THE TOP 100 SONGS OF 2010: PART FOUR

2010, by and large represented the comeback of the single as an event instead of merely being a tool to drive album sales. In this fourth part of my list, the controversial M.I.A makes two more appearances while Joanna Newsom—who features very prominently from here on—debuts. This bloc of songs features mostly, slow, winding expressions that delve into love and its separation mostly. Here goes:




21: Joanna Newsom

Baby Birch

Builds its guilty abortion theme slowly with a hectic staccato burst of folk and overwhelming sadness.







22: Eels

Unhinged

The funky, retro sound of love deserting a relationship.







23: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

Fright Night (Nevermore)

They don’t make such beautiful minimalism any more.






24: Corrine Bailey Rae

The Blackest Lily

Far more interesting when she spikes her mood, Bailey Rae invites loud guitars into her sedated world and the result is blues magic for what could have been a sappy dirge for her late husband.







25: The Department of Eagles

While We’re Young
Can Daniel Rossen do any wrong? The ending line, ‘what are you trying to prove’, is simply divine being sung repeatedly.






26: Sleigh Bells

Infinity Guitars

Loud and unabashedly proud.






27: Lunar Eyes

Sunset

In typical Bill Baird fashion, “Lunar Eyes” features a memorable yet catchy chorus plus hooks deep enough for us to joyously lose ourselves in.





28: M.I.A

Born Free

Sampling Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” was a brilliant but you’d only get the gist of it once you decide not to look at Romain Gavras’ distracting video.







29: Daughters

The Unattractive, Portable Head

Still trying to figure out the existentialism behind this Daughters track but when the beat is this heavy, this brilliant, who really needs to unravel its mystery?






30: Seabear

Fire Dies Down

A song about getting gracefully old and yet despite telling lines (‘one day our bodies will break/ one day our hands will shake’) this is far from depressing.






31: Tanya Stephens

No Strings Attached

An interpolation of past songs but shimmering into so much vocal richness that it’s an embarrassment of talent as well as a real modern day dating guide in Jamaica and everywhere else for that matter.






32: Spoon

Got Nuffin

A deceiving title, Brit Daniel breaks out feverish soul when he drops the line, ‘I got nothing to lose’.







33: Sufjan Stevens

I Want to be Well

Like the rest of you I’m still dazed and buzzing from the ornate pop appeal of Sufjan’s latest but I Want to be Well is drips with the most pop by miles. But just when he’s done wowing you, Stevens then delivers a closing ‘fuck you’ to us all and it’s exhilarating.







34: Portugal. The Man

The Dead Dog

A sad yet reflective look at the growing up on youth and the friends one loses along the way.






35: M.I.A

It Iz What It Iz

It’s taken three studio albums for us to get a more vulnerable Maya Arulpragasam. Here she is, stripped off all her usual riff-raffing and fiery and somehow managing to sound more intriguing than ever. We end up with a seamless cross between blues and pop, warmly revealing the woman behind the music and her struggles.






36: The Irrepressibles

Anvil

Astonishing that no one seemed to remember this band in year-end lists but Anvil is such a standout that no way could I have left McDermott singing like a younger, more relevant Antony Hegarty. McDermott’s loneliness descents into a canon of madness.






37: Arcade Fire

The Suburbs

The ongoing battle with privileged upbringing haunts Arcade Fire as if they’re guilty by association. Butler hits the right stride almost immediately though and really there is no other band—save for Radiohead—that can paint such a mournful picture with every song.






38: Glasser

Apply

Cameron Mesirow immediately reminds one of Bat For Lashes---and come to think about it, this track was this year’s “Glass”, an electronic pop masterpiece that paces its innovation with so much technical skill. Funny, but until I wrote the words I hadn’t realised that her moniker already has the word ‘glass’ in it. It may be coincidental but what a coincidence.





39: Method Man, Raekwon & Ghostface

It’s That Wu Shit

The closing track on an album that was already too brief but it does beg the question to be asked: how long do you need your menace to be?






40: Boomsnake

Totem Tales Blues

Misery loving its own company.

THE TOP 100 SONGS OF 2010: PART THREE

2010, by and large represented the comeback of the single as an event instead of merely being a tool to drive album sales. In this third part of my list, the controversial M.I.A makes two appearances with two singles as well as Gaga’s juggernaut. The nuance in the pop music here swings widest as even when paired with other ideas the basic melodic intonation remains. Here goes:





41: Summer Camp

Round the Moon

Every year there’s one new act that is obviously brilliant but not high profile enough for critics to give a damn about. That honour rests with Summer Camp this year which is weird given how stunning this lead-off track is. Round the Moon is some heavy retro, spaced-out dub/soul. And that Elizabeth Sankey hits the spot with her vocal work like every time.






42: Active Child

Wilderness

The Bon Iver comparisons will ring loudest once you hear Pat Rossi open up Wilderness’ first lines but he adds deep synths and a low wattage soul, like a light bulb buzzing on and off. The effect is indescribably pretty and utterly effective.





43: Wolf Parade

Cloud Shadow on the Mountain

It’s Spencer Krug so what more needs to be said…dude fucking rocks this myth-building shit as always.





44: Toro Y Moi

Minors

Chaz Bundick’s dreamy sound no doubt is influenced by the juxtaposition of shoe-gaze and pop but his vocal warp incorporates a sexy blues slant that is undeniably groovy.





45: Holly Miranda

Joints

A lovely, psychedelic track that absorbs tension even while it unburdens its bleeding heart.




46: Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce

Telephone

She’s the most talked-about diva since Madonna but, if you’re a serious music critic, then her actual music hasn’t mattered up to now (it’s been all fashion and gender-bender button pushing and you know it). But, here is Telephone, by far, her most thrilling exploration of pop as a tool for statement. Twinning her ubiquity with the only global devise (besides the internet) capable of projecting her career was a thematic masterstroke. It helped that Miss Knowles worked her lines like they were last too.






47: Arcade Fire

Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains)

Regine Chassagne strikes solo gold again, this time as dissatisfaction personified with a ho-hum life and an artist’s clear view of the pessimistic proletariat around her.





48: Panda Bear

Slow Motion
To paraphrase a track from his previous album, the search for delicious continues…oh, and this is a ‘mere’ B side track. Can you imagine the rest of this album when he finally releases it?






49: Deerhunter

Coronado
Guitars! Jazzy textures! A Saxophone!





50: M.I.A feat. Jay-Z

XXXO (remix)
The closest thing she’ll ever come to generic pop and it still totally rocks.




51: Robyn

Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do

Unrivalled in dance/pop circles, Robyn hands out yet another bossy LP (Body Talk: Part I) and its opening track lists over fifty everyday issues affecting her over an infectious groove that’ll be the toast in clubs all over the world.





52: Avey Tare

Heads Hammock
A huge water-logged gem that stands isolated from his work within Animal Collective but still resonates with their themes.






53: Christina Aguilera feat. Nicki Minaj

Woohoo
Xtina is back with this summer’s ode to, um, cunninlingus. Over a funky up groove she teases that, ‘you don’t even need a plate/ just your face/ licky licky yum yum’. It’s not all instructive to guys either; towards the end she reminds women, ‘bitches, keep it clean…’ Ouch.






54: Erykah Badu

Fall in Love (Your Funeral)
Short and sweet-- the perfect lay-over from her previous masterpiece that serves as the foil.






55: Here We Go Magic

Old World United
Luke Temple returns with a fully fleshed out funk concept and, voila, he still has the touch and those yummy electronic flourishes.






56: M.I.A

Lovalot
Lovealot rides a stunning ruckus bag rhythm while racking up controversial mileage. When she croons, ‘like Obama needs to love up Chen’, the jarring beats can’t drown out the geopolitical statement but damned if it doesn’t try hard to.






57: The Tallest Man on Earth

The Wild Hunt
Simple ballad yet right on point, just like all the Dylan comparisons we cram upon him.





58: Future Islands

Walking Through that Door
A charming ode to all the under-appreciated 1980s pop songs that we’re all now just getting into.





59: Emma Pollock

I Could Be a Saint
Not a total rejection of love but Pollock constructs a feminist ode here to having a right in whom to love and when to. Within the folds of conformity we all get trapped into, the wrong decisions get made (‘you’re sending roses/ while I’m seeking refuge’). This is a real stop-to-think record.






60: Of Montreal

Girl Named Hello
Behold, Georgie Fruit.

THE TOP 100 SONGS OF 2010: PART TWO

2010, by and large represented the comeback of the single as an event instead of merely being a tool to drive album sales. In this second part of my list, the singer/songwriter rises to the fore. The range of emotional conflict is on display here but also the use of menace within the few hip/hop joints here. Yeasayer achieves a double with their experimental pop as well. Here goes:




61 Broken Social Scene

Chase Scene

While their long-overdue album may not have shattered earth as expected this track sure does with its piped violins and shifts in tenses. The vocal sublime work moves in equal measure, a result of a band clearly in its prime and assured of the work it believes in.





62: Surfer Blood

Twin Peaks

Beach pop is all the rage with this band and surf’s up!





63: Freddie Gibbs

Born to Roll

Built on a sample from Masta Ace’s song with the same name, Gibbs adds a potent brand of thuggery to it. It’s not merely him drawling on bitches, hoes and blunts but the hard up way the shit is delivered.






64: Jay-Z
On to the Next One

Jigga’s been delivering some scary-ass lessons of late and On to the Next One is the scariest one yet. No one’s spared the caustic tongue, not his long time fans (‘Niggaz want my old shit, buy my old album’), newer ones (‘No I'm not a Jonas, Brother I'm a grown-up’) or even the non-freaky hunnies (‘Gotta keep it fresh girl, even when we sexin’).





65: She & Him

Lingering Still

Matthew Ward and Zooey Deschanel have been cozying up to us now with sweet, rushed-vocal ballads and Lingering Still is their best effort yet.




66: Beach House

Silver Soul

‘It is happening again’, sings Victoria Legrand repeatedly and judging from the tenderness in her styling, we can pretty much surmise what exactly she’s talking about.




67: Broken Bells

October

It seems silly now; our apprehension about these two doing collaboration especially as the result is as beautiful as October. With Mercer at the reins and Danger Mouse directing, there proves nothing to worry about.





68: Yeasayer

Ambling Alp

An ode for Italian boxer Primo Carnea--a giant of a prize fighter (6’6, 284 lbs) who towered over his opponents like Gulliver amongst the Lilliputians. The track swings him as a reference at times too as well as dark example of the ultimate capability achieved by or for limitation.




69: Oh No Ono

Icicles

I’d be damned if I knew what exactly this Danish group sings about but the chorus is heavenly and that’s enough for now.





70: Yeasayer

O.N.E

With its steel pans and booming pop appeal its sure to bring Vampire Weekend comparisons but Yeasayer packs more pinch here with a steady disco-meets-hippie vibe.




71: Sharon van Etten

Don’t Do It

There’s some heavy resignation in van Etten’s voice as she strums along but she’s not going quietly. Don’t Do It doesn’t nag—no, its more high brow—but it moves and shifts blames for action into a plea for higher evolution. She knows she’s defeated however and that makes the song all more poignant for it.





72: Curren$y feat. Nesby Phips

Prioritize

This type of pimp rap usually is overblown to the point of cliché but the deeper he cuts through the slickness and bark orders (‘You gone get your turn, on the doobie/ bitch just wait.’), somehow Curren$y manages to juggle it just right.





73: Belle & Sebastian feat. Carey Mulligan

Write About Love

Stuart Murdock has evolved over the years but one thing he’s never strayed from is the heart-felt ballad. Here he grabs actress Carey Mulligan (is there nothing she can’t do?) and puts down a smartly contrived pop piano piece that’s catchy and brilliant as hell.





74: Prince

Compassion

Gone are the days when we look forward to Prince to wow us with new music but at least we get on average one gem. This year it’s Compassion, a bouncy pop number that starts out harmless enough but its second half really opens up with synths and waves of jazzy textures.





75: Twin Shadow

For Now

If this isn’t the best Thin White Duke resurrection call ever then I don’t know what is.





76: The National

Anyone’s Ghost

Relationships are hard but with age and time we can handle them better. The National has been around the block and now, lead singer Matt Berninger is at one with his material, instead of trying to fight through it.




77: Laurie Anderson

Only an Expert

Anderson is mad and it shows on Only an Expert, her anti-big corporation track. With just an electronic beat and some jazz riffs thrown in, she castigates the putative solutions these ‘experts’ provide the rest of the world. It’s mean stuff that tosses in Al Gore by association but also, weirdly enough, something called the ‘sushi solution’.




78: John Vanderslice

I’ll Never Live up to You

Vanderslice is renowned for recording with the most minimal of tools but the sadness rinsed here is so plain for all to witness that the acoustic arrangement feels like a shadow instead of being a companion piece. He needs no music to heighten the experience of loss.





79: Matthew Dear

Soil to Seed

Dear’s name doesn’t come up when one thinks of pop music but somewhere he discovered funk and an electronic heartbeat. Soil to Seed sounds spectral, as if dipped into a barrel of reserve funk he’s only just now opening.




80: Los Campesinos

Plan A

Gareth leads this noise-mongering track about adolescent dreams of relocating to Malta to become a soccer star, a national hero, the king, ect.