Best of 2011: Songs! [FaN Cheers]

Ernesssa says: I thought for sure that I’d be on the Adele 21 bandwagon this year. What a strong album! I loved just about every track to distraction and for a while there that album stayed on a loop. But then two songs stumbled into the public zeitgeist and somehow managed to eclipse my love for 21. The first was an electro-ditty called A REAL HERO by College ft. Electric Youth. Though formally released in 2009, most of us non music-supervisors didn’t hear this song until it provided near-perfect and rather bone-chilling background music for the phenomenal movie, DRIVE. My other favorite song of the year — the one I hope to hear whenever I turn on an alternative rock channel — is YOUNG BLOOD by The Naked and Famous. Even though the band is from New Zealand, and the song was released in Summer 2010, somehow I feel it perfectly captures being a dreamer in LA right now. So although Adele’s ONE AND ONLY is technically my favorite song released this year, A REAL HERO and YOUNG BLOOD are my favorite songs of the year. Sadly, A REAL HERO here doesn’t have an official video, but you can check out the video for YOUNG BLOOD below:

 

And here are rest of our picks for favorite songs of the year. Weirdly enough, as popular as her album was, no one else picked Adele as her or his favorite song of the year either. A couple of other bizarre notes : though we had more agreement about our least favorite songs than ever before (one of which is once again Jersey Joe’s favorite song of the year — he chose TIK TOK by Ke$ha in 2010), we all choose different favorite songs of the year. Also, though solo artists reigned supreme last year, this year we leaned heavily toward groups. Poor Adele kind of didn’t stand a chance.

THE GROUPS

PUMPED UP KICKS by Foster the People.  I keep waiting to get sick of it, but even after a million listens I still want to dance around the room whenever I hear it.  Second favorite: Superbass by Nicki Minaj.  I’ve come around to the pink hair.

Roya Hamadani from Fierce Foodie

DARLING IT’S ALRIGHT by Francis and the Lights.
CH from CH’s Picture of the Day

 

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN – Glee Version – beautiful and arresting.

Sarah Fazeli from Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered

EXILE (VILIFY) by The National.  Never in the history of music has a band produced a song more suited to prolonged moping.

Michael Kass from Single White Nerd

 

My favorite video is SANTA FE by Beirut. I think it is clever and a little sad, and I like it when the dog eats some pizza.

Missy Kulik from Dork Lifesyle

 

I enjoyed a lot of songs, but loved few. SAIL by AWOL Nation has a great driving force, and I’m a sucker for the They Might Be Giants-sounding L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. by Noah and the Whale. But my favorite album of the year belonged to T.V. ON THE RADIO, and it opens with a bang. SECOND SONG is one of those great songs that takes the listener on a journey, building its beat and energy throughout, starting slow and timid before getting groovy and ending up rocking.

Joe Rusin from On the Contrary

 

Whiskey Meyers: BROKEN WINDOW SERENADE. Yes I live in Texas now. Call me brainwashed. Yes, this song is from a Country band. But it’s really a folk song (I keep telling myself). And it’s one of the best NARRATIVE songs I’ve heard in a long time.

Matt Udvari from Gamer by Design
Broken Window Serenade

Asking me to chose my favorite song, ever, is tough; like asking me to pick my favorite child. I will say that the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s LEARN HOW TO LOVE is awesome. So is Tom Waits’s CHICAGO and Primus’s LEE VAN CLEEF… if you’re into that sorta thing.

Sam Weitzner from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

 

THE DUETS

LA SEINE, by Vanessa Paradis and -M-. This is the lead song from Un Monstre à Paris, an animated film that came out this year in France. To be honest, I haven’t seen the film yet but I love the song. Vanessa Paradis and -M-, both musicians, also play the lead roles in the film.

Gudrun Cram-Drach from Secret Life of an Expat

 

ALL HE DOES IS WIN video remix by DJ Steve Porter. So good it almost made me a believer.
Josh Pullin from Stay-at-Home Dad

 

THE LADY IS A TRAMP sung by Tony Bennett and Lady GaGa. There’s so much musical talent and panache here and it’s just great to see the one of today’s pop icons light it up along side one of the greatest songsters we’ve had in this country.

R. B. Ripley from Hyperbolic Tendencies

It’s so hard to choose between Foster the People’s snappy little dance track about a school shooting and Kanye’s soulful sci-fi love duet with Katy Perry. I’m gonna have to go with E.T., though, if only for the lyric “I’m a disrobe ya, then I’m a probe ya / See, I abducted you so I tell ya what to do.”  Air Supply, eat your hearts out.
Eric Sims from California Seething

THE GALS

Omg I am so out of the demo, I don’t even know. I like Lily Alen’s F**K YOU What year is that from? I just bought it this year. [Ed. Note: It’s from 2009.]

Patrick Connolly from Piping Hot Nerd: Adventures of a Bagpiper Mastering Manhattan

 

Imelda May – MEET YOU AT THE MOON. I found this song on the new releases tab of my streaming media subscription. It’s absolutely dreamy.
Amy Robinson, Blogumnist Editor and writer of Tall Drink of Nerd

 

THE GUYS

TOMORROW by Chris Young What can I say, I’m a sucker for a cute cowboy with a voice like velvet?!
Zack Bunker from Tall Glass of Shame and Runway Rundown

 

I had owned Mandy Patinkin’s album, OSCAR AND STEVE, since I was a teenager, but only after seeing the glorious national tour of SOUTH PACIFIC, did I appreciate Patinkin’s absurdly wonderful rendition of BALI HAI.

Ryan Dixon, FIERCE ANTICIPATION editor and writer of The Ryan Dixon Line

 

CHICAGO by Tom Waits.It’s gritty, dirty and exciting. Light up a Marlboro red and pour a Jack on the rocks, Tom Waits is back.

Joshua Mauldin from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

 

AND THE JERSEY JOE PICK THAT JUST ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE AT FaN HATED

LMFAO: PARTY ROCK ANTHEM. Having this song blasting on the radio in the morning, helped energize my day. And I loved the Halloween house video with all the Christmas lights set in sync to the music? It got 8.5 million views for a reason!

Jersey Joe from Kicking Back with Jersey Joe