Best of 2011 - Pop Music

What is "pop" music, really? I'm not really sure, so you should seriously question my choices for top 10 pop songs of 2011. Some of these songs are arguably electronic/synth-pop, folk, R&B or hip-hop. You decide...

1. Call It What You Want | Foster the People | Torches.



2. Keep A Secret | The Whitest Boy Alive | Rules.



3. Times Like These | Jack Johnson | On and On.



4. Shadows On Behalf | The Stepkids | The Stepkids.



5. Safety Dance | The Asteroids Galaxy Tour | The Golden Age - EP.



6. Yes 2 | Sonnymoon.

No video available -- Click here to listen.

7. Amor Fati | Washed Out | Within and Without.  < Best Song of 2011 Candidate > 



8. The State We're In | The Chemical Brothers | Come With Us.



9. The Wilhelm Scream | James Blake | James Blake.



10. Glass Table Girls | The Weeknd | House of Balloons. < Best Song of 2011 Candidate >

Best of 2011 - Vintage Music

Here are my picks for the best classics and rare groves (i.e., anything older than 10 years) that I re-discovered in 2011. Please note that instead of the album, I'm listing the music genre. I'm waaaaaay too lazy to look up the albums...

1. Something About Us | Daft Punk | Electronic.



2. Love Magic | Deodato | Disco.



3. Just Kissed My Baby | The Meters | Funk.



4. You Are What I'm All About | New Birth | Funk.



5. Underground | David Bowie | Pop.



6. You Caught Me Smilin' Again | Nineteenth Whole | R&B.



7. Open Your Eyes | Bobby Caldwell | R&B.



8. Fool's Paradise | Meli'Sa Morgan | R&B.



9. For What It's Worth | The Voices of East Harlem | R&B.



10. Violent Love | Oingo Boingo | New Wave.



11. For Belgian Friends | The Durutti Column | Pop.



12. Girlfriend Is Better | Talking Heads | New Wave.



13. The Worst Band In The World | 10cc | Rock.



14. Hit or Miss | Bo Diddley | Blues.



15. I'll Do My Best For You | The Ritchie Family | Disco.



16. Bonita Applebum (Hootie Mix) | A Tribe Called Quest | Hip-Hop.



17. Goody Two Shoes | Adam Ant | Rock.



18. Oooh | De La Soul ft. Redman | Hip-Hop.



19. Promises, Promises | Naked Eyes | New Wave.



20. Intimate Connection | Kleeer | Funk.

Best of 2011 - R&B Music

Here are my picks for the best R&B songs I came across in 2011:

1. More & More | Georgia Anne Muldrow ft. Bilal | Owed to Mama Rickie. < Best Song of 2011 Candidate >



2. Flaws and All | Beyonce | B'Day.



3. Oh, Maker | Janelle Monae | The ArchAndroid. < Best Song of 2011 Candidate >



4. Supernatural | King | The Story.



5. Champagne Life | Ne-Yo.



6. Better Things | Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings | I Learned the Hard Way. < Best Song of 2011 Candidate >



7. Love, Come Save the Day | Yahzarah | The Ballad of Purple Saint James.



8. SLEEP | Coco O | HomeBase Presents Live At The Clubhouse Vol. 1.



9. The Cure | Slakah the Beatchild | Something Forever.



10. Play | Goapele | Break of Dawn.

Best of 2011 - Hip-Hop Music

And now for my top 10 hip-hop songs of 2011:

1. Who Loves You More | Phonte ft. Eric Roberson | Charity Starts at Home. < Best Song of 2011 Candidate >



2. Cold Game | Snoop Dogg ft. Latoiya Williams | Doggumentary.  < Best Song of 2011 Candidate > 



3. Be With You | David Banner & 9th Wonder ft. Ludacris & Marsha Ambrosius | Death of a Popstar.



4. Hol' Up | Kendrick Lamar | Section.80.



5. Privacy | MED ft. Steve Arrington.



6. Base for Your Face | Lil B The Based God ft. Jean Grae &  Phonte | Illusions Of Grandeur.



7. Three Sixty | Kaimbr & Kev Brown | The Alexander Green Project.



8. Special | Snoop Dogg ft. Brandy & Pharrell | Malice 'N Wonderland.



9. The Yorker | Von Pea | Pea's Gotta Have It.



10. 5.13.11 | Rapper Big Pooh | Dirty Pretty Things.

Best of 2011 - Rock Music

Welcome back to my annual roundup of music findings for 2011! Just like last year, I'm going to give you my picks from various genres of music. A special thanks goes out to my Music Fan First family, who helped me find some of the best music ever created...

Let's start with my top 5 rock songs of 2011...

1. Mammalian Locomotion | Abbe May | Mammalian Locomotion. < Best Song of 2011 Candidate >



2. All I Wanted | Paramore | Brand New Eyes.



3. Honest Face | Liam Finn + Eliza Jane | Champagne In Seashells EP.



4. VCR | The XX | xx.



5. Lets Call It Off | Drake ft. Peter Bjorn & John | Drake - So Far Gone.

Best of 2010 - Miscellaneous, Honorable Mentions and Albums of the Year

To wrap up 2010, I decided to lump together a few of my favorite dance/house, electronica, folk, jazz and latin songs. Not that these genres don't deserve their own articles, but I'm out of time!

1. Gotta Get Your Love (Kenny Dope Remix) | Gary Davis | Chocolate Star | Dance/Alternative



2. A Sunday Smile | Beirut | The Flying Club Cup | Folk



3. Beauty | Jose James | Blackmagic | Jazz



4. Looks Like Heaven | Peas | Filters | Dance



5. I Walked | Sufjan Stevens | The Age of Adz | Electronica



6. Superstition | Yesterdays New Quintet | Stevie: Instrumental Tribute to Stevie Wonder | Jazz



7. Without You (New Version) | Empire Of The Sun | Walking On A Dream | Dance



8. Drunk Girls (Holy Ghost! Adult Swim Remix) | LCD Soundsystem | Adult Swim Singles Project | Dance/Electronica



9. Space Cowboy | Eve St. Jones | Jazz and '90s | Jazz



10. Cabo Parano | Martin Solveig & Stephy Haik | Cabo Parano | Latin/Dance



11. Young Love (Shoes Mix) | Mystery Jets | Twenty One | Dance


12. Ella Menea (Remix) | NG2 Featuring Julio Voltio | Ella Menea | Salsa



13. Pumpkin Soup | Kate Nash | Made of Bricks | Pop



14. Theorema Del Faya (Tea Party Vocal Mix) | Ian Friday Presents Anto Vitale | Theorema Del Faya (Vinyl) | Dance



15. Like Spinning Plates | Radiohead | Amnesiac | Electronica




Honorable Mentions
I also took a look at the songs that were "left over" and decided to pick my top 10 honorable mentions:

1. Mentira | Marcos Valle | Previsao Do Tempo | Latin/Funk



2. The Rap World | Large Professor ft. Pete Rock | Hip-Hop



3. Crosses | Zero 7 | The Garden | Electronic/Downtempo



4. Dizzy | Y Society | Never Off (On & On) | Hip-Hop



5. Love Rock | Mtume | Kiss This World Goodbye | R&B



6. James Brown | Lmno & Kev Brown | Selective Hearing Part 2 | Hip-Hop



7. Katy Song | Red House Painters | Red House Painters I | Rock



8. Hot Stepper | Ini Kamoze | Reggae



9. Fireworks | Drake | Thank Me Later | Hip-Hop



10. Cry Tough | Dennis Alcapone | Dennis Alcapone's King of Kings | Reggae

Find more artists like Dennis Alcapone at Myspace Music

Albums of the Year (2010)

And last, but not least, here are my albums of 2010--in no particular order.

1. Movies on Demand | Consequence | Hip-Hop
2. Music Fan First | Eric Roberson | R&B
3. Madlib Medicine Show No. 2: Flight to Brazil | Madlib | Latin
4. Leftback | Little Brother | Hip-Hop
5. New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh | Erykah Badu | R&B
6. Lust - Art & Soul. A Personal Collection | Louie Vega | Dance
7. Statik Selektah & Termanology are 1982 | 1982 | Hip-Hop
8. Blackmagic | Jose James | Jazz
9. Wants, World, Women | Dwele | R&B
10. Another Heist | Camp Lo | Hip-Hop

Thanks to everyone for their feedback on my 2010 picks--I definitely picked up a lot of great recommendations from all of you! We'll do it again next year...

Best of 2010 - Vintage Music (pre-2000)

I spend a lot of time "digging in the crates" for classics of all genres. With the advent of the music sampling Android/iPhone app Shazam, my ability to find rare music on the fly has increased 10 fold. So picking my favorite vintage songs (released before 2000) was more difficult than ever, but "here it go"...

1. No Stronger Love | The Floaters | Float On | R&B/Soul. If you dig the Floater's 70's slow jam Float On, then you need to pick up their love ballad No Stronger Love from the same album. Powerful stuff.



2. Up All Night | Boomtown Rats | V Deep | New Wave. I don't recall ever hearing Up All Night during the 80's, but I certainly seemed to hear it everywhere in 2010--by the pool at the Mondrian in Miami, in IKEA, on 80's stations, etc. I was suddenly unable to resist singing the chorus every time I was out in the streets too late.


Boomtown Rats - Up All Night
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3. Soul Food | Goodie Mob | Soul Food | Hip-Hop. Soul Food's metaphor for good music is still tasty today! Totally forgot how ridiculous this track is and how talented Cee Lo was/is even back in the 90's. Why doesn't this song get more play on DJ's old school sets?



4. Front Door | Gregory Isaacs | Love Songs | Reggae. Many of us combed our Gregory Isaacs collections when he passed away last year (R.I.P.), but DJ Ms. Nix put me up on Front Door in her shout out to the "Cool Ruler". Can't seem to stop playing this song...



5. 360 Degrees (What Goes Around) | Grand Puba | Reel To Reel | Hip-Hop. Back in the 80's and 90's, there wasn't a bigger Grand Puba fan than me. After the Masters of Ceremony and Brand Nubian albums, I was so amped to hear Grand Puba Maxwell's solo album and for a change, the product lived up to the hype. I remember staying home to watch the premier of 360 Degrees on Yo! MTV Raps and jumping around the room like a damn psychopath! When I dug up this CD last year and played this song again, it had the same effect! Best line in the song: You know the Flaaaaaav! Yes, I do, Puba. Yes, I do... ;-)



6. Sunshine | Earth Wind & Fire | Gratitude | R&B/Soul. EWF ignites memories of my early childhood, hanging out at my grandparents' house and sneaking into my aunt and uncles' house parties. I distinctly remember the older kids going crazy whenever they threw on an EWF record and that feeling of excitement and adoration has stuck with me over the years. Everyone knows the EWF standards, but Sunshine is a personal favorite that blows my mind every time!



7. Early to Rise | Nice & Smooth | Nice & Smooth | Hip-Hop. While not considered a N&S classic, Early to Rise invokes a memory of cracking the plastic on this CD, anxiously throwing it in the player and absolutely losing my mind when I heard the ill Fat Albert sample, Greg Nice's simplistic and fun banter and finally, Smooth B's lubricated flow. A perfect start to a great 90's hip-hop album! (Can we please talk about the uncomfortable exchange between N&S at the beginning of this video? Hilarious!)



8. Pregnant (Baatin) | Slum Village | Fantastic, Vol. 1 | Hip-Hop. I finally got around to tracking down the elusive first Slum Village album/demo Fantastic Vol. 1 (Vol. 2 was officially released first) and I was surprised how many songs I hadn't heard yet! Most of these songs are snippets and clock in at under 1:30, but Pregnant (Baatin) was too dope to resist! R.I.P. Baatin & Dilla--Slum Village forever.



9. Nao Tem Nado Nao (I and II) | Marcos Valle | Previsao Do Tempo | Bossa Nova. My man Madlib exposed me to the world of Brazilian jazz, bossa nova and funk when he teamed up with Ivan "Mamao" Conti of the Brazilian super-group Azymuth to form the band Jackson Conti. I was listening to Nao Tem Nado Nao by Jackson Conti last year and discovered that it was a cover of an old Marcos Valle bossa nova hit from the 70's. The original, split into two parts--a vocal and an instrumental, is bananas and makes me appreciate the artistic license Jackson Conti took with their cover.





10. Never Stop Loving Me | Curtis Mayfield | Something To Believe In | R&B/Soul. I finally completed my Curtis Mayfield collection last year! Never Stop Loving Me was one of his hits that I was the least familiar with and firmly reminded me why Curtis Mayfield is one of the silkiest, smoothest soul brothas of all time.

Click here to listen to Never Stop Loving Me


11. Invitation | Norman Connors | Invitation | R&B/Soul. After tracking down Mos Def's Brown Sugar, it occurred to me that I wanted to know what song he sampled. That's when I found Invitation, an awesome baby-making jam by Norman Connors (of You Are My Starship fame).



12. Bankrobber | The Clash | Clash on Broadway | Punk | Punk. One of my favorite British gangster movies is RocknRolla and I always wondered: What the hell is that sick reggae-punk song that young Johnny is listening to just before his gangster daddy comes to his room to beat his ass? Ah, The Clash's Bankrobber. That explains it...



13. Similak Child | Black Sheep | A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing | Hip-Hop. I dug out A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing to see if that album was as hot as I remember. Oh, it was. I actually think the classic The Choice Is Yours is average compared to the rest of the album! Similak Child, Black Sheep's ode to shapely women, used to be a favorite of mine back in the day.



14. (Lay Your Head On My) Pillow | Tony! Toni! Tone! | Sons of Soul | R&B/Soul. I always liked Tony! Toni! Tone!, but never quite loved them--except for when they sang (Lay Your Head On My) Pillow. This is the song that began my devotion to Raphael Saadiq's work.



15. Ex Girl to Next Girl | Gang Starr | Daily Operation | Hip-Hop. Like most of you, when Guru passed away, I started diggin' through entire my Gang Starr collection. While Guru blessed many of my favorite songs in my collection, Ex Girl to Next Girl is that Gang Starr classic that I can still recite from start to finish. Perfect lyrics, perfect delivery, perfect production. R.I.P. Keith Elam aka Guru.



16. Oh Bumbo Klaat | Peter Tosh | Wanted Dread And Alive | Reggae. I actually had this strange idea at the beginning of 2010 that maybe Peter Tosh wasn't as great as I remembered. Wrong again. Listening to Oh Bumbo Klaat was like a shock to the system!



17. Baby Be Mine | Michael Jackson | Thriller | R&B/Pop. MJ's Thriller had 9 songs and all 9 are indisputable classics. DJ Ms. Nix reminded me during one her DJ sets that Baby Be Mine was the sleeper on the album!



18. Starálfur | Sigur Rós | Ágætis Byrjun | Electronica/Downtempo. I stumbled onto Starálfur (translation: Staring Elf) while surfing the web and fell in love with it. Sure, they are singing in Icelandic, so I have no idea what Sigur Rós are saying. But it's undeniably beautiful and you should feel free to play this at my funeral.



19. Thorn In My Pride | The Black Crowes | The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion | Rock. I remember listening to the Black Crowes in the 90's and being taken back to my days of living in the Panama Canal Zone, hanging out with the older military kids, and listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Thorn In My Pride is a sweet, Southern rock song that still touches my soul.



20. When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around | Police | Message In A Box | Rock. I was completing my Police collection in 2010 when I ran across When The World is Running Down. While by no means the best Police song, it was a lot funkier than I remember. But could they have come up with a shorter song title?



21. Seedy Films | Soft Cell | Non Stop Erotic Cabaret | New Wave. I thought Soft Cell was a one-hit wonder with Tainted Love, but I was mistaken. They were a two-hit wonder because Seedy Films was fire! I don't remember hearing this song at all as a kid, but I'm glad I finally found it...



22. Trippin' | Adriana Evans | Adriana Evans | R&B/Soul. I remember thinking in 1996 that Adriana Evans was going to be a huge star and I was going to marry her one day. Strangely, neither happened. (She did put out a couple of solid albums after, but without much fanfare.) Trippin' was one of many great songs from her debut album.



23. Nao Vem Que Nao Tem | Wilson Simonal | Samba Soul 70! | Bossa Nova. Another great Brazilian bossa nova discovery by Madlib from his Madlib Medicine Show #2: Flight to Brazil compilation, Nao Vem Que Nao Tem is sexy and irresistible. Is it just me or can you hear this song being played on an Austin Powers' movie soundtrack?



24. Smokey Room | Max Romeo | War Ina Babylon | Reggae. I've had Max Romeo's I Chase the Devil in the iPod since Kanye sampled it for Jay-Z's Lucifer, but never bothered to listen to the rest of the War Ina Babylon album. This is yet another one of my life's many mistakes. Lots of crucial reggae sounds on this album, but Smokey Room was so damn good that I almost ordered a few pounds of Dutch spacecakes!



25. One of These Things First | Nick Drake | Five Leaves Left | Folk. While watching Seven Pounds for the 20th time, I fell in love with a song from the soundtrack called One of These Things First by Nick Drake. Nick's story is a tragic and familiar one and his genius is only being realized today. I would highly advise you to grab all of his albums--they will become treasured items in your music collection.



And with the next article, we will conclude with my favorite dance, electronica, jazz and another other miscellaneous stuff from 2010.