1. One Direction - "What Makes You Beautiful"
As far as the whole silly 'return of the boy bands' goes, I'm finding myself strangely partisan about One Direction over The Wanted (or over the new Bieber or Carly Rae Jepsen, if we're extending the umbrella to new teenpop hits). "Glad You Came" sounds exactly like all the other monotone four-on-the-floor songs on pop radio, but "What Makes You Beautiful" has that kind of shamelessly corny harmony-driven euphoria that boy bands exist to provide. I like those big triplet beats at the end of the chorus, too.

2. J. Cole f/ Missy Elliott - "Nobody's Perfect"
There's something really bittersweet and discomforting about anticipating a Missy Elliott comeback because on one hand, yes she's great and she deserves to have some success and she's not that far removed from the current trends, but on the other hand, who is there for her to collaborate with that isn't pretty far beneath her? Considering that some of her first big cameos over the past year were with Katy Perry and Demi Lovato, hooking up with J. Cole isn't even that bad. Nonetheless, this song has no right to be as good as it is, and is a shockingly effective reminder at how good Missy is as straightforward R&B. Cole's gorgeous beat almost makes up for his dumbass rhymes, and her hook just elevates the whole thing. Been wanting this to be a single since the album dropped.

3. Gotye f/ Kimbra - "Somebody That I Used To Know"
In general the fun./Foster The People indie pop chart crossover wave of the last year or so is very much not my thing, but this song has grown on me with its simple direct appeal. Also there's just something entertainingly unexpected about a worldwide pop hit with a backing track that soudns like it's straight out of an '80s Tom Waits album. And that Kimbra basically looks and sounds like Katy Perry.

4. Kelly Clarkson - "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)"
Kelly has done and probably will do much better than this, but she's still a class act and this song is as good as anything else in pop radio heavy rotation. Also I like referring to this song by its originally released title because I think it's lame that they flipped the paranthetical so it's now "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," although both are awkward as hell and I could do without any more pop songs trading in that particular cliche.

5. Tyrese - "Stay"
A really lovely little sleeper hit that's been on the R&B charts forever that I've neglected to put in this space. I remember first seeing Tyrese as a VJ on MTV before he had a song out and always had a hard time thinking of him as a credible R&B singer but he's had a pretty decent career when he's not making terrible Transformers movies and whatnot.

6. Estelle - "Thank You"
Another solid R&B radio slow burner from a singer I've never really cared for, although Estelle's delivery is a little less annoying here than it usual is for me. This song has a real Sade vibe.

7. Adele - "Set Fire To The Rain"
A little Adele goes a long way for me, and this is no "Rolling In The Deep," but it's grown on me, usually don't turn it off when it comes on the radio.

8. Lee Brice - "A Woman Like You"
I've been listening to more and more country radio lately and this is one of those really unrepentantly sappy songs that just gets to me now and again.

9. Wale f/ Lloyd - "Sabotage"
Wale's whole career is a big confused confusing shitshow, but to the extent that he has any idea who he is or what his music is about, he's pretty committed to these soft spoken sub-LL love raps. And while he's the worst thing about those songs, I do give him credit for making singles with some of my favorite cats in the R&B game right now: Jeremih, Miguel and now Lloyd. This is probably the one that most sounds like the hook singer's song with occasional and fairly unobtrusive Wale appearances.

10. Mary J. Blige f/ Drake - "Mr. Wrong"
Yet another song with Drake that'd be ten times better without Drake on it, although he's at least more of a familiar distraction than Wale, for whatever that's worth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 9:11 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.