1. Lady GaGa - "Bad Romance"
Back when she released "Lovegame," by far her worst and most forgettable single to date, I wrote "There’s always been some little fear in the back of my mind that GaGa might actually make a song I’d love in spite of myself at some point," breathing a sigh of relief that I'd dodged that bullet for the time being. But here we are, a couple singles later, and she went and made one I totally fucking love. Sure, it's structurally identical to "Poker Face," and the video's got the same kind of mish mash of ridiculous fashion and batshit imagery that I was laughing at at the VMA's a few months ago, but her ability is finally catching up with her ambition to make capital letters Pop Music, and she's just straight stunting with shit like the crazy delivery of the nonsense chant, the quiet pre-chorus that's secretly the best part of the song, and the way the video keeps building and building energy and upping the ante until the last minute or so is just explosive.

2. Ludacris - "How Low"
Ludacris is the kind of rapper that begs to be described as a 'great singles artist' (although I'm obviously willing to make the argument that his first album's a classic), but really ask yourself, what was the last great solo single he released? No guest spots allowed. Because while I will stump for "Pimpin' All Over The World," I gotta say that the last one that I can say he totally knocked out of the park is "Move Bitch," and that was 7 years ago. But man this song is fucking awesome, really is the closest thing to "What's Your Fantasy" that he's ever made since then, but with its own weird groove and goofy pitched-up sample, and I love the way this big cheesy rave synth comes in just for a few bars, to function as a transition into the chorus, instead of this being another straight up techno rap hit.

3. Jeremih - "Break Up To Make Up"
After "Imma Star" got me open and made me think that maybe this Jeremih kid is better than I gave him credit for when "Birthday Sex" hit, here he is with another great if underperforming follow-up. I love how gentle and buoyant this song's groove is, I've bopped along on the couch with James in my arms to this song multiple times, and I can verify that this is a great song to dance with your newborn baby to. His whole album is pretty good, his producer Mick Shultz is ridiculously versatile, and listening to Jeremih's sweeter, more earnest songs, you realize that the kid really clearly learned to sing by listening to Stevie Wonder, and is much more suited for songs like this than the smarmy seduction of "Birthday Sex."

4. Mario - "Thinkin' About You"
Mario's new album is kinda subpar, but man this song is just beautiful, the perfect kind of warm bubbly midtempo to make use of his vocal tone. Good to see him breaking the reality show curse, even if it took a song as shitty as "Break Up."

5. Owl City - "Fireflies"
I wouldn't even call "Bad Romance" a guilty pleasure because I really fucking love it, but this song I'm really gonna sheepishly defend here on the grounds that that "planet earth moves slowwwwwwwly" part is a really massive hook. This was one of those weird situations where the song got to #1 before I even heard it, and it'd been so talked about and hated on by the time I heard it that I was ready to just go with the flow, since I didn't even like the real Postal Service that much. But let's be real: "Such Great Heights" is just as embarrassingly twee as this, and this guy sounds about as much like Ben Gibbard as Gibbard sounds like Doug Martsch (swear to god, the first couple times I heard "Cath..." last year I kept thinking "wow, why is Built To Spill on the radio?").

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 08, 2009 at 11:03 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.