Detanfy’s Best of Music #25 – 21

Well here it is folks, the very first installment in our daily “best Of” list. My partner and I will post our individual lists everyday, with 5 posts a day leading up to our top 5 songs of 2010 on Friday and a special honorable mentions post on Saturday.

Sit back, relax, read, but most importantly LISTEN. You might just discover your next favorite song or band.

Coming in at number 25 is “Everything Red” by The Game. I swear to you I never even thought I would like this song. It has elements of everything I despise. It’s By The game (I’m neutral towards him), It features Birdman (arguably one of the worst rappers lyrics-wise, in existence), and Lil wayne (over hyped to the point where he doesn’t consider himself a human being). But all in all I love this song. I remember when my cousin first played it for me this summer, I resisted, I didn’t want to accept that I liked this song, it took the entire summer for me to fall in love with this song and in the end it became a highlight song for not only my awesome summer vacation, but also for the year as a whole.

Even Birdman’s verse wasnt that bad after a few hundred listens. My cousin played it over 2000 times, I shit you not! Its on his iTunes. He just kept it on repeat all the time, I fell asleep and woke up to this song in my first few days on vacation. Thankfully my cousin’s obsession began to die down around the time I arrived for summer vacation, had I shown up a few days earlier, I would have probably blown my brains out from listening to the song so much.

Is this a story of musical Stockholm syndrome? probably. Do I care? Not at all. It’s a great song, I love the chorus and the Ryan Leslie produced beat is infectious and beautiful! Listen HERE

Next up…….

Say what you will about the band themselves, or their current style of music or even about how they have “changed”, but you know what? Its really interesting to see the progression of Linkin park.  Linkin Park is one of those bands that has managed to break the mold that was holding them back and in doing so have evolved into something else, Its simply a case of natural progression.

Linkin Park is unique, not because they combine rap and rock, but because they combine, mix and match various elements from various genres of music and blend it so well. Take the song “waiting for the end” as an example, just from listening once I can hear influences ranging from Dance hall to big beat  electronica. I simply adore this song. Its something Linkin Park has never done before, they crafted a beautiful song using Reggae tone like vocals from Mike Shinoda perfectly blended with main verses from Chester Bennington. LP is an experimental band, they are at their best when they are breaking boundaries and doing something new and genre shattering. No one can deny that after listening to this song.

Linkin Park hasn’t changed, they have evolved into an even more magnificent beast with the passion and radiance of A Thousand Suns.

Besides that, the song has a fucking amazing music video and the guitar riff near the end is Beastly!

Listen HERE or HERE

I stumbled upon this song randomly, and I loved it instantly! Lead singer Bradford Cox is amazing! I love how the song flows, When you first hear the song, it starts out in a certain direction, less than 45 seconds later its spinning a completely new sound that it maintains for about 2 minutes and then switches up it again!

I love the natural progression in this song, its beautiful and inspiring. Most of the middle section is dominated by instrumentals gradually building up to the very climactic and satisfyingly sweet ending. I remember when I first heard this song. It captured me instantaneously, I kept humming it in the showers, In the super market, pretty much everywhere! Its a beautiful song, and one of the musical highlights of my summer. The song represents growth, it changes and thats what makes it beautiful.

I strongly urge you to listen HERE

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s!

One of my favorite bands of all time. I dont even know what to say about these guys. Their sound is unique and beautiful! Each album is different than the one before in the best way possible. Their latest album, 2009′s “It’s Blitz” is amazing! Every single song tells a story and compliments the entire album as a whole. Lead Singer Karen O, Guitarist Nick Zinner and Drummer Brian Chase are fantastic through out the entire album, but I’m here to talk about Soft Shock.

I wouldn’t necessarily consider it my favorite song from the album, that honor would go to Hysteric but Soft Shock is a stand out song. Like the entire album, its a love letter to the dance floor, drawing upon influences from 80′s Synth pop and new era sound. Soft Shock has this melancholic happiness to it, I know thats a contradiction but thats the best way to describe the song. Its building on the past and looking to the future.

YYY’s have crafted an amazing song, but over all, they have crafted an amazing album. One of my wishes in life is to one day go to a YYY’s concert, if its any indication from their music (and the pic below), a YYY’s concert would be an amazing experience.

By the way don’t you just love Karen O’s Concert outfits?

you can listen to soft shock HERE

NEXT UP….

123! MI on the M-I-C, Neptune on the wheels of steel, best alliance in hip hop!

You know, looking back at  contemporary Nigerian Music, I’m really impressed, its evolved so much from the days of Eedris *I cant spell his last name so I’m not even going to attempt to*. Who would have know 5 years ago that we would have artists like D’banj, Wande Coal, Naeto C, MI and especially Dagrin? This song truly is the best alliance in hip hop, as far as Nigeria is concerned anyway.

The song starts with a verse from MI, who kills it immediately. MI is versatile and effective, he is a lyrical maniac! I always wonder, can MI make the transition from Naija rapper to Yankee rapper? Can he hold his own against the best of the best in American rap? We might never know, but his verse in this song makes a strong case on his behalf if you ask me.

Naeto C  aka Super C takes the middle verse. He doesn’t waste anytime showing his knack for metaphors, the man is something else. But on to the main event….The chief executive omo ota himself

DaGrin finishes off this song with such precision, its amazing! The man fucking raps in Yoruba! I am still amazed till this day when I listen to any of his songs. Its a mixed feeling, on one hand I’m excited, astounded and blown away by this guys talent, on the other hand I’m saddened his life got cut short. DaGrin was a star, excuse me, DaGrin IS a star! DaGrin succeed in doing something no Yoruba teacher of mine will ever do, He made speaking Yoruba cool.

In his own words, DaGrin “Gbono bi radiator to ti sa many miles”. I could just keep writing about how much I love and miss DaGrin but I wont, I’ll reserves that for later. I’ll end this by quoting DaGrin

“Mo le rap yoruba, ee lemi ba!

Emi ni oba, bring all the ACE wey dey d bar!”

This song is defintely one of the best Niaja collaborations of the year, Thanks goes out to DJ Neptune for this beat and rounding up these great artists for such an awesome, versatile and especially dance friendly song song.

Listen to it HERE

Do you wanna know a secret? My cousin and I have a dance to this song, but you will probably never see it. I thank God for that

Well thats it for now Folks, #25 – #21 of my personal favorite songs of 2010, I hope you are enjoying the list so far. As you can see, I have a diverse taste in music, there is something for everybody and I’m only 5 songs in!

Tune in tomorrow for #20 – #16

till then have a great day folks!

Share