Top 10 Foreign singles:
01 The Raveonettes - Bang!
The Danish duo strikes again. No songs of their fuzzy,noisy previous album 'Lust lust lust' made the daytime radiowaves, but they go all out pop on the excellent new 'In and out of control'-record. Supercatchy, sparkling guitar pop with a slight retro touch and straightforward lyrics ("You're as cool as icecream", brilliant line). Nothing more, nothing less. Being slightly to very subjective here, a well-deserved #1-spot.
02 Chairlift - Bruises
Bassline reminds me 'The Love Cats' by The Cure, some vocal parts and the quirky lyrics kind of resemble Regina Spektor. But this is a pretty good, mysterious, almost ethereal poppy song nevertheless.
03 The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
The intro with echo on the guitar reminds me of 'Elegy for a lost summer' by Anne Clark, and there's a Bloc Party riff hidden somewhere at the end of the track. These guys are originally from Australia but relocated to London, this dynamic track with remarkable vocals was picked to feature on the '500 days of summer'-soundtrack. Judging from the music video, they must be disco fans.
04 Death Cab For Cutie - Meet me on the equinox
Ben Gibbard does it again. Back in the day, his band was featured on 'The OC' soundtrack, propelling them into the public eye. And now he landed the main track on the soundtrack on one of the most popular movies of the year, 'New moon'. No complaints here, the track is excellent, with dreamy guitarplaying, nervous percussion, circular song structure, and some excellent lyrics coupled with good vocal melodies. Seems to fit the movie well too.
05 Miike Snow - Animal
At first, I thought this was a Tv on the radio-track, voices are kind of similar. One of the most hyped and remixed post-summer tracks of this year I think. These guys are actually Scandinavian, and well, I don't know what else to say about this.
06 The Juan Maclean - Happy house
"Laaauunncchhh mmeeee inttoooo spaaacceeeee." Supercatchy dancy track. The vocalist Nancy Whang (also in LCD Soundsystem) had/has a thing with one of the Soulwax brothers, and their drummer (also in !!!) tragically died just recently, falling down an elevator shaft. RIP.
07 Jay-Z - Empire state of mind
I am not a hip-hop connaisseur, so I'm not sure how the fans feel about this, but I'm giving this a number seven spot. I'm guessing the title is reference to Nas, but I might very well be mistaken.
08 VV Brown - Leave!
VV Brown apparently tries to cross over between a retro vibe and a punky attitude, and succeeds well in this track about break-ups. A theme she likes to explore apparently, the follow-up single 'Game Over' brings across pretty much the same message.
09 Maria Timm - Dirty place
Probably the weirdest track in the top 10, starts out a-capella, elektronic but never really danceable, cryptic lyrics. Interesting stuff.
10 Vampire Weekend - Horchata
Looks like somebody slipped these Brooklyn dudes the 'Give up' record by The Postal Service. Apart from the electronic bleeps, this sounds like a weird and pretty confusing mix between a mellow summer track and a christmas time single.
Top 10 Belgian singles:
01 Customs - Justine
2009 saw the rise of Belgian's own Interpol/Editors. "Rex" was an excellent debut single, and follow-up "Justine" does even better. Good song structure, top notch production (most notably the drumming and the guitar riffs), strong chorus. Well done.
02 De jeugd van tegenwoordig - Deze donkere jongen komt zo hard
Personally, I attribute 90% of this band's success to Bas Bron (= Bastian), whose beats are so good that you could give them the world's worst rapper and the resulting track would still sound pretty good. "De donkere jongen des heils" is on top of his game here with a supergroovy, smooth track with rocking drums that is very hard to resist.
03 Das Pop - Never get enough
Das Pop is apparently hot in Japan right now. This poppy, supercatchy track hits all the right spots. Bright, happy melodies, not your ordinary run of the mill lyrics, good production. In a way, this is the Belgian counterpart of UK pop masters The Feeling.
04 Isbells - As long as it takes
Continuing with the Belgian answer to Bon Iver. Excellent track from this guy's debut album; for a slow track, it's still pretty dynamic and never gets boring, and it really has the warm, cosy, home-y sound that it's aiming for. Hearing this track, you just wanna curl up in front of the fireplace or something.
05 Hairglow - Let it go
Alex Callier does the eighties synthpop, all out kitsch. Production is excellent, but Callier sings here, and something tells I shouldn't be very sorry about missing their live performance at the Pukkelpop festival. I guess Callier knew from the start this wasn't going to get as big as Hooverphonic, but the least you can say is that the whole visual look and concept has been well thought out.
06 Lady Linn (and her magnificent seven) - Here we go again
Might be the best track on her debut album. Lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense though. One line they're breaking up, the next they're getting back together? Make up your mind, woman!
07 Team William - Lord of the dogs
This band did pretty good in Humo's biannual Rock Rally contest, and released one of their least obvious songs as a first single, so you have to admire their guts. This is a bouncy, unpredictable, slightly abrasive indie rocktrack, pretty good stuff.
08 The Galacticos - I'm with my girl
"You and me, dragonslaying at the beach". An intro that seems to have been resurrected from the mid-nineties, and a guitar riff that Frank Black simply forgot to write, pretty awesome. Again, these lads from Limburg have come up with a music video that's worth watching.
09 Milow - Darkness ahead and behind
I've made it quite clear in the past that I'm definitely not the biggest Milow fan out there. His voice gets whiny pretty fast. On this track, he shares vocal duties with Nina Babette, renowned studio and backup singer, so that eases the pain a little. Admittedly, on this track, Milow outperforms pretty much every other Belgian songwriter in the lyrical department. Flawless.
10 Superlijm - Michael Jordan
Do I really have to make the Grandaddy comparison again? I always wonder what would've become, had they picked Michael Jackson instead of Michael Jordan as the lyrical subject on this track.
Didn't make the top 10's:
The Horrors - Who can say
More The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine influences on the second album by these enfants terrible from the UK rock scene.
La Roux - Bulletproof
Live show was a disappointment, but I like the radio singles. This one is my favourite, sang with the most attitude.
Passion Pit - The Reeling
Intro sounds a lot like One month off by Underworld, but still, enjoyable, danceable track with falsetto voice and a catchy chorus.
Guy Boratto - No turning back
Gui Boratto (born 1974 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian electronic music producer. Look at me, I just copy-pasted this straight from the wikipedia page, because I don't know anything about this.
Lenka - The show
The Vanessa Carlton/Sara Bareilles/...-flavour of the month. Track's good and well-constructed, but lacks a punch that propels it above the competition.
The Very Best - Warm heart of Africa
Summer-y vibes with guest vocals from the singer in Vampire Weekend.
Air - Sing sang sung
Very typical but solid Air-track. Music so light, if they ever make a music disc capable of floating through the air, that disc will probably have a track by these Frenchies on it.
Kanye West - Paranoid
Not the biggest Kanye-adept, but who else has got the guts to stand up during an award show to voice his opinion? It's not like any man in his right mind is going to deny his statement about the Beyonce video, right? I think it's mainly the eighties synths that make me like this track.
Chromeo - Night by night
Typical Chromeo track that actually sounds a bit like their debut single 'Needy girl' from a couple of years back. They excel at capturing the whole eighties sound/atmosphere. Cool dudes.
Alberta Cross - Taking control
This track still has to grow on me a little, but it lacks a little something to make it top 10 material.
Lily Allen - Who'd have known Not fair
I sincerely hope Lily Allen is just pulling a Jay-Z and isn't really considering quitting music for good. I'm a big fan of her lyrical style. In a way, Not Fair is pretty much her Jungle Drums. "Who'd have known, when you flash up on my phone, I no longer feel alone". + she's looking all kinds of hot in the first vid.
Julian Casablancas - Eleventh dimension
Something about this song always reminds me of the "What a feeling"-track from the Flashdance soundtrack. Definitely more synths than we're used from Julian in his 'The Strokes'-setting. "I just nod. I've never been too good at shaking hands."
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