Top 10 Songs Of 2011

[koganbot]

So far. And three of them are holdovers from last year, which I justify down in the wonky notes. I've already posted about Jeremih, the gorgeous tenuousness of the sounds seeming to have nothing to do with the booty-gazing lyrics. You likely already know about the Britney, and if you haven't heard "High High" yet, that's hardly my fault. "Knock Out" is a bouncing bit of spare and twisting bubble bubble gum-smacking Korean hip-hop that doesn't match up with anything else anywhere that I can think of and will get a post of its own someday soon.



Meanwhile, "Ready 4 Romance" is roll-along-the-floor techno-dance that could play in any disco anywhere, atmospherics echoing through the atmosphere and a breathy girl occasionally showing up to say she needs me. "S&M" sounds bright and silly where you'd expect it to be dark and domineering, and is better for it. "No 1," the instrumental version of a B-side of an aggressively chirpy Korean girl-group single, is a bit of throwaway dance funk with a snaking synth line. "Good Day" is a diva showcase that morphs into a disco showbiz hussy and is a brilliant song, even if warm and appealing IU is neither diva nor hussy and doesn't blaze across the track the way it needs her to. And finally "Mocha Java" is a cooing little come-on, the basic background sound from backwater Russian dance clubs to international airport bars, though this happens to be Taiwanese.

1. Jeremih "Down On Me"
2. Britney Spears "Hold It Against Me"
3. GD&TOP "High High"
4. GD&TOP "Knock Out"
5. Galaxy Dream ft. Turbotronic "Ready 4 Romance"
6. Rihanna "S&M"
7. Secret "No. 1 (Inst.)"
8. IU "Good Day"
9. Xoxo "Mocha Java"

I have no number ten, so you need to tell me what it should be.

Wonky Notes:
"Down On Me" was released back in September, but it only just hit the Top 40 last week, and it's now risen to 30, so if it holds on, I'll count it eligible for 2011. Made 36 on my 2010 list, which is a strong showing and I underrated it; but I'll drop it off this list if it goes lower than 20, which it may not.

"High High" and "Good Day" were both December releases so automatically eligible for 2011, but once again, I had listed them last year (at 33 and 45), so if/when they fall out of my 20 I'll take them down. But I may have underrated "High High" too, so it's not a given it'll fall away.

"Knock Out" was produced by some Philadelphia bloke.

K-pop bloggers are in a minor uproar (well one or two of them, as are some YouTube commenters) over "Mocha Java" for plagiarizing Brown Eyed Girls' "Abracadabra," though honestly I can't hear the similarity. Certainly not the melody, and even if the beat is close it's not such a unique dancebeat that only two songs in the world have it. But thanks to the uproar, I found this song.

Scruples force me to note that I have never actually been in a backwater Russian dance club. I admit it.

Comments

Chuck Eddy

[(Anonymous)]

My lists so far (w/o absorbing your latest Frank's Eardrums mix -- which is to say, haven't decided yet what I think of "Knock Out," for instance--though so far, I have to say I'm underwhelmed by it):

2011 SINGLES
The Dirtbombs - Sharevari
G-Dragon & T.O.P. – High High
Mary Mary – Walking
O.B. Buchana – I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much
Mel Waiters - Barbecue
Rosehill – Midnight America
Bigg Robb – Let It Go
Randy Montana – 1,000 Faces
LeAnn Rimes – Crazy Women
Dev feat. the Cataracs – Bass Down Low
Lil Wayne feat. Corey Gunz – 6 Foot 7 Foot
Gyptian – Nah Let Go
Bigg Robb – Backtrackin’
El Debarge feat. Faith Evans - Lay With You
Ditty-Dirty Money feat. Skylar Grey – Coming Home
Colt Ford feat. Kevin Fowler – Hip-Hop In A Honky Tonk


NON-LATE 2010 RELEASES, 2011 IMPACT (POSSIBLY ELIGIBLE)
E.Via – Pick Up! U! (2010)
Carl Marshall – I Lived It All (2010)
Gappy Ranks – Pumpkin Belly (2010)
Mel Waiters – I Ain't Gonna Do It (2010)
Denise Lasalle – Older Woman (2010)
Lee "Shot" Williams – I'm The Man For The Job (2010)
Carl Marshall feat. Rue Davis – Good Lovin’ Testimony (2010)
Pat Cooley – Be A Man (2010)
Lina – My Man (2010)
The Revelations featuring Tre Williams – Everybody Knows (2010)
Floyd Taylor – All Of Me, All Of You (2010)
O.B. Buchana – We Don't Get Along Until We Gettin' It On (2010)
T-Ara – Ya Ya Ya (2010? - Frank, when is this from???)
Gocho feat. Jowell and Omega – Dandole (2010)
Donnie Ray – Come On Let’s Dance (2010)
Wretch 32 – Traktor (2010)
Pitbull – Bon, Bon (2010)


TOO OLD
Scratch Nelson – Ride It Like A Pony (2007)
Carl Marshall – Leave That Man’s Wife Alone (2009)
Ms. Pat Cooley – Older Woman Younger Man (2007)
El Gran Silencio and Celsa Piña – Cumbia Poder (2007)


ALPHABETCAL ALBUM TRACKS (COULD MAKE MY LIST IF THEY BECOME SINGLES)
Jonny Burke – Broke Again
Cauldron – Miss You to Death
El Debarge - Joyful
Kandi – Leroy Jones
Randy Montana – It’s Gone
Randy Montana – Burn The Matches
Randy Montana – Assembly Line
Rascal Flatts – Red Camaro
Stealing Angels – Getting Lost
Stealing Angels – Girls Gotcha Back
The Sword – Night City

Re: Chuck Eddy

[koganbot]

"Yayaya" is December 2010, or maybe end of November, so yeah, it's eligible, I'd say. Was a near miss on my singles long list, but when I finally get around to posting my 2010 albums I'll probably put Temptastic, the EP it's from, in my top twenty; has a couple of other tracks more or less as good as "Yayaya."

"Knock Out" took a while to knock me out (in comparison to "High High") 'cause of the spareness and the slowness, but once it hooked me I kept playing it over and over. And I love watching them perform it. (And here.)

The duo is actually being marketed as "GD&TOP" (or "GD & TOP") rather than G-Dragon and T.O.P., even though their monikers in Big Bang are the latter.

Still haven't figured out if it's "Ya Ya Ya" or "Yayaya."

Forgot that I can count "Coming Home" as this year too.

Re: Chuck Eddy

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Here's a Korean duo who don't necessarily sound that much like Far East Movement, but may have listened to them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKhzAjFYvw

Re: Chuck Eddy

[koganbot]

Newest GD&TOP video, "Baby Good Night," my least favorite track on the EP, but it's a well-done bit of slush.

There's a snake in her bed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRJ4IzpfVUs

Re: Chuck Eddy

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Frustrating video, nothing happens - but I guess that's the whole point.

[talrose.livejournal.com]

The biggest singles on Chicago radio right now, unquestionably, are "Black and Yellow" and "No Hands," the former by Wiz Khalifa and the latter by Waka Flocka Flame. They are on the radio on at least three or four separate stations three or four times a day. But Wikipedia tells me that they were both released in 2010, though I can't remember ever hearing them before this month ("No Hands" I heard on Flockaveli, and it's a standout, but I don't remember hearing it on the radio the way I heard "Hard In Da Paint").

The other single in heavy rotation is "All Of The Lights," and that would probably be my single of the year so far. Actually, that's not true. My favorite single of the year is either "Love Letter" or "When A Woman Loves (Remix)," both off of R. Kelly's Love Letter, which might have been my #1 album last year, and I'm counting it for 2011, since it came out in December last year. You will not find a smile on my face as wide as the one that appears when the chorus of "Love Letter" pops up for the third time in the song while I'm driving down the freeway. Love Letter is all Sam Cooke-style soul throwbacks, with a little of early '00s R. Kelly circa Chocolate Factory or Happy People/U Saved Me production tricks (water drops, watery keyboards, more water). It's probably his best album, and the singles have been crackin'.

"All Of The Lights" is Kanye featuring Rihanna primarily, but also John Legend, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, La Roux, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Elton John, and Kid CuDi on backup vocals!

[koganbot]

"No Hands" hit the Top 40 back in October and has hung in the top twenty since then. Would assume its r&b play goes back further, but Billboard's chart-history gizmo doesn't stockpile his stuff (or isn't working right), so I don't know more. Also don't know its airplay arc in Denver, since I've pretty much not had time to listen to the radio, having so many things to scarf up on the 'Net. "All Of The Lights" is probably only beginning its run in most places (assuming it gets much of a run): I presume that Kanye airplay gets accelerated in Chicago.

Odd thing, R. Kelly's always been pretty much in one ear and out the other for me (odd because I love The-Dream, who obviously loves R. Kelly). But there's been lots of favorable talk about Love Letter, so maybe it'll be what pulls me in. I actually liked "The Zoo" back in 2007, and then read the reviews with everyone saying that, for R. Kelly, it was second-rate. So something is askew in my R. Kelly listening, I guess.

[talrose.livejournal.com]

Kind of makes sense actually, since the Jagger comparison you make to Terius doesn't really apply to R. Kelly, who doesn't have trap doors within a song as he does across an album or across his whole career. There's also a lot more to work with—the sheer volume of his work is pretty daunting, and it's very difficult to place where to begin with him. A couple other things of note: Kelly wrote many songs for Michael Jackson, including "You Are Not Alone," and according to a recent interview he has a couple albums' worth of songs he wrote for MJ, but my guess is they're all ballads, which I think says something about Kelly, that he's more of a ballad singer than a rock singer, and maybe there's more rock in Terius'. The-Dream's production is also a little more expansive, keyboards stretching out all over the track, the drums hitting a littler harder; whereas Kelly is a little more narrow, everything coming in streams and brooks and light splashes, a little more adult contemporary than The-Dream. Elegance is a big part of Kelly's music, and maybe Jonathan B. can help me out here, but isn't "I'm A Flirt" a waltz?

[talrose.livejournal.com]

Great interview with, of all people, Will Oldham in the new issue of Interview:

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/r-kelly/

[koganbot]

"I'm A Flirt" isn't a waltz; it's in 4/4 but he plays with the accents at the start, making the second beat feel like the one, so three beats later there you are at a new measure, giving dancers something to play with or trip over.

[koganbot]

Another gap: Oldham's music is something I don't know very well either.