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Listicle Without Commentary: 21 Songs That Prove 2010 Has Been A Startlingly Good Year For New Music So Far
21. Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris, "Baby"
20. The Vaselines, "I Hate The '80s"
17. Ne-Yo, "Beautiful Monster"
16. I Blame Coco feat. Robyn, "Caesar"
15. Cotton Candy, "Fantastic & Spectacular"
14. Monarchy, "The Phoenix Alive"
10. hollAnd, "Sauvignon Blank"
8. Erykah Badu, "Gone Baby Don't Be Long"
7. Janelle Monáe feat. Big Boi, "Tightrope"
6. Raheem DeVaughn, "I Don't Care"
5. Tracey Thorn, "Singles Bar"
4. The-Dream, "Florida University"
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GIVING UP ON PAGINATION FOR THE LOVE OF THE MUSIC
lol @ spaces
Oh god this list could not be more awful if it tried.
Also, formatting.
But I was trying! Or are you just playing the troll role?
I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET HAS OPINIONS ABOUT CURRENT MUSIC THAT DIFFER FROM MINE!
Yeah, pretty much trolling.
Not all (or even mostly) in my wheelhouse, so to speak, but your point is made and made well.
Wait but petej.h., tell me what else is good! I like some of this, but not all! So what else is out there please?
LOLZ!
Check out the Caribou album. Awesome early 90s house vibe, but now-sounding.
yeah new caribou has a sweet arthur russell thing going
oh a friend of mine told me about the caribou last week! i must listen to it.
I'm kind of in the 'Huh?!' camp myself.
Can't say I'm too keen on the new Caribou either, but I did go see him here a couple of weeks ago and live, it does stand up very well so maybe I need to give it a bit longer.
My own (top of my head, non-definitive) list:
The Tallest Man on Earth – 'You're Going Back';
Titus Andromicus – 'A More Perfect Union');
Broken Social Scene – 'All to All'.
La Roux counts for 2010, right? Also, "Remedy" by Little Hands would be in the top 5 of this list if it had been included.
not too obvious at all! i've been listening to that song literally on repeat since this morning when i saw it on the earlier robyn post. and then i wrote an obnoxious facebook post that was all, THIS SONG IS SO FUCKING AMAZING, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO IT.
so yeah. good song.
I have been kinda enjoying the The-Dream (ugh, copyeditor plz) album all week. I am perversely drawn to the weird performance of modern masculinity that is "Make Up Bag." And "Yamaha" and "Abyss" are just kind of awesome all over.
I'm not in love with that Ne-Yo song yet, but maybe the album will be made of stronger stuff.
Your name is insanely close to mine, and in fact people pronounce mine as yours ALL THE TIME.
Dear HiredGoons:
Are… are you the singer from Saves the Day?
Yes. Maybe. Unless it is 'Kris" and not her boyfriend 'Chris'
(from that Julia Sweeny movie?)
Pray tell.
I can't wait for the new track from Andre 3000 feat. Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber.
hollAnd? I thought I was the only one…
hey! you were on TOP CHEF lols
OMG why is "Florida University" so good? Goddamn The-Dream, that song should not be listenable (I mean, lyrically it is like a cross between "If U Seek Amy" and "Fuck It"), but it really is.
As a former Floridian, I really, really, REALLY want to know if that song is more popular at Florida State University, or at the University of Florida. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW FOR SOME REASON.
was hitting that one pretty hard but now i'm hooked on "yamaha"
agreed, an obscenely over-listenable album
They could also mean FAMU!
I was getting down to the single digits and getting increasingly worried that Sleigh Bells wouldn't show up. WHEW.
Word. That's in my top 10 this year fershur. And it's going to be tough making the top since there's a mad number of good records out.
I'm also very keen on the new Foals album, although it could not be less like everything on Maura's list.
I find myself mostly in agreement here from track 12 or so onward. I'm shockingly fond of that Robyn album after finally getting it after the constant praise coming from Maura and others.
Her teefs scare me. Same reason I don't listen to the Pogues.
Maura, thank you for including Justin Bieber. But where's the Kate Nash?
I am also curious about this! But then I am always looking for someone to counteract the smoke cloud of pure hatred that is Alex Macpherson.
That Vaselines song is pretty great. But I have a question: When they say, "It wasn't all Duran Duran (Duran Duran)/You want the truth?/Well this is it/I hate the '80s because the '80s were shit," is that implying that they really very much liked Duran Duran? Like if the decade WAS all Duran Duran, like the younger people the song is directed to imagine, it would NOT have been shit? I think this is not what they mean to say. I think they mean to include Duran Duran as part of the cause of the shittiness. But I don't know.
And that Robyn song is rocking my world. (It IS just like a vintage Prince song!) Thanks, Maura, for hipping me to it.
i took this to mean that the 80s weren't JUST the cultural touchstones that youngs like to fondle, but years that had more than their fair share of commercial nihilism and geopolitical dread and so forth. or: "The 80s weren't just these terrible bands you like to listen to ironically, they were also just plain terrible."
I love the Vaselines, and I'm really looking forward to the album, but I also think this song tackled the subject better.
You can pretty much say that about the 50s, 60s, 70s (especially) and 90s too.
"Baby" is completely a good song. It just is.
Anyway, here are things I would add:
- Das Racist, "Shorty Said"
- Surfer Blood, "Catholic Pagans"
- Everybody Was In The French Resistance Now, "G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N."
- Ted Leo, "Bottled in Cork"
- Titus Andronicus, "Theme From 'Cheers'"
- Vampire Weekend, "White Sky"
- Lloyd Banks, "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley"
jesus barthel you are really in my headspace recently. i thought i was the only person on the planet who played that french resistance song. and fuck yes titus andronicus, just a wild hairy beast of a record.
Ha, I thought I was the only one who was into that song too! Jonathan Richman allusion + ripping on Avril Lavigne + girl group sounds = love.
You two.
Since you asked, Choire, I will submit Barthel's list as a good starting point. So there.
Don't get all bitchy just because I disagreed with Maura, which was in itself partly in jest.
@Barthel. I third or fourth this. Except for that damn Lloyd Banks song. I'm all about alliteration but every time I hear that song it feels more like illiteration (lol jokez).
I'd sign onto most of this list, but I'd add "Aruthur Lee's Lullaby" from Walter Schreifels new record. And Lawrence Arabia's "Apple Pie Bed," 'cause that thing is an unstoppable earworm.
"Beamer, Benz or Bentley" – not just a club banger, but one of the most profound philosophical questions of our time.
I much prefer "Nissan Honda Chevy", a much more naturalistic take on drug-dealing, but I like it most when commercial hip-hop stations segue from one into the other. Is that a thing that is still happening?
No readers of the Awl should react harshly to any one piece by the 275 writers who contribute weekly to the Awl.
Also, Field Music "Let's Write a Book"
FORGOT ABOUT THIS ALBUM, but it is great! favorite might be "something familiar"
anyone else listening to a lot of phantogram, wild nothing or crystal castles?
Fuck yeah! I love phantogram and crystal castles. It's all that sirius ambient station.
I'M OBSESSED!
Wild Nothing has okay songs, but the production is so blah to me, so monochromatic, like most of the "lo-fi" out there.
phantogram is on repeat day and night interspersed with crystal castles. so yes!
love Crystal Castles
Hate the people who are Crystal Castles, love the music reluctantly.
hey man if we start boycotting bands with assholes in them we are going to be enjoying the stony sound of silence pretty soon
I know, they just especially take the shape of assholes. The whole Trevor Brown deal filled me with a righteous rage.
I'm way into Dondria's "You're The One".
More Wye Oak! Goddamn I love the Wye Oak.
Why, OK?
Cheers to that! An e.p is better than nothing, though.
I'm about to say something controversial: Ludacris is better than Sleigh Bells.
Can't one love "My Chick Bad" and "Infinity Guitars" equally?
Somebody mixed chocolate with my peanut butter –and it tastes GREAT!
I bought less new music the first two quarters of this year than I probably have since I started buying music (about 13 years ago).
I don't know if this says more about this year's music or my changing life.
My attendance to shows dropped off sharply with college graduation. Fucking real life and schedules and bills and shit.
/FUCK YOU. TO THIS DAY.
GGGAAAHHH AUTORELOAD INTERRUPTED MY UTTERLY GOBSMACKED FIRST EVER LISTEN TO SLEIGH BELLS DAMN YOU CHO
I'm curious about this, actually. "Gobsmacked"? How can this song make one gobsmacked, I wonder. I mean, it's nice enough, but it's also kind of innocuous, and repetitive, and sounds like any number of Beck songs, just with a woman doing a girl voice.
"Real Life" by Tanlines
"Oh No!" by Marina and the Diamonds
Mixtapes (Buffetlibre Remix) by Plushgun – I am kind of obsessed.
"Saw" is probably the best Tanlines track though
Brilliant youtube commentator (I know, right? they happen) pointed out the similarity between #2 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rrOdcnFbAY (which I will now try to make a mix out of.)
Similarity? One samples the other.
…?
Is it actually a sample or just the same progression? I didn't hear it and think sample.
When I saw "Baby" at the top I dashed toward the comments section to get all, "Oh, but The-Dream's new record is GLORIOUS too" but it seems you are all on that shit.
Great list Maura!
i called the new the-dream record an opulent nasty delight and then my friend said "opulent nasty delight" should be the name of a the-dream track (and that i could make a career as the kanye west of naming hip-hop tracks)
And, since the Scots are always the best, I would like to add:
Veronica Falls – Beachy Head
big fan of the found love in a graveyard 7"
Was anybody else a much bigger fan of the unmastered Sleigh Bells stuff? Like, the new stuff just feels like WAY too much. I liked that dirty, unbalanced feel of the pre-release.
I only know the 4 tracks that were on myspace, but yes. For example, Ring Ring was better than Rill Rill, although Rill Rill is still pretty much song of the year for me.
Also I love these posts so so so so much because everybody always gives me musical treats to explore at my leisure! YAY!
The only problem with this list is the absence of Marina and the Diamonds.
But you know it's not bad when there are at least bands you don't know. So good job!
(seriously, Marina and the Diamonds. I wanted to hate it, because it was SO poppy, but instead it's been in my car for two months straight now.)
YES. Somewhere right around Janelle, my other music girl crush. It's like earworms, but you're happy about it.
the clause, "2010 Has Been A Startlingly Good Year For New Music So Far" doesn't count as commentary? just sayin.
SLEIGH BELLS FOREVER
The man's not entirely wrong. Please do page me when Sleigh Bells release their equivalent of "Sex Room," though.
Gil Scott-Heron should be added to pretty much any Listicle from here on out.
in my mind "me and the devil" is the real theme song to the wire
I am alright with both of those comments.
Sleigh Bells. Top tunes.
once again just proving most of the popular stuff is complete junk.
Thanks for the shout to the best song on Badu's record, Maura. It did not go unnoticed!
The best song on the LCD Soundsystem album is "Home," not "I Can Change." That is all. Oh and Sleigh Bells is really fucking overrated to the point that even though I like their album I hate to listen to it! At least you didn't put them #1, that makes me feel better.
That Tracey Thorn album is awesome. (Warning: suitable only for grown-ups.)
Somewhat disappointed that The-Dream didn't occupy spaces 1-17 here.
b/w
I'd forgotten that I like Wye Oak and need to listen to more of their music, so thanks for that.
Awesome songs here! Well, it started bad:P
Nothing new but like percolator, some songs i started forgetting I liked…
So much conflicting agreement/disagreement. Sleigh Bells are so overrated it hurts (I see now directly above Allyzay agrees.) Man…that song is OK, maybe worth a single listen. Why is it interesting? Someone please explain anything interesting or exceptional about that song. I don't hear a lick of it. Compared to any song on the LCD album or some of the prime Monae tracks…Sleigh Bells is BO-RING as hell.
Also no Owen Pallett? Because that album is one of the most compositionally interesting pop albums I've heard in the last 10 years, holy snizz. OH and the Flying Lotus! No way I can disagree 2010 hasn't been awesome so far musickeywise. But sooo disappointed peeps are talking about Sleigh Bells and the Vampire Autotune Weekend. So lame.
Also a note on Crystal Castles: Aren't all of your ears bleeding constantly listening to that stuff? I like sounds, don't get me wrong I like sounds. I'll douse my brain in Ornette Coleman at full blast any day of the week. Crystal Castles is virtually unlisten-to-able to my tender drums. Am I not taking enough MDMA? I should have more shouldn't I?
I like the new Oval.
I really wanted to see "jkl;jkl;afad" by Band No One Will Listen to In Four Years on this list.
> afad
Cynical response: If everybody claps extra hard…
Slightly-less cynical: Yeah, but.
Janelle Monae is included; this list is at least partially valid.
Loving the Sleigh Bells tune.
I only knew five songs on the list which bothered me but then I realized I'm actually quite old so five is pretty good .
My favourite thing about music listicles is how indignant people get with whatever is on it. Every time, without fail.
Also, Sleigh Bells are great.