64 voters, 1212 singles voted for.


Top 40 will be coming on Sunday, so you have until then to get your blurbs back to me. I'm going to try and get through #100-#41 today, but if I don't, the rest of that batch will come sometime tomorrow.

First, is it too late to vote?

I'll See What Tomorrow Brings

#100.




Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart
(1259 Points, 8 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Pitchfork Review: In the Knife and as a solo artist, Fever Ray's Karin Dreijer Andersson has proven to be a magician of sonic perspective: M.C. Escher with Ableton Live. Everything in "If I Had a Heart" feels weirdly scaled, impossibly angled, or just off, somehow. The churning chords that drive it like a powerful engine are almost drowned out by the machine noise they emit, as if the song had been turned inside-out. The pitch-dropped vocals are frighteningly alien, yet the clicks preserved in the recording link them, distantly, to a mouth that wants more, more, more-- which is to say, a regular human one. It sounds subdued and disturbed, until Andersson's untreated voice-- a brassy caterwaul-- swings the song in the other direction, now direly triumphant. "If I had a voice, I would sing," she sings. Once you get that everything obvious here conceals its opposite, you realize that wanting more is about needing less. "If I Had a Heart" is the heart Andersson doesn't have, large and strange, pumping unfathomable blood to who knows where.

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Saskadelphia (#11)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Fever Ray

And we're off to a fine start.

I swear I'd fall in love every minute on the street.

#99.




YACHT - Psychic City
(1274 Points, 7 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Pitchfork Review: With Memorial Day behind us, time is ticking away on the search for the jam of the summer-- the song that will soundtrack a thousand sunburns while blaring from open car windows and backyard BBQs. It's a track that requires a delicate balance, needing to be easy to sing along to, but with a beat heavy enough that, even though sweat is dripping down the backs of your knees, you can't help but dance. It needs to be fun and immediately catchy, but able to withstand repeated plays without wearing out its welcome too soon (after all, we've got a long, hot few months ahead of us).

Here's another contender: YACHT's "Psychic City (Voodoo City)". Never before has the Portland electro duo sounded so joyous. Anything that bordered on pop this playful got muddled before with a slightly off-kilter melodic choice or some noisy electronic flourishes. But there is nothing to get in the way of this track's giddy bubble-popping effects, insistent yet rubbery groove, or big, summery chorus. Like Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love", another great summer jam, it melds dispassionate, girlish talk-singing with squishy, bass-y synths and an infectious rhythmic drive. With lyrics snagged from a track on an old Rich Jensen K Records tape and a keyboard melody inspired by Althea and Donna's 70s reggae hit "Uptown Top Ranking", perhaps the specificity of its influences freed up Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans to embrace a buoyant cohesion. And when YACHT sounds this good, it makes it easy to sail through the season.

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: plaid is rad (#6)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: See Mystery Lights

Listen

#98.




Kode9 - Black Sun / 2 Far Gone
(1285 Points, 8 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Little White Earbuds Review: Probably the second-most-discussed thing about Hyperdub is Kode9’s versatility. If you evaluated this solely on the basis of his releases for the aforementioned label, it wouldn’t seem abundantly clear. That is, until December’s LD-team-up, “Bad/2 Bad,” a housed-up, UK garage workout that didn’t sound one thing like the slow-burning future dub of his Space Ape collaborations. But then, almost nothing from Hyperdub’s 2008 reprised the label’s lauded past.

In a “Hyperdub Showcase” on Benji B’s BBC radio show last month, the man behind it all, Mr. Steve Goodman, cited Flying Lotus as one catalyst for the latest turns of the Hyperdub screw. Goodman tips his hat to Lotus for sparking a taste for “smeared pitch-bent synth lines” like the ones that course through Samiyam’s “Return” and, notably, the latest Kode9 release. Well on the “hyper” end of the label’s output, “Black Sun” is as bright and in your face as 2006’s “Sine of the Dub” was hunkered down and muttering in an alley. Weird, crunching body music, this is much bigger than “Bad/2 Bad.” Neat hi-hats and forceful compound-fracture beats handle the irrepressible rhythm while burbling keyboards dance over an inebriated, pitch-shifted drone that secures a broken weirdness for the track. “2 Far Gone” almost versions “Black Sun,” this time overlaying the paranoia and dread typically associated with the Kode9 brand on a similar pairing of punchy beats and smeared pads. A chanted vocal clip, “It’s too far gone / It’s too much yet…,” sounds at once like one of Space Ape’s seething reprimands and the ecstatic warning cries of Adonis’s “No Way Back.” Beyond the voice and lyric likenesses, those reference points prove useful in describing the record in general — dark and haunting, but also infectious and energizing.

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Heretix (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Black Sun / 2 Far Gone

Win.RAH!!

You need more

#97.




Pet Shop Boys - Love etc.
(1292 Points, 8 Votes)

US Chart Position: #1 Dance

UK Chart Position: #14

Digital Spy Review: If their Brits performance taught us anything, it's that Pet Shop Boys aren't really like other pop groups. Neil Tennant took to the stage wearing a bowler hat and oversized sunglasses; Chris Lowe opted for a fluorescent pink wig. The greatest hits medley that followed - accompanied by dancing Japanese businessmen and Lady GaGa - was arty, understated and a bit spectacular all at the same time. Oh, and they didn't actually collect their Outstanding Contribution gong - not onstage anyway.

Sandwiched between 'Suburbia' and 'Left To My Own Devices' on the night was 'Love etc.', the lead single from the duo's Xenomania-produced Yes album. It's not the firecracker many were hoping for, but this perky electropop shuffle, with its call-and-response chorus and "love is for free" message, really hits home the third or fourth time you hear it. Did we ever doubt them? Course not - something else that Brits performance taught us is that Pet Shop Boys don't really do bad singles. (4/5)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: +marios+ (#6)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Yes

But what is love without lust?

#96.




La Roux - In For The Kill / In For The Kill (Skreams Let's Get Ravey Mix) / In For The Kill (The Twelves Remix)
(1316 Points, 7 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #2

Angryape Review: From the tracks posted on their MySpace page, newcomers La Roux show a lot of promise that matches the wealth of attention they've suddenly been attracting - and add to the fact they've been hand-picked to support Lily Allen on tour next month - it doesn't take a genius to work out that we'll be hearing a lot more from the London synth duo.

The band don't hide their love of 80s music in interviews and it doesn't take long to hear just how obsessed they are with the era that gave us keyboard-overload, crazy outfits and flamboyant videos. 'In For The Kill' is driven by its retro-futurist gliding synths and a hammering drum machine, but the real note of interest is the shrieking unearthly vocals of Elly Jackson.

Sick of all the Duffy's and Adele's of the world? Then 'In For The Kill' is the ideal alternative, and given the sudden interest in electropop, La Roux won't be missing from the top 10 for much longer.

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Mitchell (#2)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: La Roux

A quiff big enough to shoehorn Skream into a Somb countdown

Love's all around yeah, but I don't want that

#95.




Micachu & the Shapes - Golden Phone
(1319 Points, 12 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Pitchfork Review: Her name makes her sound like a Pokemon, and rightly so: Micachu is a deceptively cuddly creature with terrible powers. Namely, the power to wield precocious complexity in the service of pop clout: On "Golden Phone", echoes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, Young Marble Giants, and Deerhoof coalesce into a sleek cubist assemblage. The song runs with the precision of a Swiss cuckoo clock-- the powerful spring of a bouncing bass line turns an elaborate mechanism of layered vocal glitches, chiming grace notes, vrooming organs, and other zippy ephemera-- and as such, its character resides in the finely wrought details. Micachu is a gifted miniaturist, attaining a level of detail seldom found outside of Max Tundra songs. A quick shush of noise answers the line "the noise went white." In a brief vacuum of silence at the song's midpoint, a couple extra t's tick off the end of "slight," like an impromptu countdown for the blast sequence of the climactic rush. Other bands, are you even trying? We choose you, Micachu! (8/10)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Mitchell(#13)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Jewellery

98

I remember how blown away I was when I first heard this on the Hyperdub showcase. Probably the moment that I knew that electronikmusik would rule my '09. Overshadowed even the Burial tracks.

good start, esp K9

We're 'vincible

#94.




Flight of the Conchords - Hurt Feelings
(1346 Points, 6 Votes, One #1 Vote)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Popwatch Review: But I’d have to say the powerfully honest rap "Hurt Feelings" definitely left a deeper impression. I’m sure we can all relate to Bret’s sense of rejection from finding outhis friends went to see Maid in Manhattan without him. Everyone from Doug to Greg chimes in with their hurtfeelings, and we learn Mel has more emotions than just uberexcitement. Anyone else come close to tearing up at the sight of her clutching the painting on the stoop?

So I learned a lot from last night’s episode, but, like any insatiableFOTC fan, I’m only left with more questions. Who are the guys playing Bretand Jemaine’s friends in "Hurt Feelings?" Whyare they wearing hats? Why don’t Bret and Jemaine ever wear hats? Whyare they all of a sudden dressed like George Washington? Will we ever get to meet Steve? How badly do you want to see Mel’s X-rated painting of Bret? Why wasn’t Murray’s momallowed in his bike-y gang? And who is the real Miss NewZealand? (Okay, so that last one’s a bit easier to answer. It’sactually Samantha Powell as of 2008, just so you know.)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: theremin (#1)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: I Told You I Was Freaky

"Bulletproof" better be up there.

I told you once we finish
That I would get your shit fixed

#93.




The-Dream - Sweat It Out
(1350 Points, 7 Votes)

US Chart Position: #32 R&B

UK Chart Position: n/a

The Singles Jukebox Review: R. Kelly really steps up to the plate here with this minimalist slow jam with just a hint of absurdity. There’s a whiff of throwback here as well; Kells’ voice is slightly rejuvenated and, if not as versatile, as limber as it’s ever been. As with of the best of his work, Kelly is expert in vacillating between corny vernacular and the truly moving; the sweet repetition on “the love we make” is genuinely affecting. The leaden bloat of overproduction and unoriginality evident on junk singles like “#1” is nowhere to be found here. An excellent return to form (NB: Hype Machine and Sharebee types should be aware that this is showing up all over the web mislabeled as a track by The-Dream. I’ve always considered The-Dream’s solo work in this vein to be a pale imitation of Kells at its best and cough syrup at its worst. If this really WERE The-Dream, I’d be forced to capitulate on a lot of catty grumbling I’ve directed Terius’ way over the years and to finally admit that he really can give the Pied Piper a run for his money. Anyways, just relabel the track info so that it’s properly attributed when you download. I’d appreciate it).

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: mike2511 (#2)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Love vs. Money

I Want You To [EXPLETIVE DELETED] My [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

#92.




Addleboy Vs Cliff - Beep My Beep (feat. David Sandström and Erika Moeld)
(1361 Points, 5 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Pitchfork Review: Those beeps are universal, high-pitched censors; this song is as filthy as you want it to be. "Beep My Beep" dicks around, gleefully shining mirror balls on every elbow-touching barroom flirt from Brooklyn to Stockholm. Swedes David Sandström and Erika Moeld say what we mean with a knowing nonchalance. Meanwhile, production duo Addeboy vs. Cliff filter Daft Punk through Max Martin via clipped static and cock-flare guitars. From Jesus to Dylan, the song remains the same, i.e., beep or no beep, you're probably fucked.

Novelties are easily tossed, so it's a good thing this is something else. Because if there's one thing more omnipotent than Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and any combination thereof, it's sex. And "Beep My Beep" blows up subtext about as well as it highlights all those pre-beep moments that go bump in the night. As the beat reaches blog-house Babylon, the central couple are still keeping things "deep deep down." At the end of the stunning video-- which pushes lasers, tongues, and wolves-- a boy and a girl close their eyes, lean in, and stand five feet away from each other. At the end of the song, a final beep drags out a little, like an answering machine. Time to fill in the blanks. (8/10)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Cinnamon P. (#2)

Also Ranked By: blaze (#4)

I would say that one was criminally low but then hey, I forgot to vote for it, so...

Great list so far.

Paul, I think you got the wrong link for number 92, though.

Only stone and steel accept my love

#91.




Morrissey - I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
(1364 Points, 10 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #21

Comfortcomes Review: After all these years ever word that comes out of Morrissey’s mouth just sounds wonderful. Ok, well maybe that was a bit much but you get the idea. “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” is our first taste of this new record “Years Of Refusal.” The track starts off with the sounds of a key and engine going which is such a Morrissey move to have a song like that. Lyrically, the song is very simple with no punches pulled and sticks with classic Morrissey themes. “I have decided I’m throwing my arms around all of paris because only stone and steel accept my love/ In the absence of your smiling face” this is the type of stuff that only he could pull off with success. It is another sad song about how nobody loves Morrissey. But, he sounds absolutely top thanks to the Jerry Finn production. “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” may not set Morrissey on a new sound but the track just feels right.

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Tracy Jacks (#15)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Years of Refusal

Thanks. Fixed.

gonna be a strange list

Very surprised that La Roux and Micachu are so low, thought that they'd be near the top 40.

I like Flight of The Conchords, but really embarassing to see vital, new, fresh music edged out by it.

shame ur posting this on new years eve, hope you hold off the top 'à till tomorrow

Sometimes it seems that the going is just too rough

#90.




Florence + the Machine - You've Got The Love / You've Got The Love (The xx Remix)
(1364 Points, 10 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #16

Pitchfork Review: As mentioned by our crack Forkcast staff, the original "You Got The Love" (credited to "the Source featuring Candi Staton") was released in 1986, as a bass-slapping state-of-that-art R&B tune that does a remarkable job burying Staton's powerful vocals. Three years later, John Truelove (the man behind the Source) junked everything about "Love" except Staton's vocal, and threw that atop an aptly-titled Frankie Knuckles track ("Your Love"). Knuckles' decidely less fussy backing gave Staton's voice a little more room to breathe, and this jury-rigged combo of Knuckles and Staton gave Truelove a Top Ten hit in the UK. Given Truelove's cavalier treatment of the track, it's only fitting that the xx's "rework" of Florence and the Machine's take on "Love" is equally jarring, and equally successful.

Claiming this track merely "features" the xx is a bit disingenuous on the group's part. The only elements that survive from Florence's hyper-dramatic version of the song are Florence Welch's vocals and the song's harp. Even these few preserved fragments don't make it through unscathed. A choppy and slowed version of the harp introduces the tune, giving folks who are expecting a more traditional remix a false sense of security. While Welch's vocals aren't anesthetized, they are also sliced and spliced into something that vaguely resembles the source material. By the time Florence actually makes an appearance, though, it's clear that the xx aren't looking to preserve the original cover's fidelity. All the other elements that comprise this track-- the grime-y bass line, the stuttering drum machine, the watery xylophones, and that sultry/laconic boy/girl back-and-forth-- make Jamie's rework sound like an xx track that just happens to sample a Florence and the Machine song. In terms of this version of the tune, that's a very good thing-- Florence's version, as exhilarating and bracing as it may be, errs on the side of frilly divadom. The xx's spacious and smoky script-flip might give some listeners whiplash, but playing things this close to the chest suits this tune just fine.

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Heretix (#3)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Lungs

read the OP james

I'm only doing up until #41 today if I have time. The top 40 will be on Sunday because I'm flying on Saturday and I 100% know I'll have time then.

go party james! the internet will still be here when you get back

Wish the original could just forever be replaced by the XX remix.

It opened up the scars that had just finished healing.

#89.




The Antlers - Two
(1393 Points, 7 Votes)

US Chart Position:

UK Chart Position:

YouTube Comments: "this song has such sad sad lyrics yet its great song and yes people should hear this song more VVV )" - yazifizzle8

"The ONLY bad thing about listening to this song is listening to it out of context with the rest of the cd. You almost cant listen to any of the songs individually, you gotta start from Prologue all the way to Epilogue. Simply beautiful. One of my top cds for 2009" - ItsCalvin7

"This song makes my anus dilate." - Deadmeat721

"Pretty Chill song." - caliburke2k6

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: farawaysoclose (#3)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Hospice

The xx remix of Florence is pretty cool. Hadn't heard that one before. Between this and Mitch's blurb, I really need to get back on that album.

Yeah, me too.

I like the time I spend with you girl, you girl

#88.




Delorean - Ayrton Senna - EP
(1400 Points, 6 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Pitchfork Review: Man, that Wavves "meltdown" really bummed me out. Not because a rising lo-fi rocker acted stupidly-- who doesn't sometimes?-- but because I'd always imagined being on ecstasy in Barcelona would be a lot more fun. After all, some of the most rewarding music from the last couple of years basically promised as much. Or was Swedish imprint Sincerely Yours being insincere? How about U.S. labels True Panther and Underwater Peoples? From Oslo to Melbourne, from indie rockers to club kids, sunny electronic euphoria has been one of the late-2000s pop underground's richest musical nodes.

Just as that endless blissed-out summery vibe unites everyone from Panda Bear to Todd Terje, Barcelona electro-pop four-piece Delorean pull up at the intersection between several disparate and exciting movements. Start with their remixes: In the U.S., the bedroom pop of Glasser and disco-punk of Lemonade; in the UK, the NME-approved guitar rock of the Big Pink and Mystery Jets; and, right in Delorean's hometown, the sample-heavy tropical psych of El Guincho. They can be as airy and suave as Air France or Phoenix, but their unremitting beats are also plenty huge enough to convert fans of Cut Copy or MGMT. John Talabot, a Barcelona DJ who's released cosmic disco grooves for Munich label Permanent Vacation, lends a house remix to the group's current EP, Ayrton Senna.

The third release on Fool House, the new label from French indie-dance blog Fluo Kids, Ayrton Senna represents a similar kind of convergence. In the early 2000s, Delorean originally set out to be something like Jimmy Eat World crossed with Elliott Smith, keyboardist Unai Lazcano confided to The Pop Manifesto magazine last summer. By the time of their promising Transatlantic KK album a couple of years ago, Delorean had absorbed the synth-pop sleekness of New Order and the echoey guitar spikes of post-punk revivalists like !!! or the Rapture, with one transcendent moment: so-called "breakhop" finale "Apocalypse Ghetto Blast". On the Ayrton Senna EP, the group's burgeoning dance-pop savvy comes into bloom with three unstoppable summer bangers, the Talabot remix, and a digital-only bonus cut.

Despite their rock roots, Delorean do tracks, not songs. Singer/bassist Ekhi Lopetegi is a Ph.D. candidate with a background in philosophy, but Delorean use his Factory-ready yelp more as just another element to loop than as a vehicle for delivering lyrical content. "Seasun" is the best example of Delorean's layered approach to composition, methodically building 1990s piano-house keyboards, disembodied female vocals, Baltimore club-ready handclaps, and a ringing guitar line into the ultimate beach house (not Beach House). But "Deli", with its breakbeats and youthful enthusiasm, and "Moonson", all 90s-house liberation and anthem-rock yearning, are almost as thrilling. Talabot's "Kids & Drum" remix of "Seasun" could well hold up after even more listens than the original version, its hand-percussion samples reaching closer to the islands but its vast, clean lines stretching out toward space.

Prior to Ayrton Senna, arguably Delorean's most compelling release was its remix for oft-misunderstood electro-pop Serge Gainsbourgs the Teenagers. On last year's occasionally brilliant Reality Check, the French band's "Love No" is a hilarious, sleazy, and brutally scathing snipe at a nagging girlfriend who disapproves of the narrator's self-absorbed internet stonerdom. Delorean's bass-heavy "No Love" version-- like Studio's "Possible" rework of the Shout Out Louds' "Impossible", only more dramatic-- strips away all the negative lyrics, ditching a chorus of "I'm not in love" and instead repeating the big question: "Are you in love?" Well, that's a hell of a thing for a pop song to ask. The track promises dancefloor absolution, only to nag at the heart in a way the Teenagers' lame girlfriend never could.

Summer always ends too soon, and before long I'm sure beachy dance music will sound as cloying as rock fans considered the Beach Boys by the late 1960s. Like Wavves in Barcelona, Delorean recognize there's a dark side to their ecstatic vision, the aching truth that utopia-- literally, "no place"-- can never totally be fulfilled. As equally impressive bonus track "Big Dipper" puts it: "Babe, if you want to we could run away up into the sun/ But we would only fade from black to black." Delorean's similarities to other "sunny", "shimmering" new artists, ultimately, are far less important than their similarities to other practitioners of well-crafted and instantly gripping pop. (8.4)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: RoBKoZ(#3)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Ayrton Senna - EP

How is this any different then the LOPP shit that made it into the Albums list?

Because Sings Vampire Weekend's Contra is as vital, new, and fresh as the hottest indie jams. If not more.

I know that I've got issues
But you're pretty messed up too

#87.




Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
(1442 Points, 11 Votes)

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #1

Common Sense Media Review:
What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that while this single describes exactly the type of romantic relationship that teens (and adults) should avoid, the CD it's on (All I Ever Wanted) actually sends a positive overall message. This tune's premise revolves around a girl who admits she and her guy are bad for each other ("I know that I've got issues / But you're pretty messed up, too"). But when he shows up on her doorstep yet again, she second-guesses herself ("Maybe I was stupid for telling you goodbye") and decides to take him back ("Being with you is so dysfunctional / I really shouldn't miss you / But I can't let you go").

Families Can Talk About
Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help

* Families can talk about the important role that self-esteem plays in romantic relationships. Why would you want to stay in a relationship that makes you feel bad about yourself? How should good partners treat each other? What steps can you take to end an unhealthy relationship?

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: "Since U Been Gone" (#5 of 2005)

Ranked Highest By: MattDrufke (#12)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: All I Ever Wanted

Read the blurb.

just got back home and first post i see...such a good EP...there's a mixtape out there too which includes their Lemonade - "Big Weekend" remix and a remix of Mystery Jets - "Half in Love w/ ELizabeth"

Think the rationale for Sings Contra was well explained in the blurb and also by Untold (I think).

Not that I voted for it, because lists are serious motherfucking business.

Kind of.... not surprised, exactly, as I forgot its existence until just now, but the placement of that Clarkson song is interesting. I feel like if it was released a month or two ago and Party In the USA was released last winter/spring, they might have exchanged spots on our countdown. But I dunno.

Flight Of The Conchords are better than Weezer in every possible way. And I bet some Weezer shite inexplicably ends up like top 4 or something. Sometimes things happen that are undeserved.

Man, were all being pretty defensive about Flight of the Conchords here.

Heard "Party in the USA" for the first time yesterday on some EOY music video countdown. Not really convinced. Did enjoy Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" though.

I just realised I forgot to vote for "Who Can Say" by the Horrors in this list. Damn.

Ugh. The vocals on that "You've Got The Love" cover are awful. Candi Staton would be rolling in her grave if she were, you know, dead.

"Party in the USA" is a better song than "Paparazzi." And I love Lady Gaga.

Yeah, that's the one Gaga song that I kinda like. All of em are better than Miley though, really don't get that. But I guess Chrono's forthcoming blurb will be here to convince us soon enough.

Rae job is to make sure the coke is fluffy
While I politic his birthday bash with Puffy

#86.




Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers (feat. Inspectah Deck, GZA, Ghostface Killah & Method Man)
(1445 Points, 8 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Pitchfork Review: Here it is, everyone: the first tangible sign that Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II just might be fucking crazy. "House of Flying Daggers", currently circulating as hissy, censored radio rip, is, thrillingly, a thick, musty slab of uncompromising Wu, a pungent blast of hot air from a crypt most people thought was good and closed by now. Over a J Dilla beat that reworks the sputtering synthesizers of "7th Chamber, Pt. 2" into a roiling sea, the lineup emerges: Inspectah Deck, first up, sounds so grateful to be in the room that he ages 15 years in reverse in an instant ("I POP OFF LIKE A MOBSTER BOSS/ ANGEL HAIR WITH THE LOBSTER SAUCE"). Raekwon raps with more focused intensity than he's mustered in nearly as long ("Bury me in Africa with whips and spears and rough diamonds out of Syria"). Ghostface, in stark contrast to his current reliably-entertaining-but-slightly-obligatory-feeling press junket for Wizard of Poetry, just goes ballistic ("The team gotta eat, our seeds is hungry/ That's why we ain't scared to dump on you, cuz our guns is chunky") and Meth, the closer, is "back on his 8 Diagrams shit," i.e., sounding more like the Meth of your memory than logic would seem to allow. There is nothing "new" here-- Raekwon seems intent on keeping his promise to Wu heads that there will be no signs on Cuban Linx II that the years following the first OB4CL ever occurred. And thank god for that. (8/10)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: +marios+(#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2

Not a fan of that Rae song, to be honest. I mean, it's OK, but I wouldn't have started the album with it or made it the single.

"New Wu" is better. IMO. The more prominent the Method Man presence, the better.