Jmunney's Blog

As revealed on Jeff Malone’s Magic Mix on Monday, April 12, here is my list of the top 25 songs of the past four years.  The full story can be found here.

1. Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland – SexyBack

2. Muse – Knights of Cydonia

3. MGMT – Electric Feel

4. Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye

5. Rihanna ft. Jay-Z – Umbrella

6. Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch

7. Paramore – Misery Business

8. Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire

9. TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me

10. Foo Fighters – The Pretender

11. Wolfmother – Woman

12. Bat for Lashes – Daniel

13. Major Lazer ft. Mr. Lexx and Santigold – Hold the Line

14. The White Stripes – Icky Thump

15. Animal Collective – My Girls

16. The Sword – Freya

17. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy

18. Priestess – Lay Down

19. Calvin Harris – The Girls

20. Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Possess Your Heart

21. Justice – D.A.N.C.E.

22. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody

23. Coldplay – Viva La Vida

24. Queens of the Stone Age – 3’s and 7’s

25. The Ting-Tings – Great DJ

The hits just keep on coming!

MGMT – Electric Feel (2008)
“All along the western front”
When I first heard “Electric Feel,” I thought, “Is that the Bee Gees?”  I worry that MGMT might be somewhat insulted by that misidentification.  But matching the iconic falsettos of the Gibb brothers is quite an accomplishment for a vocalist.  The falsetto is rarely employed by MGMT; it is just one part of their arsenal of tricks.  These boys from Brooklyn reside in their own idiosyncratic space in the music landscape, but they also draw from and move forward the collision of pop, rock, dance, and electro.

Another choice from my top 25 of 06-09:

The Sword – Freya (2006)
“When is all done it must begin again”
Part of the opening guitar bit to “Freya” is known as a “chunk riff.”  I am not entirely sure what that means, but I prefer everything together in a chunk as opposed to a screeching mess that is all over the place like most metal music today.  Thank you, the Sword, for proving that you can still pull off old-school, Sabbath-style metal, with its tightly arranged solos, mythological references, and CLEARLY ENUNCIATED VOCALS.

And another pick from my top 25 of 06-09:

Major Lazer ft. Mr. Lexx and Santigold – Hold the Line (2009)
“I’ll make your jeans vibrate like a Nokia”
Discovering Major Lazer was a sort of discovery in which I knew what I had come across was an underground sensation, but I had no idea where that underground resided.  This mystery deepened when I could not find the lyrics of Mr. Lexx’s reggae-riddim verses posted anywhere online.  So I bought Major Lazer’s debut album, Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do, partially in hopes to find lyrics included in the liner notes.  Alas, no dice.  What I got instead was a further deepening of the mystery.  “Hold the Line” was nowhere on the track list.  Instead, the track that featured Mr. Lexx and Santigold was entitled “I’ll Make Ya.”  What the heck was going on?  Was Major Lazer even real, or had I imagined everything?  All was set aright eventually.  It turned out, unsurprisingly, that there was just a good deal of mischief to go along with the most memorable reggae-rock-dancehall fusion project in … ever.

Another song from my top 25 of 06-09:

Kings of Leon – Use Somebody (2008)
“Oh oh oh, oh oh oh”
The first time I heard Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” was back in September 2008 when they performed it on Saturday Night Live.  It was on right before the last sketch, so as I was walking along right after watching it, I found myself harmonizing some ohhhhhohhhoh’s with my roommate.  Rarely has a monosyllable been stretched out for all it is worth so memorably.  Oh, and the content of the actual words is rather heartfelt, too.