Archive for the ‘Best 50 Songs of 2011’ Category
The 50 Best Songs of 2011: 10-1
Posted on: December 8, 2011
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(All week we’re counting down the top songs of 2011. For previous entries on the list, click here. We hope you enjoy the music.)
10. Youth Lagoon – “Montana”
The 50 Best Songs of 2011: 20-11
Posted on: December 7, 2011
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(All week we’re counting down the top songs of 2011. For previous entries on the list, click here. We hope you enjoy the music.)
A lot of adjectives could be used to describe our #1 hip-hop album of the year, Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up. “Accessible” is not one of them. If there is one song on the album that is likely to appeal to all hip-hop fans, it is album closer “Swerve…” Combining an aggressive beat with a sweet, accordion-like melody, and providing for more lyrical diversity than the rest of the record, “Swerve…” gives Descartes the middle finger, treating mind and body as if they were one. -LVL
The 50 Best Songs of 2011: 30-21
Posted on: December 6, 2011
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(All week we’re counting down the top songs of 2011. For previous entries on the list, click here. We hope you enjoy the music.)
I regularly hate on Drake, perhaps justified, perhaps not. I must give the softest rapper alive some due credit for “Marvins Room,” the lead single off this year’s divisive Take Care. A song dripping blue sadness and production taken directly from808s and Heartbreak, “Marvins Room” is the first time I’m able to say that this kid has real talent. Somehow, Drake manages to make the shameful action of drunk dialing into a desired form of self-destruction. -PTL
The 50 Best Songs of 2011: 50-31
Posted on: December 5, 2011
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The notion of compiling a “50 Best Songs of the Year” list is preposterous. In addition to the absurd presumption that songs across genres can be objectively compared in some meaningful way, such a list ignores the fact that one’s experience of a song is entirely situational, as dependent on one’s mood and temperament as on any musical detail. Indeed, a list of this type is bound to almost destined to disappoint, confuse, or perhaps even enrage the reader.
And yet we worked our asses off on this one. Staffer Peter Lillis, co-editor Keith Meatto and I each put in a lot of listening hours this year, and, although our tastes differ significantly at the margins, we were able to reach a broad consensus for the purposes of this column. While the claim that the 50 tracks below represent the year’s “best” is clear hyperbole, they are the ones that we have turned to continuously throughout the year, the ones that have entranced and excited us the most. Each day this week, we’ll be unveiling a new group of entrants on the list; we hope that you’ll keep checking back to hear the music and to share your thoughts. We begin today with songs 50 through 31. Read the rest of this entry »
Frontier Psychiatrist 