After reading David Well’s ‘Top 10 of 2010’, I thought I’d do some thieving and create my own top Ten as well. I was careful to put in ‘personal’, as I don’t want ‘real music’ fans silently demanding why certain artists are in the list and accusing me of having ‘shit taste in music’.
So yes, this list is a little ‘chavvy’ or ‘Poppy’ for some tastes, but that’s only because I’m terrible at keeping up to date with new music. But these are some of the tracks I know were released this year and were either so good or annoyingly catchy; they made me abuse the Reply button on Youtube.
10) Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars – “Billionaire” Yes, it’s an unusual song for me to pick, as it shouldn’t be to my tastes. For starters, it an RnB song, with some materialistic and greedy themes for its lyrics, which is pretty self explanatory from the title. But in this case, the acoustic guitar and the garnish of Jamaican drums segregate it from the generic crap. It is these elements that give the song the same laid-back coolness and mellow ambiance as that of an LA beach during sunset.
I’ve heard a lot of people complain that this song is gay. But just because something is not your cup of tea, does not make it so (is gay even an adjective?). You cannot deny that Bruno Mars has a great voice and Travie McCoy can rap very well. In fact, this song does not work without either of them, as I stumbled upon a group covering this song on the X Factor and they did it no justice.
9) Lady Gaga – “Telephone”I am not a Lady Gaga fan. I don’t like most of her songs and as for her image, I think it’s a little too out there, with her zombie-corpse dresses and space-ship hats. Before you know it, she will shave her head and stick Russian Pom-Pom balls all over it. Don’t give her ideas, I hear you shout.
I also hear some of you shout, “so why have you included this?”. It’s simple. It’s a good pop song, which I understand is an oxymoron to some people. But once you give this a listen, it becomes addictive. Well for me anyways. There’s little to really dislike about this as a pop song: it’s edgy, loud and has more energy than a bottle of Lucazade. But no disrespect to Gaga, as much as I’m not an admirer, I do appreciate that she thinks outside the box at times, what with quirky but catchy intros like “Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah! Roma-roma-mamaa! Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!”. And Telephone really isn’t an exception to this, as the beginning starts with a floaty keyboard that literally sounds like a lute.
8) Cyprus Hill and Tom Morello – “Rise Up”I'm a bit of a Tom Morello fan, as I like ‘Rage Against the Machine’ and ‘Audioslave’. However, and I know some of you will hate me for this, but have never liked Cyprus Hill. Not even their 90s classic ‘Jump Around’. So I’m not sure if I like this song because they are collaborating with Morello, or they are developing into something I might actually like. But either way, it doesn’t really matter. Accompanied by a Sin-City style music video, the song screams out with funk beats and banging riffs. Yes, it’s loud, it’s gutsy and it’s f***ing awesome.
7) Black Eyed Peas – “The Time (Dirty Bit)”I’ve never been much of an appreciater of the Black Eyed Peas, as I’ve never really been into Hip-Hop. Granted, a few of their songs are really good, like ‘Pump It’, ‘Boogie that Be’ and ‘Lets get it started’. Alright, one or two on this list are more catchy than really good. But, ‘The Time’ I would put in the latter category. No, it’s not their usual Hip-Hip sound, but rather techno, which I will openly admit to being a bit of a fan of. Alright, a huge fan. Taking a sample from Dirty Dancing’s ‘Time of my Life’, this is the perfect fusion of fist-thumping dance and rap, the sort of song you’d go crazy to in a nightclub, even when you’re not fuelled with booze.
6) Ellie Goulding – “Your Song”I don’t object to cover versions as long as they don’t sound karaoke and the artist puts their own personal stamp on it. This is why I adore this rendition of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’. The beauty and snowflake fragility of Goulding’s vocals and piano reminds me of Victoria Bergsman‘s version of Sweet Child of Mine, which ironically was also used in the John Lewis Christmas advert last year. Yes, because of this, ‘Your Song’ is the perfect winter song, and worked beautifully in the backdrop of the advert, which depicted snow covered landscapes and people preparing for Christmas.
5)Eliza Dolittle – “Pack Up”This number is as summery and refreshing as a glass of Pimms. Unfortunately, I only heard of this song through the X Factor, when I caught a clip of someone singing it on boot camp. But luckily, Dolittle’s album was advertised on TV, which made it easy to find this song on YouTube. It’s definitely a song most people, including myself, can relate to, for unfortunately, bitter losers who feel the need to spew their venom do exist in this world. Dolittle’s beautiful and emotive vocals give the lyrics the fragility it needs. But its Lloyd Wade’s powerful vocals as he boasts out a sample of 'Pack Up Your Troubles…' that injects the two fingered ‘whatever!’ vibe. But at the same time, his soulful voice enables the song to retain its prettiness, the sort you find in Cath Kidston accessories – quirky, dainty, with a very retro feel.
4) The Prodigy – “Stand Up” Yes, I’m aware that including this song is kind of cheating, as it was never really released as a single. But it was included in the film Kick-Ass and its soundtrack CD, so technically it is still a song that was made public. This may sound a little controversial, but I much prefer their come-back efforts to their earlier tracks, and this single just comes to show that the band can throw in new influences and sounds and make it sound just as brilliant as their usual stuff. “Stand Up” is a burst of loud and confident trumpets, cymbals and electronics, which easily makes it one of the best releases of this year for me.
3) Sex Bob-Omb (Beck) – “Threshold” Here I am cheating again, by including another soundtrack and (shock-horror!) by a band that doesn’t even exist. But, as I pointed out before, it was made public this year. The song is taken from the film ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’ and was written by Beck. I’m not surprised that the Indie icon wrote this, as he’s churned out plenty of great quality songs, even in the pop genre (Check out ‘Feel Good Time’, sung by Pink). And by no means, is this any different. The song has just as much energy and colour as the film it was featured in. With Cera screaming that his band are here to make us “think about death and get sad and stuff”, the track then explodes with thrashing drums and smoking riffs. And both were too awesome to me think of death and make me feel depressed.
2) Linkin Park – “Waiting for the End”This number two choice may be a little biased as I’m a bit of a Linkin Park fan, although I only got into their music recently, after a friend at university got me into them. Personally, I don’t think their new sound is as exciting and angsty as the stuff they’ve done before with Hybrid Theory, but I love the fact that they’re not scared to develop and try new things, without becoming too Poppy and diluted. *Cough*, Kings of Leon, *Cough*. But I love this song; the chorus has the sort of sentiment and beauty you'd find in most tracks on Incubus's 'Morning View'. And the instrumentals are fresh with experimental tinkering above the drum beats and piano.
1) Plan B – “She Said”This is the first time I’ve heard of Plan B, since MTV2 was taken off me three years ago and I had to hear about new songs from other people’s Myspace Pages, and visits down the nightclub. I’m going to be honest; I was never really a huge fan, being a scarf-donning Indie kid at the time. But I did appreciate his style, as he was not your typical British rapper, combining acoustic guitar with lyrics about personal hardship. And it is because of this lukewarm appreciation that this song hit me like a snowball. No, it’s not your typical song. In fact it doesn’t really fit in any genre, as it’s a dichotomous mixture of retro soul and rap, complete with subtle trumpets and laid-back beats. And guess what, it f***ing works.
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