ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2010

2008 was such a great year for albums ime

i heard like half of my favourite '09 releases in the first half of '10. ime it's rly hard to keep up w/ music & get a sense of what is worth skipping & ignoring in the rush of current releases

I think we're all missing out on different stuff though. What you need to catch up on may be what I heard and voted for and vice versa. This is the value of a poll of a community whose opinion(s) you're generally interested in.

True, but I think I only really got into about 7 albums over the first 8 months of the year.

Also moving back to America has changed my taste drastically. There are things I love now that I would never have bothered with before I moved. Can't help context but Lex will not be pleased with my contributions.

xposts.

i gotta be honest i feel like my lists this year -- particularly singles lists -- are probably both the strongest & closest to my taste that ive ever made ... like, i did a lot more crowdsourcing from different ppl whose taste i respect (that ilx thread on underrated rap tracks is one example) and sorta did a lot more filtering & thinking through ... it just seems like there is so **much** shit out there that its actually easier to love my votes & not feel the need to throw them away to random consensus shit ... in another year i might have voted for 'BMF' which of course i like & is gonna go down as some kind of classic, but it wasnt hard to find 50 rap songs i liked more this year (never mind other genres) .... anyway i think as a result i find these results more disappointing than i have in the past, not bcuz they're worse but just because ive increased the number of channels where I can find music that hits particular spots for me so perfectly

"shades" is so bloated it makes MBDTF look skinny

― gr8080, Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

the Justin and Wayne parts are "So Appalled"-level tedious but there is nothing on MBDTF as euphoric and wonderful to me as the best parts of "Shades"

I've made efforts over the past year to target my listening at the things that really grab me on first blush, but the downside of that is that there are only a few things I've allowed to slow burn. I just accumulate so much music now, but a bunch of it gets deleted just to clear space (either because I don't like it or I just need to make room). That, and the fact that I've become a more song-oriented listener than an album-oriented listener. I buy a lot of single songs, but very few albums.

Anyway, I'm just rambling. But I feel like the more music I hear, the less I actually listen to.

the justin & wayne parts are awesome. wayne aping andre 3k & i dont get what the problem w/ timberlake is?? the collaboration on shades makes way more sense musically than the hodgepodge of any kanye track

"swim" might be my favorite album of the year. "Andorra" was like my #2 or #3 of the decade tho.

is JT on "Shades" your idea of the storied 'good grocery bag verse'?

& i dont get what the problem w/ timberlake is??

well for starters he's rapping and not singing

yes that would be a perfect example ... al do u ever have 'weaknesses that are actually strengths' moments with music or does this explain your jaded antipathy to enthusiasm

not a zing serious q

well for starters he's rapping and not singing

― gr8080, Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:50 PM (48 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah & its entertaining regardless

its not like dude was ever an epic vocal talent, he was just, like, a nimble one

maybe we should hold off till "shades" shows up on this poll?

its certainly not going to

it wasnt a single for one thing

stand by my suggestion

yes that would be a perfect example ... al do u ever have 'weaknesses that are actually strengths' moments with music or does this explain your jaded antipathy to enthusiasm

not a zing serious q

― challopian youtubes (deej), Wednesday, January 26, 2011 12:51 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

you realize we're talking about a song I just called "euphoric and wonderful," right? just because I don't have 6-month OCD fixations on particular artists and scenes like you doesn't mean I'm dead inside and don't actually enjoy music.

the reason that i think the JT verse works is because the song itself is inherently silly -- i mean, imagine saying to someone "i'll even take off my shades!", let alone the marmalade part, w/ diddy saying "i ain't ever done it on marmalade, baby" -- so timberlake's whole steez on the track is sort of a logical conclusion of that all

see i disagree, Diddy's performance on the song is epic deadpan and Justin coming along with some Drake-lite quipping kills the mood a little bit

idk there's this weird sort of sleaze to the verse but also like i said a complete utter silliness that i think is an extension of both the song's vibe & timberlake's persona from fs/ls on

No hashtags, not even ironic ones. This is how it starts.

you realize we're talking about a song I just called "euphoric and wonderful," right? just because I don't have 6-month OCD fixations on particular artists and scenes like you doesn't mean I'm dead inside and don't actually enjoy music.

― trv kvnt (some dude), Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is why i specifically said 'not a zing' dude ... im not trying to say u are 'dead inside' just ... timberlake's verse fits totally w/in the song imo, and its like, if you think its euphoric goodness, why does a part of it that u are 'against' not just become part of the charm? unless something really stands out as offensive to me on a song i consider 'euphoric,' like idk drake's buzzsaw voice (and even then ...) it becomes sorta counterintuitively a part of the song's charm

see i disagree, Diddy's performance on the song is epic deadpan and Justin coming along with some Drake-lite quipping kills the mood a little bit

― trv kvnt (some dude), Wednesday, January 26, 2011 12:01 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the song is already too ridic to 'kill the mood' imo ... i mean its diddy, diddy is ALWAYS deadpan, incl. when hes being funny. if he tried to crack a joke it would be o_O

i called those parts of the song 'tedious,' i didn't say they stop the record in its tracks or i want someone to make a special edit of the song w/o those verses. it's a really cool song, but it's not perfect imo, no biggie.

for you a Drake verse is something that hurts a song, for me Justin doing a Drake impression does the trick as well, ymmv

no biggie

probably for the best

It's not deadpan vs quipping, I think diddy and jt give off a similar vibe on the song halfway between seriousness and silliness.

tho like i said on the other thread, justin assuming the character of drake is pretty o_O in the context of that song

i called those parts of the song 'tedious,' i didn't say they stop the record in its tracks or i want someone to make a special edit of the song w/o those verses. it's a really cool song, but it's not perfect imo, no biggie.

― trv kvnt (some dude), Wednesday, January 26, 2011 12:32 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

idk those seem like a pretty big part of the song & its appeal to me to code as 'tedious' then feel it anyway but to each his own i guess

i find JT's verse on "shades" to be super creepy, in a really effective way. he, diddy and wayne are basically different voices playing the same narrator, right (itself a pretty awesome strategy - contra the opposing perspectives of diddy and dawn/kalenna) - anyway the song as a whole is basically designed to depict the narrator as a complete MJ-type weirdo, someone whose mind has been warped through living in the gilded cage of celebrity - thus the "make love to you on marmalade" line but also, lest we forget, the promises that precede it - staring right at the sun from the stage, pour gasoline on my heart just to light your cigarette. and these lines are both kind of epic but also reflective of how out of touch the narrator is from the girl he's singing to - you just picture her going \o_0/ basically - and so justin's verse is where he stops trying to be romantic and tries to appeal to her with ordinary humour, except it's this awful excruciating attempt from someone who doesn't get ordinary humour (and so even funnier for being so ridiculous, also totally in character).

anyway "shades" is really emblematic to me of how diddy treats celebrity and its problems on LTTP - it's a strange, sad song but it's not self-pitying in the slightest and basically ends up being hilariously ridiculous at the same time.

Re: "Dynamite", since no one took up its cause:

I love how much is communicated simply in the line "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes." (Sometimes!) Is he exasperated? Is he dancing? Well, both! He is partying away his frustrations. And don't we all want to do that on occasion? I would almost feel like the following "Aiiiyo, gotta let go" was superfluous if it wasn't essential to the hook. Speaking of which, there are more hooks on this song per square inch than any other song this year. There's the "And it goes on and on and on" bit that perked up my ears the first time I heard it, and is still easily my favorite little bit of melody I heard all year. Even the verses are practically hooks in themselves. The whole "dance, dance, dance, dance"/etc. scheme is so single-minded that either you must drop all resistances immediately or stodgily fight against it and be cursed with its mosquito buzz around the back of your head forever.

Imo, it does the most important thing a party song should do, which is make you want to join in the party. This makes me want to throw my hands up with Taio, even in spite of further evidence which indicates he's kind of a dull dude. But when "Dynamite" is on, I don't care.

(Full disclosure: I am physically incapable of not loving any song with house piano. I realize this may just be me though.)

Britain is currently doing really badly on this list, a paltry five entry entries from what I can see. It wasn't a vintage year for British pop music by any means, or British rock music for that matter, and we may be better represented at the top of the list but this is all WAY US-centric so far.

Pretty poor showing for Europe in general actually.

Taio, Hot Chip, Four Tet, the Fives, Marina ???

Is that correct?

That's it, isn't it? Actually Deadboy might be British, I have no idea, and people are voting for him rather than Drake in this instance.

i suspect the few bright spots in 2010 british pop are assured of placing, plus i'm guessing a few british dance trax too. beyond that there's not much british music even close to deserving a place (yr laura marlings and sades will show on the albums poll rather than here i guess - unless "soldier of love" the track carries over?)

yeah deadboys from london iirc

Taio, Hot Chip, Four Tet, the Fives, Marina ???

yup - plus deadboy, planningtorock ("colouring of pigeons" is credited to the knife, mt sims and planningtorock) and i guess elton john and elly jackson on "all of the lights" lol.

Between Drake, Azari, Caribou, J Biebz, and Crystal Castles, the Great White North has caught up to you guys.

Pretty sure "Soldier of Love" will place. A lot of people (including myself) didn't like the album anyway.

The Reverend OTM re "Dynamite". Track of the night, on my best night out of the year.

British tracks that are pretty much assured of placing: Pass Out, Wut, Soldier Of Love, We Want War, at least one James Blake track. And that's it.

Agree the UK will probably do better in the albums list.

(xpost - is Dynamite the piano house one early in the album? That's my favourite)

Always Loved a Film maybe?

pretty sure "katy on a mission" will place

I dunno, I haven't listened to the album and don't have any plans to. Tbh, the idea of encountering it as an album track rather than a ubiquitous hit is blowing my mind more than Lex only hearing "Lemme Smang It" as an mp3. It does have house piano, but it isn't really house.

Oh, "Perfect Stranger" better place. I voted for that. (Also Sade and Tinie Tempah. Sorry other British people!)

Btw, I heard this awesome dancehall-y song by Katy B and a female toaster today, but didn't catch what it was. What is it?