Listasaurus: The Top 20 Songs of 2010: 08 - 06

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We are now one post away from the top five. That's simple mathematics right there. If you can't work that out then you probably can't read anyway so this blog is completely lost on you. No, I don't do screen readers, braille or large font translations.

08. Arcade Fire - 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)'

"I need the darkness someone please cut the lights..."

When it comes to indie releases in 2010, they didn't get much bigger than 'The Suburbs'. When it comes to disappointments in 2010, yeah, you can use the second half of that first sentence again. Again, my problems with 'The Suburbs' were much publicised on this blog and on my twitter but if there's one thing I couldn't be accused of, it's not trying enough. I gave that record listen after listen, hour after hour and it just never happened. Amazing if you consider that after hearing 'Funeral' and 'Neon Bible' I couldn't conceive of living my life without those records. They were just that big to me. Epic statements of heart, inspiration and perseverance they are albums that are now four and six years old respectively. They are albums I still listen to on a weekly basis. That says it all, I think.

My problems with 'The Suburbs' may have been plentiful but in 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)' I found a saving grace that knocked me off my feet and carried me away. It's a song that you swear you've heard before. It could be Kate Bush. It could be Blondie produced by The Knife. Whatever. It's the kind of song that makes mountains beyond mountains seem entirely surmountable.

07. Young Jeezy Ft. Plies - 'Lose My Mind'

"My house stupid dumb big, my rooms got rooms..."

My God this is a banger. There's no other way to put it. In many ways you can hold it up as the archetypal Young Jeezy song. By that I mean it's big, it's dumb and it smashes you in the face like a sledgehammer. As the lead single from the eagerly awaited 'Thug Motivation 103' 'Lose My Mind' did exactly what it was meant to. It banged and made you think "Man, that new Jeezy album is going to be some ridiculous shit." The only issue, OF COURSE, is that there is no sign of that album at the moment and the release date seems to change with the wind direction.

This is all to take nothing away from the song though. Clocking in at just under four minutes, Jeezy bosses his two verses just as we've come to take for granted whilst Plies spits his out like he's been chewing on concrete and barbed wire for the past coupla weeks. Plies is Plies, I'll give you absolutely nothing if you guess the content of his lines, let's put it that way. Again, God, this is a banger.

06. Robyn - 'Call Your Girlfriend'

"And then you let her down easy..."

Much like Drake, 2010 has been truly a year to remember for Robyn. In a year that saw her release two EPs and a full length, she is now reaping the rewards and also finds herself at the business end of just about everybody's end of year lists.

The biggest compliment I can pay to Robyn is that this song could've been one of about five. If I was intending to include more than one song per artist in this list then she would've had multiple entries. 'Indestructible', 'Hang With Me', 'Dancing On Your Own' and 'Cry When You Get Older' could all be substituted in place of this song I've chosen here quite easily. 'Call Your Girlfriend' is different though. It's simply the most mature, most accurate and incisively written pop song I've heard this year. In her first verse Robyn sings "Tell her not to get upset, second-guessing everything you said and done..." and man, that's a hell of a line. We've all been there haven't we? One thing goes wrong and there you are left wondering if the whole thing was a sham from day one. This is something Robyn does better than anyone. She can take minute details of life, of love, and she can retell them in these amazing songs so they sound anything but small. Oh, and all this to tunes you can dance to. The best way to put this is to say that, at the moment, there is no one making music who can soundtrack tears on a dance floor better than Robyn.

Mixtapes Cut From Mixtapes.

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Home taping never did kill music. Looking at Akon sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing.

One thing I really love about the world of rap/hip-hop/call it what you must is the whole concept of the mixtape. The fact that artists will release one or more precursors to any release that are pretty much full length and aside from the standard "EXCLUSIVE DJ NO MARK SHIT BABY! 106.6 SPITTIN' FIRE!" DJ tags at the beginning and end of every song, are of the usual quality or style you'd expect from said artist. I really can't imagine this happening too much in other genres of music. I suppose the odd indie rocker will give away a free EP here and there but by and large, it's a rarity. The internet, of course, has played a massive role in raising the profile of mixtapes from an underground thing where you might get hard copies in a few choice cities around where an artist is based to a global connect that fans anywhere can download in a matter of minutes.

One thing I love about 'em, in particular, is how current they always are. I've always been a sucker for popular culture references in hip-hop and mixtapes that could've been cut days before they leak online are always bang up to date. Admittedly, popular culture references usually become unpopular culture references very very quickly but by the same token, I don't think mixtapes are something you listen to for a concentrated period of time. They tide you over until the real release drops. Unless we're talking about Lil Wayne here of course. In that case all you do is listen to his mixtapes and wish he would go back to those days when he was just unstoppable.

What spurred me to publish this post, naturally, was obtaining a few mixtapes recently that I've been really digging as I go about my days affecting the world in pretty much no way at all. All links and images taken from the ever brilliant Nah Right.

1. The Game - Brake Lights


The Game (not HHH the wrestler I'd hasten to add btw nerds) is usually pretty amusing on twitter (in a #lookatmynewbentley way), however, he's just released this mixtape 'Brake Lights' and so at the moment, avoid at all costs. Rappers, you see, aren't too subtle at marketing on social networking sites. They're main approach is just to say the name of their new song/tape/album over and over again. Example tweet below. Still, get the tape. It's good. It's better than his last two albums which isn't sayin' too much. Doesn't touch 'The Documentary' of course because that was just a cold classic.

2. Wale - More About Nothing



Wale's Seinfeld based 'Mixtape About Nothing' really got me very very excited about his future. When it came out last year I genuinely thought we were witnessing something massive in the making and his ever delayed debut 'Attention Deficit' was quite possibly my most anticipated release of 2009. You've probably guessed where this is going. Yeah yeah, the album came out and it was weak as hell. He'd gone without a major label deal for a long time and it seemed that when Interscope had offered him one, well, let's just say they may have put some stipulations in the small print when it came to how that album would sound. Either way, the above is a sequel to the wonderful 'Mixtape About Nothing' and for that reason demands your attention. This boy must still have it in him somewhere.

3. Fashawn - Ode to Illmatic

This is, erm, an ode from Fashawn to 'Illmatic'. Same beats, new takes. That really does tell you all need to know doesn't it.

4. Young Jeezy - 1000 Grams Vol.1


This is hot off the stove. Leaked today. So new I haven't even listened to it yet but it's from Jeezy and it's called '1000 Grams...' and there's a load of bricks on the cover. Safe to say this isn't going to be a deviation from the normal topics. Thank God for that.


Whilst I'm here, I finally got Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs' after play.com just completely took the piss directly from my bladder by not honouring an order I placed over two weeks ago. I cancelled that and bought it at Tesco instead. I don't know what it is about Tesco's but it sure does make everything seem a bit soulless, regardless of what you're buying. I think it's got something to do with the CDs coming in terrorist proof anti theft boxes. And the lighting is too harsh. And there was a teenage couple who looked about 14 buying a pregnancy test downstairs. I'll review it soon. One listen in and it sounds a bit murky. Win Butler's vocals seem a little buried on first impressions. Remember how upfront they were back in the day?! 'Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)' use to burst out the stereo like a runaway train made of bricks.

Care about.

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1. Jay -Z - The Blueprint 3
This is going to be dope, wack, fresh, sick, cool, rad and all *that*. We've got the front cover and the tracklist (see above and below - taken from Jay-Z.com) now. There's an awful lot of features on it including Jeezy, Alicia Keys, Cudi and Luke Steele (WTF). Thankfully, Kanye managed to muster up a small amount of ownage on Jay (no homo!) with his verse on 'Run This Town' and here's to all the guest spots being as good as that one. Ye owed him for showing him up on that sick 'Diamonds From Sierra Leone' remix. He's a business, mannnn. Yeah. that one.





Jay-Z is pretty much the man everyone wants to be. What I know of his life (yes, he's got more than 98 problems but still) sounds pretty cool and I reckon I could handle it. I could deal with the rap game, Beyonce being a crazy bitch and talking about how things would be different if she was a boy, the clothes line, the Mets, being tight with Barack - all of it. With all that said, he might actually be putting it all on for the camera. Maybe he spends most of his time watching shopping channels in his underwear whilst eating mini versions of popular ice creams. Wait! That sounds like a really good way to get over that savage Swine Flu. I know, I know.


"Only rapper to rewrite history without a pen..."

Jay-Z - D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)



2. The XMI X-mini II Speaker

I think I might be way behind on this little rogue but mannnn this thing is crazy cool. Essential details - it's a portable speaker (w/a tidily concealed inbuilt 3.5mm audio connection cable) that you nerds can plug into your Sony Walkman or whatever you use. It's really small, about the size of a 15 month old (approximate guess) baby fist. It charges from a USB connection in about two hours and a full charge lasts for eleven hours, allegedly. I fully intend to find out by listening to a white noise audio track that lasts exactly eleven hours this evening/tomorrrow early morning.

To get this thing cranked you gotta turn the two halves away from each other to reveal a little valve (see below) which, for want of a better term, is really really really cute. It's like a little techno kitten. Hello Kitty I suppose. These guys have gotta get more marketing game. These things could (and probably should) be massive. This is not a paid advertisement, promise.


Yeah, The key thing about the X Mini II is that it is loud. It's really loud actually. I had 'A Milli' on when I was in the shower earlier and the bass was so on that the little thing was jumping around each time Bangladesh had that thing banging. It was kinda poetic really. I almost felt that through the song and the movement of the speaker, Lil Wayne and I were having a little conversation. It's the closest I've ever felt to Wayne and what with me being a naked little geek in my shower and him being a rap superstar, probably the closest I ever will be (no homo). This thing is like £17 over at amazon. G g g get it bought. What's seventeen pounds? An emotional Will Smith add a tenner, that's what it is.

3. Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 7

I don't know when this will (if at all) air over here in the UK but CYE is one of those programmes that I always forget how much I love until I watch an episode. HBO have posted a few teasers of season 7 on youtube and I'm now officially psyched. That's the word people use isn't it? 'Psyched?' Whatever. Larry David has just got a funny little face hasn't he. He's a bit like a flamingo or something. I can't look at those guys without literally LMAOing. I also cannot believe that these damned fingers just typed LMAO either. Goddamn. On second thoughts though I just remembered the line "I'm on my way to the bank, L M A O..." and Lil Wayne said that and if it's good enough for him...


ANYWAY, yeah. The clip is below but head over to youtube because they've got a fair few over there. Whilst you're there I guarantee that you'll end up looking at about a dozen other old Curb fave moments. "President of hittin' that ass...", Larry doing his cameo for Scorcese, calling the phone directory for Krazee Eyez Killa's number. You know how I roll. If you're me, however, it's far easier to just leave the house and find yourself in your very own Curb Your Enthuasiasm moment. 50% of everything I say is apologies, the other half is a mix of swear words, gutteral sounds and trying to talk like I'm Omar from The Wire. Ya feel me?


EDIT: WTF is up with Marty Funkhouser's voice. He sounds like if you cut his chest open it'd just be one big mess of wires, bolts and LED lights. Marty 5 is Alive! I'd photoshop his face on Johnny 5 from 'Short Circuit' if I could but I can't. Other things I can't do include wiring a plug, back flips and being nice to people on Facebook.