Top Singles, First Quarter 2009

[koganbot]

Here's my list of top singles so far for 2009. Haven't been listening to enough country, hip-hop, reggae, um, not enough of everything, actually. "New Style" is the only one certain in my top ten at the end of the year. I was going to write a little blurb for each but realized I didn't have time if I wanted it posted today. But I do want to use the phrase "exuberantly grim," so, briefly, about the ones that we haven't much talked about on lj:

Jamey Johnson, "High Cost Of Living" (second track here): Exuberantly grim! It's a drunkalog, basically, and the apparent grimness is to try to fend off the call of the wild. The title and the lyrics in the chorus are built around a pun, and the track ends with Jamey laughing encouragement to his guitar player.

MC Lars f. Brett Anderson and Gabe Saporta "Hey There Ophelia": The rap is a witless retelling of Hamlet, the joke being that ha ha let's pretend the whole thing is about neurosis and let's mix our ordinary casual vernacular into Shakespeare's eloquence. It did make me laugh in exactly one instance ("I'll have them re-enact the murder, watch my uncle's expression/The play's the thing to catch the king, and teach him a lesson"), but what I'm rating is the music that runs through this, a recasting of Therapy?'s "Screamager" that ramps up the anger and drama and gorgeousness of the original, tremendous singing from Anderson (she of the Donnas), yanks me out of the dumb playlet and into the combined taunting and sorrow of actual punk rock: I'm fucked up and that'll show you/I'm fucked up and it's awful.

Caitlin & Will "Even Now": A duet where a couple play breakup and infidelity games to hurt each other and to get even, without knowing how to stop the hurtfulness or stop loving one another, but the way I've said it is clumsier than the song's way. I'm posting the video (under the cut) 'cause according to the person who posted it on YouTube, "it's totally country awesome, yes it is, just totally! Yes! OMG! It is just incredible, the best country video in years and probably the best ever made! WOW! Like OMG WOW!" I perhaps don't agree, but it's a good song.

1. Shystie f. DJ Deekline "New Style"
2. Rich Boy "Drop"
3. The Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow"
4. Timberlee f. Tosh "Heels"
5. Jim Jones f. Ryan Leslie "Precious"
6. Nicki Minaj "Beam Me Up Scotty"
7. Love And Theft "Runaway"
8. Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living"
9. MC Lars f. Brett Anderson & Gabe Saporta "Hey There Ophelia"
10. Paleface f. Kyla "Do You Mind (Crazy Cousinz Remix)"
11. Ron Browz "Pop Champagne"
12. Kelly Clarkson "My Life Would Suck Without You"
13. Lily Allen "The Fear"
14. Asher Roth "I Love College"
15. Depeche Mode "Wrong"
16. Enrique Iglesias f. Ciara "Takin' Back My Love"
17. Mavado "So Special"
18. Britney Spears "If U Seek Amy"
19. Maino f. T-Pain "All The Above"
20. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
21. GS Boyz "Stanky Legg"
22. Girls Aloud "Untouchable"

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Phew I thought you meant this Brett Anderson at first:

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I always get them confused! I thought people were being ironic the first time they said Brett Anderson was in The Donnas.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i remember when BA wz kewl n kewt and hottt -- i reviewed suede for the indy on sunday on hove pier!

however the editor TIM DE LISLE yes google yrself and weep TIM DE LISLE wz a tw2t also a N0B and failed to give me the job i richly reserved

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

and plus DEserved

[koganbot]

[koganbot]

Jamey Johnson

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

he seems really unremarkable to me, why the love?

Re: Jamey Johnson

[koganbot]

What I wrote about Jamey on Rolling Country was that he wasn't telling us anything new, though Xhuxk disputed this. In any event, "exuberantly grim" is the best I can sum up as to why I like the fellow. Yes, he's plowing well-furrowed ground, but he's got the right voice and temperament for it, even if the voice and temperament have their limits (on Rolling Country I also called him "baritone bathos").

Anyway, it's good to see you posting here again. Would be nice to see you on Rolling Country, too. Is getting a bit deserted there, amidst the tumbleweeds.

(Xgau gave Jamey a dud, btw.)

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

16 comments after going thru the list

1) what is the effect on boom boom pow, it's autotune, and self aware about being autotune, but uses it more self conciously, and less as an instrument for its own purpose then either t pain or kanye.
2) Heel's has such a hooky chorus.
3) I found Beam Me Up Scotty difficult to listen to, mostly because it so so jam packed with aural signals that may or may not be noise, which was well aprreciated actually.
4) John Rich's song about Detroit, Runaway, Johnson's High Cost of Living, three make a trend, but other country rock recession documents? (this is good, sort of like shelton, a lot like urban, but i love the steel guitar)
5) tmz spent three days last week bitching about ushers popping champagne in this new cautious time, and i never understood the appeal of the liqour as a signifer or a beverage
6) the single cover of my life would suck without you is so pop and bright, sort of like amanda lepore with out the gender transgression or pierre et gilles without hte homoeroticism, i wish the single was as digitally bright, i kind of want linda ronstandt to do one of those american recordings style albums and record this.
7) lily allen has two singles this year which i loved without reserve, i think how low key her voice is, and how many levels of irony she sings, plus the coregraphy for the video is out of the world. (the sf/j feature on her in the nyer, plus some of what reynolds says talks about how cheery the music is and how dark the lyrics are, and how those two opposing forces create something situtationally sort of new, which i love)
8) asher roth?!!?! seriously? why, no hook, no rytythm, no flow, no satire, no wit, nothing there.
9) if you seek amy is so smart, so self aware, so brillianty constructed, and so pleasureable, that it makes me wonder about what is happening behind the scenes, because the meta drama always infects the drama of the originating text, and britney knows this (really that is what allen's the fear is about too) (also this cannot be true, but i really hope it is--amy=paris?!?) also http://secondbalcony.blogspot.com/2009/03/again.html
10) maino makes t pain much less robotic, and i like the expansive choruses.
11) what is can you duet, and who are caitlin and will?
12) stanky leg strikes me as a parody, like something you would see on 30 rock of the chicken dance
13) this k pop group named untouchable sings a song called tell me why better then girls alouds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIFmiRytS4

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Amy = Amy, surely? ie Winehouse.

Lost Weekend

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

except that spears spent her lost weekend in LA with Paris (i am not a rockist, but at least Lennon got Nillsson w. his)