Top 20 Songs of 2006
Why? Because i can, that's why. i have tales to tell, but those shall wait. Instead, i'm going to be a music snob and tell you things that are absolutely less interesting than watching a fat Indian man pour a gasoline and motor oil cocktail onto a fire.
That, and i've been grading all day. This shall relax me.
20. "I Remember-" Figurines. It's the best song that wasn't the B-side to The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night."
19. "We're From Barcelona-" I'm From Barcelona. This song is the aural equivalent of a manic children's show character on Prozac.
18. "I Like a Boy in Uniform (School Uniform)-" The Pipettes. Mmmmm...... bisexual girls in uniform. As for the music, there's the girl group vocal interplay and an organ line that lies beneath the surface, tying the whole song together.
17. "Parentheses-" The Blow. This song should be so trite. It's driven by handclaps. It's got a line about babies crying because they feel the world. The song bounces a little too much for its own good. But at the 0:53 mark the bottom drops out for the first chorus, and it becomes apparent just how good the melody is, and all is forgiven.
16. "Please Visit Your National Parks-" The Oxford Collapse. The band name is cool. The song title is not. The words are indecipherable. But the guitar line that underlies the entire song catches you with the high-note stabs that make you hit repeat.
15. "The Operator-" Barbara Morganstern. It's in German. It has an Eighties Fetish. I like it anyway.
14. "Promiscuous Girl-" Nelly Furtado (ft. Timbaland). I could give a fuck about Nelly Furtado. Timbaland's a different story. This beat is so good, you could record a drowning cat for the vocals and it would still be a Top-40 hit.
13. "Long Distance Call-" Phoenix. Think the Strokes, only soft rock and French. And yet, they don't suck. And where the Strokes want to be cool, this song exudes an air of relaxation that's, well, so French.
12. "Yours to Keep-" The Teddybears (ft. Neneh Cherry and Annie). Ever wonder what happened to Neneh Cherry? Neither have i. But she's on this piece of motorik pop confection. The melody is simple and the lyrics are too, but the arrangement always changes. Each verse and chorus has different electronic flourishes, sometimes there's guitar and sometimes no, but that's what keeps it interesting.
11. "One More Try-" My Robot Friend (ft. Antony). This is a far cry from one of last year's best songs, Antony's own "Hope There's Someone." Instead of cabaret melodrama, there's electroclash. Whatever electroclash means anymore. It doesn't matter. Listen to the song and try not to smile.
10. "LDN-" Lily Allen. i'd probably put this song even higher if i hadn't listened to it 25 times in a row when i first downloaded it.
9. "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives-" Voxtrot. On the other hand, i didn't expect to place this song this high on the list. But then i realized i liked this song better than anything below it. It's a basic Smiths-worshipping indie rock song. But it's sooooooo well done.
8. "Georgia.... Bush-" Lil' Wayne. Vicious. Just vicious.
7. "Yankee Bayonet-" The Decemberists. In lieu of describing this immaculately written Civil-War duet, i'll just say that i can't wait for the Decemberists to face Stephen Colbert for a guitar shred-off on The Colbert Report. December 20th, 11:30pm.
6. "Lex-" Ratatat. i don't know where to begin here. It sounds kind of like an old-school DJ got his hands on a bunch of old Nintendo and Calecovision game soundtracks. But trust me.
5. "What You Know-" T.I. No man can perfectly match his flow to his beats like T.I.
4. "Stuck Between Stations-" The Hold Steady. The song starts with a lone guitar figure, soon to be joined by twinkling piano and then the crash of the full band. And if it didn't already sound enough like the Boss, the opening line quotes Sal Paradise in Kerouac's On the Road. Songs this good are more engrossing and tell a better story than any movie.
3. "My Love-" Justin Timberlake (ft. T.I.). Can we just go ahead and start calling Timberlake "Michael Jackson"? It's not like the real Jackson is coming back anytime soon, what with him being held hostage on an alien planet or something. And Timberlake isn't any more white than the current Michael Jackson. Mainstream pop hasn't been this adventurous and this good since Thriller, or pre-Jehova's Witness Prince.
2. "Pull Shapes-" The Pipettes. I first heard this song on a drive from Ann Arbor to Chicago, and i ended up listening it from the Michigan/Indiana border all the way to the Skyway. And i thought it was great. And then i listened to it on headphones and discovered the treasures buried in every nook and cranny of the Spectoresque Wall of Sound.
1. "Collarbone-" Fujiya & Miyagi. This song is like hydrogen gas: it will entirely fill up whatever space you put it in, and it perpetually seems one good spark away from exploding. If it's on headphones, it will consume you. If it's playing on a stereo in your apartment, it will take over your residence. If it ever comes over the loudspeaker at Shea, i am absolutely positive that all of Queens would start grooving on this. The ostinato bassline is so elemental it feels less written than discovered. There's cowbell. There's handclaps. I'm listening to it right now, and my head is bobbing with the beat. And despite the name, they're British.
Tomorrow: Top 10 Albums of 2006
Later this week: Stupidity in the middle of nowhere.
That, and i've been grading all day. This shall relax me.
20. "I Remember-" Figurines. It's the best song that wasn't the B-side to The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night."
19. "We're From Barcelona-" I'm From Barcelona. This song is the aural equivalent of a manic children's show character on Prozac.
18. "I Like a Boy in Uniform (School Uniform)-" The Pipettes. Mmmmm...... bisexual girls in uniform. As for the music, there's the girl group vocal interplay and an organ line that lies beneath the surface, tying the whole song together.
17. "Parentheses-" The Blow. This song should be so trite. It's driven by handclaps. It's got a line about babies crying because they feel the world. The song bounces a little too much for its own good. But at the 0:53 mark the bottom drops out for the first chorus, and it becomes apparent just how good the melody is, and all is forgiven.
16. "Please Visit Your National Parks-" The Oxford Collapse. The band name is cool. The song title is not. The words are indecipherable. But the guitar line that underlies the entire song catches you with the high-note stabs that make you hit repeat.
15. "The Operator-" Barbara Morganstern. It's in German. It has an Eighties Fetish. I like it anyway.
14. "Promiscuous Girl-" Nelly Furtado (ft. Timbaland). I could give a fuck about Nelly Furtado. Timbaland's a different story. This beat is so good, you could record a drowning cat for the vocals and it would still be a Top-40 hit.
13. "Long Distance Call-" Phoenix. Think the Strokes, only soft rock and French. And yet, they don't suck. And where the Strokes want to be cool, this song exudes an air of relaxation that's, well, so French.
12. "Yours to Keep-" The Teddybears (ft. Neneh Cherry and Annie). Ever wonder what happened to Neneh Cherry? Neither have i. But she's on this piece of motorik pop confection. The melody is simple and the lyrics are too, but the arrangement always changes. Each verse and chorus has different electronic flourishes, sometimes there's guitar and sometimes no, but that's what keeps it interesting.
11. "One More Try-" My Robot Friend (ft. Antony). This is a far cry from one of last year's best songs, Antony's own "Hope There's Someone." Instead of cabaret melodrama, there's electroclash. Whatever electroclash means anymore. It doesn't matter. Listen to the song and try not to smile.
10. "LDN-" Lily Allen. i'd probably put this song even higher if i hadn't listened to it 25 times in a row when i first downloaded it.
9. "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives-" Voxtrot. On the other hand, i didn't expect to place this song this high on the list. But then i realized i liked this song better than anything below it. It's a basic Smiths-worshipping indie rock song. But it's sooooooo well done.
8. "Georgia.... Bush-" Lil' Wayne. Vicious. Just vicious.
7. "Yankee Bayonet-" The Decemberists. In lieu of describing this immaculately written Civil-War duet, i'll just say that i can't wait for the Decemberists to face Stephen Colbert for a guitar shred-off on The Colbert Report. December 20th, 11:30pm.
6. "Lex-" Ratatat. i don't know where to begin here. It sounds kind of like an old-school DJ got his hands on a bunch of old Nintendo and Calecovision game soundtracks. But trust me.
5. "What You Know-" T.I. No man can perfectly match his flow to his beats like T.I.
4. "Stuck Between Stations-" The Hold Steady. The song starts with a lone guitar figure, soon to be joined by twinkling piano and then the crash of the full band. And if it didn't already sound enough like the Boss, the opening line quotes Sal Paradise in Kerouac's On the Road. Songs this good are more engrossing and tell a better story than any movie.
3. "My Love-" Justin Timberlake (ft. T.I.). Can we just go ahead and start calling Timberlake "Michael Jackson"? It's not like the real Jackson is coming back anytime soon, what with him being held hostage on an alien planet or something. And Timberlake isn't any more white than the current Michael Jackson. Mainstream pop hasn't been this adventurous and this good since Thriller, or pre-Jehova's Witness Prince.
2. "Pull Shapes-" The Pipettes. I first heard this song on a drive from Ann Arbor to Chicago, and i ended up listening it from the Michigan/Indiana border all the way to the Skyway. And i thought it was great. And then i listened to it on headphones and discovered the treasures buried in every nook and cranny of the Spectoresque Wall of Sound.
1. "Collarbone-" Fujiya & Miyagi. This song is like hydrogen gas: it will entirely fill up whatever space you put it in, and it perpetually seems one good spark away from exploding. If it's on headphones, it will consume you. If it's playing on a stereo in your apartment, it will take over your residence. If it ever comes over the loudspeaker at Shea, i am absolutely positive that all of Queens would start grooving on this. The ostinato bassline is so elemental it feels less written than discovered. There's cowbell. There's handclaps. I'm listening to it right now, and my head is bobbing with the beat. And despite the name, they're British.
Tomorrow: Top 10 Albums of 2006
Later this week: Stupidity in the middle of nowhere.
posted by Irish McJew at 7:48 PM
3 Comments:
I have to admit, I'm totally unfamiliar with most of these songs, but I loved the Hold Steady album.
Where is Gnarls Barkley on this list? Mainstream and overplayed, to be sure, but no more so than Promiscuous, and much more awesome.
I also would like to see some love for KT Tunstall here.
I consider Gnarls last year- I first heard "Crazy" in mid-December. Otherwise, it would rock this list.
Gnarls is definitely a 2006 song (released in March, technically, although it had been leaked before).
Rolling Stone listed it as the #1 2006 song.
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