Top 50 Tracks of 2010: 50-31

50. Minks - Funeral Song
A goth rock track that earns its intentionally sloppy verses with the unexpected break in the clouds that is its chorus "So long summertime, I'm not coming back"

49. Gucci Mane - Georgia's Most Wanted
Picking up right where he left off after getting out of jail for a parole violation, this track is the type of banger Gucci has become known for. The rapid Gucci-isms are less prevelant compared to Burrprint 3D-era Gucci, in favor of more hood chest thumping, but they're still there "I'm laughing at these rappers' swag they look like a carcass, You a thirsty starving artist, I'm not an artist I'm a arsonist."

48. Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man - Dangerous
Given the three MCs on the album (Wu Massacre), it's disappointing this was the only decent track to come off of it; especially after Raekwon's classic album last year that some hoped would be the start of a Wu Tang renaissance, oh well. The rhymes here are over a Dr. Dre-esque G-funked soul beat. Ghost and Rae bring B-game to this, but Method Man demolishes it.

47. Darwin Deez - Constellations
For the sake of getting it out of the way... yes, it sounds kind of like a Strokes song. Lyrically though, it's mostly stuff like "If freckles don't mean anything, does anything mean anything?" Kind of a weird platform to ponder such metaphysical issues, but whatever... It sounds good.

46. Young Jeezy - I Got This (El-P Remix)
The highlight off ATL RMX, a free mixtape released by Cartoon Network earlier this year. On the mixtape, noteworthy electronic musicians remixed tracks from various noteworthy Atlanta-based rappers. This is easily the best makeover off said mixtape, with El-P throwing in buzzing synths, slapping percussion hits, and some cool vocal effects to overhaul what was otherwise a dud of a track.

45. My Dry Wet Mess - Etcetera
One of the many random songs I came across on Pitchfork's Forkast, a little electro pop piece of candy.

44. Neon Indian - Children of the Revolution
The idea of Neon Indian covering T Rex just sounds like it would be fucking awesome. This track is confirmation of that. The signature Neon Indian 8-bit sound effects, and faded Alan Polomo vocals are here, but this is probably the darkest sounding Neon Indian track to date. He's already said that this track is basically him covering a song he liked, with no intention to release on any upcoming album, but for what it's worth, he killed it.

43. Best Coast - Our Deal
Now that I've gotten over my crush on Bethany Cosentino, I can honestly say some of Best Coast's music is over-the-top bubble gummy at best, and lyrically terrible at worst. They're at their best when the focus is a little tighter. While pretty much every song on Crazy For You is about boys and weed, "Our Deal" actually comes across as a sincere song about a break up. Maybe "When you leave me... / you take all my weed" undercuts that seriousness a little, but still...

42. Destroyer - Chinatown
A smokey track about not being able to leave somebody. Lyrically it's simple, but the distant trumpet warble and faded sax give it a beautiful, timeless sound.

41. Frends - Toronto
A song by a face-in-the-crowd indie band with a vocalist doing his best Ra Ra Riot croon about wanting to get away. Musically and lyrically it captures the hopeless urgency of wanting to be anywhere but here.

40. Drake featuring Lil' Wayne - Miss Me
Honestly there are two or three other Drake songs that could've be in this spot, and it borders on formulaic top 40 shmaltz, but it's ok to like top 40 shmaltz when it's good. Drake has proven to be adept at rapping about how good he is at being awesome, and it works best on this type of hi hat, cymbal crash, keyboard horns beat. The track features a decent verse by a pre-prison Lil' Wayne and a weird marriage proposal to Nicki Minaj.

39. How to Dress Well - You Won't Need Me Where I'm Going
How to Dress Well makes fuzzed out homages to 90's R&B. Somehow, he manages to channel Tracy Chapman in 2010 to produce an indie hit. That takes skill.

38. frYars - Our Father
Definitely the most obscure track on this list, as of right now, it can only found by digging through the mountainous and extremely mixed bag of indie music at BIRP (and Youtube as of a couple days ago -- and it only has 4 views right now). I can't help but be reminded of that one Human League song that everybody pretends to hate, but secretly listens to when they're home alone. I guess there's just something about British accents and baritone vocals over low production value electro beats and drum machines.


37. Beach House - Norway
A track that worked perfectly as the first single off Beach House's late winter release of Teenage Dream (the best album of the year as those of you who regularly read this blog, or know how to scroll down already know). Victoria LeGrand's vocals are the obvious show stopper, but the de-tuning synth and dream scene guitar create a cold soundscape that made this one of the biggest indie rock tracks in the early part of the year.

36. Tokyo Police Club - Breakneck Speed
I've been a TPC fan for a couple years now, and while this year's album Champ didn't reinvent the wheel, it did mark a satisfactory step in the development of a young band that has already released two albums and an EP. "Breakneck Speed" is the standout track, a song about growing up. With lines like "I remember when our voices used to sound the same, Now we just translate" Dave Monks demonstrates his development as a lyricist, and it will be interesting to see where these guys develop from here.

35. Mystery Jets - Dreaming of Another World
A nice catchy little rock song from Britain; easily accessible and wears well.

34. Rihanna - Rude Boy
Rihanna has proven to be one of a small number of legitimately talented female pop vocal acts in recent memory. and this is her best song to date.


33. Girl Unit - Wut
Consider this my nod to dub step for 2010.

32. Rick Ross - B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast) and M.C. Hammer
Rick Ross is really good at yelling into the mic about how he's somebody else over gigantic, speaker breaking beats. On B.M.F he's two real life crime bosses"I think I'm Big Meech, Larry Hoover" and then on the next track... "Bitch I''m MC Hammer." So despite the fact that these are two different songs on his album, there's very little differene between the two, each equally audacious.

31. The Radio Dept - Heaven's On Fire
This track could be listed just for the awesome anti-industry diatribe in the first 20 seconds, but it actually turns into a really bright, happy pop track... or not. On the surface it does sound like a sunny pop track, but it's actually a pretty dark song, not completely divorced from the diatribe that precedes it.