Simon
Go Back
SJ
12/7/2011 7:15:32 PM
Rolling Stone magazine has released their list of the 50 best singles from the past year, which you can check out below. Do you agree with their choices??
50. Red Hot Chili Peppers, 'Adventures of Raindance Maggie' 49. Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 'Heart In Your Heartbreak' 48. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, 'The Death of You and Me' 47. Atlas Sound, 'Mona Lisa' 46. Mr. M******in’ eXquire et al., 'The Last Huzzah' 45. Cass McCombs, 'The Same Thing' 44. The Joy Formidable, 'The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie' 43. Hayes Carll, 'KMAG YOYO' 42. Eleanor Friedberger, 'My Mistakes' 41. Coldplay, 'Paradise' 40. Girls, 'Vomit' 39. EMA, 'California' 38. Middle Brother, 'Blue Eyes' 37. Nas, 'Nasty' 36. Tom Waits, 'Satisfied' 35. R.E.M., 'We All Go Back To Where We Belong' 34. Das Racist, 'Girl' 33. Beastie Boys (Feat. Santigold), 'Don't Play No Games That I Can't Win' 32. Tune-Yards, 'Bizniss' 31. Killer Mike, 'Ric Flair' 30. Eric Church, 'Springsteen' 29. Adele, 'Rumour Has It' 28. Dawes, 'Million Dollar Bill' 27. Lady Gaga, 'You and I' 26. Miranda Lambert, 'Mama's Broken Heart' 25. Lykke Li, 'Youth Knows No Pain' 24. Smith Westerns, 'Weekend' 23. Tyler, the Creator, 'Yonkers' 22. Bon Iver, 'Holocene' 21. Paul Simon, 'The Afterlife' 20, Jay-Z and Kanye West, 'Welcome to the Jungle' 19. Lucinda Williams, 'Blessed' 18. Black Keys, 'Little Black Submarines' 17. Wilco, 'I Might' 16. Fleet Foxes, 'Lorelai' 15. TV on the Radio, 'You' 14. Sleeper Agent, 'Get It Daddy' 13. My Morning Jacket, 'Circuital' 12. Lloyd feat. Andre 3000 and Lil Wayne, 'Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)' 11. Foster the People, 'Pumped Up Kicks'
10. The Decemberists, 'Don't Carry It All'
The Portlanders streamline their sound with a broad-shouldered groove, Tom Petty harmonica and an impossibly pretty roots-folk melody the Band might have dreamt up in 1968.
Backed by psychedelic synth burble and a "Banana Boat (Day-O)" sample, Wayne emerges from lockdown with four minutes of id-spew, meditating on death and dropping his cleverest line ever: "Real G's move in silence like lasagna."
A triumphal love song, slathered in crazy sauce: marching-band drums, backward-counting backup singers, honking horns and that weird-ass "boof-boof!" hook.
The year's best arena jam: schlock-disco thunder that sounds like a million little monsters pounding Four Loko on Mount Olympus. Only Clarence Clemons could provide the brilliantly unnecessary sax solo that truly fires it into orbit.
6. Radiohead, 'Lotus Flower'
A warped love ballad in the style Radiohead defined on Amnesiac, but with a decade's worth of bonus misery – plus fractured loops, tons of bass and Thom Yorke's ghostly ache.
Simon introduces us to a hard-luck Vietnam vet who's apparently revising a screenplay – and wishing he could do the same to his life. The story is so empathetic and vividly told, it's like we've known the guy for years.
Dave Grohl cuts a tough, tender rock ballad Kurt could have admired: quietly moving verses followed by a cathartic, heartbroken chorus surrounded by a halo of guitar fuzz.
Brit delivers the Apocalypse Now of Eurotrash electrotrance disco songs, as that throbbing pulse builds to a pure drop-the-bomb chorus. And that "whoa-ho-ho" choir sounds like Cher leading an aircraft carrier full of gay sailors.
The year's most intense throwdown – minimalist thunder pegged to a tweedling synth line that seemed to taunt potential haters. The lyrics are full of opulence ("gold bottles" rhymes with "scold models"), but this is no breezy highlife jam: Kanye barks about wilding out in France, while Jay imagines the dark fate that could have awaited him had he not become Jay-Z.
The biggest hit from the biggest album of the year is a breakup scorcher to beat all breakup scorchers, with Adele slinging bolts of regretful scorn amid gospel-tinged stomp and a gaggle of soul-sister backup singers. This is brokenhearted music that makes you feel like taking on the world – crackling with quiet menace in the intro, then slowly building to that gut-punch refrain of "We could have had it all!" How did such an old-school soul song dominate the charts next to Gaga and Katy Perry? Maybe it's the hint of hip-hop venom you hear amid the blues-steeped storminess when Adele tells her ex-lover she'll "lay your shit bare." Maybe it's that certain emotions – especially when channeled through a voice this powerful – will always seem timeless.