[semi-simulblogged on my Tumblr...]
I considered skipping out on a Favorite Songs of the Year list this year, just because of the moving and everything, but I’ve done it every year since I was twelve (at least) and decided not to stop now. I listened to a lot less new music than usual this year, and honestly the state of pop was rather bleak for a while there. (There was a minute this spring when Katy Perry, Avril Levigne and Ke$ha [above] actually had three of the best songs on the radio!)
I did manage to come up with 56 songs that I liked, though, and starting tomorrow morning I’ll be announcing them, eight per day. [Spoiler: Ke$ha didn't make the final cut.] I’m posting the songs on my Tumblr during the day, just because, and each night I’ll do a wrap-up here. This page will be the master list, and will link to individual postings. Probably this makes it all more complicated than it needs to be, but whatever.
1. Linnea Henriksson, “Väldigt kär/Obegripligt ensam”
2. Rihanna, “Man Down”
3. Lady Gaga, “Bloody Mary”
4. The Kills, “The Last Goodbye”
5. Lloyd feat. André 3000 and Lil Wayne, “Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)”
6. PJ Harvey, “The Words That Maketh Murder”
7. Baxter Dury, “Isabel”
8. Britney Spears, “I Wanna Go”
9. Lykke Li, “I Follow Rivers”
10. Selena Gomez and the Scene, “Love You Like A Love Song”
11. Adele, “Rolling In The Deep”
12. La Femme, “Sur La Planche”
13. Lena, “Taken By A Stranger”
14. Cobra Starship feat. Sabi, “You Make Me Feel…”
15. Shirubi Ikazuchi, “St. Cabah”
16. Gruff Rhys, “Sensations In The Dark”
17. Cults, “Abducted”
18. Beyonce, “End of Time”
19. Alexandra Stan, “Mr. Saxobeat”
20. Veronica Maggio, “Jag kommer”
21. Stylo G, “Call Mi A Yardie”
22. Coeur de Pirate, “Adieu”
23. Florence and the Machine, “What The Water Gave Me”
24. Jazmine Sullivan, “Drive By (Always On My Mind)”
25. Bjork, “Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)”
26. Ladytron, “White Elephant”
27. Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Terrible Angels”
28. The Rapture, “How Deep Is Your Love?”
29. Dev, “In The Dark”
30. Lil Wayne, “Six Foot Seven Foot”
31. Dirty Beaches, “Lord Knows Best”
32. Emeli Sandé, “Heaven”
33. Warm Ghost, “Mariana”
34. Little Dragon, “Nightlight”
35. Mastodon, “Curl of the Burl”
36. Foo Fighters, “Rope”
37. My Tiger My Timing, “Endless Summer”
38. Little Boots, “Shake”
39. Enrique Iglesias, “Tonight (I’m Fuckin’ You)”
40. Tove Styrke, “Stalker In Your Speaker”
41. Erykah Badu, “Out My Mind Just In Time”
42. Austra, “Beat and the Pulse”
43. Battles feat. Gary Numan, “My Machines”
44. Jenny Silver, “Something In Your Eyes”
45. Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette, “Hello”
46. Guineafowl, “The Lie Is”
47. Roxette, “She’s Got Nothing On But The Radio”
48. Severina, “Brad Pitt”
49. Azealia Banks, “212″
50. Mondo Marcio, “Come Un Italiano”
51. Kelly Clarkson, “Mr. Know It All”
52. God Bows To Math, “Teenagers Is Lazy Journalism”
53. Keren Ann, “My Name Is Trouble”
54. Wale feat. Big Sean, “Slight Work”
55. Jelena Rozga, “Razmazena”
56. Inoj, “On”
Filed under: art, gay, heterosexuals, hookers, in praise of athletic beauty, lists, people from rhode island, porn, this very blog | Tags: art, governor carcieri, hate crimes, kok, lady gaga, republicans, sex, sex workers, sex workers rights, straight bears, the rotund, websites for women
This week Rhode Island’s hateful governor vetoed a bill that would expand the state’s list of hate crimes to include crimes based on gender identity. Tony Perkins and his horrid Family Research Council approved. (The governor of Rhode Island will be gone in January, thank the lord.)
The Village Voice writes about “straight bears.” I feel like this warrants a whole post of its own, and it’s not a bad article, but my main gripe is that the (totally skinny) writer calls professional rugby player Ben Cohen “portly” just one paragraph before he calls Kevin Smith “portly.” Also, no article needs to have the word “portly” in it more than once, anyway.
Jezebel says that sex workers’ rights are rights for all women. Which, duh. But it’s true.
The 100 best websites for women. Umm, 100 is a lot. Also Feministe is not the best anything for anybody.
Miss this Times article from last Sunday about Lady Gaga’s Telephone video.
Texas Republicans hate sex and want to ban strip clubs and porn and gay sex and whatever.
A 65-meter long dick draws some attention.
Kok is the name of a nerdy new homo blog that posts vintage-y porn illustrations and photos of Captain Kirk in bondage gear (see above). I like it!
Filed under: design of a decade, lists, music | Tags: 2004, design of a decade, maps, yeah yeah yeahs
#8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maps
[For some reason I found myself basically incapable of writing about this song. I've tried six or seven times over the past few weeks, and every time I hit a wall of procrastination like no wall of procrastination I've ever hit before. I really don't know why. But anyway, yeah, I'm starting this decade review thing again, for hopefully the last time.]
My favorite love songs are the ones that have the fewest words. Best of all, maybe, is the song by the Cure that’s actually called “Lovesong,” because the lyrics could not be simpler; the verses are one line, repeated eight times, with one word substituted in each line. And the chorus, also quite repetitive, is completely swoony.
“Maps,” the breakthrough hit for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is like the new millennium version of that song. It is so simple and so sweet, and expresses so much about love and longing that it doesn’t require very many details.
Filed under: lists, music | Tags: 2009, asobi seksu, ellie goulding, fever ray, franz ferdinand, girls aloud, girls girls girls, kelly clarkson, keri hilson, la roux, noisettes, shakira, songs of the year
Here, finally, is my list of 2009′s ten best songs. Notably, nine of the top ten feature female vocalists, a gender bias I noticed on lots of other people’s lists as well. Maybe it’s appropriate, then, that 2010 is will mark the revival of the Lilith Fair. (I don’t know. I’m excited, though.)
I should mention briefly that I was kind of surprised by my own number one pick. Any one of the top 10, or maybe even top 15, songs could have been my number one pick of the year. But ultimately I did have a favorite, even if it’s only that probably no one agrees with.
Overall, I think 2009 was kind of a weak year for popular music. Only one of these ten songs was commercially very popular, though a couple had lots of indie/blog buzz. Two were commercial failures, though, and my number one song wasn’t even released as a single in the US, despite heavy promotion for it.
But anyway, enough of my grouching. The list, in all its lengthy glory, after the jump:
