Songs 40-31 Wonder How This Heaven Could Be Real

Top 40, top 40, top 40!

40. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, If You Go (363 plays last week)

I’m pretty sure that Sophie Ellis-Bextor is some kind of robot, or possibly an alien. Comparing pictures of her online, you can see that her doll-like features are only capable of making one kind of face (although she is capable of wearing a wide variety of ugly shoes, as seen above.) Judging from the sound of her songs, I’m going to guess that her songwriters and producers are robots, too, but with her third album they managed to assemble some sugary confections that were easy to get excited about. After many listens, I’m not even sure what If You Go is actually about, but that’s not the point. Ellis-Bextor’s wildly English vocals are nice, but they’re nothing compared to the production.

39. Lula, So Wunderbar/Merveilleux (12 plays last week)

Thanks to the lovely Filles Sourires, I discovered Lula this summer and, much like that fine blog predicted, I immediately had a new favorite song for the warm months. Then I saw the video, and really fell in love. Even though I’m gay and she’s in Germany, I knew it was meant to be. I talked about her to everybody I saw. I put her in my top 8. I watched the video for So Wunderbar over and over. I started referring to her as my girlfriend.

And then Lee Hazlewood died.

See, Lula was on Hazlewood’s label, which apparently went away when he died. Her CD, which came out in August, seems to already be out of print. I can’t even find a legal place to buy an mp3 of either. So Wunderbar, her first single, or Merveilleux, the French version that had been posted on Filles Sourires. All there is, it seems, is a Myspace page, a YouTube video, and a Filles Sourires compilation with Merveilleux on it that’ll be out in Europe next year.

But if anybody knows how I can get a copy of Lost In Reverie, lemme know pronto.

38. My Chemical Romance, Teenagers (8295 plays last week)

Despite living with a 25-year old My Chemical Romance fanboy, I never really paid much attention to them until this song came out. The rest of The Black Parade is actually pretty good, but this song stands out as the edgiest thing yet to come out of the not-so-edgy mall emo movement. Shame the video’s so dumb, though.

37. UNKLE, Keys To The Kingdom (less than 550 plays)

Even more than Chumbawamba, the most surprisingly good blast from the past this year was UNKLE’s War Stories album. Less electronic and more guitar-based than you’d think, the album features guest appearances by Ian Astbury and Josh Homme, as well as someone named Gavin Clark whose vocals make Keys To The Kingdom my favorite moody morning-after-the-club hangover song in, oh, about seven years.

36. Bruce Springsteen, Your Own Worst Enemy (1395 plays last week)

I got a tape player for my fourth birthday, and my parents have a video of me putting it under my pillow that night so Bruce Springsteen could sing me to sleep with songs about Darlington County and Working On The Highway. After pretending I wasn’t such a fan for most of the nineties, I’ve swung back to thinking he’s awesome. The oddly Magnetic Fields-like Your Own Worst Enemy is in the vein of his poppiest songs, but without the anthemic ambitions of Hungry Heart or Dancing In The Dark. Unlike, say, Bob Dylan, Springsteen is a grumpy old man that’s stayed interesting after thirty years.

35. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, Umbrella (4658 or so plays last week)

Rihanna, the teenaged Barbadian wonder whose first name is totally Robyn, has been made the right choice when she signed to Def Jam a few years ago. Because Jay-Z’s just about the only person in the music industry who thinks that artists should actually release albums regularly, Rihanna’s already had three. Umbrella, the lead track from the forehead-heavy singer, more than made up for total oversaturation of Unfaithful last year.

34. Night Canopy, Boom! It’s Spring (4 plays last week)

Seattle’s Amy Blaschke released Night Canopy’s lovely Of Honey and Country album towards the end of 2006, but I didn’t hear it until the pretty back cover caught my eye in March. Her catchy indie-pop sounds like if Cat Power and the Fiery Furnaces had a baby, and that baby wasn’t crazy. On Boom! It’s Spring, the song with the catchy organ bit, she sounds almost exactly like if Eleanor Friedberger sang regular songs instead of insane ones.

33. Ciara, Like A Boy (1742 plays last week)

Like A Boy, the third single from Ciara’s Evolution album, was so much better than the first two that it took me most of the year before I fully realized how great it is. It’s the kind of song that I choreograph dances to when I’m home alone–specifically, crawling across the floor dances and flinging myself around in the kitchen doorway dances. Although Ciara’s brand of feminism doesn’t advance things any farther than they were a decade ago, the production’s pretty damn good, and it’s probably my favorite song of hers since Goodies.

32. The Horrors, She Is The New Thing (1041 plays last week)

And speaking of gender relations, the Horrors probably aren’t going to get any awards from NOW anytime soon. After bringing director Chris Cunningham out of retirement to make Samantha Morton all scary in the Sheena Is A Parasite video, The Horrors followed it up with She Is The New Thing, a creepy garage-goth stomper about the undead that has a super-gory animated video. Sure it’s juvenile, but does it really matter?

31. Amerie, Losing U (less than 118 plays last week)

I have a tendency of getting all worked up about Amerie and the way her album isn’t out in the US despite the fact that it leaked on the internet seven months ago (!) and came out in the rest of the world shortly after. And, not for nothing, but she’s American–plus her previous album had easily one of the best and most enduring R&B singles of the last ten years. She should be everywhere–everybody loves her, and she often doesn’t wear pants. What else does a girl need to become successful?

Anyway, Losing U is the so-called bonus track on the alleged US release of Because I’m Worth It, which may or may not be out in January (after being pushed back from November, after being pushed back from September, after being pushed back from July…) I like the way she sings the hell out of songs, kind of even when she’s just talking, without sounding like a crazy Mary J wannabe. I also really like–nay, really love–the production on this song, especially the part that sounds like snake-charming.