Best Singles of 2011

2011 was the return of the single!! Ok, not really. But, you gotta admit, there were huge, career-defining ones. Christina Aguilera got back her mojo, Nicki Minaj finally broke over into the pop mainstream, Adele had everyone reaching for their Kleenex, Lady Gaga married the night, Rihanna found love in a hopeless place, while Britney had us all dancing till the world ended even though it didn't. But that's besides the point. Here's a look back at 50 of the best songs released as singles through-out 2011 that I thought, absolutely rocked the mainstream pop and indie worlds and certainly had my hand on the "repeat" button.

50. The Weeknd- The Knowing

49. The Rapture- How Deep is Your Love

48. The Kills- Satellite

47. Lykke Li- Sadness is a Blessing

46. Lana Del Ray- Video Games

45. The Vaccines- Wetsuit

44. PJ Harvey- The Words That Maketh Murder

43. Young the Giant- My Body

42. Drake- Marvin's Room 

41. Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera- Moves Like Jagger

40. Lady Gaga- The Edge of Glory

39. Wild Beasts- Bed of Nails

38. Beruit- Sante Fe 

37. tUnE-yArDs-  Bizness

36. David Guetta feat Usher- Without You

35. Rihanna- Man Down

34. Nicki Minaj- Super Bass

33. Chris Brown feat Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne- Look at Me Now

32. Lykke Li- I Follow Rivers

31. Florence + the Machine- No Light, No Light

30. Lil Wayne feat Rick Ross- John

29. Adele- Someone Like You

28. The Strokes- Under Cover of Darkness

27. Coldplay- Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

26. M83- Midnight City

25. Lil Wayne feat Cory Gunz- 6 Foot 7 Foot

24. St. Vincent- Cruel

23. Cults- Go Outside

22. Nas- Nasty

21. Britney Spears feat Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha- Till the World Ends Remix

20. Lady Gaga- Marry the Night

19. Bjork- Crystalline

18. Kanye West and Jay-Z- Otis

17. Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues

16. The Black Keys- Lonely Boy

15. Kanye West and Jay-Z- Niggas in Paris

14. Frank Ocean- Swim Good

13. Rihanna feat Calvin Harris- We Found Love

12. Adele- Rolling in the Deep

11. James Blake- The Wilhelm Scream

10. Robyn- Call Your Girlfriend

Nobody does pop music quite like Robyn, and even with an album almost two years old, she continues to churn out superior tunes you'll probably not hear on the radio.

9. Beyonce- Countdown

What with the chorus and how she pronounces the word "boo," this song is silly as they come. But listen past that, and it's one of the best love songs you'll hear all year.

8. Tyler, the Creator- Yonkers 

Yes, he eats a cockroach in the video. Yes, he hangs himself too. But ignore the video for a bit. Ignore the part about stabbing Bruno Mars in his esophagus, too and what we have left is a striking rap performance referencing the best of early Eminem. 

7. Radiohead- Lotus Flower

2011 was a really visible year for Radiohead, and where did it start? This song. It's one of the best written singles this year, with my fave line being "'cause all I want is the moon upon a stick, just to see what if..."

6. Foster the People- Pumped Up Kicks

The song of the summer, hands down, but why is it about... killing people? No matter. It's fun and it's got hooks for days.

5. Kanye West feat Rihanna, Kid Cudi- All of the Lights

It wasn't the ginormous hit it should have been, but man does it sound like it. Rihanna turns in a great vocal performance on the chorus, but the spotlight belongs to that beat. Hands down.

4. Florence + the Machine- Shake it Out

Name me a pop song more euphoric and transcendental than this released in 2011. I'll wait. Can't find one? Neither could I. 

3. Coldplay- Paradise

It's a silly song, one I didn't even particularly like when it was just released, so i'm just as surprised as you are that it's this high. But, i've come to realize, and can't emphasize enough, that this is one of their best songs. Right up there with "Yellow," "Clocks" and "Viva La Vida." Yes I said it.

2. Bon Iver- Holocene

I can't say exactly what this song is about. In fact, if I said I didn't know, I would be completely honest. However, i'm still moved every time I listen to it. If you're looking to the lyrics to actually find meaning, you probably won't; Justin Vernon was always more of a linguist than he was a story-teller. ("Christmas night, it clutched the light, the hallow bright above my brother, I and tangled spines...") But if that one line "...and at once I knew I was not magnificent" repeated through-out is any indication, this isn't a mere cerebral experience. It's a realisation of something greater, higher than self.

1. Girls- Vomit

"Nights I spend alone, I spend 'em runnin' round lookin' for you, baby" begins this plaintive song. And in all honestly, that's basically as far as it goes lyrically. However. HOW. EVER. The things that happen within this song's almost 7-minute running time is far from pedestrian. It starts with a plucking guitar, builds to crunching, psych-rock guitar solos all before a gospel choir comes in at the end. Yes, a gospel choir. And as pretentious and ridiculous as that all sounds, it's absolutely beautiful when heard. Indeed, I could find no other song released this year that gave me the same feelings, moved me in the same ways and ushered me to the same places as this song did. Trust, I looked.

They May Be Wasting Light, But They Are Hardly Wasting Any Sounds Here

4 stars (out of 5)

Foo Fighters is one of those rock bands that can be easily hated, and really, they are. Having directly descended from the lineage of Nirvana, some hipsters write them off for not being authentic or hard enough, or arena-rock sell-outs. But really, the Foos are consistent. I can't point to one genuinely bad album in their discography, though of course, like most other modern rock bands out there, they have more than their share of disposable tracks. Some people think they're a little too safe, but you know what? Some people like a little safety and comfort in their music; it's why Coldplay have sold tens of millions of albums with just a handful of LP's.
Now before you start accusing me of comparing Foo Fighters to Coldplay, (I'm not.) let's get to the matter at hand- the former's brand spanking new album, their seventh studio record headed straight for the top of the US charts in just a few days, the one that kindly kicked off Adele from her 11-week perch on the UK album charts. Produced by Nirvana producer, Butch Vig, the album was described as the band's heaviest album yet before anybody had even heard it.
Lead singer Dave Grohl states that "with Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, [their last album] we were too concerned with being musical. Now it's time for us to be a rock band again." Well, to be honest, the album rocks hard as fuck; there are no two ways around that. But to call the album unconcerned with being musical would be incorrect.
Starting with "Bridge Burning," the album kicks off into high gear- "These are my famous last wooooooooooooooords!!!!" Dave Grohl screeches, in true Dave Grohl fashion. I'll be damned if the song's melody isn't good enough to dance to; in fact, it IS- "It's all coming down, your bridges are burning down," the chorus goes as drums pound and pound, creating one noisy, really terrific melange of sound. First single "Rope" is next, and if you haven't heard it or seen the video anywhere, then too bad for you. Aside from "The Best of You," it may the first Foos single that I instantly loved on first listen. The whole dance-y vibe of the first track is carried over, too, and I totally dig the melodic shifts right through.
Bob Mould, guitarist for Hüsker Dü, provides backing vocals and guitar on "Dear Rosemary," but it is the song after, the terrific "White Limo," that is one of the album's true stand-out moments. Reminding me of System of a Down's "Prison Song," "Limo" muffles Grohl's vocals a bit, (I hardly hear a thing he's singing) but the thing that is most remarkable about this song is how much confidence the band exudes. Here is where things really start to get interesting.
"Arlandria," with its Queens of the Stone Age-esque rhythm section, brings back Grohl's vocals into clear view. The song has what is maybe my fave line from the whole album- "Use me up, spit me out, let me be your hand me down." The bitterness continues with "These Days," a track in-line with the Foos' trademark style: a soft, melodic beginning that eventually explodes into a giant chorus about love and loss. But it isn't until the track after, "Back and Forth," that the album is pushed above and beyond, quite possibly, anything that they have done before. Sure, it shares common ground with the band's hardcore roots, but this is rougher, more daring than them simply trying to top each other in the studio. The last four songs, though not bad by any means, don't add up to the middle section of the album (especially "Matter of Time" and "Miss the Misery") but luckily, they don't subtract from what is a tremendous wallop of an album, one of the best rock records released so far this year.
It has to be said that Foo Fighters is one of the most honest-to-goodness rock bands operating today. They're far from the best, but Wasting Light is one of their albums that prove that Dave Grohl and the guys have it in them to be enjoyable, visceral and relatable. They're never gonna pull off, or even attempt, a Radiohead kind of mid-career genre experimentation, but that's fine, we don't need or want them to; we already have Radiohead for that.