Best Singles of 2009: #50-41

50. La Roux "In For the Kill"
Borrowing heavily from Bjork, this is one propulsive song that should be on every radio and club playlist from now till next year

Fave line: "We can fight our desires, but when we start making fires we get ever so hot"



49. Dragonette "Fixin to Thrill"
The lead singer sounds like Ashlee Simpson, but that twat could never have made something like this. Played this one so many times, my four-year nephew probably knows it by heart by now.

Fave line: "Oh we could do it any way you want/We only like you cause you're cute and young"



48. Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain "Blame It"
I think this track proves more than anything, that if Jamie Foxx really wanted to have a respectable singing career, he could. My fave club track of the year, hands down. It's even better to dance to drunk.

Fave line: "I was unaware how fine you was before my buzz set in"
 



47. Kid Cudi feat. MGMT and and Ratatat "Pursuit of Happiness"
I'm really not a Kid Cudi fan, his flow is a bit too lazy for me, but there's summin about this song... I think it's chorus...

Fave line: "Tell me what you know about night terrors- nothing"



46. Passion Pit "The Reeling"
Reading the lyrics, this is a pretty depressing song. You'd never know though, with how busy and sunny everything else is.

Fave line: "We dug these holes we crawled into now they're my home"



45. Bat for Lashes "Daniel"
A haunting song about who knows what, Natasha Khan's descriptions about cinders and rain, fires, and marble movie skies are as vivid as ever.

Fave line: "And you have set fire to my heart"



44. Friendly Fires "Skeleton Boy"
Apart from their Mercury-Prize nomination, i'm really surprised this band wasn't buzzed about more. Oh well. Love them. Love this song.

Fave line: "Give me your hand, let's face this night and see it through"



43. Shakira "She Wolf"
Here's the most ridiculous song i've heard all year replete with howling, the use of "lycanthropy" and panting. Despite all that though, the song still works, resulting in one of Shakira's most effervescent songs ever.

Fave line: "Eternal creatures are not so prudent/the moon's my teacher and i'm her student"



42. Animal Collective "Summertime Clothes"
More than any other song this year, the importance of a physical connection is expressed wonderfully. The Collective really impressed me this year. Really.

Fave line: "My bones have to move and my skin's gotta breathe/You pick up the phone and i'm so relieved"



41. The Dead Weather "Hang You From the Heavens"
Creepy, pulsating, sexy are just some of the words I can think of to describe this. It also sounds a lot like what the White Stripes would if the lead singer were female.

Fave: "I never know how to treat you/you say I love you, but it aint true"

My Wish List

Stephen King's my fave writer, i'm ecstatic every time there's news of him releasing a book, good reviews or not.

All Madonna's greatest hits on one album?? You have got to be kidding me! Sign me up!

Love Shakira; can't wait to own this.

Currently Getting Into...

Had this one for about 2 years in my room, finally gotten around to reading it. With the big "Booker Prize Finalist" sticker on the front, you can imagine the buzz surrounding it; but really, i'm about 1/4 way through and not liking it one bit. Let's hope I don't throw it out before finishing it.

Another Man Booker-associated work (this one won the award in 1999), Disgrace is the third book i've read from Coetzee, the first from him I actually liked after I was finished. It's an awesome work on post-apartheid relations in South Africa. The motifs and themes fit the story quite well, with some very memorable, heavily loaded sentences. It's a little morose, a little cynical, but it's a masterpiece.

The books follows the plight of Suleiman, a nine-year-old boy living in Tripoli in Libya, after his father is forced to flee the family household by Qaddafi's state police due to his involvement in anti-State activities. Almost through with this one. It's nicely written, but loses much of its power by never giving us the bigger picture of the unrest that Libyan residents experienced at the time of its plot.

Currently Getting Into...

One of my faves from The Blueprint 3, Swizz turns Justice's D.A.N.C.E. sample into something a bit eerie.



Some say it sounds dated, others say she's trying to regain her former glory. I say it's brilliant; one of her finest dance moments in years! Love the choreography of the video and the feel of the song. Won't even mention the fashion and the lead dance guy.



Trying to match the tough-girl stance of the song, Rihanna and team come up with a gloriously over-the-top video glorifying explosions, nipple tape and heavy artillery. Hard, indeed.



Trippy and fun fun fun, Animal Collective release the last song on Merriweather Post Pavilion, my fave album of '09 (more on that later). It's a great song, and the video captures the energy of the song perfectly.



I dunno what it is about this song, but I can't get enough of it. Love the bombast, and the vocals remind me of something from the 80's.

Currently Getting Into...

Jay-Z got a lot of flack for this album, but really, he doesn't care. Swizz Beatz, Alica Keys, Rihanna, Kanye West, Young Jeezy and Pharrell all turn up to pay homage to Jay-Hova, helping to make his finest album since The Black Album.

Di lickle island gyal grow up and mi love har even more! Anyone who thinks Rihanna is devoid or incapable of actual depth needs listen to "Fire Bomb" or "Cold Case Love" and everyone else who just wants to dance, "Te Amo" and "Hard" are there for you too.

It's hard to believe this disc is almost 4 years old with how ahead of the pop curve it is. Popping up on every other list of the best albums of last decade, critics were slow to actually admit that JT had given us one of the best pop/dance albums in a very long time. Ignore the song names (they all have "Sex" or "Love" in their titles), ignore the singing and lyrics if you will. But do yourself a favour and concede to Timbaland's glorious bottom-less, 21st century production.

Lady GaGa has amassed a large following in the one year she's been on the pop scene all thanks in part to this baby right here. Chocked full of dancefloor stompers, weird one-liners like "I'm lyin' with my muffin" and mega-hits like "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face", GaGa proves that The Fame was no one-off thing; she's here to stay.

Currently Getting Into...

One of the greatest war movies ever made, a front-runner for this year's Best Picture Oscar. Even if the film doesn't win that, I certainly hope Bigelow wins Best Director; she'd de the first woman to ever do so.

I didn't like "Titanic", but the rest of the world apparently did (it still stands as one of the all-time highest-grossing films at the box office). The whole world loves "Avatar" too, it seems- unadjusted for inflation, the film has joined "Titanic" on that list too. But whatever your opinion of the two films, director James Cameron is a genius. In ten years time, we will still be talking about this film.

Call it a throwback film if you will,  but "An Education" is one of those films that will have you going down memory lane if you were alive during the time period (the 60's) and location (London) it is set. If like me, you aren't, you'll appreciate how detailed the sets are. Everyone here is in fine order, especially Carey Mulligan who I hope will walk away with the Best Actress Oscar come March.

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned

Being one of music's biggest artistes is certainly not easy; even your worst, most personal moments are played out in front of millions like a summer blockbuster with everyone watching having an opinion. Michael Jackson knows this. So too Whitney Houston and more recently, R. Kelly. This past February, Rihanna, the Barbadian beauty, got first-hand knowledge of this, as shortly after a domestic altercation with then-boyfriend, fellow R&B superstar, Chris Brown, a photo of her all bloodied and bruised leaked to the world. It was a shocking moment, and in recent interviews Rihanna herself has stated it was an embarrassing one for her. The relationship itself ended, Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault in July, whereas Rihanna decided to make music as a form of therapy to deal with all that time she was hiding from the flashes of the paparazzi.
The results of the sessions have morphed into her fourth album, Rated R. On the cover, she poses like a 21st century version of danceclub maverick (and obvious fashion icon influence) Grace Jones; she's not to be messed with even as it seems she's nursing a wound to her right eye.
Beginning with the monologue, "The Mad House", intoned by a sinister-sounding voice a la Michael Jackson's "Thriller", the listener is asked to come in, come in if they're not easily frightened. It sounds a little ridiculous, almost camp; an introduction to a haunted house ride. The subject matter that follows though, is no joke.
"Wait Your Turn" sets the dark, violent tone of the album with its opening line "I pitch with a grenade/Swing away if you're feeling brave." Produced by London dub step duo Chase and Status, the song is all tough talk with Rihanna's eyes set firmly on those dying for their 15 minutes of fame - "It's just the way the game is played, it's best that you just wait your turn" she nastily taunts repeatedly.
"G4L" has Rihanna again being defensive with lines like "Guns in the air, guns in the air/Can't hurt us again when you come around here," but it's the opening salvo that should have eyebrows arched- "I lick the gun when i'm done cuz I know that revenge is sweet." It's not a threat so much as a tough-girl stance, a role Rihanna has employed to tell a story. Produced also by Chase and Status, the song is stark and eerie, and at turns heart-breaking not in Rihanna's transparency as gangster, but in her need to protect herself from future attacks.
Rihanna's voice is a delicate instrument, (in most live performances, it's obvious she hasn't learned to master it just yet) leading some to the conclusion that she isn't a remarkable singer. And while this may be true, current single "Russian Roulette", co-written by go-to-man Ne-Yo, proves that with concentration on pitch and control, her voice is at least capable of conveying emotion. As the first single from the disc, it was a gutsy move on the part of Rihanna's team; comparing a relationship to a potentially fatal game of chance, the song is haunting and epic, with the singer placed squarely in the middle of some sparse guitar, some hesitant gasps, what sounds like her heartbeat and the spinning cylinder of a gun. Her reading of the story is dramatic and expertly controlled, and when the song ends with an audible shiver and a gunshot, the listener feels like something irrevocable has happened.
The narrator of these songs refuses to to play the victim. Rihanna is wary of men even when she openly flirts with them. In "Rude Boy" co-written by Ester Dean, one of the only female collaborators on the album, (who ironically features Chris Brown on her recent single "Drop It Low") Rihanna taunts "Come here rude boy, can you give it up? Come here rude boy, is you big enough?" The song hearkens back to her Good Girl Gone Bad days in its danceability, and admittedly, it's one of the lighter moments on the disc, filler if you must, on an album with such powerful emotional heft. There are a few of these detached moments on Rated R that seek to add diversity to the album's sound.
In the same way the music has lost much of its ingratiating, if innocuous airiness, she has added more pronounced and spiky rock guitars referencing both goth rock and new wave at turns. "Rockstar 101" featuring guitar hero Slash of Guns N' Roses has Rihanna posing touch again, this time more convincingly, daring all to gape and gawk as she holds her "middle finger up." Smartly written by The-Dream, the song has the singer reveling, rather brashly, in her status as a "six-inch walker, big sh*t talker." It's deliciously catty, and who can blame her; she has some of the most exclusive designers and fashion houses the world over at her every beck and call.
The bragging continues on second single "Hard" featuring rapper Young Jeezy, "I live where the sky ends... my runway never looked so clear" she sings in her most deadpan delivery. She offhandedly lists her accomplishments "...brilliant, resilient, fan mail from 27 million" calling herself the "hottest bitch in heels right here." Over The-Dream and Tricky Stewart's clanking, surging beat, she sounds bigger and more ferocious than ever before warning whoever that she's not willing to just throw away all she's worked hard for.
It's rarely discussed that the Bajan native is perhaps the biggest thing this region has produced in recent years surpassing Ricky Martin, Shaggy and even Sean Paul. With 12 top ten hits so far, (the second highest amount by any artiste this decade) Rihanna has been openly welcomed in any field she's ventured into. For a female artiste to represent a Caribbean aesthetic on a worldwide level is curious, especially when Caribbean music has always been so male-dominated. It's even more curious when said artiste has never been the purveyor of salsa, meringue, dancehall or any of the music we are used to here. "Te Amo", the only song that comes closest to an island-flavour, recounts, quite smartly, a tryst on the dancefloor with another woman. In her thickest accent, Rihanna sings, "Then she said 'te amo' then she put her hand around me waist." It's a desire she understands but never reciprocates. Both recalling "La Isla Bonita"-era Madonna and European techno, Stargate's production makes the song absolutely enchanting.
The album is most haunting when vulnerability on the part of Rihanna is allowed to peak through the tougher exterior, like on Ne-Yo's second contribution to the album, the devastating "Stupid in Love", a rueful R&B number with an undulating piano line where the narrator berates herself for being duped by a suitor with blood on his hands. Produced by Brian Kennedy who also helmed her "Disturbia", "Fire Bomb" is violent in its metaphors- "Can't wait to see your face when your front windows break and I come crashing through," but seems apt in the telling of a relationship going down the drain; "The lovers need to clear the road, cuz this thing is ready to blow/I just wanna set you on fire so I won't have to burn alone..." Likewise on the penultimate track, the elegiac "Cold Case Love", produced and written by Justin Timberlake, the song may be the only one that out rightly addresses the events that dissolved the relationship with Brown- "What you did to me was a crime, cold case love/And I let you reach me one more time, but that's enough." It's the most emotional moment of the opus with Rihanna contemplating "prints, pictures and white outlines" all "left on the scene of the crime." Timberlake has the good sense to keep his vocal print off the record, it's Rihanna's story to tell after all, but provides everything else- haunting strings, Timbaland-esque beatbox, pounding drums... At over 6 minutes, the song is slow-boiling, but what a glorious release.
Rihanna has largely been touted as a singles artiste, which seems to be fine in today's ringtone generation. But there comes a time when an artiste needs to grow up. Having worked with the same slew of hitmakers as she did for Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna could have easily thwacked out another album full of chart-toppers, but one gets the sense that that wasn't the route Ms. Fenty was willing to take. At turns tough, brash, violent, vulnerable and brave, Rihanna's Rated R not only stands as her personal best album, but also one of mainstream music's best records this year; a look into the soul of a girl having had to evaluate her life after being battered, when all she wanted was to be loved. The world wanted hits, but we got so much more- a look at the living, breathing person behind the grand machine.