Blogs
Stevie G’s 30 Best Singles of 2010:
2010 was an intriguing year for pop music, as dance sounds continued to gobble up the center and indie bands with echoey vocals came on strong from the fringes. My favorite single of the year, Lyfe Jennings’ “Statistics” was a monster R&B hit that, sadly, never crossed over to the pop charts. Beyond that, big melodies and even bigger vocals dominate my list: R Kelly and Bruno Mars channeled the sounds of doo wop; Lauren Pritchard and Miranda Lambert came on like latter-day Bobbie Gentrys; and the intersection of rap and melody was seemingly everywhere. I hope you enjoy my list of the 30 Best Songs of the Year.
As usual, I have not included any S-Curve releases on my list, out of fairness to artists not fortunate enough to be on our label. But We The Kings’ “We’ll Be A Dream“, Diane Birch’s “This Corrosion“, Andy Grammer’s “Keep Your Head Up” and Care Bears On Fire’s “Girls Like It Loud” ep (which just received an “A” from the Dean of American rock critics, Robert Christgau) can stand toe to toe with anything on my list. I encourage you to check them out. Enjoy!
1. Statistics / Lyfe Jennings
2. Tighten Up / The Black Keys
3. Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) / B.o.B
4. What’s In It For / Avi Buffalo
5. All My People / Portugal The Man
6. When a Woman Loves / R. Kelly
7. The High Road / Broken Bells
8. Somewhere In Brooklyn / Bruno Mars
9. Rill Rill / Sleigh Bells
10. Painkillers / Lauren Pritchard
11. The Show Goes On / Lupe Fiasco
12. The House That Built Me / Miranda Lambert
13. I Need a Dollar / Aloe Blacc
14. Crazy for You / Best Coast
15. Rolling In the Deep / ADELE
16. Just a Dream / Nelly
17. Pretty Girl Rock / Keri Hilson
18. Angel / Akon
19. Run Run Se Fue Pa’l Norte / Francisca Valenzuela
20. Big Wave / Jenny and Johnny
21. We No Speak Americano / Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup
22. Enter the Ninja / Die Antwoord
23. Islands (The Blue Nile Remix) / The XX
24. Northern Skies / I Am Kloot
25. Barbra Streisand / Duck Sauce
26. Jar of Hearts / Christina Perri
27. Dirtee Disco / Dizzee Rascal
28. The Bike Song / Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
29. Dry Your Tears (feat. Winston Francis) / Prince Fatty
30. Alors on danse / Stromae
10 Best Tracks of 2010’s First Half (plus one for good luck)
To help you enjoy your 4th of July weekend, here’s my list–in alphabetical order–of the 11 best tracks of the 1st half of 2010.
Airplanes–B.o.B. fear. Hayley Williams
All My People–Portugal The Man
Dirtee Disco–Dizzee Rascal
The Happiest Lamb–Audra Mae
The High Road–Broken Bells
Love The Way You Lie–Eminem feat. Rihanna
Rill Rill–Sleigh Bells
Somewhere In Brooklyn–Bruno Mars
Statistics–Lyfe Jennings
Tighten Up–The Black Keys
What’s In It For–Avi Buffalo
- Steve Greenberg
Disco Belt NYC:
If you’re in NYC Monday night and not too exhausted after your Memorial Day weekend, come over to the Ace Hotel for DISCO BELT, hosted by Diane Birch, featuring yours truly as DJ along with Ariel Stark-Benz. (In my set, I’ll only be playing disco records from 1974-1975–the dawn of disco.)
It runs from 9pm-midnight. See details in the attached flyer.
Have a great weekend,
-Steve
The Best 100 Singles of the Past Decade
Bob Dylan, when told that his record “Like a Rolling Stone” had topped a Rolling Stone Magazine poll as “Greatest Single of All Time,” famously responded “Well…this week.”
Last December, I made a preliminary list of my favorite singles of 2008, following annual lists I had distributed to friends for the two previous years. I didn’t find time to distribute the list by year’s end but in March 2009 I decided “better late than never” and went back to complete the list in order to send it out. But what I found upon revisiting the list in March was that many of my favorite singles of 2008 weren’t the same ones I had liked best the previous December. Some of the songs from late in the year that had seemed exciting at the time failed to retain their appeal. Likewise, some songs from the first part of the year which I had grown tired of by December began to reassert themselves. This exercise revealed the truth of Dylan’s quip; clearly, “best of” lists are merely a snapshot of something that is ever changing over time.
And so, with regard to my “100 Best Singles Of The Past Decade” list, I am acutely aware that a list of my favorite songs of, say, 2003, compiled today is a different batch than a list of my favorite songs of 2003 compiled in 2003, or for that matter, in 2007 or 2015. Likewise with those that made the list from this past year. Recent songs that seem exciting today might fade into oblivion; overplayed anthems might transcend their time to achieve classic status. Like most everyone else, I never want to hear “I’ve Got a Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas again—except one day it will be played and I’ll say “Now that’s an amazing record,” the same way I did the first time I heard it last spring. I’ve included it on my list, even though I never want to hear it again–at the moment.
