Saturday, December 30, 2006

Downloadapalooza 2006!

So here you go. It's the "end of year wrap-up" special here at benlovesmusic.com. We've got a few fun things planned for today. So enjoy.

Other People's Lists!

(Who they are, Where they are, How I know them, What they do)
Bo Goldburne, Boston, Geeky Red Sox Love, High-Powered Music Executive:
Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance
These guys are so English, and that is what makes this track so much fun--the accent, the "trackie bottoms," the "coupla cans." Everyone knows the story of these guys, and while the album is full of great tunes, this is the one that I always come back to. This wouldn't work as a single in the US, but you can see how it's loved in the UK. It's also got a great intro, some cool cool changes, and fun lyrics. Next time you're at a bar with some friends, skip to the last track on the album and punch this into the juke. It seems to be meant for that.

Gran Bel Fisher - Crash and Burn
From his debut album Full Moon Cigarette, Gran Bel shows that he has a great ability to craft memorable songs with great hooks, and lyrics that stick with you. The whole album is proof that even if you're just a young kid from Ohio, if you have the talent and musicianship, people will sit up and take notice, and "Crash and Burn" is a great example of that. I saw him do a small acoustic showcase a few months ago, and it made me like and appreciate the songs even more. He's on the road all the time, so check it out if you want to see a great singer/songwriter and someone that is really working for it.

Pearl Jam - Come Back
What can I say, this is just a simple and touching song. Eddie Vedder delivers it with a sincerity that makes it work. Knowing his politics, I always come back to the thought that this song is influenced by the state of the world politically, but like other great songs, even if that is the case, there is a timeless quality to it as well. And as a bonus, if you watch Friday Night Lights it also reminds you of Minka Kelly in the rain. (Editor's note: Hand Party!)

Jay-Z - 30 Something
Picking up from the "I don't wear jerseys I'm thirty plus" theme from the The Black Album, Jay is back and full of swagger. This is the grown-up Hov. Taking giant leaps to separate himself from the rest of hip-hop world, while everyone else rolls blunts, Jay smokes Cubans; everyone else parties in South Beach, he's in St. Tropez. Jay is so full of cockiness and confidence on this track that I can't imagine anyone else pulling it off, but it works for him because he's telling the truth.

The Killers - Why Do I Keep Counting?
Most people I know either love or hate Sam's Town, and this track is a microcosm for many of the reasons why. Full of bravado, with sweeping choruses and soaring layers of instruments, the track is an in-your-face anthem that begs to be sung along with. The Killers 2.0 right? Brandon Flowers and his big ego? Maybe sonically, but below that is a level of self-doubt and fear that rivals Thom Yorke's obsession with cars. I wouldn't want to travel with either of them.

Derek Burpee, Nebraska, Drinking Buddy, 1/3rd Of Khaki Snack:
5.) Weird Al Yankovic - Trapped In The Drive Thru: Not because it’s particularly funny, but mostly because I wanted to include Trapped in the Closet but couldn’t because it was released in 2005. Luckily this song sounds just like it!

4.) Less Than Jake - Rest Of My Life: Sure, the album was disappointing and this song is a huge stinking pile of mediocrity. I still like it. I’m confident that if this song was by Green Day it would have been praised for being “mature”.

3.) Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - Goodbye Earl: Originally I was going to list their version of Desperado so I could humorously describe how Glen Fry personally told the band he hated their version and refused to let them do a video. But this song is kind of better.

2.) NOFX - 60%/60% (Reprise): Feel Good Lyrics of the Year. It also wins the award for most appropriate opening and closing songs on a half-assed CD.

1.) Moneen - Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do: This song is good, like LOST used to be.

Mike Lista, Kingston, ON., Fellow Player, Writer:
5.) Malajube - Montreal -40* C
At number five is Polaris Music Prize nominee Malajube, whose debut is dope. Fuck the Wolf Parade comparisons -- these guys are legit,and have eked out their own plot with "Montreal -40*C." It's the feel good hit of the winter. Plus it's in French. Dirty, dirty Quebecois French. Kick-ass!

4.) The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations
Number four belongs to The Hold Steady. I have to be honest -- the lyrics, though championed in the music press (read: Pitchfork) are butt-tingly at times. The Jack Kerouac comparisons are overwrought and just plain inaccurate. But can they ever stick a guitar lick to an organ line. And you can't help but smile at the lines "We drink and we dry up and now we crumble into dust/ We get wet and we corrode and now we're covered up in rust." They remind me of the Boss jamming with The New Pornographers, only dirtier. And drunker.

3.) Grizzly Bear - On a Neck, On a Spit
"On a Neck, On a Spit" is at number three and Grizzly Bear may very well be the band to watch this coming year. Their album Yellow House is aptly named; each of the songs on this record are immaculate structures erected from simple lyric and melodic frames. Each of their songs is usually made up of fewer than ten lines. This is by far the best song on the album -- a long, stream of consciousness jam that's deceptively well structured.

2.) Swan Lake - All Fires
1.) Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines II
Yes, the top two spots belong to bands fronted by one Spencer Krug, the genius behind Wolf Parade's iconic "I'll Believe in Anything." From the looks of it, Krug's powers are not relenting; I think these two tracks are as begrudgingly holy as anything on Apologies to the Queen Mary. Krug looks more and more like a rising superpower. I'd argue that he's the most important songwriter under thirty today. Maybe the most important songwriter period. He's the dynamo of what looks to be a renaissance challenging the cynicism and irony that pervade contemporary culture. Plus his work trumps the criticism leveled against most of his 'indie rock' contemporaries -- that the arrangements and instrumentation of 'indie' songs are musically inept and soulless. His shit is as dense with ideology, heart, and virtuoso as anything out there.

Charles Van Dyke, New York, Friend From Back In "The Day", Information Technology:
Preface: I was informed that I wasn't allowed to have SexyBack in my list, since Ben's too cool for my man JT. Also, I tried to avoid duplicating bands that Ben had chosen, so my boys Malice, Pusha T, and Rick Ross got bumped. Here ya go, in reverse order:

5.) The Roots - Don't Feel Right (Featuring Maimouna Youssef) off the album Game Theory. Beautifully simple song construction, a head-nodding beat and killer vocal layering. It's not that hard, why is hip hop dying?

4.) Basement Jaxx - Run 4 Cover off the album Crazy Itch Radio. Any song that prominently features the word "minger" is an automatic A+ in my book. Freight train beats help. I love the Jaxx.

3.) Snow Patrol - Hands Open off the album Eyes Open. Outrageously catchy and it's even in a key I can sing, which is always a plus. I also like the Sufjan Stevens name check, not that I listen to that hippie crap.

2.) Olivia Ruiz - La Femme Chocolat off the album La Femme Chocolat. A delightfully quirky song about eating too much chocolate, turning into chocolate, and being eaten by a lover. I really enjoy the instrument selection (check out that mandolin). Why can't the American Idol finalists put out songs like this?

1.) Bob Sinclar - Love Generation off the album Western Dream. I didn't always love this song, but it was the (un?)official song of the World Cup, and there's nothing quite like having a stadium full of 70,000 rowdy fans singing the "Oh oh oh" chorus at the top of their lungs. This song makes me happier than a song should be able to every time I hear it.

My Top 13 Albums Of 2006 (in no order):
1.) Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
2.) Nelly Furtado - Loose
3.) Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
4.) The Sunshine Underground - Raise The Alarm
5.) Hot Chip - The Warning
6.) Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Of Me
7.) Girl Talk - Night Ripper
8.) Aberdeen City - The Freezing Atlantic
9.) Ghostface - Fishscale
10.) Spank Rock - yoyoyoyoyo
11.) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
12.) T.I. - King
13.) Lily Allen - Alright, Still

Songs That Should Have Made My Top 40, But Alas...
Say Anything - Alive With The Glory Of Love
AFI - Miss Murder
My Chemical Romance - Teenagers
TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
IV Thieves - You Can't Love What You Don't Understand

The Worst Songs of 2006:
Much like last year, we had a few contenders. I mean, how can you ignore a song like Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up"? Between the yodeling, the awkward strings, and the really awful choice of a sample, it's hard to say this wasn't the worst. But the problem, I guess, is that you've got a case where the the "original" version (which was included on the album) is a lot better. So I can't make it the worst when I know that it could have been better. (I don't care if that doesn't make sense.)

It's easy to point fingers at Nickelback and Theory of a Deadman - but at the very least, they've been around long enough for me to ignore. But they've been responsible for the musical atrocity that is Hinder. I mean - "Lips Of An Angel" is just.... wow. They're just wretched. I think what really frustrates me is that this is what passes for "deep-thinking music" to most of America. I mean, c'mon - we've all been there! Your girl's in, the next room, sometimes you wish it was someone else! (Ugh. I hate that I know that lyric.)

That really only leaves us with one option. It leaves us with the number one problem in hip-hop today - Jim Fucking Jones and his "We Fly High"

As you probably know, I'm a DJ. I play lots of really awful music. It's just how it is. I'm comfortable with that. I mean, I think you'd be shocked as to far I'm willing to bend over - I've played "SexyBack" three times in a night before (and I hate myself for it). What we have here, though, is a case where a song has all the elements to make it bad - a perfect storm of shitteratti, if you will. It has a fucking stupid hook. It's got a rapper on it who a) can't rap b) can't sing c) has no flow d) write godawful lyrics e) has a stupid dance move that even the white boy with the worst coordination can do f) has the 7-8 New York Giants dancing around on the field g) and is basically everything that is wrong with mainstream rap today. But do you know what really frosts me? What really pisses me off? The name of the song.

I can count the number of times that someone has come up to me and asked for this song by the proper name on one hand. It's never "We Fly High". No, no. It's "YOOO DUUUDE!!! CAN YOU PLAY BALLIN!!!!!!!"

I just hate it. I think it's a horrid song.

So Overall...
...this was a decent year for music.
It was. We saw the rise of many great new pop acts (Lily Allen, KT Tunstall), the return of others (Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado); we saw mash-ups become mainstream, between Girl Talk and the fact that every single DJ now mashes songs up when they play, far far far more than what was happening a year ago. Mainstream hip-hop still has some hope, what with Nas, Clipse, and The Roots all releasing albums - and then you've got T.I. and Rick Ross holding down the dirty south.

Something I noticed this year is the trend that I've personally followed in terms of what I seem to like. Case in point: this year, in my top 40, I had 17 hip-hop songs, 8 rock songs, 8 electronic/dance songs, 6 pop songs, and a mash-up. Last year I had 9 rock songs in my top 20 alone. I'm not sure what this says about me, or about music, or whatever. I think I'm changing and growing (which is to be expected) - and that's good. Maybe next year I'll be writing about how much I love some country music (unlikely). But that's how it goes. 2007 will be different than 2006, and that's good.

Enjoy the #1 song tomorrow. We'll all hug in 2007.

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posted by Ben, 12/30/2006 12:48:00 AM | |