1. Katy Perry - “Teenage Dream”
I already wrote about this on Singles Jukebox, but really this is great, and even though “California Gurls” was just my #1 in this space a couple months ago, this pretty instantly diminishes it by comparison.

2. Sara Bareilles - “King of Anything”
Also already wrote about it on Singles Jukebox, also still think it’s great.

3. Young Jeezy f/ Lil Jon - “Jizzle”
I think Jeezy is kind of important for being pretty much the last really hugely popular rapper who knows how to stay in his lane and isn’t constantly making concessions to R&B radio with his records, but he’s been almost surprisingly committed to dark ugly rap music with the singles for his next album. Usually he has one big crossover record with Akon/R. Kelly/Kanye/etc. per album, and for a while the word was his next single after the popular but incredibly bleak club banger “Lose My Mind” would be with Beyonce, but instead he dropped “All White Everything” and then this, both totally taking the sound of The Recession further in a dark, aggressive direction, and Jeezy even described “Jizzle” as “’Who Dat’ on crack,” Shawty Redd totally amping the sound Lex Luger’s been biting off him lately up to a whole new level. Also fun to hear Lil Jon on a fucking crunk record instead of some LMFAO or 3OH!3 hipster rap bullshit.

4. Switchfoot - “The Sound (John M. Perkins’ Blues)”
These guys are mostly known for their big 2003 adult contemporary grunge hits “Meant To Live” and “Dare You To Move,” but I’ve steadily gained more respect for them with their string of minor hits since then. Part of it’s that they’ve proved to be somewhat chameleonic, at least to the point that I didn’t recognize 2006’s great “Oh! Gravity” or this new song as Switchfoot the first few times I heard them on the radio. Also what I like about this is that it’s kind of interesting to hear an openly Christian rock band do an earnest song about the civil rights movement that sounds nothing like “Pride (In The Name Of Love).”

5. Monica - “Love All Over Me”
This is one of those situations where I’m not sure if it’s the song I like or if I’m just in love with the big weird texture of the snare drum, which is really harsh and cuts through an otherwise kind of pleasantly polite track.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 20, 2010 at 3:22 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.