LyricalLesson

Yes. Yes. Yes. No (Pink is on there, clearly...you must have trouble reading). Thank you for your response though, much appreciated

I'm not as gangsta as TwistedElegance so I didn't muster up enough patience or dedication to rank and post about every track on my list Only the top 15. I'm not as active here anymore than I was in the past, I just pop in from time to time. But, like TE, I do one of these every year. Check it out, I hope y'all enjoy. LYRICALLESSON'S HOTTEST 40 SONGS OF 2012 #40 - #16 (alphabetically and in no particular order) "As Long As You Love Me" - Justin Bieber feat. Big Sean "Battle Scars" - Guy Sebastian & Lupe Fiasco "(Blow Me) One Last Kiss" - Pink "Break Ya Back" - Timbaland feat. Dev "Celebration" - Game feat. Wiz Khalifa, Tyga, Lil' Wayne & Chris Brown "Church" - Meek Mill feat. Drake "Clique" - Big Sean, Kanye West & Jay-Z "Disparate Youth" - Santigold "Enough Said" - Aaliyah "Girl On Fire" - Alicia Keys "Glad You Came" - The Wanted "I Knew You Were Trouble" - Taylor Swift "I Wish I Never Met You" - Sam Sparro "In & Out" - Marcus Canty feat. Wale "Keep Your Head Up" - Andy Grammer "King Of Hearts" - Cassie "Locked Out of Heaven" - Bruno Mars "One More Night" - Maroon 5 "Pyramids" - Frank Ocean "Princess Of China" - Coldplay feat. Rihanna "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye feat. Kimbra "Sweet Nothing" - Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch "We Are Young" - fun. feat. Janelle Monae "Where Have You Been" - Rihanna "Your Body" - Christina Aguilera #15. "Sexify" by Leah LaBelle A smile appears on my face when this record plays. Reminiscent of r&b/soul jams by artists like Evelyn 'Champagne' King. It's got that girls-singing-in-hairbrushes-at-a-slumber-party vibe. Just pure, clean fun. And I'm such a fan of Leah's crisp, yet slightly raspy, strong vocals on the track. Current lyrics, delivered in a classic-R&B styled vocal arrangement and sound. #14. "Not Over You" by Gavin DeGraw Gavin DeGraw delivers yet again. This man has routinely been making high quality music ever since he dropped "I Don't Wanna Be", his singles are always great, and "Not Over You" follows suit. It's an effortless blend of pop, rock kissed with soul. Tender and honestly delivered, and a composition that just builds, builds, builds -- then erupts. Top notch! #13. "Thinkin' Bout You" by Frank Ocean Simplistic beat. Minimal vocal effect or enhancement. One voice that's not reliant upon a billion backing vocals..."Thinkin' Bout You" is unique, his delivery of the chorus alone helped propel this track into my top 15. #12. "Take Care" by Drake feat. Rihanna I didn't expect this type of track when I saw that this pair was collaborating. I was expecting something very commercial, something that was tailor-made to be a chart topper for weeks on end. Thank the LORD they went for quality instead. I love the bluesy vibe of the production. Rihanna's chorus is chilling, haunting and sets up Drake's personal and deep flow & vocals very nicely. They complimented each other very well, went for a direction out of the norm, and IMO created something of a current classic in the process. #11. "Diamonds" by Rihanna I'm pretty sure that if 2012 wasn't coming to an end so quickly; this song would have raised at LEAST 5 more spots on this list. Either way, Rihanna's camp can rest assured that she has recorded a legitimately phenomenal record. Wayyyy left field. It's neither a dance track, nor a ballad. If it was anyone else, it probably wouldn't have shot up the charts like it did...but that's a testament to the stranglehold that Rihanna has on the game right now. "Diamonds" sports beautiful lyrics, and most importantly, it showcases Rihanna letting loose as far as vocals are concerned, she sounds GREAT from top to bottom, the vocal climax she hits during the last chorus of the track is excellent! #10. "Birthday Cake" by Rihanna feat. Chris Brown My crew's go-to track of the YEAR at the clubs (just ahead of "N***** In Paris") . . . The beat, the beat, the BEAT! Futuristic and filled with bass. As repetitive and unsubstantial as the lyrics are (I'd bet a 4th grader could come up with something more deep), they are PERFECTLY executed, ESPECIALLY in Rihanna's rap-sung 3rd verse, the vocal/lyrical highlight of the track: "Put a candle on my muhf***** back, baby blow it!" -- BADASS! #9. "Home" by Philip Philips In one word, I could call this song "breathtaking" . . . the second half of the lengthy chorus (i.e. the "ooooooooh ooooooooh") is perfection, it has induced multiple eargasms for me, and it’s largely the reason why it peaks at #9 in this list. Never before has an American Idol alum released such an original, unique song as his/her first single. MAJOR props given to Philip! #8. "Cake" by Lady Gaga I was a fan of Lady Gaga's back when "The Fame" dropped. That fizzled just after "Bad Romance" came out. I just tired of her, in essence -- I got a bit irritated of her weirdness. Let me tell you...fast forwarding to "Cake", I am EXTREMELY INTRIGUED to find out what she does with her next record. This song turned me into a teenaged fan boy, posting its lyrics as my status updates on FB . . . I rarely EVER do that. I was hooked. I was SHOCKED that an artist like Gaga would basically say "F*** all of y'all, I feel like gettin' gangsta, I'ma rap and go HAM on ALL of you pop bitches out today!" She killed it, her filthy ass aggressive lyrics; slightly monotone delivery gift wrapped in a THUG ASS Hip Hop beat just wreaked havoc over my stereo for a month straight. Not one other pop female would do what Gaga did with this record, not Katy Perry, not Ke$ha, Not Britney, Beyonce, Rihanna, Christina...NONE OF THEM. She showed that she just didn't give a f***, I love artists like that. (P.S.: That piano solo toward the end of the song is S I C K ! ! !) #7. "Love & War" by Tamar Braxton Yes, the song just debuted a few days ago. But is there any real question as to WHY it made my list? It took just two short listens to start a shift in my listing in the 11th hour. It's by FAR the best vocal of the ENTIRE YEAR. A BRILLIANT, COMPLETE R&B song . . . verses, a hook, a HUGE chorus, a bridge . . . it's just heaven for an R&B head. And I'm a sucker for emotion. This track is chocked FULL of emotion. Everything about the track is top notch. #6. "Too Close" by Alex Clare First of all, Diplo did the damn thing on the beat of this song. For me, it's one of the best of the year. Secondly, let me send my heartfelt thanks to Microsoft for featuring this relatively unknown Brit's amazing song on their Internet Explorer 9 commercial, otherwise a large portion of the U.S. would have never had the opportunity to experience it! I was mesmerized from the first note I heard and first buzz of the dubstep backing track I heard coming from my television speakers. I spent days and days trying to find it . . . and when I finally did, I must have listened to it a LEAST 50 times straight. I'm a huge fan of the strong self-reliant voice (it's un-polished but that's what gives it its unique tone & quality) and mysterious, unassured lyrics. #5. "BlackOut" by Breathe Carolina This one, to this day has me scratching my head as to WHY I love it so much . . . ? It's everything I hate about the popular music of today's Euro-Pop/EDM/Dance/Trance fad: The ridiculously synthesized vocals, the hyper-dance crazed production, the flimsy and un-memorable subject matter. BUT, they say to every rule, there are exceptions . . . "BlackOut" is without a doubt one of them for me. The song is a bonafied anathematic, out-of-this-galaxy futuristic masterpiece. I can NEVER listen to this track without gettin' down, and wanting to violently smash random fragile breakables and antiques (ala Michael Jackson in "Scream), when I listen to this song, I just wanna F**K S#!T UP! It's 3 minutes and 28 seconds of pure fun. MY TOP 4 DOMINATED THE LAST QUARTER OF THE YEAR, AND ARE PROBABLY A LEVEL ABOVE THE REST! #4. "Mr. Wrong" by Mary J. Blige feat. Drake Mary took it WAAAAY the f*** back with this one. I cannot for the life of me understand why it wasn't embraced as the diamond of a song that it is, at least by the R&B community. The production is a highlight as well. It's the perfect blend of serene and strange with a nice baseline and nice beats. Drake turns in one of my favorite features of the year as well. He takes the direction of the song and flips it, rather than deflecting Mary's claim that he's Mr. Wrong and being braggadocios and defensive -- he owns up, and realizes that he is Mr. Wrong, but just can't change for whatever reason. I just felt that it was a unique direction to turn it in, so mad props to Aubrey. But the #1 highlight is Mary's emotion: INTENSE INTENSE INTENNNNSE vocal showing here! Pure SOUL through and through. #3. "Thank You" by Estelle Wait...Did Estelle just really release a Mary J. Blige like song, and wind up slightly upstaging her with it?!?! INDEED! "Thank You" should have garnered this woman several Grammy nominations. The lyrics are perfectly crafted, DEEP -- spanning all different emotions, a BIG chorus, vocals delivered with gut-wrenching pain, assuring its listener that even though she's broken and hurt, she WILL survive -- "so I thank you, for making me a woman" . . . Talk about being THE ambassador for relationship-wounded women all over the world. Another showing of great production. Starts off smooth chill at the beginning, and as it progresses it gets more intense. The last minute of the song leaves your mind blown . . . Estelle holds absolutely nothing back with her vocals and unleashes powerful, vulnerable adlibs, I had chills the first time I listened. Spectacular, simply spectacular. #2. "Adorn" by Miguel He does it all: lows to highs, strong chest voice, and top notch falsetto. Miguel, for me, is the current de facto King of R&B. For me, no one comes close. I've felt like this since "All I Want Is You" dropped 2 years ago . . . And "Adorn" has done nothing but strengthen my opinion. First of all, let me be bold and say that I'm 100% sure that R&B is FO' SHO back and will start to get a better showcase next year. Miguel is at the forefront of that movement. "Adorn" is PURE UNADULTERATED R&B/SOUL! Lyrically and vocally a straight up throwback to eras past, but still so amazingly current it hurts. His background vocals are massively underrated; they blend so perfectly together, but NEVER take away from the impact of his voice. From the bridge to the last second of the track is the highlight . . . His delivery in the last 58 seconds of the track >>>> every other male R&B vocalist delivery this year. #1. "Wicked Games" by The Weeknd Background story here: I was coming home from the clubs just after 4:00am on a Sunday morning. I stopped to get some chicken nuggets from Jack In The Crack to help soak up some of the alcohol swimming in my system. Made it home, pulled into my driveway, turned off my Bluetooth hook-up from my phone's mp3 player to my car's system . . . just as I'm about to turn the key to turn the car off, the radio switches on and I hear a man with a crispy clear voice pouring his heart and soul out over a heartbeat-like strange alternative R&B instrumental. I froze, didn't give a f*** that my chicken nuggets were now getting cold. I sat for close to 5 minutes, completely drawn in and hypnotized by what I heard. I scrambled to text myself some of the lyrics of the song so that I could download it as soon as I stepped foot in my house. Had this series of events never occurred, this song would NOT be #1 on my list. Basically, If I would have left the clubs earlier or never stopped to get food, or didn't hesitate before I turned my car off, I probably would have never heard this song. I don't listen to the radio, and I'm a music snob these days, so I say it was FATE that led me to it or it to me. Now, onto how I feel about the song. It's a MASTERPIECE from 0:00 - 5:26 (or 4:42, whichever version you're listening to). NEVER does it feel like it's dragging on too long, I never want it to end. In fact, I can NEVER listen to it just once at a time. I don't believe I have ever heard a song like this before. "Wicked Games" is everything: The lyrics = 25% eerie, 25% sad/vulnerable, 25% seductive, 25% badass. Like, he honestly found a way to record a song that's equally sexy, rebellious, strange, and frankly a bit scary . . . I feel like I could use it put it DOWN real good in the bedroom -- play it when I'm feeling down and out over a tough break-up -- or pop in my earbuds, load up a gun and play it as a soundtrack while on a zombie-killing spree. Its versatility is ridonkulous. One of the most chilling and almost unstable sounding instrumentations I've ever witnessed. His vocal reminds me of a new-age Michael at times. His voice soars, it bleeds vocal passion, it cries vocal tears, and you can't help but feel what he's feeling. Lyrically deep, interpretive, he has went through some S#!T. It's just unique in EVERY aspect I can think of. The easiest and clear choice for #1 song of 2012. Testament to it's stranglehold on my heart? The original 5:26 version of the song is the #1 most played song on my mp3 player, and the 4:42 Remastered (Radio) version of the song is the #2 most played song on my mp3 player. How's that for dominance?

TE!!!! I am literally JUST about to post my annual Top 40 singles of 2012 . . . I do NOT know how I missed your listing!!! There are SO MANY of these songs that you listed that I have never heard before, wow I told you, I kind of fell off for a large part of this year and I kind of became a musical snob so I didn't really give much of anything the time of day during that time period. I know we both share that love for a wide range of musical genres, so I trust that I'll probably dig a LOT of what you have listed. I see that we both have a number of the same songs on both of our lists; I'd guess at least 10 or so without counting. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest! I'm gonna come back and use this as the shortlist of what I missed this year, I'm pretty excited to have a guide of new songs ( well, new to me at least ) to discover. As always, I'm just thoroughly impressed by this thread. The time you put into providing commentary on ALL 50 SONGS is admirable! Also, the time you took in setting up such a sharp looking structure/appearance of the song listing, and making the graphic with all of the album covers in it is pretty phenomenal I was going to do something similar, but I'm SO glad I didn't because not only do I want to inadvertently swaggerjack, but mine would have failed miserably in comparison . . . I was planning on just using plain ol' Microsoft Paint to piece the photos of each artist together Excellent, my friend. Excellent!

"Damn...cold world."

AIGHT NOW! Maybe it was the performance/live singing combo -- but here, "Hot Suga" sounded PERFECT!!! Much better than in the audio of the video I posted in the other thread. Maybe it was the same...? Lol. Who knows, but it sounded hot here for some reason lol. GON' WIT'CHA BAD SELF TAMAR!

Don't get me wrong, the track is HOT, and I was diggin' the hell out of the snippet when I first heard it...I'm just not diggin the vocals on this leak, it sounds unfinished to me. Refined vocals, and a stronger delivery will push it to where it needs to be. She could have a real 1, 2 punch with these 2 records.

I hope this isn't the final version, maybe a demo or something because after hearing "Love And War" this would be a VERY VERY mediocre and weak second single: "HOT SUGA" This doesn't sound like her anyway...hopefully this is just a scratch track.

Oops...

See Miguel & Frank Ocean. Tamar could very well spark it for the ladies though, although I think Estelle & Mary did it big for R&B this year with their singles "Thank You" & "Mr. Wrong" respectfully (quality wise, not chart success unfortunately)

I will admit that Rihanna has definitely caught and held my attention for the first time since Music Of The Sun when she released the fantastic "Man Down". . . Since then, she has consistantly released excellent singles in "We Found Love", "Birthday Cake (Remix)", "Where Have You Been", and "Diamonds" which has already become one of her 5 best songs ever IMO (as well as one of the best songs of the year). Stanning for her will never be done by me, but I have to say that I don't dislike her anymore.

Brilliant vocals. WHAT MUSIC IS MISSING RIGHT NOW. R&B is NOT dead...thank the Lord! This song is top-notch. Go Tamar.

First of all -- your beats are RIDICULOUS. Thoroughly impressed with your production. ESPECIALLY ON "I Get It", "Rest My Case" and "Swinger Girl" Single worthy tracks: Buzz/Club single - (toss up between) "I Get It" / "Rest My Case" 3rd strongest single - "Swinger Girl" 2nd strongest single "Rough" And by FAR, your strongest single? "Autotune" -- it is currently the 7th most played song on my mp3 player I feel like out of every track on the mixtape, this would have the most crossover appeal, it's not only your most commercial sounding track, it's your most sincere. I've truly grown to love the song...for whatever fucked up reason You're CLEARLY a Janet fan, I heard SEVERAL Janet influenced situations/lyrics throughout the album way to go, man. Your mixtape is SOLID!

"Shine bwight like a diii-mun..."

Yeah i think it was shot by Terry Richardson. Ahhh that makes sense. Either way, it's working! The song is just badass. And NONE of the current crop of female singers today would have the balls to do what she did with this, to me she's killin' em right now :lmao: you're a fuckin NUT Roc

DEAD So I'm reading that Gaga's dropping teaser videos on the 'net (I saw 2 of them...she looks so fuckin sexy...DAT ASSSS)...and that she actually PERFORMED "Cake" live on tour...? Is she going to legitimately release "Cake"?!

Maybe Gagizza will be on the Remix...? Speaking of her, I STILL love "Cake" -- wound up being one of my FAVORITE songs of the year

:lmao: Definitely not my cup o' tea . . . But i can't deny that Cher came out of nowhere with fire on this one Good for her!

2012 wound up being one of the best years of my life, personally. Out of nowhere, I gained a big ol' group of friends (one of them, coined us "the Cray Cray Crew" when she was drunk haha) started going out to the clubs meeting new, cool people each and every night, got a promotion at my job, started letting maturity take the wheel and began to repair the broken relationship I had with my Dad, and i feel like I've become a better vocalist than i ever have in the past...I'm heading out to Seattle and trying out for 'America's Got Talent' next week, and I'm feeling very confident Music, as a whole, was wack yet again. HOWEVER, there have been some EXCELLENT music released here and there throughout the year, and for once in the past 2 or 3 years, I have high hopes for the direction that music may take. Great stuff has come from Miguel, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Rihanna, Mary J., Estelle, Kanye, Maroon 5, Bruno, etc. -- I say, BRING IT ONNNN! Obviously the loss of Whitney was horrible and so was the loss of my girl Phyllis Diller among many more. There have been 2 more additions to my fam bam, another niece and another nephew The Prez was re-elected! Serena Williams DOMINATED the last half of the tennis season and The San Francisco 49ers & NY Knicks are off to BADASS starts to their seasons Television was GREAT -- re-discovered the brilliance that is "Arrested Development", fell in love with Reality TV again ("Survivor", "Mama Drama", "Bad Girls Club 9" ), Ashley Judd's "Missing" was bananas! And I'm finally optimistic about where I'm at and where I plan on seeing myself being next year...I cannot tell you when I have last felt like this at the end of a year. 2012 has been a major improvement for me, I definitely dug it!

I couldn't give 2 shits about sales. But fuck Errbody all of y'all are talkin about... THE WEEKND'S ALBUM IS OUT! "Wicked Games" is a masterpiece...best single of 2012

"Turn Me On", "Jealousy", "Turn It Up", "I Want You", "Fightin' Over Me" & "Stars Are Blind" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This shit.

Never seen that before . . . Daaaaamn, Christina KILL'T that shit!

This is why your ass will NOT be booked when I become famous and my record label and needs to hire a DJ for my performances and club appearances

Hot damn, you did didn't even read through and see it until now! Great minds indeed, my friend!

I get HEATED when the don't finish a muthafuckin song that I want to get the fuck down to. My crew's club anthems at the club this summer were Kanye/Jay-'s "N***** In Paris", Rihanna/Chris Brown's "Birthday Cake" and Ginuwine's "Pony" (which still gets mad play, believe it or not)...and I expected to hear all of those songs in FULL... I don't care for the quick 1-2minute clips of songs unless each great track flows into an equally great track.

That's my boy! Congratulations M.A.Double.T.! :clapping: