The 10 Best Songs of 2010 (According to Me)

Since this is really a sports music blog at heart, I thought it only appropriate to dedicate my last post of 2010 to my 10 favorite songs of the year, as selected by me the writer. While I can’t promise you these are the best songs of the last 12 months – I haven’t heard all of them – you can reasonably conclude, given my impeccable musical vernacular, that they are at least in the ballpark. Unlike most posts, I’ve actually done a thorough bit of research on what’s to follow. Plus, I like to think I’m up on what the kids are listening to these days (i.e. not the Smashing Pumpkins/Soundgarden/Pearl Jam/any of my favorite bands).

Now if we could only get a little drumroll going…

*DRUMROLL*

Nice.

__________

Vanishing Cream – The Fresh & Onlys The Fresh & Onlys wrote a lot of songs about disappearing even before they hit relative indie stardom with that coveted 8.0 Pitchfork rating. It was “Play It Strange’s” “Waterfall” that gave the San Fran psych-rockers the national exposure they so deserve, but I’d take this Kinks-meets-Bond-Theme garage jam over their hazy acid-eater cuts any day. I especially love the mod-London back-up vocals, but like the most potent rock ‘n roll, the band’s real power lies in its ability to confront insecurity and helplessness with raging guitars and an eff you edge.

Monster – Kanye West ft. Nicki Minaj (Explicit) It’s telling that Jay-Z’s turn on the mic constitutes the “weak” moments of a stone-cold classic six minute stretch in which the self-proclaimed “Bad bitch that came from Sri Lanka” puts shame to a who’s who of rapper contemporaries. Rick Ross is on. Kanye is on. But gangsta Barbie “it” girl Nicki Minaj laps them with a spitfire mind-f— that is at once hysterical and sinister, self-deprecating and packed with enough in-your-grill audacity to make Lil’ Kim blush. Needless to say, she’s both owner of the year’s best verse and the reason I started cursing.

I Can Change – LCD Soundsystem James Murphy would be this generation’s David Bowie if he wasn’t such a hopelessly romantic schlub or poor dresser. Then again, if he wasn’t penning sappy electro-pop anthems about groping aimlessly for true love, he wouldn’t be James Murphy, and there would be no LCD Soundsystem, and we would all be the worse off dancing to generic plasti-dance tunes by Daft Punk and, um… David Bowie. And that would truly suck.

Girlfriend – Ty Segall I don’t know much about Ty Segall other than he’s a chill best coast bro from San Francisco who specializes in trippy, lo-fi rock ‘n roll and high-octane guitar riffage. I’m a particular fan of the latter, especially when it’s a) played at ear-bleed volume b) paired with (warning: hyperbole coming) the most swaggering, cocksure groove since Summer of Love-era Stones and c) matched by boasts about getting to use your girlfriend’s car “cuz she don’t mind NUTHIN’!”

Becoming A Jackal – Villagers Wide-eyed and gorgeously melancholy in a way that only a literal interpretation of jackal transformation can be. Stripping away all the anecdotal tales of fresh meat-chewing and preying on souls reveals an achingly beautiful tune about the value of simply having somebody who listens. The 60′s-tinged baroque pop instrumentation gives the song a haunting, old-world feel sounding not out of time, but uniquely timeless.

Floating Vibes – Surfer Blood Hard to believe five guys from West Palm Beach can produce music dripping with this much airy SoCal goodness or such knowledge of shifting tides for that matter. Truth is, effortless pop hooks and instantly memorable guitar lines render origins irrelevant. “Floating Vibes” is universal – in its breezy melodies, in its chiming guitar ring, and in its general lyrical sentiment. Songs about wishy-washy relationships and pending breakup just have an innate “been there” feel to them, no?

Younger Us – Japandroids If kids in 1976 grew up on Japandroids and The Hold Steady instead of Springsteen, I’m convinced the current crop of boomers would be just as well off and a hell of a lot cooler to boot. “Younger Us” works as both a visceral celebration and longing reflection of youth, or more specifically, doing stupid shit. It’s an unholy racket of drums ‘n guitar made from two guys who know the difference between emotional and emo, childlike and childish. Hard to find an unabashedly anthemic cut about screwing around in chic indie circles, but songs that make you think, “I’ll never get old and I’ll sure as hell never be like them” fit the bill.

Helicopter – Deerhunter I can’t recall ever hearing a song that better taps the chilling dichotomy between death row resignation and the euphoric daze of tranquilizing drugs. Bradford Cox, warped genius that he is, for this track inhabits the psyche of a female (sex?) slave wishing away her last days of hell on earth, and that “Helicopter” comes awash in gurgling electronic pangs, breathy vocals and dreamily melodic power chords makes the tale of inevitable disposable all the more unnerving.

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) – The Arcade Fire The world-beating Canadian collective’s first all-out dance track transforms “The Suburbs” from a world-weary elegy on aging and stagnation into a exultation of hope for a better future. Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” is the obvious touching point, but that sleek disco romp exists a hollowed-out mannequin to the warm-blooded, teary-eyed, scream-in-the-dark-’cause-you-just-can’t-take-it-anymore dance paean of “Sprawl II.” The Arcade Fire’s always done catharsis better than anyone, but stacked against “Wake Up,” “No Cars Go,” “Neighborhood #3” and all the rest, this one – in context – just might trump them all.

Hell Of A Life – Kanye West (Explicit) Leave it to the most egocentric rapper on the planet to upend his own genre and drop the year’s hottest rock track in the waning moments of a 70-minute hip-hop masterwork. Kanye’s beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy rolls on with this fantastical scuzz rocker about – among other acts of debauchery – banging bride’s maids, getting hitched in bathrooms, and strutting red carpets with your porn star wifey. A driving synth riff, operatic keys, a hook lifted from Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and all other manner of studio wizardry endows each over-the-top conceit with a surrealistic quality suggesting that this is indeed Yeezy’s fantasia. We’re all just living in it.

Honorable Mentions: Crash Years – New Pornographers, Heaven’s On Fire – The Radio Dept., Dark Fantasy – Kanye West, I Want The World To Stop – Belle & Sebastian, F*** You – Cee-Lo Green, Suburban War – The Arcade Fire, Stylo – Gorillaz, Slow – Twin Shadow, King Of The Beach – Wavves, Tell ‘Em – Sleigh Bells, Where I’m Going – Cut Copy, Janelle Monae – Cold War, Robin – Dancing On My Own, Fever Dreaming – No Age, Flash Delirium – MGMT, Angela Surf City – The Walkmen, Walk With Me – Neil Young, Infinity Guitars – Sleigh Bells, Boy Lilikoi – Jonsi

Merry Christmas and happy Kwanzaa.

- Robbie