The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 8. Lana Del Rey – ‘Video Games’
8. LANA DEL REY ‘Video Games’
When I saw the people on my Twitter feed and the blogs I trust going nutso over Lana Del Rey and a song called ‘Video Games’, I assumed it would be an electro track not unlike something Robyn or Nicola Roberts might put out. Imagine my shock when I finally got around to giving it a go and found this waiting for me. I haven’t heard a ballad like this in forever. This just feels completely out of place in 2011, but I can’t pinpoint another era it would feel more suited to. It just exists on its own, out of any context. Lana herself is an amazing vocalist, but the real star here is the lyrics, so full of vulnerability, young, inexperienced sexuality and naïve charm. Like a dream, ‘Video Games’ is surreal, strange and you, the listener, are completely at its mercy.
The Top 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 9. Beyoncé – ‘Run The World (Girls)’
9. BEYONCÉ ‘Run The World (Girls)’
When I first heard ‘Run The World (Girls)’ I was with my friends Adem and Ben in Geelong. I don’t remember exactly what my feelings were, but the general consensus was that the song was okay and that that warped-carnival noise was awesome. The heavy sample of ‘Pon De Floor’ divided listeners, but I still thought this would be huge. It wasn’t, despite being given every big promotional push short of being beamed directly into the heads of every human on the planet. I guess it goes to show that you just can’t make people like a song if they don’t no matter how much money you throw at it. But for me, ‘Run The World’ revealed itself to be an utter beast of a song, an assault on the senses from every angle, and it would be a track I came back to again and again. Misunderstood, bullied and hated by many pop fans this year, ‘Run The World (Girls)’ is like Kelly Rowland: one day everyone will realise just how special it is. But it will be too late.
The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 10. Adele – ‘Someone Like You’
10. ADELE ‘Someone Like You’
Boy am I glad I had a generally good year with regards to relationships. If I had been going through some sort of heartbreak and everywhere I went was this song, they would have called me “that awful crying man” and I would have been committed. The most depressing song of the year, Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ is, all jokes aside, also among the most beautiful. The first US number one in history to be constructed from just voice and piano, ‘Someone Like You’ is the defeated version of Alanis Morissette’s ‘You Oughta Know’, the version of Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ where the protagonist has come to accept what has happened, and the hopeful version of Robyn’s ‘Be Mine!’. Shoving so many emotions into her vocal, Adele proves her worth as a megastar with this song alone. The most overplayed, soul-crushing and adored five minutes of 2011.
The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 20-11
20. LADY GAGA ‘Bloody Mary’
People laughed at me when I said I wanted this as a single, but I honestly believe that aside from just being a fucking great song, it is catchy enough to work on radio. Like swimming through molasses, ‘Bloody Mary’ is a weighty slow-motion ballad, and Gaga is at her most stylishly monotone. “I won’t cry for you”, she sings, “I won’t crucify the things you do”. That “crucify” might feel like a cheap religious reference, and it is, but it’s also there to give the line a bit more pompousness, a bit more weight. One of the thickest and heaviest pop songs of the year, ‘Bloody Mary’ is among the out-there moments on Born This Way that really, really work.
19. AZEALIA BANKS ft. LAZY JAY ’212′
Like Ricki-Lee’s big comeback, ’212′ seemed to come out of nowhere. A lightning flash of a song, it starts out awesome and from the first line it’s obvious that Azealia Banks has great rap talent. But then these lines start:
“Wanna lick my plum in the evening
And flick* that tongue-tongue d-deep in”
*possibly “fit”
The next line is “I guess that cunt gettin’ eaten”. I do not consider myself easily shocked when it comes to lyrics, and my jaw just dropped. This sweet girl in the video with the cheeky smile and the Mickey Mouse jumper is telling me about her fucking cunt getting eaten? I felt so many feelings. Mostly awesome feelings. Then, later in the song, she says “I’mma ruin you cunt” and it’s still powerful! ’212′ is a lyrical masterpiece, and the production is absolutely world-class. This is a future legend in the making.
18. LADY GAGA ‘Government Hooker’
I have songs that I like to walk to. Around the city, to and from work, you know. General walking. The beat in these songs are very good for walking. ‘Jump’ by Madonna is one of these songs. Another single from this year that we’re yet to come to is a great walking song. ‘Who Is It’ by Michael Jackson has a nice walking beat.
‘Government Hooker’ was possibly engineered in a lab especially for me to walk to. I don’t care how fucking ridiculous I look – this makes me want to shimmy down some scummy Bowen Hills street like I’m on a runway in Paris. The mighty beat and Gaga’s amazing repeated “HUOOOOAOAUHUKKAAAAAAAH” noises are paired with lyrics like “put your hands on me – John F. Kennedy” which is a serious contender for line of the year. Like ‘Schieße’, it’s a hot mess, and it sounds stunningly fierce.
17. GLORIA ESTEFAN ‘Wepa’
Queensland, Australia, 2027. A 37-year-old male is found wandering through the rural desert. Dressed in early-2000s fashion and with a long-dead iPhone 4s in his pocket, he had lived on a diet of slugs and rainwater for approximately sixteen years. His family had long assumed him dead, but judging by his sudden interest in Latino music just before disappearing, they also thought it possible that he had fled to South America. He would spend all day teasing his hair and practicing his dancing, and indeed when he was found wandering his hair was perfectly styled in a giant afro, his hairspray holding for all these years. His family said he had ceased communicating with them before going missing and would only sing to them in frenzied Spanish. He was last seen wandering through the city streets with a pair of maracas in late 2011. The wallet he was carrying when found identified him as Richard Eric, and he repeated one word, emotionless, in a trance.
“Wepa”, he said. “Wepa”.
16. BRITNEY SPEARS ‘Criminal’
Love it or hate it, ‘Criminal’ is truly remarkable, sounding like almost nothing else on the radio this year. That weird flute solo is a truly odd pop moment, and I don’t know who decided that this song needed a flute of all things, but I thank god for them because it really, really works. Britney’s first semi-ballad single since ‘Someday (I Will Understand)’ is perfect for her voice, and the melody is fantastic. I love the creative video, which complements the dark tone of the song perfectly. This is 2011′s equivalent to ‘Man Down’, and it’s almost as good.
15. LADY GAGA ‘The Edge Of Glory’
I honestly believe that ‘The Edge Of Glory’ was the best video of the Born This Way era. I would rather watch Gaga dance on a fire escape than flail around with some cereal, and I think that being on “the edge of glory” is all about being at the point before something really huge. When you’re huge, you have giant videos with massive casts and Pussy Wagons and Beyoncé. Before you’re huge, you dance on a fire escape. ‘The Edge Of Glory’ however, as a song, is everything but subdued. Fist-pumping chorus, great lyrics, and the saxophone solo to end all saxophone solos. Absolutely defining.
14. GOTYE ft. KIMBRA ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’
Who would have thought that Gotye would be responsible for the one of the highest selling singles of the year? He became a household name with the release of ‘Somebody I Used To Know’ a folksy ballad that manage to sound completely in a genre of its own. Beginning slowly with Gotye alone, lamenting a broken relationship, halfway through the song we hear from Kimbra, who gives us a different point of view. Their pained dialogue hits me straight in the heart, and I can see from the length of time this spent at number one that it did that to a lot of other people too. This will be looked back on as an important song in Australian music history, and was the best Australian song of the year not by Darren Hayes.
13. DARREN HAYES ‘Bloodstained Heart’
The most successful return to the sound of Savage Garden to be found on Darren’s recent album, ‘Bloodstained Heart’ sends shivers down my spine and was one of the songs I obsessively played on repeat this year. With beautiful lyrics and an epic climax Coldplay would kill for, ‘Bloodstained Heart’ cascades out of the speakers and right into your soul, a song of such breathtaking beauty that I can hardly comprehend it. Words alone couldn’t do this track justice – it must heard, and seen, and felt.
12. RIHANNA ft. CALVIN HARRIS ‘We Found Love’
There are three major contributors to this song and its success: Rihanna’s strong vocals, Calvin’s unbelievable production, and the mantra at the core of the lyrics. “We found love in a hopeless place” will be remembered as a defining lyric of 2011, capturing a feeling like lightning in a bottle and repeating it endlessly, as if at once a parody and a concession to the repetitious nature of modern pop music. As the music explodes, Rihanna becomes a robot, entrenched in her own disillusion, unable to communicate anything past that one line. There are other lyrics, sure, but they’re just placeholders, and while this is primarily a club track, there’s more emotion to be found here than in any random ten ballads released in the past twelve months.
11. LADY GAGA ‘Born This Way’
“I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track baby
I was born this way”
When a tearful Gaga sang these lyrics as part of her acceptance speech at the 2010 Video Music Awards, I immediately thought that the melody was fantastic. Those four lines were stuck in my head even though it would be months before we heard the full song. When ‘Born This Way’ was released, I didn’t review it, I only assigned it a score because it seemed everybody on the internet was writing an essay about how the song made them feel, politically and socially and as a consumer and as a member of an audience and a demographic and zzzzzz. Who really gives a shit? ‘Born This Way’ is a fucking amazing pop song with a massive chorus and thundering production. I get chills on the line “I was born to survive”. I think this song being number one all over the world is extremely important, not just because it’s about bullying or because it mentions gays and lesbian transgenders and Lebanese orients, but also because it’s really, really good.
The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 30-21
30. BETH DITTO ‘I Wrote The Book’
I’m a moderate fan of Gossip, and I think ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ and ‘Heavy Cross’ are amazing, but I didn’t quite expect the Beth Ditto EP to be such a mini-masterwork. ‘I Wrote The Book’, the heavily eighties influenced lead track, is Beth Dit going full pop, with slinky beats and her sexy vocal wrapping themselves around each other. “Remember I know every trick in the book”, she sings, her shakily defiant voice perfectly fitting the dark-back-alley vibe. The awesome ‘Justify My Love’-style video is the icing on the cake.
29. WILL.I.AM ft. JENNIFER LOPEZ & MICK JAGGER ‘T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)’
OMG. I can’t explain how much I love this. Will is amazing. J.Lo is amazing. Mick fucking Jagger is amazing. The video is amazing. The beat, the lame one-line chorus, every ridonk lyric, all of it – amazing. “This beat is the shit – feces”. “I go hard – statues”. “I’mma go dumb, smart I am”. I love how Mick appears out of nowhere, and in the video, how he appears in outer space. I love “hard like geometry, trigonometry, this is crazy – psychology”. I love how this has divided everyone – you either think it’s ridiculously good or just ridiculous.
28. BRITNEY SPEARS ‘Inside Out’
Britney’s sexiest performance in years is captured on ‘Inside Out’, where she begs her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend to “turn her inside out” one last time before they break up. With ‘…Baby One More Time’ lyrical references and a slow-motion beat, Britney writhes her way through this song, switching from sexy to desperate and back with ease. If ‘Criminal’ had done better I expect this might have been a single, and it would have been a wonderful single indeed. When Brit yells “come on!”, she sounds, as Cher might say, alive again.
27. SNOOP DOGG & DAVID GUETTA ‘Wet’
The edited version of this song, ‘Sweat’ is alright, but there’s something about Snoop asking “tell me baby are you wet?” that makes ‘Wet’ a truly glorious club track. Guetta’s production is pretty standard but still fantastic, with the beat taking a backseat at all the right times and allowing Mr. Dogg to work his magic. One of the unsexiest rappers makes one of the sexiest tracks of the year. Pure filth, and pure joy.
26. ADELE ‘Set Fire To The Rain’
If Adele doesn’t do the next James Bond theme, it’s okay because she’s already done one in ‘Set Fire To The Rain’. A rolling, relentless epic, a power ballad from another planet, this fills your ears with all sorts of wonderful emotions and sounds, not least of which is Adele’s tremendous voice. More ‘Rolling In The Deep’ than ‘Someone Like You’, just when you think this can’t get bigger it surprises and goes further, and further, and further into OTT territory. And it sounds like heaven.
25. FRENZAL RHOMB ‘Knuckleheads’
I’ve always said that Frenzal Rhomb have a gift for melody that many in their genre simply don’t, and ‘Knuckleheads’ provides us with an awesome melody that is among their all-time best. Not just a triumph of mood-capturing instrumentation, this song is also steeped in a lot of anger, as shown by the lyrics. “And every time we meet it ends up in strife/You fucks have been my enemies my whole fucking life” – as a statement against judgemental bullies, this is much more important and believable than many of the mainstream be-yourself anthems released in the past few years. A great achievement for a very underrated Australian band.
24. DOLLY PARTON ‘Together You And I’
As bright as the sun and just as hot, Queen Dolly serves up another slice of joy with ‘Together You And I’, a pure and simple love song that strings together a glorious list of clichés to become the musical equivalent of a sappy chain email – and it’s beautiful. In her trademark country-pop style, Dolly’s unmistakable, undeniable voice sails through the heavens and down to us mere mortals, and she imparts her wisdom upon us. ‘Together You And I’ has everything you could want from Happy Dolly (I have a different set of requirements for Sad Dolly), and I challenge anyone with a soul to listen to this and not feel on top of the world.
23. KATE BUSH ‘Wild Man’
The music during the verses of ‘Wild Man’ might fool you into thinking this seven-minute track is one of Kate’s sunny midtempos. But the trepidation in her slightly sinister whisper might alert you that something else is coming – and that something else is the absolutely terrifying chorus. If I was a child I might never leave my bed after hearing this. I feel a bit creeped out just thinking about it. And yet this tale of a Bigfoot-type creature is still catchy, makes for a great single, and if Kate still did videos with her in them I could imagine her waving her arms around like a windmill in the snow with some guy dressed in a gorilla outfit.
22. RICKI-LEE ‘Raining Diamonds’
Where the fuck did this come from? Seriously, where? Ricki-Lee has done a grand total of two really great songs in the past (‘Sunshine’ and ‘Love Is All Around’) but ‘Raining Diamonds’ make the both of them look like a pile of puke. This is just… unbelievable. I can’t believe this is an Australian pop song from 2011. Even Kylie hasn’t released something as good as this is yonks. There’s nothing more to say. Ricki-Lee has changed the game. WAAAA-OHH-WOAAAAAH!!! WAAAA-OHH-WOAAAAAH!!!!
21. DARREN HAYES ‘The Siren’s Call’
I find it a bit mind-boggling that the type of song most writers would give their right arm for seem to just pour out of Darren Hayes. It’s in his blood to write sprawling epics like ‘The Siren’s Call’, the song that closes Secret Codes And Battleships. And while two very, very good singles beat it to being the best song on the album, ‘The Siren’s Call’ is still mighty impressive. The musical tapestry here is rich, with Darren’s voice occasionally making way for a hauntingly deep vocal sample, until the two join together in unison for one of the most powerful pop moments in recent memory. “I can almost taste happiness” – I can taste perfection Darren, and it’s here in this song (…and the two others we’re yet to reach).
The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 40-31
40. JENNIFER LOPEZ ‘Papi’
Like the lost cousin of ‘Waiting For Tonight’, ‘Papi’ is a Latin-flavoured sugar rush that makes me feel like we’re back in 1999. A straight party song like ‘On The Floor’, this is made for dancing and singing along, and not thinking. A buttload of fun and yet another catchy single to add to Jenny Lo’s canon. Why it hasn’t been a huge hit I’m not sure – it was an instant favourite on Love? and I adored the video. Dance for your puppy!
39. BRITNEY SPEARS ft. WILL.I.AM ‘Big Fat Bass’
I love Will.I.Am, as you’ll see as the countdown goes on. I don’t love everything he does – ‘The Girl Is Mine 2008′ and ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’ can fuck off – but when he’s good he is so amazing. And Will is at his best here, doing battle with Britney over the most out-there beat she’s ever tackled. As Robotney repeats “the bass is getting bigger” in a trance, the music explodes around her a glitter bomb, and this has some of the best “moments” of 2011 pop, including “THE BIG BIG FAT FAT BASS, ROCKIN’ ALL IN YO FACE” and *deep voice* “THE FEMME FATAAAALLLE”.
38. JESSICA MAUBOY & STAN WALKER ‘Galaxy’
I think Jessica Mauboy has more great songs than people give her credit for. Her debut ‘Running Back’ is one of my all-time favourite songs, and ‘Burn’, ‘Up/Down’ and ‘Inescapable’ are all fantastic pop singles. ‘Galaxy’, a duet with Stan Walker, is another one to add to that growing list. Paired with an out of this world video (which I enjoyed despite planets that are able to be viewed from Earth being an irrational fear of mine), ‘Galaxy’ is a huge R&B ballad and the two vocalists relish the opportunity to go nuts with it, turning it into an impassioned love song, their voices intertwining beautifully.
37. DARREN HAYES ‘Taken By The Sea’
The opening track on Secret Codes And Battleships feels to me like a sequel to ‘Who Would Have Thought?’, the best track on Darren’s previous album. An ode to the trepidation and joy associated with a new love, this is another trademark cinematic masterpiece. “All of my sadness, taken by the sea” is the defining lyric of the album, setting up the emotional state of the songs to come. With beautiful lyrical imagery and a Savage Garden-like soft rock feel, ‘Taken By The Sea’ is just wondrous.
36. BEYONCÉ ‘Love On Top’
Oh god, this is so up. I just want to jump for joy. The pure happiness contained in Beyoncé’s voice makes ‘Love On Top’ one of my favourite vocal performances of the year. Like ‘Countdown’, the retro stylings of ‘Love On Top’ give it a simultaneous freshness and familiarity that is missing from a lot of radio hits these days, and the light, fun video only adds to this little symphony. Like somebody mooshed together the Jackson 5, the Supremes and Destiny’s Child, this is classic.
35. JENNIFER LOPEZ ft. PITBULL ‘On The Floor’
“Brazil, Morocco, London to Ibiza
Straight to LA, New York, Vegas to Africa”
I love mimicking the way Jennifer sings “Africa”, and it’s my favourite bit of this song. Instead of writing a blurb I’m just going to list my other favourite bits:
“It’s a new Jeneration”
“RedOne”
“I’m like Inception I play with your brain”
“Back it up like a Tonka truck”
“Running shit tonight on the floor”
“Sick on the floor”
“Die on the floor”
“Gon’ get Donkey Kong”
“My name ain’t Keith but I see why you Sweat me”
“Laaa la la la la, la la la la la la la la laaa”
34. LADY GAGA ‘Scheiße’
I tend to think of ‘Scheiße’ and ‘Government Hooker’ as sisters, as they are both fucking hot experiments with incredible runway-ready beats, repetitive, hypnotic lyrics, and a pop chorus buried beneath all the weirdness. “I wish that I could dance on a single prayer…” would have been the middle of a standard song on The Fame, but on Born This Way it is plunged into a beautiful industrial nightmare, filled with German, screeching, and a whole host of catchy pieces sewn together. The quilt that is ‘Schieße’ is one of the single most exciting pieces of music to feature on a 2011 album.
33. DEMI LOVATO ‘Skyscraper’
I’m generally not here for Disney queens unless their name is Hilary, and I probably wouldn’t have even listened to ‘Skyscraper’ if it wasn’t for everybody on Twitter having a stroke upon the premiere of the song. Am I ever glad that I gave Demi Tomato a chance – ‘Skyscraper’ is an incredible ballad, the type that seems to never get a look-in between all the ‘We Found Love’s and ‘Sexy And I Know It’s. “Go on and try to tear me down, I will be rising from the ground like a skyscraper” – Demi’s amazing vocal, her personal issues and the perhaps-not-coincidental release near the 10th anniversary of 9/11 all combined to provide a context that made this one of the most important and stunning singles of the year.
32. DARREN HAYES ‘Talk Talk Talk’
When having a think about my top 100 for the year, I didn’t imagine this would be so low, but that just goes to show how many absolutely amazing songs were released in 2011. The last twelve months have seen such brilliance that a pop monster like this is relegated to number 32 – but that doesn’t take away from the magic of ‘Talk Talk Talk’. With a commercial chorus just made for radio and a hugely energetic performance from Darren, who seemed to be unusually hungry for success this time around. The album was not a flop (by the standards of a semi-independent male pure-popstar who last hit it really big in 2004), and the clean rush of ‘Talk Talk Talk’ did well – it hit the charts (albeit the low end) but most of all it was a musical success in every way.
31. CHER LLOYD ‘Swagger Jagger’
Like Darren being so low, I’m surprised Cher Lloyd is this high. Or here at all. ‘Swagger Jagger’ originally sounded to me like the worst thing ever, but in a few months time it was the absolute best thing ever. BEST. THING. EVER. I love the ridiculousness of a debut single being about haters, I love the verses, I love the chorus, I love the video, I love Cher herself, I love the “get on the floor” bit, I love the nutso instrumental. This is amazing. Anyone who says otherwise, you’re a hater, just let it go.
The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 50-41
50. PNAU ‘The Truth’
I still think this is the great lost U2 comeback single that never was. Pnau had impressed me before with ‘Embrace’ and they went beyond my expectations with ‘The Truth’. A desperate, angry love/hate song set to an insistent and occasionally stadium-sized beat, ‘The Truth’ should have been all over radio but was, for whatever reason, not hugely successful. The title appearing at the end of each chorus in a ball of incredulous anger is a truly effective pop moment.
49. RUPAUL ‘Responsitrannity’
The title of this song is enough to land it in my top 100, but beyond the novelty of ‘Responsitrannity’ is a rather serious message to be yourself. Being yourself is the message of most RuPaul songs, it’s true, but this is one is different – it isn’t just about self-confidence, it’s about taking responsitrannity for your own view of yourself. Don’t let anybody else bring you down, and don’t blame others if you can’t do something. Some truly great lyrics set to a hands-in-the-air beat and a catchy melody – this was Ru’s greatest musical achievement of the year.
48. BJÖRK ‘Crystalline’
You might have noticed that Björk did not appear on my top albums of the year list, and that’s because Biophilia was truly awful, the worst thing she has ever put her name to. Maybe one day it’ll reveal itself to be a masterpiece – wake me up when that happens. And what makes it even more crushing is that I absolutely love ‘Crystalline’, the first single. Just about the only song on the record to have any sort of notable melody, Björk starts growling over a music box and then suddenly the song goes H•A•M and harsh beats are coming at her out of nowhere. A gem in a sea of tuneless garbage.
47. KATE BUSH ‘Misty’
So this is what it’s come to: I’m a little turned on by a song about snowman sex. The much-discussed thirteen minute ‘Misty’ is the long, gorgeous centrepiece of 50 Words For Snow, and it reads like a snowpeople version of ‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’. Girl finds snowman, girl and snowman get it on, snowman melts. It’s a genuinely heartbreaking tale with some beautiful little instrumental flourishes here and there that make this feel Christmassy even though it hasn’t got anything to do with Christmas. ‘Misty’ will make you pine for your very own snowman fuck buddy, but remember that if you love something, let it melt.
46. DAVID GUETTA ft. SIA ‘Titanium’
Few moments in pop this year were more thrilling that Sia’s crazed scream of “I AM TITAAAAAAANIIIIIIUUUUUUUUUUM”. Two artists who I’m generally indifferent to, David Guetta and Sia have come together to create a dance epic from outer space, blasting out of the speakers and punching you right in the face with its ferocity. I wasn’t aware that Sia had the voice to pull this off, and the big kicks in the song come when David knows how to let the beat fall away for a minute and then come back with a bigger impact than before – a great lesson for any dance producer to learn.
45. NICOLE SCHERZINGER ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’
Two stunning singles in a row from Nicole, who became a bit of a surprise success this year after I was worried ‘Poison’ would be a fluke. But ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ is a triumph, an excellent pseudo-ballad with ‘Irreplaceable’-style Dear John lyrics. It was a number one single in the UK, it did okay in the US and it was her solo breakthrough in Australia – but most of all it was just awesome.
44. KELLY ROWLAND ft. BIG SEAN ‘Lay It On Me’
If I had a pussy I would be popping it like crazy to this. There’s not much more to say, is there? Another slice of divine R&B from Kween Kelendria and Big Sean does a great guest spot. The chorus is just the title repeated over and over and yet it feels so good. Now back to pretending I’m Kelly in the privacy of my bedroom.
43. LEONA LEWIS & AVICII ‘Collide’
Why did this flop (sort of, number 4 isn’t really a flop)? I thought it was absolutely divine, and the exact sort of thing everybody wanted Leona to do. Stay the same, get slated. Do something different, nobody likes it. She can’t win, but whatever, this is fantastic. This “collaboration” with Avicii takes Leona is a direction she’s never been in before, and being a club diva really suits her big voice and knack for drama. She can bring the best out of a ballad, and ‘Collide’ proves, to me anyway, that she’s just as great on the dance floor.
42. BEYONCÉ ‘Countdown’
This is a serious contender for lyrics of the year. Even just “I’m all up under him like it’s cold – wintertime/All up in the kitchen in my heels – dinnertime” would make this an instant classic, but the sixties-meets-nineties vibe and Beyoncé’s energetic performance send this over the edge. Bey needs to ditch the boring ballads (but keep the good ones) and do more of this – homages to the past that still feel entirely fresh and exciting. And to think I didn’t like it at first! Oh, the fool I’ve been.
41. PAUL SIMON ‘Rewrite’
A living legend with nothing left to prove, Paul Simon is still serving up classics at 150 years of age. ‘Rewrite’ is an American story in the style of ‘Mrs. Robinson’, ‘The Boxer’ or ‘America’, and the lyrics will crush your heart. A Vietnam veteran who works at a car wash is writing a book based on his life, however he substitutes all the bad for superficial things like “car chases” in an attempt to forget the lowest points of his past. An unsettling tale of regret and misunderstanding, ‘Rewrite’ is a genius piece of songwriting.
