Mwahahahaha. I've actually managed three blog posts in consecutive days! This is almost turning in to a thing I can keep up! Oh, what a marvellous day it is to be me :D
#10. Acapella by Kelis
Kelis does something memorable that isn't Milkshake! Yes, I know such a concept is rather foreign, but boy did she manage it with Acapella. It's a song that shouldn't be good for many reasons: pretty repetitive tune and most of the song is actually sort of sung-spoken. The good thing is that it's some of the catchiest lyrics and the song just won't get out of your head. The amount of times I've found myself randomly singing "before you, my whole life was Acapella..." under my breath is slightly worrying. I think one day I might try and slip it into a news report I do. I'm totally going to do that, much like I promised Jonny I would one day manage to get "horrageous" in to a news report.
Anyway, Kelis. Yeah, it's a great song and well worthy of a spot in my top 10. Plus, the video is seriously trippy which only makes things even better. Win!
#9. Promise This by Cheryl Cole
Fun story: I hated this song when it first came out. Heard it when it debuted and thought "oh my god, that's awful." It was probably the "alouette" bit, if anything. I mean, let me make it clear: I'm sort of indifferent to Cheryl, in the sense that I felt sorry for her with the whole Ashley thing but then I don't worship her like a worrying majority of gay guys appear to do. Liked "Fight for this Love" but hated "3 Words". It took until Children in Need and her performance of this song for me to think "huh...it's actually quite good." About 20 listens on iTunes later and I can definitely say I love it. It doesn't really stop going from start to finish (apart from the little alouette refrain in the middle) and that's what really keeps the song going: it's full energy and really makes you remember it.
#8. Fireflies by Owl City
It seems like aaaaaages since this song came out. In fact, I nearly forgot it when I was making the list because I thought it had come out in 2009 - but, no, there it was at the start of 2010 and it's impossible to leave it off the list as a result. Sure, Owl City has done pretty much nothing else since then and while it's certainly a bit of a divisive song, Fireflies is still a lovely little pop song. I probably fell in love with it even more for the video though, because when you listen to the two together, it works so well and puts across the idea for the song. The same cannot be said for a video along a similar ilk, I'd say:
Mika tried to go for a "going back to your childhood" thing with the We Are Golden video and failed horribly, instead looking like a lunatic in his pants. Which ain't a good look. Owl City, on the other hand, has a bit of optimism to it and more importantly, the right amount of childhood innocence. Helps that he's not dancing in his pants too, I guess.
#7. Gettin' Over You by David Guetta & Chris Willis (ft. Fergie & LMFAO)
The award for longest artist contribution tag goes to...well, yeah, but to be fair all five of them (who knew LMFAO were a duo!?) are pretty damn good on this song (Guetta obviously for his producer skills and whatnot). I mean, overall this song is all over the place, with Fergie randomly interspersed in wherever she wants to be, Chris Willis (whoever he is) showing off some damn good vocal skills while LMFAO put together the bulk of the song for whatever reason. I mean, ultimately this song makes no sense. It shouldn't work...but it does. It works so well that it makes me want to dance. That takes a lot as many people well testify; I have no idea how it's a song about getting over someone really, but it sure as hell makes you feel good by the end.
29/12/2010
28/12/2010
Songs of 2010, #14-11
Keep on truckin' and keep on moving through the songs of 2010. Only a batch of four now since that works out better if I'm going to have this done in some sense of order by Friday.
14. Any Which Way by Scissor Sisters
Gr. So, the big return of the Scissor Sisters in 2010 wasn't as big a success as it could have been, which was a massive shame since a lot of Night Work was their best work yet: Any Which Way leads all the others, although Invisible Light, Sex and Violence and Whole New Way are close contenders to best song of the album. What makes Any Which Way particularly memorable is Ana Matronic's absolutely awesome refrain towards the end of the song; I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ana is probably one of the best women in music at the moment. She probably has one of the best stage presences I've ever seen. She's just awesome. The version of the song they did with Kylie at Glastonbury was also suitably amazing and certainly a sight to behold, particularly since it was Kylie's debut at the legendary festival.
13. Airplanes by B.o.B (ft. Hayley Williams)
The song that inspired about a million Facebook statuses, Airplanes is still pretty damn good even if everyone and their cat has now heard the line "I could really use a wish right now". To be fair, yes it's a good chorus but I sort of have a love/hate relationship with that girl from Paramore (as she shall be forever known in my heart) since the only Paramore song worth a listen is Misery Business and we had to sit through The Only Exception in Glee in the middle of a BRITNEY SPEARS TRIBUTE EPISODE.
*ahem*. Anyway, as I was saying before: even if it's overplayed and firmly etched in everyone's minds now, Airplanes is a pretty good song. B.o.B's had a good year and this firmly put him on the radar, with his rapping probably being the best bit of the song when you listen to it a few times.
12. Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
It's fair to say that at one point in 2009, it looked pretty grim for Katy Perry. GaGa was on the scene and pretty much taking her place as the new girl on the block and doing a damn good job of it: after the smash of I Kissed a Girl and then the absolutely awesome Hot N Cold (still one of my favourites of all time), she sort of floundered with Thinking of You and Waking Up In Vegas. But boy did she come back fighting this year; California Gurls was a bit of harmless fun but it was the follow up, Teenage Dream, that really re-established the new Mrs. Brand. It's a bit sad that the Glee version of the song has pretty much eclipsed it in popularity now, since the original is a damn good song no matter how you look at it. No surprise that she chose to name the album after the song, really.
11. Take It Off by Ke$ha
Oh, Ke$ha. Only she could decide one day "hey, I'm going to get a load of friends together and we're going to do another video for my new song for the sake of it". I mean, let's be clear about something: she's hardly the best vocallist ever. All of her songs sorta sound the same (apart from maybe Your Love is My Drug). But that's good because all of those songs have been pretty damn infectious pop and there's no harm in sticking to a winning formula. Take It Off has been her best song since Tik Tok though, particularly thanks to the chorus that gets in your head and just won't leave. Probably like Ke$ha herself at the end of a party. Or maybe I've just been watching too much Glozell:
Lordy mercy, P DIDDY!?
14. Any Which Way by Scissor Sisters
Gr. So, the big return of the Scissor Sisters in 2010 wasn't as big a success as it could have been, which was a massive shame since a lot of Night Work was their best work yet: Any Which Way leads all the others, although Invisible Light, Sex and Violence and Whole New Way are close contenders to best song of the album. What makes Any Which Way particularly memorable is Ana Matronic's absolutely awesome refrain towards the end of the song; I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ana is probably one of the best women in music at the moment. She probably has one of the best stage presences I've ever seen. She's just awesome. The version of the song they did with Kylie at Glastonbury was also suitably amazing and certainly a sight to behold, particularly since it was Kylie's debut at the legendary festival.
13. Airplanes by B.o.B (ft. Hayley Williams)
The song that inspired about a million Facebook statuses, Airplanes is still pretty damn good even if everyone and their cat has now heard the line "I could really use a wish right now". To be fair, yes it's a good chorus but I sort of have a love/hate relationship with that girl from Paramore (as she shall be forever known in my heart) since the only Paramore song worth a listen is Misery Business and we had to sit through The Only Exception in Glee in the middle of a BRITNEY SPEARS TRIBUTE EPISODE.
*ahem*. Anyway, as I was saying before: even if it's overplayed and firmly etched in everyone's minds now, Airplanes is a pretty good song. B.o.B's had a good year and this firmly put him on the radar, with his rapping probably being the best bit of the song when you listen to it a few times.
12. Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
It's fair to say that at one point in 2009, it looked pretty grim for Katy Perry. GaGa was on the scene and pretty much taking her place as the new girl on the block and doing a damn good job of it: after the smash of I Kissed a Girl and then the absolutely awesome Hot N Cold (still one of my favourites of all time), she sort of floundered with Thinking of You and Waking Up In Vegas. But boy did she come back fighting this year; California Gurls was a bit of harmless fun but it was the follow up, Teenage Dream, that really re-established the new Mrs. Brand. It's a bit sad that the Glee version of the song has pretty much eclipsed it in popularity now, since the original is a damn good song no matter how you look at it. No surprise that she chose to name the album after the song, really.
11. Take It Off by Ke$ha
Oh, Ke$ha. Only she could decide one day "hey, I'm going to get a load of friends together and we're going to do another video for my new song for the sake of it". I mean, let's be clear about something: she's hardly the best vocallist ever. All of her songs sorta sound the same (apart from maybe Your Love is My Drug). But that's good because all of those songs have been pretty damn infectious pop and there's no harm in sticking to a winning formula. Take It Off has been her best song since Tik Tok though, particularly thanks to the chorus that gets in your head and just won't leave. Probably like Ke$ha herself at the end of a party. Or maybe I've just been watching too much Glozell:
Lordy mercy, P DIDDY!?
27/12/2010
Songs of 2010, #20-15
Yes, it's a belated return to blogging, but it's not too belated since it allows me a chance to post my favourite 20 songs of 2010. I'll probably go back in to "proper" blogging sooner or later but, yes, this gives me a chance to be all music journalist-y or something of that ilk. There's no real rules here, other than "it has to have been released in 2010", at least as a single if not as part of an album. Let's get straight in to it then, shall we?
20. Satellite by Lena
Ah yes, Lena, 2010's winner of Eurovision. Anyone who knows me will probably know that I'm a massive Eurovision nerd (I'm thinking 2011 is finally the year that I host my massive ass Eurovision party. I have a house for it now, at least...) and this was one of my favourite songs during the competition, which means it was a nice change for it to win. Anyway, Lena's voice is a bit...different, mainly thanks to the fact she has the weirdest faux-British accent I've ever heard. I actually like it though, even though it wasn't universally loved. "Satellite" is a good little pop song and in terms of the recent Eurovision winners is pretty damn awesome, to be fair. It'll be fun to see her defend her crown in 2011 to say the least, depending on what she comes out with.
19. Pass Out by Tinie Tempah
See, I like music that isn't strictly pop music! Anyway, Pass Out is actually a pretty damn good song even if I don't usually like rap music, mainly due to the fact that I love the lyrics to this song. Anyone who can include The Hills, Scunthorpe and Uncle Fester in the same song and make it go to Number One in the charts sort of deserves to be ranked high in any ranking I'd have thought. I'm not a massive fan of the rest of Tinie's songs that I've heard so far, but as far as a mainstream debut goes, this is as good as it's going to get for the guy.
18. Toxic by the Glee Cast
Ah, Glee, how I love you. A lot of the time they get criticism for just doing straight covers of pop songs and never really making them sound a lot different - apart from throwing a whole hunk of auto tune which can often be completely unnecessary. But then came this AMAZING version of my favourite Britney song and they sort of blew it out of the water. The fact that in the episode itself the song sort of got butchered by the acting going on around it was a damn shame, because the entire cast sound great and it's a really good arrangement of the song. Heather Morris also sounds amazing, further cementing my theory that she is indeed the most talented member of the cast (sorry Chris Colfer, you know I love you deeply but it's true. She's that fucking awesome.)
17. Love The Way You Lie, Part II by Rihanna & Eminem
After the rumours of a sequel to "Stan" and then the actual sequel of "Empire State of Mind (Part 2)" (and, if you really want to count it, California Gurls), it sort of made sense that we would get a sequel to Love the Way You Lie. Unlike ESoM 2, though, Rihanna actually keeps a lot of the original heart of the song and simply reverses it: instead of the majority being Eminem's rap, it becomes Rihanna's pop and he simply has his own smaller rap solo later on in the song. If anything though, this is the perfect sequel song; whatever the relationship between the two characters portrayed in these songs really is, the way it's so beautifully told in both songs works so well. The only reason this ranks lower than it's predecessor in my mind is because without the original, this just wouldn't work quite so well.
16. Only Girl in the World by Rihanna
On the whole, Rated R was a bit of a disaster. Sure, Rude Boy was pretty good, but it was a bit of a nothing song in reality. And Te Amo was alright but it wasn't exactly going to set the world alight. All in all, it was just...not what we expected from Rihanna. So what did she do to fix this? Release this pounding dance song (the Europop influences in particular shining through) and wrap it up with some frankly amazing live performances of it. This is the natural progression that should have come from Good Girl Gone Bad; Rude Boy was the starter that led in to this main course.
Yeah, I'm using food analogies. Go me!
15. Commander by Kelly Rowland
I sort of feel sorry for Kelly Rowland (I'm saying this knowing that she's probably loaded and hasn't got a care in the world, but work with me here). "Work" was a damn good song, while "When Love Takes Over" was probably the song of Summer 2009. Yet she's never really managed to establish a solo career that's kept strong on its own, and Commander was unfortunately a prime example of this, only managing a top position of number 9 when it really could have done so much better. It's a huge tune with a damn good vocal performance by Rowland and it was probably one of my favourite songs of the summer, even if solely for the chorus (which is by far the highlight of the song).
So, yes. That's the first six, I'll put the next batch up tomorrow hopefully. In other news, I'm in a sort of very "bleh" mood since I'm bored out of my mind and stuck at home thanks to the inability of the Manchester buses to run at a reasonable service half the time. Plus, it needs to be New Year now please. Just so things start happening I guess. Ja.
20. Satellite by Lena
Ah yes, Lena, 2010's winner of Eurovision. Anyone who knows me will probably know that I'm a massive Eurovision nerd (I'm thinking 2011 is finally the year that I host my massive ass Eurovision party. I have a house for it now, at least...) and this was one of my favourite songs during the competition, which means it was a nice change for it to win. Anyway, Lena's voice is a bit...different, mainly thanks to the fact she has the weirdest faux-British accent I've ever heard. I actually like it though, even though it wasn't universally loved. "Satellite" is a good little pop song and in terms of the recent Eurovision winners is pretty damn awesome, to be fair. It'll be fun to see her defend her crown in 2011 to say the least, depending on what she comes out with.
19. Pass Out by Tinie Tempah
See, I like music that isn't strictly pop music! Anyway, Pass Out is actually a pretty damn good song even if I don't usually like rap music, mainly due to the fact that I love the lyrics to this song. Anyone who can include The Hills, Scunthorpe and Uncle Fester in the same song and make it go to Number One in the charts sort of deserves to be ranked high in any ranking I'd have thought. I'm not a massive fan of the rest of Tinie's songs that I've heard so far, but as far as a mainstream debut goes, this is as good as it's going to get for the guy.
18. Toxic by the Glee Cast
Ah, Glee, how I love you. A lot of the time they get criticism for just doing straight covers of pop songs and never really making them sound a lot different - apart from throwing a whole hunk of auto tune which can often be completely unnecessary. But then came this AMAZING version of my favourite Britney song and they sort of blew it out of the water. The fact that in the episode itself the song sort of got butchered by the acting going on around it was a damn shame, because the entire cast sound great and it's a really good arrangement of the song. Heather Morris also sounds amazing, further cementing my theory that she is indeed the most talented member of the cast (sorry Chris Colfer, you know I love you deeply but it's true. She's that fucking awesome.)
17. Love The Way You Lie, Part II by Rihanna & Eminem
After the rumours of a sequel to "Stan" and then the actual sequel of "Empire State of Mind (Part 2)" (and, if you really want to count it, California Gurls), it sort of made sense that we would get a sequel to Love the Way You Lie. Unlike ESoM 2, though, Rihanna actually keeps a lot of the original heart of the song and simply reverses it: instead of the majority being Eminem's rap, it becomes Rihanna's pop and he simply has his own smaller rap solo later on in the song. If anything though, this is the perfect sequel song; whatever the relationship between the two characters portrayed in these songs really is, the way it's so beautifully told in both songs works so well. The only reason this ranks lower than it's predecessor in my mind is because without the original, this just wouldn't work quite so well.
16. Only Girl in the World by Rihanna
On the whole, Rated R was a bit of a disaster. Sure, Rude Boy was pretty good, but it was a bit of a nothing song in reality. And Te Amo was alright but it wasn't exactly going to set the world alight. All in all, it was just...not what we expected from Rihanna. So what did she do to fix this? Release this pounding dance song (the Europop influences in particular shining through) and wrap it up with some frankly amazing live performances of it. This is the natural progression that should have come from Good Girl Gone Bad; Rude Boy was the starter that led in to this main course.
Yeah, I'm using food analogies. Go me!
15. Commander by Kelly Rowland
I sort of feel sorry for Kelly Rowland (I'm saying this knowing that she's probably loaded and hasn't got a care in the world, but work with me here). "Work" was a damn good song, while "When Love Takes Over" was probably the song of Summer 2009. Yet she's never really managed to establish a solo career that's kept strong on its own, and Commander was unfortunately a prime example of this, only managing a top position of number 9 when it really could have done so much better. It's a huge tune with a damn good vocal performance by Rowland and it was probably one of my favourite songs of the summer, even if solely for the chorus (which is by far the highlight of the song).
So, yes. That's the first six, I'll put the next batch up tomorrow hopefully. In other news, I'm in a sort of very "bleh" mood since I'm bored out of my mind and stuck at home thanks to the inability of the Manchester buses to run at a reasonable service half the time. Plus, it needs to be New Year now please. Just so things start happening I guess. Ja.
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