Category: listmas

Well my friends, we’ve reached the end. The end of our countdown of the Top 50 Songs of the Year, that is. I pray you’ve enjoyed this recap thus far, as there’s been plenty of variety to hopefully satisfy tastes of all shapes and colors and ears. One of the things I wish I could have included more of on this particular countdown is hip hop, so I’d like to apologize for the lack of it. I don’t listen to a lot of hip hop, so that’s problem 1 right there, but also of the hip hop I did listen to, some I felt wasn’t quite good enough to qualify for this list (see: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne) while others made it quite difficult to single out a particular track as being better or more special than the others (see: Shabazz Palaces). So there’s no hip hop to be found in the final 10 songs listed below. What we do have though are all really special to me in their own individual ways. There’s a touch of folk, some more traditional pop be it upbeat or balladry, a few flashes of experimental or undefined, a couple dance cuts, and the genre revival of the year, 90s alt-rock. I like to think that my pick for Song of the Year is a little bit controversial, in that I’ve barely seen any mentions of it in any year-end lists, but I also feel like my logic and justification of its placement are valid. I hope you will agree with me, or at least understand where I’m trying to come from. So let’s get into it, but in case you’ve missed the other 40 songs covered on this list, feel free to follow the links below to learn more:

The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #40-31
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #30-21
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #20-11

Without further ado, click past the jump to see my Top 10 songs of 2011, complete with mp3s (where available) or audio streams.

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Thanks for hanging in there so far as we do Listmas 2011 proper with yet another day of counting down my Top 50 Songs of 2011. If yesterday was all about getting eclectic, today is much more thematically in the direction of upbeat pop and dark psychedelia. At least a couple of these songs have been in commercials or other such media-related ventures outside of the scope of music. That doesn’t so much matter to me, primarily because I’ve been listening to all these songs before they showed up anywhere outside of an album. In cases like that, I invoke the right of “finders keepers” in an effort to say that the music swayed me, not the product it may have been attached to in an advertisement or TV show. I hope these songs are familiar to you for those exact same reasons, and if you haven’t heard them before now, well, here’s your chance to make such a discovery. I hope this list has helped you find something new you may have missed earlier in the year. Speaking of things you may have missed earlier, have you checked out the first 3 installments of this Top 50 Songs of 2011 countdown? Here are the links so you can catch up:

The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #40-31
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #30-21

And now, click past the jump to learn about songs #20-11, complete with mp3s (when available) or audio streams.

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We’ve reached the halfway point in the Top 50 Songs of 2011 countdown. I hope you’ve enjoyed this list, and Listmas in general thus far. Today’s set of 10 songs are probably the most eclectic yet, going everywhere from psychedelically weird to warm electronica to lo-fi to spoken word poetry to R&B to a pair of some of the most popular songs of the year. When looking back at 2011, it’s important to give some recognition to all those different types of music. For those that missed the first two installments of this Top 50 Songs list, here are a couple links to help you catch up:

The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #40-31

And now, click past the jump to investigate songs #30-21, complete with mp3s (when available) or audio streams.

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Welcome to Day 2 of Listmas, and my countdown week of the Best Songs of 2011. Yesterday was a lot of fun and naturally as the week progresses I expect that to continue to increase. One fun fact I’ll reveal to you in regards to my composition of this list is that I highly doubt you’ll be able to guess any of my Top 3 songs, which will be revealed on Friday. Feel free to guess in the comments section, but those final 3 are in some ways curveballs of the most interesting sort. There will likely be complaints. We’ll see how it all shakes out though. There’s still a couple days left before we get to that point. For today, there’s another interesting set of songs, and I’d actually say there’s nearly a theme to these 10. Save for a couple more left field choices, a handful of these songs were moderately successful and popular in 2011. That is to say, I heard a few of them on the radio, some even more than once. Do with that what you will. Click past the jump to read the list, my thoughts on each individual song, and stream or download all of them too. Oh, and here’s the link to yesterday’s 10 songs in case you missed them:
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41

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It brings me great pleasure to welcome you to Faronheit’s Listmas 2011! For a couple weeks in December, the forward progress goes on hold to take a step backwards and examine the past year in music. Specifically speaking, this week marks the Top 50 Songs of 2011 countdown, and next week will be the Top 50 Albums of 2011. In the earliest Listmas editions dating all the way back to 2008, I’d also break down my favorite EPs, TV shows, movies, music videos and worst albums into lists, but most of that just doesn’t quite jive with the content you’d find on the site regularly, so those elements have been cut. If you want more information on those, email me and I’ll be more than happy to send those lists your way. I’ve got a couple special things planned beyond the two main lists I’ll be counting down as well, so keep an eye out for those when they emerge. In the meantime, we’ve got some hefty (but fun) business at hand. Coming up with a list of 50 and only 50 songs out of any given year is a monstrous task, particularly when you think about all the albums, EPs and 7″ singles that get unleashed week after week. After digging through pile after pile and sifting out only the songs that really stuck with me, I very well could have extended this list to 100 or more. Instead we’re left with only 50, and I’d like to think that makes them the best of the best.

There’s a reason why this list uses the word “song” and not “single”, and that’s because while commercially released singles are often the most pleasing to the ear, they’re not necessarily the best song on any given album or EP or sometimes even 7″ single (a b-side could hypothetically be better than the a-side single). If I start throwing around the word “single” when talking about this list, that limits it to what the commercial market dictates and not necessarily what quality does. Granted, many of the songs you’ll see here are also singles and have places where you can stream them or watch music videos made for them. If an mp3, audio stream or video is available for any of the songs on this list, I will do my best to link to it for your downloading/streaming/viewing pleasure. If you haven’t heard some of these songs before, naturally I encourage you to check them out in whatever way you can. It’s also worth noting that while some albums/EPs/7″ singles have a wealth of great material on them, I’m only allowing one song per artist on this list. The hope is to diversify as much as possible while also giving a little bit of credit to some of those “one hit wonders” that may have wowed with one song and then sucked with the rest. By that same token, some artists have crafted such perfection in terms of an entire record that choosing a single song from it feels a little criminal and distracting from the rest of it. Some albums are meant to be heard as one whole rather than broken down into three minute chunks. If we get to the end of this Top 50 Songs list and the artist responsible for your favorite album of 2011 doesn’t show up for some reason, I assure you I probably didn’t forget but instead couldn’t pick a single song because they were all so great. As a twist on that though, sometimes even the best albums have a song or two that jumps out at you just a touch more than the rest. You will get at least a touch of insight into some things that will appear on my Top 50 Albums list next week though. Try not to read too much into that, you may wind up deceived when this is all over. Okay, enough talking, let’s get right into the list. At a rate of 10 songs per day, here are numbers 50-41 on my list of the Top 50 Songs of 2011.

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We’ve made it! After one really long week and a TON of writing, this is the final section of Faronheit’s Top 50 Songs of 2010. It’s been a wild ride, we’ve gone through 40 individual artists and songs so far, and I couldn’t be more pleased to put this to bed. Typically there’s at least one artist that has two songs on this countdown every year, but I’m pleased to say that this year there are 50 songs by 50 different artists. All of them are blockbusters, and if you haven’t heard them, I do recommend downloading either for free from the links I’ve provided below (when available), or buying the music via some sort of retailer. Next week begins Faronheit’s Top 50 Albums of 2010, and that’s another gigantic adventure unto itself. Thanks for sticking around and reading this week, hopefully you’ve learned something and discovered something too. Here’s the quick links for a rundown of what we’ve covered so far:

Top Songs #50-41
Top Songs #40-31
Top Songs #30-21
Top Songs #20-11

So without further ado, I’m proud to present my Top 10 Songs of 2010! Oh, and as always I’m interested to hear your comments on this list or your personal list. Just leave them below. Thanks!

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We’re over the hill and racing towards the inevitable conclusion of Faronheit’s Top 50 Songs of 2010. There’s been a lot of fun music so far, but naturally, the best is yet to come. Today features one of the biggest hits of the year, to the point where the kids from “Glee” have already covered it. Hopefully that’ll be the first and last time such a crossover between that show and this website occurs. There’s also a few pretty hot new artists showing up here that you might also expect to see again next week when the Top 50 Albums of 2010 list gets published. If you’ve yet to see/read about a lot of the other songs in this Top 50 Songs countdown thus far, let me catch you up with some links:

Top 50 Songs #50-41
Top 50 Songs #40-31
Top 50 Songs #30-21

I’m continuing to solicit any comments on things you see on this list or just your own personal opinions on some great songs this past year. As usual, where I’m allowed to offer a free mp3 to you, I have done so. Tomorrow is the Top 10 Songs of 2010, be sure to check back in for those!

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With mid-week comes the middle of Faronheit’s Top 50 Songs list. Inside today’s 10 songs you’ll find the longest song on the entire list, a couple of serious dance tracks as well as some lo-fi stuff too. If there’s a “theme” that can be derived from most of the songs listed here, it’s that they’re fun and very well constructed. I sincerely hope you’re able to discover something new from this as well. If you’ve not yet done so, feel free to have a look at the other songs among this Top 50 list so far.
Top 50 Songs #50-41
Top 50 Songs #40-31

Once again, if you have any comments, either in regards to this list or just want to talk about some of your favorite tracks from 2010, feel free to leave those below. Also, I’m continuing to include mp3s of the individual songs on this list wherever possible. Just know if I had it my way, you’d be able to download them all without restriction. So here we go, Faronheit’s Top 50 Songs of 2010, #30-21!

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Listmas 2010 continues again today with the second installment of Faronheit’s Top 50 Songs of 2010. Today there’s a hefty dose of longer songs, that is to say a few of them actually soar above the 5 minute mark. As usual, there are mp3s available for download whenever possible. If you’d like to read yesterday’s entry, Songs #50-41, that can be viewed here. In that post I also provide a good introduction to this list and explain the criterion for making this list. I hope you like what you’ve read so far, and that today’s set of songs will be equally as interesting. As usual, I’d like to hear what some of your favorite songs of the year have been, so comment if you wish. Join me after the jump for the continuation of my Top 50 Songs of 2010 #40-31!

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Welcome to Listmas 2010! Listmas is an annual tradition on Faronheit that dates all the way back to the crazy year known as 2008. In previous incarnations, Listmas has lasted a total of 3 weeks across December, spending a whole lot of time counting down the year’s best EPs, reissues, movies, TV shows, songs and albums. It’s a hefty task, but also a whole lot of fun. With a somewhat odd way the weeks have lined up this year (or maybe it’s just the economy), Listmas has been reduced down to 2 weeks. As such, the focus will be entirely on two lists, each revealed over the course of one week’s time. This week it begins with Faronheit’s Top 50 Songs of 2010. Of all the lists every year, this is the toughest one to crack. The simplest reason as to why is that for every album and EP released this year, there’s at least ten times the number of songs. We’re overwhelmed by songs should we choose to be, but thankfully some stand out as being better than others. Of course other times an entire record is filled to the brim with strong songs and picking a highlight is near (if not) impossible. So it does stand to reason that though this list is supposed to count down the 50 best songs of the year, if an entire record is mindblowing perhaps the artist or a single song from that album won’t be represented on this list. There are a few steadfast rules I keep for my Top 50 Songs list. They are as follows:

-To be eligible for this list, a song must have appeared on an album, EP, or standalone 7″ single with a 2010 release date. If a song originally appeared on a 2009 album/EP or will appear on a 2011 album/EP, it is not eligible to be included on this list.
-If an artist self-releases an album, EP or 7″ and then signs to a label later in the year, the self-released stuff is eligible for this list provided a tracklisting for a forthcoming label effort has no crossover. If there is overlap between a self-released 2010 piece of music and a label-released 2011 piece of music, the label-released (see: more widely available) music automatically disqualifies the original or demo recordings from this list. If an unsigned artist signs to a label but has not revealed details on any forthcoming releases, the original self-released recordings stand and remain eligible for the list. Should a self-released song make the list one year, the same song released on a label the following year becomes ineligible. The only exception is if the original self-released version of a song vastly differs from the professionally recorded, label-released version.
-To help keep this list as diverse as possible, there is a 2 song limit per artist release. Better translated, you won’t see 3 songs from any one album, but if an artist put out an album AND an EP or 7″ this year and there’s 3 AMAZING songs between them, then it’s okay.

All that said and hopefully clarified, writing this year’s list of the Top 50 Songs was a beast and a half. I doubt I’ve had a tougher time coming up with a final list that met with my total satisfaction. So after multiple writes and re-writes, I’m proud to present the first 10 tracks of my Top 50 Songs of 2010. Each day, I’ll be revealing 10 new songs until we reach the Top 10 on Friday. I will also be sure to include free mp3s whenever possible. I hope you enjoy this list, and discover some new music as a result of it. If you’ve got a list of your own, or a song suggestion I might have missed, or just a general argument against the placement of a certain song, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

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