1. Keith Urban featuring Miranda Lambert - "We Were Us"
Urban and Lambert are both firmly in the middle tier of country stars who I don't feel too strongly about either way; they have undeniable talent and some songs I enjoy but for the most part I'm pretty indifferent. I really love the way their voices intertwine on the chorus of this song, though, and the way it transitions from her on the first verse to him on the second verse. It's just so breezy and shimmering and bright, and then in 3 minutes it's over. Here's the obligatory link to my running favorite 2013 singles Spotify playlist, by the way.

2. Busta Rhymes f/ Q-Tip - "Thank You"
Apparently Q-Tip was talking up this song in interviews over a year ago and saying people should petition to make it Busta's lead single, and now it's finally out, after that "#TwerkIt" garbage dropped and flopped. The rapping on this song is just incredible, intricate and relentless while actually fun to listen to and not bogged down in labored technique (cough Eminem cough). It's just so inspiring to hear these two guys reaffirm their talent and make a great song together more than 20 years after "Scenario," they're really two of my all-time favorites. And it's hilarious that Lil Wayne and Kanye have tacked-on spoken cameos, which was probably the only way Cash Money would release it, because it's painfully obvious those guys are completely incapable of rapping like Busta and Tip do on this song.

3. Kelly Rowland f/ Wiz Khalifa - "Gone"
I've already spent the whole year hyping up Harmony "H-Money" Samuels as my new favorite producer in R&B, mostly for his work on the Fantasia and Ariana Grande albums, but this one was a standout on Kelly's album that I'm glad is now a single. Putting the "Big Yellow Taxi" chorus in an R&B context after "Got Til It's Gone" is borderline unnecessary, but it sounds great in Kelly's voice and the appeal lies mainly in the beat anyway. Wiz Khalifa even drops a little reference to the "Joni Mitchell never lies" bit, but that just kinda underlines what a huge downgrade Q-Tip to Wiz is.

4. Zendaya - "Replay"
Zendaya is apparently a girl on a Disney show and her music is this semi-R&B semi-pop kinda thing, which I guess makes her a little like the next Ariana Grande, although their music isn't really similar. I've been hearing this song a lot on 95.5 in Washington, the same station that played the hell out of Little Mix's "Wings" earlier this year, because they seem to pick up on these random pop records that aren't big anywhere else, but usually good ones. And then I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was produced  by Mick Schultz, who did all the amazing production work on both of Jeremih's albums.

5. Rico Love - "They Don't Know"
I enjoyed the Rico Love EP that Bad Boy dropped in August, but it seemed like such a random release out of nowhere that it didn't even occur to me that one of the songs might pop off as a radio single, which one of the best tracks is now starting to do. It's even one of the tracks where he raps like Ma$e!

6. Robin Thicke f/ Kendrick Lamar - "Give It 2 You"
Back in the spring, when it was clear "Blurred Lines" was going to be a big record for Robin Thicke but there was really no sense of just how big it'd end up, he previewed a new song in a radio interview, produced by will.i.am and Dr. Luke and featuring 2 Chainz and Kendrick, which seemed like a harbinger of some really ill-conceived club pop aspirations. Ultimately, though, the Blurred Lines album turned out to be a pretty shrewd fusion of Thicke's usual sound with something a little more uptempo and pop, and the Timbaland track is probably the only one I'd happily throw out entirely. "Give It 2 U" is still kind of garish and over-the-top, but it works in a weird way, with Thicke's busy falsetto darting around this big squelchy beat. It also helps that the single version deletes the 2 Chainz verse, which, hysterically bizarre "black Michael Jackson" boast aside, is pretty terrible, and retains the Kendrick verse, which is embarrassing in its own way but fits the song well and is probably a better dumbed down Kendrick club song guest spot than the one on "Fuckin' Problems." And that in itself is kinda funny since 2 Chainz is the one Thicke sought out himself to appear on the song, and Kendrick was the one that the label threw on there. The current R&B radio single, "4 The Rest Of My Life," is pretty good too.

7. Daft Punk f/ Pharrell Williams - "Lose Yourself To Dance"
Neither Daft Punk nor Robin Thicke were ever going to have a follow-up single that would be half as big as their giant Pharrell-assisted summer jams, but Daft Punk at least had another Pharrell track ready to go. And while it's not as good as "Get Lucky," it has its own charm, and actually reminds me more viscerally of various Chic songs than the other Nile Rodgers collaborations on the album -- a lot of Chic songs actually had kinda slow grooves, after all. I am curious if they'll release any non-Pharrell singles off this album, though, I love "Fragments of Time" but I suppose there's not really any radio format for that.

8. India.Arie - "Just Do You"
She's still embarrassing as hell with that period in the middle of her name and her latest album is called fucking SongVersation for chrissakes, but she does occasionally make some nice songs, and this is a good little motivational anthem. I also have this weird thing where any song that vaguely reminds me of "Advice For The Young At Heart" by Tears For Fears is instantly OK with me.

9. Pink f/ Lily Allen - "True Love"
Happy that Pink got back to releasing Greg Kurstin productions as singles after that one with the fun. guy. Lily Allen being on this song was a liability for me at first, until I realized that she's just on the bridge and that comes and goes pretty quickly. But this week was a good reminder of how terrible she is with that "Hard Out Here" song, which as it happens is kind of like a dramatically failed version of what Pink did years ago on "Stupid Girls."

10. DJ Clue f/ Future, Nicki Minaj, French Montana and Juelz Santana - "Rich Friday"
Future and Nicki has been the combination of choice for overstuffed posse cut singles this year from Rich Gang's "Tapout" to DJ Khaled's "I Wanna Be With You," but surprisingly the DJ Clue one is better than either of those. And unlike those tracks, or most of Future's features this year in general, he actually gets a verse on here, which is cool because you can hate on him as a rapper but it's not like you can say French is any better.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 9:02 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.