One of the neat things about Random Weekends is happening upon songs that I’ve long ago forgotten I own.
Today’s track is a cut from Mary Chapin Carpenter’s 1990 album Shooting Straight in the Dark. It’s a lovely ballad about the end of a relationship, specifically the man’s apathetic reaction to his lover walking out on him.
Regular readers of this blog know I am rather infatuated with Beyoncé. So I’m more than pleased to see her land at #2 on Village Voice’s 2011 Pazz & Jop poll.
In the top spot, as I’ve mentioned, is Adele with ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ Adele also placed a second track, ‘Someone Like You,’ in the top ten, making her one of only a handful of artists to do so in the history of the poll. At #3 was Nicki Minaj’s ‘Super Bass,’ a feat all the more impressive given that the song was never intended to be released as a single. It was a true word of mouth hit (buoyed by Taylor Swift, of all people).
Way up at #4 on Village Voice’s year-end poll is a song I’ve never heard by a band I’ve never heard of. In fact, I had to double-check to see whether Midnight City was the song and M83 the band or vice versa.
This is a pretty cool song. It reminds me a lot of the 80s-influenced album that Phoenix put out a couple of years ago (and in fact, M83 front man Anthony Gonzalez turns out to be French just like the Phoenix boys).
Clocking in at #5 on the Pazz & Jop poll is ‘Niggas in Paris’ from Watch the Throne, the much-anticipated collaboration between Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Everything I’ve read about this album suggests that these two are more out of touch than Mitt Romney with America in 2012. They rap about their wealth, their fame, their bling, their women — dick-grabbing egotism at its finest.
Perhaps it’s ironic? Does it even matter if it is?
It’s unfortunate that today’s song, #6 in the Village Voice poll, falls on my sweet little 6-year-old daughter’s birthday. Azealia Banks was six once, too, and now listen to her. I don’t want my Fiona within 20 yards of this song.
Banks is a Harlem rapper who quietly self-released a few singles before this song hit it big toward the end of 2011. She then teamed up with the producer of Adele’s 21 on an album due out early this year.
