THE TOP 100 SONGS OF THE 2010's, PART III (#50-#26)
Link to the playlist right here.
50. "Kirby" Aesop Rock (2016)
Proof that you can write a great rap song about anything if you have the skills to make it happen. Granted, cats are pretty great to begin with, but Aesop takes the pet/owner relationship as far as two minutes and change can take it, closing with the line "Fifteen years takin' prescriptions, now my shrink like: I'uh'kno, maybe get a kitten?"
49. "Fake News" The Night Howls (2017)
The world needs more angry, political punk music right now. Just happy to do my part. Still the song that takes the most out of me to play live, and it's not even two minutes.
48. "The Illectrik Hoax" DJ Food (2012)
Song number three that I couldn't find on YouTube. Well, I did technically, but it's buried in a video of the whole album, which was incidentally uploaded just this month. Other than that, only shitty remixes can be had. "The Illectrik Hoax" starts at 13:52 below, but if you feel like it the song before it, "Giant" was one I considered for this list as well.
47. "Overtime" Knower (2017)
This was my introduction to Knower, and by extension Louis Cole. I saw this video pop up in my suggestions on August 28, 2017 and I knew instantly this was the best song of the year. One hour later I heard something that was even better somehow, so it had its crown taken away far too soon (more on that later...). But Knower hasn't done too badly for themselves: they went from this to opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Europe that fall and they've put out some other material (which we'll also get to later...). For now, here's what would've happened if Prince and Vanity had jammed with Jan Hammer, Flea and a breakbeat DJ on crack:
46. "Enemies In Fidelity" Soilwork (2015)
My favorite Soilwork song. It's beautiful and relentless at the same time. To quote Devin Townsend from the production commentary of the Deconstruction album: "Dirk was a banana". It's a bummer he's not behind the kit for these guys anymore, but I can't wait to hear what he'll cook up with Megadeth.
45. "Dreams" Beck (2015)
44. "Same Ol' Mistakes" Rihanna (2016)
A somewhat controversial pick, but also the second half of the reason I bought Tame Impala's Currents. Let me explain:
Rihanna put out seven albums in eight and then went silent. She comes back three years later with this artsy project called Anti and changes her style. (She still had a massive hit with "Work", but that's probably Drake's fault.) Anyway, it finally got me to listen to a Rihanna album and to this day I still like it, but the centerpiece was "Same Ol' Mistakes".
The controversy arises not from some guilty pleasure, but from the fact that this song is literally Tame Impala karaoke. It's the same track. They just had Rihanna sing over the top of it. I had to listen real hard to discern whether or not the backing vocals were Kevin Parker or not; it's Rihanna, but whoever produced this made her sound just like Tame Impala.
I can't think of another example of something like this happening. And the weird thing is: I like the Rihanna version more. Her voice (and persona) fit the song better. Not that the original is bad; it's fucking amazing. But I've gotta give it to the Anti version.
That being said, I've posted them both so you can compare for yourself:
43. "Turning Tables" Adele (2011)
42. "Avalanche Alley" The New Pornographers (2017)
41. "Legendary" Powers (2015)
40. "24K Magic" Bruno Mars (2016)
As played to death as it is, I still love me some "Uptown Funk", but upon putting this countdown together, I found out I don't love it near as much as the follow-up. Almost like "Uptown" was the daytime get-together and "24K" is when the nighttime party officially begins.
39. "Them Changes" Thundercat (2015)
Can we get Thundercat some more mainstream success please? I know he was on To Pimp A Butterfly, but like, can we get one of his jams on the Hot 100? We got Lizzo to number one and I thought she'd be stuck like Janelle Monae on the outside looking in. Lizzo is proof a lot of things I didn't think were possible were possible, so like...why not?
38. "Bad Friday" Umphrey's McGee (2015)
The chorus is the tightest groove on a rock record maybe ever. That's the whitest thing I've ever said about one of the whitest bands to ever live, but whatever. Listen to this shit and tell me different. You're lying.
37. "Los Ageless" St. Vincent (2017)
Took awhile to get into this album, but this was a standout from spin one. That fucking dire chorus, that plea of needing to know "How" but also knowing it's an unanswerable question, the exasperation at a world that continues to keep moving when hers had utterly stopped...and it's a catchy dark electro pop song on top of it (and even a little sexy). St. Vincent has it all (except the one she lost...)
36. "Form & Control" Phenomenal Handclap Band (2012)
35. "The Unknown Faces At Father James Park" Phenomenal Handclap Band (2012)
There's a lot I want to say about this band, but it will have to wait for the Top Albums Of The Decade blog coming soon *spoilers*.
34. "Rise Anew" A. Wolf & Her Claws (aka Aby Wolf) (2012)
Aby Wolf is best known as a backup singer for Dessa (see #82), but her solo work deserves much more recognition. There's two or three songs from A. Wolf & Her Claws's self-titled album I considered for this list alone. I'd recommend that album heartily but especially this song. Singing along with the chorus is liberating to me.
33. "Downtown" Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Mo Dee & Grandmaster Caz (2015)
There's a quote from Captain Picard from the end of Part One of "Encounter At Farpoint" that I've found to be great life advice:
This song is fun as shit. It knows it's ridiculous and owns it. It's Macklemore choosing to be damned for what he really is. The video is also incredible so watch it already. Get some fun in your life before we all get put into camps or die from the coronavirus or whatever other horrible inevitability comes along and makes it impossible.
32. "Where Everything's Perfect" Jolly (2011)
This band went from making a two part concept album about commoditizing the "cure" to depression and getting buzz in the metal blogosphere to losing everything in Hurricane Sandy when their studio got flattened. The last I heard of them was a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 with an amazing song called "Family" as a teaser. (Then come to find out last week that the album dropped in 2018. At least they got funded!)
This song is like heavy Level 42 to me, and Level 42 is one of my favorite bands of all time. I marked out for this.
31. "Learn To Let Go" Kesha (2017)
30. "Educated Guess" Umphrey's McGee (2014)
The melodies in this song SHOULD. NOT. WORK. They are otherworldly and brimming with magic. This is sad proof of why rock music didn't have to die.
29. "Imitate Her Love" Deb Oh & The Cavaliers (2013)
At last we come to the fourth song I could not find on YouTube. In retrospect this should have been Number One for 2013 over Clutch's "Earth Rocker", but I was into different shit. Deb Oh seems to have gone on indefinite hiatus from music, with her last release being in 2015, which is a shame. This song is damn near perfect, and I say "damn near" because I don't believe in perfection.
28. "Tallulah" Company Of Thieves (2011)
MAN I wish they would come out with a new album.
27. "Red Eye" King (2016)
Speaking of artists I wish would drop more music: King (aka We Are King for S.E.O. purposes). Every once in awhile I love me a smoky smooth quiet storm type of jam, and this is the perfect example.
26. "Automaton" Jamiroquai (2017)
Jamiroquai has been a hit or miss band for me since jump street. Like most people, "Virtual Insanity" was my introduction to the band and I was drawn in, but Traveling Without Moving is an album I only like about half the songs on. Same with Return Of The Space Cowboy, A Funk Odyssey and Rock Dust Light Star (even less so with Emergency On Planet Earth). But Synchronized and Dynamite are both no-skip albums in my book. Is it the one word title?
Well, no. Automaton the album fell flat, not because of the music but because of some bafflingly lame lyrics. Which is all the more confounding because its title track has some of the best lyrics Jamiroquai has ever brought to the table. I connected with this song instantly. I never replay a song after it's done, but this one got me. The video helps set the scene quite well; I don't know if it would have hooked me in as deeply had I only heard the track first. But having done, this song is brilliant, capturing the melancholy and ennui of modern life as we lose more and more of our autonomy and the contract between the people and those in power (governmental and corporate) is broken with no recourse for reparations and no options to get a different deal.
Well, here we go into the final stretch. The Top 25 Awaits!
THE TOP 100 SONGS OF THE 2010'S:
PART I
PART II
PART IV
50. "Kirby" Aesop Rock (2016)
Proof that you can write a great rap song about anything if you have the skills to make it happen. Granted, cats are pretty great to begin with, but Aesop takes the pet/owner relationship as far as two minutes and change can take it, closing with the line "Fifteen years takin' prescriptions, now my shrink like: I'uh'kno, maybe get a kitten?"
49. "Fake News" The Night Howls (2017)
The world needs more angry, political punk music right now. Just happy to do my part. Still the song that takes the most out of me to play live, and it's not even two minutes.
48. "The Illectrik Hoax" DJ Food (2012)
Song number three that I couldn't find on YouTube. Well, I did technically, but it's buried in a video of the whole album, which was incidentally uploaded just this month. Other than that, only shitty remixes can be had. "The Illectrik Hoax" starts at 13:52 below, but if you feel like it the song before it, "Giant" was one I considered for this list as well.
47. "Overtime" Knower (2017)
This was my introduction to Knower, and by extension Louis Cole. I saw this video pop up in my suggestions on August 28, 2017 and I knew instantly this was the best song of the year. One hour later I heard something that was even better somehow, so it had its crown taken away far too soon (more on that later...). But Knower hasn't done too badly for themselves: they went from this to opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Europe that fall and they've put out some other material (which we'll also get to later...). For now, here's what would've happened if Prince and Vanity had jammed with Jan Hammer, Flea and a breakbeat DJ on crack:
46. "Enemies In Fidelity" Soilwork (2015)
My favorite Soilwork song. It's beautiful and relentless at the same time. To quote Devin Townsend from the production commentary of the Deconstruction album: "Dirk was a banana". It's a bummer he's not behind the kit for these guys anymore, but I can't wait to hear what he'll cook up with Megadeth.
45. "Dreams" Beck (2015)
44. "Same Ol' Mistakes" Rihanna (2016)
A somewhat controversial pick, but also the second half of the reason I bought Tame Impala's Currents. Let me explain:
Rihanna put out seven albums in eight and then went silent. She comes back three years later with this artsy project called Anti and changes her style. (She still had a massive hit with "Work", but that's probably Drake's fault.) Anyway, it finally got me to listen to a Rihanna album and to this day I still like it, but the centerpiece was "Same Ol' Mistakes".
The controversy arises not from some guilty pleasure, but from the fact that this song is literally Tame Impala karaoke. It's the same track. They just had Rihanna sing over the top of it. I had to listen real hard to discern whether or not the backing vocals were Kevin Parker or not; it's Rihanna, but whoever produced this made her sound just like Tame Impala.
I can't think of another example of something like this happening. And the weird thing is: I like the Rihanna version more. Her voice (and persona) fit the song better. Not that the original is bad; it's fucking amazing. But I've gotta give it to the Anti version.
That being said, I've posted them both so you can compare for yourself:
43. "Turning Tables" Adele (2011)
42. "Avalanche Alley" The New Pornographers (2017)
41. "Legendary" Powers (2015)
40. "24K Magic" Bruno Mars (2016)
As played to death as it is, I still love me some "Uptown Funk", but upon putting this countdown together, I found out I don't love it near as much as the follow-up. Almost like "Uptown" was the daytime get-together and "24K" is when the nighttime party officially begins.
39. "Them Changes" Thundercat (2015)
Can we get Thundercat some more mainstream success please? I know he was on To Pimp A Butterfly, but like, can we get one of his jams on the Hot 100? We got Lizzo to number one and I thought she'd be stuck like Janelle Monae on the outside looking in. Lizzo is proof a lot of things I didn't think were possible were possible, so like...why not?
38. "Bad Friday" Umphrey's McGee (2015)
The chorus is the tightest groove on a rock record maybe ever. That's the whitest thing I've ever said about one of the whitest bands to ever live, but whatever. Listen to this shit and tell me different. You're lying.
37. "Los Ageless" St. Vincent (2017)
Took awhile to get into this album, but this was a standout from spin one. That fucking dire chorus, that plea of needing to know "How" but also knowing it's an unanswerable question, the exasperation at a world that continues to keep moving when hers had utterly stopped...and it's a catchy dark electro pop song on top of it (and even a little sexy). St. Vincent has it all (except the one she lost...)
36. "Form & Control" Phenomenal Handclap Band (2012)
35. "The Unknown Faces At Father James Park" Phenomenal Handclap Band (2012)
There's a lot I want to say about this band, but it will have to wait for the Top Albums Of The Decade blog coming soon *spoilers*.
34. "Rise Anew" A. Wolf & Her Claws (aka Aby Wolf) (2012)
Aby Wolf is best known as a backup singer for Dessa (see #82), but her solo work deserves much more recognition. There's two or three songs from A. Wolf & Her Claws's self-titled album I considered for this list alone. I'd recommend that album heartily but especially this song. Singing along with the chorus is liberating to me.
33. "Downtown" Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Mo Dee & Grandmaster Caz (2015)
There's a quote from Captain Picard from the end of Part One of "Encounter At Farpoint" that I've found to be great life advice:
"If we are going to be damned, let us be damned for who we really are."This song is that made manifest for Macklemore. It's the last thing approaching a hit he's had (I'm not counting "Glorious" since Skylar Grey stole the show and wow how is that possible?).
This song is fun as shit. It knows it's ridiculous and owns it. It's Macklemore choosing to be damned for what he really is. The video is also incredible so watch it already. Get some fun in your life before we all get put into camps or die from the coronavirus or whatever other horrible inevitability comes along and makes it impossible.
32. "Where Everything's Perfect" Jolly (2011)
This band went from making a two part concept album about commoditizing the "cure" to depression and getting buzz in the metal blogosphere to losing everything in Hurricane Sandy when their studio got flattened. The last I heard of them was a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 with an amazing song called "Family" as a teaser. (Then come to find out last week that the album dropped in 2018. At least they got funded!)
This song is like heavy Level 42 to me, and Level 42 is one of my favorite bands of all time. I marked out for this.
31. "Learn To Let Go" Kesha (2017)
30. "Educated Guess" Umphrey's McGee (2014)
The melodies in this song SHOULD. NOT. WORK. They are otherworldly and brimming with magic. This is sad proof of why rock music didn't have to die.
29. "Imitate Her Love" Deb Oh & The Cavaliers (2013)
At last we come to the fourth song I could not find on YouTube. In retrospect this should have been Number One for 2013 over Clutch's "Earth Rocker", but I was into different shit. Deb Oh seems to have gone on indefinite hiatus from music, with her last release being in 2015, which is a shame. This song is damn near perfect, and I say "damn near" because I don't believe in perfection.
28. "Tallulah" Company Of Thieves (2011)
MAN I wish they would come out with a new album.
27. "Red Eye" King (2016)
Speaking of artists I wish would drop more music: King (aka We Are King for S.E.O. purposes). Every once in awhile I love me a smoky smooth quiet storm type of jam, and this is the perfect example.
26. "Automaton" Jamiroquai (2017)
Jamiroquai has been a hit or miss band for me since jump street. Like most people, "Virtual Insanity" was my introduction to the band and I was drawn in, but Traveling Without Moving is an album I only like about half the songs on. Same with Return Of The Space Cowboy, A Funk Odyssey and Rock Dust Light Star (even less so with Emergency On Planet Earth). But Synchronized and Dynamite are both no-skip albums in my book. Is it the one word title?
Well, no. Automaton the album fell flat, not because of the music but because of some bafflingly lame lyrics. Which is all the more confounding because its title track has some of the best lyrics Jamiroquai has ever brought to the table. I connected with this song instantly. I never replay a song after it's done, but this one got me. The video helps set the scene quite well; I don't know if it would have hooked me in as deeply had I only heard the track first. But having done, this song is brilliant, capturing the melancholy and ennui of modern life as we lose more and more of our autonomy and the contract between the people and those in power (governmental and corporate) is broken with no recourse for reparations and no options to get a different deal.
Well, here we go into the final stretch. The Top 25 Awaits!
THE TOP 100 SONGS OF THE 2010'S:
PART I
PART II
PART IV
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