We previously sprung the rest of the Top Tracks of 2010 as placed on a Ritz cracker by Pitchfork back in surprisingly April. The list was here, but maybe it is so old it might 404????? Just kidding, I finished the top 10 tonight. I had to get myself in shape for 2011′s list, soon to be released. UC, are you joining us?
And off we go!!!!!!!!
20. Erykah Badu “Window Seat”
Pinko Punko says:Sounds like a Erykah Badu singing over a vaguely Massive Attack “Protection”-like beat with some Quiet Storm like touches. OK but so unmemorable I forgot to do this list until November or read anything about why this song is supposedly exceptional.
UC adds:
19. How to Dress Well “Decisions (feat. Yüksel Arslan)”
Pinko Punko says: If you read what Jess Harvel writes about to explain this song and you listen to it, you will wonder what the eff she/he/it/bird is talking about. It is short, OK, good and meh at the same time.
UC adds:
18. Titus Andronicus “A More Perfect Union”
Pinko Punko says: Exceptionally self-indulgent but totally sincere at the same time. I think the song is probably awesome, and every time it comes on Pandora I wonder if I can make it through the whole song, and I always do. I was never inspired to pick up this album because I felt it wouldn’t match their last one, but I like these guys. They are rough enough that they come across as raw instead of calculatingly retro.
UC adds:
17. Girl Unit “Wut”
Pinko Punko says: Let’s go to the YouTube commenter jury:
yooo system meltdown u greedycunt!? ? EchelonWeb 4 days ago ?
wut? this is? sick? -_____- So dope.?SkitterPLUR 4 days ago ?
“Girl Unit is actually? a bloke named phil”?DjBassMaster10 5 days ago
@GlittersAllWet …? l0l???Jim44ee 6 days ago ?BIG? Tingz????KIN9DUB 1 week ago ?
@GlittersAllWet did u actually use girl unit and crystal castles in the same breath, uve got alot to learn? mate.. this is sick, productions so tight.. crystal castles mainstream jank shit with no balls, play this tune with a sub or sumat… then ul see..peace???KIN9DUB 1 week ago ?
@tallyhoman911? Same????mmcc0203 1 week ago ?
Das? racist freestyle???cavaleio 2 weeks ago
How do I say ^this, but not. I cannot believe how cheesy this song is. Chippymunk dubstep/drum and bass that is both tinkly and useless.
UC adds:
16. Beach House “Norway”
Pinko Punko says: Good song with some off-kilter tuned musico (the MBV reference from the write-up). On this list because this was the lead track pushed from this excellent album, definitely not the best on here, but good.
UC adds:
15. Crystal Castles [ft. Robert Smith] “Not in Love”
Pinko Punko says:The Cure’s Robert Smith sees your picture hanging on the back of his door. That is nice- who put it there? It is a mystery. Lyrically, this song is definitely a filtered through hazy cable watching of some neo-waver thinking about what it would be like to live in a John Hughes movie watched many times on the cable of childhood. Musically, it’s M83′s retro wave mixed with a dancier feel. It is OK, but again has the whiff of a novelty. It is a decent guest turn from Smith who just does his thing but commits to the song. OK.
UC adds:
14. Sleigh Bells “Rill Rill”
Pinko Punko says: Norway’s Annie+Kurt Vile aesthetic+60s girl group on drugs. This comment is like a patchwork of Pitchfork-fueled references that have no meaning. Kind of like Pitchfork and descriptions of Pitchfork. This is a hall of mirrors. Should be better than it is. But does not suck I guess. Amanda Petrusch is over the top in a simile to such way to prove my point can’t be bothered. If I finish this tonight I might make deadline before I have 100 new ones to think about.
UC adds:
13. Caribou “Odessa”
Pinko Punko says: I like the last Caribou album a lot I think because it was more melodic and psychedelic and better I guess. He sounds like Frazier Chorus on this one. Look it up.
UC adds:
12. LCD Soundsystem “All I Want”
Pinko Punko says: These guys can just hit that spot the “All of My Friends Spot”- this isn’t that good, but it is a good song, but is it a little bit going through the motions. The odd thing about the mix [the loud guitar line] is drawn to our attention as a work of special and purposeful magic hands by James Murphy, LCD’s ringleader. I think he pushes it just a little bit and it doesn’t quite work like it should. It seems a little false. OK song. Speak and Spell outro I kind of like
UC adds:
11. Deerhunter “Desire Lines”
Pinko Punko says: One of my faves of the year. The heart of the Deerhunter album. Although, I need to admit that in the time since I wrote about “Helicopter” at 41, when I liked this song better, I may have reversed my preferences.
UC adds:
10. Janelle Monáe [ft. Big Boi] “Tightrope”
Pinko Punko says: I think she’s really audacious and this song is nice and fun, but I feel like her voice is an eensy bit blank- I feel like she’s just not there. This is certainly better than anything Beyoncé has pooped out in 2011, though I expect ‘Fork will go nuts over “Countdown”. I don’t expect to remember this song’s existence in a few days, unfortunately.
UC adds:
09. Arcade Fire “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
Pinko Punko says: I don’t favor the Arcade Fire backlash. Maybe I am a little surprised at how quickly they developed a brand of a sound, and oddly this song sounds exactly like them even though at points musically it reminds me of a more analog and less clean Pet Shop Boys. The sound is so washed out- a little bit of that “chillwave” cassette sound that is less obvious on headphones. Good, in a “won’t skip it on the internet radio, but won’t queue it up” way. Maybe that is all songs these days. What are the odds I make it through ‘Fork 2011? Why has UC forsaken me?
UC adds:
08. James Blake “I Only Know (What I Know Now)”
Pinko Punko says: Soundtrack to a video playing in a club that you imagine yourself seeing in a movie about someone that does this sort of thing, in a dream. But through night vision goggles. And it is 4 am and nobody is talking or saying anything. 2011- the year Chillstep broke? Not anything I would recommend to anyone that wasn’t already drinking the Flavor-Ade on this. Fine I guess, but you might be asleep, so read up on it at All Music Guide, but careful clicking away too fast, the mouse might be asleep and your click finger might fall over. More than any track, I would like UC to review this. I don’t hate him, I swear!!!!!!!!!
UC adds:
07. Joanna Newsom “Good Intentions Paving Company”
Pinko Punko says: I didn’t really have the attention span for her last album Ys, while loving her debut- though not being allow to play that in the house because I would get punished for playing “screeching cat lady”. This seems to drop the Ye Olde Cat Scratch Renaissance Faire of Ys, and creates a tempered, ambitious thing kind of out of the Laurie Anderson/Kate Bush headspace but without the extreme experimentation or theatrics, so maybe not like those at all. I like it, especially the ooooooooh ooooh oooh part and the little bit of trombone then the piano chug outro, but novelty central. Wolk does a nice write-up, though.
UC adds:
06. Kanye West [ft. Dwele] “POWER”
Pinko Punko says: Earnest enough I guess it staves off the whiff of unfortunateness. Yeezy has a delivery that is all his, but sometimes he seems clunky or lazy. This is a mehseum piece not a classic. Maybe it’s OK?
UC adds:
05. Big Boi [ft. Cutty] “Shutterbugg”
Pinko Punko says: I’d call this H-funk, Human League funk. Boi easy cheesy rules this invisible shoulda been all summer jam. I think he just didn’t get the obvious hook for the crowd on this. Its too smooth. Really good.
UC adds:
04. Robyn “Dancing on My Own”
Pinko Punko says: Scandinavian popstress makes le Fork just give it up. To be honest, if Gaga (or actually, Taylor Swift if you pop-countrified it) released this, it would have sold 10 million. Robyn knows what she wants and she does it. It’s pure queso but hits that one spot…pretty good.
UC adds:
03. LCD Soundsystem “I Can Change”
Pinko Punko says: LCD can take a lot of different sounds but the drum machine and some of the bloops just paint it as LCD Soundsystem, and then the James Murphy delivery, restrained but full of emotion in that peculiar way. Excellent. Super good.
02. Kanye West [ft. Pusha T] “Runaway”
Pinko Punko says: The pinnacle of sad sack hate yourself rap, but kind of brilliant. The question to Kanye, is can he listen to number 3? Because if he can’t change, this is not gonna end well. Hug squad! To the West mansion. Nine minutes a little much. Pusha T also puts too much swagger on his verses- like did he not listen to the rest of the song?
UC adds:
01. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Round and Round”
Pinko Punko says: What is going on here? A floating prog pop pyschedelic love child from the threeway between Alas Parsons and a tranquilized muzaky Modest Mouse and Stephen Merritt. I really can’t explain it. Some of it is just great- in that effortless Phoenix way- like you can’t quite tell why it is so perfect, because it is nothingness lighter than air. Good stuff in here. Very light. Wonder how it would work without headphones. Also liked the Mark Richardson write-up, so like a nice little breath mint placed on the cowpie of this year’s list. HA! Beat 2011 list by a few days. UC, get thee to thy iPod!
UC adds:
UC’s stoically silent disapproval speaks volumes. What a creative and interesting way to review music!
I agree with UC.
He didn’t didn’t didn’t have anything to add about LCD Soundsystem. I wonder what that means?
I think it means UC was more into LSD Soundsystem.
~
I am the John Cage of music reviewers.
I hope you eventually picked up that TA album, since it was the best album of the year, and it wasn’t even really close.
Well, it is regrettable that Pinko is so wrong about Titus Andronicus. A song too long? That’s like a Take Five bar too big! Or too few Chocolate Skittles! Perhaps PP needs to brush up his concept album appreciation. Sentenced to listen to Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Hemispheres on auto-repeat!
I think the new Titus album is SUPERB. It gets better when you listen to it as meant, straight through. A More Perfect Union just keeps getting better, long as it is. And the narration is so sublime.
I saw them open for Bright Eyes this year, and they were just as gloriously sloppy as you would like. Unfortunately, they did not do the indulgent rock star with no ideas thing, and did not play the new album straight through. Plus, their bass player Amy was cheerleader-peppy (although I understand she has already departed)
In short, perhaps this could be PINKO Cobaggery Watch? Bt appropriately half-assed, I concede.
Yes, Amy Klein left the band sometime last month I think. They played Reggie’s Rock Club as one of the Lolla aftershows and peppered the set with some new songs. Sounded pretty good.
It’s too bad she left. She always looked like she was having so much fun up there.
It is also too bad that I had so many typos in that long comment.
It’s o.k., zrm.
We make allowances for issues like fingers falling off, and such as.
~
I will get it eventually, but I have some serious time issues with music. I find that I have some things that I haven’t listened to yet. I think when we do PCW 2011, that may be the time I hear songs I OWN for the first time. This is infinitely sad. Seitz- are you gonna fill in for UC if he can’t handle it this year? Or at least for the songs you like? There is no way this year can be as bad as last year. I really do like the song, I just don’t like it the same way I liked their last album.
Pinko is hedging.
BIAS DETECTED.
So true.
I’d be more than happy to fill in, though I feel my prose my fall a bit short. Let me know.
That is awesome- the amount of value that would be added from someone that goes to shows and listens to music cannot be underestimated.
though I feel my prose my fall a bit short
LULZ
the amount of value that would be added from someone that goes to shows and listens to music cannot be underestimated.
Why? It doesn’t seem to be of importance to the Pitchforkers.
the right shows and music, z. Pitchfork told me that Mekons shows were for disgruntled persons of experience, so they got you boxed in!
Pitchfork told me that Mekons shows were for disgruntled persons of experience
OK, so that’s ONE thing they’ve gotten right.
hmpf. I shall be reporting this blog to Rico Bell.
Delicious or Disgusting has not yet admitted that there is a new post up.
Harrumph!
~
Double HEH
Given that the Joanna Newsom album that track came from is a triple album, I’m not sure your attention span is going to be spared much. I think I read somewhere (probably, er, P——-k) that she had an illness that affected her voice, which is why her singing style has changed.
“Good Intentions Paving Company” is the total safe choice from the album. It’s about as crowd pleaser-ish as she’s ever likely to get. Which is not a knock against the track, just tsking at Fishpork’s weak IMS-fu.
While there’s nothing on this album quite as sublime as “Sawdust and Diamonds”, I think “Go Long” is the real standout. Also, “’81″ is an amazing bit of unpretentious classicism.
Unfortunately, I think the third disc falls a bit flat compared to the other two. (Though I know that some fans are partial to “Soft As Chalk”.)
I have this horrible feeling that I’m going to agree with PF on album of the year this year. On the other hand, at least I can expect to be able complain that they ignored Richard Buckner again. Go here, listen to “Escape”.
Spam in the D or D trap, Pinko.
I rescued it (just before the disposal got it).
A close call!
~
Plover,
Thanks for the recommends on JN. I will check out. I had forgotten that it was a triple disc- perhaps all the songs could fit on two CDs and that would make it easier for me to mentally deal with it?
I have resuscitated my iPod from its battery withdrawal and will listen to the JN again to recharge my critical ear. I remember also thinking that the third disc was the weakest.
I survived the top 10 and most of the songs are pretty solidly good. Nothing blew me away, although I remain perplexed why James Blake needs such a fragmented and drifty platform to announce “I love the goat”. I don’t get that at all.
Add your commentos!
Heh, I sound so gramps when I listened to the James Blake- “wait is this the instrumental sound collage between songs- did they mess ups the track number here- when did I fall asleepppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp Answer: when I was typing p. Better than when I was p’ing.”
If you’re radeing this, you’re all set, pardner!
when are you guys going to do this?
I don’t think the Spotify 100 has the inane commentary, Kathleen….
Ours or theirs? Heh/
The new MattY header is teh awesome.