This is How We Balk on the Moon

There Will Be Lists

 Here’s the ‘very sorry song’

Won’t you help and sing along?

Bum bum bum 

I blew it! 

He’s sorry 

I knew it! 

So sorry 

I’m very very sorry that I took your precious flaaggg! 

Just don’t do it any more, you scurvy scalawaagg!

– Calvin and Hobbes, “The Very Sorry Song”

 

So I fucked up, and totally neglected this for three months. To be fair, I often thought about  updating (not as much as I thought about Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations”), but I was living it up in Prague. We’ll get to that at some point, but for now, here’s my gift to you: my 50 favorite songs of 2007 (as of today, because it’ll probably change every week or so.) 

 The songs are all available to download, so think of it as my personal mixtape to you. And whoever else downloads it.  

 

50. Jurgen Paape + Boy Schaufler- We Love 

(Motivo Productions)       

There’s something very restrained and soothing, with the minimalist lyrics and synth reminiscent of Orbital’s “Chime.” I always imagine this as a song that I would be enjoying from the sidelines at a club, catching a dancing girl’s eyes and mouthing to her, “Good track. I am enjoying this.” She likely diverts her attention elsewhere after this encounter. Oh, we love.

  

49. Beirut- Forks and Knives (La Fête)

(4AD) 

            Sounds hella French. Like, this should replace the first song from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

  

48. Groove Armada fea. Mutya Buena- Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control)

(Columbia) 

            So say you’re in a car, you’re feeling on top of the world, and your ex pulls up next to you. Your first inclination is to panic and let this ruin your day. I mean, just as you’re on top of your life, there homeboy is again. But really, just don’t react and look ahead. I know that’s what Mutya Buena (with the help of Groove Armada) would do, and damned if you don’t listen to her advice.

 

47. Tenniscoats- Baibaba Bimba

(Hapna) 

            I have no clue what the lead singer’s saying, and while I’d like to hedge my bet that she’s singing in Japanese since Tenniscoats from Nippon, I have this overwhelming feeling it’s just gibberish. If so, anyone who knows me knows that I love babytalk in songs, and it helps that this tune is cuter than a 365-day calendar of Zooey Deschanel.           

 

46. Charlie Wilson- Charlie, Last Name Wilson

(Jive) 

            One of the best choruses of the year, as it’s literally Charlie Wilson’s pickup of a girl, a pickup line so earnest and formal that it’s nearly impossible to not appreciate. The clincher is the last minute of the song when Charlie loses his cool and starts cranking with his pipes lines such as “girl, I got a big old house” and pleads for her to pick up the phone and call him. Hell, he gives the girl his manager’s number, his studio’s number, even his mama’s number. What I marvel at is the fact that Uncle Charlie could even be single at this point, a talent of his magnitude still looking for love in his 60s. Of course, after this song, he should never again have any trouble picking up ladies. Don’t forget, the name is Charlie.

 

45. Pantha du Prince- Saturn Strobe

(Dial) 

            This is the kind of techno that would sound ace in a car commercial. I guess that doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it would sell me a Kia or two.

  

44. Ghostface Killah fea. Method Man and Raekwon- Yolanda’s House

(Def Jam) 

            While part of me wanted the obligatory Ghostface pick to be “Supa GFK,” if only for him finishing the song by chanting “Momma gotta big butt, momma got a big butt,” I have to give it to this, on account to his near-perfect attention to detail. It makes me so content to hear him go from talking about eating fishsticks while a girl puts on lipstick to him barging into another room to see Method Man with his “balls out” getting it on. As heard before from Jadakiss on “Run,” working with the Wallaby Champ can lead to some great asthma-related punchlines, and Meth doesn’t disappoint, as he chastises Ghost for laughing at his asthmatic hook-up. Man, I just want to kick it with these guys.

 

43. Iron & Wine- Carousel

(Sub Pop) 

            Something just incredibly pretty about this, it’s purely a nice tune that feels, perhaps due to the warbled vocals, like it washed up on the riverbank. The singer rambles on about crackheads and Persian rugs, narrowly avoiding triteness (unlike any of these best songs captions) and we all luck out because it’s sheer dream-like feel can’t be denied. Let’s get this on the Garden State II soundtrack.

 

42. Hot Chip- My Piano

(Studio !K7) 

            An extremely catchy chorus fuels what is a lesser but easily more fun song than Hot Chip’s “Boy From School,” which seems to be the indie synth-pop equivalent to a TBS New Classic.

 

41. Girls Aloud- Can’t Speak French    

(Universal)      

            It once was hip to love Girls Aloud as a choice manufactured pop group, but I think that changed once Stylus closed its proverbial doors. I’m not sure, yet I still think they put out another song that amazes me, not only by how catchy it is, but also by how interesting it is compared to it’s other chart-topping buddies on the UK pop charts. While not quite the treasure “Biology” or “The Show” each were, “Can’t Speak French” succeeds in once again eschewing most modern pop trends and being master-crafted. All I know is that with this airy, indefinable gem, Girls Aloud has now had one of my favorite pop songs for three of the past four years, and that’s not because anyone else told me it was hip to. I mean, I only read Spin anyways. 

 

The list has only just begun. There’s forty more to come, and you won’t have to wait three months to see the rest (probably only two and a half.)

 

Drew R. 

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