Singular Sensations? Not So Much.

OK, so I had every intention of posting, as mentioned last time, my top singles of the year, as submitted to the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, but now I can't find my original list nor can I access the site to see the titles. Why can't I just name them, you ask? For the same reason I couldn't get past number 7 in the final list - individual songs just didn't have the same visceral impact on me in 2011 that I felt in years past. There was Adele, of course. You couldn't escape "Rolling in the Deep," be it at a middle age dinner party, grabbing a drink at Starbucks, stealing cake at a tween neighbor's birthday party or eavesdropping on a drunken night of twentysomethings. Luckily, the song was so good and so rife with pure talent, that you didn't mind hearing it yet one more time. 

And for me more personally, there was Fleet Foxes' "Helplessness Blues," a song so rich in gorgeous harmonies and heartfelt emotion that I bought it immediately upon hearing it and played it over and over in that manner one used to do with actual physical singles that you feared you might wear down the vinyl. The album is lovely in a general overall sense, but no other track comes close to that one shining beacon of musical beauty.

After that...not so many new classics. I had "No Light, No Light," from the new Florence + The Machine album on the list; not even sure if it's a real single (by which I guess I mean featured track), but it's the only song on that much-anticipated new album that stands out to me and even then, only after an SNL appearance gave it a boost.

When I attempted to boost my list-making memory, I pulled up a few Great Songs of The Past Year articles from the usual suspects - Spin, Rolling Stone, Paste, etc. - and will admit that, for every compilation of 100 supposedly great songs, I literally didn't know dozens of them and couldn't quote you lyrics or hum you the melody of many that I sort-of-had-heard-of. It's such a fractured market out, with so many niche styles and I rarely listen to any commercial radio. So, I'm content with my album choices and there are many wonderful songs to be heard therein.

Anyway, I've had two beers tonight and that's just enough to fog my faculties so that I cannot recall the other four songs that made the cut. Another day, then. Sleep tight (as I will), friends.