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Celeb News: Adele & Beyoncé make Pitchfork's Top 100 Songs of 2011 twice
Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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Adele & Beyoncé make Pitchfork's Top 100 Songs of 2011 twice
100. Thundercat - "For Love (I Come Your Friend)"
99. Ill Blu - "Meltdown"
98. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Ffunny Ffrends"
97. Fever Ray - "The Wolf"
96. Peaking Lights - "All the Sun That Shines"
95. Kendrick Lamar - "A.D.H.D."
94. Sepalcure - "Pencil Pimp"
93. Wild Flag - "Romance"
92. Jacques Greene - "Another Girl"
91. Thee Oh Sees - "The Dream"
90. Grimes - "Vanessa"
89. SBTRKT - "Wildfire [ft. Little Dragon]"
88. Cities Aviv - "Coastin'"
87. Zoo Kid - "Out Getting Ribs"
86. Blawan - "Getting Me Down"
85. Junior Boys - "Banana Ripple"
84. Iceage - "You're Blessed"
83. Tiger & Woods - "Gin Nation"
82. John Maus - "Believer"
81. Yuck - "Get Away"
80. ****ed Up - "Queen of Hearts"
79. Kelly Rowland [ft. Lil Wayne] - "Motivation"
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What made Kelly Rowland's "Motivation" so much sexier than everything else on R&B radio in 2011? The pacing. In a year when a high-tempo, bastardized form of house dominated charts, this Jim Jonsin-produced number stood out by being the slowest of slow jams. His Houston-speed backing track is stripped virtually naked, down to a few steely synth groans and a syrupy drum clap, and it moves forward only by lurching. Sometimes the beat drops out for 10 seconds at a time. It oozes. That leaves Rowland, who lacks the star power of her former bandmate Beyoncé, to let her guard down and go for it vocally. She coos. She moans. Her lyrics don't bother with innuendo, in fact they're almost hilariously literal. ("Go longer", "Push harder, you're almost there now.") It's over-the-top, but it works because the production calls for it. Oh, and then there's Weezy, who swings by for an economical but spot-on guest verse. He drops a few vaguely raunchy metaphors and then gets out of the way, understanding that, on this one, the beat is the star. --Joe Colly
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78. Sandro Perri - "Changes"
77. Cults - "Abducted"
76. Julianna Barwick - "Prizewinning"
75. Washed Out - "Amor Fati"
74. Dum Dum Girls - "Wrong Feels Right"
73. tUnE-yArDs - "Powa"
72. Britney Spears [ft. Nicki Minaj & Ke$ha] - "Till the World Ends (The Femme Fatale Remix)"
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"Till the World Ends" was already the best Britney single since "Toxic", an ecstatic Euroclub floor-filler about wanting to dance until the world ends and other important matters. Then they added the Nicki Minaj verse. In her 45-second evisceration, Nicki manages to squeeze in chicken noises and the words "poultry," "Epsom salt," and "Ricki Lake"-- not to mention the immortal diss "Sniff, sniff, criiiies/ I done slayed your entire ****ing liiiiife." (Fact: In 2011, pretty much any song in the world could be made infinitely better by the addition of a Nicki Minaj verse.) Sprinkle a little bit of Ke$ha, the song's co-writer, on the chorus, and you've got a three-headed diva Hydra that sums up the recent changing of the femme pop guard from airbrushed and perfect to (relatively) weird and chaotic. It's the year's greatest quickie cash-in remix created to boost the chart position of a floundering single. Considering the ubiquity of the practice, that's saying something. --Amy Phillips
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71. The Men - "Bataille"
70. Holy Ghost! - "Jam For Jerry"
69. Neon Indian - "Polish Girl"
68. The Joy Formidable - "Whirring"
67. Rihanna [ft. Calvin Harris] - "We Found Love"
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As much as Rihanna's highly publicized private struggles and darkly domineering performative persona have shaped her into a compelling pop figure, she still makes one hell of a cipher. Musically, the Calvin Harris-produced smash "We Found Love" is pure house hedonism, and it calls for a singer who can surrender herself in equal measure. But here's the thing: If it were just some no-name vocalist blissfully exhorting, "We found love in a hopeless place," ad nauseum, then it wouldn't be half as effective, because the surrender wouldn't mean anything to us; it wouldn't feel earned. She may not be as outsized a personality as Lady Gaga or Beyoncé, but right now Rihanna's making the entire pop world bend to her whims, and if this song is powerful enough to make her lose herself, then the rest of us don't stand a chance. --Josh Love
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66. DJ Quik - "Killer Dope"
65. Fleet Foxes - "Grown Ocean"
64. Toro Y Moi - "New Beat"
63. Bon Iver - "Perth"
62. Liturgy - "Generation"
61. Eleanor Friedberger - "My Mistakes"
60. Adele - "Someone Like You"
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"Someone Like You" straddled an interesting line in 2011. It's one of the biggest selling songs from the year's most commercially successful record, yet something about it feels intensely private, too. It's not a song to share with other people perhaps, but instead a song that taps into a potent wellspring of feelings that reside deep inside everybody. Its ubiquity this year also ensured that wherever you were-- on a bus, shopping for groceries, in a taxi-- this song was waiting right around the corner. It brought back memories, like a familiar whiff of perfume, the taste of certain meal, or the sound of a name, and as a break-up song, it felt definitive. --Hari Ashurst
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59. Mr. Mutha****in' eXquire [ft. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown, andEl-P] - "The Last Huzzah! (Remix)"
58. PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder"
57. The Weeknd - "House of Balloons"
56. M83 [ft. Zola Jesus] - "Intro"
55. Destroyer - "Chinatown"
54. Jamie xx / Gil Scott-Heron - "I'll Take Care of U"
53. Real Estate - "Green Aisles"
52. Action Bronson - "Larry Csonka"
51. Todd Terje - "Snooze 4 Love"
50. Atlas Sound - "Mona Lisa"
49. Katy B - "Broken Record"
48. Kreayshawn - "Gucci Gucci"
47. Battles [ft. Matias Aguayo] - "Ice Cream"
46. Ty Segall - "Goodbye Bread"
45. Drake - "Headlines"
44. Nicolas Jaar - "Space Is Only Noise If You Can See"
43. Panda Bear - "Last Night at the Jetty"
42. Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Otis"
41. Frank Ocean - "Novacane"
40. Burial - "Street Halo"
39. Shabazz Palaces - "Swerve... the reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)"
38. Purity Ring - "Ungirthed"
37. A$AP Rocky - "Peso"
36. Jamie xx - "Far Nearer"
35. Charli XCX - "Stay Away"
34. Cut Copy - "Need You Now"
33. AraabMuzik - "Streetz Tonight"
32. Cold Cave - "The Great Pan Is Dead"
31. The Field - "Then It's White"
30. Clams Casino - "Motivation"
29. Jai Paul - "BTSTU (Edit)"
28. Danny Brown - "Monopoly"
27. The Rapture - "How Deep Is Your Love?"
26. Beyoncé - "1+1"
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Following Beyoncé's work on "1+1" is like a journey to the center of her craft, a stripping away of every distraction until all that's left is her voice. Without it, "1+1" would be a muted ballad: Its simple guitar line and stardust-sprinkled strings serve no purpose other than to evoke a sense of familiar romantic intimacy, and then to elegantly step aside while Beyoncé delivers one of her most wonderfully impassioned performances ever.
"1+1" possesses that slightly scary intensity that has been R&B's worst-kept secret weapon since Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing", but it also demonstrates perfectly how Beyoncé stands apart from every other big-chested diva getting her Whitney on. She lets the song sing through her with a clarity that is never clinical, a strength that never sabotages, and an expressiveness that is precisely as sentimental as its subject matter requires. Beyoncé is R&B's field marshal, demanding of her listeners and herself an absolute fidelity to the music's emotional possibilities, with a perfectly modulated vehemence that is as captivating as it is tyrannical. "Pull me in close and don't let me go," she commands, but here it's her own grasp that is thrillingly assured. --Tim Finney
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25. Soulja Boy - "Zan With That Lean"
24. Kurt Vile - "Jesus Fever"
23. Adele - "Rolling in the Deep"
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Few songs this year were as frequently, thoroughly, or enthusiastically slaughtered as "Rolling in the Deep". I heard it belted inexpertly from more passing car windows than I recall hearing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in 2006. Adele's voice has that effect-- a full-throated, window-rattling holler, rounded and creamy at the center, alluringly pock-marked at the edges, it is the kind of singing voice that bids you to join in before good sense intervenes. The kind of voice you listen to just to hear what it can do.
But "Rolling in the Deep" isn't an empty exercise in vocal calisthenics, or some cheap singing-competition bait. From its thumping, elemental opening, where Adele growls some classic pop scorned-woman stuff ("don't underestimate the things that I will do") through its wistful bridge, where she softens slightly amid some distinctly Carole King piano, to the howl of that chorus, the track is a songwriting master class in gathering drama. You caterwaul along to it because its payoff is so huge, so liberating. --Jayson Greene
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22. Bill Callahan - "Riding For the Feeling"
21. Drake - "Marvins Room"
20. Gang Gang Dance: "Glass Jar"
19. Lana Del Rey: "Video Games"
18. St. Vincent: "Cruel"
17. Oneohtrix Point Never: "Replica"
16. Tyler, the Creator: "Yonkers"
15. The Weeknd: "The Morning"
14. Girls: "Vomit"
13. tUnE-yArDs: "Bizness"
12. Jay-Z / Kanye West: "*****s in Paris"
11. James Blake: "The Wilhelm Scream"
10. DJ Khaled [ft. Drake, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne]: "I'm on One"
09. Azealia Banks: "212"
08. Cass McCombs: "County Line"
07. Beyoncé: "Countdown"
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The first Destiny's Child singles were broadsides backed up by joyful jitter-funk, kiss-offs aimed at bad boyfriends, lackluster lovers, and guys who just couldn't take a hint. Losers who creep around behind their trusting partners' backs, lames who flood inboxes with unwanted advances, frauds, and misers of all stripes. Beyoncé made telling them off, crushing their egos, and sending them home to mama sound like a total blast. As recently as "Irreplaceable", an older and wiser Ms. Knowles was finding empowerment in relationships gone wrong, sounding less aggrieved than emboldened by finally laying down the law. I mean, do I even need to bring up "Single Ladies"?
But Beyoncé's been enjoying domestic bliss for some time now, and on the evidence of "Countdown", Jay-Z has yet to get on her bad side. If anything, his devotion has ignited Queen B's most delirious hymn to being head-over-heels since "Crazy in Love". This track is a virtuoso performance from singer and producers alike, so giddy with the thrill of having someone have your back that it can't sit still. The tempo shifts are like a smitten lover trying to calm herself down only to start babbling about how awesome everything is all over again a moment later. "Countdown" can't stop spinning out new musical ideas every few seconds because maybe this zinging synth riff or this crazy orchestral percussion crescendo will help you catch the feeling, too. Beyoncé cycles breathlessly through every vocal trick at her command, from church choir ululating to fierce fast-rap, and somehow it's both overwhelming and infectious, coming off like the most emotionally affecting sound effects record ever recorded. Sure, we've all been in love. But it's doubtful we've ever sounded this damn excited about it. --Jess Harvell
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06. Destroyer: "Kaputt"
05. Real Estate: "It's Real"
04. Nicki Minaj: "Super Bass"
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Nicki Minaj's sea-parting verse on Kanye West's "Monster" dared you to imagine how much more twisted the game would be on her own turf. So it was a resounding bummer when her first proper album, Pink Friday, ended up so deferential to the strictures of pop radio; tepid tracks like "Your Love" and "Right Thru Me" curbed her boundless imagination in favor of easy hits.
Considering its ubiquity this year, it's easy to forget that the song that got Minaj back on track-- and what's become the most successful single by a female rapper since Missy Elliot's 2002 "Work It"-- wasn't even supposed to be a single. "Super Bass" was originally a Pink Friday bonus track and only later released as a single in the U.S. due to the demand of fans, including Taylor Swift. Unlike the softer cuts on Pink Friday, "Super Bass" reinvents the love song as something that's never mawkish but instead contagiously gleeful. The carbonated beat and Minaj's exuberant verses find the perfect alchemy of idiosyncrasy and pop appeal. The result is one of those impossible-not-to-love mega-hits-- even harder to find these days given the internet's tendency to help us all burrow into our respective niches-- that momentarily levels the ground between music critics and little girls in tutus: We're all just singing along. --Lindsay Zoladz
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03. EMA: "California"
02. Bon Iver: "Holocene"
01. M83: "Midnight City"
SOURCE: http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-...racks-of-2011/
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Member Since: 8/23/2011
Posts: 52,519
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Lana will dominate. 
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Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 6,399
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Member Since: 6/6/2011
Posts: 48,509
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TTWE remix, WFL, SLY and Motivation 
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Member Since: 11/30/2009
Posts: 5,123
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The TTWE Remix. 
Otherwise, as expected. A few standout pop songs in an ocean of irrelevance.
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Member Since: 3/15/2009
Posts: 4,228
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Member Since: 9/23/2009
Posts: 26,796
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Picking out the only tracks we care to read about.
Nice to see TTWE get some love. Hopefully HIAM will still be recognized.
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Member Since: 11/7/2011
Posts: 14,651
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Motivation, TTWE
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Member Since: 8/19/2011
Posts: 37,346
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I want to see 1+1, Countdown or Love On Top in the Top 40!  WOW they compared several people to Beyonce. Everyone just loves her. 
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Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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She's the standard...
I think 1+1 will make it... We'll have to wait and see
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Member Since: 11/30/2007
Posts: 26,796
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Member Since: 12/9/2007
Posts: 9,007
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Originally posted by family.guy123
1+1 will be near the top
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As it should, since it IS the best song off 4.
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 9/24/2009
Posts: 70,975
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Whirring
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Member Since: 4/4/2011
Posts: 2,385
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Someone on twitter said Beyonce may make the top ten!
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Member Since: 8/26/2011
Posts: 1,029
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Pitchfork loved 1+1, I'm pretty sure it's really high up there. Can't wait for tomorrow's list
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 11/1/2010
Posts: 26,750
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TTWE
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 10/3/2010
Posts: 12,334
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Awesome list, glad to see TTWE on there.
1+1 or EOT will be high on their list, maybe HML/TEOG
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Member Since: 2/11/2008
Posts: 10,964
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about wanting to dance until the world ends and other important matters
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They remain shady.
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Member Since: 11/11/2010
Posts: 28,420
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I only know 6 of those songs. 
I get that they're giving everybody, even relatively unknown artists, a chance; but come on...
Anyway, I'm glad to see Rihanna, Britney and The Weeknd on there.
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Member Since: 7/3/2010
Posts: 5,788
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27. 1+1
7. Countdown
Awesome!
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