1. Beyoncé - "Love On Top"
I've written several times now about the up-and-down critical and commercial fortunes of the singles from 4, especially my personal favorite, the Pazz & Jop-celebrated "Countdown." But "Love On Top" has long been a 2nd-favorite, and it says a lot about its slow sleeper hit status that Beyoncé announced her pregnancy with that incredible VMA performance of the song over 5 months ago, and the track is just now peaking on the R&B charts well after the birth of Blue Ivy Carter. Every time I hear the song on the radio or on the album, though, I wish it didn't fade out, the full stop of the live performances and the video version works much better.

2. Sleeper Agent - "Get It Daddy"
For what's felt like maybe almost 6 months now, I've let this song grow on me as it's made a persistent little-engine-that-could climb up rock radio playlists, where it first annoyed me, then intrigued me, mostly because I had no idea who it was by -- as it turns out some band from Kentucky that's friends with the depressingly successful Cage The Elephant. At one point "Get It Daddy" seemed to be gaining steam and getting picked up on more stations, but then it seemed to stall and disappear (it peaked at No. 24 on the Alternative chart a while back). Good song, though, I like all the spastic tempo changes.

3. Miguel - "Girls Like You"
All I Want Is You has already yielded three of the biggest (and best) R&B radio hits of the past year and a half, so it feels almost greedy to want a fourth, but goddamn I love this song and get excited every time I hear it on the radio.

4. Montgomery Gentry - "Where I Come From"
I've always had a soft spot for these guys, and hadn't really checked for them in a few years, so I'm pleased that their latest hit is practically a retread of my favorite earlier single, "My Town."

5. Switchfoot - "Dark Horses"
The kind of mainstream rock radio fodder nobody really cares about or even knows of enough to hate on like Nickelback, but I've slowly come around to appreciate this band as a consistent singles act, they're a weirdly rare halfway point between alt-rock and total caveman neo-grunge.

6. Big Sean f/ Nicki Minaj - "Dance (A$$)"
Oh yeah, I decided to start doing 10 singles a month instead of 5, although I'm not sure if I'll stick with it permanently or whether I'll do 10 albums too, time will tell. I resisted putting this song here for months because I wanted to be anti-Big Sean with no exceptions and I already had more Minaj in my year-end singles list that I was really comfortable with, but OK, I do listen to this every time it comes on the radio. Kind of like "Super Hoe," too, seems like ever since doing that song over Soulja Boy's "Donk" Nicki has made these stomping clap-snare beats her unofficial signature sound.

7. J. Cole - "Work Out"
Cole is only slightly more tolerable than Big Sean as a newly minted major label rap star and is getting less tolerable every day, but this song is alright. It really puts the post-Kanye mainstream rap wave in a nutshell that when these guys want to do a funky vocoder jam they sample "The New Workout Plan" instead of Zapp & Roger or something.

8. 2 Chainz - "Spend It"
Another (kinda) new rapper who I like without any real reservations, but I've never been a huge fan of his big breakout hit. But it's appropriate that it's slowly grown on me since it's just now peaking almost a full year after it was originally release (literally -- Codeine Cowboy dropped on February 22nd of last year). It's still kind of annoying and both 2 Chainz and Drumma Boy can do better, but I like the weird structure of it, the way it starts with him whispering the hook, then doing a little singsong 4 bar verse, then ramping up the intensity to the first proper chorus and verse at full volume.

9. Blink 182 - "After Midnight"
What I've always loved about Blink 182's self-titled 2003 pre-breakup album is the tension of this supposed garden variety pop punk band trying to shoehorn all these other influences in, from drum'n'bass to The Cure. Their reunion album isn't nearly as good, but it occasionally has flashes of that kind of awkward but inspired fusion, like on this song when Mark and Tom are trying to do a wistful John Hughes soundtrack thing and Travis is dilligently trying to play Lex Luger-style hi-hat patterns on a live drumset.

10. 50 Cent f/ Tony Yayo - "I Just Wanna"
After all the promises of 50 Cent's next single being a Jeremih collab that will probably sound exactly like "Down On Me," it was refreshing to hear this big goofy Kool & The Gang sample and a verse from everyone's favorite least favorite weed carrier. The way Yayo says "I certainly do" always cracks me up and makes me think of the time Poochie looked like he had something to say. Some smart people have sworn up and down that 50's released a lot of great music under the radar the last couple years, and I really just don't care about him enough to investigate it, but I'll take this.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 3:42 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.