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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Top 100

  • PAUL’S TOP 100 OF 2010 – PART 7: #40-31 “Put your palms to the ceiling like yes, yes…”

    Here comes the Top 40!

    #40
    #40: “THE HIGH ROAD” by BROKEN BELLS.
    “The dawn to end all nights. That’s all we hoped it was…” For whatever reason, that line always gives me a shiver. I’m not even sure I know what it means, but it sounds amazing, doesn’t it? The video’s pretty amazing too… a sort of dream-walking odyssey perfectly tuned to the song’s dark, mysterious atmosphere.

    #39
    #39: “WRITTEN IN REVERSE” by SPOON.
    I’ve had a love/indifference thing going with Spoon for about the last 10 years. It’s been about 90% indifference and 10% love. But when it’s love, it’s really really big love. For example: this song. I love singing along with this song. I love the primal disregard of pitch. I love yelling at drivers in my rear view mirror at clogged intersections: “I’m not standing here! No, I’m! Not standing here!”

    #38
    #38 (TIE): “PARACHUTE” by CHERYL COLE / “PARACHUTE” by INGRID MICHAELSON.
    Formerly of the British girl-group Girls Aloud, Cheryl Cole released her debut solo album late last year. This dramatic take on a track Ingrid Michaelson wrote (but didn’t record) became a hit in the UK earlier this year.

    #38
    And then Ingrid put out her own version of the song. Sorta like Michael Bolton did with that Laura Branigan song in the 80s. Only not disgusting. “How am I supposed to live without you…” Oh my gawd. We should have known Michael Bolton would be nothing but trouble when we saw his writing credit on that Laura Branigan 45. What were we thinking?

    #37
    #37. “WHITE NIGHT” by THE POSTELLES.
    Not that I wish the band ill, but this is one of those debut singles that comes so close to pop perfection that you (almost) know they will only disappoint you in the future. I (almost) want them to be a one-hit-wonder, because I know they’d be awesome at that. This song also features my favorite call-and-response moment of the year. Oh, and I think you can probably still download this for free directly from the Postelles.

    #36
    #36: “I’M A PILOT” by FANFARLO.
    I imagine Fanfarlo is what Arcade Fire would sound like if Arcade Fire were as obsessed with Tigermilk as they are with The River. They write songs that sound simultaneously huge and modest – sweeping and, at the same time, specific. Also, even though albums are sort of on the wane these days and so such things are becoming less relevant, “I’m a Pilot” is a great album opener in the tradition of great album openers.

    #35
    #35: “O.N.E.” by YEASAYER.
    What I like most about this video is that the dancing is exactly what I would like to believe I look like when I’m dancing to this in my basement and nobody can see. What I like second most is that the fictional musical instruments the band plays in the video look exactly like what I imagine the real musical instruments would look like based on the sounds they make. What I like least about this song is that it will be forever linked in my brain as the song I was listening to when someone rear-ended my brand new car two weeks after I’d bought it. Urgh.

    #34
    #34: “A MORE PERFECT UNION” by TITUS ANDRONICUS.
    I would like to believe that this is the stuff of Chris Christie’s nightmares. A little bit of Bruce Springsteen. A little Billy Bragg. A little Bright Eyes, a little Replacements, a little Thin Lizzy. A little Abraham Lincoln, a little William Lloyd Garrison. And a great big joyful noise. This video edits the song down significantly from its 7 minute album version. That version is well worth hearing, but you get the gist of it here.

    #33
    #33: “DANCE FLOOR” by THE APPLES IN STEREO.
    Probably the most adorably unpretty band in the world right now (and yes, I do have a small crush on Robert Schneider – I mean, come on, who wouldn’t?), The Apples in stereo take us on a journey through space, time, analog synth technology and aging hipster fashion. Elijah Wood isn’t just making a cameo here. He has his own record label, and The Apples in Stereo were the first band he signed to it.

    #32
    #32: “WE, MYSELF, AND I” by SHAD.
    Of Rwandan descent, born in Kenya, straight outta London, Ontario comes Mr. Shadrach Kabango (just call him Shad), who financed his first album with money he won the old fashioned way – at a radio station talent contest. On his first two albums, Shad delivers rhymes that go from goofy to poignant over old school R&B samples, but this song, from his latest record TSOL is a stormy, confrontational rocker. And the award for the Best Use of the Word “Yes” in Song goes to…

    #31
    #31: “MY BEST THEORY” by JIMMY EAT WORLD.
    This band generally releases new albums about three years apart, and those long intervals give us time to forget why they were ever a big deal. And then the new album comes, with a single like this – all sweat-drenched urgency – and you remember: Oh yeah, they’re just a great band. As far as the video goes, well who knows what’s going on there, and the lyrics are vague enough to be either profound or banal. It doesn’t matter though. Whatever it’s all supposed to be about, that part where you “feel the air rush out!” sounds exactly like what it’s saying.

    In the next installment: A dance diva on motherhood and a rapper on puberty.

  • PAUL’S TOP 100 OF 2010 – PART 6: #50-41 “You came to celebrate, I came to cerebrate…”

    And the countdown marches on…

    #50
    #50: “YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MIND” by THE MAGNETIC FIELDS.
    You have to love a guy unafraid to rhyme “on your knees, yeah” with “anesthesia”. A great song about not letting bygones be bygones sung in Stephen Merritt’s strangely incisive Eeyore deadpan. After releasing a their feedback heavy 2008 album Distortion, the Magnetic Fields returned with Realism the stripped-down acoustic yin to its predecessor’s clanging yang.

    #49
    #49: “THE SKY’S THE LIMIT” by JASON DERULO.
    Petty thievery never sounds so good as when Mister Desrouleaux swipes the essence of “Flashdance… What a Feeling” from Irene Cara. The best reinvention of an 80s soundtrack anthem this year. Which is not to say that the Black-Eyed Peas provided any competition with their insufferable “The Time (The Dirty Bit)”. Also: this song contains my favorite instance of the word “shawty”.

    #48
    #48: “TRIPPIN’ DOWN THE FREEWAY” by WEEZER.
    Although the song is about the persistence of a romantic relationship (and a woman’s awesome “Shirley Applebee” look) against all odds (and all guys named Kevin Green), it could be just as much about Weezer and their fans…
    I loved Weezer from the very start, but since their 1996 album Pinkerton, I’ve run hot and cold with them, and in the last few years, I’ve completely written them off (or thought I had). But they always manage somehow to re-justify their existence and re-justify my love. Example: This damn song. Gawd, I love it. It’s been in heavy rotation on my iPod all year. It made me love the band again. It also made me want to google Shirley Applebee. And then, once I did, it made me love the song and the band even more. Weezer and I are gonna be okay.

    #47
    #47: “ALL NIGHT LONG” by ALEXANDRA BURKE featuring PITBULL.
    The fifth season winner of Simon Cowell’s UK (soon to be US) singing competition The X-Factor, Alexandra Burke throws a wild house party. Although I like this version fine, the Pitbull-less version that appears on Burke’s debut album Overcome has a better build-up and you don’t miss the obligatory rap break at all.

    #46
    #46: “TELEPHONE” by LADY GAGA & BEYONCE.
    Before there was a video for this song, it was just a funny little song about not wanting take calls from a stupid boyfriend when you’re out dancing. I love the video, but it sort of overshadows a lot of what was fun about the song to begin with. Although it does give us some very quotable lines. “Once you kill the cow…”

    #45
    #45: “MARCHIN’ ON” by ONEREPUBLIC.
    “For those days we felt like a mistake, for those times when love’s what we hate, somehow, we keep marchin’ on.” This is a great song to listen to after you’ve spent most of an otherwise pleasant evening arguing about who’s more underappreciated and throwing Tupperware lids at each other.

    #44
    #44: “GRENADE” by BRUNO MARS.
    The guy who wrote “F*ck You” for Cee-Lo Green goes all Christ-like (with a piano instead of a cross) for the video for the second single from his debut album Doo Wops and Hooligans. Awesome lyric: “Tell the devil I said ‘Hey’ when you get back to where you’re from…” Ouch. Also, I love – LOVE – the drums in this song.

    #43
    #43: “BREAK YOUR HEART” by TAIO CRUZ.
    This song is all about its middle eight. If this were a countdown of songs I most loved singing along with, this song’s bridge (“Yeah! And I know karma’s gonna get me back for bein’ so cold…”) would be, like, #7. I deliberately chose the original sans-Ludacris version of the song because I think Ludacris distracts us from the super-awesome middle eight.

    #42
    #42: “THE FIRE” by THE ROOTS featuring JOHN LEGEND.
    Like the rest of their amazing album How I Got Over, “The Fire” is tenaciously, apocalyptically soulful. The video has some disturbing imagery, but despite its ambitions, it’s too incoherent to really work.

    #41
    #41: “CREDIBLE THREATS” by THE ONE AM RADIO.
    A nice little song about contemplating all of the possible demises that await us on a day-to-day basis. Things like turbulent airplanes, shuddering L-trains, and sudden floods of brakelights on I-5. Oh, and foreigners. This is also my favorite choreography of the year. The video was also released in a 3D version. And the 45rpm vinyl version of the single came with a set of 3D glasses and a download card for both the song (in various versions) and the 3D video for it.

    In the next installment: Because “one’s not enough”, an unbroken tie…

  • PAUL’S TOP 100 OF 2010 – PART 5: #60-51 “Is it a sin to love too much?”

    The Top Ten of the Bottom Half:

    #60
    #60: “DYNAMITE” by TAIO CRUZ.
    Every time I hear a Taio Cruz song, I feel like I’ve just looked into the eyes of the Borg. Resistance – violent resistance even – may be the thinking person’s natural reaction to a song like this. But against Taio Cruz, resistance truly is futile. Just give in already. Don’t make this harder on yourself than it needs to be. Ayo. Time to let go.

    #59
    #59: “HERE LIES LOVE” by DAVID BYRNE & FATBOY SLIM featuring FLORENCE WELCH.
    That would be the Florence of Florence + the Machine, singing the glorious title song of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s glorious song cycle on the life of Imelda Marcos, the Phillipines’ own Evita. The title is taken from Imelda Marcos’s epitaph. The album features an impressive roster of women (and Steve Earle) singing one or two songs each, portraying different characters and different aspects and ages of Imelda on her journey from simple country girl with a dream to the world’s most famous shoe collector. Incidentally, David Byrne went out of his way not to make any references to the famous shoe collection in any of the album’s two dozen songs.

    #58
    #58: “JUST THE WAY YOU ARE” by BRUNO MARS.
    I see me drivin’ round town with this song I love, and I’m like, f*ck yeah. Any current R&B or pop artist who can count The Students and The Flamingos among his influences is all right in my book. The fact that Bruno Mars has a sweet face, a sweet voice, an awesome 50s hairdo, and a weakness for singalong melodies just makes me love him that much more (and hope that Las Vegas cocaine possession thing really was just a one time bit of nouveau-pop-star hooliganism).

    #57
    #57. “HANDS TIED” by TONI BRAXTON.
    My favorite Toni Braxton ballad since “Un-break My Heart”. Unfortunately, the rest of her latest album “Pulse” is pretty weak.

    #56
    #56: “SMOKE A LITTLE SMOKE” by ERIC CHURCH.
    In which the rising country star confronts one of life’s greatest dilemmas. Namely: “Go, get her back” vs. “Find my stash”. I think Eric’s vote goes to stash-finding.

    #55
    #55: “CLUB CAN’T HANDLE ME” by FLO RIDA featuring DAVID GUETTA.
    I think that right now Flo Rida is the leading manufacturer of three minute guilty pleasures. I hate – HATE – that I love his music. But the joy in this song is absolutely relentless. I should never listen to this in the car. When he says “Put your hands up!”, I feel this automatic need to comply. It’s, like, the law.

    #54
    #54: “CARRY OUT” by TIMBALAND featuring JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.
    “Do you like it well done ’cause I do it well…” You may want to check the nutrition facts on this one. It has a dangerously high double-entrendre-per-second count.

    #53
    #53: “SECRETS” by ONEREPUBLIC.
    From Timbaland to Timbaland’s apprentice, OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder. For as “everywhere” as his songs are, Ryan Tedder should really be a bigger star in his own right. Still, it’s nice to know that an actual band that plays actual instruments and stuff still has a place on Top 40 radio. Not to mention movie soundtracks and TV commercials.

    #52
    #52: “RAISE YOUR GLASS” by P!NK.
    Oh my gosh. Seriously. Where was P-exclamation point-nk 20 years ago when I needed her most? Back when I was a loud, nitty-gritty, dirty little freak who was too school for cool? This little manifesto comes from P!NK’s just-released greatest hits album. And really, 10 years ago when you first heard “There You Go”, did you think that this was an artist you’d still be caring about in 2010?

    #51
    #51: “HEAVEN AND EARTH” by BLITZEN TRAPPER.
    My favorite version of this song is the one where I’m listening to it in my car really late one hot July night after picking my son up from school after his band trip. “Your life is like a bolt of lightning seen across the sky so high and clean…” This is one of my favorite lyrics of the year, and I love the way the lines of the verses spiral out of each other. This is probably the most meditative track on the Portland OR band’s latest album Destroyer of the Void which sounds like a cross between Wilco (circa 2004) and Electric Light Orchestra (circa 1974).

    Coming up in the next installment: We march. We trip. We run away.