Trail
“So What” – Pink, Funhouse – No video for this one. Trust me, I’m sparing you. Do not look for this on YouTube. However, if you get a chance I highly encourage you to give this a listen or try and catch her performance on the MTV European Music Awards.
So in the interest of remembering the year that was and in giving you a brand new set of tunes (kind of) to listen to over the holidays, just like sunny day real estate presents the Best Singles of 2008. Now, a few ground rules before we start off. There are a number of tracks on this list that have nebulous release dates, either being released twice (in digital and physical form) or being released from an album that came out last year. So in some cases the songs on this list may have been quite well known by the end of 2007, but for one reason or another had a tremendous impact on 2008, and are thus included in this list. Personally, I’m not going to lose any sleep over this considering my two best singles of 2007 were both technically released in 2006 (“Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John, and “My Love” by Justin Timberlake). However, tracks are not chosen solely by cultural impact. There are tracks on this list that you never heard on the radio, and there are a number of huge commercial successes absent from this list as well. Most notably, despite my opinion to the contrary in last weeks blog, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” missed the cut. Don’t worry though: there is a Katy Perry song on the list. Can you guess which one? In the end, songs were chosen on the simple basis that they sound good. Period. Also, this year we will be presenting the 25 best singles and a couple honorable mentions, as opposed to the top ten I normally choose. I have a blog to use as a platform this year, as opposed to publishing this list in an away message or AIM profile, so I figure that’s worthy of including a few extra songs. Let’s get started.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
“Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” – She & Him, Volume One
“Creator” – Santogold, Santogold“Swagga Like Us (ft Kanye West, Jay-Z & Lil Wayne)” – T.I., Paper Trail
“So What” – Pink, Funhouse – No video for this one. Trust me, I’m sparing you. Do not look for this on YouTube. However, if you get a chance I highly encourage you to give this a listen or try and catch her performance on the MTV European Music Awards.
“After Hours” – We Are Scientists, Brain Thrust Mastery
“Bleeding Love” – Leona Lewis, Spirit
“Untouched” – The Veronicas, Hook Me Up
And on to the top 25, with comments on select tracks.
25) “Great DJ” – The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing – They use this song on the commercials for Priveliged on the CW so I pretty much had to put this song on the list
24) “Couleurs” – M83, Saturdays = Youth – This is the second M83 release in a row that I’ve let slip through my fingers till the last minute. In 2005, I didn’t come to appreciate Before the Dawn Heals Us until I saw the video for “Don’t Save Us From the Flames” (remember this classic?) pop up on a Best Videos of ’05 list, like, the second week of December. That song winds up on my list as the third best single of the year, and I don’t know about it til 10 days before I make the list. Same thing happens this year with Saturdays=Youth. Needless to say this is the last year I let Anthony Gonzalez make a fool of me, and it won’t be the last we hear of M83 on this list.
23) “Chasing Pavements” – ADELE, 19
22) “Girls Around the World (ft. Lil Wayne)” – Lloyd, Lessons in Love – Lil Wayne’s second appearance on this list and far from the last time he shows up.
21) “I Will Possess Your Heart” – Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs – Sure they signed to a major a few years ago, but they still know how to stick it to the man. This was the first single off their new album and it clocked in at 8:26. Way to go, guys; fuck ‘radio friendly’.
20) “You’re Everything (ft Rick Ross, David Banner, 8-Ball & MJG)” – Bun B, II Trill
19) “Electric Feel” – MGMT, Oracular Spectacular – Definitely the best song of the year with puppets in the video. Wait til 1:30. If the song isn’t enough to get you to stick around, perhaps the possibility of a bear playing the guitar will?
18) “Mercury” – Bloc Party, Intimacy – Probably the highlight of their live set at this year’s Virgin Mobile Festival, and definitely the best song of the year with Monkeys in the video.
17) “A Milli” – Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III – That’s appearance number three. Can he be stopped?
16) “Hot N Cold” – Katy Perry, One of the Boys – You know what the worst musical trend of the year was? Using the word ‘pop’ as a suffix, a vice I myself have been guilty of on more than occasion. This year gave us ‘synth-pop’ group Metro Station, ‘electro-pop’ singles by MIA and Katy Perry, and ‘psych-pop’ troubadors MGMT.
I look forward to the day that No Age and Atlas Sound are no longer referred to as shitgaze, but shit-pop. All that being said, this is the most spazzed out electro-pop track of the year, and it’s also dolphinGirl347′s, “favoritest song of the year!”15) “Teen Creeps” – No Age, Nouns – Speaking of naming conventions in music, the greatest new word to enter the mainstream this year has to be shitgaze. It’s kinda like shoegaze if they cranked it way the fuck up. Oh wait they already do? Well, it’s kinda like if they didn’t give a shit about the key…no that’s not it. No, I got it, it’s like shoegaze if they didn’t give a shit that they couldn’t play their instruments. Kinda like how they play in the video.
14) “Flashing Lights (ft Dwele)” – Kanye West, Graduation – Hands down, the best video of the year.
13) “Spiralling” – Keane, Perfect Symmetry
12) “White Winter Hymnal” – Fleet Fozes, Fleet Foxes – Another one of those songs that slipped past me till the end of the year lists started coming out. I wasn’t as overwhelmed with their debut album as a lot of other people on the internet were, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is a tremendously beautiful song. Definitely the most amazing song I’ve heard about a wolf attack (maybe?) this year.
11) “Whatever You Like” – T.I., Paper Trail – So far Lil Wayne leads all entrants with three appearances on the list, but T.I. and Kanyeezy are keeping pace with two each. Who will pull it out? Will T.I. find his “Numa Numa” song in the Top 10? Will Lil Wayne dominate the last ten songs? Can Yeezy ride the strength of 808s & Heartbreak to victory? Only time will tell.
Here we go, the big time, on to the Top 10 Singles of 2008…
10) “Kim & Jessie” – M83, Saturdays=Youth – One of the more interesting trends of the last few years has been the embrace of 80′s pop culture. Whether it’s people like Kanye and Katy Perry name dropping MJ and Madonna, or artists like Santogold, Lil Mama, and MIA channeling the neon colors and flashy accessories of Cyndi Lauper and Salt-N-Pepa, or bands like the Killers and Coldplay, doing their best to channel Springsteen and U2, 80s culture is alive and well in the oughts. No place is that more evident than on this offering from M83. From Hughesian synth waves that open the song, to the pink leotards in the video, to the guitar solo at 3:11, Anthony Gonzalez nails 1980′s teen angst as few other artists ever have, and that includes OMD and Simple Minds.
9) “I Decided” – Solange, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams -Beyonce’s little sis perfectly nails the Motown groove on this track with a decidedly modern flair courtesy of producer Pharrell.
“Love Lockdown” – Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak – Enough has been written about this song, that there’s little I feel I can add, except for the fact that I still get goosebumps when I hear this song.
7) “Reckoner” – Radiohead, In Rainbows – You really didn’t think we could get through a Best of 2008 list without Radiohead, did you?
6) “American Boy (ft. Kanye West)” – Estelle, Shine – Kanye takes a 4-3 lead over Weezy. Can he hold on for victory?
5) “Valerie Plame” – The Decemberists, Always the Bridesmaid: Volume I – Finest banjo and tuba work of the year, and both in the same song no less.
4) “Time to Pretend” – MGMT, Oracular Spectacular – Probably the most ubiquitous song of 2008, this track showed up everywhere from Gossip Girl to the previews for Sex Drive and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. If you happened to be 16 in 2008 this was your favorite song. Conversely, if you happened to be 23 and 2008 was your first year of life with a real job, the line “
Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do? / Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute?” probably spoke to you as well.3) “Paper Planes” – MIA, Kala – Undoubtedly the coolest song of the year.
2) “Lollipop [Remix] (ft Kanye West)” – Lil Wayne – If Lil Wayne came out tomorrow and said he was an alien from Jupiter, would you be surprised? This martian single floats through the aether tethered to the ground by a thumping bass line, that really only sounds proper when played from a car stereo. But how could one be expected to drive when you’re this high? The song crashes through wave after wave of pulsing synthesizers, as Yeezy and Weezy go off the chain on potato chips, condoms, and someone named Mr I. Can’t Make An Appointment. In a way, it would seem more believeable that this song was made by someone from Jupiter.
1) “Oxford Comma” – Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend – The best song of 2008 dedicated to superfluous punctuation, or any punctuation for that matter, and an absolute triumph in understated wit. Vampire Weekend trapse their way across the upper west side musing on English Drama, and Tibetan Lamas, via the United Nations in Midtown. The indisputable high point comes when we’re assured that Lil Jon “Always tells the truth”, for as we all know from freshman year, it’s “First the window, then to the wall.”
So that’s it for the Best Singles of 2008. The winners? Vampire Weekend, of course, and Kanye West and Lil Wayne, who finish first and second with five and four appearances, respectively. I’m sure you all have you’re favorite singles from this year, and they’re almost assuredly not the same as mine. Surely there have been overlooked singles, so feel free to enlighten me. Also, be sure to stop by next week for the Best Albums of 2008. Lil Wayne and Vampire Weekend finished 1-2 in the singles, who will come out on top in the albums? Check back next week to find out.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Bung bung.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Peezy F. Baby
“Everybody’s doing their thing, but they’re not exciting. Everybody is doing the same thing. That’s terrible. Do I love the music that’s out right now? I love it with a passion. Does it motivate me? Not one bit. That’s because 808s & Heartbreak isn’t out yet.” –Weezy F. Baby
Tomorrow will mark three weeks since Kanye West’s latest album, 808s and Heartbreak, dropped. Those three weeks have provided considerable time for the myriad of opinions and reactions to calm and coagulate. It’s also allowed the average listener time to digest and acclimate themselves to the record. Those three weeks have proven invaluable. This album is a contrast in terms. It’s undoubtedly one of the most hyped records of the year, yet at the same time no one even knew it existed four months ago. I saw Kanye August 10 at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore and hadn’t the slightest idea he was planning a new album. This record has been popping up all over “Best Of” lists, and simultaneously all over the most overrated lists. It’s heralded as a soul-searching catharsis by one of hip hop’s great egos and ripped apart as a calculated PR stunt by one of hip hop’s great salesmen. Either way you see it, it’s difficult to debate the fact that this is the most interesting album of the year.
For starters, this is not a hip hop record. This is bedroom pop at it’s best: music designed for lying in bed on a cloudy Saturday morning and practicing blowing smoke rings. There is little to find about this album that says hip hop, with the exception of cameos by Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne (which happen to occur on the two worst tracks on the album). This album has more in common with the subdued pop duo The Postal Service or pop mavericks Gnarls Barkley than it does with any hip hop album I know of. Album opener “Say You Will” sets the pace for the rest of the record with its haunting background vocals and stripped down beat. This is The Tell Tale Heart ‘(8)08. Kanye pours his heart on the track, synths flatlining in the background. And Kanye wants it to sink in. This track has a three-minute-plus outro, but you won’t tire of it. It’s something like church the way he lets the whole thing play out. There’s no crescendo till the very end, yet it keeps you spellbound, on the dge of your seat waiting for what will come next. It is extremely effective at building tension. It’s something akin to the lead character dying in the first five minutes of a movie. It throws you for a loop and ratchets ups the anticipation.
I mentioned earlier the fact that in many ways this album constantly contrasts with itself. Nowhere is this more evident than in first single “Love Lockdown”, where Kanye masterfully counterbalances his Auto-tuned android vocals with a simple piano riff, and bookends the spaceship sized bass line with Japanese Taiko drums. These seemingly opposite pieces (new v. old, future v. past, etc.) lend the track a cavernous quality, which Kanye uses to full advantage filling every inch with his Auto-tuned voice before breaking the doors wide open at the chorus. Lyrically, the track is sub-par, but it’s all the subtleties the Auto-tune imparts on Kanye’s voice that keeps it interesting. The fact that Kanye would give the most personal track on the album the most ‘sound’ is interesting as well. Journal via the jumbo-tron type of stuff. This is by far the most sonically impressive track on the album. Even when you listen to on headphones, I swear there’s an echo. At it’s basest it’s Kanye doing his best to scream over the drums, one voice against an army. At it’s most beautiful, it’s Kanye’s android Auto-tuned voice assimilating into the drums, one man drowned out by the fray around him.
The high points on the album come when Kanye really lets the synthesizers and drum machines off the chain. “Paranoid” is a hypnotic, synth driven, thriller, chock full of mid ‘00’s excess meets mid ‘80’s excess. But despite it’s pop veneer, whenever the synths drop out we’re still left with drums emptying into massive sonic landscape. That is probably the greatest strength of this record, the fact that it creates a hangar sized space to fill with music, and then somehow manages to fill every available inch.
The other great thing about this album is it’s ability to set the mood and carry it through out the record. From the opener through to “Coldest Winter” everything flows. Kanye first introduces us to the Taiko drums on “Love Lockdown” then reprises them on “Coldest Winter”. He uses, what I’ll call, a mechanical sounding snare (kind of like that sound from “Breathe” by The Prodigy) then brings it back in Paranoid. “Say You Will” gives us our first taste of the expanse Kanye envisions for the record then makes sure to take us to the edge of the precipice again at the end of “Bad News”. The only breaks in this vision are when guest mc’s Jeezy and Weezy show up. “Amazing” had the potential to be one of the stronger cuts on the album, but it seems whenever a guest rapper is on the track, Kanye loses his “voice”. That is, he takes on the braggadocio of his previous work. “It’s amazing, I’m the reason / everyone’s fired up this evening,” Kanye snarls in the throwaway first line of the track, and the rest of the way is little better. The whole song is one-offed down to Jeezy’s lyrics about watching his sodium. It’s little better when Lil Wayne shows up, as we find Kanye proudly declaring “I’m cold!” in the first line of the song. It seems when the rappers show up Kanye goes back into his self absorbed pretentious shell, afraid to let the guest mc’s see his more vulnerable side.
While the record is a departure for Kanye from his hip hop roots, I wouldn’t expect him to stray too far, nor stay away too long. While this latest experiment is obviously deeply personal, it is not a complete departure from his past. Kanye has always been honest with the listener, doing little to conceal his considerable character flaws. In the past he was lauded for bringing a semblance of honesty and humanity, if not humility, to hip hop. Now when he decides to release his most personal record to date he’s criticized for a supposed lack of sincerity. Even when he separates himself from hip hop for this record it is not a character change. This isn’t Christina Aguilera remaking her image for the seventh time or MGMT changing their look after going on tour with Of Montreal. This is Kanye going in a new direction that is different from but not independent of his previous work. I was watching a rerun of the MTV European Music Awards, and Kanye was there performing “Love Lockdown”. As soon as he finished with it he went into the opening bars of “American Boy” as Estelle joined him on stage. Just because he likes to sing sad songs now, doesn’t mean you won’t hear “Gold Digger” the next time you see him live.
That’s it for this week, but be sure to stop by next week for the annual just like sunny day real estate “Best Of” list where we’ll be counting down the best albums and singles of the past year, and reminiscing about all the fantastic music 2008 gave us. Thanks for reading, everyone. Bung bung.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Crank that NPR, you!
While I was driving today I was listening to NPR’s All Things Considered on the radio. Dude was doing some story about the Grammy’s, which air this Sunday. Then they played Soulja Boy’s “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”. I peed my pants a little. In fact I just peed my pants a little bit writing that last sentence. “Crank That”? On All Things Considered? What the crap?
Now, I understand that there’s something to be said for pop music and how, for all intents and purposes, it probably is some of the best music around. After all, who doesn’t like the Beach Boys. So here’s the problem: a lot of the popular pop music of today is really bad (Fergie is history’s greatest villain), and its interesting to note that in a time being defined by the internet and the DIY aesthetic it represents and propogates, music is increasingly being played to death. There are more choices out there today for the average listener than ever before in history. Yet we have Soulja Boy being played on NPR. Now, my goal isn’t to poke fun at Soulja Boy because, God bless him, he’s probably made more money on his ringtones checks alone than I can hope to make in a lifetime. And I won’t lay the blame on the average listener because music isn’t everyone’s bag, and turning on the radio to HITS 100.3: Home of Scooter and Skeeter mornings six to ten! is a lot easier than poring over dozens of blogs and arcane websites to find out who’s going to be the next out of nowhere sensation, ‘a la Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, or Lily Allen. CYHSY started out in Brooklyn and recorded their debut album themselves on their own dime, marketed it themselves, played innumerable gigs to hype it, and sold it door to door to any record store that would take it. Lily Allen might never have gotten the chance to record Alright Still (a phenomenal record) with Mark Ronson had she not been able to use myspace.com to put herself ou there. But here’s the thing Lily Allen and CYHSY aren’t for everyone. In fact I owned CYHSY’s debut record for close to three years before really giving it a chance and, promptly falling in love with it. What we’re left with is possibly (and this is a very tenous argument, and one I’m not sure I wholly believe) the two best records thus far this decade being spawned wholly by the internet, and Soulja Boy on All Things Considered.
In December a radio station in Philadelphia played the song “Apologize” by the band One Republic (?) 123 times (!). At some points in the week the song was played twice an hour and one one day three times in one hour. I’d never heard of these guys before hearing this single on a podcast a few weeks ago. Apparently this single blew up because it was included on Timbaland’s Shock Value, a record that peaked at number five on Billboards Top 200 not quite a year ago and has since been certified platinum. It contains, along with “Apologize”, the far more excellent “The Way I Are” (no need to “Apologize” for that one Timbaland! harhar.) This single has surpassed “Hanging By A Moment” by Lifehouse as the most played song. Ever. I didn’t make that up. I don’t know who keeps track of that stuff, but someone does. So how did Tim find out about these guys and thus propel them towards pop ballad Valhalla? Honestly, I don’t care enough to do the research to find this out, but I’m willing to bet they were no more famous than Soulja Boy, or Lily Allen or CYHSY when it all got started.
The real question comes down to this: does the audience want to be challenged? From all I can tell, the programmers don’t think so. Otherwise we wouldn’t hear as much undangerous (Pat, is that a word? Microsoft Word says its not, just so you know) music on the radio. I don’t mean ‘undangerous’ to mean music that isn’t violent or doesn’t contain cuss words. ‘Undangerous’ music is music that doesn’t take any chances. Listen to “Apologize”. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Its catchy, honestly, who couldn’t like it. Now listen to “Crank That”. Take your time. Its toe tapping, right? You sing along to the “ohhhh’s” don’t you? Its ok, after all they call it pop music for a reason. Now go ahead and liten to CYHSY. Its not quite as toetapping, eh? It takes six tracks to get to the “pop” song, and before you get there you’re bombarded with yelped vocals, weird sound effects, and rambling guitars that you can almost see (let alone hear) slice the music to shreds. Then you hit “The Skin of My Country Yellow Teeth” and its all worth it, right? But I don’t expect to hear that much CYHSY on HITS 100.3: Drivetime with Dingo and the Belcher three to six every weekday! anytime soon.
What’s the point you ask? What’s to be done if pop music is in such a bad way, and we’re not getting any fucking help from the radio stations that have driven pop music for the last half century? I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anyway to say you know exactly what can be done. In an era where the internet has given us a near unlimited amount of bands and their music at our fingerprints, while simultaneously crushing the record industry and driving the RIAA to shake down college students, how has radio responded? By playing the same songs over and over again, and much more frequently (and sometimes both at the same time!). If that seems counter intuitive then your brain is working properly. I’m not sure how radio can acquit itself of this fact (when you consider that Soulja Boy, CYHSY, Lily Allen, and One Republic all came from near total anonymity, yet two of them have been absolutely played to death, one at least got some passing glances from the mainstream, and one has been almost completely ignored by radio outside of college stations and maybe a few alternative stations) except to say they wanted the sure thing.
I guess all we can do is keep listening, and in the end as long as you like what you’re listening to, who cares what anyone else thinks? So what if people laugh at you (or, I suppose, more appropriately haha) at you on message boards today. Odds are good you’re going to look back in ten years at what you were listening to today and laugh at yourself anyways (how many people can really say they were listening to Sonic Youth or The Smiths instead of Rick Astley or Culture Club in the 80′s?). The truth is we’ve done nearly all we can for mainstream radio. We’ve left in droves, downloaded our music for free, and still the radio continues to play the same tracks and more of them. Oh well, I guess they wouldn’t call it pop if no one listened to it, even if it happens to be the minority enjoying whats likely the best pop music out there (in this one handsome man’s opinion). So to all you Soulja Boys and Girls out there keep on Supermannin that ohhhhhhhh (even she does happen to be reading the news on NPR) becuse there has to be someone listening.
I probably couldn’t have formed half these ideas inside my head (and baltanly ripped stuff off) without listening to Sound Opinions. Its a pretty rad show on Chicago public radio, and it has podcasts on iTunes. You should totally check it out.
So, since I’ve started a blog, I am now required by law to write a blog about Vampire Weekend and thier debut album. I’ll probably be writing about that in the next few days. Here’s the quick and dirty version for those of you can’t wait: It’s a great fucking record. Go and buy/download it as soon as possible.
Also, thanks to my loyal readers out there on the cyberweb (there’s at least two of you, and possibly as many as four!). I appreciate someone reading what I write and the couple people who have posted links in away messages or on the facebook, thats awesome and I really appreciate it. Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next installment of the exciting adventure that is just like sunny day real estate.
Will Pat make it out of the cave before it fills with water? Will he be able to track down the Golden Idol of Pizzaro before it makes its way to the supervillain, the EYE? Will he ever be able to get rid of that rash on his left butt cheek? Check back next weekend for the next thrilling chapter.
And the answer is no, the rash won’t go away until Pat visits his doctor and gets some prescription ointment.
