Whether or not you have your own list of the best singles of 2010, it’s interesting to see what someone else chooses. Here is a unique list from PopMatters magazine. Warning: Notably missing are hit makers such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Rihanna.
Title: "Helicopter"
Of note: Who better than Deerhunter to make a song about a murdered Russian prostitute sound positively triumphant? Their "Halcyon Digest" is full of hazy pop hammered together in a junkyard studio, yet it's the ethereal "Helicopter" that cuts the deepest.
Title: "Pala Tute"
Of note: The joy of sex is rarely so joyously captured as it is in this happiest of heart-pounding, butt-shaking songs. The hard-rocking gypsy punk music shakes us to the core and throws us at the mercy of this most basic thing that keeps us spellbound -- perhaps most intensely when we're young.
Title: "Round and Round"
Of note: The lead single and best song off of Pink's "Before Today," it seems at first to be the kind of song that causes music critics to lament, as Greg Kihn once said, "They don't write 'em like that anymore." But then you realize that they never wrote them like this.
Title: "Shutterbugg"
Of note: "Shutterbugg" is a four-minute smash that in subtle but significant ways pushes the boundaries of the 21st century Southern funk that Big Boi has pioneered as half of OutKast and a key member of the Dungeon Family.
Title: "Dance Yrself Clean"
Of note: If "This Is Happening" does indeed prove, as promised, to be James Murphy's swan song, "Dance Yrself Clean" provides specific instructions about how to properly mourn LCD Soundsystem. The song encapsulates everything that makes Murphy's band so great.
Title: "Bloodbuzz, Ohio"
Of note: Of all Matt Berninger’s peculiar lyrics, this set may be the strangest. His speaker seems to go all over the place -- from odd loneliness to worries over debt -- but it all becomes clear when he drops that word: "Bloodbuzz." This isn't atypical drunk; this is a bone-deep malady.
Title: "Sprawl II"
Of note: A bouncy ditty at the end of the Arcade Fire's mammoth third album, "The Suburbs," "Sprawl II" is a pleasant surprise. Though the record is stuck in the muck of suburban plight and existential quandaries, "Sprawl II" sounds positively jubilant in spite of -- or because of -- these themes.
Title: "Tightrope"
Of note: Mixing one of the funkiest bass lines this side of Daptone Records with a swinging horn section and scat-like vocals, this song is an empowerment anthem, a dance craze and the highlight of your day all at once.
