The Top 50 Songs of 2010
30. Best Coast – “Boyfriend” (Mexican Summer)
(Single; from Crazy For You)
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In Best Coast’s sublime sun-kissed “Boyfriend,” Bethany Cosentino plays the lovesick teenage girl. “Teenage Dream” this is not; “Boyfriend” mines the form of 1960s pop drenched in heavy yet melodic shoegazer guitars. Cosentino balances a sugary sweet melody with dense reverb that acts as a perfect musical accompaniment to the frayed edges of unrequited love. Filled with yearning, Cosentino’s golden voice shimmers with seeming innocence (“I wish he was my boyfriend/ I’d love him ’till the very end/ But instead he is just a friend“) that gives way to something slightly more crazed, obsessive even. Pulling away from the boy in focus, Cosentino casts a knowing glance at a little girl-on-girl hate and the oh-so frequent self esteem issues of girlhood (“The other girl is not like me/ She’s prettier and skinnier/ She has a college degree/ I dropped out when I was seventeen“). Touches like these – the sour-sweet dynamic, the hard edge guitars – keep the song from being a throw away pop track, but something slyly subtle and touches right on the intense emotions of lovesickness. – Jackie Im
29. Joanna Newsom – “Baby Birch” (Drag City)
(from Have One On Me)
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It seems to be common practice these days to comment on the divisive aspects of Joanna Newsom’s music. From her unique singing voice, to the length of her songs, and even snide remarks about fairies or other mythological figures – her music has been picked at, pored over, criticized and praised. While this is a write-up praising Newsom’s “Baby Birch” from her epic Have One On Me, I feel at a loss at how to express just how much I loved this song. What I write about the construction of the song will somehow fall short but I’ll say this: “Baby Birch” touched me in a way that few songs do. I would tear up listening to it and lost myself as Newsom weaved her fable through feedback, handclaps and her ever-present harp. While I can never be certain as to what or who Newsom is singing about, I latch onto lyrics like “I wish we could take every path/ I could spend a hundred years adoring you” and her evocative and heartbreaking way of singing these words and it’s like I know, like they’re embedded inside. With music that is at once dramatic as it is playful, “Baby Birch” balances a lullaby first movement with a stunning Asian-influenced musical coda, taking its time unfurling like a folk tale; a tale that eloquently captures love, loss, redemption and beauty. – Jackie Im
28. Crystal Castles – “Celestica” (Fiction/Last Gang/Universal Motown)
(Single; from Crystal Castles)
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Conventional wisdom informs us that a band like Crystal Castles, known for its apocalyptic noise-as-dance compositions and rabid hipster following, has neither the potential nor the interest in crossing over into the greater mainstream. This is hardly untrue, though only in that Crystal Castles won’t crossover on the terms of anyone other than themselves. “Celestica” accomplishes a couple of things. First it proves that Crystal Castles can craft songs with a pop hook and a gentler touch than their normal fare without having to jettison their trademark eeriness and foreboding. Ethan Kath’s melodic beat and Alice Glass’s ethereal – and in this case minimally manipulated – vocals make for a rare crystalline listen, and one that gives only the subtlest hints of their bleakness, if not also their depravity. And second it shows that dancepunk is hardly the arthouse equivalent to crunkcore. – Chris Morgan
27. Sufjan Stevens – “I Walked” (Asthmatic Kitty)
(from The Age of Adz)
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Beginning with nothing more than a glitchy electronic beat and a synth pad, “I Walked” starts off hauntingly sparse. With the onset Stevens’ wounded voice echoing off the song’s bare walls, things only get more distressing from there. Cold electronics slowly build up layers, but then those achingly beautiful backup singers come in and everything starts to melt. By the end, the whole thing swells to its breaking point with Stevens completely unrestrained until the song finally fades out. Stevens still knows just what details to offer in his narratives. In the case of “I Walked,” those details can be eerily specific but are more often vague and at times confusing, perfectly conjuring the emotions that come with a freshly broken relationship. Depicting himself running through the night with a knife in his chest, Stevens makes heartbreak seem downright harrowing. And yet, in true Sufjan Stevens fashion, despite all of the anguish, “I Walked” is still absolutely gorgeous. – Chris Karman
26. Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man” (Glassnote)
(Single; from Sigh No More)
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A London parallel to earnest American folk-rockers like The Decemberists and The Avett Brothers, this quartet’s 2009 UK debut Sigh No More finally gained traction in the States this year on the strength of the band’s live shows and in particular this propulsive acoustic song. Lead singer Marcus Mumford hasn’t divulged too many details about the song’s backstory but surely it’s no simple tale of lost love, as there are prominent references to his own failings, disappointed young boys, and those boys’ mothers. Having dropped a melodic “fuck” into their chorus as well, Mumford & Sons in retrospect might be even more fortunate than Cee-Lo Green to have made a hit song this year. – Adam Blyweiss
25. No Age – “Chem Trails” (Sub Pop)
(from Everything In Between)
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In “Chem Trails” No Age has assured themselves a fortified legacy for being able to keep the continuous commingling of pop and noise in such a state of harmony that they come damn close to appearing symmetrical with one another. They’ve observed the haphazard teachings of Dinosaur Jr. and have repaved the pothole-strewn roads on which they’ve previously traveled, not so much repeating past achievements as allowing them to endure and accentuate the idiosyncrasies of a new era of disenchantment. In short, some film school asshole is writing an entire movie just so that he can use this song for the end credits when the moody, fu-manchued protagonist kisses and/or kills his manic pixie love interest. – Chris Morgan
24. Vampire Weekend – “Run” (XL)
(from Contra)
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Ezra Koenig caused more than a few critical eyerolls when rhyming “horchata” with “balaclava,” but anyone who stopped Contra immediately thereafter missed out on nine quirky yet meticulously crafted pop songs, the best of the bunch being side two’s kickstarter, “Run.” A deep cut with single appeal, “Run” finds the band ditching their trademark highlife-inspired guitars for an arrangement heavier on keyboards and a blast of horns that feels like an endorphin rush. It’s oddly understated for the band during its verses, but once the chorus hits, it’s bigger, brighter and better than any oxford commas or mansard roofs ever could have suggested. – Jeff Terich
23. Broken Social Scene – “World Sick” (Arts & Crafts)
(Single; from Forgiveness Rock Record)
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Ever-expanding Toronto indie rock collective Broken Social Scene are a perfectly fine band at creating a crunchy, concise pop song, but their greatest strength lies in the build, the crescendo, the sweep and the soar. Those moments were sparsely scattered throughout the characteristically (and delightfully) schizophrenic Forgiveness Rock Record, but its first track is, by no small measure, it’s most awe-inspiring. Spanning nearly seven minutes long, “World Sick” finds Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning & Co. slowly emerging from an understated crawl to an explosive eruption as Drew vulnerably croons, “I get world sick, every time I take a stand.” Like many of BSS’s best moments, it feels like a big, long and overflowing love letter to the world. – Jeff Terich
22. Gorillaz – “On Melancholy Hill” (Virgin)
(Single; from Plastic Beach)
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The beauty of a band with few permanent members, a fictional premise, an ever-changing stylistic approach and a complete lack of allegiance to genre is the potential for frequent and pleasant surprises. Such a statement is true for much of the entirety of Gorillaz’s third album Plastic Beach, yet the tender new wave pop of love jam “On Melancholy Hill” proved one of the most unexpected delights of all. Like recent John Hughes-obsessed M83 more than the electro/hip-hop hybrids of yore, “On Melancholy Hill” is a neon daydream spent with a blissed-out paramour. It’s the sound of joy in a keyboard patch, infatuation in a drum machine, and the kind of song that can evoke romantic memories of times that may have never existed. – Jeff Terich
21. LCD Soundsystem – “All I Want” (DFA-Virgin)
(from This Is Happening)
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It starts with a warm-up, the sound of guitars getting ready to play and a drummer counting off before settling into a propulsive groove and then it happens. A soaring guitar slide breaks through and the song ceases to be a post-punk riffing dance track but rather a stunning song of great emotion and depth. It is worth noting that some of the best LCD Soundsystem songs are borne out of James Murphy’s wry, often self-deprecating humor and ruminations on life and getting older. “All I Want,” off of his game-changing (perhaps final?) album This Is Happening, is a song that is pure pop pleasure but also devastatingly real. Citing David Bowie’s Berlin albums as an influence (and in particular, the great “Heroes”), Murphy has crafted a song that pays homage with smartly done pastiche but one that is still very much an LCD Soundsystem song. Like “All My Friends” and “Someone Great,” “All I Want” is deeply rooted in the real world: coming home to a loved one after a particularly shitty day and seeing that they’re gone. Murphy sings, “And now all I want is your pity/ And all I want are your bitter tears” and that hint of wavering between wanting someone back and anger is shockingly potent. This combination of danceability, utter self-identification and music that taps into visceral sadness, self-pity and even hope, makes “All I Want” a complex piece of pop music that captures the absurdities and sometimes futility in life. – Jackie Im
