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My Top 105 of 2010!
ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 2/21/2005
Posts: 21,684
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Kanye and queen Robyn
I like Cheryl as much as you like Pixie
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Member Since: 10/13/2003
Posts: 48,022
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Whats My Name? and Power <333
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Member Since: 6/25/2008
Posts: 15,884
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I liked Indestructible but now I LOVE the song really grew on me. VCR is brillant, I Love this song.
Love Me Cos You Want To? I didnt expect this song here
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Member Since: 2/19/2007
Posts: 33,412
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5/5
xx, Robyn and Arcade Fire
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Member Since: 5/23/2007
Posts: 65,087
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4/5
Indestructible is amazing
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 2/19/2003
Posts: 34,484
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15. Kanye West - Runaway (single)
So much has been said about Kanye, and I don't really feel like adding to the sound chamber. I will mention this, though - that piano chord. That lone, plaintive piano chord winds up becoming one of the most powerful sounds heard in pop music in years.
See also: Kanye West (ft. Bon Iver), "Lost in the World;" Taylor Swift, "Innocent"[/URL]
14. M.I.A. - XXXO (single)
Maya lost me so thoroughly this year that I didn't even get a graphic made for her, but if there was one thing I couldn't do - it was "XXXO." The throwbacks to world (particulary Asian) music, the gender politics at work here - all very great stuff.
See also: M.I.A. featuring Nicki Minaj, "Teqkilla (Remix)"
13. Ripped - It's Our Life (curio)
So obscure that couldn't be found in Google Search, or on Youtube, I first heard this song at the tail-end of 09/beginning of '10. I was in one of my mad downloading sprees and came across a blog post with tracks from artists all around the world. I was particularly curious about rapping Irish kids, so I downloaded it. Little did i know I would find such highs and lows; girls whose commitment to honesty and actual technical ability outshines a great many femcees today, couple with the worst verse I've ever heard - off-beat, out of time, and hammerheaded. It also let me know that ghettos exist all over the world, and for that I'm thankful.
P.S. I only found this appropriate to place Ripped in front of two "rappers" who will NEVER be known for their flows, but for their sounds - and what they actually say.
12. Sleigh Bells - Rill, Rill (album track)
The most popular theory about Treats - and one that I subscribe to - is that it's an elegy to adolescence. The highpoint of the album, then, must be "Rill, Rill." Employing high and low culture, the song uses a brilliantly deployed 70s soul sample (namely, Funkadelic's "Can You Get To That") to give credence to the feelings of overly privileged teenage girls. Dovetailing the time in a teenage girl's life where other things become more important than friends, lead singer Alison Knauss's bubblegum vocals are put to work here, sweetly presenting the error of those actions.
Quote:
so this is it then?
you're here to win friend
click click saddle up see you on the moon then
and all alone friend
pick up their phones then
ring ring call them up
tell them about the new trends
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But the part that resonates with me the most if the passage strictly relating to the loss of friendship, and how, in times of insecurity and doubt, no one quite understands like your girls/boys:
Quote:
keep thinking about every straight face yes
wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces
what about them
I'm all about them
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See also: Sleigh Bells, "Run the Heart"; "Kids"; Funkadelic, "Can You Get to That"
11. Robyn - None of Dem (album track)
Praise goes to Rokysopp, for making the finest beat of the year - no competition. A tragedy that one could listen to hip-hop radio for twelve months and not find anything that knocks even half as hard. Suffused with Scandinavian loneliness, it's the sound of wilderness exploding into light - if that makes any sense.
But equally as great as the beat is Robyn. It's a tough job finding someone who can live in all of the nooks and crannies of the production, and homegirl's more than up to the task. Sometimes when Robyn adopts "swag," it can be too try-hard - but this **** right here is perfect. Take your Divas, have your Hards, rock out to your Cici mixtapes, clap clap to Pink Friday (if you must), just know that nothing compares to her.
See also: Robyn, "Fembot"; "Don't Tell Me What to ****ing Do"; "Cry When You Get Older"
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 2/21/2005
Posts: 21,684
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None of these boys can dance, not a single of them stand a chance
All of them girls a mess, I've seen it all before I'm not impressed
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Member Since: 6/3/2006
Posts: 51,724
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Runaway is my favorite! XXXo is also fine
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Member Since: 1/26/2006
Posts: 17,384
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"Ready To Start", "VCR", both Robyn
Kanye
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 2/19/2003
Posts: 34,484
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So who's making my top ten, girls and boys?
HINT: Six of the ten slots are taken up by 2011 BRIT Nominees. :getyourresearchon:
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 3/19/2008
Posts: 37,076
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Sleigh Bells
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Member Since: 10/19/2004
Posts: 13,032
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"Runaway" being this high? Didn't see it coming. Proud moment.
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Member Since: 5/23/2007
Posts: 65,087
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XXXO & None Of Dem
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 2/19/2003
Posts: 34,484
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Quote:
Originally posted by Arith
"Runaway" being this high? Didn't see it coming. Proud moment.
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I need to know - is that Frankie?
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Member Since: 4/6/2007
Posts: 15,583
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What's My Name?, Power and Runaway
Quote:
That lone, plaintive piano chord winds up becoming one of the most powerful sounds heard in pop music in years.
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So true.
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Member Since: 10/19/2004
Posts: 13,032
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ace Reject
I need to know - is that Frankie?
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Duh.
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 9/24/2009
Posts: 70,975
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Robyn
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 2/19/2003
Posts: 34,484
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So, my top ten, more than ever, consists of songs that resonated with me on a deeply felt level. I'll spare you the details (or try to), but here goes [hopefully TC doesn't leave before I'm done posting ...]
10. Rihanna - Complicated
It's been argued that Loud doesn't reach the same heights as Rated R, and on the first listen that seems true. But somewhere, after the loud party jams and boring b-side ballads, comes "Complicated." A tale of a relationship that exists in the gray area, its down to earth narrative makes it possible to imagine it as a Jordin Sparks track; in fact it was offered to her. But when Rihanna's belting at the top of her range, it's impossible to imagine anyone else approaching it like she does. Rih walks a tightrope, acting as an objective avatar for all her young listeners - but the utter passion she exhibits belies that, and gives hint to her personal connection to the lyric.
And what a lyric it is, mundane but full of life, and color. But perhaps the strongest part of the song is the production - it echoes the confusion of the narrative by being entirely unsure whether it wants to be a ballad or a trance number - it becomes both. And there's that bridge - Rihanna's never sounded so soft, so vulnerable, so human before. If this is a sign of where she's headed, I'm glad to be onboard.
See also:Rihanna, "Fading," "Man Down"
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 2/19/2003
Posts: 34,484
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9. Cheryl Cole - Waiting
It's not a leap to say that "Waiting" gives credence to Cheryl Cole's solo career. The last track on Messy Little Raindrops, it's perhaps the only song on the album that fully lives up to the images the title conjures. A left over track from the sessions that produced Kelis' Flesh Tone, "Waiting" starts out as standard dance-floor fodder, all hands in the air synths, cutting like shards of glass. But then it stops, and Cheryl starts. You can instantly hear Kelis' voice, and her heartfelt but clunky lyrics - but Cheryl, as would say, 'makes it her own." Anyone who's paid any attention to her narrative over the past two years knows exactly why this song was chosen by her A&R. The story of someone reclaiming her life, all in the space of a good bassline.
But the songs strengths are twofold. One, the most surprising sample of the year (who knew A Thousand Miles would work as a bit of dancefloor euphoria?) Two, the openendedness of the lyric. It's not a kissoff, but much more than that - as Cheryl admits, "in another life, in another time, I'd belong to you." Sometimes the hardest cuts are the ones that never really heal - and Cheryl, delivering the best vocal of her life, knows this all too well.
See also:Cheryl Cole, "Amnesia," "Live Tonight"
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 2/19/2003
Posts: 34,484
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8. Kylie Minogue - Too Much
The 90s dance revival is fully in swing, and that's a good thing. But with so many impostors and young'uns doing it, it's a great thing to have someone around who was actually there at the time. A new collaboration with newfound musical soulmates Scissor Sisters, "Too Much" arrives almost fully formed. Featuring - beyond a shadow of a doubt - the best opening on Aphrodite (and one most of 2010's pop albums), "Too Much" slowly devolves into your standard 90s house-pop mishmash, with the pings and pongs of video game themes. Some have said that it would have made a terrible single, and I can concede; the chorus doesn't leave up to that magnificent opening.
But the reason that opening is magnificent is due to Kylie. Aside from the construction of the track (which she co-wrote), "Too Much" is evidence of her superior skill as interpreter. It all comes to a head in the truly awesome bridge, where Kylie vocalizes joy and dread in equal measure. It's so striking that it works in and out of context, and becomes downright chilling - or euphoric.
See also:Kylie Minogue, "Cupid Boy", Scissor Sisters, " Any Which Way (Live at Glastonbury)"
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