And now for the unveiling of my favorite single (s) of the year. MY chart, MY rules. 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
HECTOR'S #1 SINGLE (S) OF 2007
01 THE PRESETS - MY PEOPLE
God bless this electronic duo from Sydney, Australia. The creative masterminds of Julian Hamilton & Kimberley Moyes have managed to make the most perfect piece of industrial, electronic music I've heard all year. They have been around for ages with excellent choons like
Down Down Down &
Are You The One? but this is my opinion, is their masterpiece. This song just screams ANTHEM for numerous anthems. As soon as you hear that incredible instrumental, mixed along with Julian Hamilton's robotic & dominant vocals & the accompaniment of partner Kim Moyes, it becomes a massive beast of a record! And every verse in this tune just clicks like magic along with those gorgeous synths & industrial blasts. My favorite verses:
Tall & tan & young & lovely, I’ll follow all around the world for you
And you’ll find out tonight oh it’s a world of extreme &
Soldiers on the water front, They wanna ship me far away, I’ll find my way tonight so I can find my way to you - just orgasmic. And the chorus is just a elephantine stormer:
I'm here with all of my people, locked up with all of my people, So let me hear you scream if you're with me. Everything about this track is remarkable in every single way: from that brilliant techno instrumental to Julian's excellent acapella to those divine synths to that heavenly bridge:
And it feels so
And it feels so good
And it feels so
And it feels so good
And it feels so
And it feels so good
And it feels so
And it feels so good
And it feels so
The video is f
ucking astounding too - it's literally out of this world looking like an astronomical universal quest with enough special effects to make it feel like you've been on acid for 3 days! But the D.I.M. remix takes this song to a whole another level - showcasing the synths to it's full power making them sound incredibly gorgeous & supreme whilst making the vocals still feel immensely omnipresent in this mix. This song is currently the best thing ever at the moment for moi: it's an musical aphrodisiac that I don't want to get rid of - the type of song that would spend atleast 10-15 weeks at #1 on my personal chart - it's superlative in every single way & it has all the ingridients I wanted in a year end #1 single: a spectacular instrumental, a vigorous acapella, and enough passion & drive to just sound completely fabulous. ALL HAIL THE PRESETS!
Now while this ranks the best upbeat single of the year....
01 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - SOMEONE GREAT
This would definitely rank as the most gorgeous song of the year even though I much prefer the 6 minute album version to the choppy 3 minute single version. James Murphy really is one of the top 5 most talented men in music today, especially with the impeccably delicious album
Sound Of Silver. He can make the most effrevescent of party songs like
North American Scum,
Us V. Them,
Get Innocuous, &
Time To Get Away, the beautifully serious midtempo tunes like
All My Friends,
New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, and then comes his heartwrenching synth-pop ballad
Someone Great which originated from music he was producing for a Nike commerical. This song was always a clear favorite on the exceedingly brilliant
Sound Of Silver album from the main beginning. From those hypnotic synths to those touching lyrics, this track is a magnetic opus & one of the most beautiful threnodies I've heard in recent years with the perfect amount of melancholiness thrown in. The track is about the aftermath of losing someone extremely close to you & dealing with the fact that your life goes on without him/her. This heartwrenching track can be interpreted in many ways: how a person feels after losing someone to a tragic death, or the horrific breakup after a romantic relationship, or if a personal loved one moves far away after they've been close for a manifold number of years. The video approriately demonstrates how it's very difficult to try to live a normal life because you keep imagining the fact that that person is still there & how a person can be experiencing so many things: denial, delusion, depression, loneliness & several more. Despondent lyrics like these just vastly beautiful for example:
The worst is all the lovely weather
I'm stunned it's not raining
The coffee isn't even bitter
because, what's the difference?
There's all the work that needs to be done
It's late for revision
There's all the time and all the planning
and songs to be finished
The fact that these lyrics are James Murphy's most personal & sincere to date is more than enough reason to rank this as a dual #1 for my favorite single of the year.