instant hits | a blog about pop

HERE WE ARE AGAIN. Where did THAT year go, then?
Well, largely it didn’t go into me updating this blog. This was partly a time issue, and partly because I felt I’d lost my neutrality somewhat, since I now have a day job at a record label (that’s a DECLARATION, in case you missed it).

However, I am still addicted to year-end lists. Once again I found restricting myself to 50 impossible. Getting it below 100 was a massive struggle, but I managed to settle on 75, like last year. None of the (asterisked) choices in which my employer has an interest were chosen for that reason (though hearing some of them 15 times a day probably helped influence me at least a little).

My rule every year on this list is one track per lead artist. This means that someone can show up multiple times as a guest artist, but only once in their own right. Clear? Good.
So without further ado, here’s numbers 75-51…

75. Hard Mix – Now Her

Woozily disorienting synthy/dreamy stuff from South Carolina producer Noah Smith. Behind all the cut-up and flipped-around vocals though, there’s some lovely piano melodies and a decent beat to boot.

74. Marina & the Diamonds – Radioactive

I’m not really sure what was going on with Marina in 2011. Lots of high concept/low interest stuff about characters and personas and all of that. In the middle of it all though, a thoroughly contemporary slice of dancefloor pop music that probably deserved more credit than it got.

73. The Streets – Roof of Your Car

Mike Skinner’s swansong as The Streets wasn’t exactly the ‘back to the start’ return to form promised, but it definitely had its moments. This bouncy, slightly off-kilter track came closest to recapturing old glories – wide-eyed cut-up ravey vocals, tricksy and funny lyrics, and just a straightforward good tune.

72. LCMDF – Future Me

Quirky, catchy, in fact downright infectious electropop from Finnish beauties LCMDF (or Le Corps Mince de Francoise, for those with a longer attention span). It’s joy-filled stuff, but kind of resolutely uncool (in a way that for me pushes it right back into cool again) and possiby a little testing for those who aren’t so into ‘quirk’.

71. Jessica 6 – White Horse

Hercules & Love Affair co-conspirator Nomi Ruiz’s Jessica 6 project didn’t quite fulfil the promise of this single in 2011. However, what promise. Sultry, inviting nu-disco – like Hercules, unsurprisingly, but with more warmth and heart. Damn sexy video too.

70. Memory Tapes – Today is our Life

2011 seemed like a year of lots of acts making second albums that were determined efforts to prevent themselves being pigeonholed in some awful rut of a genre (chillwave?). Dayve Hawk’s Player Piano embraced psychadelic pop, huge, syrupy tunes and credibility-testing falsetto vocals. This was the highlight – three minutes of swirling fairground fun that takes a sharp turn towards beautiful, hypnotic melodrama around the 3.45 mark.

69. Foster the People – Helena Beat (*)

Pumped Up Kicks? So 2010. This follow-up is gloriously preposterous, overblown and everything else you could ask from this genre of pop. Hard to tire of, as evinced by it being pretty much my most-played track of 2011 according to last.fm (I think that was largely accrued in Jan/Feb, hence the slightly lower placing than you’d expect). Also any video with post-apocalyptic feral kids gets my vote (even if this one’s not quite in the same league as for e.g. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Y Control).

68. Casey Spooner (ft. Jake Shears) – Spanish Teenager (Acid Washed Remix)

A rather lovely remix of an originally quite overblown track from the Fisherspooner man’s 2010 solo effort Adult Contemporary. This achieves quite a feat in making it a more upbeat and more dreamy at the same time. Ticks many boxes.

67. Lady Gaga – The Edge of Glory

It feels rather sad including Lady Gaga so low down this list. I sort of feel like I shouldn’t have bothered. The trouble is not that I disliked her 2011 work – far from it, Born This Way is easily a top 10 album of the year for me. More that there was a surfeit of really good stuff on the album, but no one standout track for me. This Springsteen-esque and massive-sounding single was just about the highlight for me, despite the slightly ropey video.

66. Cocknbullkid – The Hoarder

The return of Anita Blay with her first full-length Adulthood was an underrated joy of 2011. The singles were good, but the album littered with greater gems, like this little ditty, which to my mind sounds a bit like Saint Etienne circa-Finisterre (certainly no bad thing).

65. Tove Styrke – Call My Name (*)

It took me a while to get on board with Swedish pop starlet Tove Styrke. I’m now 100% there though, thanks to this not entirely un-Robynesque 80s-synth-decked stomper.

64. Ladytron – White Elephant

Hmm…. 2011 Ladytron. The released their 10-year best of, which should have been a thing of glory, but was in fact a bit of a sprawling, odd mess (apt, perhaps, but hardly likely to win over new converts). Then the strangely subdued new album… but hey, it’s all worth just for a song like this. Restrained emotion bursting out beneath studied, measured precision – Ladytron doing what they do best.

63. Pixie Lott – All About Tonight

No, I didn’t expect to be including a Pixie Lott single in this list either. Hard to ignore this though – trashy pop perfection. The soundtrack to a million sweaty Bacardi Breezer-flavoured snogs, I would wager.

62. Toddla T ft. Shola Ama – Take It Back

Feelgood old-school dance vibes as hammered by Annie Mac. Should have been a HIT. Was not a hit. Disappointing.

61. Will Young – Jealousy (*)

Perfect, moving, and strikingly modern comeback from national treasure Mr. William Young. Produced by Richard X and co-written by members of the hugely underrated Kish Mauve, I was never not going to love this.

60. Leona Lewis / Avicii – Collide (*)

Can we ignore all of the faffing around over who wrote what and whose name appears where, and just enjoy the peerlessly infectious tune, and the best use of Leona’s huge voice yet? Good, thanks.

59. Britney Spears – How I Roll (*)

I think Femme Fatale is my second favourite Britney album (after Blackout, obviously). This Bloodshy & Avant track (they wrote Toxic and are Miike Snow) is so absolutely, wonderfully ridiculous that it has to be the highlight.

58. Jay Z & Kanye West (ft. La Roux, etc.) – That’s My B*tch

Another genuinely great album (top 5, I reckon), Watch The Throne also didn’t quite have a standout track for me. TOO MANY GOOD SONGS. I enjoyed the deployment of La Roux on this one, though.

57. Katy B – Broken Record (*)

Lots to choose from in terms of singles from Katy’s debut too. None quite matched up to to the peerless Katy On A Mission, but all were great in their own ways. Broken Record edges the others, just.

56. Charli XCX – Stay Away

Massive tune. I am surprised that Charli XCX is not in more of those ‘sound of 2012′ type lists. Maybe she’ll be like Niki & the Dove (and various others) and pop up a year later than you expect. Sound of 2013, perhaps? Anyway. 18 years old. Makes dark synthy pop. Deserves to be huge.

55. Eleanor Friedberger – My Mistakes

Disclosure: am a bit obsessed with Eleanor Friedberger. Over and beyond how amazing the Fiery Furnaces are, she’s just rather captivating, OK? In 2011 she got to take a little break from all the backwards vocals, awkward song structures, and guesting grannies (all of which are amazing by the way) and just showcase her lovely, lovely voice. OK, so it still sounds a bit like the Fiery Furnaces, but frankly I’d be disappointed if it didn’t. Another bonus: an actual proper video (rarely seen in FF-land).

54. Body Language – Falling Out (Golden Touch Remix)

This is just lovely, summery, cheery music. I don’t feel the need to write anything else here. Give it a spin.

53. Sophia Somajo (ft. Howlin’ Pelle) – Wristcutters Inc.

This appeared very early on in the year. I then spent most of the year waiting for something else to happen (a video? an album? anything?). Apparently she is trying again in the near future, and being rebranded as ‘Soso’. So-so? Hmm. Anyway, this is a beast of a song, catchy singalong arm-waving nonsense that somehow survives its lyrical theme being about “twisted wristcutters” (ahem) and being a 2011 song featuring Howlin’ Pelle – yes, him off of THE HIVES.

52. TEETH – Flowers

London noisemakers TEETH impressed with their debut single See Spaces in 2010 – and this is nearly as good. I’d like it if they stuck to making fantastic futuro-rave anthems like these two, rather than making detours into shouting and general noise. But they seem to like being contrary, so I doubt we’ll see much of a change anytime soon. This is amazing regardless, so I’ll stop moaning now.

51. Neon Hitch – Get Over U

Neon Hitch (REAL NAME, fact fans) has been faffing around for a bit too long if you ask me. Since first popping up in about 2008 you might have heard her doing a quirky cover of a hip hop track or 500 (I remember her doing Drop It Like Its Hot about a million years ago, and she’s spent half of this year fiddling with Kreayshawn, Wiz Khalifa and who know who else). She’s also showed up on tracks by the likes of Ke$ha and 3OH!3. Thankfully she managed to find time to release a couple of actual pop songs of her own in 2011. This one, released way back in January, is the best – probably because it was co-written with Sia, who is amazing.

And that’s your lot for now.

(Spotify playlist of tracks so far revealed is here.)

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