1. Pitbull - "Hotel Room Service"
I initially dismissed this as part of Pit's recent hot streak of hits that have left me cold, but it's really grown on me in the last few weeks, great big obnoxious hook. Also, on an eye candy level this is probably the best video of the year.

2. Trey Songz f/ Fabolous - "Say Aah"
My favorite single of the year, Jamie Foxx's "Blame It," is ostensibly part of the endless T-Pain hit parade, piggybacking on trends more than starting any, but the swing of the song's groove has made it kind of distinct from other stuff on the radio, with its own uniquely addictive appeal. So it was just a matter of time before someone piggybacked on that, and here we have a weird offbrand Swizz Beatz soundalike version of "Blame It" with a much looser, louder feel, a similar drunken lyrical theme, a nearly identical chorus, and Fab's verse even referencing "Blame It." I'm kind of pleasantly surprised that this is getting the big push as MMTS's next video while the more goofily memorable but less catchy "LOL :)" and "I Invented Sex" are getting more airplay.

3. Alicia Keys - "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart"
I used to think that if there's anyone in hip hop or R&B right now that's recession-proof, and relatively immune to release date delays and multiple lead singles and all that kind of desperate industry maneuvering, it'd be Alicia Keys. But maybe I was wrong, given the way "Doesn't Mean Anything" kind of landed with a thud and the album got pushed back a couple weeks with the follow-up rushed out already. Thing is, I thought that song was perfectly nice (even if it didn't scream 'hit'), and that she's been on kind of a hot streak lately between wriing "Million Dollar Bill" and being the only reason "Empire State of Mind" is tolerable. Sure, she's kind of a bore and probably deserving of a backlash, and The Element Of Freedom is the most eye-rollingly Alicia Keys-y album title ever, but this song is still pretty good and there'll probably be more like it on there.

4. Dead By Sunrise - "Crawl Back In"
I really had no expectation that a hard rock side project with Chester from Linkin Park would yield anything good, since the parts in LP songs with him screaming over chunky guitar riffs are only listenable when balanced out with bleepy techno pop and Shinoda Ice raps. But oddly enough, this is catchy as hell. Plus it's funny for a guy whose big breakthrough hit was called "Crawling" to make a song called "Crawl Back In" like it's a sequel or something.

5. Keri Hilson - "I Like"
Keri's album has done well enough at home, but weirdly enough my least favorite single from it, "Knock You Down," became some kind of huge international hit, going top 10 in a bunch of different countries. And that's the only reason I can figure that she apparently has a new single out from the soundtrack for some German movie called Zweiohrküken. Hopefully it'll get promoted domestically with some project, whether a new album or whatever, too, because it's really good and catchy, kind of on the more dancepop side of things but not shitty like "Return The Favor."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 at 9:25 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.