Move Mix: 04/10
1. The Exploding Hearts - "Sleeping Aides & Razorblades"
The Exploding Hearts were a power-pop band from Portland who released one album in 2003 before three of their members died in a car accident in July of that year. The band's songs are punchy and anthemic, with pop sensibilities that belied their leather jacket aesthetic, and they sing about romance in a manner that is thoughtful and spot-on, if not expertly melodramatic. "Sleeping Aides & Razorblades" is one of the hookiest songs on an album full of them, and it's also has some of their most poignant lyrics: "Sleeping aides and razor blades/ tear stained pictures of younger days."
Listen at Hype Machine
2. Taylor Swift - "Hey Stephen"
In a world fraught with Lady GaGa and Katy Perry, Taylor Swift is a true female pop star to rally around. Her songs, mostly about trivial things like high school crushes, could be developed into television episodes if television episodes about high school weren't basically always about ecstasy-fueled orgies. As a narrator, Swift tells normal and believable linear stories, and as a singer her voice is warm and soft, giving her songs an intimate and conversational feel that is integral to their success as diary entries as pop. "Hey Stephen" is about a boy who Swift is crushing on, but it stands out from nearly all the other songs on her exceptional second album Fearless based on how the parts of the story jump off of her clever rhyming of the boy's name. The third verse is key: "Hey Stephen, I could give you fifty reasons why I should be the one you choose/ All those other girls, well, they're beautiful, but would they write a song for you?"
3. Bloc Party - "Staying Fat"
"Staying Fat" is off an early EP, and it's a good reminder of how great a rock band Bloc Party were in their infancy. The guitars on the verses are sharp and spiky revealing the post-punk influences that informed their early work, but its chorus is soaring and anthemic, hinting at the genius alt-rock they would perfect on songs like "Like Eating Glass" and "Pioneers."
4. Lil Boosie ft. T-Pain - "Take You Down"
"Take You Down" sounds like an impending Boosie single based on the T-Pain chorus alone, but it doesn't seem like a blatant crossover grab. Boosie raps energetically and forcefully over a cheap synth beat not unlike "Got Money," and eventually you realize that the song is about fighting— "I got an attitude, and when I click, I"m like a dog that's been trained by Vick/ I'm sick." The most important line comes as the song's end: "I know a lot of people prayin' for my downfall/ If you ain't down with Boosie Boo, fuck y'all." We agree.
5. Young Dro -"Dro Rock Diamonds"
Young Dro's vocabulary and knack for show-stopping imagery is unmatched in rap (especially now that Wayne is merely a burbling puddle of syrup), and "Dro Rock Diamonds" is the second incredible track to leak from him this year. Over an airy keyboard beat, Dro raps in his deep Southern accent about his jewelry game and in the process schools just about everyone on how to do bling-rap: "Diamonds from Sierra Lee/ they whiter than Penelope."
Listen at zshare
6. Aaliyah - "It's Whatever"
Aaliyah's self-titled album— her last before passing away— is a masterpiece of the progressive R&B that her and Timbaland were creating in the early years of this decade. "It's Whatever," though not produced by Tim, is one of the best underrated album cuts, with soulful pianos merging with arcade bleeps to create a truly otherworldly, and stunning, ballad.
Listen at YouTube
7. Ne-Yo - "Mad"
"Mad," Ne-Yo's third smash off of his last album Year of the Gentleman, starts off as a piano-based ballad before moving into a chorus that has a bit of a lift-off, making it a sort of microcosm of Ne-Yo's place in modern R&B as both one of its biggest pop stars and its most classicist songwriters.
Listen at MySpace
8. R. Kelly - "Feelin on Yo Booty"
What gets lost in our generation's obsession with Kelly's Trapped in the Closet and his "Ignition (remix)" is that his best single ever will forever be "Feelin on Yo Booty," which has arguably the best mix of silliness ("Ya booo-ooooh-tay") and pop perfection in his discography.
Listen at YouTube
9. Nodzzz - "In the City (Contact High)"
Noddzzz are a ramshackle guitar-pop band whose self-titled album from this year is a 10-song, 16-minute affair. "In the City (Contact High)" is one of their better songs, with laid-back chords and an elementary but catchy chorus giving it the feel of a Pavement demo.
Listen at Hype Machine
10. My Chemical Romance - "This is How I Disappear"
"This is How I Disappear" is merely just one of the amazing tracks off of My Chem's The Black Parade, and the way it moves from thrash-metal in the verses to anthemic arena-rock in the chorus is a fitting testament to the growth of the band who, along with Fall Out Boy, is a modern rock band that we could, and should, be proud of.