//////////////shawty got poll poll poll poll poll poll poll (part I: 2008 TRAX)\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

ya i figured it would be top 5, tho i guess that's only a matter of a few votes

I think Put On was why I was so disappointed with 808. I wanted 10 Put On's, that were hardcore beats but with kanye doing the autotune crazy on the top and instead it was just an album of soft, poppy beats that didn't have the same punch. Maybe I should give it another try.

comparing kanye's verse on "put on" to his stuff on 808s (except "i'm amazing" i guess) is a really misguided idea - what makes kanye's verse on "put on" great is how they build up to it as well as the dichotomy b/w jeezy's style and kanye's. they both go for the same emotiond - i wanna say hurt but resilient - but jeezy looks outward with chest-thumping - "i put on for my city" and kanye looks inward - "i feel like there's still niggas that owe me checks" - with autotuned emoness. you couldn't have a whole album of kanye rapping thru autotune over drumma boy beats.

I know, but misguided expectations yadda yadda, what i actually want yadda yadda, what actually happened etc.

8 - MGMT - Time To Pretend
203 points, 15 votes, 3 #1 votes
4 in P&J, 30 in p4k

Who knew corny indie rawkers could pack such a strong punch? The song reminds me of Eric Hoffer's terrific mid-70s essay on what adolescence means in the post-sixties world. He said that the sixties destroyed countless social axioms but that one of the few axioms it built to replace all the old ones it destroyed was that "the meaning of life is to have fun." Such a concept may as well be Rock N Roll's own campaign slogan and in "Time to Pretend" the idea of life being nothing more than a long carnival ride is lightly parodied. But people seem to be so latently ready to live for something other than their own hedonistic pleasures that a song that pokes fun at the lifestyle, however lightly, feels, to some people, to be nothing less than Swiftian. The empty calories from years of hedonism is the other side of the euphoria we saw at Obama rallies; people, especially young people, ready to dedicate their lives to something, anything, to give it greater meaning.

The other thing Hoffer mentioned was that being a kid in the post-sixties Western world meant that you were simultaneously and unprecedentedly sheltered AND jaded to the world's pleasures and sins. You had it easier and lived more of a care-free life than almost every previous generation in memory, and yet you were also growing up in a world where the institutions and concepts that shielded and comforted previous generations (like religion, the family unit, the community, social and sexual taboos, etc.) were constantly being eroded and wouldn't be there to protect you from the Big Bad World.

"Time to Pretend" works so well because it captures that dichotomy of living in a socially relaxed and technologically advanced age that seems to get more and more primitive and meaningless with every year. As it turns out the pampered and well-off children of the Western world were also victims of a world where disintegrating values left them out in the cold with nowhere to go but inwards, into the world of solipsism and status updates.
-cunga

So 'Kim & Jessie' is heading for a top five position? Nice!

Sorry to disappoint, but Kim & Jessie was #18

Ugh..

Poll would make more sense if "Time to Pretend" and "Kim and Jessie" were to switch positions.

My least favourite of the three mgmt tracks, but I like cunga's write-up

7 - Lil Wayne - A Milli
203.5 points, 19 votes, 1 #1 vote
5 in P&J, 14 in p4k

haw

interesting

the plot thickens.....

lol-vote top 5?

I have to say that "A Milli" is basically the only Lil Wayne joint I ever want to hear. It's fucking TOUGH.

so blind and american boy are left

and hi dere OTM

It's fucking TOUGHer than nigerian hair

Is "Blind" going to be #1?

happy house must be somewhere.

What about "Paris". Is it going to make it?

lol, wait a few hours

also, oxford comma?

Happy House will be number 1.

lord willin'

Uh, ELEPHANT IN ROOM that you're all missing...

rollin rollin rollin we ain't slept in weeks

Although basically I've called the top five completely wrong as almost everything has already placed so American Boy and Blind will probably be the next two. I can't possibly imagine Paris, great as it is, placing above this lot. I dunno, is there a huge ILM following for If I Were A Boy or Bleeding Love?

Uh, ELEPHANT IN ROOM that you're all missing... - Hercules, amirite

I hope "Eraser" makes the list.

I'm thinking that The Chap's "Proper Rock" has gleaned about 20 lurker votes. Or maybe Volcano's "Palimpsests".

Oh wait. Well, one of my noms made top 50, I'm happy :D

this next one i believe everyone will agree on:

Should have posted this further upthread but I only found it now. I wish the cellist was better.

There's no way "If I Were a Boy" would place above "Single Ladies" and there isn't much of a following for "Bleeding Love".

I don't think it's gonna happen, but I would be ELATED if "Rollin'" placed in the top 6. The likelihood of a niche rap dude track, even one as loved by ILM's rap contingent as that, placing above something as universally well-known and lauded as "A Milli" seems miniscule.

6 - Estelle Feat. Kanye West - American Boy
209.5 points, 19 votes, 1 #1 vote
2 in P&J, 10 in p4k

How good is 'American Boy' by Estelle?

lol

nevermind, missed this: Is "Blind" going to be #1?

lol again

top 5:

"Blind"
"Happy House"
???
????
?????

not sure if enough would have voted for "Paper Planes" this year to place it, totally at a loss for the other 2-3

This list has more suspense than any movie I saw last year...

So is "Put On" going to be the highest placer w/o a #1 vote?

Blind, Happy House, Paper Planes, Oxford Comma, If I Were A Boy?

damn that l.e.s. artistes cover is dope dope dope

guys there is gonna be a bon iver track in the top 5 probably 3. every single one of his songs was nominated

No way on "If I Were a Boy". I mean, the Beyonce single people actually LIKED only placed in the middle of the list.

btw i mean there is gonna be a bon iver in the top 5 probably top 3, not 3 bon iver tracks in the top 5

paris maybe? b/c of the remix

no bon iver i bet, b/c of vote splitting

I'd be so happy if the Bon Iver vote fragmented so much that nothing of his placed.

What is "Paris"?

skinny love is gonna be in the top 5 dudes

paris is a song by friendly fires, but it has an aeroplane rmx