Songs I'm currently enjoying (January 2011)

I don’t pretend to be an expert in music, which is just as well, because if I did, I’d just embarrass myself. However, I certainly know what music I like. Give me my Kanye West, my Girls Aloud, and anything I can get my groove on to in a nightclub, and I'm happy. 

With that in mind, I thought I'd share a few tracks I am currently obsessed with, and exactly why!

Singapore (Girls Aloud)

The departure of a loved one, whether it be literally or emotionally,  is a topic that has often been covered in songs, but Singapore hits different. Its soft rhyming scheme, gentle poetry and the brilliant way the verses are divided among the girls based on whose vocal style fits best truly strike a chord with me. 

The song didn’t even make the tracklist when Chemistry was released in 2005. However, the the producers at Xenomania clearly realised the error of their ways, later including it on the bonus disc of  The Sound of Girls Aloud: Greatest Hits. 

The songwriting team of Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, John Shave and Lisa Cowling, deserves immense credit for perfectly capturing the crushing numbness of wishing time away when you are separated from someone you love:

I'm watching day time TV / And wishing you were with me / I'm counting hours and days / Gotta stop believing what the movies say

Memory of You (Girls Aloud)

Released as a B-side with The Loving Kind, Memory of You is so hauntingly beautiful that it damn near threatens to eclipse the main single it was meant to support. 

Kimberley Walsh, who is criminally underused on the majority of Girls Aloud tracks, takes lead vocals here, with Nicola Roberts  providing superb support. The combination of electro-pop, elegiac lyricism (“surfing channels ‘til I bleach out the pain”) and poignant themes of love and loss render it one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard.

Whatever you Like (Anya Marina)

I first heard this song playing softly in the background during the Dan/Vanessa/Olivia (Hilary Duff) scene in gossip girl, and it fitted the mood perfectly. 

While I like T.I.’s original hip-hop track, I found his delivery of some of the lyrics a bit seedy. The cover by Anya Marina only features the slightest of deviation in lyrics, yet there’s something about her ethereal, breathy voice that makes lines like “late night sex, so wet, so tight” sound almost angelic. Transforming raunchy rap lyrics into something that sounds so pure is no mean feat.

Good Foot (Justin Timberlake & Timbaland)

This song originally featured on the Shark Tale soundtrack back in 2004. It was also a song that loads of the good dancers in my secondary school got their groove on to, leading me to consider it somewhat of a swagger song. And you know how I like my swagger. At its core, it’s a simple enough piece about guys dancing in a club, but it features some brilliantly arrogant one-liners like, “I’m not being cocky, I just noticed that she was looking at me.” Get you, JT, get you!

Fix Up Look Sharp (Dizzee Rascal)

Yet another swagger song. Whilst Dance Wiv Me got all the commercial fame for the Calvin Harris connection, I would argue that this song was a helluva lot cooler. Lines like “Sweet as a nut, sweet like Tropicana / When the hammer hits your head splits like banana” and “if you don’t believe me bring your posse, bring your crew” are the exact kind of lyrics I would normally roll my eyes at under ordinary circumstances. But Bow-born Dizzee carries it off with, you’ve guessed it, absolute swag.

Pennies in My Pocket (Emilio Estefan)

Although I was far from won over by Miami Vice, the film which the song appeared in, I can’t help but love the song itself. It pairs an incredibly catchy club beat with fascinating, cryptic lyrics. At first, I found the lyrics quite hard to decipher, but that is perhaps much of the song’s charm, that it makes you work for it. 

What makes the track even more interesting, is that Estefan actually repurposed the track from an old Mandy Moore pop single, producing an end product that feels uniquely hypnotic, dark, and full of effortless cool.

I Am Not My Hair (India.Arie featuring Akon)

Five years before Will Smith’s daughter was whipping her hair back and forth, India.Arie explored the exact same topic in a far more refined and meaningful style. The remix with Akon gives the song some added sass. 

The litany of hair-related experiments always makes me smile, the line “success didn’t come until I cut it all off” highlights the superficial nature of society. Ultimately, her heartfelt delivery of the central mantra, “I am not my hair,” is what completely elevates and carries the entire song.

Photographs (Rihanna ft. Will.i.am)

Aurally, this song sounds like another Will.i.am collaboration, with Cheryl Cole, Three Words. However, I greatly favour Photographs and would go so far as to say it’s my favourite track from the Rated R album. The song beautifully captures the intense yearning of a failed romance, illustrating how the protagonist has been reduced to staring at old photos of the couple, wishing they were real. I dig.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears)

I love Shout and Head over Heels, but this is probably my favourite Tears for Fears song. It won Best Single at the Brits in 1986, but there doesn’t seem to be much love for it nowadays, or even appreciation from the band itself then. Which is a massive shame, because despite the bright, catchy nature of the song, the subject matter is deadly serious and deserves more attention. In the words bassist of Curt Smith, “it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes.”

Waking Up in Vegas (Katy Perry)

I didn't initially warm to Katy Perry when she first rose to prominence, finding her a bit too bawdy and in-your-face. But you know what? I’m bawdy and in-your-face, so it’s not like I can talk! Anyway, Waking Up in Vegas recounts a weekend in Sin City gone completely wrong, with hilarious consequences. Teenage Dream will by far and away be my favourite song of hers, but this is witty, irreverent stuff.

November has Come (Gorillaz ft. MF DOOM)

I love to try and rap along to songs, but the rapping in this song with its convoluted plays on words are so good that I am nowhere near conquering it. MF DOOM unfurls a masterclass in abstract imagery that feels hypnotic against the track's laid-back, minimalist beat. And Damon Albarn’s delivery of the melancholy chorus is some of his best work. A beautifully sad and nostalgic gem.

Jesus Walks (Remix) (Kanye West ft. Mase & Common)

I love the original version of the song, but this slight remix is even better. Kanye West utilises his knack for sharp pop-culture references to absolute genius effect here, rapping,  “Do you know how I be embarrassed? / My prayers sound like Ben Stiller’s on Meet the Parents”. It is a brilliant bit of comedic songwriting, perfectly contrasting the track's heavy spiritual themes with a zeitgeisty, cringe-comedy visual. I also love Mase’s line from his incredibly raw comeback verse: "I walk with God, I got the scars to prove it". 

For more of my album reviews and lyrical analysis, click here.