On my personal Tolerability Index, the radio format (I dare not call it a “musical genre”) known as “smooth jazz” generally falls somewhere between Sarah Palin’s Alaska and gnawing my own arm off. But last year, I discovered that Billboard actually compiles a weekly Jazz songs chart and every now and then, I give it a look. And it’s not just the curiosity of someone expecting to be repulsed: As it turns out, Sade landed three tracks from her latest album in the year-end Jazz chart, and Wake Up!, the great collaboration between John Legend and The Roots (and friends) has also landed a few hits on the chart.
But my curiosity isn’t entirely pure either. As Sunset Boulevard‘s Joe Gillis might have said, sometimes it’s fun to see how bad bad music can be. And so, every now and then, when I have nothing better to do than watch the Chiefs lose the last game of the regular season, I arm myself with a few titles from the Jazz chart’s upper reaches and head on over to YouTube. The results are predictable. Lots of alto and soprano saxophones and wooshy textures. Lots of clips from The Weather Channel where the songs are used as soundtracks for seven-day forecasts and temperatures for cities around the country.
Mindi Abair’s ”In Hi-Fi Stereo”Recently, I noticed that saxophonist Mindi Abair had a new album out. Now, Mindi Abair’s a name I actually know, although I can’t honestly count myself as a fan. Here’s the deal: for several years, I shared office space and a boombox with a crusty old man who kept a copy of the 1966 edition of the company’s employee handbook in his desk. For a while, there was only one radio station he could tolerate – a Wisconsin Public Radio station that played classical music until it was time from Terry Gross. I didn’t mind that. But then, a smooth jazz station was launched in Madison, and we started listening to that a lot. It wasn’t all bad. They played Steely Dan. But they were also really hot for a hottie sax-blower named Mindi Abair and they played her songs all the time. Despite that fact, there’s not a single Mindi Abair melody I could hum for you. Her music was entirely forgettable, and as a result, I’d forgotten it – entirely.
So when I saw Mindi Abair’s name on the charts, I thought, y’know, why not give it a try, and see what it does for me? The song I checked out was called “Be Beautiful”, and I actually found myself – well – sort of – gulp – liking it. It had a nice, understated groove that felt organic and live even if it wasn’t terribly distinctive. The sax solo was fine and tasteful – though, admittedly, still a sax solo – and it was tempered by a soulful vocal chorus that felt made-up-on-the-spot which made the whole song feel a lot more intimate and real than (I suspected) it deserves to feel. More recently, another song from the same album – it’s called In Hi-Fi Stereoand the cover art shows Abair spending some quality time with her vintage vinyl collection and portable turntable – has started showing up on the charts, and this one’s even better.
The new one’s called “Get Right” and it features vocalist Ryan Collins, who bears more than a passing vocal resemblance to John Legend. The song, too, sounds like something John Legend would record. It’s got an immediate retro soul groove, driven by electric piano, a stylin’ horn section, and a great singalong chorus. Abair’s sax doesn’t even show up in the spotlight until halfway through, and even then, she cedes the floor to Collins after a brief solo, choosing, in essence, to be featured artist on a song where she’s credited as the lead – an act of both confidence and restraint that demands applause. Give the song a listen here:
Before I head into my Top 10 songs of the year, here’s a recap of the previous 90. Click the links to see the blocks of videos and commentary for each group of ten:
#10#10: “WAIT TILL YOU SEE MY SMILE” by ALICIA KEYS.
It’s not often that a record as heavy on ballads as Alcia Keys’s fourth album is turns out to also be a fabulously exciting listen. But The Element of Freedom is, and this song, though regrettably not promoted as a single, is, to me, the album’s beating heart. It’s soft and understated in a way that Keys has never really been before, and that understatement is perfectly matched to the song’s theme of finding inner strength to face external opposition. It’s got a gorgeous build; and it feels like the deep breath you might take before jumping out of an airplane.
#9#9: “HAPPINESS” by ALEXIS JORDAN (with DEADMAU5).
18-year-old Alexis Jordan seemed poised to become a footnote to a pop-cultural footnote when she was eliminated from America’s Got Talent four years ago. And in another time, she probably would have. But now there’s YouTube. And Alexis Jordan has been nothing if not a prolific poster of videos of herself singing the day’s hit parade on the YouTube. Eventually, someone had to notice. But her debut single is way better than anyone might have expected based on the story of her career so far. Here, she takes an existing techno-rave song – “Brazil (2nd Edit)” by Canadian dj deadmau5 – and sings a sweet teenybopper song all over the top of it. A musical marriage made in the aisles of Old Navy.
#8#8: “ONE IN A MILLION” by NE-YO. Libra Scale, the fourth album by R&B singer-songwriter-producer Ne-Yo sounds like everything a new Michael Jackson album should and would sound like in the best of all parallel universes. And it also sounds like the album Ne-Yo has dreamed of making since he first decided to be a performer. It’s sweet, stylish, sexy; and it has a great sense of humor too. It’s also got a narrative storyline about three guys who are given superpowers with the caveat that by accepting them, they can never fall in love. Michael would have been proud. The narrative structure isn’t new for Ne-Yo though. The first time I ever heard of him, he was opening for John Legend (when John Legend was touring Get Lifted), and his set was an adorable one-man play about trying-and-failing-and-trying-again to get the girl. Libra Scale is that little stage act’s apotheosis.
#7#7: “ON TO THE NEXT ONE” by JAY-Z + SWIZZ BEATZ.
In which Jay-Z not-so-politely refuses to participate in any kind of – what do you call it? – oh yeah: recession. Jay-Z is and promises to remain a hip hop stimulus package unto himself. Yes, it’s true that he also released, simultaneously with this song, a single called “Young Forever” which was essentially a remake of a beloved 80s synthpop song by the German group Alphaville, and yes, you’d think that I would have fallen hard for that, and yes, I admit the sheet amount of nasty language in this song makes me cringe some, but I find every other thing about it highly addictive. And the video: who knew Jay-Z was a closet Goth (with an enthusiasm for basketball and Damien Hirst?)
#6#6: “SOLDIER OF LOVE” by SADE.
A new album by Sade? Enough said, really.
#5#5: “WAITING FOR THE END” by LINKIN PARK.
“I know what it takes to move on. I know how it feels to lie. All I want to do is trade this life for something new, holding on to what I haven’t got.” I never expected to fall as deeply in love with a Linkin Park album as much as I have with their latest, A Thousand Suns, a sort of concept record inspired by, of all things, the creation of teh atomic bomb. They had me at the Oppenheimer quotes that open the record. It must be my thing for post-apocalyptic fiction. At any rate, I love this song. “The hardest part of ending is starting again.”
#4#4: “FUCK YOU” by CEE-LO GREEN.
It’s every great bubblegum song from the 60s and 70s wrapped up in one great big four letter word. Is it gimmicky? Abso-effing-lutely. But it’s also deeply catchy and tremendously good-natured in the way that Top 40 pop rarely is these days. No surprise, really, with Bruno Mars on board as a co-writer. And the whole “Life Stages of the Lady Killer” video is, y’know, kinda heartwarming.
#3#3: “SHAME” by ROBBIE WILLIAMS & GARY BARLOW.
Imagine Justin Timberlake and JC Chassez getting together 20 years after “Bye Bye Bye” to hash things in sweet, folky harmonies. “Shame” is the story of the greatest boy band bromance ever speculated about. The song was the single released in conjunction with Robbie’s recent solo greatest hits retrospective, and it was released right as Robbie set his solo career aside to re-join his old pal Gary, and the rest of the 90s-era British boy band Take That. The video, which finds the two singing the song at a country bar karaoke night, plays on all the stereotypes about boy bands, and gets enticingly Brokebackish toward the end. Will it go there? It… just… might… (FTR… they’re both openly straight, even though most of the men in their audiences aren’t.)
#2#2: “DANCING ON MY OWN” by ROBYN.
High, double-edged drama in the wake of a bitter break-up. On one hand, here’s Robyn surreptitiously spying (err… stalking?) her ex with his new girl at the club. On the other, here’s Robyn dancing in the face of his rejection. Is it a moment of devastating weakness, or a moment of defiant strength? “I just came to say good-bye. I’m in the corner watching you kiss her.” That part where the beat drops out as she starts into the final chorus is just gut-wrenching. It’s the centerpiece of my favorite album of the year.
#1#1: “POWER” by KANYE WEST.
This year, Kanye West has become to hip-hop and maybe even popular music in general what Sarah Palin has become to politics. His is a presence to which attention must be paid. Always. Like Palin, he’s mastered the art of the provocatively self-serving tweet. Like Palin, he has a knack for saying really dumb things in really public ways. And like Palin, he is impervious to the valid criticisms and well-deserved attacks from the many many many many people for whom the mere mention of his name causes cringing, growling and gnashing of teeth. He revels in the outrage directed his way – “screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it” – and rather than defend himself against media missiles, he grabs a hold of them and turns them into weapons of offense. He’s almost certainly a narcissist, but he’s done what most narcissists fail to do – he’s made himself an object of our own sympathetic admiration. This year (and last), Kanye West has said and done things to make a fool of himself. But this year, he also made one of the year’s best and most fascinating records in the form of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Deal with that, you can almost hear Sarah – I mean Kanye – say, with an obnoxiously self-satisfied wink.
“Power” was the first song to be released from the album, arriving almost half a year before the album itself, and it’s a toweringly tacky piece of self-aggrandizement – a sonic pyramid of tribal chants and handclaps, mushroom cloud basslines, and arena-rock guitar heroism (and yes, that King Crimson sample) – but tucked into it, right at the end is this challenge: “Do you have the power to let power go?” Early in the song, he likens himself to a superhero, but like Superman, by the end of the song, he seems to come to understand that in order to experience life and love on any kind of real level – to be a real person, and not just a really wealthy, powerful man who can get himself all the “light-skinned girls” he wants – he has to give up his superpowers and concede some level of weakness, vulnerability, mortality. “This’ll be a beautiful death,” he sings, and instead of flying like Superman, he’s “dropping out the window, letting everything go.”
In a year when we saw firsthand, repeatedly, how the petulant whims of a single Senator could hold up progress on even the most popular and uncontroversial of legislative initiatives, West’s “Power” feels, strangely (since it’s coming from West), like a refreshingly sincere confessional on the moral limits of self-indulgence, from someone who seems to live life at the extremes of self-indulgence. Well played, Mr. West.
And that is all! This has been a great year for music, and it was painful tying to even make a list of “only” 100 great songs. Let’s hope 2011 can be even half as awesome. Happy New Year, folks! This is Paul’s Inner Casey Kasem signing off. Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for your beers.
I can’t let Paul do all the work right? If you haven’t been following, Paul has put together an exhausting list of his top 100 songs of 2010. You can read his latest, which is Part Nine.
My lists aren’t going to be exhaustive at all. In fact, they’ll be at most, five long.
I loved looking back through my iTunes collection and remember all the stuff that I (and my kids) bought in 2010.
Most Fun Album Of 2010
3. Big Boi: Sir Lucious Left Foot… The Son Of Chico Dusty
You know where artists are really killing it these days? Video games. Big Boi’s Shutterbug is all over the new NBA 2K video game and whenever it comes on, my kids and I start nodding our heads while getting ready to play some cyber hoops. Most of the new album is that fun. It’s video game fun.
2. Bruno Mars: Doo-Wops & Hooligans
I had this one on my radar from day one, but I was a bit apprehensive at listening to an entire album of his work. While it’s not going to grab you and make you think, it’s very charming and engaging. The dude just gets how to write music that people enjoy listening to. That’s the entire game right there.
1. B.o.B.: B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures Of Bobby Ray
I asked at least two people what they thought about this one before hitting that purchase button on iTunes. It became the most played record in my collection for 2010. Airplanes, part 2 with Eminem, Nothin’ On You, Magic, Past My Shades, and Don’t Let Me Fall would’ve all been on any kind of favorite songs of the year list had I considered to make one.
Most Disappointing Album Of The Year
3. Maroon 5: Hands All Over
I’ve wondered if these guys would turn into a modern version of Huey Lewis & The News. I’d be totally fine with that. But there’s something missing. Like a wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Huey seemed to be in on the joke, while Adam Levine seems to take this stuff way too seriously. There are some fun songs on this album, but not enough.
2. Christina Aguilera: Bionic
I’m not quite sure what she was trying to do here. It’s kind of messy and all over the place. But I’ll give her a mulligan. She’s recently had a child and then divorced her husband, all while trying to do the music and movies thing. She’s quite ambitious, but not entirely bionic enough to succeed thus far based on this album and Burlesque feedback.
1. Usher: Raymond Vs. Raymond
Just when you thought this dude was growing up, he took a bad left turn somewhere at “Bieber Avenue”. Some of his little buddy Justin’s songs were more mature than the filth that sludges around this album. The guy is in his 30s now, has babies, and is whoring himself out all over this album. I guess that’s what happens to artists who panic when they start to lose the teeny bopper audience.
Most Overrated Album Of The Year
1. Eminem: Recovery
There’s really only one album that fits the bill for me. Kanye’s new album is overrated to an extent and I’ll explain that in a bit, and I never fully got into Drake’s album even though it was well received, but this is the only album I bought all year long where I felt that the praise wasn’t all deserved. To be fair, this is Eminem’s best work in years. But in no way should he get free passes at this point in his career. For all the folks who say he’s back, I say that he’s still the same dude, but just with better direction this time.
Favorite Songs Of The Year
3. Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour): Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge, & Rihanna
This song fell under the radar because of how early it came out in 2010, but also because it’s basically a song for charity. But it’s excellent. I’m not sure there was more star power on any song in 2010. But with that star power came an understanding about how to make it about the song and the purpose, which is why I think it works so well. Never before (at least to my ears) have Jay-Z and Bono been so understated.
2. The Other Side: Bruno Mars, Cee Lo Green, and B.o.B.
It’s the very last track on Mars’ debut album, and it also very well might be the best track on the album. Shame on me for not having purchased Cee Lo’s new album, but I was put off by his gimmicky single. But here you have three artists who brought it in 2010, working together to create a jam and a half.
1. Enrique Iglesias featuring Pit Bull: I Like It
Ok, I was just seeing who was paying attention. Here’s the real number 1.
1. One In A Million: Ne-Yo
The biggest heap of praise I can give this song is that it’s the best Michael Jackson-like song that I’ve heard from the recent batch of artists who owe their entire careers to MJ. It’s just too bad that Ne-Yo’s current album couldn’t bring the same fire as this.
Favorite Albums Of The Year
5. El DeBarge: Second Chance
This came out late in the year, but if you want to hear straight up R&B the way they used to do it in the old days, this is where you go. There are a couple of guest rappers on it, including 50 Cent who is also featured on Michael Jackson’s posthumous work, but they don’t ruin it. El’s album is the R&B album of the year.
(By the way, what does that say about 50’s career that two of his most memorable 2010 moments are bad verses on albums of artists who were hot like fire in the 80s?)
4. The Black Keys: Brothers
My man Big Money Mike hipped me to these guys, but it wasn’t until I read an article about Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney and their semi-dysfunctional relationship in Rolling Stone, did I decide to dig in. And I’m glad I did. Their music isn’t poppy enough for me to throw on for a long drive with the kids, but if you throw on your headphones and get lost in it, they’ll take you on quite the journey.
3. B.o.B.: B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures Of Bobby Ray
I think I’ve already said enough about this dude. Maybe I should run his PR.
2. Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Here’s where I’m going to get flack. I’m a Kanye fan. I’ve been with him from day one. His new album is pretty darn brilliant. But I think people are overlooking what he says because of how fantastic it sounds. The guy’s rhyme game is definitely improving. And when you hang out with Jay-Z, it should improve simply by osmosis right? What I don’t get about this album is that he’s talking about slapping and hurting women consciously and we’re giving him the ok to do it. I think dude definitely has major issues and needs to grow up.
I get that it’s an act and that he’s playing a character, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
All of that being said, it’s now my second favorite album of his, even with the issues I have with it. Late Registration will still get more play time on my iPod, but this will definitely have a long life. I get amped up every time I hear So Appalled.
1. The Roots: How I Got Over
The Roots are the most consistently good act in music. They were able to juggle their new gig of being Jimmy Fallon’s house band with creating new music that stayed true to their roots, which I think is the point. Maybe their new album should’ve been titled Bionic.
Thanks for reading and have a happy, and safe start to 2011.
