[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”

So, it’s one hour away from being December. Crazy! This month was really odd on a personal level, in both good and bad ways. On the one hand, I finished making a magazine that I’m really proud of; on the other hand, I spent a lot of time going to wakes and memorial services and I took my first-ever 4am drunken ambulance ride, which is something I’d prefer not to repeat anytime soon.

ANYWAY.

Now that it’s (about to be) December, I’ve made my list of my fifty favorite songs of the year. 2010 was an odd year for me musically: it started out with me hosting a pop radio show and obsessively researching the weekly singles releases and charts in eight to ten countries every week, and it ended with me feeling like I knew nothing at all about new releases: my hard drive is totally full and I don’t really have extra money to be CD shopping. Plus, honestly, I wasn’t really that excited about much that I heard musically, probably because I spent a majority of 2010 listening to music out of shitty Macbook speakers that don’t have any bass.

ANYWAY.

I’ve queued my Tumblr to post five songs a day for the next ten days, in countdown fashion. It’ll start at 9am on December 1 and wrap up at 5pm on December 10. I’ll be keeping a master list here, and posting daily updates about the songs, so you don’t have to actually navigate back and forth between the two blogs unless you’re really bored.

Poor Wolf Gang is the big loser of the year: “The King And All Of His Men,” which technically came out in late 2009, was on the list until about twenty minutes ago, when I remembered another song and had to bump it off. As a consolation prize, I’m posting that video first.

Check after the jump for the full list, which I’ll keep updating as time goes by:

50. Haight-Ashbury, “Favourite Song”
49. Ladytron, “Ace of Hz”
48. Esben and the Witch, “Lucia At The Precipice”
47. Nicki Minaj ft. Sean Garrett, “Massive Attack”
46. Eight Legs, “Best Of Me”
45. Jay-Z ft. Swiss Beatz, “On To The Next One”
44. Miranda Lambert, “The House That Built Me”
43. Stone Temple Pilots, “Between The Lines”
42. Gayngs, “Faded High”
41. jj, “Let Go”
40. Ludacris feat. Shawnna, “How Low”
39. Drake, “Find Your Love”
38. Museum of Bellas Artes, “Watch The Glow”
37. New Boyz feat. Tyga, “Crickets”
36. The Hundred In The Hands, “Sleepwalkers”
35. Jenny Silver, “A Place To Stay”
34. Locnville, “6 Second Poison”
33. Azari and iii, “Hungry For The Power”
32. The Fresh & Onlys, “Vanishing Cream”
31. Bullion, “Say Goodbye To What”
30. Lissie, “Record Collector”
29. Cheryl Cole, “Parachute”
28. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, “She Ain’t A Child No More”
27. Clinic, “I’m Aware”
26. The Like, “Wishing He Was Dead”
25. OneRepublic, “All The Right Moves”
24. The-Dream, “Florida University”
23. MIA, “XXXO”
22. My Chemical Romance, “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)”
21. The Bangz ft. New Boys, “Found My Swag”
20. Best Coast, “When I’m With You”
19. Tracey Thorn, “Why Does The Wind”
18. The Knife ft. Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, “The Height Of Summer”
17. Emika, “Drop The Other”
16. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, “Bittersweet”
15. Galactic ft. Cheeky Blakk, “Do It Again”
14. Cate LeBon, “Shoeing The Bones”
13. Corin Tucker Band, “1,000 Years”
12. Kele, “Everything You Wanted”
11. Willow Smith, “Whip My Hair”
10. Ceremony, “Someday”
9. Sleigh Bells, “Rill Rill”
8. Mariah Carey ft. Nicki Minaj, “Up Out My Face Remix”
7. Tinie Tempah, “Pass Out”
6. Sade, “Soldier Of Love”
5. Tove Stryke, “Million Pieces”
4. Belle and Sebastian, “I Want The World To Stop”
3. Janelle Monae, “Cold War”
2. Erykah Badu, “Window Seat”
1. Alicia Keys, “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”

It’s been a while since I’ve done a link roundup, but here are some of the many, many, many, many Firefox tabs I currently have open:

There’s been some pretty serious news in Ontario, where sex work is inching closer to decriminalization and where sex workers just got a big boost to their rights.

Congressional candidate Krystal Ball is hopping mad about perceived slut-shaming with regard to photos of her Yuletide cheer at a Christmas party six years ago.  Her response, that society needs to get over women who have sex if they ever want to elect someone of her generation, is pretty excellent.

On a completely unrelated note, let’s move on to the Smiths, and also to this one lady that’s determined to cover every single Smiths song by the end of the year.

From the Department of Pointless Listmaking, Morrissey recently released his own personal list of the thirteen best singles ever.   I only recognize about half of them, but Shocking Blue is always a good choice, and “Groovin’ With Mr. Bloe” is of course quite excellent.

KEXP counted down listeners’ favorite artists of all time as part of their fall pledge drive.  It’s very predictable, unfortunately; Neko Case is the highest-ranking solo female artist (#32) and the highest-ranking female-fronted band is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at, um, #58.  PJ Harvey, Bjork, Ella Fitzgerald (!) and Nina Simone all made the top 100, as did Sonic Youth and X.  But besides that it’s just a big sausage party.

But don’t fret, girl enthusiasts, there’s new Corin Tucker!  The Sleater-Kinney singer is actually coming to Providence with her new band, though I was a little surprised to see their name listed second on the poster…

Oh, and speaking of voices that saved my life in high school, Jarvis Cocker’s singing on the new tune by Discodeine.

And a Magnetic Fields documentary!  Hopeully I’ll get a chance to see it at the Film Forum next time I’m in New York…

Patti Smith, who also was big to me-in-high-school, albeit for one of her less well-regarded singles, got nominated for a National Book Award.  And, for the first time, 13 out of 20 nominees are ladies.

I don’t know when this blog turned into a women’s studies project, but to keep on the same tip here’s the rather intense Female Character Flowchart.

Finally, the Better Book Titles Tumblr has been quite popular, I guess, although I didn’t hear about it until this week.  Here’s their take on my all-time favorite novel for younger readers.

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!

#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.

Over three and a half minutes, the song builds and builds. Karen O might look like one of those clubby party girls that were in many ways the defining characteristic of the last decade, but she’s not, really. Repeating the phrase “they don’t love you like I love you” over a dozen times, she’s lonely and sad as she watches her lover plan to take his band on the road. But the details don’t matter, because this song is more universal than that. It’s amazing and beautiful and, oddly, it was even a US hit, reaching #9 on the Modern Rock chart in an era when women vocalists were being scrubbed off the modern rock chart faster than you could say Lilith Fair Backlash.

Fever To Tell, the album this came off of, is great. Actually, if I was really pressed to namea favorite album of the decade, I might even pick that one. But though it was trendy, and though I was at the trendiest point of probably my whole life, I didn’t buy the album when it was new. It took me three or four years to get it, because I rather stupidly listened to the advice of a co-worker who said every other song on the album was terrible and sounded nothing like “Maps,” and also the disdainful opinions of a friend who had gone to Oberlin and didn’t like hipsters and thought that Nick Zinner made fun of him one time. (NB: These were both people whose opinions I valued at the time.)

And yeah, it’s true that someone wanting to hear romantic power ballads might not really like “Date With The Night,” and it’s also true that Nick Zinner probably makes fun of a lot of people. But that’s besides the point. Because “Black Tongue” is a perfect song, and so is “Pin,” and above all so is “Y Control.” In fact, “Maps” is only the fourth or fifth best track on the album.

But still, it is so good. Seven “say say say” bits and thirteen repetitions of “they don’t love you like I love you” make for an unique arrangement that’s repetitive but not cloying; I didn’t realize that until the first time I attempted it at karaoke (which is how I learn about a lot of song arrangements), but the song isn’t about telling a story. It’s simply about the sadness of separation.

Last night was another potentially productive evening foiled by the damn internet.

This time I was waylaid by the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll, in which dozens of music critics vote for their ten favorite albums and singles of the year.  And each album or song title links to the ballots of every critic who voted for that album or song, and because I geek out over things like that I pretty much wasted the entire night clicking between songs and critics.

This year’s choices were disappointing, though.  Not just because some of my favorite albums of the year didn’t make the cut–hello, Franz Ferdinand and Brand New–but because the lists themselves seemed to be chosen by hoity-toity indie snobs.  I thought we were beyond the age of this, but critically it seems to be getting worse and worse, even though commercially it seems to be getting better and better.  (The crossover appeal of Shania Twain ten years ago was nothing compared to the world’s near-universal love for Taylor Swift today.)
The albums list almost always reflects old-timey favorites–old white folks with extensive pedigrees (that includes Sonic Youth) and a bunch of young-ish whippersnappers who are allegedly really important, like Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective.  That’s not a bad thing, necessarily.  But it is a thing.

The singles list should be a different story, though.  That list usually rewards the great pop songs, the ones you’ll still be dancing to twenty years from now at the weddings of your distant relatives.  Take the lists from exactly twenty years ago, for instance.  The albums of the year list for 1989 included Neil Young, Lou Reed and the Neville Brothers in the top 5.   But the top 10 singles of that year included pop classics like Bust A Move, Like A Prayer, Love Shack, Wild Thing, She Drives Me Crazy and Buffalo Stance.

Flash forward ten years:  Albums of the year were Moby, the Magnetic Fields, Beck, the Flaming Lips and Tom Waits.  At least three of those are really good, but it’s not so interesting if you like to see praise given to music made by women or minorities.  But the top single in the poll that year was TLC’s No Scrubs, followed by stuff like Steal My Sunshine, Beautiful Stranger, I Want It That Way, Cher’s Believe and Ricky Martin’s sadly forgotten Livin’ La Vida Loca.

So this year’s list is a downer.  While Jay-Z and Alicia’s omnipresent ode to the inspiya-ing bright lights of the Big Apple topped the chart, only seven of the top 25 songs were pop radio hits.  And three of those seven were by Lady GaGa.  And while Phoenix and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (each represented twice) both had modern rock hits, it’s still a letdown that three of the top 5 singles Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear and the Dirty Projectors is a big letdown (and I actually like Stillness Is The Move.)

Of course, that signifies a lot of things.  Pop music isn’t so radio-centered anymore, so for people who shop online Two Weeks isn’t really any more obscure than Waking Up In Vegas.  (Notably, though, last year’s Voice list had, by my count, 11 pop hits in the top 25.)  But with critics and reviewers still mainly discussing albums, and with so very many albums to choose from each year, maybe it makes sense that they’d now focus more on singles off albums they’re already covering.  And, of course, radio playlists have shrunk a lot since 1999 (and definitely since 1989), to the point that three out of every seven songs they play actually are by Lady GaGa.

But still.

Maybe I’m just bitter because my favorite pop hits of the year didn’t do so well in the survey this year.  I think if anyone should have had three songs in the top 25 it should be Kelly Clarkson, not Lady GaGa.  My Life Would Suck Without You (#54) lived up to all the brouhaha that everyone else heard on Since U Been Gone, I Do Not Hook Up (#60) made abstinence and sobriety actually sound like lots of fun, and Already Gone, which might be my favorite pop ballad of the whole decade, came in at a measly #1972, garnering just one vote.  (Thanks, Eric Danton of the Hartford Courant.)

Only one person voted for my favorite single of the year, Shakira’s Did It Again.  It wasn’t a hit, true, and it wasn’t actually released in this country.  But it’s a fabulous song with a fabulous video by a fabulous artist and it deserves better, for God’s sake.

Steve Smith, the Time Out New York critic who voted for Did It Again, also liked singles by Passion Pit, who annoy me vocally, and Matt & Kim, who drive me nuts.  But, because he’s the only person who included my favorite single of the year,  I’m going to check out some of his other picks.  I’d never even heard of his #1 album, Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati, before reading his list last night, but I’m going to give it a listen today.

Only one person (John Seroff from Tofu Hut/Brooklyn Vegan) voted for Ellie Goulding’s Under The Sheets, my #5 song of the year.  He also liked Shakira and Annie (yay) but ranked the annoying-voiced Daniel Merriwether and duller-than-dull Norwegian act Donkeyboy in his top ten, too, so I’m not sure what to make of that.  Nor do I know what to make of Frank Kogan.  He ranked Girls Aloud’s luxuriously fab Untouchable in his top 10, but put stupid I’m On A Boat two places higher.

It’s impossible to figure out what this means as far as taste goes, really, when all you see are lists without commentary–but I don’t think I like this new trend of favoring sluggish indie singles over unifying party songs.  If the singles of the year aren’t singles that people outside of music writing know, then something is wrong somewhere.  It could be on either end; either critics need to get out more or better music needs to get to the people.  Or both.  But either way, this poll is distressing; I mean, twenty years from now when my cousins’ kids get married, are we all going to have to dance to My Girls at the recepton?

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:

10. Keri Hilson, Turnin’ Me On (Feat. Lil Wayne)
In many ways, Keri Hilson’s wildly popular Knock You Down annoyed the crap out of me. Not because it’s actually a bad song but because the good parts are overwhelmed by awkward production and maybe the single dumbest minute of Kanye West’s career.

So I don’t really get why Knock You Down song became Keri’s first real hit while the energetically slinky Turnin Me On disappeared without a trace after stalling at #28 on the pop chart.  Featuring Lil Wayne, the Polow da Don-produced track is by far the best thing on Hilson’s overly money-oriented In A Perfect World album.

9. Girls Aloud, Untouchable
Beautiful robots dancing alone.  No four words made me happier this year than the strange simile that appears five minutes into Girls Aloud’s epic Untouchable.

The phrase doesn’t mean anything, really, except that it does.  It means that the Xenomania product, for all their popular-girl sheen, are capable of expressing real human emotion far better than any of your Fleet Foxes or Animal Collectives.  For the third and final single from the girls’  Out Of Control album, producer Brian Higgins went all out, creating a heavenly seven-minute disco epic that also served as the group’s farewell before the five members went on hiatus to explore solo careers.

Unfortunately, the song was chopped and hacked into a really crappy, vocoded four-minute radio edit, which might have something to do with the fact that it was their only single to miss the UK top ten.

8. Franz Ferdinand, What She Came For
Not enough people appreciated the manliness of Franz Ferdinand’s third album.  Because while it’s perfectly acceptable to girls to sing dancy songs about heading to the club together, it’s rare that a group of men advocate the same homosocial behavior.

Or if they do, they overcompensate, trying to sound tough or emphasizing the drinking and the drugs and the girls.  While Alex Kapranos does sing about women–in this song, a vaguely predatory one–the point of the record is that a bunch of dudes are hanging out, dancing (Lucid Dreams) and getting emotional (No You Girls) and espousing the joys of bachelorhood (Live Alone).

7. The Noisettes, Never Forget You
Until this year, I had little interest in the Noisettes.  I thought their debut album was pretty bland, and their appearance on the St. Trinian’s soundtrack irked me.  So I was more than a little surprised when I first heard Never Forget You, a nostalgic, string-filled disco-soul number that somehow manages to evoke the same poppy melancholy as the best Pretenders singles.

A lot of people thought the band’s transformation from garage punk to car ad-ready pop was a sellout, but unlike, say, The Gossip, the Noisettes mastered the transition easily; giant-haired singer Shingai Shoniwa’s vocal performance on this song is stellar.

6. Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without You
Without question, my two favorite seconds of the year occur at around the 2:57 mark of this song.  Right before the final chorus of this song starts, there’s this completely amazing drum fill, or synth fill, or whatever, that sounds a little like Fred Flintstone trying to start his car.

The level of skill in this song’s production–or the whole album’s production–is astounding.  It somehow manages to sound huge without turning Kelly into a diva.  And hearing this, or the equally good follow-up I Do Not Hook Up, or the surprisingly awesome ballad Already Gone, it’s amazing to think that Clarkson, the down-to-earth superstar, is the same woman who debuted with the crappy-as-all-hell Idol coronation song A Moment Like This.

If I didn’t stick to the one-song-per-album rule on this list, Kelly would have had three singles in the top 100; probably in the top 20.

5. Ellie Goulding, Under The Sheets
Ellie Goulding’s Under The Sheets is a young gay man’s wildest dream come true.

I know that’s stereotyping, or projecting or what have you, but the part of me that spent most of 1996 locked in my bedroom listening to Boys For Pele would have creamed his shorts to hear a song that was this poppy but also this ethereal-and-kooky-Englishwoman-dancing-on-the-heath-ish.

Ten years from now, if not sooner, I’ll probably be very embarrassed by the Natasha/Florence/Ellie craze, just as I’m now embarrassed by the number of overly earnest female singer-songwriters I dug in the nineties.  (Hi, Jann Arden.)

But, you know, I prefer to live in the moment.  Which is why I’m also unashamedly tickled about the new-millennium reincarnation of the Lilith Fair.

4. Asobi Seksu, Me & Mary
Though I’ve tried, I can’t really get into Asobi Seksu’s dreamy brand of indie.  Yuki Chikudate’s voice doesn’t generally appeal to me, the duo’s songs don’t have enough melody, and the shoegazing-for-shoegazing’s-sake just reminds me of all the reasons I never really got into Slowdive.

But oh, this song.

The so-so Hush album came out way back in January, and its only single is perfect, basically.  The verses are melodic, the chorus is catchy, the drums are fierce and there’s a tense sensation of being swept away at sea that culminates in a minute-long freakout at the song’s end.  Finally, finally, Asobi Seksu have realized their potential.

3. Fever Ray, Keep The Streets Empty For Me
The six (!) singles, and especially the six videos, from Fever Ray’s much-adored eponymous album were all fabulous, sensory delights that were as lovely as they were spooky.  But my favorite track, by far, is the most recent, a six-minute long folk song wherein Karen Andersson lays off all the creepy vocal processing.  She sounds young and shy and vulnerable, a feeling made more intense by the fact that the pan flutes and quietly strummed guitars are punctuated here and there by what may be an homage to Mark Snow’s X-Files theme.

2. La Roux, Bulletproof
Elly Jackson is a problem.  People focus a lot on all of the stupid, mean things that she says in interviews.  But why?  There’s nothing about any of the tracks on La Roux’s eponymous debut that makes me want to know this funny-haired woman’s  opinions about rape or the state of the music industry.

However, her personal opinions do nothing to dissuade me from thinking that Bulletproof is a wonderful, wonderful song.  The one-line-four-times chorus is repeated enough times that it’s easily stuck in your head, yet it never becomes annoying.  And vocally, Jackson’s enthusiasm betrays no hint that on other songs she occasionally sounds a little like Talkatoo Cockatoo.

1. Shakira, Did It Again
Epic fail.

Epic Records, that is.

My favorite song of the year wasn’t released as a single in the US, though it was released in the rest of the world.  This despite the fact that this song is awesome, despite the awesomeness of the video’s choreography, and despite the fact that Shakira performed it a while bunch of times on American television.

In October, around the time of its international release, I went on a car trip and listened to Did It Again at least fifteen times in a row; I don’t do that very often, but I wanted to really appreciate every single note of this intricately-constructed song. The fast verses, the slower chorus, the “eh eh eh eh oh oh oh oh” bits. It’s produced by the Neptunes and it’s the best thing they’ve done in years.

But Epic, Shakira’ American label, decided to hold off on the single’s release, instead going for the tedious Timbaland-produced Lil Wayne duet Give It Up To Me, a song that doesn’t even appear on the original version of the She Wolf album. It’s a cynical, nonsensical attempt to sell overpriced deluxe editions of the album, or maybe they’re just trying to kill the album format off for good.

Give It Up To Me just isn’t a very good song; Shakira’s greatest strength is her batty lyric-writing, and Give It Up To Me has none of that. Instead it’s just one humdrum chorus repeated endlessly; I’d like to see Shakira do more hip-hop stuff, but she should be doing it her way, not fitting into Timbaland’s standard formula.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Give It Up To Me is also the singer’s first-ever video to feature female backup dancers.

Okay, I lied; well, actually, I figured out another way to get this list up.  Here’s songs 25-11.  Expect the top 10 tomorrow.

25. Official Secrets Act, The Girl From The BBC

My favorite new rock band of the year put out a debut album (as yet unreleased Stateside) full of old-timey, nerdy Britpop that I’m guessing only appeals to thirty-ish music geeks who still talk about Rialto and Number One Cup (ie. me.)

24. Hockey, Too Fake

I like this song more than this song deserves to be liked, frankly.  Two years after LCD Soundsystem’s much-ballyhooed Sound of Silver cemented the world’s love for American Apparel-clad dudes yelling over allegedly dancy rock beats, Portland’s Hockey tried to do basically the same thing, acknowledging at theast that their motivations weren’t particularly sincere.

23. Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, Blanchard

The careful, spooky dream-pop on Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions’ second album was just the thing in a year where nigh on everything produced a panicky feeling of sensory overload.  Slow and dreamy without ever becoming cheesy, Through The Devil Softly might be my favorite album of the year.

22. Lady GaGa, Bad Romance

GaGa sounds like a abby on this song, her first single to musically jive with he mildly insane personna.  It’s her Pull Up To The Bumper, and she goes all out, from rama-rama nonsense to anthemic whoa-oh-ohs; best of all is when she switches from gurgly French to a congested “I don’t wanna be friends!” tantrum.

21. Mando Diao, Gloria

I love Tom Jones, and heartily approve of blatant Tom Jones homages.  So while Swedish quintet Mando Diao’s earlier Dance With Somebody got a lot of plays in these parts at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t until they followed it up with this campy freakout that I felt a real longing for the Austin Powers era.

20. Music Go Music, Warm In The Shadows

A nine-minute disco song by a trio known for making revival-tent gospel music? Yes, please!!  Music Go Music’s ABBA-meets-ELO album Expressions was kind of a letdown after hearing this amazing single, which transcends homage and sends listeners into a mesmerizing disco euphoria.

19. Telepathe, So Fine

The pair of Brooklyn ladies known as Telepathe released their lovely Dance Mother album earlier this year. This, the keyboard-heavy first single, is almost religiously fr4osty.

18. Little Boots, Remedy

Victoria Hesketh’s New In Town won my heart this spring, since most of 2K9 was, for me, a lesson in how to have a good time without any money.  (If you didn’t know, brokeassness isn’t much fun.)  But her follow-up single was even better, with a more infectious chorus and really awesome sounds that could either be lasers or an angry mob.

17. Amerie, More Than Love (feat. Fabolous)

After an epic marketing disaster surrounding her last album–it somehow never got released in this, her native country–delightful R&B singer Amerie returned this year with a new album on a new label; this, the just-released third single, is positively stunning, a big, big number that isn’t can’t be stopped even when Fabolous shows up and starts name-checking Drake.

16. The Twilight Sad, I Became A Prostitute

The Scottish are a bleak and sexy people.  I hate to stereotype, but it’s true; this song makes me want to have sex like no song has made me want to have sex since Arab Strap broke up.  The rest of the Forget The Night Ahead album is fine enough, but this largely unintelligible single’s blast of melodic noise is positively dripping with sex.

15. Gemma Ray, 100 mph (in 2nd Gear)

At the start of her debut single, British singer Gemma Ray resembles Trish Keegan from Broadcast.  But by the time the swoony chorus hits she’s ready to start dancing by candlelight on the heath; if Baz Luhrmann ever adapted the Brontes, this song should surely figure in somehow.

14.  Handsome Furs, I’m Confused

The first single off the second album by Montreal’s Handsome Furs is serious party music; singer Dan Boeckner is intense, yes, but he also wants you to dance; it’s an irresistible combination that hasn’t been achieved to perfectly since Julian Casblancas first introduced himself to the world with Last Nite.

13. Ash, Return of White Rabbit

Ash’s new tactic of only releasing new singles in lieu of albums might not make any sense, but who cares if every song they release is as wonderfully poppy as this Madchesterish throwback?  It’s their greatest single since Girl From Mars, if not ever.

12. Bat For Lashes, Sleep Alone

This moodily dancy C&W ballad is my favorite track on Natasha Khan’s well-regarded Two Suns album, yet another release that I didn’t listen to as much as I should have because of the whole switch to digital. (I really need to figure that out…)

11. Metro Station, Seventeen Forever

Is there anything better than teenagers singing songs about how old they are?  Whether it’s Karina Pasian or Taylor Swift or Alice Cooper, teenaged teen-ness is  kind of my favorite musical theme.  This shamelessly hokey, stars-in-our-eyes song by the less popular Cyrus sibling and his tattoo-enthusiast friends is only as ridiculous as it is ridiculously awesome. (Though, to nitpick, the album version’s far better than the single mix.)

I thought that I had included A Camp’s lovely Stronger Than Jesus on my Best of ’08 list, but I guess I hadn’t heart it yet at that point and I didn’t bother to check this year’s list against last year’s.  Crap.  Sorry, Nina!  Let’s call it song #101, then.

And after the jump, the third quarter of the list, including some former Britpop stars, some songs with awesome videos, and the best boyband song in like seven years.

50. V Factory, Love Struck
The best song of its ilk since *Nsync’s Boyfriend came via a mysteriously-named quintet featuring, believe it or not, the first-ever openly gay member of a boyband.  Sadly, the factory’s anachronistic use of the verb “to crave” never really caught on.

49. Moby, Mistake
There’s no doubt that Mr. Melville was overexposed at the dawn of the millennium.  But it’s time for the backlash to end already; Mistake is brooding and beautiful and just as lovely as Porcelain and his cover of That’s When I Reach For My Revolver.

48. Nina Sky, On Some Bullshit
New York duo Nina Sky had a hit in 2004 with Move Ya Body, but seemed like one-hit wonders before the song even took off.  Nicole and Natalie (Nina, get it?) were supposed to release follow-up album The Musical in 2007; it’s still yet to appear, though On Some Bullshit was a surprisingly good summer jam.

47. Joker’s Daughter, Lucid
Danger Mouse produced an album of Vashti Bunyan-ish folk music this year and almost no one acknowledged how strange, or how strangely beautiful, it was.  Dippy and precious, The Last Laugh is one of my albums of the year.

46. The Kills, Black Balloon
The fifth single off the Kills’ surprisingly successful Midnight Boom (my favorite album of 2008) Black Balloon was a somber ballad buoyed by handclaps and piano.  I really hope Jack White doesn’t rub off too much on Alison Mosshart, and that she and Jamie Hince hurry with a follow-up.

45. Cale Parks, Knight Conversation
Like a cross between Broadcast and the Clientele, Cale Parks’ 6-track To Swift Mars EP is perfect for reading or walking through the rain.  It’s also perfect for slow-dancing alone, or with your cat.

44. Lily Allen, Who’d Have Known
Lily Allen is so pretty.  So, so, so pretty.  I love her’s It’s Not Me It’s You album, but the CD’s five singles all sound better when listened to on their own.  This one, the fifth and best, is accompanied by a video starring Elton John.

43. Depeche Mode, Wrong
My #1 song of the year on the Pop Chart is also the #1 song of the year according to my latent inner stripper.  And the video is top-notch.  But the rest of me just wishes it was either a tiny bit faster or a smidge slower.

42. Jarvis Cocker, Angela
Cocker’s Further Complications album is great, though it’s another one I purchased on CD right around the time of my conversion to not having a functioning CD player anymore.  Still, the first single is quite stellar, and Cocker’s sexiest performance since he covered Lee Hazelwood’s The Cheat back in 2001.

41. Ian Brown, Stellify
I had written off the Stone Roses frontman right around the time the Stone Roses broke up, but this year he came back with a song that managed, against all odds, to sound anthemic without becoming overly bombtastic.

40. Richard Hawley, For Your Lover Give Some Time
If you like Dusty Springfield’s cover of Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas, you’ll love this six-minute single by the former Longpigs frontman.  It’s delicate and sad and wonderful, but not recommended if you can’t handle schmaltz.

39. Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me
Taylor Swift mania escaped me until early this year, when Love Story hit pop radio and I immediately fell in love; though I hid my purchase of this album from my boyfriend for six months, I think even he now grudgingly understands why I love all the singles from it.

38. Cass McCombs, Dreams Come True Girl (feat. Karen Black)
Karen Black, the Scientologist star of classic films Five Easy Pieces, Nashville, and Come Back To The Five And Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean, may seem like an odd choice for guest vocalist, but the Marianne Faithfull-esque actress really picks up this languid ballad by California trobadour Cass McCombs.

37. Vistoso Bosses, Delirious
Thanks to old-Idolator for this one; this subtle song about youthful infatuation by Atlanta duo The Vistoso Bosses demonstrated that teen-pop (or teen R&B) doesn’t need sound dancy to work; after this song got some buzz, the girls signed to a major label and with any luck they’ll soon be coming to a radio near you.

36. The Horrors, Who Can Say
I told you they were good.

35. Pink, Please Don’t Leave Me
Whoever chooses the lead singles from Pink albums needs to be kicked in the head.  Stupid Girls turned me off of I’m Not Dead, and So What was so annoying that I almost missed how awesome Sober and (especially) this great mid-tempor ballad are.

34. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Soft Shock
It’s Blitz! is the first Yeah Yeah Yeahs album that I really appreciate as an album as opposed to a collection of songs.  Much like Turn Into (from the Show Your Bones album), Soft Shock stands out as a quiet, pretty contrast to the rest of the album.

33. Brand New, At The Bottom
Brand New refused to make a video for this, the first single from their totally fucking rad Daisy album.  They also refused to promote it in the US at all, which is a shame, because this song could (and should) kick the collective asses of every other song on modern rock radio right now.

32. Polly Scattergood, Please Don’t Touch
Polly Scattergood seemed a little bit contrived until I heard the Golden Filter remix of Please Don’t Touch, the Alice-ish song that got a little lost among those released by throngs of other, more heavily hyped Englishwomen this year.

31. Xrabit & Dmg$, Follow The Leader
Berlin-born, UK-bred producer Xrabit teams up with Texas rappers Dmg$ (pronounced Damaged Goods) for a super-fun track that sounds like it might have been beamed in from 1988, though the song is crazy enough that it’s hard to imagine the late Reagan era ever sounding so cool.

30. Mariah Carey, Obsessed
Folks didn’t really go for Mariah’s Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel album or its lead single, which kind of surprises me.  For one thing this song is more appealing than anything she’s recorded since, what, 1996?  And for another thing she rhymes “Napoleon complex” with “bathing in Windex.”  How could anyone not love that?!

29. Annie, I Don’t Like Your Band
Annie’s Don’t Stop was finally, finally released late this fall, with a slightly different tracklist than the version that leaked in 6,000 BC.  The two already-released singles weren’t included, and instead a bunch of other tracks including the perky, infectious I Don’t Like Your Band, were added to the list.

28. Mpho, Box N Locks
Sampling Martha and the Muffins’ moody and wonderful Echo Beach, an unknown British pop singer Mpho sang about being pushed into the R&B box just because she’s black.  It didn’t make sense, but the lyrics didn’t matter so much as the South African-born singer’s enthusiasm, which she seemingly has tons of.

27. Miley Cyrus, Fly On The Wall
Miley Cyrus’s greatest asset is, I think, her unnaturally Lohan-ish drawl; she sounds like she’s been smoking a pack a day since she was in the womb.  And while her voice is processed to hell on the newer, far more popular Party In The USA, her greatest moment is on this taunting, growly pop gem that mysteriously sank commercially.

26. Florence and the Machine, Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up!)
The seemingly universally-beloved Florence and the Machine came out of nowhere this year, riding the Kate Bush-y wave of post-Bat For Lashes looniness.  Unlike a lot of the other singers, though, Florence has a powerful voice, one that’s even vaguely churchy.  She just needs to keep away from the Candi Staton covers.

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And the list continues…

75. Kissy Sell Out, This Kiss
Critically reviled despite being boatloads of fun, Kissy’s had a place in my heart ever since his 2 Unlimited-sampling Lost In The K Hole and his kooky remix of Gwen Stefani’s Wind It Up. This marks his first venture into being a hipster rock band.

74. Marilyn Manson, Arma-Goddamn-Motherfucking-Geddon
Every couple of years Marilyn Manson releases a single so unapologetically goofy that I fall in love with the man all over again. I won’t say he’s still culturally relevant, exactly, but this song is almost as good as mOBSCENE and I Don’t Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me).

73. Mos Def, Casa Bey
I feel kinda self-conscious including Mos Def’s critically adored and Grammy-nominated comeback single on a list that has like three rap songs on it total. However, I don’t listen to hip-hop nearly as much as I used to and this is still a good song. So.

72. The Big Pink, Dominos
I think I discovered the Big Pink after Lily Allen twittered about liking their albumthem; they’re the kind of big-sound rock band that British music magazines always love, though unlike, say, the Arctic Monkeys, this time I can see what all the fuss is about.

71. Pet Shop Boys, Love Etc.
My favorite concert moment of the year was watching a hunky bear get all teary-eyed at the Pet Shop Boys show when Kings Cross came on. Which is unrelated to this song, really, though this single played a najor factor in my year-long PSB kick.

70. PJ Harvey and John Parish, Black-Hearted Love
My rather abrupt transformation from “CD-purchasing person with a stereo and a CD player in the car” to “stereo-less person who doesn’t have a car and mainly listens to iTunes genius playlists” definitely affected the number of times I listened to the wonderful this song comes from. But this single, complete with bouncy-castle video, was a hit on the pop chart and so I listened to it quite a bit this year.

69. Urban Symphony, Randajad
My favorite Eurovision entry of the year, at least in its recorded form. Randajad’s about nomads finding one another in the desert, or something. I’m totally performing to this if I ever do Eastern European drag (which, you never know, right?)

68. My Tiger My Timing, I Am The Sound
UK group My Tiger My Timing demonstrates how ramshackle electro is really the new C86, I think; songs made because it’s fun to make songsl My Tiger My Timing could become the new-millennium equivalent of the Shop Assistants if they stay this charming.

67. Peter Bjorn & John, It Don’t Move Me
After stateside success with their hit Young Folks, Peter Bjorn & John didn’t garner much attention for their Living Thing album. It’s too bad, because the album’s second single is just as good as the whistly song they’re known for.

66. Jay-Z feat. Kanye West & Rihanna, Run This Town
For all my complaining about assy Kanye and his shoes without shoestrings, even his dopey verse doesn’t have the force to drag down Jay-Z and (especially) the inhuman sounds of Rihanna. Plus his rap here isn’t nearly as clunky as it is on, say, Keri Hilson’s otherwise decent Knock You Down.

65. Marmaduke Duke, Kid Gloves
The first single from the second album by Biffy Clyro side project Marmaduke Duke was disarmingly quiet, half-sung with a narcotic Scottish accent and accompanied by plinky strings.

64. Girls Can’t Catch, Keep Your Head Up
In a sad year for UK girl groups–what with Girls Aloud going on hiatus and that whole Sugababes thing–I was very excited about this trio of croquet-playing ladies. Hopefully someone else is, too, because I’d hate to see these ladies go away anytime soon.

63. Kenny Mellman, Knock You Down/Kiss You Thru The Phone
Our Hit Parade, the song-a-day covers blog put out by Kenny Mellman kinda fizzled by the end of the year, but for most of the year I had it set as my home page because of medleys like this. (Actually, his repeated covers of Kiss U Thru The Phone were so delightful that I nearly put the original on this list, too. But let’s keep that a secret, shall we?)

62. Kingsbury Manx, Walk On Water
The Kingsbury Manx’s Ascenseur Ouvert is another album I probably should have enthused about more than I actually did; the country-tinged restraint of Walk On Water is a great introduction to their languid indie-pop.

61. John & Jehn, Oh My Love
Initially I thought French duo were just a Kills knockoff; not a bad thing, really, but not worth getting worked up over, either.  It was only months later that I realized how awesome Jehn’s vampiric moan was, especially in the context of hauntingly repetitive keyboards and a gurgly bassline.

60. Jean-Philippe Verdin, Little Sister
The other French artist on this year-end list, electronic artist Jean-Philippe Verdin scored a hit in his native country with the Damon Albarn-ish ballad Little Sister.  It’s songs like this that make me really happy when I remember to check the French pop chart, because there’s no way I would have other known about it otherwise.

59. Jenny Wilson, The Wooden Chair
Though this was quite the year for wacky English songstresses, one shouldn’t forget the equally nutty Wilson. Best-known for being the second voice on the Knife’s You Take My Breath Away, the Swedish singer makes me long for the opulent days of pop when Annie Lennox was routinely on television in a bear costume.

58. Matteah Baim, Monkey Chant
Matteah Baim’s quiet, psych-folk album Laughing Boy didn’t completely wow me, though this song in particular merited quite a few listens after I put it on one of the few mixtapes I actually got around to making this year.

57. Kings of Convenience, Boat Behind
When I got KofC’s album Declaration of Dependence, I wondered whether it was okay or not to call them cute. Because the Norwegian duo seems too bookishly shy to be cute, but they’re also so charmingly over-the-top with their nerdiness that I can’t think of a single other way to describe them.

56. Bleech, Give Me A Witch
British teen trio Bleech haven’t yet put out a full-length album, but the two singles they’ve released so far show a whole lot of promise.  Lyrically quirky, the group’s most appealing song so far is this b-side, in which singer Jennifer O’Neill commands someone to give her a witch so she can turn them to stone.

55. Lady GaGa, Paparazzi
Lady GaGa’s fourth American hit packed the same pop punch as Cool and 4 In The Morning, the mid-tempo later singles off Gwen Stefani’s first two albums; in fact I assumed that the phrase “leather and jeans/garage glamorous/not sure what it means” was actually some sort of homage to the weirdly fabric-oriented No Doubt singer.  Even if I’m wrong, though, Paparazzi is still a great song.  (Jonas Akerlund is still a douchebag, though.)

54. Fenech-Soler, White Hearts
Britain’s Fenech-Soler are still young; though the Guardian buzzed about them over a year ago, they’re just now getting around to putting out singles. Nevertheless, this song (found on another Mondo Salvo mix) is quite fetching.  And speaking of fetching, singer Ben Duffy is wildly hot, in a jailbait-y cool kid sort of way.

53. Jordin Sparks, SOS (Let The Music Play)
You know, this year I finally decided to admit that I prefer songs that incorporate elements of songs I already like. Like Beverley Knight and her Orange Juice sample, say, or Dizzee Rascal and his not to The Adventures of Stevie V. Or this, the first Jordin Sparks single I can say I actually liked.

52. The Gossip, Heavy Cross
I freely admit to pulling a 180 on this song. It drove me nuts at first, as did most everything on the previous Gossip album, Standing In The Way Of Control; when they switched from garage to dance, I thought maybe they should stick to being a cover band, because I liked their Wham and Aaliyah covers but kind of hated everything else. But after repeated listens–and hey, they’re actually on the radio now!–I’ve decided I like this song’s mix of Edge of Seventeen-ish guitars and diva-like wailing.

51. Pixie Lott, Mama Do (Uh Oh Uh Oh)
I was actually rather torn about whether to include this, Pixie’s debut single, or the more recent ballad Cry Me Out, which is also excellent. In the end, I selected this because the video for Mama Do is funny and has cute boys, whereas the Cry Me Out video just has a lot of awkward attempts to hide her lack of dancing skill.

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