The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 60-51

60. REBECCA BLACK ‘Friday’

When did ‘Friday’ go from hilarious joke to song that I listened to and sang along to without irony? This is seriously amazing – her voice is still nasally as fuck but she’s proven elsewhere that she does have talent, and the lyrics are awful but their charm is in their ineptness. This is truly the definition of so bad it’s good. I love picking up little things that I previously missed, like the spoken “we gotta get down” at 2:39, or the background ad-libs during the final choruses. This is just such fun, fun, fun, fun, and is also the best meme ever. Queen of 2011.

59. BARBRA STREISAND ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’

From one supreme vocalist to another! Barbra’s version of ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’, from her album What Matters Most, was one of the most sublime, most flawless performances of the year. Her crystal-clear voice envelopes the lyrics with such clarity and professionalism, as the minimal instrumentation guides her gently. But really, no instruments are needed – if this was acapella it would be just as stunning. Babs is truly among the best singers I have ever heard in my life, and ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’ shows that after almost fifty years in the industry she is just as talented as ever.

58. CLARE MAGUIRE ‘The Last Dance’

“Got to try, move on, but I promise you
I will kiss your crown when life takes me down
I’ll save my last dance for you my friend”

Written in memory of Michael Jackson, ‘The Last Dance’ was the massive standout from Clare Maguire’s very middling Light After Dark album. While the LP left a lot to be desired, ‘The Last Dance’ is a wonder to behold, riding colossal drums and Clare’s stunning voice to work as a standard love song and as a beautiful tribute to my all-time favourite artist. This and ‘Ain’t Nobody’ show a lot of promise – hopefully Clare can get it together for her next record, because her potential is through the roof.

57. LUCIANA ft. BETTY WHITE ‘I’m Still Hot’

The fact that Betty White is in my top 100 songs of the year is amazing. Grandmother Of The World, Betty is about 400 years old and is still working, still moving, still going to the toilet by herself and is even featured on the definitive version of 2011′s hottest club track, Luciana’s ‘I’m Still Hot’. With life-giving lyrics like “I’m still a Golden Girl/I may be a senior, so what?/I’m still hot”, Betty slayed all of my fave over-70 popstars (Yoko, Madonna, Vanessa Amorosi) and provided us with the nursing home anthem of the year.

56. BRITNEY SPEARS ‘Hold It Against Me’

Remember how excited we all were when this debuted? It sounded amazing then and it still sounds really good, even if the impact has dulled a little with time. From the club-ready chorus to the much-discussed dubstep breakdown, ‘Hold It Against Me’ is completely commercial and radio ready, yet it is harder and more interesting than previous lead single ‘Womanizer’ and instantly better than basically everything on Circus. There were better tracks on Femme Fatale, but the rush of ‘Hold It Against Me’ captures the excitement of new Britney perfectly.

55. TORI AMOS ‘Carry’

So, so beautiful. ‘Carry’ is an absolute triumph for Tori, who hasn’t done a song this simple and pretty since who knows when. As this list goes on I’m noticing that I valued simplicity almost as much as I valued my dearly beloved melodrama this year. It doesn’t get much more basic than this: Tori + piano, and the result is a floaty, calm lullaby. The best song from Night Of Hunters by far.

54. WILLOW SMITH ft. NICKI MINAJ ‘Fireball’

It’s no ‘Whip My Hair’, but what is? ‘Fireball’ is Willow’s attempt to win back some of the appeal she lost when ’21st Century Girl’ flopped, and while it doesn’t seem to be doing much yet, it’s been given an excellent video and Team Willow are doing everything they can to make this a hit. Nicki Minaj shows up for a G-rated but still awesome verse, and Willow does her general “I’m amazing” schtick while dancing around like a lunatic. A hugely appealing mess.

53. WEIRD AL YANKOVIC ‘Perform This Way’

The king returned with this genius parody of Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, which was so serious that it was just begging to be made fun of. Touching on multiple elements of Gaga over the past year – the little monsters, the Madonna controversy, and the outrageous outfits – ‘Perform This Way’ was clever, well put together and most of all, funny. Bonus points for delivering the most WTF video of the year.

52. SHANIA TWAIN ‘Today Is Your Day’

Shania lives! A winner’s single without the reality show, ‘Today Is Your Day’ is the inspirational, raise-your-hands, hug-your-mother song of praise that reintroduced us to the Queen of Modern Country. Plunging us straight back into the her signature sound from ten years ago, Shania’s first single in yonks was full of cheese, full of Hallmark crap and I absolutely loved it. I sincerely hope an album is going to follow this one-off, because I am gagging for some new exclamation-point filled titles and uplifting female empowerment anthems. Let’s go girls!

51. RIHANNA ‘Where Have You Been’

The spiritual sister of ‘We Found Love’, the other Calvin Harris produced track on Talk That Talk, ‘Where Have You Been’ is a huge rave-up that builds and builds into an explosive mess of sounds. Using “compositional elements” of classic old-man song ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’, the creative yet commercial production lends itself to the way Rihanna has approached the track, which seems to be “sing the words and then get out of the way of the instrumental”. I love you Rihanna but Calvin is the star on this one.

The 100 Best Songs Of 2011: 100-91

100. VANESSA AMOROSI ‘Gossip’

I just had to put this in my top 100. ‘Gossip’ was a huge failure for Vanessa, who was previously in the midst of her unlikely comeback. It was a non-charting misfire in every way, from the ridiculous video to the cringe-worthy “can’t find my phone” at the start of the song. So why is it here? Because it’s so fun! The chorus is catchy and lines like “Facebook bitches that you hate” and “I’ve got Facebook and Twitter/we could link up” are so bad they’re good. Queen V’s crazed adlibs over the final choruses (“GO AND CHECK OUT MY PAGE! JUST WRITE, JUST JUST JUST TYPE, WRITE! EVERYBODY CHECK MY PAGE!”) are the best thing to happen to Australian pop since Dannii debuted on Young Talent Time. Love the new face, too!

99. JAMIE WOON ‘Lady Luck’

If ‘Night Air’ hadn’t annoyingly been released in 2010 it would be high on this list, but the follow-up single ‘Lady Luck’ is also brilliant, with twisting beats and layered vocals mixing to become a sped-up Massive Attack homage. Jamie is a vocalist who knows his strengths: not unique (if you told me this was Daniel Merriweather I could believe it) but perfect for this style. Whether this is R&B/trip-hop/alt-dance/whatever you want to call it, ‘Lady Luck’, like the parent album Mirrorwriting, feels like a journey into the endless night sky.

98. KATE BUSH ‘Among Angels’

Like ‘A Coral Room’, the song that closed the 7-track first disc of Aerial, ‘Among Angels’ is a voice-and-piano ballad that showcases Kate’s almighty voice at its most subdued. Simple, and without structure or chorus, this is the perfect closer for 50 Words For Snow, an album which takes the listener in many different directions. Like a lie down at the end of a long day, ‘Among Angels’ will lull you to sleep (in a good way) and like the mother that stands for comfort, it’ll tell you everything will be alright.

97. AMY WINEHOUSE ‘Our Day Will Come’

This has nothing on classics like ‘You Know I’m No Good’ or ‘Love Is A Losing Game’, of course. But the brightness of the vocal came as a surprise to me after I assumed they’d lead the posthumous Amy Winehouse with a mournful ballad, and this quickly became a favourite. More Frank than Back To Black, ‘Our Day Will Come’ is summery and suitably retro, with Spectoresque backing vocals and a bounce to it that makes me almost forget all about the troubled life Amy led. Almost, though. ‘Our Day Will Come’ has another layer of meaning, an underlying sadness in that while Amy might have seen her day come with regards to money and success, it was clear there was something missing for her. This mixture of emotions and contexts makes this much more interesting than I expected.

96. KATE BUSH ‘Lake Tahoe’

If ‘Among Angels’ was reminiscent of ‘A Coral Room’, ‘Lake Tahoe’, in a way, takes me back to ‘Rockets Tail’ from A Sensual World. The choral backing vocals give this tale of a ghost endlessly searching for her old dog an extra level of creepiness. Over eleven minutes, Kate unravels this story, taking us through the “cold mountain water” where the lady “rises, as if out of nowhere” and eventually through to the ghost touring around the house where she and her pet used to live. Bargain bin horror or classic tale from yesteryear, passed down through generations? That’s for you to decide – but this song of dead lake women and very old dogs gives me chills in the middle of summer.

95. BEYONCÉ ’1+1′

Stunning. Beyoncé is the best singer of this generation and ’1+1′ is a love song whose intensity requires a vocalist of her calibre. Stretching itself out and shunning such notions as structure and melody, this is instead an extended vocal workout, a declaration of love that doesn’t need to prove itself to anyone but the two people mentioned in the title. This isn’t a hit single, it’s not for radio or Rage, and the intimacy contained within is something that Beyoncé has never – not genuinely, anyway – shown us before.

94. RUPAUL ‘Superstar’

As great as it is, I can’t deny that ‘Superstar’ is a bit of a rehash of 2009′s ‘Champion’ – but that song was so awesome that I don’t mind hearing it done again. I think Ru often surprises people with her strong voice, and she can carry a tune better than 75% of the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play charts. ‘Superstar’ has a huge, sing-along chorus and inspirational lyrics that tie into RuPaul’s Drag Race: this is eleganza on the dance floor.

93. TORI AMOS ‘Snowblind’

Presented as a gorgeous duet between Tori and her daughter Natashya, ‘Snowblind’ is a piano piece intertwined with beautiful lyrics and a melody that pops into the song every now and then before slipping out again as quickly as it came. ‘Snowblind’ (Natashya’s vocals aside, as she wouldn’t have been born) wouldn’t sound out of place on one of Tori’s nineties masterpieces, but the clarity of the instrumentation signal that this more mature and professional. While that wildness from her early recordings is missed, this is still very, very good, and is one of the few Tori tracks to actually sound like it was inspired by the lady she gets compared to most – Kate Bush.

92. SUGABABES ‘Freedom’

Poor old Sugababes. Just when I was ready to give them another go after Keishagate, they collapsed in on themselves with the non-release of ‘Freedom’, their best single since ‘Get Sexy’. Pulled from release a few days before it was set to go on sale, ‘Freedom’ doesn’t have a big radio-ready chorus, and its charms are more subtle that the huge pop people have come to expect from this brand. From the shimmering chorus to the dubstep breakdown, ‘Freedom’ is a number one from a parallel universe, and I hope they at least stick it on an album so it gets a day in the sun.

91. GEORGE MICHAEL ‘True Faith’

When ‘True Faith’ first came out, I thought it was awful. I thought the vocal effects on this cover of New Order’s best song had taken one of the greatest voices of all time and smothered it in something unnecessary. Then, because I buy everything George does regardless of how I feel about it, I bought the CD single. Then I started playing more and more often, and before I knew it, I was loving this version much more than I expected. I still would rather the vocoder wasn’t there, however I can’t deny that the instrumentation is gorgeous and that the effects do produce some interesting sounds here and there. You can’t ruin a song this good, and George Michael’s ‘True Faith’ proved itself to be a song that simply takes a while – a long while – to grow on you.

16 Great Songs That Didn’t Make My Top 100 Songs Of The Year

Poor Havana Brown.

116. HAVANA BROWN ’We Run The Night’

115. R.E.M. ‘We All Go Back To Where We Belong’

114. NICOLA ROBERTS ‘Sticks + Stones’

113. MEAT LOAF ‘All Of Me’

112. KE$HA ‘Fuck Him He’s A DJ’

111. SHAKIRA ft. PITBULL ‘Rabiosa’

110. ALEXIS JORDAN ‘Hush Hush’

109. RIHANNA ft. JAY-Z ‘Talk That Talk’

108. TORI AMOS ‘Shattering Sea’

107. NICOLA ROBERTS ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’

106. JAY-Z & KANYE WEST ‘Niggas In Paris’

105. COLDPLAY & RIHANNA ‘Princess Of China’

104. THE SATURDAYS ‘Notorious’

103. NICOLE SCHERZINGER ft. 50 CENT ‘Right There’

102. CEE LO GREEN ‘Anyway’

101. BJÖRK ‘Cosmogony’

The 23 Best Albums Of 2011: #9. Tori Amos – Night Of Hunters

I did not have high hopes for Night Of Hunters. Tori’s last proper album, Abnormally Attracted To Sin, was awful. But the stripped down, back-to-basics approach for this record made it one of her all time best. Thriving on creating a constant mood rather than hitting highs with individual songs, Night Of Hunters follows Tori, often accompanied only by her piano, through a beautiful sonic journey. The songs probably tell a story – I can never really follow concepts unless they’re super obvious – but all that really matters is the quality of the work as a whole. Songs like ‘Carry’ evoke classic Amos of years past, while ‘Snowblind’ and ‘Shattering Sea’ are simple and gorgeous.

After a decade of highs (American Doll Posse, Scarlet’s Walk, Midwinter Graces) and lows (almost everything else), Night Of Hunters was Tori’s best album since From The Choirgirl Hotel, released thirteen years ago. Maybe the positive critical reaction to this album will remind this living legend what makes a good album – and it isn’t 25 tedious tracks and a bonus DVD of “visualettes”.

Songs Of The Week: 09/10/11

1. GLORIA ESTEFAN Wepa (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 1)

2. DARREN HAYES Bloodstained Heart (LW: 2, WI: 5, HP: 1)

3. JENNIFER LOPEZ Papi (LW: 1, WI: 3, HP: 1)

4. RIHANNA ft. CALVIN HARRIS We Found Love (LW: 3, WI: 3, HP: 3)

5. FRENZAL RHOMB Knuckleheads (LW: 7, WI: 2, HP: 5)

6. BRITNEY SPEARS Criminal (LW: 9, WI: 2, HP: 6)

7. THE SATURDAYS All Fired Up (LW: 4, WI: 5, HP: 1)

8. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Shake It Out (LW: 5, WI: 4, HP: 5)

9.ADELE Set Fire To The Rain (LW: 6, WI: 5, HP: 4)

10. TORI AMOS Carry (LW: 8, WI: 3, HP: 8 )

LW: last week
WI: weeks in
HP: highest position

Songs Of The Week: 02/10/11

1. JENNIFER LOPEZ Papi (LW: 2, WI: 2, HP: 1)

2. DARREN HAYES Bloodstained Heart (LW: 1, WI: 4, HP: 1)

3. RIHANNA ft. CALVIN HARRIS We Found Love (LW: 5, WI: 2, HP: 3)

4. THE SATURDAYS All Fired Up (LW: 3, WI: 4, HP: 1)

5. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Shake It Out (LW: 6, WI: 3, HP: 5)

6. ADELE Set Fire To The Rain (LW: 4, WI: 4, HP: 4)

7. FRENZAL RHOMB Knuckleheads (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 7)

8. TORI AMOS Carry (LW: 8, WI: 2, HP: 8 )

9. BRITNEY SPEARS Criminal (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 9)

10. LEONA LEWIS & AVICII Collide (LW: 7, WI: 4, HP: 3)

LW: last week
WI: weeks in
HP: highest position

Songs Of The Week: 25/09/11

1. DARREN HAYES Bloodstained Heart (LW: 1, WI: 3, HP: 1)

2. JENNIFER LOPEZ Papi (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 2)

3. THE SATURDAYS All Fired Up (LW: 2, WI: 3, HP: 1)

4. ADELE Set Fire To The Rain (LW: 4, WI: 3, HP: 4)

5. RIHANNA ft. CALVIN HARRIS We Found Love (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 5)

6. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Shake It Out (LW: 7, WI: 2, HP: 6)

7. LEONA LEWIS & AVICII Collide (LW: 3, WI: 3, HP: 3)

8. TORI AMOS Carry (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 8 )

9. DEMI LOVATO Skyscraper (LW: 6, WI: 3, HP: 6)

10. LADY GAGA Yoü And I (NEW, WI: 1, HP: 10)

LW: last week
WI: weeks in
HP: highest position

Album Review: Tori Amos – Night Of Hunters

Back in May when Night Of Hunters was announced, I wrote an open letter to Tori Amos, asking that she move away from the boring approach that caused Abnormally Attracted To Sin to be so terrible, to have some quality control, and to get focused. While this album still really long, it’s much better than that last “proper” album and is much more in line with the great holiday album that followed, Midwinter Graces.

Night Of Hunters is not like the first four Tori albums, in which a series of amazing singles were surrounded by other tracks that were amazing-but-just-not-at-the-level-of-those-singles. This album is a serious mood piece from start to finish, a series of intertwining songs that all fit together and all move as one. It’s a concept album based around new versions of classical pieces, and it works as the strongest Tori Amos release since American Doll Posse, perhaps even the strongest – as an album – since From The Choirgirl Hotel.

But where most of her records in the last decade have had standout individual songs, the nature of this project means that doesn’t really happen. ‘Carry’ is wonderful, ‘Shattering Sea’ is a fantastic opener, but apart from that all the tracks run into each other to form a beautiful but long – long - work of art. So whether I return to Night Of Hunters on a regular basis is yet to be seen, and will depend on how often I’m in the mood for a lengthy concept album. I think I’m still going to be reaching for those nineties albums most of the time, but that doesn’t negate the excellent work Tori has put into this one.

7/10

An Open Letter To Tori Amos

Dear Myra Ellen Tori Amos,

Hi, how are you? How’s your son? *checks Wikipedia* Oh wait it’s a daughter. Doing great? That’s good. I’m fine thanks.

Anyway I’m writing you this letter because, as you know from our decades of friendship, I’m a bit of a fan. Your debut album Little Earthquakes is one of those perfect records that are a ten-out-of-ten affair from the first song to the final seconds. Each of the next three albums – Under The Pink, Boys For Pele and From The Choirgirl Hotel - were adventurous in different ways, they expanded your sound and gave us some classic singles.

The 2000s were full of ups and downs, weren’t they? I liked Strange Little Girls but a lot of people didn’t. Scarlet’s Walk was good but The Beekeeper is not a favourite of mine. American Doll Posse is my favourite of your post-Choirgirl material because it felt like the fearlessness, and more importantly the sense of melody, from your nineties recordings had made a comeback. Unfortunately, Abnormally Attracted To Sin, your latest “proper” studio album, well… I can’t beat around the Kate Bush here. It is probably one of the weakest albums a favourite artist of mine has ever put out.

You know what album I really loved, though? Midwinter Graces, the “seasonal” album that followed Abnormally Blah Blah by just six months. It was a return to stripped-back sounds, which was a plus, your vocals were excellent and the album was just twelve tracks long. Compare the hour-and-fifteen-minutes of Abnormzzzz to the 48 minutes of Graces: it really makes a world of difference. The album was concise, focused, and brilliant.

Just a little while ago you announced your new album Night Of Hunters (love the title, by the way). I’m excited. I’ll always be excited for new Tori Amos. But if it emerges that this album is 11 or 12 tracks long, with some of the clear direction that made Earthquakes, Choirgirl, Doll Posse and Graces such amazing albums, my excitement will be through the roof.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Eric

Your BFF/fan 4eva.

PS – Last time you were in Brisbane you played on the same night that Britney Spears was playing, so unfortunately that meant I couldn’t go see you. Please come back again. Also, I texted you and was like “hay tori wanna go get coffee lol” and I never got a response – think it must have gotten lost! Anyway just shoot me a message anytime.

*stares at the phone*