TCR Top 30 Singles of 2007

I going to wait until the new year to post this, but screw it. I'm probably not going to get the chance to post it for another couple weeks, so I'd rather get it out while I've been tinkering with it than leave it alone for a couple weeks.

30. Enrique Iglesias - "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)"
This is Enrique's best single in a very long while, very possibly ever. Sure, it follows the normal Enrique formula and there's not a whole ocean of difference between this and "Escape" or "Be With You", but the melody to this is just so sharp and the ping pong percussion is amazing. Just ridiculously catchy. Of course really catchy pop songs are kinda dime a dozen, which is why it doesn't rank higher, but I appreciate it for what it is.

29. Lori McKenna - "Unglamorous"
One of the best country singles of the year barely even qualifies as a country song at all. Nevertheless, it's a great celebration of ordinary life, with a good melody and a great twangy country singer. A great pop song with a slight country twang, I recommend this to anybody, even people who don't normally like country.

28. Colbie Caillat - "Bubbly"
For whatever reason, I feel free to openly proclaim how much I like Hilary Duff or Aly & AJ, but I just feel so embarrassed for liking this. It's "inoffensive" and "vanilla". Somewhere along the line, those became the biggest insults you can give a song. But I don't mind inoffensive and vanilla (both of which this definitely is). It lacks a huge vocal hook. But it's sweet and cute and infectious. I think there's a place for sweet and cute in music. I love the way the over-cuteness and preciousness of the lyrics interact with the over-cuteness of the music to make some kind of pure, uncut cute. It's like the Milo and Otis of pop songs.

27. Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer"
This is a song that I originally was not too big a fan of, but I've come around on it. Yeah, it's a "Take Me Out" ripoff, but "Take Me Out" is one of my very favorite songs of the decade so that doesn't bother me. I like the disco-fied indie rock a lot better than normal indie rock, so I'm glad that a song like this can come around a become a hit. Danceable and catchy, and one of the five or ten best choruses of the year. Not much to like about this song beyond the chorus, I'm not a big fan of the vocals, the instrumentals are boring "Take Me Out"-lite, and the verses go nowhere. This is scientifically exactly how far a great chorus can take a mediocre song.

26. Ciara - "Like a Boy"
Possibly underrated here. I love the minimalist beat and the vocals are great. The lyrics do nothing to grab me, and while I like the melody I don't love it. It's still one of the best R&B songs of the year and it's a real damn shame it wasn't a bigger hit. I just wish it had a bigger hook.

25. Miley Cyrus - "Start All Over"
A great slice of catchy teen pop-rock, manages to keep an extremely high energy throughout without becoming tiresome. Great for dancing around to, and one of my very favorite melodies of the year. A true highlight from Miley's sophomore album, which even though it was exactly as good as her first album was still disappointing.

24. Sara Evans - "As If"
Really weird and unsettling to think about these lyrics in the context of her personal life, so I just ignore that aspect. It does have good lyrics though, about ignoring all the bad crap in a relationship in a desperate grab to hold on to the good stuff. Easily relateable and not too common in song lyrics. What is harder to ignore than the lyrical context is the awesome pop country melody and Sara's knockout vocal performance. Better instrumentation/production could have pushed this a lot higher.

23. Ashley Tisdale - "He Said, She Said"
Ashley Tisdale's vocal performance is very, very bland in this song and the lyrics are very generic and boring. Which means there's nothing to recommend this song beyond the melody and the production. Fortunately, they manage to be strong recommendations. I love the clappy, stuttering percussion on this song, it really lends a sense of urgency to the verses. It's all building up with a stuttering rhythm and swelling music in the pre-chorus, then it all falls out into a gorgeous, spare chorus. Amazing.

22. Tim Armstrong ft. Skye Sweetnam - "Into Action"
A ska song in my top 25! A song off the Tim Armstrong solo album in my top 25! I never would have guessed, even though I do like a lot of the old Rancid ska songs like "Time Bomb" and "Ruby Soho". This is the natural extension of the sound he had there, and it rolls along nicely into the second or third catchiest hook of the year, as sung amazingly by Skye Sweetnam. It's a lumbering rhino of a song, but it's a great one nevertheless.

21. Cupid ft. DJ Unk and Fabo - "Cupid Shuffle (Remix)"
I think it's well established by now that I love novelty songs an unhealthy amount, and this is one of the best in a long time. I've never actually danced this song, nor have I heard it played on a dance floor, I just genuinely like the song on its own merits.

20. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Catch You"
The best Blondie song never released by Blondie. A real dizzying delight, and the first song of 2007 that I really loved, even if it is a bit of a pure pop overload.

19. Katharine McPhee - "Over It"
I have long been a fan of Katharine McPhee, ever since I first saw her on Idol. She was my favorite that season, despite a bad tendency to oversing songs and her seeming compulsion to be the big Whitney/X-tina diva that she totally is not. I worried that would spill over to her music, but turns out her album is mostly just a bunch of warmed over R&B stuff. There are some highlights on there, like "Open Toes" and especially this song, a direct "Too Little, Too Late" rip that works because the formula is so awesome and because Kat sings the hell out of the song. In it's own subtle way it manages to be one of the prettiest ballads of the year. (Not that I mind blatantly pretty ballads a la Mariah but they just aren't right for Kat).

18. Ne-Yo - "Because Of You"
Speaking of which, this mid-tempo ballad is one of the prettiest songs of the year in an unsubtle way. The strings and bass in the musical backdrop are awesome, and the melody is just such an awesome gliding, soaring triumph. This is what Ne-Yo excels at, and he sings the hell out of it. It's the male "Irreplaceable", and though I don't like it quite as much as that song, it's still a really great one.

17. My Chemical Romance - "Famous Last Words"
"It starts out fairly standard, but ends up being nothing short of a genuine rock epic, weaving about 3 or 4 different, equally big, parts together with a great deftness, and all 3 or 4 parts are great, especially the main chorus! It sneaks up on you, but once it hits, it hits hard: emo-rock has met its peak with this song." -- That's my singles jukebox review of the song, and I'm a little bit lower on it now than I was then, but it's basically true. (In particular, it is not even the highest rated emo-rock song on this list).

16. Vanessa Anne Hudgens - "Say OK"
I think I've run out of words to say about this song. I still think it's the second-prettiest dang song of the year and that Vanessa's blank, piercing voice is just startlingly perfect for this song. Nobody appears to like this as much as I do, and I've come to terms with that. I'll just keep listening.

15. LeAnn Rimes - "Nothing Better to Do"
The best country song of the year is this barn-burning stomper by LeAnn, that is probably underrated on this list, but this is where it felt right. High energy and catchy and awesome in the same way that the best Miley songs are high energy and awesome. It hits you right in the face. Probably the best song she's ever released.

14. Fall Out Boy - "The Takeover, The Break's Over"
This is emo-rock only because of who it's by. It sounds like a normal rock song to me, and Patrick Stump is one of my favorite rock vocalists working today. It intricately weaves melodies together just as deftly as "Famous Last Words" and while it's not nearly as anthemic as that song, it's just as well-constructed. The way it bursts into its main chorus is great, and it manages to hold it all together with a simple but great "We don't fight fair" hook and a simple but great guitar line.

13. LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great"
This was immediately my favorite song on the LCD Soundsystem album, which is possibly a sign of rapidly approaching middle age. Actually, I just love the hooks to this song, though the emotion is apparent throughout and lends it a certain depth. I don't have much to say about this song that any other publication doesn't.

12. Amy Diamond - "Stay My Baby"
Man, it's so awesome. Amy's made a habit of actually releasing her best songs as singles (except "All The Money In The World"), which allows her to do really well on my lists. This Max Martin penned ballad is just as catchy a ballad, it's own way, as most of his classic boy band ballads were. A great return to form from both Max and Amy.

11. Eve ft. Sean Paul - "Give It To You"
For whatever reason, I've always really loved Sean Paul, even though his hooks kinda are all the same. This is his best song since "Get Busy". Not to minimize the accomplishments of Eve, who provides amazing rapping, and this is all on top of a ridiculously catchy guitar loop. A real surprise.

10. Girls Aloud - "Call the Shots"
Much better than anything off Chemistry, and just as good as all of their classic hits. I guess "The Show" and "No Good Advice" are still their best songs, but this is a great ballad. I never thought they would release another song I loved this much, much less a ballad! I love love the bouncing rubber bandy musical backdrop to this, and the slight electro-flair in the chorus. I often think that GA songs go too far on the electro stuff, but it's really restrained here and I think the song really benefits from it. Another real surprise.

9. Britney Spears - "Gimme More"
IT'S BRITNEY BITCH. Not that much better than a few other similar songs on her album, I guess, but the melody to this grabs me. Who could have guessed this song would be this good? More on Britney in the rest of my year end stuff. "Gimme gimme more/gimme more/gimme gimme more" is my #1 favorite hook of the year.

8. Shop Boyz - "Party Like a Rockstar"
Awesome novelty song+really catchy chorus+rap song glorifying golf+genuinely funny lyrics+"t-t-totally dude"= top 10 spot on Greg's list, guaranteed.

7. Natalie Imbruglia - "Glorious"
The higher we get up the list, the more we get to songs I've already written a lot about, which makes it hard to add more. This is still the absolute prettiest song of the year and Natalie is still probably my favorite female vocalist. Oh hell, I'll quote myself: "A really pretty acoustic ballad from Natalie. OK, all of Natalie's songs sound kinda the same -- that's true, and this will win her no new fans. But I'm a previously declared fan of Ms. Imbruglia, and I really, really love this song. It's so pretty and summery! It's got a very catchy melody, and Natalie continues to be one of my 3 or so favorite vocalists in pop music today. This contends for her best non-"Torn" song. Really fun and amazing."

6. My Chemical Romance - "Teenagers"
This is bratty, entitled pop-punk in the way a lot of people hear Avril, but I always just find Avril silly. Not that I don't like Avril. Anyways, this is MCR's "Girlfriend", and it beats Avril at her own game, as it manages to have an even more infectious chorus, and be self-entitled in a much less annoying way.

5. Rihanna - "Shut Up and Drive"
I love the lyrics to this though, even if the central analogy is a bit obvious (Prince, for one, made the same analogy 20 years ago). The melody grabs me too, and yeah the "Blue Monday" sample is a bit too obvious for my tastes, but I think it all works.

4. Spoon - "The Underdog"
Yeah, this one shocked me. I thought there was no way I could like another indie song this much, and had basically written off that "Take Me Out" was a fluke and I was done with indie after that. This, on the other hand, is definitely the best indie song since "Take Me Out", with it's stuttering guitar line, hand claps, and great horn hook. The vocal hook is deceptively simple on this, it seems like he's just rambling on and on, but it gets hella stuck in my head anyways. It's all about the instrumentation on this, and it manages to be really danceable too!

3. Aly & AJ - "Potential Break Up Song"
OMG Greg likes an Aly and AJ Song. I dedicated an entire post to this song. It is located here.

2. Natasha Bedingfield - "I Wanna Have Your Babies"
I'm absolutely shocked that TashBed released a song that I like even more than "Unwritten", but here we are. If Natalie Imbruglia is not my favorite female vocalist in pop today, then TashBed is. I dunno what it is about her mannered vocals I love, but it just works for me. This is completely bonkers in both the music and the lyrics, and I admire its sheer dedication to bonkers-ness. Tash's performance really sells here that she's holding in, about to explode, ready to burst. The whole song is just bursting just below the seams with warmth and energy and love. It makes this the most true to new crush/first love song I've heard in a long, long time. This was #1 on my list for a lot of the year, and I keep liking it more and more. I like this song more than I liked "Sweet Temptation", but less than I liked "Not This Year".

1. Miley Cyrus - "See You Again"
Obviously, this is not a surprising placement. I have written very much about this song already, which is my favorite Miley song ever and has the best pure melody since "Come Clean", at least. And NOT ONLY that, but it features Miley's best ever vocal performance, by far. The whole chorus is just pure musical genius. Best part is still "My best friend Leslie says 'Oh she's just being Miley'."

Thus we have the best 30 singles of the year. Future posts will explore best albums, TV shows, and movies (featuring a TRUE SHOCKER at #1), but not for another week or two probably.

208/365-Year Top Singles List

This was supposed to be a half-year singles list, but obviously I am too late for that, so it is what it is. Since my year-end list consists of 50 singles, this list therefore consists of (208)/365 * 50 = 28.63 singles. I'll round to 29.

The TCR 208/365-Year Top 29 Singles:

1. Rihanna - "Shut Up and Drive": Much like my 2006 single of the year, "Sweet Temptation (Hollow)", this is a song that a lot of people seem to like, but nobody seems to like as much as me. Oh well. It's got a great melody, fun car-as-metaphor-for man lyrics, and the same enveloping, warm instrumental background as "Umbrella". The central metaphor may be somewhat stilted, but it produces several nice little turns of phrase. The bridge takes everything down a notch, but I like it.

2. Miley Cyrus - "See You Again": Although I thought that, on the whole, the music in Hannah Montana 2 lacked the fairly consistent highs of the first season's soundtrack, I loved this song. I mean, if I made a list of my favorite 5 Hannah/Miley songs, about 4 would come from soundtrack 1, but I can tell you that this song would be number one. Frickin' incredibly infectious melody and definitely Miley's best lyrics ever: "The last time I freaked out/I just kept looking down/I st-st-stuttered when you asked me what I'm thinking 'bout/Felt like I couldn't breathe/You asked what's wrong with me/My best friend Lesley says 'Oh she's just being Miley'/The next time we hang out/I will redeem myself/My heart can't rest 'til then/Oh I can't wait to see you again". The "st-st-stuttered" is my favorite moment in music in 2007, and "My best friend Lesley says 'Oh she's just being Miley" is also in my top 5. I've probably listened to this song 50 times since the soundtrack was released. Very, very questionable eligibility, but when it comes to this Diz stuff, who is to say what is and isn't a single. Shrug.

3. Aly & AJ - "Potential Breakup Song": Best lyrics of the year, best vocal performance of the year, and a truly outstanding melody. I guess that would seem to add up to higher than number 3, but Miley and Rihanna have truly transcendent melodies (and good vox/lyrix too). (see previous Potential Break-Up Post). Also, best music video of the year.

I'm certain that the three songs listed above, (plus "The Best Damn Thing", if ever released) are my 3 favorite songs of the year, but the order keeps changing in my head! This is where I stand now.

4. Keith Urban - "Stupid Boy": Heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. Very nice guitar sound on this one, Keith is a great singer, and and a nice melody, but it's really the lyrics that make this one. That, and the song-end fakeout at 3:45 leading to the best outro of the year. That outro, a 2 and a half minute powerhouse of a gutpunch makes for as moving an experience as music can create.

5. Natasha Bedingfield - "I Wanna Have Your Babies": Still totally awesome. I've written about the outstanding lyrics and melody of this song before, and have nothing new to add.

6. My Chemical Romance - "Famous Last Words": Powerhouse rock epic which, like Aly & AJ, weaves together various awesome but disparate parts in a very deft way to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Not to mention, I AM NOT AFRAID TO KEEP ON LIVING is the greatest sing/shout-along chorus to come along in years.

7. Vanessa Hudgens - "Say OK": Quite possibly still the best pure melody of the year. And Vanessa gives a good performance too! Not quite ambitious enough to crack any higher than this, but if I had to pick any one song to listen to over and over again for hours this would be the one. Dozens of listens later that melody is still as amazing as it was when I first heard it. One of the prettiest songs in years.

8. My Chemical Romance - "Teenagers": So fun! Don't trust anybody over 30! Funniest lyrics of the year, and a great high-energy chorus. Great usage of electric guitar. MCR continue to be the best mainstream guitar based rock band out there today. This is a great song that may climb even higher as the year goes on.

9. Natasha - "Hey Hey Hey": I suppose there isn't too much too this song, but it's a fun, infectious number that deserved to be a smash hit. Natasha has breathy, airy vocals that lend a sense of airiness to the song, and which conflict with the hard, driving background music in a really wonderful way. Then we kick into "Hey Hey Hey" and nothing else matters. It's very slight, and I'd like to see what a self-assured braggart of a singer could do with it, but it's a real winner as is.

10. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Catch You": I've really loved this song since the first time I heard it, and I still think it's the best song on SEB's (kinda disappointing) album this year. This thing has the power to just lodge in my head and hang around there for a long, long time.

11. Amerie - "Gotta Work": Yeah, yeah, yeah, a ripoff of "Crazy in Love", not to mention "1 Thing", but it's a bouncy fun number. The trumpets are great and the chorus is great. But the stutter-step, start-and-stop verse, with it's bouncy, fast, shouting qualities is what really made me love the song. You'd think they'd try to marry a chorus like this to some silky-smooth melody, but there isn't even really any melody to the verses at all. Unexpected, but it really holds the song together, I think, and is the main reason the song holds up to multiple listens so well when other similar songs tend to fade away quickly. I'm hoping for this one to go #1.

12. Ne-Yo - "Because of You": Speaking of silky-smooth melodies...I like Ne-Yo a whole lot, and all of his singles have been pretty good. His album gets a bit tiresome to listen to all the way through, because the songs are so samey, but this is basically the theoretical peak of the style of music he's going for. I love the slap bass in the verses and the main instrumental hook, but the silky smooth melody and vocals are the story of this song. Just kinda makes me drift away when I listen to it. Like "Say OK", one of those melodies that just says super-crisp no matter how many times you hear it.

13. Avril Lavigne - "Hot": Man, the art of the power-ballad is practically dead these days. So many amazing power ballads in the 80s but nobody even tries any more. Avril is one of the last who consistently produces great power ballads. This song is right in her wheelhouse and she knocks it out. Very catchy melody, it gets stuck in my head for days.

14. Blake Shelton - "The More I Drink": Hilarious and true! Drinking does, in fact, make one want to drink more. This is part of a long, long tradition of drinkin' songs in country, and it's a worthy entry into the lineage. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the chorus is catchy as hell too.

15. Katharine McPhee - "Over It": So pretty it almost makes me tear up. Just a great wistful melody and so what if it's a "Too Little, Too Late" ripoff, the formula works and McPhee knocks it right out of the park, as always.

16. Fall Out Boy - "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race": Fall Out Boy step out of their normal box to create a more ambitious, experimental rock song, but it really works. A great explosion of a high energy rock song. Nothing going on with the lyrics and not great vocals, but just as pure music it's very, very good.

17. Toby Keith - "High Maintenance Woman": Another I've written plenty about and have nothing to add too. Like Blake Shelton, catchy-as-hell and funny. Lyrix aren't quite as good as Blake's, so it ranks 2 slots lower.

18. Cupid ft. DJ Unk and Fabo - "Cupid Shuffle (Remix)": Best hip hop novelty song of the year! This has a catchy melody and a nice energy, and that basically makes up for the lack of substantive lyrics. I have never done the Cupid Shuffle myself, but I can tell you this is a hell of a lot better than the Cha Cha Slide song (as a pure song).

19. Shop Boyz - "Party Like a Rockstar": OK, putting the two best hip-hop novelty songs of the year right in a row required a bit of cheating/shuffling, but it seemed appropriate. Really fun song, though. The Boyz have some great flow and they can write some great lyrics and it all comes together in this one song. The rest of their album is just OK, but it kicks way into high gear for this. Like I said about Ne-Yo, this is basically the theoretically best possible song for what it's going for.

20. Sara Evans - "As If": Another great single from one of my 5 or so favorite single artists of the decade. And, okay, this great single sounds kinda like most of her other great singles, but she's got her sound and she runs with it. She's still a really phenomenal singer, and this song has a very nice melody and good lyrics. Not much going on with the music, and it's a little too unoriginal to rank any higher.

21. Rihanna ft. Jay Z - "Umbrella": Amazing synths and amazing lyrics, but the melody (other than ella ella ey ey ey) doesn't grab me as much as it apparently grabs some others. And the Jay-Z part is stupid. It's gotten old from overplaying but don't let that diminish that this is still a very good song. Just needs a little bit more to be a great song. But, great marriage between the sound of the song and the title/lyrics though, very impressive.

22. Tim Armstrong ft. Skye Sweetnam - "Into Action": Heh, a fun throwaway number that will be completely forgotten 5 years from now. But given all that, it's pretty amazing. So fun and catchy. I thought ska was a dead genre, but if the genre can still produce numbers like this bring it on.

23. Carrie Underwood - "Wasted": OK, with the release of this, they've finally run of out great singles on Carrie's debut album to release. (Seriously, the 2nd best song on her debut album). Her 2nd album is definitely my most anticipated album of the 2nd half of the year, let's hope it doesn't get delayed.

24. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Me and My Imagination": Great disco melody and disco beat. Sophie's not a great pop singer, but she's competent and she's able to carry a good pop song. This is a dreamy, dizzying little pop number, and I don't like it as much as "Catch You", but I do like it an awful lot.

25. Fergie - "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)": Probably my favorite song on Fergie's album other than "Fergalicious". It should be clear from this list that I am a real sucker for mid-tempo ballads. For whatever reason, mid-tempo ballad melodies ("Say OK", "Hot", "Because of You", "Over It") seem to hit me way stronger than the melodies for other songs. I'm not sure why that is but I certainly am not going to fight it.

26. MIMS - "This Is Why I'm Hot": Fun brag-rap that straddles the line between amazing and completely irritating. It mostly sits on the right side of that line, but it is tough to listen to over and over again. But come on: "I'm hot cuz I'm fly/you ain't cuz you're not". Awesome.

27. Ciara - "Like a Boy": It's a mid-tempo ballad. The melody grabs me. Shocker. Nice bouncy musical backdrop though.

28. Enrique Iglesias - "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)": Probably the best single Enrique has ever released, thanks to a great chorus and very inventive ping pong ball percussion. The cheesy music and dragging verses do all they can to eliminate the goodwill generated by that chorus and percussion, but the forces of good win out.

29. Kelly Clarkson - "Never Again": I still like the lyrics and I still love the bridge. The melody is maybe not as strong as the best of KC, but it's still pretty good. A tad disappointing, maybe, just because it's Kelly, but judged on it's own it's still a triumph. I like the "Sunday School answer" line.

Studyin' Orphans

Reviews of Avril, Hilary, and Miranda Lambert are forthcoming. Just need a few more listens. Meantime, here are some orphan song reviews. Songs that got me through the tough studying:

1. Point of Grace - "Circle of Friends"
Review: From 1996 through 2000, when I was in high school, I was heavily involved in my local church's youth group, and so was thus exposed to a crapload of Christian music. I was never huge on it then, and some of it is just embarrassingly bad looking back on it now (Michael W Smith - "Friends"; Avalon - "Testify to Love"). Recently, though, I've been re-examining some of the songs that we used to listen to, and there's two aspects of Christian music I'll still rep for: early Amy Grant and this song (er, counting only CCM and not genre Christian music, e.g. "Jesus Take the Wheel", or hymns). Early Amy Grant I've talked about before, so I'll talk about Point of Grace. They're a tightly harmonized, airy voiced trio of female singers who do lite-pop, definitely the Christian Wilson Phillips. And while that's not my favorite genre, this is a kicking, snapping little song that has nice lyrics which don't beat you over the head with Christianity, and great hooks in the chorus and pre-chorus. The girls are good singers and have good harmony. The whole song is an airy, floating song, like a cloud. It rolls along, washing over you without ever grabbing you, and just gently opening up. It shows a great restraint in both the melody and chorus. If all Christian songs were this good (I'm looking at you, Steven Curtis Chapman) the genre wouldn't have such a bad name today. [8/10].

2. The Hives - "Hate to Say I Told You So"
Review: Man, is it just me or does this song hold up REALLY well. When it came out, it was one in a sea of jangly pop-rock tunes in the vein of The Strokes and The White Stripes and The Vines and whatever. They all blended together in my head and I never really particularly paid too much attention to this song. And anyways, it really isn't as good as "Last Nite" or "Fell In Love with a Girl", which probably caused me to underrate it at the time, but those are two excellent pop tunes. Which means this is pretty danged good too. The fuzzed out jangly guitar creates a propulsive beat that drives the entire song forwards. There's not much of a melody, and the guy isn't much of a singer, he's basically just talking the words. But the rhythm of the verses fit right in with the propulsive beat of the guitar and bass and push the song way forward like a charging train. The song doesn't rock particularly hard, and it doesn't have a very fast tempo, and it doesn't REALLY drive that hard, it just gives the impression of driving hard. Which, it turns out, is good enough. [8.5/10]

3. Blue October - "Hate Me"
Review: A modern rock song, in the vein of more classic, growly rock. The singer's got a kind of whiny voice and the chorus is a classic annoying emo shouting chorus. But good god does this song inject a ton of emotional wallop. What are the lyrics about? I'm not really sure, it sounds to me like he's got one incredibly messed up relationship with his girlfriend, but Wikipedia says it's about his mother, which is just crazy! For a big, manly, growly rock song, the singer and melody sound like they are about 5 seconds from completely breaking down and falling apart. It's teetering right on the edge, which is a dangerous place to stay, but it deftly rides it the entire time. Song makes me wanna cry. Uh, yeah, so what I'm saying is that it definitely should have made my top 50 singles last year. Whoops. [9/10]

4. BBMak - "Ghost of You and Me"
Review: Well, BBMak were like a 3rd tier boy band. Actually, they PLAYED THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS and so WERE NOT a boy band, or so the marketing went at the time. Whatever. The most notable thing about them was their guest appearance in an episode of TCR favorite Even Stevens. And their biggest (only?) hit, "Back Here" was a limp, boring little number that never went anywhere. But this minor followup hit was, I think, a far superior song. It's actually probably my favorite boy band ballad (OK, maybe "Shape of My Heart"). Most boyband ballads just ride on airy harmonies and hope that they can just let the beauty carry them, when really the singers usually have too weak a voice to make something interesting out of a limp ballad. And on first listen, that's what they are doing here. But the verses cascade into a beautiful, flowing melody in the chorus that lift the song above generic boyband drek and into something a little more. The singers aren't anything special, and there's nothing to the lyrics, but it's all about the melody here, boys. [8/10]

5. Katharine McPhee - "Home"
Daughtry and McPhee both have songs called "Home" on their debut albums? Whatever. McPhee's is way better. This is an extremely pretty song without much of a melody, but unlike BBMak, Kat DOES have the vocal strength to knock it outta the park. It's a love song, with lyrics that aren't groundbreaking, but feature several very nice turns of phrase. And the plinking piano line underpins the song with a touch of class and keeps it from going off the rails. A very light drum kicks in on the chorus, adding a slight beat to the whole affair. The instruments slowly build up throughout the chorus and in subsequent choruses until eventually the entire song is soaring and kicking. It's very lovely one it's all kicked in, and rather than beat you over the head with it right from the start, they build it up gradually, almost imperceptably. And before you know it it's kicking around under the vocal line and adding power to her declaration of love. Katharine has a great voice. American Idol ballad is never a good sign, and it deservedly has a horrible reputation of being treacly, over the top, and cliched. Cliched I'll give you but this is very nicely restrained and Katharine knows better than to inject too much emotion into the vocals (if anything, the opposite is the problem). A superior ballad. [8/10].

Just five songs for today folks. Gotta get back to Hilary, Avril, and Miranda! (all 3 are great).

Back from the Grave

Just wanted to bump that damn American Idol post off the top of the page, staring and laughing at me. In reality, I haven't had internet connection at home for the past 10 days, which explains the lack of posts. I've had a couple ideas for posts in the interim, so expect some action over the next few days. I won't make any promises, per se, because I've made enough failed promises on this blog already. OK, to steal an idea blatantly from Frank K, here are my top 10 singles of 2007 thus far (an attempt to redeem this post slightly):

1. Natasha Bedingfield - "Babies": Completely mental lyrics, the "Babies, babies, babies, babies" part is completely bonkers, the main hook is "mm mm mm mm mm mm" (Crash Test Dummies!) and the whole thing never really comes together. But it's still brilliant! Good misdirection to the chorus (lyrically), where it seems like it's gonna be a simple declaration of love. Lyrics are funny and great.

2. Toby Keith - "High Maintenance Woman": Hilarious! "A high maintenance woman don't want no maintenance man". Great vocals, as always. Toby Keith has shown a remarkable knack for writing lyrics with funny lyrics and extremely catchy melody, and this goes right in that vein (erm, "As Good As I Once Was", "I Love This Bar", et al). Main hook can get stuck in your head for days, but in a good way! Right up there with Toby Keith's best work. If he can combine great hit singles like this with the remarkable consistency of White Trash With Money perhaps we can get a great album from the guy.

3. My Chemical Romance - "Famous Last Words": It starts out fairly standard, but ends up being nothing short of a genuine rock epic, weaving about 3 or 4 different, equally big, parts together with a great deftness, and all 3 or 4 parts are great, especially the main chorus! It sneaks up on you, but once it hits, it hits hard: emo-rock has met its peak with this song.

[The top 3 songs are all so close in quality and so different that there's no meaningful separation between them. I've listed them like this, but I keep changing my mind! In any event they are all equal, and will likely all be in my Top 20 or close to it.]

4. Vanessa Hudgens - "Say OK": A beautiful ballad. After "Come Back to Me" I had basically, unfairly, written off her entire musical career, but this song knocked me out. A great vocal performance from Baby V here, as her piercing voice just adds a lot of beauty here. Not much going on in the lyrics here, but I can forgive it for the catchiness and prettiness.

5. Hilary Duff - "With Love": It was hyped that the new Hilary Duff album would be more Eurodance, but this sounds like a pretty standard American R&B song to me. Hilary’s voice is filling out as she gets older, but it’s still remarkably thin. But in any event, it’s a super catchy song with a great and original melody, and that forgives all manner of sins. Markedly inferior, however, to “Play With Fire”.

6. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Catch You": This sounds appealingly like an electro cover of a great Blondie song that never was. Nice lyrics/music synergy here as this song just SOUNDS like the soundtrack to a high-energy chase. The catchiest melody and music of the brief year to this point and great stalkerish lyrics make this a refreshingly original pop tune that puts a good start on 2007, after British pop's rather weak 2006. (Kickass video too)

7. Ashley Tisdale - "He Said, She Said": Ashley's not a very strong singer, which does hurt this song a bit, but the production and main hook are so catchy they can overcome it. Ashley's album was really inconsistent, but the best of it is quite good indeed. And this is her best effort.

8. Christina Aguilera - "Candyman": Normally I don't go much for the retro sound, but I dig the crazy lyrics here a lot, and that plus the hook are enough for me. And the video! So, yeah, it's rather simplistic and maybe even a bit annoying, but it's my second favorite song on Xtina's last album, and this is one of her best vocal performances ever. She totally sells the ridiculousness of the song.

9. Katharine McPhee - "Over It": The song has the same songwriters and the exact same general sound as Jojo’s “Too Little, Too Late”, which makes it easy to dismiss. But it also has a great melody, conveying the sadness of the lyrics very well. Alas, the lyrics and vocal performance aren’t quite up to the wistful beauty of the music, but they are still pretty good and that “Too Little, Too Late” formula just works so well that it can drive at least a few more great songs. Still the best "Over It" of the year.

[All songs above this comment are 8/10 or better...songs 1-3 are 9/10 and will strongly contend for top 2o singles of the year, songs 4-8 are 8/10 and will strongly contend for top 50 singles of the year. What really separates the 8/10 songs from the 9/10 songs here is lyrics.]

10. Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend": I want to like it more than I do but the whole thing bugs me. I like the lyrics a lot, but the main hook is kind annoying and I dislike the video so much that it is seriously hampering my enjoyment of the song. Well below the level of Avril's best work ("Complicated", "My Happy Ending", "He Wasn't", et al). But obviously, I still like the song, or else it wouldn't be up here.

I Am So Totally "Over It"

Today's new brand of smart, confident, self-assured solo teenpop female artist isn't bogged down by guy issues. Maybe the guy strung them along or hurt them at one point, but by now they are completely over it. How do I know this? They can't stop telling us! All three of the major solo female teenpop albums this year (maybe I'm missing some, but these are the only three I know of) contain songs called "Over It": Katharine McPhee by Katharine McPhee (in fact, "Over It" is the lead single on this album), Headstrong by Ashley Tisdale, and No Ordinary Girl by Jordan Pruitt. In this post, I will review all 3 songs.

KATHARINE MCPHEE - "OVER IT"
The Artist: Katharine McPhee, runner up on season five of American Idol, whose debut album Katharine McPhee, featuring lead single "Over It", was released in January 2007.
Songwriters: Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Ruth-Anne Cunningham
She's Totally Over...: The pain she felt over a guy who leads her on while not ever really having feelings for her.

The Song: Alexander, Steinberg, and Cunningham were the exact same trio who wrote Jojo's "Too Little, Too Late" (my #14 single of 2006), and it's good to see them branch out into new and different things. Because this song is totally different, and nothing at all alike that Jojo hit. OK, clearly, as even the most casual observer could tell, the two songs are very, very similar. Kat was my favorite on American Idol 5, and not JUST because of her looks, I thought she was a great singer too. Her voice sounds a bit lifeless and generic on record, which is disappointing, and it's shrouded in electronic effects in the chorus, which I wish they hadn't done. Nevertheless, it's got a great melody, and that "Too Little Too Late" formula just works so well that it can drive at least a few more great songs. Lyrics are a bit generic, actually somewhat like a toothless Kelly Clarkson lyric. But there are some good lines in there. It's the type of song I'm a sucker for, in any event, because rather than go for a bitter "You suck and I'm over you" vibe, it goes for a subtle, wistful "I'm over THE PAIN" vibe, that has a lot of melodrama to it. Now it doesn't quite hit that lyrically, but it definitely hits it musically, which is close enough for me.

Convincingness That She Is, In Fact, Over It: 5/10. She doesn't seem to be singing with very much conviction, and she seems a bit too wistful talking about the old days. Needs a little more time.
Final Rating: 8/10
Listen: Katharine McPhee - "Over It"


ASHLEY TISDALE - "OVER IT"
The Artist: Ashley Tisdale, who was in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and then, famously, High School Musical. Her debut album, Headstrong, was released on February 6th, and was surprisingly good. I will post more on the album as a whole later.
The Songwriters: Michael "Smidi" Smith, Ashley Tisdale, Bryan Todd
She's Totally Over...: A cheating boyfriend.

The Song: The song has extremely simple pop accompaniment to it, and is one of the less R&B and more bubblegum songs on Ashley's album. It's also one of the better songs. The central problem to this song is that the verses, bridge, and production are all rather boring without much going on. But, it's got a great chorus, great biting lyrics, and features one of Ashley's best, most assured, vocal performances on the whole album. Lyrically, it's an extremely simple account of ditching a cheating boyfriend for the web of lies, etc., but it does the job and has the right amount of bite to it. OK, but while McPhee's song is about being over the PAIN of being in a bad relationship, Ashley's is about being over the relationship itself. A subtle but key difference. Wimpy lyrics go well with the wistful melody of McPhee's song while the confident melody of this goes well with confident lyrics, so all is right with the world.
Convincingness That She Is, In Fact, Over It: 8/10. Not much doubt here that she's going back to that guy. Whereas I get the impression that McPhee would go running back if that guy ever could show he really can commit, Tisdale doesn't seem to want to go back at all. But, the vocal performance is the slightest bit weak and wavering, so it gets less than full marks.
Final Rating: 7/10. Could have been great, if they had spent more time fleshing the whole thing out.
Listen: Ashley Tisdale - "Over It" <--- For a limited time only! JORDAN PRUITT - "OVER IT" The Artist: Jordan Pruitt, a particular favorite of the TCR, whose initial album No Ordinary Girl was released on February 6, 2007.
The Songwriters: Keith Thomas, Robin Scoffield, Jordan Pruitt
She's Totally Over...: The boyfriend who broke her heart and now wants her back. Not unlike "Gone"

The Song: Like I've come to expect from Jordan Pruitt's songs, this has a nice lyrical content that's a bit more dense than it might seem on first glance. The first verse details the normal problems with the relationships (boyfriend not invested, lying, etc etc), and as that passes and they get into the chorus ("I've had enough and I'm not looking back/I'm over it, I'm over it") it seems very similar to the Tisdale song, a casting off of a bad boyfriend. But in this case, it adds a separate wrinkle, first hinted to in the chorus with the line ("You broke my heart/Gonna break yours back"), which just hints at what's to come, but leaves you wondering. Great line. Then, as the song continues on, they go into how the boyfriend wants her back, and since she's had time to reflect and now realizes he was a crappy boyfriend she's not gonna take him back. You go girl. So once again, it takes a simple concept, complicates it a little, and fills it with great lines. And Jordan is a really great singer, one of the best teenpop singers I've heard in a long, long time. The problem is, as always with non-"Outside Looking In" Thomas/Scoffield/Pruitt songs [EDIT: Actually this one is a Thomas/Kipley/Pruitt song, not Scoffield], with the melody and musicality of the song itself. It's just uninteresting and unoriginal musically. There's a great album inside Jordan, an album full of "Outside Looking In"s, but she needs to unleash it. Else, she'll just be releasing a bunch of near great, songs with great lyrics and performance to them, like this one.
Convincingness That She Is, In Fact, Over It: 10/10. The guy blew his shot. Jordan says so.
Final Rating: 6/10. Not a bad song, by any stretch, but still a bit disappointing
Listen: Jordan Pruitt - "Over It"


I will, of course, keep you apprised of any future female stars who are over things in the future. (Avril has a song called "Get Over It", but it's not exactly the same, and that's a few years ago anyways. Actually, now that I think of it, "Get Over It" and "Over It" are almost opposite titles).