Previous top 5's:
2009:
05. "Waves" - Metric
04. "Memoir of a Lightning Bolt" - Beat Radio
03. "Bright Lights" - Placebo
02. "Come Back Clean" - Crystal Method ft. Emily Haines
01. "Freak Out" - Stellastarr*
2008:
05. "Kids" - MGMT
04. "L.E.S. Artistes" - Santogold
03. "Dying Is Fine" - Ra Ra Riot
02. "Ion Square" - Bloc Party
01. "Keep Your Eyes Ahead" - The Helio Sequence
At last the time has come! It's Thursday! Tomorrow's the big holiday. Saturday's the big party. It all comes down to this... and it was really the hardest list I've ever made. I second-guessed myself so much... but feel I have come to a defining list of the BEST OF 2010. Just in case you think a song should be on here but isn't, stay tuned to tomorrow, as I'll list all the honorable mentions of best songs (a shitload of these), albums, and remixes.
The National and Shout Out Louds nearly outdid their best selves with two of my favorite introspective rock songs of the year, Paper Moon and Bloodbuzz Ohio. Definitely worth a listen for those that love such a genre. Invisible Light was so good that it put the rest of the Scissor Sisters' Night Work to shame. It was also their best song live, since they really screwed up the re-working of Filthy/Gorgeous. Kelis sounded her resurgence and her grasp of future pop with a track that entranced me for months, 22nd Century. Duck Sauce made the nonsensical amazing and made me dance like none other this year with (my favorite dance track of 2010) Barbra Streisand. Groove Armada made a track that sounded like it was teleported from the '80s in all the right ways. The Walkmen made one of the more interesting angst-ridden tracks I've ever heard, with the surf-pop-meets-angst-rock Angela Surf City. God I love that song (you may hate it... haha)! Crookers and Martin Solveig took advantage of amazing leading ladies of indie pop, Roisin Murphy and Martina Sorbara, and made two of the best songs of the year. Marina & The Diamonds showed us how it was okay to pick up all the pins. And, Goldfrapp produced her best song in years; one that (when seeing it live) was one of the highlights of my year.
...and then there was Robyn. The Swedish starlet produced not ONE but TWO of the best songs of the year. The first leak I heard was Fembot. Fembot immediately took for me, with its well written sass-infused lyrics, intensely catchy beat, and the perfect ability to not take itself seriously, while also never selling the intelligence of its audience short. I would have been happy with that. But... then came another leak. This one was the killer. A song that, when released on June 1st, crossed an amazing amount of boundaries in music. The hipsters loved it. The club kids danced to it. The gays idolized it. Sorority girls connected over it. Kept wives sang it into their homemade dry martinis (with a splash of tears). Everyone knew it, even if they didn't know Robyn. It was written perfectly. It was Dancing On My Own. And it stood on its own.
It is explosive but vulnerable, angry but innately melancholy, and it is very much an appreciation of the bittersweet aspects of the world in which many of us dwell. I loved it, to say the least. At a time when pop music looked doomed to auto-tune and fake-boob us into artistic submission, Robyn came back and saved the day for a while... Let's appreciate that.
"People get drunk and turn into themselves in a way, and they go to experience some kind of emotion. But it's not always about fun. There's a destructive side to it. But I'm more into the empowerment of going out, because it's always been the place where I could be myself and get inspired. Even if I'm sad, dancing is a way to let stuff out." - Robyn
12 (tie). "Angela Surf City" - The Walkmen
12. "Paper Moon" - Shout Out Louds
11. "Invisible Light" - Scissor Sisters
10. "22nd Century" - Kelis
09. "Barbra Streisand" - Duck Sauce
08. "Rocket" - Goldfrapp
07. "Bloodbuzz Ohio" - The National
06. "I Am Not A Robot" - Marina & The Diamonds
05. "I Won't Kneel" - Groove Armada ft. SaintSaviour
04. "Fembot" - Robyn
03. "Royal T" - Crookers ft. Roisin Murphy
02. "Hello" - Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette
01. "Dancing On My Own" - Robyn
