1. Nickelback - “This Afternoon”
Nickelback is, improbably, pretty much the only major act in American pop music left that can keep pushing its 8th single off an album more than a year and a half after its release date, without the need of a deluxe version or remixes or anything to entice the marketplace. And there’s something canny about waiting this long to release this as a single, given that it’s kind of uncommonly good-natured -- most Nickelback hits are dour power ballads, and the ones that aren’t are usually tough guy hard rockers with lyrics that sound like they’re narrating a coke-fueled date rape. This is their unlikely attempt at a summer jam, and it totally works, with the goofy CMT-looking video and the shamelessly glossy Mutt Lange production that all the other Dark Horse singles kind of wasted. So far this song is on a lot of pop and adult contempo charts, but not any rock charts, which isn’t uncommon for Nickelback’s more accessible singles, but kind of surprising just because I have been hearing this song a lot on my local rock stations.

2. Lady Gaga - "Alejandro"
So I guess this is the 2nd Lady Gaga single I gotta give props to, although I still like it about 100th as much as "Bad Romance" and it's not that much better than some of the earlier singles I turned my nose up at, and the video is a huge drab drag. Still, huge huge chorus. If I'd taken Spanish in high school and they called me Alejandro I'd probably like this song more, but since I took French I'm still waiting for a pop song called "Alixandre."

3. J. Cole - "Who Dat?"
J. Cole is one of those guys who's in the weird position in rap of nobody really giving a fuck who he was until Jay-Z signed him, so a lot of the attention he's getting is just kind of the cynical waiting to see if he's the new Memphis Bleek or what. And there was also the kind of uncomfortable thing where people kept comparing him to Drake seemingly more because he's light-skinned than because of anything about his music. Either way, it turns out he's one of these Little Brother/Jay Electronica type northern-sounding southern rappers, but his single is surprisingly good. It's at most the 3rd or 4th best rap song called "Who Dat," but still.

4. Green Day - "Last Of The American Girls"
Despite the fact that I have more of a stomach for current mainstream rock than almost any critic I know and just gave props to a fucking Nickelback song, there are some bands whose creative direction in recent years just totally makes me barf, like Green Day from American Idiot onwards, which has totally sapped them of the humor and energy and rubbery rhythm section that made them any good to begin with. I was so appalled by the couple people I know who liked 21st Century Breakdown that I really grudgingly will even admit that with the 4th single off the album they've finally got a really catchy one that I'm starting to like a lot. Also the girl in the video is so hot.

5. Sade - "Babyfather"
I already talked about how much this song makes me smile on Singles Jukebox, but yeah, this is nice, one of my favorites on the album, makes a good single.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 8:11 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.