M.I.A.

1. M.I.A. – Paper Planes (Diplo Street Remix feat. Bun B & Rich Boy)
Yes, technically the Sri Lankan songstress’ sophomore album Kala came out last year, but this remix is featured on this year’s Homeland Security Remixes, which I recently purchased on vinyl. Thanks to its use in a little movie by the name of Pineapple Express this summer, everyone and their mothers heard this song. It quickly became the drunken anthem of choice at parties, not to mention being performed on Letterman (even though they made her replace the gunshots in the chorus with a plastic toy gun) and being heavily sampled on the G4 (Kanye, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and um…T.I.) of rap collaboration Swagga Like Us. Yet while every rapper worth his salt attempted a remix, it was Diplo’s version – featuring some street-heavy verses from Southern rappers Bun B and Rich Boy – that stole the show and stood out from the rest of the pack. Now that she’s pregnant (just imagine the baby clothes that child is going to be wearing), it remains to be seen if Ms. Arulpragasm is done with her recording career as she has stated in interviews, but she can’t quit - the game(not to mention her “proteges”, NYC’s Santogold and Baltimore’s Rye Rye) needs her.

2. Tokyo Police Club – Your English Is Good
I could tell you why this band from Newmarket, Ontario is one of the best pop bands to come out of Canada, and why I think that this infectiously-catchy song (off their debut full-length Elephant Shell) is one of the best they’ve written in the short three years they’ve been together. Or I could just reprint a scene from a recent episode of Desperate Housewives, in which the band competes as Coldsplash in a battle of the bands, and performs “In A Cave”. I choose that one:

Guy #1[as he watches band]: “God, look at those guys. They’re so young.”
Guy #2: “No wonder they went first. They probably have homework.”
Guy #3: “Would you guys relax. Rock and roll’s not just for young people.”
Guy #4 (is it obvious that I don’t watch this show very often?): “Why are they so loud?”
Guy #3: “You’re not helping Carlos.”
Guy #1: “They’re really good. [turns to Guy #3] Ed, we’re really old enough to be their fathers.”
Hilarious.

3. Queens of the Stone Age – Make It Wit Chu (acoustic version)
While Guitar Hero geeks were wetting themselves over the crunchy guitar riffs of “3′s & 7′s” in 2008, Josh Homme and Co. were crafting the perfect song devoted to…um well, you know…”getting” with a lady. On the third single off this summer’s stellar Era Vulgaris, “Make It Wit Chu”, Homme’s promises to get with you “anytime, anywhere” while the rest of the band delivers that trademark QOTSA desert (or “stoner” depending on whose review you are reading) rock groove that we’ve come to know and love. This should be Quagmire from Family Guy’s theme song, or perhaps those dudes from Wedding Crashers. I prefer my Make It Wit Chu with acoustic rather than electric guitars, but both versions are stellar, and for bonus points, see if you can seek out the un-televised hookup with Gnarl Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green on the track during last year’s VMAs (and if you do find it, send it my way please). Funky.

4. The Kills – Sour Cherry
While it remains to be seen if Gossip Girl will be immortalized in television history (don’t front, you know you love it), as far as I’m concerned, the show deserves at least some place in the cultural zeitgeist for including this electro-rock gem in an episode. Of course (and without trying to sound like a pretentious hipster), I had bought my copy of The Kills’ latest album Midnight Boom months before all the G.G. hype, yet the show served to introduce a fantastic band to a wider audience. “Sour Cherry” explodes in a drum machine and Jamie Hince’s sharp guitar riff-filled rush, grabbing you with Allison Mosshart’s breathy yelping (only Mosshart could make the line “I’m the only sour cherry in your fruit stand” sound sexy), and doesn’t let up. Clocking in at just over three minutes, this track drips with seductiveness and kinkiness, just serving as further proof that the duo are at the top of their game. If you’re the type of person that makes make-out mixes, you need this song. Enough said.

5. Flight of the Conchords – Business Time
Upon first listen to the self-titled debut album from these New Zealand upstarts, they don’t seem to be covering any new ground. The songs all tread the same, terribly-worn topics: girls, boredom in everyday life, girls, the pressures of fame, and did I mention girls? On a second listen, you notice that the duo consider it a good day if they spent it drinking tea with their grandmothers, consider the perils of getting diseases from monkeys, and believes that telling a girl that she’s “hot like a curry” is a good pickup line. Okay…so maybe the Kiwi duo of Jemaine Clements and Bret McKenzie is anything but typical. Now that their hilarious TV series has been picked up in Canada, perhaps more people will get to fall in love with their hilarious songs, which range from acoustic ditties to faux disco and rap. If you haven’t heard “Business Time”, I won’t spoil the surprise, but let’s just say it involves a romantic night between two lovers and I’ll let you take it from there. I’d like to also give a special shout out to my neighbour and j-school friend Matt, who enjoys drunkenly reciting this song note-for-note after he has been into the Steamwhistle. Good times indeed…

6. Lil Wayne feat. D. Smith – Shoot Me Down
Tha Carter III? Best hip-hop album of 2008, hands down. However, while everyone was going crazy for “Lollipop” (with its hypnotic vocoder beat, simple yet incredibly catchy chorus and song title and lyrics that had Weezy not even bothering to try to convince everyone that it wasn’t a thinly-disguised metaphor for some type of sexual activity), and everyone else was rapping over the cuckoo rhymes of the droning “A Milli” (check out the A.P.T. version which pays tribute to Barack Obama), this track went criminally under the radar. While he still succumbs to the stereotypical hip-hop cliches; money, violence, drugs and the ladies, the haunting “Shoot Me Down” allows the rapper to expose his demons and question his mortality. In this song, Lil Wayne looks at his reflection in a mirror and asks if his fame is truly worth the sacrifices, over an ominous beat, a mean electric guitar loop and a pleading hook for salvation. There’s more to this song than meets the eye.

7. Noah and the Whale – 5 Years Time
My friend Cindy from Newfoundland has an expression that she likes to use whenever there is something that makes her happy inside. That phrase is “it does the heart good” and I think that’s a pretty apt description of how this song makes you feel. “5 Years Time” is all the elements of a great pop song; horns (I mean seriously, did you hear the last White Stripes album? “Conquest”? It’s all about the horns.), marimbas (really), tongue-in-cheek lyrics (“I no longer feel like I have to be James Dean”), have a positive message (love of course), not to mention the song having its own dance (just call it the Y.M.C.A. for sensitive, indie-pop kids), distilled into one infectiously catchy tune. If you have even a passing interest in the work of Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou), you owe it to yourself to check out these Brits, whose music – and music videos – have drawn inspiration from the iconic film director. This is pop music guaranteed to give you a sugar-rush that’ll leave you wanting more.

8. Kings of Leon – Sex On Fire
With their fourth album entitled Only By The Night, Kings of Leon made a pretty solid case for rock album of the year, and found themselves opening for the likes of U2, Pearl Jam and Bob Dylan. The band is apparently massive in the U.K., and while every article I’ve read on them this year has bitched about why their not as popular in North America, love from magazines including Rolling Stone and Spin would suggest otherwise. Not bad for three Tennessee brothers – and one cousin – that spent their childhood touring the country in a car with their Pentecostal preacher daddy, far removed from the Pandora’s box of sex, drugs, alcohol and rock ‘n’ roll that they now embrace in their lyrics. Though it begs the question, “just how does one have sex on fire?”, “Sex On Fire” is gritty, Southern-fried rock at its finest, with lead singer Caleb Followill’s tortured wailing about a tempestuous woman over soaring guitars and crashing drums. Besides this is one of TV personality and host of CBC’s The Hour’s George Stroumboulopoulos’ favourite bands, and who are we to argue with George Strombo?

9. Tricky – Council Estate
During the 1990s, artists from the city of Bristol in southwestern England were largely responsible for introducing the genre known as trip-hop to the rest of the world. Trip-hop, as Wikipedia defines is “downtempo electronic music that grew out of England’s hip hop and house scenes”. Pioneers of this sound included Bristol bands Massive Attack and Portishead, and Washington’s Thievery Corporation. Fast-forward now to the past five years, were there have been a number of uniquely British rappers (including Lady Sovereign, Dizzee Rascal and Mike Skinner of The Streets) that have crossed the pond only to be met with moderate, but not overwhelming, success here in North America. One of those artists is former member of Massive Attack and rapper Tricky, who this year released his eighth solo album Knowle West Boy. The album – a tribute to the hardscrabble neighborhood where he grew up – was largely unheard in Canada and the United States, but it was in no part thanks to standout “single Council Estate”. On the song, Tricky spits dark rhymes over an almost dancehall beat that prove no matter how much of a superstar you are, you can’t forget where you came from.

10. Hercules and Love Affair – Blind
For those getting ready to pen disco’s obituary, this year had many naysayers reconsidering, thanks in large part to a fresh crop of bands that are revitalizing the genre from its deathbed. Brits Hot Chip set fire to the heart of dance-floors from London to Toronto with their sophomore album full of disco-influenced tracks,Italians Do It Better became the record label at the centre of the nouvelle disco movement counting Glass Candy and others among their roster, while countless New York City acts sought something to elevate themselves above the glut of garage-rock bands over-saturating the scene. One band however that rose above the pack was Hercules and Love Affair, which was masterminded by knob-fiddler Andy Butler and featured the trill, androgynous voice of Anthony Hegarty (lead vocalist of Anthony & The Johnsons), who was successfully courted by the forward-thinking label DFA. In fact, “Blind” – with its skittery groove and shimmering vocals – wouldn’t sound out of place next to the label’s head honcho James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem latest effort, the 12-minute Freak Out/Starry Eyes. And that’s a high compliment indeed.