My Favorite Songs of 2010

One woman's trash is another woman's treasure. Who knows if these songs are the best of 2010? I mean, I couldn't get into Arcade Fire, so assuredly there's something wrong with me. These are my favorite songs, though, my friends this past year, my soundtrack.

Sleigh Bells: Tell 'Em. This song makes me wish I had a car. And not just any car. One of those cars with those stereo systems that are so loud when they drive by you, frames rattling off their wheels, you think it must be an alien driving, because the music would explode a human's head, splat. And on that system, I would put this song, and I would crank it up, and I would drive round, windows down, blasting it delightedly, splat or no splat.


Secret Sisters: Big River. Take 2 cups pleasant folk harmonizing, maybe just a tad too sweet. Add tablespoon vinegary Jack White strumming of guitar. Mix. Taste. Add more Jack White as needed.


Delta Spirit: St. Francis. I have been a fickle lover to the songs on this, my favorite album of the year, jilting one tune for the next and then the next and then the next. St. Francis, though, wrapped me up in its minor key modulations, its yelled chorus (live, it'll blow the plaid off a roomful of hipsters), its not-belongingness, and it won't let me go.


Gil Scott Heron + Nas: New York is Killing Me. Sometimes a song seems like it has been written at you. Not for you, at you. From the south via Chicago. In love with New York, but it's bad love, youknowyouknow? Yeah, I can see "why some get up and move where it's slow." Bet they sorta miss it though.

The Hold Steady: The Weekenders. You had me at "The theme of this party's the industrial revolution. You came in dressed like a train wreck."

The Hold Steady - MTV Shows

The Morning Benders: Excuses. If this song took physical form, we would saunter down Flatbush Avenue together, our arms draped around each other, our hands in each others' back pockets, until we reached the park, where we would lie on our backs, not touching, but close, and watch the stars come out.


The National: Conversation 16. Nothing particularly struck me about The National's new album until, at Prospect Park over the summer, the lead singer's giant, warm, 8-dimensional voice reached out directly into my head and sang, "I was afraid/I'd eat your. Brain." But by then it was too late for hesitation, for he already had.

Conversation 16 by The National from Ruthie Cristobal on Vimeo.

Menomena: Intil. Deceptively simple, this song. It stalks you, a soundtrack in the background, those simple piano chords, that repeated lyric. "Sometimes I say too much. I never thought I'd lie" until it cuts off, and you think, "Wait, what?" and hit replay.

Menomena - Intil (Live at OPB) from opbmusic.org on Vimeo.

The Dead Weather: Die by the Drop. If I could be a rock star, I would be Alison Mosshart. I would slink about the stage. I would strut. I would stalk. I would fling my hair. I would snarl and sneer. I would take Jack White's aura of cool in my teeth and fling it about, and demolish it, and leave it lying wrinkled up on the stage. And then during a break, I would bake cookies for the band.


Lindstrom & Christabelle: Lovesick. Forget all this artsy musical hooey I've been talking. This song makes me want to dance.

Also:

Matthew Dear: You Put a Smell on Me.

The Liminanas: Je Suis un Go-Go Girl.

Big Boi + Jamie Foxx: Hustle Blood.

Caribou: Found Out.

Belleruche: Bobby. This is my "I am irked that I didn't know about these guys three years ago" band of the year.

Warpaint: Shadows.

Breathe Owl Breathe: Own Stunts.

Besnard Lakes: And This Is What We Call Progress.

April Smith: Terrible Things.

Kid Cudi, Best Coast, Rostam: All Summer.