LyricalLesson Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 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? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock & Roll Hall of Game Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Tamar's song.. The one released a few days ago? Umm Justin Beaver, Xtina, but no Pink.. Goodbye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyricalLesson Posted December 9, 2012 Author Share Posted December 9, 2012 Tamar's song.. The one released a few days ago? Umm Justin Beaver, Xtina, but no Pink.. Goodbye Yes. Yes. Yes. No (Pink is on there, clearly...you must have trouble reading). Thank you for your response though, much appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 I'm on the go right now but I'll be back to review this properly soon. Excellent job from what I glossed over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janetDAYZ Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 I really like your TOP 4 choices ... "Thank You" by Estelle is EPIC to me. It's sooooo Mary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyricalLesson Posted December 9, 2012 Author Share Posted December 9, 2012 I'm on the go right now but I'll be back to review this properly soon. Excellent job from what I glossed over. Thank you TE! Take your time man, I'm definitely going to be in touch with you after I listen to the good 50% worth of tracks I missed out on from your list, I've mad catching up to do! I really like your TOP 4 choices ... "Thank You" by Estelle is EPIC to me. It's sooooo Mary. Ahhh thanks! Those 4 are on another level to me as far as 2012 is concerned! Yes, D -- EPIC is the perfect word to describe "Thank You" . . . I've been a fan of Estelle for quite some time now, but this track SHOCKED me. I didn't know she had what it took to pull this very Mary-esque track off as effortlessly as she did. Before, I used to say that I wonder what Mary would sound like if she had sang if, but I've gotten to the point where I no longer care because Estelle REALLY did the damn thing, she owned it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 This is great. Like you said, we share a love across all genres of music and this list proves it (again). I love reading the personal ties to each song, and I agree with a lot of your reviews here, especially Phillip Phillips - that song really surprised me. Your recount of discovering 'Wicked Games' is a standout too. I love when songs grab you out of nowhere like that. I also love that a couple of Aussies made the list! Great work, Jevar. Something really important that I'm taking from your countdown is to make a conscious effort to keep in contact with you throughout the year rather than these quick catch-ups at year's end. Too often I get tunnel vision when rummaging through new music and I forget there are people out there I can share it with and also feed off. I'm also going to check out the songs from your Hottest 40 I'm not familiar with. Thanks for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Tamar's song.. The one released a few days ago? Umm Justin Beaver, Xtina, but no Pink.. Goodbye It's HIS list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock & Roll Hall of Game Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 It's HIS list. He posted it.. It's open to critizism Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 He posted it.. It's open to critizism His taste isn't open to anything because it's his taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaria Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Standing ovation at #8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSimba Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Great job! "Adorn" was #2 on my list too (2nd to "Pyramids," and "Wicked Games" was in my top 10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock & Roll Hall of Game Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 His taste isn't open to anything because it's his taste. Yeah but don't we criticize the "taste" of musician's creations? And it's ok to like the person's taste? But to disagree With it is a no-no Quit picking on me TwistE... It's not cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Yeah but don't we criticize the "taste" of musician's creations? Quit picking on me TwistE... It's not cool That's not what this is. He wasn't speaking for everybody yet you're criticising him because his favourite things are not your own. How am I picking on you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock & Roll Hall of Game Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 That's not what this is. He wasn't speaking for everybody yet you're criticising him because his favourite things are not your own. How am I picking on you? I didn't criticism him because he picked none of my favs... I just commented and you didn't like it. Just fight your own battles. He handled me already.. P!nk is listed.. Just not where she should be and not the right song Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 And it's ok to like the person's taste? But to disagree With it is a no-no You didn't simply disagree, you dismissed him and it was rude. I didn't criticism him because he picked none of my favs... I just commented and you didn't like it. Just fight your own battles. He handled me already.. P!nk is listed.. Just not where she should be and not the right song I didn't say that. I said his favourite things are not yours. And when you thought one of your faves had been left off you criticised him. We all saw it. Not the JoeJoe defense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock & Roll Hall of Game Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 You didn't simply disagree, you dismissed him and it was rude. soo Good night TwistE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedElegance™ Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyricalLesson Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 I won't say who...but someone's wig got SNIZZATCHED up in here sad, his head will be bald and cold for the holidays Not the JoeJoe defense. DEAD :lmao: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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