#25 Blake Lewis, "Break Anotha"

Sign you up
Just to cross you off his checklist
One more victim
Don't test it
Don't you want something more you can invest in?

I know I've mentioned it in comments elsewhere, but that opening siren should be the sort of thing that people hear on the floor and go wild for and the falling "ohhh"s of the chorus are screaming out to be shouted along with en masse. One of the more hip-pop numbers from Blake Lewis's debut album Audio Day Dream, "Break Anotha" has so far failed to capture the U.S. public's imagination, but, to be honest, that's not surprising; much as it might not be brave enough for those people hoping they'd found someone to really bring in some new types of music to American Idol and American music, it's also too out there for the average radio DJ or average listener (that's not a condemnation of the "average" person, though; some songs just don't connect with people--we've all got our own tastes). I love "Break Anotha," though, and even if the live performances Blake's been doing of it have an arrangement that causes it to lose most of its sparkle for me--I think so much of what I love must come from little producer's touches, the back and forth pounding beats, the string falls, the little woops-- I do think it's packed full of hooks in general and is an incredibly exciting debut. I just hope he gets another chance at commercial success, because he's got more than enough good songs songs on his album to justify some.

Find it on: Audio Day Dream

#26 Elli Kokkinou, "Ise oti thelo"

Ego zitousa tin agapi, epefta se lathi
les ke den ipirhe eki
Ego den pisteva se kati ki ola mia apati
mehri pou 'rthes fos mou esi

Another post, another song I can hardly stand to see enter the list this "low" because I love it so much. Greek singer Elli Kokkinou was rumored to be a contender for Greece's entry to Eurovision in 2008, but now it doesn't sound like she will be. Still, as long as we get songs this great from her, that doesn't really matter. I should say that "Ise oti thelo"(or whichever one of the seemingly countless ways you want to spell it with the Latin alphabet; it's "Είσαι ό,τι θέλω" in Greek, which apparently means something like "You're What I Want") probably shouldn't be on this countdown, but I forgot that the video for it isn't coming out until early 2008 and that I don't know that it's technically a single until then, and by the time I remembered it was too late to change anything. Oh well. Anyway, "Ise oti thelo" is a hard-hitting uptempo pop song with some dance influence, swooshy and catchy with lots of catchy electronic noises thrown into the background but still with a very streamlined feel. I liked Evridiki's "Comme Ci, Comme Ça" a lot, but this is better.

Find it on: Ilikrina

#27 Páll Óskar, "International"

Þú finnur að ástin
er international

Páll Óskar (best known to most people for his participation in 1997's Eurovision) released three fantastic singles this year. Pretty much no one outside of Iceland noticed, but that doesn't stop him from being one of the artists I've been most impressed with this year; if I had to give anyone a kind of "comeback of the year" award for 2007, it would be him. The openly gay singer (with some artists, I don't think it's necessarily important to mention their sexual orientation, but I think with Páll, given what he's done and how open he's been, it is). "International" (as well as first single "Allt fyrir ástina" and third single "Betra lif" and, I imagine, more) was, as I understand it, written by the same man who wrote Eurobandið's national final entry "Fullkomið líf," and I imagine if it was an entry for Eurovision, it'd be something of a fan favorite. It's a glittering dance-pop song, crisp, sleek, and shiny throughout, as well as, probably most importantly, very very catchy.

Find it on: Allt fyrir ástina

#28 The Veronicas, "Untouched"

Don't even talk about the consequence
'Cause right now you're the only thing thats making any sense to me
And I don't give a damn what they say
Or what they think, think
'Cause you're the only one who's on my mind
I'll never ever let you leave me
I'll try to stop time forever
Never want to hear you say goodbye

The best strings in pop this year + clap clap clap double clap beat + electro + filtered vocals = AMAZING. The rushed confessional feel of the verses gives way into this big sweeping dramatic chorus (with some "ah la la la"s thrown in for good measure); combined, they mean desperation encapsulated in song form. You know how people talk about dancefloor confessional music? This is it, with a little bite, a little bit of punkiness. "Untouched" meant a revival of my interest in the Veronicas after the second album's lead single "Hook Me Up" had caused me to lose all interest in a band whose first three singles I had adored, and boy, am I glad Pop Trash Addicts featured it. I may have only been listening to it for a few weeks, but I'm relatively confident I won't regret giving it this high a placing on my year-end countdown--if anything, it deserves higher.

Find it on: Hook Me Up

#30 Daniel Zueras, "No quiero enamorarme"

Note that the actual music video is NSFW, so I've embedded a performance below (only the first half of the video is this song); should you want to watch the music video, you can do so here.



Hoy no quiero enamorarme
sólo estar pegado a ti
como el viento con el aire
dando lo mejor de ti y de mí

This is a perfect pop song. I love it. So why isn't it higher? I have no idea--could just as easily be #1, depending on...well, the day, I guess, or anything.

Sounding like something straight out of the '90's, "No quiero enamorarme" ("I Don't Want To Fall In Love") was the debut single of Operación Triunfo (the Spanish precursor to Fame Academy and its various incarnations) contestant Daniel Zueras. And it completely baffles me. For the longest time, I was convinced some big names had to be behind it, just selling off songs probably written in English to performers in other countries, but no, it was apparently written by David Santisteban and Marco Dettoni, who, from the other songs I've heard of theirs (which are admittedly not many), have never even done really anything near this good. It's like they woke up one morning and were just like, "you know, it's time to write a great pop song"--and they did. Was it written for Daniel and he's just a particularly inspiring muse? Were they visited in a dream by the pop gods and had the melody bestowed upon? I have no idea. I do know, though, that this song is perfect bouncy poppy pop (maybe with a little dance influence thrown in), way too much fun, and super-catchy. The song may not be about innocent intentions, but the video takes that to a whole new level; I'm not sure if the logic behind it was something like "well, this song won't win Daniel any cred or edge, so let's do something racy and 'controversial' in the video!" or just "let's get some headlines for something" (given the flood of OT contestants in the market now), but regardless, the song playing during it is too good to miss out on.

Find it on: Siempre sale el sol

Big thanks to Don't Stop The Pop for introducing me to the song!

#31 Rihanna, "Don't Stop The Music"

I just can't refuse it
Like the way you do this
Keep on rockin' to it
Please don't stop the
Please don't stop the music

I did not adore "Umbrella." I thought it was...fine, which would be OK, but I'd loved both of the lead singles for Rihanna's previous albums, "Pon de Replay" and "S.O.S.", as well as "Pon de Replay"'s follow-up "If It's Lovin' That You Want." Luckily, her third album (and the first one I own), Good Girl Gone Bad, proved to have more than enough good-to-great songs on it to make up for any less-than-total-love feelings I might have had about "Umbrella" (give me six to twelve months and I'll probably adore it). The Michael Jackson-sampling "Don't Stop The Music" is one of them, a pop-dance track that manages to be something that seems rare for commercial songs in that subgenre: classy.

Find it on: Good Girl Gone Bad

What's the worst that could happen baby if they knew?

I was going to try to hold back from posts beyond my countdown until I'd finished it, but I can't help it; instead, here's a compacted version of the things I've been itching to write about in recent days, in the form of songs I'm loving:

The-Dream feat. Rihanna, "Livin' A Lie" and Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown, "No Air"





A great pair of pop-R&B duets. I've written about "No Air" before, and it remains just as heavenly as it was back then, both in quality and in its feel of floating up among the clouds. The-Dream, best known this year for Rihanna's "Umbrella" and J. Holiday's "Bed" (though he's done other and earlier work), released his debut solo album a few weeks ago and, though I'd be fine never hearing the lead single again, this (so far) album track from it has captured me, got me transfixed, at least for the moment. It's simple, full of repetitive synth pulses, but it just works so well for me. It isn't necessarily a huge-sounding song, but I don't think I could ever get tired of hearing it on the radio (famous last words?). It's best heard with good headphones if you've got them and, of course, in good quality.

David Jordan, "Sun Goes Down"



I've been meaning to write about this for a while, since Popjustice featured it. Fantastic fantastic fantastic. I refused to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie because the ending sounded just stupid, but this song could very well have been the soundtrack to all the pirate mania that came out after the first (and excellent) movie came out. That said, as much as it sounds very pirate-y, it's not pure novelty; it's really a well-done catchy song that just doesn't sound like anything else out there. The first chorus that opens the song is sparser than the rest of the song, by the way.

Natasha Bedingfield, "Pocketful Of Sunshine"



The title track to her upcoming American album, and, though it may seem unassuming, it's one of the most transporting songs I've heard this year, at least in that chorus and pre-chorus/bridge. After thinking "I Wanna Have Your Babies" was great, I've gone completely off of it and haven't bothered to check out the album N.B., but I still think she did some fantastic songs for her first album and am thrilled she's done something I like once again.

Cassie, "Is It You?"



I know this is months old, but I'm just getting into it now. It's from the Step Up 2 soundtrack and isn't at all like "Me & U" (a song which I've recently been thinking I really underrated)--it's probably a little more "basic/disposable pop song" sounding, but I like it--crunchy but simple electro-rock underneath the verses and a cute simple chorus.

I also quite like Leona Lewis's "The Best You Never Had," though the production on it sounds odd.

#32 Belinda, "If We Were"

We'd be the most beautiful mess
If we were forever

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: the English version of eighteen year old Mexican singer Belinda's "Ni Freud ni tu mama" lost my two favorite things about the Spanish original and yet somehow managed to appeal to me far more than the Spanish language original did (though after loving the English version, I went back and listened to the Spanish version again and love that too). "If We Were" doesn't have the snappy title of the original or the whole random English-in-the-middle-of-Spanish, tossed-off "you're hot...I forgot" line (its place is still there, but, though it's an important line to the song, the line has changed in meaning and loses its attitude and funny kind of randomness), but somehow having lyrics in English allowed me to better "get" how great its stompy electro-popness (with a little rock influence thrown in) was. It's a little like Kelly Osbourne's "One Word," but with more of a hard-hitting edge. Belinda sounds kind of creepy on this song, which I actually like--it takes it beyond typical "we'd be so great together" meaning and makes everything she's saying sound ominous, almost threatening. She does not sound like a girl you'd want to mess with on this song, even if, after all her "think of what'd you'd get if we were together" lyrics, she reminds us "but we're not...I forgot," giving a whole new meaning to the (even if accidental) threatening tones she's been using throughout the song.

Find it on: Utopia 2

#33 Tamta, "Agapise Me"

Ya poso kairo ya poso kairo
tha anteho na mi s'eho
ya poso kairo ya poso kairo
tha matono ego mono
ya poso kairo...

If this list was for the best songs of the year and not just my favorites, "Agapise Me" (as well as Jenni Vartianen's "Ihmisten edessä") would be crashing into the charts very near the top. I still love it, though, and every time I listen to it I get completely transfixed. It's got such an attention-grabbing opening, and not in a big kind of way; there's just this mysteriousness to the song, especially in its electro backing, that I find addictive. Class through and through, "Agapise Me" (meaning "Love me") is an achievement of a song, but not in a stuck-up way at all; the fact that it's very dance-friendly surely helps with that as well. It's a heck of a calling card for Tamta and marks her out as an artist I'll without doubt be paying attention to in the future.

Find it on: Agapise Me

Speaking of Tamta, also of note (even if more for the concept than necessarily the result) is the below (slightly risqué) performance, a blend of Mika's "Relax (Take It Easy)" and her "Agapise Me" which also, at the costume change, reveals that her giant curly hair is (at least sometimes) a wig (and also has kind of a bizarre backing).