My Top 10 of 2013

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

I actually found that there were more candidates for top 10 than bottom 10, something which I couldn’t say for about the last five years or so. Since my taste runs to the quirky, the retro, the bawdy, and sometimes the downright sappy, I imagine there are no critics (maybe no PEOPLE) on earth that are going to agree with my selections. For starters, I left the three biggest UK hits (“Get Lucky,” “Blurred Lines,” and “Wake Me Up”) off, but none of them will make my bottom 10 either. So here goes, suck it up:

10. TALK DIRTY – JASON DERULO feat. 2 CHAINZ – Aside from the fact that it’s the rare DeRulo release where he doesn’t mention his name, or that guest rapper 2 Chainz manages to rhyme “Sold out arenas” with “You can suck my penis,” what really stands out on this record is the solid groove and the really naaasty synth-sax lick that punctuates each of DeRulo’s repetitions of the title.

9. STILL INTO YOU – PARAMORE – This was not a massive single hit (#15 UK, #24 US), but nonetheless a great reproduction of early 80’s post-punk. It’s also a song about the aftermath of a break-up that Taylor Swift probably wishes she had written.

8. HAPPY – PHARRELL WILLIAMS – Just sneaking in at #1 the last week of the year, and happily knocking X Factor winner Sam Bailey off the top, Williams does an excellent channeling of the late Curtis Mayfield in his vocal. Even more impressive, aside from a massive year in which he was featured on both “Get Lucky” AND “Blurred Lines,” this song features a stunningly close four-part harmony on the song’s title that I can’t recall ever hearing before. Never mind that he repeats it to oblivion, at least he gets it right.

7. LET HER GO – PASSENGER – I should have gotten annoyed by this one after its incredibly long stay on the charts, and Passenger’s (real name Mike Rosenberg) nasal vocal, but, like Ed Sheeran’s “A-Team,” I somehow continue to be entertained by it.

6. LA LA LA – NAUGHTY BOY feat. SAM SMITH – I’m surprised it took so long for someone to write about going “La la la,” when the other person is talking bollocks. And that “Na-na-na-na-na” sample didn’t cloy as much as it seemed destined to. A shame the US didn’t pick up on this one.

5. TREASURE – BRUNO MARS – Finally, Bruno Mars came up with something other than schmaltzy declarations of love. While most critics seemed to praise him for re-creating a 70’s Disco sound, what I envisioned with this song was a 45 of the 80’s LA label Solar (Shalamar, The Whispers, Babyface) spinning around.

4. JUST GIVE ME A REASON – PINK feat. NATE RUESS – The vocal interplay between these two is pretty intense, as Ruess, lead singer of the band fun. (lower case and dot intentional) matches his female duet partner note for note almost the entire way through. Sappy, but really well done.

3. THRIFT SHOP – MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS feat. WANZ – Where most hip-hop tunes talk about wearing the bling, this one stuffs that notion, even to the point of saying that grandpa’s hand-me-downs can look cool in the right context. One bit of imagery that’s alarming: “Probably shoulda washed this, Smells like R. Kelly’s sheets.”

2. THE FOX (WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?) – YLVIS – Created by a Norwegian comedy duo, it made me more proud of liking this record when Radio 1’s DJ’s would treat it with condescension. The song wasn’t meant to be ART you numb nuts! Granted, I’ve never heard a fox say “Ding-ding-ding” or “Ah-hee, ah-HEE,” but have heard them mating, and they make equivalently loud and boisterous sounds.

1. GENTLEMAN – PSY – OK, let me have it! I have listened to this record at least 50 times, and it STILL works for me. But then I didn’t mind “Gangnam Style” that much either. It had charted briefly at the beginning of the year, and I hardly noticed it. Then Psy performed the song on the UK version of “The Voice,” an odd booking in that his act really isn’t much about singing, and apparently others were as bowled over as I was, for it re-charted and hit the top 10. Lyrically, it’s another macho boast-a-thon, but what the music and beat do with that one synthesized G-note more than compensates. His 15 minutes of fame may be already up, but at least he’s left something memorable.

Happy New Year, everybody! Bottom 10 of 2013 to follow tomorrow!

December 31st, 2013



Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.