I know, I know, there’s been a lot of lists. But in this day and age, we’d be remiss not to bequeath you with a list of our favorite songs from 2011. It’s been said before (Probably by me. A bunch. Don’t judge) but with songs so easily passed around and YouTube digestible, a whole artist’s career can be built off of one track blowing up not on any sort of Billboard chart, but on Twitter overnight (hey Rocky!).

The power of a single song is greater than ever, especially since the advent of Shazam and people just generally being scarily informed and techno-capable, because if someone hears your music odds are they can find out who you are and download your entire ouvre in the same amount of time it would’ve taken someone in the 90′s to run to their friends house, relentlessly humming the song to forgetting it.

Neon Indian

Also, I’m really happy that the climate has, at least in my estimation, moved away from the radio-play centricity of the aughts, as no one seems in the least concerned with making their stuff ready to be payola-d onto the airwaves. Make no mistake, there’s a lot of “weirdness” here, the dissolution of boundaries between genres, and refreshing disregard for any rules about who can do what (hey Dark Sister!).

Not to say that audiences are any less discerning. Quite the opposite, actually. The high amount of specificity we’re generously afforded in our listening experience has certainly put impetus on musicians to stand out. If there’s nothing grabbing us, it’s unlikely that your average listener will delve any deeper than one song. It may be unfortunate at times, but it’s true and it also has it’s upsides.

M83

With the added pressure for artists to put the maximum amount of creativity and into little nuggets, I’d say that the era of the single is back in full force. So we all came together and thought about which songs stuck with us the most this year. The process may not have been as mathematical as the album list, but we’re just as happy with the results.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that there’s a theme to the tracks we picked this year (beyond all of 2011′s leanings towards R&B, which were outlined here by Rue Sauvage much better than I ever could) other than that we really liked them all. So, without further adieu, here is another installment of our top 75 songs list! Why 75? Why not!

Jump To: #75, #50, #25, #10, #1

75. Holy Ghost! – Wait & See

Holy Ghost! continue their new wave revival with the pastel sleekness of “Wait & See”, which also has one of my favorite beat drops of the year. The simple 5 note hook is a real earworm, and it’ll especially stick after you watch the great video, where Holy Ghost! are both played by their dads. Bawww.

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74. GuMMy†Be▲R! – Horizon

“Horizon” is a shimmering synth-bomb that is one of the most danceable tracks of the year. Borderline tropical plinks weave around a stomping back beat, all punctuated by big thumping bass and an infectious repeated melody.

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73. Grimes – Vanessa

Grimes’ extreme falsetto get a workout across the surprising dancefloor ready single “Vanessa”, though she hasn’t let her ghostly roots go. The vocal layering is all well and good, but it’s that one singular performance at the center which really set this k-pop influenced song over the top.

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72. Babe Rainbow – Greed

Babe Rainbow’s ambient electronica was thrilling us all year, but our favorite moment was his collaboration with G-Side rapper Yung Clova on “Greed”. 2011 was a year of unlikely hip hop producers who pushed the limits of the “rap sound” just like the Def Jux crew and many others. “Greed”‘s underwater drums play perfectly off of Clova’s killer verse.

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71. Tiger & Woods – Gin Nation

Taking Imagination’s “Music & Lights” and transforming it into a slow build dancefloor banger, Tiger & Woods take their time in setting up one of the most euphoric moments in music in 2011. The elliptical flip on the classic soul track is good enough through the first five minutes, but go listen to the vocal drop a couple hundred times then come back to me.

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70. Planningtorock – Living It Out

Though many of W‘s tracks are even more ungraspable than usual out of the context of the album, “Living it Out” is a wonderfully recognizable diva jam that has that special DFA spirit. It’s genuine and irony free without seeming corny or imitative, and the repeated mantra of “livin’ it out, livin’ it in” is mercifully easy to sing alone to. Because believe me. You’ll sing along.

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69. K-X-P – Easy (Infinity Waits)

A veritable funhouse of goth sounds, “Easy” is nigh-wordless romp driven by ADHD musicality, with a reliably chugging rhythm section just barely holding together a plethora of musical ideas from krautrock synths to call and response pitched-out vocals, pan flutes, primal screeches, and an undeniable insistence on fun.

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68. Bodikka – 2727

“2727″, is a high tempo banger that will work it’s way deep into your head, mostly due to the bizarre and implacable vocal sample repeated throughout, a cro-magnon bleat that plays wonderfully off of the spastic synths and charging breakbeat. The end of the track gets heavy as hell, and really sounds like jungle music from 20 years in the future.

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67. Blood Orange – Forget It

Dev Hynes, he of Lightspeed Champion and Test Icicles, finally found a right proper outlet for his guitar antics and youthful romanticism in Blood Orange. “Forget It,” off debut album Coastal Grooves, is a dangerously catchy 80s indebted clap-along about touching and thighs and knuckle-nibbling stuff like that. Hynes guitar solo in the middle is an unexpected treat.

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66. Dark Sister – Haunt U

These two Tennessee MC’s took the “Witch House” moniker super seriously, and on “Haunt U” they rap over a massive evil giallo-beat about performing dark rituals in designer jeans and haunting/cursing/sacrificing men who turn them down. The talk-sung chorus is surprisingly effective, and the verses are compellingly bizarre. It’s a breakup anthem for the occult sect.

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65. Hercules & Love Affair – My House

What they left behind in DFA weirdness in between their debut and 2011′s Blue Songs, Hercules & Love Affair made up for in strictly accurate paeans to classic house. “My House” is a minimal and thumping beat made up of 808 drums and a couple of synth lines that is totally made by a vamping and bravura vocal performance from Shaun Wright.

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64. Instra:mental – 8

Alex Green’s second track on the list thus far (he’s also Bodikka) “8″ is all dystopian borderline-unsettling techno, with aggressive machine hiss built around a fembot’s repeated counting from one to eight. By three minutes in, the caustic bloops are even stranger, more like the experimental noises of Aphex Twin. This wouldn’t exactly light up your average dancefloor, but if you’ve got headphones then prepare to get lost for a while.

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63. Main Attrakionz – Chuch

“Chuch”, off of the great 808s & Dark Grapes II, is a perfect encapsulation of Squadda and Mondre’s sound, this Friendzone produced track lets the rappers reverb their way over a surprisingly tender piano backing track, spinning street tales in their syrupy flows. The hook stands true “you can’t hate chuch, you can’t hate chuch”.

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62. Ritualz – Ghetto Ass Witch (feat. Gvcci-Hvcci)

Hardsyle witch house that’s more bounce and less drag that features space-age synths, demonic growling, and a #whitegirlproblems hashtag rap feature from the squeaky voiced Gvcci-Hvcci. So happy that musical boundaries do not exist at all anymore. Ghetto Ass Witch also features definitely one of my 5 favorite covers of the year.

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61. Curren$y – Moon & Stars (feat. Big K.R.I.T. & Killa Kyleon)

A southern rap posse cut that remains unmatched in 2011, “Moon & Stars” is a slick Devin The Dude hooked canvas for these three young upstarts to go in on. K.R.I.T. almost sings through his chilled out verse, and Killy Kyleon is a relatively impressive fast rapper. But it’s Curren$y who shines here, falling in hard as fuck with a ultra-confident flow that proves he’s at the top of his game.

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60. Jacques Greene – Another Girl

As many a drunken collegian has said, sometime when you’re sad, you just have to dance. “Another Girl,” though more directly affiliated with bass music groups like Night Slugs or recent R&B experimentalist, is really just a beautiful break up anthem that piles layer after layer onto a great vocal sample. It’s a mascara running experience.

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59. Mellow Grave – Melatonin

Bursting out of the gate with a hyper-aggressive drum n’ bass breakbeat, Melatonin establishes that Mellow Grave are not the chopped and screwed Witch House of yesteryear, but are out to excite and perhaps frighten you a little with synths that stab like a knife and ceremonial reverbed vocals. It’s a fascinatingly direct sound coming from a genre that’s built, to a certain degree, about mysterious apathy, but the effort of it makes it all the more deliciously evil, especially the legit massive ending.

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58. Clams Casino – Motivation

Probably the breakout producer of 2011, Clams Casino has a sound all his own and “Motivation”, off of his Instrumentals tape, is probably the most distilled version of it. The moaning vocal sample, the general wooziness, the drag elements, nature sounds, and the euphoric explosion (pause) that comes halfway through and knocks your fucking socks off. I also love the Lil B version.

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57. PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

Everyone knows that PJ Harvey is a stunning musician, but on Let England Shake she exhibited probably her smartest and most expertly crafted songwriting to date, nowhere more evident than “The Words That Maketh Murder.” It’s deftly toes the lines between a protest song, an anthem, a barroom ditty, satire, and then a grippingly real look at being a soldier without ever seeming out of control. The layers revealed upon repeat listens are truly impressive.

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56. Real Estate – It’s Real

All of Days is the perfect listen for a relaxing, preferably forested day (meta?) but “It’s Real” is my favorite for one reason, and the band seem to be pretty conscious of that reason too. Sometimes a song only needs one thing to make it great, and here it’s the perfectly harmonized “oooh-ooohs” of the chorus. I could listen to that all day.

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55. Hyetal – Beach Scene

Though it starts off aggressive and almost menacing, “Beach Scene”, off of Hyetal’s debut LP Broadcast, suddenly reveals itself to be a sugary sweet summer jam that’s just bursting with sunstruck energy. The moment this song explodes out from Depeche Mode to Prince is thrilling. Our reviewer RX favorably compared it to “I Would Die 4 U” and it certainly is within one falsetto vocal of that classic.

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54. Holy Other – Touch

Slinky sexual R&B was given a pitch dark makeover in 2011, brining eroticism to a stalker de Sade type zone that was, in a word, awesome. I’m particularly fond of Holy Other’s slow jam “Touch” that takes a sample that Burial might glombed on to a few years ago and turns it into babymaking music. The gravity free breakdown halfway through is really breathtaking.

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53. EMA – California

The rawest confessional of 2011 award definitely goes to Erika M. Anderson for “California”, even if I’m not exactly sure what she’s talking about the whole time. But from the opening salvo of “Fuck California, you made me boring” each charged line in this woozy and forceful track feels incredibly real. The effect is even greater coupled with the video, her hair obscuring her already closed eyes, belying the exhibitionist bravery it takes to make this sort of art.

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52. Pictureplane - Post Physical

I really could have picked any of the tracks off of Thee Physcial (which was personally in my top 5 of the year) and this isn’t the only one on the list (spoiler alert!), but the heartfelt balladry of “Post Physical” is a much needed respite in the middle of the love/lust workout of the album. The themes are as heady and PLUR as ever, but Pictureplane’s raw delivery make them relatable no matter how mystic you want to get.

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51. Frank Ocean – Songs For Women

I had a lot of trouble picking my favorite song on Nostalgia, Ultra. Sometimes I’m in the mood for the sad strangeness of “Novocane” (but I sorta think The Weeknd did that look better) and other times I’m more entranced by the grandiosity of “Try” but I’m pretty sure that the super fun and funny “Songs For Women” is the real winner here. A great showcase for Ocean’s fucking great voice but also his unique personality, “Songs for Women” was definitely one of my most played.

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50. Kreayshawn – Gucci Gucci

This is one of those songs that has been almost completely consumed by its meta-textual significance, but nonetheless it’s a deceptively catchy song that you will end up humming no matter how much you try to convince yourself to hate it. The double time wobble was everywhere this year, and we just couldn’t leave it off the list. It’s a million dollar track, apparently.

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49. Blood Diamonds – Lasting Love

Apparently Canada is much more tropical than we thought. Vancouver resident Blood Diamonds really hit a home run with the uber-cool verdant luxuriations of “Lasting Love” a pitched out jam that sounds like it should soundtrack the level of Sonic that has all the palm trees and the robo-crabs. The songs perpetual groove builds to a bouquet of vocal samples at the end that is pretty great.

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48. Lone – Coreshine Voodoo

Starting modestly enough with some bells that seem to echo in a massive hollow space, “Coreshine Voodoo” very quickly evolves into a full on rave up made up of recognizable sounds that would make Tires from Spaced very proud. If you wanted to lose weight dancing to a song in 2011, this is probably the one.

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47. Azealia Banks – 212

“I guess that cunt gettin’ eatin’” was the unlikely hook one of the best debut singles of 2011. “212″ is the more or less undeniable sound of a star being born. Pretty much inseparable from it’s cheeky and charming video, “212″ is about as confident as music sounded this year. It goes without saying the 2012 will be an Azealia Banks sorta year.

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46. Beth Ditto – I Wrote The Book

Though it’s been a while since we got any music from The Gossip, 2011 saw everyone’s hero Beth Ditto venture out on the solo tip with her eponymous EP. The best track was basically an actualization of what we knew about ditto all along: that she was a mega-star diva, even if people didn’t realize it yet. The Madonna cribbing video is the perfect look for “I Wrote The Book”, a disco-warning come down from on high.

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45. Teams Vs. Star Slinger – The Yes Strut

The standout from their very fruitful collaborations of 2011, “The Yes Strut” brings together Star Slingers dancefloor ready funk and Teams’ predilection for #seapunk strangeness in the best way possible, as in not sounding like two styles mushed together but instead a harmonious eventuality. The Miami Vice synths, the simple repeated vocal hit, the scattering breakbeats – they knocked it out of the park.

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44. Bok Bok – Reminder

Another banger from the reigning house of bass music, Night Slugs, “Reminder” works best as a free space for Bok Bok to just show off some sounds. Unexpected sample after modulated what-have-you dance off of each other, eventually building piecemeal into a form that you knew must have been there but is hard to picture from its component parts. It’s an exciting riddle of a song.

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43. Washed Out – Amor Fati

Quietly slipping away after basically becoming the progenitor of the chillwave genre, Ernest Greene clearly spent a lot of time absorbing other music before returning with his triumphant Within and Without, which reinvigorated a movement that had already sorta burnt itself out. “Amor Fati” is the best testament to this, stripping away the more gimmicky chillwave elements and leaving something that is just as indebted to artists like The Cocteau Twins as it is his prior work.

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42. Fatima Al Qadiri – Vatican Vibes

I was endlessly impressed by Fatima Al Qadiri this year. Maybe I’m just being a fanboy, but I really thought that she brought a wholly unique perspective to bass music or electonica or techno or whatever the hell you want to call it, bringing me rhythms and sounds I’d either never heard before or certainly never heard in that context. “Vatican Vibes” is so unique but not just for its own sake: it’s damn good too.

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41. Gang Gang Dance – Glass Jar

Very rarely will your atmospheric, 11 minute, mostly wordless, mood-setting album opener end up on a “best of the year” list, but here we are. It’s a testament to the truly epic groove that “Glass Jar” ends up in that it is the most memorable track on the album, and even more credit is due to GGD that I don’t just skip ahead to the beat-drop every time.

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40. Shabazz Palaces – Swerve… The Reeping of  All that is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)

This was another situation where I was really conflicted about which track I wanted to include on this list. All of Black Up was so great, but a lot of the tracks are more effective as part of the whole. It basically came down to this and “Recollections of the Wrath.” Eventually I just couldn’t say no to the incredible accordion bounce of “Swerve,” the album closer that condenses a lot of Black Up‘s merits into one song.

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39. TV On The Radio – Will Do

After the over politics of Dear Science, (which remains, in my estimation, one of the finer records of the aughts) it was at first strange to hear that “Will Do”, the first single from 9 Types Of Light, was a straight up love song. Well, as straight up as TVOTR can go, still with Dave Sitek’s busy production and Tunde Adebimpe’s warbling voice. It’s a relatively simple song that acknowledges it’s best attribute: it’s pretty as fuck.

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38. Stalley – Slapp (feat. Rashad)

Over one of the finest beats of the year, Stalley made a pretty convincing argument for ROTY status. The unconventional time signature of the syrupy smooth track forced the stallion to step his game up, and he ends up doing that fun thing where he just barely rides the flow, falling over the end of beats and syllables while he outlines his considerable automotive history.

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37. The Weeknd – Initiation

This spot almost went to “High For This” but I’m gonna go out on a limb and pick “Initiation” instead, even though I might catch some flack for it. Maybe it’s because it’s still fresh, but I actually think this song is an equal-if-not-better bizzaro world version of that House Of Balloons track. It’s definitely Tesfaye’s scariest, most evil song, and the overwhelming amount of ideas, both vocally, production wise, and the terror of the lyrics make this track outrageously repeatable.

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36. Elite Gymnastics – Omamori

One of the first things I was ever assigned to write for the Bloglin was a little feature about a band I had never heard of, Elite Gymnastics. I was super impressed with how great their mixtapes were, and now I feel a totally unfounded sense of pride in seeing how, on their Ruin album, they got even better. “Omamori” is everything I like about them and more, the epic feeling of young love and loss coming through in droves.

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35. Balam Acab – Motion

Slow jam underwater erotica is the unwieldy name of the game on “Motion”, my favorite track off of Wander/Wonder. It’s a grower, building on a simple twinkling groove and bubbling aquatic sounds into a subtle seduction between two sets of vocals. Plus, even though it’s sort of a cheap trick, that moment about a minute in where it goes quiet for a second them booms back is pretty sublime.

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34. Police Academy 6 – Crushin (feat. Cherub)

“Crushin’” lives up to it’s totally fitting title, as a vamping, borderline goofy, plainfaced expression of youthful lust as boiled down to “I like you, I like you”, sung in a falsetto by Cherub in one of the more unsuspecting hooks of the year. It’s totally in my wheelhouse of young people’s emotions being strange, wonderful, and massive.

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33. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Ffunny Ffrends

I was really quite surprised that this song didn’t blow up even more than it did. It sounds perfectly suited, and I say this in the nicest, most complimentary way possible, for an iPod commercial or something like that. And sometimes that’s exactly what you want: a simple song built around memorable sugary hooks and hummable chorus.

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32. Cold Cave – Confetti

I’m so happy this song is six minutes long. It’s pure new wave bliss, with sneering guitar lines, insistent synths, cavernous 808s, and sternly delivered lyrics about beautiful people and death and probably eye makeup and harsh bangs and wonders such as those.

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31. Yuck – Operation

The almost “Born to Be Wild” cribbed road rhythm and talkbox vocals make this song sound like something plain for about, oh, the first ten seconds of it’s runtime. Then the super striking guitar line comes in, and Yuck once again show that they can take tropes that you’ve experienced before and sound fresh and young and poppy and catchy and everything else you could want.

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30. Action Bronson – Brunch

Probably his most relaxed song to date, “Brunch” sees Bronson slowing it down a bit, swagging out on a classic flow, spittin’ about food, coke, Queens, and the ladies. Also, in the case of the video, stealing a dead woman’s hair for a toupee (?).

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29. Big K.R.I.T. – Rotation

The chorus may be all about how K.R.I.T. is “old school”, and on first glance it’s easy to say that “Rotation” is nothing more than a classic southern rap song, which wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. But that would ignore the modern production flourishes (K.R.I.T., of course, makes all his own beats) and his small but important variations in flow that bely his status as a true student of the genre.

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28. Kurt Vile – Jesus Fever

Just beating out, for me, the bitter melancholy of “Runner Ups”, “Jesus Fever” works so well because it’s upbeat tone and melody forces Kurt Vile to work slightly outside of his comfort zone. It’s a travelling song, one that’s probably more suited for Jesus’ Son than any sort of fun getaway, but the contrast of Kurt’s nervous, shy vocals and the songs undeniable bounciness is weird and sort of perfect.

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27. Lil B – Unchain Me

“Unchain Me” is the perfect midpoint between the off-the-cuff genius of Lil B’s based freestyles and the more mannered and calculated lyrics of I’m Gay. Over a suitably epic beat, Lil B pretty genuinely tries to vocalize and maybe even solve the world’s problems, and that’s exactly what I want from him. His utter lack of cynicism and uncanny knack for summing up complex things in ways that waver between infantile and profound is a wonder.

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26. A$AP Rocky – Peso

With this, the pretty motherfucker from Harlem truly arrived. “Purple Swag” was good, but let’s be honest, most of the buzz was for that white girl with the grill. “Peso”, on the other hand, with it’s twinkling beat, unconventional boasts about Raf Simons and Rick Owens, and more or less unplaceable sound in the context of NY rap was surprisingly fresh and, unsurprisingly, blew the fuck up.

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25. Cream Dream – N.Y. Woman

Young New Yorker Cream Dream has apparently discovered a time machine that takes him back to the height of disco, most likely somewhere in Miami, and he brought an MPC with him. “N.Y. Woman” finds him at the height of his powers, taking a classic disco sample and working it into a total rave up.

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24. M83 – Claudia Lewis

“Claudia Lewis” is the Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming track that, for me, best evolves the amazing John Hughes sound that Anthony Gonzales explored on Saturdays=Youth. It’s got just as infection a chorus as most of the tracks on the album, but it’s also got so many great details, like the funky slap bass, and the synth solo over the bridge that make it extra memorable.

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23. Pictureplane – Real Is A Feeling

Hoo-boy is this song a banger. This was on heavy, heavy rotation for me for a minute this year and, as the first single off of Thee Physical, set the bar pretty damn high for the rest of the record (it totally went above and beyond, btw, but that’s a different conversation). This wins my “sung this to myself walking on the street the most” award for 2011.

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22. Azari & III – Reckless (With Your Love)

It’s kind of impossible not to feel really cool when listening to this song. It makes me want to dance, or wear neoprene, or do a mound of cocaine, and probably all three. The perpetual groove of the track is good enough, but the diva vocal performance puts it over the top.

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21. Neon Indian – Polish Girl

“Polish Girl” is a markedly more theatrical turn for Neon Indian, and the added drama works wonders for their sound. The electronic bloops and bleeps and 8-bit samples go beyond just being interesting noises and instead become evocative set dressing of a chrome future full of lovebots that probably looks like A.I.

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20. CREEP – You (feat. Nina Sky)

Nina Sky are so wildly underused these days it makes almost no sense to me. I thought for sure after their sublime performance on Major Lazer’s “Keep It Goin’ Louder” they would be all over the place. Thankfully, the two Lauren’s of CREEP took note and recruited the twins for “You.” CREEP helps bring some wicked cool goth posturing to Nina Sky’s swaggering pop stylings and vice versa.

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19. Zomby – Labyrinth

Pulling sounds from Bmore club and classic jungle, and even DJ Drama like airhorns, “Labyrinth” is a track that feels both familiar and fresh, as Zomby shows you things you already know but in slightly different ways that keep you coming back for more. It’s not a track that wears its quirks on its sleeve, but it’s anything but straightforward.

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18. Blouse – Into Black

Charlie Hilton has a coo as smooth as silk that pulls you easily into the dreamy sway of “Into The Black.” The song, however, which at first seems built around well mannered cool eventually explodes out and up into an ecstatic dance, Hilton’s voice seemingly unable to contain itself.

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17. Ford & Lopatin – The Voices

The lush and glitchy background of the track is pleasure enough, but, I suppose unsurprisingly, it is in fact the voices which make – err – “The Voices” one of my favorite tracks of the year. Vocal modulation (auto-tune, if you’re feeling that way) is always something I’ve really loved when used correctly (have I talked to you about T-Pain?) and here it’s almost perfect.

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16. College – A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth)

Yup, the song from Drive. Because why the fuck not? Finding it hard to separate it from handsomely framed images of Ryan Gosling? Then don’t! I’m actually putting this on here in the context of being in the movie, as that’s where it really and truly makes the most sense. It’ll give you that weird and awesome vertigo feeling where you’re experiencing something naturally “correct.”

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15. Destroyer – Kaputt

It’s hard to say exactly what makes this song so great, but as I’ve discovered it’s just generally difficult to explain Destroyer to someone without playing it for them. Dan Bejar’s lyrics are dreamy and melancholy without being sappy, the instrumentation is nostalgic without seeming cheap or cheesy or, worse, stolen and finally, as on all of Kaputt, they let their ideas breathe and relax.

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14. Darq E Freaker – Cherryade

Swinging between a sickly sweet banger that matches its eponymous beverage sugar packet for sugar packet and an evil industrial stomp-around, “Cherryade” was the Grime instrumental to beat this year, and it got remixed and appropriated all over the place. I’m still partial to the original though. As Shark put it, “it’ll make you flex for days.”

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13. Pictureplane – Black Nails

I told you there was a lot of Thee Physical on this list! This, for me, is the best song on the album. The bass is so massive, the hook so strong, and it builds to such an awesome place. That part about halfway through where the beat starts falling all over itself then the vocals come back in the high register… damn homie. That shit is so, so real.

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12. Puerto Rico Flowers – 3 Sisters

“3 Sisters” best captures the high drama that Puerto Rico Flowers is capable of at their best, the slow burn vocal deliveries that almost become chants, playing off of the increasingly gothic and rapturous music, the tough seduction of the whole thing. It’s a sound unique enough to start a devout following.

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11. Locussolus – I Want It

An extended hip-shaker that revolves around funktastic bass and a cheeky vocal call and response that gets me every time, “I Want It” is an easy song to accidentally, or not so accidentally, leave on repeat. Over it’s almost 7 minute runtime it builds to several serotonin releasing crescendos without ever getting over the top.

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10. M83 – Wait

Trading in the sometimes overwhelming size of the rest of the album for relative intimacy, “Wait” is built mostly around an increasingly transcendent singing of “no time” by Anthony Gonzales, a phrase that by the end of the song has taken on some sort of magic. Not to say that the track doesn’t also have it’s fair share of swelling violins and lush soundscapes. It just uses them more sparingly.

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9. Fucked Up – The Other Shoe

From step one – no pun intended. well maybe. – this song kicks fucking ass, with an instantly memorable guitar line, soon to be joined by hook-tastic harmonizing from Jennifer Castle and finally the predictably great bellowing from Damian Abraham. The three-headed monster of the rhythm section is airtight. Such a perfect song to rock out like a loser to, either alone or in public. Your choice.

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8. The Weeknd – The Morning

The barest and most impressively thrilling vocal performance of House Of Balloons, “The Morning” has everything you could want from a Weeknd song. In the beginning you get sultry guitar and slow, digestible, hyper-vivid storytelling. Then, because we’re lucky, we go “behind closed doors”, through a wall of drums and into a hip-drop chorus that you won’t soon forget.

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7. Terius Nash (The-Dream) – Wedding Crasher

Only Terius Nash could pull off some shit like this and make it one of the best songs of the year. It’s a pop-R’n'B song built around the regal violins of a wedding march, and its title pays tribute to a screwball comedy starring Vince Vaughn. And yet, through his seemingly unstoppable font of creativity, Nash, Patron in hand, comes through not as absurd but as emotionally raw and romantically defiant. It’s a motherfucking anthem.

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6. SpaceGhostPurrp – SVCK V DICK FXR 2011

This was the summer jam of the year, hands down. If I had a car I woulda been playing this driving around all day. Who’da thunk it? Almost never before has a chorus been this catchy and at the same time cruelly unrepeatable in polite company. I love the 4 note hook the beat is built around. I love purrp’s post-nasal delivery. I love the hilarious lyrics. I love this song.

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5. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Niggas In Paris

The second most iconic song of 2011 (ooh, foreshadowing!) “Niggas In Paris” came to be the catchall for the special kind of modern excess that The Throne was all about, not the least expression of which was their habit of playing it upwards of 10 times to close out shows. Braggadocio that sounds so justified it’s intimidating, “Niggas In Paris” spawned memes (Margiela?) catchphrases (“ball so hard…”) and criticism. But we all listened to it. A lot.

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4. Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire – Huzzah!/The Last Huzzah!

I’m gonna double dip on this killer Necro beat because it would be a huge loss not to recognize both exceptional versions of this songs. “Huzzah!” was good enough on its own, with a sneering and addictive chorus plus a vicious statement of intent from the instantly unique and memorable eXquire. The “Last” version was just a cherry on top, turning it into the posse cut of the year.

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3. Frank Ocean – Novacane

“Novocane” sounds like the work of someone who thought he only had one shot and decided to make sure it really counted. It only takes 5 minutes to know what Frank Ocean, an altogether complex dude, is all about. Beyond the quality of his voice and production, which are amazing, the real strength of the song is the lyrics. The must-be-real specificity (“she went to see Z-Trip. Perfect”) and unabashed confessions (“love me numb”) put this in the top 3.

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2. SBTRKT – Wildfire (feat. Little Dragon)

In a year full of incredibly stiff competition, this equal-parts-collabo between SBTRKT and Little Dragon was still the catchiest song of the year. It does Yukimi Nagano a disservice to say she’s just “featured”, as the luscious interplay between her sultry voice and SBTRKT’s wobble is the big beating heart of this song, and a perfect example of two artists coming together and instantly making each other way, way better.

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1. Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers

The first time I heard this song I got very legitimate goosebumps. Forget whatever you think about Goblin or even Odd Future in general: you knew when you heard “Yonkers” you were hearing something really really special. The same feeling you got from “My Name Is.” I’m sure Tyler knew the song was good, maybe even great, but there’s another level of quality to it that can only be achieved by a person too young to fully understand the extent of what they’re doing. Look no further than his assertion that the beat was made as “a joke.” For a second, maybe just after he eats the cockroach and vomits it all over the ground, Tyler was the king of the world.

- Whole Milk