#34 Marta Sánchez, "Superstar"

Me haces brillar, contigo olvido lo peor

One of the dangers of just having got into music recently is that it means that I rarely know the original songs being sampled by today's singers, especially since sampling '80's songs is all the rage now. Beyond the obvious fact that I'm missing out on a bunch of fantastic older songs, why is this a bad thing? Well, it means I end up loving new songs probably mainly because of their sampled hook from an older song and without really evaluating the song outside of that hook--in other words, I give the new song more credit than I probably should, as opposed to just thinking, "wow, that's kind of lazy--they just took that sample and sang over the top of it!"

With that in mind, I can't really evaluate forty-one year old singer Spanish singer Marta Sanchez's single "Superstar" as well as someone who grew up familiar with Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" would be able to. I can say, though, that I adore this danceable and ridiculously catchy pop song (kind of dance-pop, but definitely more on the pop side), even if that "ridiculously catchy" part is probably mainly a function of the Depeche Mode-created hook. "Superstar" may have about 0 credibility to most listeners but it's also one of the most fun songs of the year.

For for detail and context about Marta, check out this post about her on much-missed blog Pop Music WorldWide (not sure what he'd make of this song, though) and, for more information about this latest project, visit Don't Stop The Pop, which introduced me to the song.

Find it on: Miss Sánchez

#35 Danny feat. Therese, "If Only You"

(Just skip past the first 1:15)

Set me free
Before you
Press delete

After having released a giant cheesy dance-pop anthem with a huge key change and then going for a more pop but still a little dance and definitely still upbeat direction, what does a sixth place finishing Swedish Idol contestant turned artist with two consecutive #1 hits do next? Rope in Swedish dance artist Therese (whose solo records never seem to do as well as they should--she deserves real worldwide success) to create a gorgeously sad but equally catchy electro/dance half-ballad, apparently. "If Only You" was a great followup to Danny's first two singles and turning the song into a duet turned out to be a fantastic idea; the mix of the two voices gives the song added emotional punch, even if I didn't realize that at first. "If Only You" could quite easily be my #1 song of the year, and I expect it to have real staying power, probably more than some of the songs ahead of it.

I've posted "If Only You" before, though, so instead, here's one of my favorite songs from Danny's album Heart.Beats, the bonus track, "Here I Am." It kind of taps into a similar feel to "If Only You," though if anything it's even less punchy. I said "If Only You" was gorgeously sad; that description applies even moreso to "Here I Am." I adore it.

Here I Am

Find it on: Heart.Beats (actually, for the version featuring Therese, you'll need the "If Only You" single)

#36 Mika, "Lollipop"

Suckin' too hard on ya lollipop,
Oh love's gonna get ya down

Oh, how I wanted to put this song higher. It deserves it. And yet, when I look at each song ranked ahead of it, I can't say it's better--nor, though, can I necessarily say it's worse. Mika deserves a much larger presence on this chart, but the fact that so many of his songs have been around for so long (many were being legally given away free before the album even came out) somehow ended up hurting them and the deliberately small release of "Relax, Take It Easy" in 2006 means that it's not technically eligible for my chart, or else it would without doubt be on here. Mika's a very divisive singer, but I think he released one of the year's most enjoyable and consistent albums (it would be very high on a list of my favorite albums of the year, far higher than this singles list is going to make it seem). Still, if you don't like him at this point, nothing anyone can say is going to change your mind, so writing that "Lollipop" is one of the year's most infectiously happy songs of the year and even the should-be-kind-of-creepy fact that what sounds like a kids' choir is roped in to sing this innuendo-filled song doesn't hurt it in the slightest in my estimations--I love the chantiness of that part, in fact--isn't going to convince you of the song's merits.

I will say, though, that even if you don't usually like Mika's music, it's worth checking out "Relax, Take It Easy" and "My Interpretation." I imagine a lot of people have heard those from the album by now, though, so instead, here's one of my favorite remixes of the year, Swedish electro-pop duo Lo-Fi-Fnk's take on Mika's "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful). Yes, I realize that may very well be Mika's most hated song, but Lo-Fi-Fnk remix it into such a happy shiny electrofest, all squiggles and claps and chorus-y backing vocals. Pure joy.

Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) (Lo-Fi-Fnk Remix)

Find it on: Life In Cartoon Motion

#37 Ne-Yo, "Because Of You"

I got a problem and I
Don't know what to do about it
Even if I did I don't know if I would quit
But I doubt it

I didn't make a list of my favorite singles for 2006, but Ne-Yo's "So Sick" would surely have been near the top; I don't think I'd heard anything like it, and everything about it seemed flawless--a diamond of a song on so many levels, amidst the often generic or less than impressive stuff you often hear on the radio. Followup "When You're Mad" may have had me worried at the time, but "Sexy Love" showed that there was more to the American artist's singing career than just a one-off instant classic. Then he comes back with this, a song about his addiction to a girl that was unmistakably in his style--that kicky drum machine, the little up-and-down harp-like notes--but didn't feel like a retread of earlier hits, though maybe the fact that it was so upbeat-sounding and uptempo helped in that regard. Ne-Yo may be an R&B singer--and a great one at that--but there were few songs this year poppier than "Because Of You."

Find it on: Because of You

#38 Hilary Duff, "With Love"

You could tell me I'm wrong
That I'm coming on way too strong
Don't think I'll be crushed
Just do it with love, love, love, love

If Darin would have been higher earlier in the year, Hilary could easily be higher now because of how much I'm into "With Love" at the moment--I deliberately held back from ranking it higher just because I'm not sure if this is a temporary phase or a permanent positive reevaluation of the song. That gives a slightly inaccurate impression of my reaction to the song--I did initial completely brush it off, but came to appreciate it later...gradually. It's just very recently, though, that I've started to view it as fantastic. "With Love" has skittery guitars, electro pulses, and vocals that do sound fairly young but not overly so and, contrary to what I said when I first heard the song, Hilary's voice works here--it does "pop."

The fantasticness of Hilary's reinvention doesn't stop with "With Love," though. Take "Never Stop," a track from the same album, Dignity. It's pop perfection, still with the dance/electro-pop feel established by the album's singles but so happy and sunny and youthful that it'd be criminal to miss out on hearing it.

Never Stop

Find it on: Dignity

#39 Darin, "Desire"

You just knock me out
No matter what you do
Come on do me right
Light my fire

This track probably would have ranked higher earlier in the year, even accounting for fewer songs being eligible, but I'm not quite as obsessive about it as I was when it was first announced as a single. I know their was some dissatisfaction with it as a choice, but I was pleased--at the time, it was the song not yet a single from Break The News, Swedish singer Darin's third album, that I was loving the most. "Desire" tends to draw Justin Timberlake comparisons, but I think I easily like it more than Justin's FutureSex/LoveSounds stuff (well, to be fair, if the day is right, there might be one or two songs from that that I adore), though I'm not sure whether that's because I prefer Darin's voice or because there's more actual melody going on here. Mid-tempo pop with electro-y noises in the background and what sounds like ghosts doing backing vocals, the song has a chorus that really seals the deal for me--there are shouts and nonsense syllables perfect for singing along with ("yes!", "oh!", "yeah, na na na na") which I love; they're perfectly punchy. "Boy pop" with an edge.

Find it on: Break The News

#40 Britney Spears, "Gimme More"

Cameras are flashing while we're dirty dancing
They keep watching, keep watchin'

Another song I didn't think much of to begin with, but I gradually came around to it and found a good number of songs to enjoy on the album (though I think I need to listen to the other half--not half order-wise, though--properly to know if there's anything worth keeping from it), which was more than enough to please me. Britney (or her producers, if you want to be more accurate, I suppose) delivered a deceptively catchy song that was dance-friendly but also dealt in the darker, kind of insidious sort of pop--this is pure commercial pop, but it's the soundtrack of the dark corners of maybe slightly shady clubs, not high school hallways, a wide-open greenlit dancefloor, or even the glistening white walls of a futuristic club. As much as this song is primarily slick production, there's something kind of appropriate about Britney's messy video--"Gimme More" has a different sort of gloss from many of Britney's earlier hits that is more appropriate to these darkened shots of something that you sometimes feel like maybe you shouldn't be watching but can't tear your eyes away from. Most importantly, though, the song sneaks into your head and stays there, in a good kind of catchy way.

Find it on: Blackout

#41 Anna David, "Chill"

Det eneste jeg vil
Er at ligge her og chill

This song only isn't higher because the first fifteen seconds are a little too abrasively happy and kitschy even for me. Luckily, those same elements get incorporated in a much better way into the song later on and the "ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo"s become just another element of the pure pop joy that is "Chill." Danish singer Anna David had a very pop-oriented earlier career, but it was the less-than-fantastic "Fuck dig" that was her breakout hit. Luckily, for this, the second single from her second album, she returned to her pop roots and gave us one of the year's most infectiously upbeat choruses, all sparkles and giddiness and poppoppoppopPOP! This kind and level of happiness could be too much for some people or for certain moods, but this swingy (not swing!) mid-tempo pop song is one of the most pleasant surprises from Denmark this year and definitely one of the year's poppiest songs.

Find it on: 2

#42 Brick & Lace, "Love Is Wicked"

Baby, I loved you from the very start
Even though I knew that you would break my heart

It probably says a lot about this song--and why I like it--that, though it's supposedly urban, it's done better in continental Europe than it has in the U.S. A smooth pop-R&B meld, "Love Is Wicked" is sung by two Jamaican sisters, one doing the melancholy chorus hook and verses and the other adding half-raps/spoken bits. The combination is almost intoxicating--the laid-back song is smooth, catchy, and incredibly refreshing, both in terms of standing out on the radio and in feel, though the sad lyrics about destructive love mean that, as much of a great summer jam as this might be, it sneaks up on you with a little bit of added emotional bite if you're not careful.

(Note that this review refers to the slick version of the song, not the reworked, sparser version playing on their MySpace or backing this video. Lack of whistling=points deduction, and it loses the energy and beautiful edge of the version I prefer; the honeycoated original version wins out because emphasizes the sadness in such a lovely way. Most of the versions labeled on YouTube as the original version aren't my preferred version either, though.)

Find it on: Love Is Wicked