There were 1,074 songs across my weekly mixes of 2010. Here are my favorite 107 of them.
N.W.A.'s "Approach To Danger" is post-Ice Cube and post-apocalyptic. One of the more overlooked Dr. Dre productions, very Public Enemy-esque, it's truly frightening. Much more soothing is the contemplative "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison. When I discovered it in high school it sounded like nothing like I'd heard before. "Award Tour" is one of the more addictive beats in the arsenal of A Tribe Called Quest. Improbably, Eddie Money's "Baby, Hold On" was one of my very favorites last year. I re-heard it in a jeans store while a pretty Russian girl sang along with it on the radio. I felt like I'd rediscovered the simple pleasures of its melody and the way the songs just swells. The crunchy "Cadillac" was a sweet fix for my ever-growing T.Rex addiction of the last couple years. The world lost Solomon Burke last year and among his many songs I really enjoyed the graceful "Can't Nobody Love You". I've always been a sucker for the catatonic charms of Hope Sandoval and her song with The Warm Inventions called "Clear Day" reminds me so much of melancholy winter walks at the beginning of 2010.
As with T. Rex, my Jesus & Mary Chain addiction came out of nowhere the last couple years and last year I really loved the hazy "Cut Dead". Looking back at previous years "best ofs" I could not believe I hadn't included any Charlie Parker. I listened to him a lot again this year, particularly the controversial "strings" sessions from late in his career. His version of the standard "Dancing In the Dark" evokes a romantic New York. "Darling Dear"by The Jackson 5 is one of two of their songs in my best of this year that were "stripped" of much instrumentation and back-up singing to reveal the stunning and precocious singing of a young Michael Jackson. This one in particular almost made my top 1% of the year, the top 11 revealed in the next pos, and is absolutely amazing. "Daylight" is another soulful tale from the road by Bobby Womack. There was a great piece in the Times about how we should appreciate an ailing Aretha Franklin now, while she's still with us, in particular her landmark album I've Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You. From that, the definitive reading of the standard "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". From there, the slightly sinister yet slightly mystical "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult and then an almost harrowing version of The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down" by the obscure Bruner. Also along the lines of amateur musical genius is Daniel Johnston's "Dream Scream". His heavy breathing on there seems part of the atmosphere and unintentional. Guru of Gang Starr died last year and their "DWYCK" with Nice & Smooth is a fitting epitaph. Seu Jorge released a cool cover of Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" that served as a perfect late summer soundtrack. Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" came out about a decade ago but I felt like I just caught up to it, or its chilly appeal caught up to me and knocked me on my ass last spring. The funky obscurity "Evil Vibrations" by The Mighty Ryeders is one I played over and over again last year. In my universe, it was just as ubiquitous as Cee-Lo Green's glorious "Fuck You" was on the radio, deservedly so with its witty Motown update.
Main Source's "Fakin' The Funk" is old school but timeless. I went on a huge Fela Kuti kick last year, with all the reissues of his old albums and one of my favorites was the hypnotic "Fefe Naa Efe". Speaking of Main Source a minute ago, I was excited to find the slept-on Large Professor album The LP. From that, I loved "For My People (The LP)". Nice & Smooth's "Funky For You", like the best of their work, has loads of charm and killer production. Ray Charles' 50s songs on Atlantic are just about perfect, but I always love demo versions of songs and his "Funny (But I Still Love You)" is a case of the stripped-down version serving the material. I can't believe I had 7 years of mixes before James Brown's propulsive "Get Up (I Feel LIke Being A Sex Machine)" graced a mix. The "isolated" tracks of "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones were a huge underground hit online before their old record company abruptly pulled the files from the blog that shared them. After a lot of digging I was able to find the all-vocal version and I'm sure you'd agree it was worth the effort. I haven't yet dug deeply enough in the catalog of Billie Holiday to state a preference for early or late Holiday, not do I know what the "correct" answer is. I do slightly prefer the later version of her "God Bless The Child" here, with a slower delivery that hints at hard-earned wisdom that she might not have had when she first wrote it. Among the many covers I featured, Richie Havens' live version, in its artless but heartfelt delivery, may be my favorite. Another online music sensation was the mashup of Beatles and Wu Tang Clan songs, and my favorite was Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Got Your Money" against samples of both the original and cover versions of "You Never Give Me Your Money" by The Beatles, lending the former a pathos I didn't think it could have. I've long been familiar with Van Morrison's early band Them and their "Here Comes The Night" but last year I couldn't get enough of it. There is no song among these more fierce than Raekwon's "House Of Flying Daggers" with Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah and Method Man. It feels like a Wu Tang throwback.
I rediscovered my love for The Spinners last year and the gorgeously melancholic "How Could I Let You Get Away" is one of two songs of theirs on here. Merle Haggard's outlaw anthem "I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am" became one of my favorites this year and I liked Deam Martin's version every bit as much. The anguished "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine" by The Ronettes shows that Phil Specktor's Wall Of Sound was every bit as majestic as the hype suggests. Jim Croce's "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song" reminds me of my childhood and puts a lump in my throat. "If I Were Your Woman" by Gladys Knight & The Pips has it all: a great lyric with amazing singing against a perfect production. Also boasting perfect production: John Lennon's "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" which still gives me goosebumps. The orignal version made a previous year's "best of" but I think I actually prefer the remix of Ice Cube's "IT Was A Good Day", which swaps The Staple Singers' sweet "Let's Do It Again" for The Isley Brothers' "Footsteps In The Dark". Speaking of great sampling production, Pete Rock's Curtis Mayfield sample on "The Joy" with Jay-Z was the best thing Kanye West rapped on this year, despite the praise for his official solo album. The hushed BBC version of Belle & Sebastian's "Judy And The Dream Of Horses" was one f the more memorable songs for me this year, one that will always remind me of 2010 and that somehow feel just outside my top 11. I first heard Jerry Butler's "Just Because I Really Love You" as a chopped-up smaple on J Dilla's posthumous album Donuts. I loved finding the full song this year. Stevie Wonder's "Knocks Me Off My Feet" will forever remind me of watching Showtime At The Apollo on late, lonely Saturday nights in my early days in New York, when I was young and broke. This song was the mountain singers dared to climb, over and over again.
I saw the amazing documentary Still Bill early in 2010, and that led to a rediscovery of Bill Withers. In the film, he talked about how he wanted to write songs about things that felt substantial and real, like friendship, at which point the sublime "Lean On Me" cues up. Previous years' mixes have probably exhausted the ragged brilliance of The Replacements catalog but their anthemic "Left Of The Dial" landed belatedly in 2010 and I was grateful for it. Big Boi's album was at my very top of new albums in 2010, and "Lookin' For Ya", left off the album for contractual reasons around Andre 3000, hint at the Outkast album that never was. In addition to seeing the Withers documentary in the theaters, I saw 30 Century Man on DVD which sent me on a huge Scott Walker kick. The wintry "LOve Her" by The Walker Brothers" was one of my favorites last year. Over the last sveral years of "best ofs" I've included two versions of "Love My Way" by The Psychedelic Furs: the original and a rare acoustic live version. This year the song resurfaced for me with this live version, with crunchy guitar. My only excuse is that this is probably my favorite song in the world. Ne Order's "Love Vigilantes" was a revelation this year, such great lyrics and a song that sounds unique in their catalog, or anyone's for that matter. "Lovin' You" by Al Green is from my favorite, and underrated, album of his: Belle, where he produced a funky disco-ish album about his struggles with God. Way better than it sounds. Janis Joplin's posthumous hit version of Kris Kirstofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee" has always been a favorite of mine and last year I was thrilled to find the demo version of it. Gil Scott Heron's new album at the beginning of 2010 sent me on a kick though his catlog, and from the new album his interpolation of Robert Johnson on "Me And The Devil" sounds both current and timeless. "Mighty Love" by The Spinners is joyous ear candy. Of the songs on the new Kanye West album, the standout to me is "Monster" with Nicki Minaj outshining Kanye and Rick Ross and even Jay-Z. The trend in "stripped" mixes led me to an album of Smokey Robinson songs pared down from the originals, and this best of includes one of my favorites of his with The Miracles "More Love", which only highlights the amazing singing. Lil Wayne's "Mrs. Officer" reminds me of a wedding road trip gone wrong, but where getting lost felt fun. Billy Paul's jazzy covers of pop standards are always fun and his version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" sounds like it should have been the original.
My "best ofs" do not have enough John Coltrane and this year I finally included one of my favorites, his early ballad "Naima". "Never Can Say Goodbye" was one of their early hits that the Jackosn 5 wrote themselves, and soon became a standard. The version here is one the "stripped" versions. "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper is one of two songs on here that reminds me of the film Dazed and Confused. My slightly edited (san skit) version of Ice Cube's "No Vaseline" is a fierce counterpoint to the earlier N.W.A. track "Approach To Danger". The melancholic "Numbered Days" by Eels was burned into me in 2010 and came close to my top 11. A previous "best of" featured Van Halen's ecstatic cover of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman". This year I have the original alongside Al Green's slowed-down version. Arrested Development's upbeat "People Everyday (Reprise)" reminds me of college. "Pretty Vacant" by The Sex Pistols reminds me that they weren't just an act, they wrote great songs too. The Madlib-produced Strong Arm Steady album might have been the best hip hop album of 2010 and "Questions" featuring Planet Asia and Fashawn was my favorite. Nas' "Represent" has an instantly recognixable DJ Premier production as well as amazing lyrics. Sleigh Bells were among the few hyped new bands of the year I found time for and "Rill Rill" is perfect pop. As is the ageless "Rock The Casbah" by The Clash. Ditto on Stevie Wonder's Duke Ellington tribute "Sir Duke". I rediscovered the powerful "Somebody To Love" by Jefferson Airplane" through a Cone brothers movie trailer. There are so many amazing versions of Leon Russell's standard "A Song For You": this year I include the live Donny Hathaway version as well as a cover by Cher, but as enjoyable as those are the Willie Nelson version here is probably his best vocal performance ever. Nearly in my top 11 of the year. "Starfish And Coffee" is overlooked evidence for the genius of Prince. The warm and heartfelt "Stop By" by Don Covay features one of my favorite singing voices ever. "Stray Cat Strut" by The Stray Cats reminds me of junior high and years later seems wittier than ever and just as cool. Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's "Streets Of New York" is more gripping than any Law & order episode could ever be.
Albert Ayler's transcendent take of the Gerswhin standard "Summertime" sums up everything I felt last spring waiting for summer. Getting to see Paul Weller live last fall was a major thrill and he ended with, as I predicted and hped "That's Entertainment". the version here is not one of tThe Jam versions I used on mixes this year but a much later solo acoustic version. Pete Rock & CL Smooth's "They Reminisce Over You" tells a great story over a perfect jazzy beat. I found "They Say" by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra with Helen Forrest on a post-war music compilation and loved the cool and sweetly wistful feeling it has. The mash up of "This IS Radio Clash" b y The Clash with Boz markie's "Something For The Radio" smacks of too-cute punnery on paper, but actually sounds amazing. There is no song that sounds more joyous than "Town Called Malice" by The Jam. "Two Hearts Beat As One" by U2 coasts over an amazing bass line and remidns me how exciting they sounded to me as a teenager. Among the many Bob Dylan covers I heard this year there was none better than Jackie DeShannon's countrified version of his obscure "Walkin' Down The Line".
"(We've Got) Honey Love" by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas is such a perfect pop song, and so far down the ranks of well-known Motown songs it remidns me of how bottomless their catalog of great songs is. Alex Chilton died this year which led me to listen to Bhis "What's Going Ahn" from his Big Star days. It's so beautiful and mysterious and evocative. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by The Beatles is another one I can't believe it took me over seven years to put on one of my weekly mixes. Patel Vespa's sexy but spooky cover of Billy Idol's "White Wedding" makes my best of probably for shuffling through my ipod as I walked across the sun-dappled tarmac of teh Cartagena, Colombia airport. MF Doom's relentless "Who Do You Think I Am?" boast fierce lyrics from nearly unknown MCs and a killer flute sample. It was near the very top of my favorite songs I listened to last year. War's "Why Can't We Be Friends" was the other Dazed and Confused song I revisted this year and seemed to have special relevance for me now more than ever. Digging through Gil Scott-Heron's catalog this year led me to his stunning "Winter In America' with Brian Jackson, which I listened to endlessly as I took my early winter vacation in Colombia this past NOvember. The solo version also her, recorded many years later, was abonus track on his new album from 2010 and was even more powerful in its own way. Little Jackie's 28 Butts, like the ubiquotous Cee-Lo song from this year, update sMotown sounds with modern day wit.
