My Favorite Songs of 2010

Inspired by Oprah's "Favorite Things" I present:
My Favorite Songs of 2010!

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#5 Nicki Minaj featuring Eminem - Roman's Revenge

The energy of this song is undeniable to me. The excitement builds with the unrelenting beat. As shown by the many videos on Youtube of people dancing to this song. Eminem is back to his full absurd Slim Shady mode on this song and gets downright disgusting in the lyrics.
As ridiculous as his lyrics are he does spit them with the utmost TIGHTNESS.
"Go take a flying leap of faith off a f*cking balcony before I shove a falcon wing up your fly ass"
Also nice to see Nicki finally respond to Lil Kim's constant beef over Nicki taking the mantle as best female rapper alive (no contest). Nicki splashes just a couple lines throughout her album dissing Kim, but kills the debate
"So f*ck I look like gettin back to a has been?"
Nicki also does her part for redefining gender roles :)
"I am not Jasmin I am Aladdin"


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#4 Black Dub - Ring The Alarm

Off of one of the best albums of the year, which I got exposed to thanks to my job at Barnes and Noble's CD & DVD department.
The unrelenting rhythm and flow of this song is carried along by its only lyric,
"Ring the alarm! Another sound is dying"
taken from Tenor Saw's dub hit by the same name.
It's a reference to the theory that tinnitus or ringing in your ears is the dying response of auditory neurons. As in, if you hear a ringing in your ear, it's the last time you will ever hear that note again.


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#3 Kanye West featuring Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and Bon Iver - Monster

Unquestionably the best hip-hop track of 2010.
If you have any ear for rap then you've got to love the pounding beat and the A-Game brought by Kanye and Nicki. Jay Z is his usual strong self but his verse doesn't compare to Kanye's career verse ("I'm livin' in the future so the present is my past. My presence is a present, kiss my ass") or Nicki's stream of schizophrenia which helped her become the year's big breakout star. For a first class verse from Jay Z check out Drake's Light Up ("Triple entendre, don't even ask me how. Con Edison flow, I'm connected to a high power")
I can wait for the eerie video for this song which has been previewed online to finally drop.


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#2 Ray Charles - Loves Gonna Bite You Back

This track is off of an album of previously unreleased Ray Charles material that came out this year. Another cd I got to listen to because of working in Barnes and Noble music. Ray Charles singing right to my soul from beyond the grave, what more is there to say.


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#1 Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Company

This song is everything I love about music all rolled into one. The piano's rhythm is subtle yet constant, the building of instruments, the crooning of Joanna's voice during the slower movements, and then the last minute or so of the song being just a kind of tribute to the work you just heard. It's the perfect song for when you're driving, on the subway, dancing, scrapbooking or whatever you may be doing. Full disclosure, I may be biased since she's my fiancee (Tho I havn't told her that yet).
From the Youtube comments for this video:
"I think if I were to die, at the ripe old age of 19, with this song playing, it would be okay."

Crazy By Choice

I find it satisfying when I see a person walking around seemingly talking to themselves, then I think,
"Oh, they must be on a bluetooth headset or something"
Only then to realize that they are not.
They're just plain old crazy.

A throwback to the good ol' days when crazy meant crazy

This would be a good time to externalize an idea I've had ever since I moved to New York a few years ago, I call it "CBC"

Crazy By Choice

It is essentially when a person, who really has no business talking, yelling or grunting to themselves or others, partakes in such activities openly for one of two reasons.

Case 1 (less common) - The CBC desires increased attention.
One could see how acting crazy might bring you some attention, however as acting crazy attracts pretty much the last attention one would desire, this type of CBC is usually completely bonkers, longtime homeless, or some other type of undesirable who would otherwise be completely ignored save for their crazy behavior, quite a crazy paradox.

Case 2 (more common) - The CBC wants to be ignored.
This type of CBC was the reason I coined the term. Someone who just doesn't want to be bothered by the aggregation of people they are forced to interact with. While this is especially acute in the over cramped hustle and bustle of New York City, it is really the result of the alienation that permeates and eats away at our whole society in America. I first noticed it as a street canvasser in New York City where I had to attempt to make contact with everyone who passed me by on the street. While most people ignored me by pretending to be on the phone or listening to music or just too busy, the CBCs (mostly old men and women on the Upper West Side) would...well...do their CBC thang. They would rather have their fleeting correspondence be one of "okay I'm gonna leave this crazy person alone" that an actual human interaction.

To quote Kanye West "No more drugs for me, pussy and religion is all I need"
If you didn't get why that quote is relevant, maybe you're crazy and you should start acting like it!

And if I haven't driven you over the edge of madness yet, then this former A-list cast of stars singing Let It Be for Norwegian television surly will


I realize that this post may be offensive to crazy people.
If that is the case I apologize.
I myself am crazy.
And I've always been told it's okay to make fun of your own kind.
For example I can make Holocaust jokes
because my grandfather
was a Nazi