The 100 Best Songs Of 2010: #10-6

MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

‘Oh No!’

from the album The Family Jewels

I don’t know how ‘Oh No!’ passed me by when I first got The Family Jewels, but when I saw the remix EP was cheap on iTunes I figured why not give it another chance, and holy Florence am I glad I did. Every line is another classic quotable quote from “TV taught me how to feel/Now real life has no appeal” to “I always feel like I’m the worst so I always act like I’m the best”, and the frantic, confused pace gives way to an explosive chorus. Her tale of struggling for success is an engrossing story that so many can relate to, and they say write about what you know – that’s what she’s done here. ‘Oh No!’ is, so far, the definitive Marina statement.

KELLY ROWLAND ft. DAVID GUETTA

‘Commander’

I’ve always loved poor old Kelendria Rowlandria, after all, she was the lead on the best Destiny’s Child song – ‘Bootylicious’, of course – and has released some wonderful singles over the years. ‘Stole’, ‘Work’, ‘Like This’, ‘When Love Takes Over’ have all had their place in my heart over the years, but in 2010 she delivered her greatest solo song yet: ‘Commander’. Controlling the beats and sending them spinning into all different directions with a yelp or a “DAAAAYNCE”, Kelly gives what could have been an overly clichéd club track a new lease on life, and when that chorus kicks in – she’s never sounded better or more confident.

KYLIE MINOGUE

‘Get Outta My Way’

from the album Aphrodite

Like Lisa Simpson’s dance teacher repeating “tappa, tappa, tappa”, I find myself repeating “chorus, chorus, chorus”. But really, the chorus is the heart of the pop song, the pinnacle, the peak, the moment in which a song can rise to another level or fall apart. ‘Get Outta My Way’ is one of those songs that would be pretty amazing anyway, but that chorus, my God! It fills my ears with joy like a thousand Christmases mixed with an orgasm mixed with that thrill I get when I see someone trip over. I don’t know what else to say, except that I worship at the altar of ‘Get Outta My Way’ and I think you should too.

KELIS

‘Acapella’

from the album Flesh Tone

Now this also boasts an amazing chorus, but in a very different way. Instead of being the climax, it is just another layer of the mini-symphony, and the genius lies in the way the chorus is woven in and out of so many other brilliant little elements. The lyrics, Kelis’ delivery, the relentless riff in the background, and that is without even thinking of the simple genius of the premise: “before you, my whole life was acapella”. If anyone has done that before I’ve never heard it and it struck me as incredibly fresh and original. Flesh Tone is a true classic and ‘Acapella’ is the album at the peak of its powers.

WILLOW SMITH

‘Whip My Hair’

Willow Smith: she whips her hair back and forth, she’s cooler than you, and her song was better than any of the songs released by all her – much older – female rivals this year (with the exception of one, which we’ll get to in a second). ‘Whip My Hair’ succeeds in every way: it’s catchy as fuck, it had a great video, it inspired an internet phenomenon, it sent pop music fans into a frenzy. Perhaps most importantly, ten-year-old Willow is never sexualised in any way: she’s ten and she’s singing about things ten-year-olds care about. She ain’t doing nothing wrong, so don’t tell her nothing. The fact that the song is so incredibly good just takes this over the edge. A novelty classic, or the start of a career that will last a lifetime? Only time (I knew Enya would show up in this list somehow) will tell, but for now we can just bathe in the glow of ‘Whip My Hair’ and all its greatness.

The 100 Best Songs Of 2010: #30-21

MICHAEL JACKSON ft. 50 CENT

‘Monster’

from the album Michael

There have been several attempts throughout Michael’s career to replicate or pay tribute to the song ‘Thriller’, from ‘Ghosts’ to ‘Is It Scary?’ to ‘Threatened’ and now to ‘Monster’, one of the best upbeat tracks from the new album. Clattering beats and random screaming give ‘Monster’ a frantic pace that is replaced by quieter R&B for the chorus. So even if it doesn’t get to ‘Scream’-levels of intensity, it is still very interesting and holds your attention for the full five minutes, especially when Michael throws in little nods to ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin”, even if just for split-second. I’m a fan of 50 Cent but I didn’t expect his bit on ‘Monster’ to be quite as good as it is, and mixed with the incredible production for this specific verse, it is a more-than-worthy addition to a great song.

SCISSOR SISTERS

‘Fire With Fire’

from the album Night Work

I don’t get why this was apparently such a bad choice for lead single – there are better songs on the album, but ‘Fire With Fire’ is still 100% amazing and is especially great in terms of vocals and production, which give the song this joyous, epic feel. It doesn’t represent the overall feel of the album, but when you think of it as the “morning after” to the rest of Night Work, it makes more sense, and becomes a confident look to the future. “Tomorrow has become today…”

HURTS & KYLIE MINOGUE

‘Devotion’

from the album Happiness

Dear Weird Kylie,
Oh, my love, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you. I still listen to the songs you recorded while you were here with me and wonder what happened. I know you’re in a better place now and I feel selfish for wanting you to come back but it felt like those years were a secret between us, those that dismissed you were only missing out on your greatest work. I listen to your new material from places and mindsets far away from where we used to be, and although it sounds so good it will never be the same. Hearing you re-emerge so briefly on ‘Devotion’ has given me faith that one day you will return to me, and we will drown in odd hair colours, trip-hop beats, Nick Cave duets and singles with a chart peak in the low twenties.
Come back soon. All my love,
Richard.

KANYE WEST

‘Dark Fantasy’

from the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Shivers. down. the. spine. “Can we get much higher?” – the most incredible thing is, yes, the level of sheer brilliance can get higher and does so on the rest of the album. But ‘Dark Fantasy’ is a perfect opening track, setting up all sorts of themes and moods that will be explored over the next thirteen tracks. There are choirs, nonsensical references to Celine Dion and Leona Lewis, and that incredible bit about the séance. Also, can we get Nicki Minaj to introduce every album from now on? That’d be great, thanks.

EMINEM

‘Not Afraid’

from the album Recovery

Imagine if this had been the lead single from Relapse. Of course, it couldn’t have been because it is effectively about Relapse, but what I’m trying to say is that ‘Not Afraid’ is exactly the type of massive comeback everyone wanted and expected from Eminem in 2009. In 2010, it still sounded exciting, and had an extra element of emotion to it after the last year of drama. ‘Not Afraid’ reminds me of ‘Like Toy Soldiers’, not just because of the marching band beat but because it holds a lot of weight on its parent album and has the sort of passion and intensity to it that made Eminem such a legend.

KELE

‘Tenderoni’

from the album The Boxer

I don’t know if the character sung about here is in the closet or just over-eager to prove his masculinity, but either way it makes ‘Tenderoni’ one of the most tension-filled, interesting love songs of the year, on a scale of complexity that makes ‘Love The Way You Lie’ sound like ‘Love Me Do’. There is the inaudible chorus, where words are rendered completely useless, so all it has to stand on is that unbelievably explosive beat. When you can hear the vocals – like on the vicious “you think you are one of them” leading into the fragile “don’t be so quick to pull away” – it adds yet another layer of paranoia and anger.

KELIS

’4th Of July (Fireworks)’

from the album Flesh Tone

On an album full of hands-in-the-air moments, ’4th Of July’ is the most breathtaking. The verses are purposely quiet and subdued so that when the beat drops out, Kelis can let loose. “NOTHAN, I EVA SAY OR DEW, WILL BE AS GOOOD, AS LOVAN YEW”. As hook gives way to hook after hook after hook, Kelis moves from enthusiastic to part of the background and back again, and when she sings “just like the sky, like the fourth of july”, the music explodes behind her just like – you guessed it – fireworks, but she acts as if it is the most natural occurence in the world.

M.I.A.

‘XXXO’

from the album Maya

I thought this was going to huge. Maybe not ‘Paper Planes’ huge but it surely should have hit the top ten. ‘XXXO’ was the proper lead single from Maya and features what it perhaps the biggest and most commercial chorus to be found on an M.I.A. song, not to mention the headphone-shaking beat that begs for repeated plays. It is sung as if it was being tweeted like tweety bird on an iPhone: “u wan me be sumbody who im really not”, and the approach to both music and lyrics is almost self-consciously modern and current. Ultimately this sort of thing wouldn’t suit M.I.A. all the time but on the disappointing Maya it was a ray of light.

MICHAEL JACKSON

‘Breaking News’

from the album Michael

This is ‘Tabloid Junkie Part II’, from the newsreader intro to the “eat it/feed it” lyric pairing, but with such a thrilling Dangerous-era production style, how could I judge it for being a bit unoriginal? Another track that could conceivably have been a hit for Michael if he were alive, ‘Breaking News’ rides along on stuttering beats lifted straight from 1991, and while it isn’t a classic by any stretch of the imagination it gets closer to it than basically all other tracks from Michael.

(Ten life points to whoever recognises where the headline in the banner comes from.)

RIHANNA

‘Man Down’

from the album Loud

Remember when Kelis told us in ‘Bossy’ that she rides the beat “like a bicycle”? This is what Rihanna does here on ‘Man Down’, the best song from Loud and one of the greatest achievements of her career. Her accent is brought to the forefront here, given time to run up and down the lyrics and the chance to show a side of Rihanna that has had precious little time in the spotlight. A ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’-style narrative makes up the lyrics, and as Rihanna tells us why she “shot a man down”, it emerges that there are all sorts of frantic explanations and internal arguments about what has just happened. From “I’d never thought I’d do it…” onwards we hear this jaw-dropping series of conflicting thoughts – “I am a criminal” could be bragging until we get to the desperate breakdown of “tell the judge please give me minimal” – and all with a delivery that I never thought Rihanna could pull off. ‘Man Down’ is a triumph in every way imaginable.

The 100 Best Songs Of 2010: #60-51

CHRISTINA AGUILERA

‘Not Myself Tonight’

from the album Bionic

I feel pretty bad for everyone involved with ‘Not Myself Tonight’, because I assume they lived with the song for so long that they came to understand how good it really was, but it is very much a “grower”. In an age where many people will listen to a song once on YouTube before making a decision on how good or bad it is, ‘Not Myself Tonight’ was destined to sound underwhelming. But there are so many little bits here that take time to make themselves known: “I don’t give a OWWW”, the rapid fire bridge, that middle eight where Christina gets to have a proper wail – only for it to be broken up by an electro stutter, not to mention the chorus, which followed me around in my head for weeks before I gave in and admitted that it was, like the rest of this song, actually amazing.

ROBYN

‘Hang With Me’

from the album Body Talk Pt. 2

This might have the best chorus of all the Body Talk singles, coasting along on Robyn’s trademark bleeps with just the right amount of weariness and excitement. While she plays the victim on ‘Be Mine!’ and ‘Dancing On My Own’, on ‘Hang With Me’ Robyn takes charge of the relationship. This time she’ll be one breaking hearts. “I know what’s on your mind/There will be time for that too/If you hang with me” – perhaps in the past, rampant sexual desire led to an unstable relationship, and that won’t be happening again. But does she really want to “hang” with this guy for ages just to protect her own heart? There’s a hint in the uncertainty of that vocal.

EMINEM ft. LIL’ WAYNE

‘No Love’

from the album Recovery

One of the most chilling moments on Recovery, ‘No Love’ bases itself around a Haddaway sample and strikes a perfect balance between the trademark styles of both Eminem and Lil’ Wayne. The first half sees Wayne laidback but disappointed, betrayed and yet confident, ready to cut out anyone who crosses him. His icy demeanour is threatening enough, but Eminem goes even harder, trading Wayne’s cool for intense anger, in true Slim Shady style. The slight failure of Relapse seemed to spurn Eminem into some of his most vicious raps in 2010, at least in delivery if not lyrics, and ‘No Love’ is one of the best songs he lent his voice to this year.

PROFESSOR GREEN ft. LILY ALLEN

‘Just Be Good To Green’

from the album Alive Till I’m Dead

Like a good pair of leads in a film, Professor Green and Lily Allen exploit their characters so well in ‘Just Be Good To Green’, playing off each other and disappearing so far into their chosen personas that it almost becomes parody. Apart from their vocal duel, one of the most underrated aspects of ‘Just Be Good To Green’ is the instrumental, which takes tiny little elements from the retro revival from a few years back, mixes them with a hip-hop beat and then lifts it all up into the chorus perfectly. That we get lines delivered as wonderfully as the “I ain’t never gonna change, are you ever gonna realise?” bit is just a bonus.

KE$HA

‘Take It Off’

from the album Animal

In an explosion of Auto-Tuned bliss, ‘Take It Off’ explodes out of the speakers, grabs you by the neck and slams you face first into the dance floor. Watch out there aren’t any stray bottles down there though, because that could hurt. With one of the classic screamalong choruses of the year, you forget all the questions that come with this song (why isn’t anybody slipping over in all that glitter on the floor? does she ever brush her teeth with a toothbr-oh wait that was ‘Tik Tok’) and just lose yourself like Eminem in 8 Mile.

BENNY BENASSI ft. KELIS, APL.DE.AP & JEAN-BAPTISTE

‘Spaceship’

In just over three minutes, we get the only Benny Benassi single to catch my attention since ‘Able To Love’, featuring Apl.De.Ap in the best thing he’s been involved in since ‘Boom Boom Pow’, and Kelis in her best song since… well, the last amazing one. This is a club song, for sure, with those endless repetitions of “get high”, but Kelis gives it a bit of a “mystical” twist with her floaty vocals, which suit the track perfectly and elevate it above your average dance floor anthem.

HURTS

‘Better Than Love’

from the album Happiness

The deep, dramatic vocals, the soaring chorus, the frantic ‘I Feel Love’-style bits: it’s all been said before I need to say it again, this is totally eighties. Like the atmosphere of Tears For Fears had a baby with the pop sensibilities of Culture Club, which then grew up to marry early Eurythmics, ‘Better Than Love’ manages to be an affectionate nod to the sounds of yesteryear while never sounding like a mere tribute. Buried underneath all the “is this from 1983 or 2010?” is a really, really fantastic song.

MICHAEL JACKSON

‘Much Too Soon’

from the album Michael

As I said in my review of Michael, ‘Much Too Soon’ lives up to that simple title. We all know Michael and his producers had a tendency to overproduce – for better and for worse, usually better – but on ‘Much Too Soon’, there is not too much to speak of other than a quiet few instruments and Michael’s voice. Like one of his classic Motown ballads, except with his adult voice, ‘Much Too Soon’ is lyrically slight and vocally very fragile and subtle. “And would you like to go with me?/And she answered no to me” is an awkwardly structured pair of lines but it works so well with the other elements of the song – it is perhaps the most “classic Michael” moment on the new album.

JANELLE MONÁE

‘Cold War’

from the album The ArchAndroid: Suites II & III

‘Cold War’ and ‘Tightrope’ are like part one and part two, and while ‘Tightrope’ is cooler and more relaxed, ‘Cold War’ screeches along on huge, amazing drums, while Janelle rampages over the top. “This is a cooooold waaar, you better know what you’re fighting for” she tells us, and while guitars appear for a quick solo here and there, instruments and beats drop in and out all over the place. A complicated hot mess, ‘Cold War’ was one of the most exhilirating singles of the year.

MASSIVE ATTACK & TUNDE ADEBIMPE

‘Pray For Rain’

from the album Heligoland

The standout track on Heligoland was the album opener, which manages to translate that feeling of an impending storm into music. Featuring vocals from TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, the song unfolds slowly and quietly, with lyrics full of beautiful imagery and an insistent drum pattern which guides everything forward. Reminiscent of the best tracks from 100th Window, like ‘Butterfly Caught’, ‘Future Proof’ and ‘A Prayer For England’, ‘Pray For Rain’ uses haunting vocals to build an otherworldly atmosphere like only Massive Attack can.

The 100 Best Songs Of 2010: #70-61

PETER WALL & TONY ANSELL

‘ABC News Theme (Remixed By Pendulum)’

Who doesn’t love a good news theme? Dramatic, professional, and ready to lead into some man or woman in nice clothes telling us everything about everything. This particular theme will mean basically nothing to anyone outside of Australia, but if you’re like me then it recalls many a night when I had to sit through this instead of whatever much more interesting show was playing at the same time on a commercial station. But now, I get the last laugh, because Pendulum have stepped in and turned the ABC news theme – always a great piece of music for the intended purpose, but ultimately representing boredom – and turned it into this storming club “banger”. Brilliant result.

EMINEM ft. RIHANNA

‘Love The Way You Lie’

from the album Recovery

This song goes in a lot of different directions. It starts with a gentle piano and pained vocals from Rihanna, but then moves onto the first verse from Eminem, which is slightly angry but mostly disappointed and distressed. As the song continues, that anger is revisited and intensified, Rihanna shows a maturity that many thought she never had, and what could have been a bland relationship “drama” song becomes an affecting and extremely effective ballad that sees both of the artists growing and changing with the development of the track.

NICKI MINAJ

‘Right Thru Me’

from the album Pink Friday

A lot of people have a negative reaction to Nicki The R&B Star, but I like this incarnation almost as much as I like the Nicki Who Will Eat Your Face. On ‘Right Thru Me’ she aims for vulnerable, and she gets there, but she also shows us that ‘Your Love’ wasn’t a fluke, she can really do this as an artist if she wants to. We haven’t had a major female rapper since Missy Elliott and Missy did the same thing Nicki does here – puts aside her tough persona for a single or two here and there so we can see a new depth to the whole package. That ‘Right Thru Me’ also happens to be just a plain brilliant song is a bonus for everyone concerned.

SADE

‘Soldier Of Love’

from the album Soldier Of Love

Sade seems like the type of music I should love, but I’ve never gone back into their discography properly – I’m familiar with ‘Smooth Operator’, of course, but that is really the only Sade song I know well, apart from this single from their 2010 comeback. You can almost tell what ‘Soldier Of Love’ will sound like before you hear it, and that isn’t a bad thing for a band as established as this one is. What you see in the artwork and in the visuals of the video is what you get here – deserts, night skies, birds, generally pretty landscapes that have a hint of sinister to them, just a little bit of darkness. In front of rolling drums and slow moving but strong melody, Sade pulls you in with ‘Soldier Of Love’ and demands your attention.

KATY PERRY

‘Teenage Dream’

from the album Teenage Dream

Katy Perry’s second absolute classic single (the first was ‘Hot N Cold’), ‘Teenage Dream’ seems to capture something from the culture of decades past – if it wasn’t for the modern production this could be a song from the fifites. It reminds me of ‘Be My Baby’ or ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ – while not being quite as great as those songs – or even that ‘Freddy My Love’ song that Cindy Bullens did for the Grease soundtrack. Maybe back then they wouldn’t have been so upfront about their skintight jeans, but the spirit of young love and all the myths surrounding it are here. You don’t care if the characters in this song will end up like the couple at the end of Meat Loaf’s ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’, hating each other for all eternity, what matters in ‘Teenage Dream’ is the here and now, and nothing else.

RIHANNA

‘S&M’

from the album Loud

The filthy cousin of ‘Only Girl (In The World)’, ‘S&M’ opens Loud with a set of lyrics that are obviously adult but almost defiantly immature. “Sticks and stones may break my bones/But chains and whips excite me”, Rihanna sings, and while she tries to muster all the venom in her voice, there’s still a childish playfulness in there, a little nod to how the lyrics sound like a playground chant. This is basically a ‘Rude Boy’ prequel, on that song she was the hardened bitch in leather, but on ‘S&M’ she is just beginning to explore sex beyond the missionary position.

KELIS

‘Flesh Tone Intro’

from the album Flesh Tone

Now this is how you open an album. Over a melody that comes straight from the golden age of video game music, Kelis slowly weaves her voice in and out of the beats and electronics, inviting us into the world of Flesh Tone and all the ups and downs that come with it. “Yoooooou draaaw meeee iiiiin” she sings, slowly but surely, before becoming strong and desperate. As the layers stack up, the voice intensifies, “every time I think I’m free you win”. Just when you think she might collapse under the weight, the music drops out and a confident Kelis steps in: “we. control. the dance. floor.” – and we’re off.

MICHAEL JACKSON

‘Behind The Mask’

from the album Michael

‘Behind The Mask’ shares many elements with ‘Is It Scary?’, the underrated almost-single from 1997′s Blood On The Dance Floor, most notably the fact that they share a bit where Michael sings “Let’s talk about it/I don’t wanna talk about it” repeatedly, perhaps playing out one of his internal conversations, putting it out there for all to see. But ‘Is It Scary?’ was Michael defending himself, while here he is the aggressive one. He whoops and hollers over a frantic mid-to-late nineties style production, recalling those paranoid, angry songs he made when his public persona was shattered. It all builds up with crowd noise, saxophone, vocals upon vocals and the kitchen sink – which feels quite close to the vibe given by the records made while Michael was alive.

NICKI MINAJ

‘Your Love’

from the album Pink Friday

How can something so out of character sound so brilliant? Nicki Minaj singing lines like “shawty, I’m-a only tell you this once, you the illest” over a sample from Annie Lennox’s ‘No More I Love You’s'? Why does this work? But the important thing is that it does work, and it sounds wonderful, a nice big R&B ballad in an age where we don’t get too many of them – at least not as interesting as this one. It may get a reputation as a guilty pleasure but ‘Your Love’ fights for attention over the louder moments on Pink Friday - and emerges as one of the best songs Nicki has done.

JOHNNY CASH

‘Ain’t No Grave’

from the album American VI: Ain’t No Grave

Laughing in the face of such an impossible subject, ‘Ain’t No Grave’ is one of Johnny Cash’s all-time great performances, and the best from American VI. He sounds so strong and so weak at the same time, commanding the song forward and pouring everything he can into the lyrics, yet there is that vulnerability, that little bit of unease that gives a spark of brilliance to so many Cash classics. ‘Ain’t No Grave’ is simply the last in a long line of stunning performances like this.

The 26 Best Albums Of 2010: #3. Kelis – Flesh Tone

Released May 14, 2010

1. Flesh Tone Intro
2. 22nd Century
3. 4th Of July (Fireworks)
4. Home
5. Acapella
6. Scream
7. Emancipate
8. Brave
9. Song For The Baby
US bonus track
10. Carefree American

Kelis was in a very interesting – and dangerous – position at the start of 2010. She hadn’t released a studio album in four years, her former label had summed up her career to date on The Hits, and she was without a record deal. She also became a parent for the first time. All signs would point to retirement or at least irrelevancy for many other female R&B stars, but Kelis has never fit in so easily. Not many artists could come back from all that with their greatest album ever, a complete genre makeover that incredibly seemed to suit her just as much as the old ‘Caught Out There’ and ‘Milkshake’ personas did.

I love short albums and Flesh Tone weighs in with only nine tracks, and I could use this record as a poster child for why shorter is almost always better – all killer, no filler. Every song here could conceivably be a single, every second has been taken care of and thought about carefully. Intros on most albums are usually just thirty seconds of twaddle that you immediately give two stars to on iTunes, never to be thought about or listened to again. On Flesh Tone, ‘Intro’ is a proper song, and one of the best here. Mix that with the glorious singles ‘Acapella’ and ‘4^th Of July’, the relentless ‘Scream’, the beautiful ‘Song For The Baby’ – it’s all so, so good.

I don’t think anyone really expected Flesh Tone to be a huge commercial success but Kelis has been there and has done that already. I doubt that is at the forefront of her mind. She has been accepted as a bit of a visionary, somebody who predicted trends instead of following them, and now with this album and what it sure to come she will cement her position as one of the best popstars of our time, regardless of whether her singles went to number one or not.