woebot went and wrote up his top 100 records ever. i've only heard like ten of his picks, but shit does it look really interesting. i want to go listen to about half of them right now. this might be particularly enticing to og:

31. Total: What About Us

R'n'B. Timbaland's greatest moment bar none and practically impossible to find (the Puffy remix on the other hand is ubiquitous). The collision of the paranormal beat-boxing and the girl's vocals is near perfect.

if anyone has any of these that i don't, hook me up...

all my attempts at a reasonably sized list of top songs for the year met with disasterous homogeneity and boringness; a top five would prob be something like: up the wolves, our house, physical fraction, lose control (jlc mix), and teen angst (luciano remix), but anything longer than that but shorter than my top 100 didn't really mean much to me. instead, i decided to again rip off matos's seattle weekly feature and make an audio cdr of some of my favorite songs from the past year. here ya go:

1. Hide And Seek – Imogen Heap
   
2. Signs (Still Life Peg Remix) – Snoop Dogg
   
3. Gotta Stay Fly – Three 6 Mafia feat. 8Ball, MJG & Young Buck
   
4. One Thing – Amerie
   
5. Been Robbed (Feat. Mike Jones) – Consequence
   
6. Be Mine! – Robyn
   
7. Up The Wolves – The Mountain Goats
   
8. Nothing Good About This Goodbye – Alexis Strum
   
9. This – Brian Eno
   
10. Beat Of My Heart – Hilary Duff
    
11. The Fallen (Justice Edit) – Franz Ferdinand
    
12. Lose Control (Jacques Lu Cont Mix) – Missy Elliott
    
13. Physical Fraction – Trentemøller
    
14. I Feel Space – Lindstrøm
    
15. teen angst (luciano mix) – M83
    
16. Our House (Ada Remix) – International Pony
    

i once read a long-ish article by marcello carlin (who has an amazing year end list up) that was solely about four seconds of a certain song. it was a great peice, and in fact looked to be but one in a series of micro-focused reviews. this is nothing so grand, but it was inspired by the emphasis his review placed of the importance of moments rather than whole songs. so here's my favorite moments, sounds, pieces, nuggets, etc of songs that came out in 2005.

• the bell and the drum being hit at the same time in nothing good about this goodbye
  
• eno vocal solo at the end of this
  
• the elephant roars at the end of safari (m. mayer doing an elephant dance to them was as amazing as it sounds)
  
• when the melody of all on me changes at 4:05
  
• those amazingly huge drums on teen angst (luciano mix)
  
• that gigantic crashing piano stab on what's it gon' be
  
• the stutters in tribulations (lindstrøm remix)
  
• the way "the dan's" sax comes in on signs (still life peg remix)
  
• the chime synthes in our house (ada remix)
  
• the crunchy/sproingy sounding synth stab in ewan pearson's remix of 49 percent
  
• "hey little droid", robotboy
  
• the jay-z sample at the begining of koze's remix of eve (specificaly "motherfuckers")
  
• the cascading melody in chica wappa (mejor edit) that comes in at 1:56
  
• the outro to open door (disco version)
  
• the cut up vocals that makes up much of the melody for richard x's remix of no more conversations
  
• the huge synth sounds in jesper dahlback's mix of romantic rights
  
• the intro to what else is there? (trentemøller remix); the climax at 5:41
  
• the five note bass line of the sky was pink (james holden remix)
  
• 2:13–2:21 of the fallen (justice edit)
  
• the cello on be mine; the talky bit
  
• the sax in come rain come shine
  
• aguayo's vocals on de papel
  
• "sex in the kitchen/over by the stove/put you on the counter/by the buttered rolls", sex in the kitchen (remix)
  
• "cute face/chubby waist/thick legs/in shape", lose control (jacques lu cont mix)
  
• "i am a babbling brooooooook!", broom people
  
• "yu-yurple", gotta stay fly
  
• when you let out the breath you didn't know you were holding and the world melts/shatters at 4:35 in physical fraction

i'm sure i'll remember more; feel free to post yours in the comments...

explanation for this post.

• hear my name - i felt like i was the only one that liked this song last year... i don't know what's wrong with you people, this is killer dance-pop in the vein of jlc et al. someday i'm gonna dig up more van helden.
  
• in my arms - mylo's appeal to the lowest common denominator works like a charm on me, i really like this song. not so hot on the stutters, but whatever.
  
• the difference it makes (superpitcher remix) - so trancy and gorgeous. superpitcher remix in being a meloncholic blissout non-shocker.
  
• it is on! - nothing but emerald city love here. so joycore. still a fan.
  
• i believe in you - i like this song better than anything on the scissors sisters album, and kylie's for that matter. poptastic.
  
• i tried - most underrated single of 04 by far. i love love love this song. brandy gets the breathy vocal thing just right, and tims beats are some of my fav of his "(relatively) understated and functional" mode.
  
• what you waiting for? (jacques lu cont remix) - this is the song that got me re-interested in jlc, after loving his shower scence remix but then sort of never following up on investigating him after hearing it. still love it, and almost anything he touches.
  
• photographic (rex the dog dubb mix) - this was one of the random rex the dog slecetions that got on here, i just picked semi-blindly amongst the half-dozen or so that were worthy. being a remix of a depeche mode song that i liked was probably a kicker, but any number of his other tracks would have done in it's place.
  
• folder - i thought i would get tired of this song really quickly, but it hasn't happened. it sounds like totally thow-away kitschy electro-pop, but i guess that stuff doesn't get old for me.
  
• frequency - this is a killer track, but the b-side tops it. i look into mid-air should have been on here instead.

previous batch.

my personal greatest discovery of the year was easily Zapp (along with Roger's solo recordings). i've heard them on the radio for about a year and a half without ever knowing who they were despite numerous attempts to identify them with internet lyric searches. unfortunately, the vocoded lyrics to most of their songs consist of little more than the quite succinct phrase "shake it."

the highlights are: More Bounce to the Ounce; So Ruff, So Tuff (solo Roger); Dance Floor; I Can Make You Dance; and Computer Love

these can be ysi'd later, but not now, because i've become the laziest person on earth during the last 4 days...

The list has been quasi-finalized. Here it is:

# 15. Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
# 14. Robyn - Be Mine
# 13. Mike Jones - Still Tippin'
# 12. Booka Shade - Mandarine Girl
# 11. Three 6 Mafia - Stay Fly
# 10. Vitalic - My Friend Dario
# *9. Isolee - Schrapnell
# *8. Prefuse 73 (ft. the Books) - Pagina Dos
# 7. Sean Paul - We Be Burnin'
# 6. Amerie - One Thing
# 5. Kanye West - Gold Digger
# 4. Trentemøller - Physical Fraction
# 3. Madonna - Hung Up
# 2. Lindstrøm - I Feel Space
# 1. Beyonce - Check on It

* - I'm not really sure these are singles, but oh well.

I'm sure this list would change a lot within the next year or so, as I discover songs that I somehow completely missed this year.

i won't lie, making list is really really fun. but when i sat down to write up my favorite music from 05, i felt somewhat shortchanged that i wouldn't be including stuff that didn't come out this year, even though i may have listened to it more than anything that did.

so here's some older music that i discovered/rediscovered/just really enjoyed this year:

• arthur russell - the closest thing i have to a musical hero, now that daft punk went and did what they did. totally immersed myself in everything of his i could get my hands on this summer. i've gushed about him before, so here are reposts of some of my favorite tracks: keeping up, in the light of the miracle, kiss me again, and a link to an old (first new yorker?) piece on him by sasha frere-jones.
  
• brian eno - became very familiar with his first five solo albums this year, especially another green world. don't know how i went so long listening to the music i do without getting in to him, but there you go. eno = prog but with textures and space rather than noodley guitars is sort of how i think about him, or his pop records at least. occasionally his overwhelmingly theoretical approach to music is too much, but most of the time i fucking love it. here are a few of my favs: here come the warm jets, the big ship, spinning away.
  
• detroit techno - i am such a slacker about listening to old "influential" dance music. i guess i always think there'll be a big learning curve (that's hardly ever really there) and that puts me off, but this fall i finally tackled the belleville three and it was totally worth it. what fucking great music. the sound of the future, 20+ years ago (and still jaw droppingly intense and ridiculously heady). reynolds's bit about them in energy flash is great and essential reading for any fan of electronic music. some tracks: reese - rock to the beat, derrick may - strings of life, model 500 - no ufo's, e-dancer - velocity funk, seperate minds - first bass.
  
• post-punk/new wave/pop ephemera - found mostly by way of dan selzer/the alldisco crew's mixes, the optimo guys' mixes, and the ilm ysi threads (the first two overlapped with the last rather often). weird little nuggets i'd never have found had i not been a huge freaky dork about this stuff this past year. well i guess liquid liquid is pretty popular, but i really like optimo, so up it goes. liquid liquid - optimo, amin peck - anxiety, lipps inc - how long (twitch edit), cristina - is that all there is?.

and now on to the new stuff...

explanation for this post.

• float on - so surprised to find modest mouse on the pop charts, but this song is totally worthy. really catchy. the rock steady beat (not "rocksteady" obv) needs to be taken advantage of more, i want to hear more bananas style boots/mixes of this.
  
• somebody told me - should not have put this on here. for some reason i was hoping i would finally realize that this was a good song. too bad it is lame watery pap.
  
• maps - oh ada, how big of a crush do i have on your music? the mayer/thomas mix of this song might make it on the 05 disc. it is not really that different, but any excuse to have more of this song anywhere should be taken advantage of. the world need more warm enveloping synths (with beats).
  
• some girls - overhyped internet pop? dunno... it's ok, the hooks don't really do much for me though. wouldn't mind replacing this with something else.
  
• drop it like it's hot - awseome. what a weird song. the most minimal neps beat in a while (that i can recall at least), so effective though. snoop + good beat will never fail to delight me.
  
• blinded by the lights - i REALLY loved this album last year, but i hardley listened ot it this year at all (mountain goats filled it's role is pretty much the reason why). actually according to itunes i haven't played it since february. it was really hard to pick songs of the alb to represent it, but i thought this one captured the mood the best. or maybe it just reminded me most of the röyksopp remix of weak become heroes. v pretty.
  
• fit but you know it - 'nother good one from agdcff. couple of really funny lines.
  
• rubber band man - and now we enter the late addition token rap entry zone. i like this song, but i don't know when i'd really want to listen to it except when it pops up at random.
  
• salt shaker - solid crunk + billy ocean reference in the chorus = sign me up. nice.
  
• shake that shit - this is a good song. i could live without it though.

previous batch.

if you haven't heard this before, go download it now. fucking wonderful.

the very next day, you gave it away. most poptastic christmas song ever?

EDIT:
it seems i may have spoken out of turn: not an hour after posting this i noticed jessica pop's a very poptastic christmas post, which has a link to a zip file of her 20 fav christmas songs. worth checking out.

explanation for this post.

• one & one - by far the song that grew on me most this year. it took me about a dozen listens to "get" this track (finally hearing the obvious connection to detroit techno did it (listening to physical fraction helped too)). retrospectively perhaps my favorite song of last year.
  
• heartbeat - who would have thought röyksopp > richard x as producers? barring eple they seemed pretty unremarkable to me. what a pretty song.
  
• needy girl - i still don't know what type of music this is. electro-funk (lite)? catchy.
  
• goodies - not feeling this. pablo is such a shitty mc. this song needs a bigger drum beat like woah.
  
• trick me - for whatever reason, the neps seem to save some of their best beats for kelis. not that the song is all about the beat, kelis's vocals are amazing, hands down the best of the year. killer combo, at least in the top five songs of the year.
  
• i don't believe you - i got hooked on this song because it reminded me so strongly of i think i need a new heart, my fav mag fields song. ended up loving it on its own merits (npi).
  
• i don't really love you any more - this and the previous song go so hand in hand that it's difficult for me to separate them in my mind. i listened to the first four tracks off this album (these are 3 & 4) on repeat for weeks (they were all i could find on slsk) in my office while hacking out my thesis, i am somewhat nostalgic about them. then again, merritt's music always hits me that way. needless to say, i am still a big fan.
  
• fanfares - love it. i don't understand why he didn't put it on the album, it's so much better than the valetta vers. dude is still pretty much impeccable in my book.
  
• t.a.n.y.a. - i almost thought this song was too cheesy to include, i'm glad i did though. proof that dancehall stayed weird in 04. i've always wanted to hear fanfares mixed into this song...
  
• stand up tall - nice enough dizzee. to calm for greatness, though.

previous batch.

there is a preliminary list of my favorite singles (i tried to be rigorous about this, and there are a number of album tracks i would have rated higher than many of these songs) of 2005. this is very likely to change drastically over the next few weeks, especially the lower half. any comments regarding unexplainable omissions are welcome.

hillary duff's beat of my heart. if you're gonna rip off the post-punk angular guitar stab thing and make a pop song around it, this is how you fucking do it. the killers, i'm looking reproachfully in your direction... you fucking amateurs.

explanation for this post.

• chewing gum - if the robyn album had come out last year i don't think i would have cared about this song at all. it has no heft to it.
  
• dip it low - solid gold. what a great song. more r'n'b should be this infectious and earwormy.
  
• galang - ummm. do not feed the m.i.a troll. damn it i can't help it: has anyone actually stopped and listed to her lyrics? i usually don't even care about them but these are fucking atrocious. dub version? i like the outro/pseudo-chorus.
  
• yeah (crass version) - annihilatingly intense. as i have explained before, when i eventually pop my eardrums listening to music too loudly, i want it to be to this song.
  
• 99 problems - comes across so big and cocky that you eventually just give in and admit that it's great 'cause it's always there and it's never bad. sort of like jay-z...
  
• get up say what (dfa remix) - solid dfa avant psyche-disco freakout by numbers. wish it had a dancier groove.
  
• tipsy - massive in theory i guess. this is one of the songs i was hoping would grow on me and i'd be glad to have it here. it didn't and i'm not.
  
• mad sick - oh ragga ragga ragga! 2004, why can't you be more like ragga ragga ragga! 2003?
  
• forward riddim - this remains the only grime track i've heard that came close to rivaling the wow i got from hearing i luv you for the first time.
  
• all falls down - such a catchy backing track. kanye's vocals are another thing entirely... is there an instrumental version?

previous batch.

if you liked physical fraction, you should check out trentemøller's serenetti ep.

take a ride on the disco train (or bus, i'm not really sure, the mp3 is tagged ambiguously). either way, a sweet disco + newer stuff mix that i'm really liking.

explanation for this post.

• toxic - still hooky. maybe i should've thrown the van helden remix on there instead.
  
• the red shoes - still love this song. hearing ada play it live was incredible.
  
• covered in punk - can't believe the freakytrigger guys didn't like this more. bombastic pop-punk (emphasis on pop) with a massively hooky chorus, lovely.
  
• the show - the lyrics to the chorus are awesome. i like this song a lot, but i could see bumping it if i had listened to more music in 04.
  
• take me out (morgan geist reversion) - pleasant enough. wouldn't mind replacing it with something else though. is there a dub version of this floating around?
  
• oye mi canto - god damn it, i need to stop throwing token hip-hop (reggaeton?) songs on these things just 'cause i think they'll grow on me. this song's ok though.
  
• love machine - this song is completely frantic and ridiculous, and completely rules. i love british people and their pop-loving ways.
  
• lose my breath - ugh. bubble-crunk seemed like such a great idea last year. this soooo lacks the fire that makes yeah! classic.
  
• move your body girl - ummm... this song is nice. totally forgot about it a month into 05. bumpable.
  
• this is the world we live in - over the top pop, i love it. i can't listen to this song too many times in a row, but i'm glad it exists and that i found it.

as many of you know, at the end of last year i made data cd full of my "favorite" tracks fom 2004. favorite in quotes because representative would probably be a better word; i kept repeat artists to three at the very max, and threw on some tracks that were't exactly my absolute favorite, but still felt really representitive of the year in general. i thought the somewhat archival nature of the endeavor justified that, but now i'm not so sure it was the best way to operate.

sooooo... because i'm bored, i'm going to listen through the cd and see how i feel about each song. yes it's only been a year, but that's like five years in pop-time. thoughts on the songs in batches of about ten will follow.

here's the complete list:

Ada - Maps
Ada - The Red Shoes
Air - Cherry Blossom Girl
Alcazar - This Is The World We Live In
Annie - Chewing Gum
Annie - Heartbeat
Annie - Me Plus One
Armand Van Helden - Hear My Name (Radio Edit)
Belle & Sebastian - I'm A Cuckoo (Avalanches Mix)
Big & Rich - Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)
Brandy - I Tried
Britney Spears - Toxic
Chelonis R. Jones - One & One
Christina Milian - Dip it Low
Chromeo - Needy Girl
Ciara - Goodies Feat Petey Pablo
David Wrench - World War IV
Depeche Mode - Photographic (Rex The Dog Dubb Mix)
Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath
Dizzee Rascal - Stand Up Tall
DJ Hell - Listen To The Hiss (Tiefschwarz Remix)
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out (Morgan Geist Reversion)
Freiland - Frei/Hotlove (Justus Köhncke Feat Meloboy Remix)
Girls Aloud - Love Machine
Girls Aloud - The Show
Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For? (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Jay-Z - 99 Problems (Produced By Rick Rubin)
J-Kwon - Tipsy
Justus Köhncke - Timecode
Kanye West - All Falls Down (Feat Syleena Johnson)
Kelis - Trick Me
Kylie Minogue - I Believe In You
LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Crass Version)
Lethal B - Forward Riddim
M.I.A. - Galang
März - The River
Melody Club - Baby
Michael Mayer - Lovefood
Modest Mouse - Float On
Mya Feat Chingy - Fallen (Zone 4 Remix)
Mylo - In My Arms
N.O.R.E. - Oye Mi Canto
Nina Sky - Move Your Body Girl
O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei
Pixeltan - Get Up Say What (DFA remix)
Plastic Operator - Folder
Portobella - Covered In Punk
Predator - Mad Sick
Rachel Stevens - Some Girls
Revl9n - Walking Machine
Rex The Dog - Frequency
Rex The Dog - We Live in Daddy's Car
Ricardo Villalobos - Serpentin
Sex In Dallas - Berlin Rocks (Manix Remix)
Shapeshifters - Lola's Theme
Shawnna - Shake That Shit (Feat. Ludacris)
Snoop Dogg Feat Pharrell - Drop It Like It's Hot
Soulwax - NY Excuse
Spektrum - Kinda New (Tiefschwarz Remix)
Superpitcher - Happiness (M. Mayer Mix)
T.I. - Rubber Band Man
Tanya Stephens - T.A.N.Y.A.
The Killers - Somebody Told Me
The Knife - Heart Beats (Rex the Dog mix)
The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Believe You
The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Really Love You Anymore
The MFA - The Difference It Makes (Superpitcher Remix)
The Streets - Blinded By The Lights
The Streets - Fit But You Know It
U.S.E. (United State Of Electronica) - It Is On!
Usher Feat Lil' Jon and Ludacris - Yeah!
Vitalic - Fanfare
Whigfield - Was A Time (Original Radio Edit)
Ying Yang Twinz Feat Lil Jon & The East Side Boys - Salt Shaker

sometime around thanksgiving i watched 'flashdance' for the first time. it is one of the best dance-themed movies i've seen (not as though the competition is all that tough). the soundtrack was produced mostly by moroder, and is correspondingly quite good. the best part is the title track by irene cara(?), flashdance...what a feeling. co's been listening to it repeatedly on her new ipod (early xmas present) and dancing around the apartment in a very 80s sort of way for the last few days.

...i finally finished adding the year to the id3 tags of my music collection. thus, i have plotted the number of mp3s in the ipod as a function of year they were released (this is sort of a sketchy process for compilations). the high proportion of music from the 00s is due to a combination of factors. most notably, sometime around 2001/2002 i stopped buying cds altogether, opting instead for a mix of vinyl and mp3. with a few notable exceptions, i have not bothered to mp3ize my cd collection from the preceding years. if i recall correctly, this plot looks a lot like rmd's, but with a prettier format (because excel can only make ugly things).



mostly unrelated: the new beyonce single check on it (i would post this, but there's no point since you can't escape it on the radio) will be very near the top of my singles list for 05, since it is a pop morsel sweet enough to rival r kelly's ignition (remix).

stylus singles list. looks decent so far. i think i would like stylus a whole whole lot if they were more aggressive about cutting their vestigial indie-rock fat.

i'm probably gonna be busy with school for the next week or so, but stay tuned for some christmas themed year-end stuff when i get home to pa. and lists. oh my yes lists.

in the meantime, check out jessica pop's 25 most poptastic singles of 2005 (the first year end list to come out that i really care about), or let the poptimists' advent calendar sate your christmas song needs (of course, you could always main-line the songs here).

wow. found this new ~half hour set a couple of days ago and was thoroughly reminded who the next person i need to catch live is. i can't think of another dj who brings as much pure energy to the decks as this guy, it's amazing how intense his sets sound. like all the lame antics marko haas pulls pretending/trying to be punk-techo, vitalic just effortlessly makes you fucking feel (to misquote kogan, real punks don't wear trucker hats). this music makes me want to dance and scream and light things on fire and listen to this music so loud it makes my ears bleed. it amazes me that he can be more intense than his studio stuff, but this is, and by no insignificant margin.

only a couple of new tunes (or other people's stuff maybe, but who really sounds that much like vitalic?), but he does a great job of stringing together his monster tracks (oh la rock 01, i will never tire of you...). actually, if i had to poo vitalic release/set to keep, it'd probably be this one (edges out his peel session since i've only heard a REALLY crappy rip of it).

mmmm... gonna go listen to it again right now.

in case you didn't follow the link at s/fj: q-unit.

i think 50 should run with the 'stache.