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1 "Roc Boys"
Jay-Z
And the winner is. . . Hov! This is black superhero music, circa 2007: Jay-Z goes to the movies and comes back with an even better film in his head, with a song that plays like the Copacabana scene in GoodFellas translated into hip-hop. The most triumphant sound anyone came up with all year, this track makes you fly in more ways than one. After thanking his drug connection and tipping his hat to God, Jigga toasts the high life over a gritty Brooklyn funky-horns riff from the Menahan Street Band. It's a celebration, bitches. Drinks is on the house!
2 "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country"
Randy
Newman
"Let's drop the big one and see what happens." That was Newman's
advice twenty-five years ago in "Political Science." But on this
farewell to the American empire, it turns out we dropped the big
one on ourselves: "The leaders we have/While they're the worst that
we've had/Are hardly the worst this poor world has seen." Bush: not
as bad as Stalin. Don't you feel better?
3 "Umbrella"
Rihanna
This year's "Crazy," as in the sleeper hit that becomes the world's
favorite song. And then just keeps getting more popular, until
everybody can hear that robot voice chanting "ella ella ella, ay ay
ay" in their sleep. The guitars are prime Eighties studio rock,
while the green-eyed lady on the mike sings like the
Cranberries.
4 "D.A.N.C.E."
Justice
The breakout tune from the hypercool Paris dance label Ed Banger
(run by Daft Punk's manager) is a blast of glitter-disco joy, with
a rubbery bass line and an insistent children's chorus demanding
that you "do the dance!" Just try to say no!
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5 "Four Winds"
Bright Eyes
The lyrics evoke W.B. Yeats; the music, J.C. Mellencamp. No song better captured our current sense of looming apocalypse than this one, which also makes a case for Conor Oberst as one of the best — and bravest — lyricists out there: "The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Koran's mute/If you burned them all together, you'd get close to the truth."
6 "Dough Is What I Got"
Lil
Wayne
Insanely prolific (or maybe just insane), the self-proclaimed Best
Rapper Alive works his down-South magic over a jazzy sax sample and
proves his sub-zero flow can make the shy girls horny and the fly
girls corny.
7 "Rehab"
Amy
Winehouse
Not since Eminem has a pop song hit with this subversive force: The
contrast between the retro production and the defiantly slurred
chorus is hilarious at first — then heartbreaking.
8 "Long Walk Home"
Bruce
Springsteen
In a song that sums up the American moment better than any
presidential candidate has managed, the darkness on the edge of
town creeps into Main Street — and we're left to figure out
what went wrong. And if the chorus leaves some hope that we'll
regain what we've lost, the E Street Band's martial blare somehow
guarantees it.
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9 "Boyz"
M.I.A.
A dutty-rock jam about riding with your girls, calling out the dude version of "How many ladies in the house?" Except M.I.A. turns those shout-outs into a global-capitalism survey: "How many no-money boys are crazy . . . how many start a war?"
10 "Int'l Player's Anthem"
UGK
Before his sudden death, Pimp C celebrated his release from jail
with the posse cut of the year: Houston's reigning hip-hop duo with
fellow Dirty South crews Three 6 Mafia and OutKast.
11 "Stronger"
Kanye
West
Robot funk is the new soul loop! With his futuristic, Daft
Punk-fueled synthfest, Kanye declares he's down with hipster
America's obsession with French dance music.
12 "Gunslinger"
John
Fogerty
Armed with Creedence-y twang, Fogerty turns Bush's love for Wild
West demagoguery against him, yearning for some frontier justice to
tame the "wild-eyed bunch" running the country.
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13 "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal"
Of Montreal
The best Bowie homage to mention Georges Bataille since . . . ever? Ever! Almost twelve minutes of emotional turmoil, with an intense krautrock groove full of synths and guitar. Kevin Barnes chronicles the details of a young love gone very, very bad.
14 "I Get Money"
50
Cent
This over-the-top celebration of stanky richness was one of the
strongest radio hits of 2007, thanks to its grinding beat,
nickel-plated hooks and 50's pile-driving rhymes.
15 "Piece of Me"
Britney
Spears
Britney gets a pissed-off synth rocker to match her shaved head as
she eviscerates the tabs one by one. Proof that she's got a soul
— and the right producers to construct it for her.
16 "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb"
Spoon
Britt Daniel's sandpaper voice meets a reconstituted Motown groove
built on riffing saxes, a spry dance beat and loads of reverb. A
painstakingly detailed slice of indie heartache.
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17 "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"
Radiohead
Just what nobody expected from Radiohead at this late date: a love song, with Thom Yorke singing like he's been spending quality time with his Al Green records. The guitar takes off from the Velvet Underground, with a lush intensity that's both engrossing and confounding.
18 "Icky Thump"
The White
Stripes
Wondering why there were so few great guitar riffs this year? Turns
out Jack White used 'em all up in this song.
19 "1234"
Feist
It starts with an acoustic guitar and lyrics that could have been
written by Sesame Street's Count von Count. But then come the
horns, banjo, pianos, choir and finger snaps — adding up to
'07's unlikely world-conquering jam.
20 "All My Friends"
LCD
Soundsystem
Seven minutes of electro disco that capture the ecstatic bliss of a
perfect drug-fueled night and the bittersweet comedown that
follows. Heartstring-pulling and party-starting all at once.
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21 "Crank That"
Soulja Boy
A young Atlanta rhymer-producer cooks up a skeletal stomper and a no-budge MySpace clip, and ends up ruling hip-hop (at least for a few weeks).
22 "Keep the Car Running"
Arcade
Fire
Over a mandolin riff, a propulsive two-step beat and a group-sung
chorus, Win Butler murmurs and howls about the need to get the fuck
out of a bad place. The best Bruce Springsteen song of 2007 not
written by Bruce Springsteen.
23 "Teenage Love Affair"
Alicia
Keys
This sunny head-bopper is an old-fashioned R&B make-out song,
never getting past second base. But that doesn't mean it isn't full
of erotic heat when Keys whispers, "Hey, boy, you know I really
like being with you/Just hanging out is fine."
24 "What Goes Around . . . Comes Around"
Justin
Timberlake
Timberlake's karmic payback tale is powered by a killer
Bollywood-meets-Hollywood beat. "I was ready to give you my name. .
. . Now it's all just a shame" — anger never sounded so sexy.
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25 "Teenagers"
My Chemical Romance
My Chem all but cover the Georgia Satellites' "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" on this unlikely Southern-rock rave-up — the catchiest and most fun song of their career.
26 "Same Girl"
R. Kelly and
Usher
Turns out that Kels has learned something by churning out 400
chapters of "Trapped in the Closet." This hilarious minidrama
exhibits considerable skill in laying out a complete story (R. and
Usher discover they're both dating a young lady who works at TBS,
went to Georgia Tech, drives a Durango and has an angel tattoo
— it's the same girl!) in four minutes and twelve seconds. No
sequels — or flatulent midgets — required.
27 "Silver Lining"
Rilo
Kiley
Jenny Lewis and her bandmates are at their tuneful best, channeling
Rumours and the pop-rock sensibility that may yet make
them famous on this track about the dark and good things a breakup
can bring.
28 "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"
Miranda
Lambert
The title cut from the best country album of the year, this single
found Lambert pushing the role of the rowdy Nashville lass to new
extremes. Over bar-band stomp, Lambert narrates a rage-fueled
encounter with her ex's new girl, and both her big chorus and
slice-of-life story are long on raucous energy and entertainment
value.
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29 "The People"
Common
The Chicago MC name-checks Barack Obama and Finding Nemo, asking tough-but-funny questions like, "Why white folks focus on dogs and yoga/While people on the low end tryin' to ball and get over?"
30 "LDN"
Lily
Allen
It has the sunniest chorus since Len's "Steal My Sunshine" —
but as the street-scene lyrics suggest, surfaces can be deceiving:
"Everything seems nice/But if you look twice/You can see it's all
lies."
31 "Don't Matter"
Akon
Having proved he can do raunchy hip-hop jams, Akon comes up with
the ultimate prom slow-jam: an endearing ballad about loving her
even when everybody else thinks it's a bad idea.
32 "When Under Ether"
PJ
Harvey
"Something's inside me/Unborn and unblessed." After fifteen years
on the job, Polly Jean Harvey still finds fresh ways to give her
fans the creeps — this time by stripping her sound down to a
piano and her spooky voice.
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33 "Backed Out on the . . ."
Kevin Drew
The Broken Social Scene co-founder gets nostalgic for OG indie rock with a Replacements-style chorus and some scribbly stoner-rock guitar heroics courtesy of actual OG indie-rock dude J Mascis.
34 "Are You Alright?"
Lucinda
Williams
"Are you sleeping through the night?/Do you have someone to hold
you tight?" she asks an ex on one of the saddest songs she's ever
written, which pretty much makes it one of the saddest songs ever.
35 "Girlfriend"
Avril
Lavigne
With its "I Want Candy" beat and bratty Hills-generation
entitlement ("Hell, yeah, I'm the motherfucking princess," she
chirps), this was '07's ultimate mall-punk shout-along.
36 "Situation"
1990s
These debauched Scots worship everything sleazy and glorious about
1970s New York punk. Their finest moment proves they can play as
fast as they can drink.
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37 "Throw Some D's"
Rich Boy
"New money, motherfucker!/Just bought a Cadillac!" No rapper sounded more pleased with himself this year than Rich Boy, who made the happiest car song since the Beach Boys saved up for a 409.
38 "So Hott"
Kid
Rock
The killer glam-trash stripper's anthem Rock was born to make,
complete with sunbaked AC/DC riffs and so-stupid-they're-genius
come-ons like "I wanna fuck you like I'm never gonna see you
again."
39 "Guitar"
Prince
He plays an old PiL-via-U2 riff and purrs, "I love you, baby, but
not like I love my guitar," leaving everybody else eating his
purple dust.
40 "Old News"
Dr.
Dog
With blissful harmonies, gather-round-the-piano hooks and a big,
bright melody, this Philly indie-roots quintet finds two new
minutes of Seventies-style pop.
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41 "Just Fine"
Mary J. Blige
The queen of hip-hop soul goes disco, with an electro-bounce sound rooted in early-1980s club music.
42 "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
Fall Out
Boy
FOB get their R&B on? How could it go wrong? Several million
ways, actually. Yet the latest installment of Pete Wentz's
high-school-USA soap opera achieves greatness.
43 "Us Placers"
CRS
Kanye West forms a supergroup with Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell
Williams, and samples Thom Yorke for a one-off that can hang with
anything on Graduation.
44 "Bleed It Out"
Linkin
Park
Their simplest song ever, and their greatest — Brad Delson
jumps out of the speakers with one monster riff; LP's vocal tag
team of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda sound more pissed off
than ever.
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45 "Halloweenhead"
Ryan Adams
Adams roams the badlands of his own brain, wondering "what the fuck's wrong with me?" But the meaty classic-rock riffs and soaring chorus suggest he's just fine.
46 "Do You Feel Me"
Anthony
Hamilton
The Bomb Squad's Hank Shocklee shellacks a butter-smooth groove
while Hamilton tries to look into his lady's mind — and, OK,
maybe up her dress. Like an Al Green song updated for big-pimpin'
times.
47 "The Pretender"
Foo
Fighters
A fist-pumper that proves Dave Grohl's got plenty of
throat-shredding screams, ridiculously catchy choruses and
loud-quiet-loud metalloid riffs left in his quiver.
48 "Kiss Kiss"
Chris
Brown feat. T-Pain
Equal parts smooth seduction and club-shaking bounce, this was
Usher's "Yeah!" with even stronger hooks.
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49 "Makes Me Wonder"
Maroon 5
Quite a player, that Adam Levine: In addition to his good looks, he's got that silky voice and a big bag of hooks. He deploys both on this dance-pop kiss-off, a hit brighter than any Swedish tunesmith has come up with in years.
50 "The Heart Gently Weeps"
Wu-Tang
Clan
A Beatle's son, a Red Hot Chili Pepper and rap vets come together
for 2007's most remarkable collabo; the melancholy of "While My
Guitar Gently Weeps" is cut by grit from Ghostface Killah and
Raekwon.
51 "Killing the Blues"
Robert
Plant and Alison
Krauss
He's the golden god who once urged you to squeeze his lemon; she's
the bluegrass virtuoso. They bring out each other's best on this
bit of acoustic grown-up heartbreak.
52 "Pressing On"
John
Doe
An unlikely highlight from the soundtrack of I'm Not There
— one of Dylan's least-loved songs from his fundamentalist
phase, rescued by the former X frontman, who has aged into the
weather-beaten sage he always wanted to be.
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53 "Black Mags"
The Cool Kids
You know how psyched Rich Boy is to have a car with new rims? That's how these Chi-town hip-hop supergeeks feel about tricked-out BMX bikes on their spare, nail-hard debut single.
54 "I-95"
Fountains
of Wayne
A gorgeous ballad about nine hours on the highway just to be with
her that thrives on its details: a rest stop full of Barney DVDs
and G n' R posters, the sound of static on the radio, the elderly
guy who can't even drive fifty-five.
55 "Hold On"
KT
Tunstall
The Scottish lass rocks out here with big drums, Latin-style
up-tempo guitar and a chorus that evokes the theme song to the
Seventies kiddie-TV classic Villa Alegre.
56 "Lip Gloss"
Lil
Mama
Things we know about Lil Mama: (1) her lip gloss is poppin', (2)
her lip gloss is poppin'. Which is fine, because her angry-teen
steez — and a raw beat that sounds like a locker door being
repeatedly slammed — are more than enough to carry the lil'
Brooklyn MC's debut single.
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57 "Men's Needs"
Cribs
This Brit-pop gem shows how these three Wakefield, England, brothers delivered one of the year's most slept-on albums: a wobbly, propulsive dance beat, sweetly melodic verse and a shout-along chorus with the right amount of angst.
58 "Grip Like a Vice"
The Go!
Team
Ice-pick guitars, roller-rink organ, pounding drums, blaring horns
and samples of Eighties fly-girl MCs Lisa Lee and Sha Rock make for
the most thrilling cut on an album full of smart, genre-hopping
mash-ups.
59 "Let It Go"
Keyshia
Cole
Between this Oakland diva's pin-point croon, Missy's cheerleading
raps and a great chorus, this hit made telling a guy to fuck off
sound like hot fun on a Saturday night.
60 "Make It Witchu"
Queens
of the Stone Age
On this relaxed yet filthy track, Josh Homme's voice splashes over
Skynyrd-style guitars like Jack on the rocks.
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61 "Down Boy"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The art-punk threesome has never made a sicker, sleazier sound. Singer Karen O wails her heart out, and when guitarist Nick Zinner hits that riff, it's like Zep jamming with the Contortions.
62 "The Last Fight"
Velvet
Revolver
Slash's warm, bluesy doodles carve heartache into a moody power
ballad that simultaneously laments a drug overdose and the war in
Iraq.
63 "Buy U a Drank"
T-Pain
Best pickup line of the year: "Let's get drunk and forget what we
did." T-Pain overdubs his trademark filtered vocals into a
strip-club chorale, while Yung Joc seals the deal: "When I whisper
in your ear/Your legs hit the chandelier."
64 "The Magic Position"
Patrick
Wolf
A three-minute spin on a sexual merry-go-round, led by Wolf, whose
scarlet mop, six-foot-plus frame and choirboy vocals made him the
thinking girl's rock-chick crush of the year. He piles up guitars,
a toy piano and a giddy string section into an over-the-top
make-out anthem.
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65 "White People for Peace"
Against Me!
How the hell do you turn a line like "Protest songs, in response to military aggression" into a catchy chorus? These Florida punks figured it out and cooked up a rousing call to arms for leftists everywhere.
66 "Big Shit Poppin'"
T.I.
Over an action-packed, guitar-specked synth beat, the Atlanta MC
drops rhymes both gritty and speedy. If this can't get you going on
the treadmill, you're in trouble.
67 "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
Vampire
Weekend
New York prepsters take Eighties revivalism to a logical, if not
previously foreseen, conclusion, biting off a big chunk of Paul
Simon's Graceland for an indie-Africa fusion. Over a
blissed-out Soweto groove, the It band of the season serenades a
girl into Louis Vuitton, reggaeton and Peter Gabriel.
68 "Tambourine"
Eve
Swizz Beatz sets off firecrackers, bottle rockets and Eighties
boombox beats. Eve leads the shake-shake-shake party chants all the
way "from da hood to Dubai."
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69 "Seahorse"
Devendra Banhart
Banhart croons about his desire to be a "little seahorse," shifting from acoustic guitar to a spooky, organ-fired waltz before landing in a heavy-duty psychedelic jam. Consider your mind blown.
70 "Bed"
J.
Holiday
In the tradition of love men like Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green,
J. Holiday sings about how he's going to ease his lady's mind and
proves that he knows exactly what he's talking about.
71 "Impossible Germany"
Wilco
Like growing a whole beard in six minutes — Jeff Tweedy sings
in his loneliest voice, following jazzy chords sharper than
anything he's pulled off in years.
72 "You! Me! Dancing!"
Los
Campesinos!
A song about the raptures of the dance floor — except it's
also a song nobody can dance to. Brilliant! But the spazzy feedback
squalls from these Welsh guitar weirdos just add to the cheerful,
romantic vibe.
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73 "100 Days, 100 Nights"
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Dark, soaring horn-fueled R&B from a fifty-one-year-old diva and the Brooklyn band that helped shore up Amy Winehouse's soul.
74 "Comfy in Nautica"
Panda
Bear
If those early-1970s Beach Boys records rock a little too hard for
you, try this fluffy Gregorian chant that sums up the Animal
Collective's state of mind: "Try to remember always/Always to have
a good time."
75 "Phantom Limb"
The
Shins
Reads like a Vicodin-addled daydream and sounds like a lost
psych-pop masterpiece — proof James Mercer has melodic gifts
like LeBron has leaping ability.
76 "Go Getta"
Young
Jeezy
The Tony Robbins of the hustling set delivers an inspirational
get-rich-now message over a dense, stomping electro beat and R.
Kelly's sharp chorus.
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77 "Chelsea Dagger"
The Fratellis
No Saturday night of drinking, dancing and catching diseases would be complete without this hit at closing time. The Scottish sex gods drool over a girl and her sister, whichever one will dance with them first.
78 "The Songs That We Sing"
Charlotte
Gainsbourg
Music by Air, lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon, vocals by
Serge Gainsbourg's daughter — who gets inside the head of a
dead singer, wondering what her songs still mean to the living.
79 "Myriad Harbor"
New
Pornographers
A hilarious psych-folk tale from Canadian madman Dan Bejar about
going to New York, getting lost, having a bad time, meeting pretty
girls in record stores and saying stupid things.
80 "Stop Me"
Mark
Ronson
One of the year's left-field hits: Superproducer Ronson enlists
Aussie R&B singer Daniel Merriweather to turn the 1987 Smiths
hit into a bit of Manchester-via-Motown melancholy.
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81 "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
Okkervil River
The haunted Austin, Texas, band sounds lost in misery and whiskey, as Will Sheff brays, "It's just a life story/So there's no climax," with ragged Neil Young passion and a guitar solo to match.
82 "Ultimate"
Gogol
Bordello
These New York gypsy punks have never rocked so smartly or with
such force — the accordion-violin-drums groove plows forward
like a tank, then explodes.
83 "The State of Massachusetts"
Dropkick
Murphys
On the punkiest folk song — or the folkiest punk song —
of the year, an abused mom loses her kids to the state.
84 "The Crystal Cat"
Dan
Deacon
Not a tribute to Pete Doherty's drug-fed kitten. But it sure sounds
like it — the synths actually mew! Baltimore compu-hipster
Deacon chants his way through the verses and sets his vocals on
"syrup-guzzling chipmunk" for the chorus of this electro-pop
number.
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85 "It's Me, Bitches" (Remix)
Swizz Beatz
R. Kelly delivers one of the most vivid boasts of all time ("After sex, I beat my chest like King Kong!"), and Swizz brings a freaked-out track that eventually resolves into the Wu-Tang's classic "C.R.E.A.M." beat.
86 "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car"
Iron and
Wine
With some drums and sound effects tossed in, this bit of rustic
beauty evokes Nick Drake with a fuller palette and stronger id.
87 "Dashboard"
Modest
Mouse
Seattle indie rockers' strings 'n' horns disco mix is the car song
of '07: "The dashboard melted, but we still have the radio!"
88 "Computer Camp Love"
Datarock
A classic story: Boy meets girl; girl shows boy how to manipulate
her circuitry. A note-perfect tale of nerd love from two Norwegian
dance rockers.
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89 "I Wish That I Could See You Soon"
Herman Dune
French folkies with a Jonathan Richman fixation address rock's criminal lack of ukulele on this totally twee, utterly charming tune, complete with horns, bongos and backup angels.
90 "Threshold Apprehension"
Black
Francis
Black Francis, using his Pixies name instead of his usual solo
moniker of Frank Black, reinvents the gigantic razor-blade-guitar
attack of his old band and slashes away for the best Pixies song
since "U-Mass."
91 "Freak Out"
Liars
Bad ideas come in many flavors: disasters, catastrophes and
attempts to make melodic pop from out-of-tune-guitar noise. Yet
these ne'er-do-wells' career album spins bad ideas into gold
— especially with this surf-punk gem, which could be a lost
hit from the Jesus and Mary Chain.
92 "Mistaken for Strangers"
The
National
Matt Berninger vents over a post-punk guitar loop; if Joy Division
had been Dylan fans, they might have sounded like this.
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93 "Is There a Ghost"
Band of Horses
Southern rock goes shoegazing in this atmospheric jam. There are fewer than fifteen words in the lyrics, but packed into Ben Bridwell's vocals is a whole doctoral thesis on what it means to be bummed out.
94 "2 Hearts"
Kylie
Minogue
The glam-rock vibe owes a lot to Goldfrapp, who have yet to write a
song this good. Bonus: Minogue's whispery Jessica Rabbit vocals.
95 "Satan Said Dance"
Clap
Your Hands Say Yeah
This pulsing dance track — which sounds something like ? and
the Mysterians trying to cover LCD Soundsystem — offers a
lyrical vision of hell as a giant disco.
96 "Big Girls Don't Cry"
Fergie
A modern-day version of "I Will Survive," except with Fergie
proving that she too can carry a tune, and making herself sound
even more impossibly lovable in the bargain.
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97 "Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars)"
Grinderman
Nick Cave kicks out of the crypt as if he's just had an extremely profane séance with the spirit of James Brown. He turns himself into a goth-blues king bee, buzzing around the hive of some lucky lady and howling for a little interplanetary love action.
98 "Wild Mountain Nation"
Blitzen
Trapper
A shambling, hypermelodic jam from Portland, Oregon, indie boys
down with Native American culture — and the best Grateful
Dead knockoff in forever.
99 "Never Again"
Kelly
Clarkson
America's Sweetheart churns out a spookily defiant revenge rocker,
spitting bile at a former lover over captivatingly dour and crunchy
guitars.
100 "Rockstar"
Nickelback
you know it's a weird year when one of the best, funniest songs on
the radio is by Nickelback, a band previously noted for having no
sense of humor at all. But this not-quite-sarcastic anthem is their
bid for a star on the Walk of Fame (yes, "between James Dean and
Cher"), and they earned it. If Nickelback can sound like rock
stars, there's hope for us all.
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