Top Twenty Songs of the Year

I make a CD at the end of each year of the best songs, in my opinion. What do I look for? First of all, it's just how you feel when you hear the song. Like Carlos said of Smooth - the hairs stood up un the back of his neck. I know that feeling, it took me a long time to learn that song, but when I did...it's a rush. I know a good song the minute I hear it. I mostly listen to & look at popular culture...I like to keep my finger on the pulse & there's plenty of tasty stuff up there on Billboard's Hot 100, most of my picks are on there. To break it down, I look for good structure, composition, beat, message, relevance, vocals, originality, something that can hold up over time. Take a listen to this list and tell me it doesn't sound good, something you can dance to, listen to around the house...now, for sex, I always make special playlists.

And, I do have hundreds of playlists & CD's I burned before I got my ipod... everything from British Blues to Psychedelia (not a big step, BTW). Anyway, making playlists is a lost art, one I spent many years perfecting as my only outlet for expressing myself publicly through music. These final year end lists are in order of how good the songs are. I do play around with them: I often have a best R&B, best uptempo & down (yes, for sex), then do a final CD strictly on what's the best stuff musically. The lists below are actually redone a bit as just best song of the year down, the CD's I burn are meant to be listened to so there's more attention to transition (aah, the lost art of the transition...you can't even do real transitions these days, where you turn the volume down on one song as you turn up the volume on the other, making all these neat intervision-type songs between them...) and how the songs complement each other.

The art of the playlist has to do with making each song richer, more meaningful, by playing it next to something else. Like I would play songs next to each other that had musicians in common or a great new find (this was progressive radio - in those days I listened to everything that came out, but then music started going bad) next to a primogenitor you wouldn't have thought of, or songs in different genres that were actually pretty similar. Very often I would put things next to each other that had a similar beat and make the transition so seamless that you couldn't really tell where one song ended and the next one began, but at some point you realized that you were listening to a different great song and wondered how that happened. There were shows where each song had at least one title word in common with the song next to it. Now, with iTunes, it's easy, back then, you really had to know your music.

I had the whole thing down to some sort of zen/sufi science of the absurd as I would fly around the library (of vinyl) looking for the next song as the previous one was, literally, ending. Now, I just have to point and click, and not worry about dead air. Oh yeah, I used to plan my shows out, but then, that got too easy. Anyway, enough of my delerious DJ days, I digress.



2004

This Love - Maroon 5
Some Kind of Wonderful - Joss Stone
How Far is Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
Musicology - Prince
Take Your Mama Out - Scissor Sisters
Yeah - Usher
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
The Reason - Hoobastank
American Idiot - Green Day
Float On - Modest Mouse
Super Duper Love - Joss Stone
Devils and Angels - Toby Lightman
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
I Don't Wanna Be - Gavin DeGraw
Meant to Live - Switchfoot
Harder to Breathe - Maroon 5
If I Ain't Got You - Alicia Keys
Overdrive - Katy Rose
She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5


2003

Where Is the Love - Black Eyed Peas
Hey Ya - OutKast
Crazy in Love - Beyonce
Bring Me to Life - Evanescence
The Way You Move - OutKast
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
Special - Wilshire
Heaven - Live
I Fought the Law - Green Day
Here Without You - Three Doors Down
Bright Lights - Matchbox 20
Someday - Nickelback
Calling All Angels - Train
Perfect Time of Day - Howie Day
Clocks - Coldplay
100 Years - Five for Fighting
The Remedy - Jason Mraz
Intuition - Jewel
Trouble - Pink


2002

Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
Beautiful - Christina Aguilera
No Such Thing - John Mayer
Complicated - Avril Lavigne
Hero - Enrique Eglesias
Foolish - Ashanti
Lovers Rock - Sade
Lose Yourself - Eminem
Disease - Matchbox 20
Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake
Whenever Wherever - Shakira
Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
Dilemma - KellyRowland/Nelly
Middle - Jimmy Eat World
A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton
Blurry - Puddle of Mudd
Soak Up the Sun - Sheryl Crow
Underneath it All - No Doubt
Don't Know Why - Norah Jones
I'm Gonna Getcha - Shania Twain


2001

Family Affairs - Mary J. Blige
Get This Pary Started - Pink
Fallin - Alicia Keys
Drops of Jupiter - Train
If You're Gone - Matchbox 20
Southside - Moby/Gewn Stefani
Turn Off the Light - Nelly Furtado
Kryptonite - Three Doors Down
Trouble - Coldplay
The Space Between - Dave Matthews Band
Superman - Five for Fighting
This is How You Remind Me - Nickelback
Dig In - Lenny Kravitz
My Sacrifice - Creed
Peaceful World - John Mellencamp
It's Been a While - Staind
God Gave Me Everything - Mick Jagger/Lenny Kravitz
New York New York - Ryan Adams
Stuck in a Moment - U2
I Want Love - Elton John