Project 365 here 365Pieces
(Titles stolen from Meg’s “Choonz 2k10”.)
I know, 16 songs seems a bit like over-kill doesn’t it? Guess what guys, I don’t care! Here are the singular songs that soundtracked 2010 for me They aren’t ordered by preference. They’re arranged in the order in which I discovered them. Albums post to come soon.
Contra was the first album I bought this year and this is easily one of my favourites. It’s one of the sneaky ones that you don’t really notice the first few times around but which improves with every listen.
The Family Jewels is one of my favourite albums from 2010 so naturally one of Marina’s songs would make it onto the list. I chose Hollywood for it’s killer chorus but as well as that, it’s much darker than it first seems. Pure pop but with brains.
And now we have some absolute mindless pop. I know it’s Glee and I know you probably hate it but the first series of this show is just wonderful and so optimistic and optimism is something that we don’t see a lot of nowadays. The grin that this song puts on my face is like nothing any song has ever done for me. Also this was the soundtrack to my mocks. I listened to it before each exam to prepare myself or something. It worked!
I only bothered listening to their wonderful album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix properly this year. What an album and what a song. It evokes that sort longing for love that I barely even have… Yeah, just listen.
This is another one of those optimistic ones which made me feel good. This is about getting dumped and feeling happy about it; from a male band. Now isn’t this a novelty? I mean, we gets songs like this by the dozen from girl bands but when electro-indie-poppers Yeasayer changed their sound and released a happy break up song, it worked! I think the album lacked something but the sunshine and happiness of O.N.E made it one of the most memorable tracks of the year.
This song reminds me of our bar nights in March and April. Viv and I practically bonded over this band as well. This is just such a wonderful song and a real throwback to when pop music had some sort of depth (sorry Katy!).
I read somewhere that “Celestica proves Crystal Castles can whisper just as loud as they shout” and what a perfect way to put it. We all know they shout bloody well (Baptism was gonna be my CC song on this list as has been my ringtone for a few months) but with Celestica they fuse the cool electronica of Vanished with the haunting acoustics of Tell Me What To Swallow. This could be the best thing Crystal Castles have ever done.
Janelle Monáe is probably the most talented new artist to emerge this year and with Tightrope she shows why. An absolute mind-fuck of genres; it seems like a straight forward R’n’B song to begin with but after further listend you realise there is far more going on here. The funkiest thing I’ve heard in a good while, it all just seems so effortless for Janelle. She’ll be around for a long time but she’ll have a hard time beating this.
Choon of the summer. I mean what can I actually say? Days on the beach, days in the gaeltacht, days which were good! This song just takes me there. It’s the most bubblegum-tastic thing that came out this year but who cares!? It’s wonderful!
Sleigh Bells make music for every mood and Tell ‘Em is their calling card. The pounding drums and the absolutely ear-splitting guitars that open this song just make it all the better. They aim to redefine “loud” and they’re definitely succeeding. It’s also another one of my ~bonding songs. This time with Fiona. I had already loved this album (and especially this song) before introducing it to Fiona and yeah, she is the only person I know who likes them in any so it’s a nice thing to bond over.
Another Gaeltacht song. Well, this was the gaeltacht song. We pissed off over 40 people by singing it for hours on end and it never got old. Not even after Daniel’s repeated plays in the shower. Once I hear that weird tribal scream at the beginning I am just happy and smiling and I will never forgot this song! SEO É AN AIFRIC!
What can I say about Sprawl II that hasn’t been said before? A huge change of direction for Arcade Fire, but one that resulted in what could be their best song yet. It’s anthem for all teenagers/people in their early 20s and it has continued to grow on me since I downloaded The Suburbs. It was also one of the highlights of their set when I saw then earlier in the month. Easily my favourite song of 2010, it won’t be leaving my iPod in the forseeable rest of my life.
Fuck h8ers. This song is complete genius. It makes no fucking sense whatsoever but I doubt this song was recorded with the purpose of making people think. Shimmering production and an unforgettable chorus made this probably the catchiest song of the year (I hate Barbara Streisand ok). Junior night was an eh, memorable night to say the most but losing any inhibitions to this song made it a bit better.
Ok this song is just beautiful. I have no idea what it is about but it’s just the most mesmerizing thing. On High Violet, The National make this beautiful, airy, affecting and slightly sparse rock music that works and, for me anyway, this song is the epitome of their sound. The drums are so simple but just absolute genius and that crescendo(ish?) ending gets me every time. Perfect.
At first I was like no bitch go away and get a haircut but then I was like RIHANNA MARRY ME YOU SEX GODESS. A bit of a contrast but this song is such a grower. I didn’t think there was much to the song to begin with but due to repeated listens (I broke my iPod and had to listen to the radio on the way to school for a good month and a half) it dawned on me how clever the whole thing is. The amount of times I have embarrassingly said “TUNE! THE BASS ON THIS SONG OH MY GOD” in front of people who had respect for me is, well, embarrassing! But they don’t understand. They never will. Only Girl In The World > Your life.
He’s a dickhead, he gets it. But who knew that such an obvious realization would have made probably the most beautiful song to be released this year? This is an epic song of cinematic proportions from it’s slow one-note intro to the vocoder break-down at the end. Once again, there is so much more going on here than there seems to be at first, and even after the first listen you’ll be hypnotized. I am not going to bother going into it any more, just listen. It’s amazing. (Also, a special mention to Monster, another absolutely great song off MBDTF).
