Top 50 Songs of 2010, Part Four: 20-11

NUMBER TWENTY

Let's not kid ourselves, people. You have to go back to Madonna to find a female pop star-- hell, a pop star of any gender-- who has captured the public consciousness so thoroughly, who has brought attention to really bizarre matters in such a borderline crazy way, who has cultivated such an insane yet relateable public image. Oh, and who has pushed pop music so much further beyond its borders. Fame Monster single "Telephone" came out at the beginning of this year, and while its music video garnered all the attention, with its Kill Bill pussy wagon, telephone wig, and general fucked up-ness, the song was little more than overdriven, meticulously crafted pop music, with one of the biggest earworm choruses of the year. "Telephone" is pop music for the modern age, loud and in-your-face enough to break through our obsession with Facebook, cell phones, techonlogy in general, while simultaneously embracing the very technologies its attempting to overcome.

Numbers nineteen through eleven after the break.

Midweek Music Review - Mid-Year Notables

Note: So, I'm not going to pretend like I haven't disappeared for a couple months. Suffice it to say that my life was kind of nuts and that things have settled down now. Racecar Brown is officially back up and running.

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So, it's officially halfway through the year for music. In that spirit, I'm putting up half of a year-end list. These five songs and five albums are simply some that have captured my attention this year. The emphasis this time around isn't to objectively list my five favorite songs or albums of the year, but just to throw up ten total pieces of music that are deserving of attention.

The Top Ten Albums of 2009

If you're old enough to look at porn, you're old enough to remember that there was a time when you still had to buy CDs. I remember randomly purchasing a Built to Spill record from Best Buy just on some general recommendations, without having heard the band before, and being blown away. That's something purchasing an album can do that simply can't happen in the MP3 era. I'd have never blown $17 on a record I hadn't heard anything from before and while that would have avoided some disastrous mistakes (Oh, 12-year old self, why did you think buying an Eagle Eye Cherry album was a good idea?), I also will never have that feeling of justification that I did the first time I heard "Big Dipper".

Listening to albums in 2009 is different than it was ten years ago because of this. You go in with less at stake and, while that means less risk, it can also mean less reward. The fact that these ten albums actually inspired that same sense of justification and reward made them Racecar Brown's top ten albums of 2009.