#5: All of the Lights - Kanye West
The third and final selection from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
, "All of the Lights," explodes following a swollen string section interlude, morphing the album's impeccable middle section, with "Power" leading into "All of the Lights" and swirling off with "Monster." With that, "All of the Lights" is the album's polished core, swimming in blasting drum beats, guest voices, and a daunting platform -- Kanye being able to manipulate his most endearing forces into a breathing example of perfectionism#4: Shutterbugg - Big Boi (ft. Cutty)
"Shutterbugg" is an exemplary sample of what a lot of time and patience can do for a song. As with most of Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
, Big Boi's first (technically) solo work outside of OutKast, "Shutterbugg" was hindered by years and years of delays; the albums first promo single was released in 2007, believe it or not. Regardless, not suffering any Chinese Democracy
type anguish, the delay didn't pull anything back. "Shutterbugg" is a incredibly polished and formed piece that vigorously blends the best of funk and Big Boi's coined southern verse. The wait was probably worth it.Big Boi (ft. Cutty) - Shutterbugg
#3: Fuck You - Cee Lo
Without much of a doubt, "Fuck You" was the feel good single of the year. If I was popular enough to manage a poll, it'd be pretty hard to say that it wouldn't be the fan favorite, what with the Glee covers and multiple video mashups to go along with it. Cee Lo combines all of the interlayering factors that add up to something almost everyone can keen into: nostalgia? Check. Abrasiveness? Check. Universal understanding? Check. Don't be swayed by "Forget You," the toned down radio-friendly version, or even worse, Paltrow style. "Fuck" matters.
Cee Lo - Fuck You
#2: Dancing On My Own - Robyn
I've been totally ignorant of Robyn for the past few years, passively ignoring or just not getting it. I suppose my blatant disregard for what she's been able to do since her late 90s one hit wonder in the States made "Dancing On My Own" that much more important to 2010. It's a deceivingly well-paced dance pop masterwork, combing her invigoratingly melodic prose with an intensely romantic sub-sound into an all-engrossing dance frenzy. But, even with the lightning flash of awe-inspiring sound, Robyn's sense of loveless distance makes it that much more enchanting, disheartening, and, all at once, effortlessly breathtaking.
Dancing On My Own - Robyn
#1: Giving Up the Gun - Vampire Weekend
For one, "Giving Up the Gun" is defiantly unsuspecting: it's a melodic push of Vampire Weekend's strongest aesthetic forces, gleefully bound together in a spur that is almost impossible to categorize. In a way, it's the hardest thing Vampire Weekend ever had to do in their short three year career -- tactfully enclosing on the Ezra's romanticism, and the rest of the bands clever, blindingly thoughtful combination of buzzing bass and drums, strings, chimes, and a splitting mystery key board. "Giving Up the Gun" may end up being this good because it's an unspoken mismatch of multiple components that don't seem to fit well together. But, then again, the best songs usually have that effect.
Vampire Weekend - Giving Up the Gun
I'd like to personally wish everyone a happy 2011. We'll be back soon, kids. Until then.
, "Zebra" perfects the Baltimore duo's ephemeral pop-scoping dream, collectively tying any of the looser knots heard on their 2006 self-titled debut and 2008 LP 
. While "Norway" and "10 Mile Stereo" may have been the beneficiaries of more word of mouth, "Zebra" is Beach House at their core; wildly impossible and poignantly conscious of what they do at their best - endlessly ethereal dream-pop.
most defining moment. With what the album is, as a whole, it seems like "Ready to Start," is a bit of a misnomer, fitting beyond the group's three studio albums. It doesn't conjure the unbridled joy of "Wake Up," the childlike mystery of "Rebellion (Lies)," or the ascending propose of "Intervention," but what it first brings to the band's catalog is the idea of relentlessness - that a band so cued for for tight orchestrations and breathtaking execution can actually sound eager and engaged, and capable of so much more.
brought a bevy of welcomed new approaches for the tiny contemporary pop starlet, namely Monae's casually unnerving approach for bigger and brighter sounds without compromising the integrity of simplistic perfection. "Cold War," behind the "Bombs Over Baghdad" drum roll, evokes strength in Janelle's apparent personal weakness. "If you wanna be free / below the ground's the only place to be," may be a bit bleaker than it sounds coming from Monae's soft, yet booming voice, but that's what sense comes here - the ability to transpose all those ideas in a tight, confound space, brilliantly pieced together.