05.
Santigold
“Disparate Youth”
[Downtown / Roc Nation]
It’s been four years since Santigold released her debut album, but she still brings in the clicks when there’s word of a new song. Perhaps it’s because she never became as ubiquitous or overplayed as other pop stars of her ilk have become, so people are still keen to hear what she has next. Or perhaps it’s just because “Disparate Youth” is a quality song that’s been making the rounds.
04.
Odd Future
“Rella”
[Odd Future Records]
This might be a surprisingly low entry for a group that this time last year would have easily been on top of this list with the release of a new song and video. Perhaps it’s because the video is too ridiculous and vulgar to want to share with your friends, perhaps “Rella” just isn’t as good as we know Odd Future are capable of, or maybe some people are just tired of the whole thing. That being said, it’s still one of our most viewed new songs of the week, so there are definitely still a lot of people out there who care about Odd Future, even if that figure may be stalling.
Original post (watch the video here)
03.
M. Ward
“Primitive Girl”
[Merge]
While it’s been over three years since M. Ward last released a solo album, his popularity seems only to have grown. This is probably thanks greatly to his collaborations with Zooey Deschanel in She & Him, and Conor Oberst and Jim James in Monsters of Folk, which could have introduced him to all sorts of new fans. We all know that Ward saves his best material for his own albums, and that could also have been what attracted so many people to this song. We don’t think it’s quite as good as “The First Time I Ran Away,” but judging from how much “Primitive Girl” has been clicked on this week, we’re not the only ones excited for A Wasteland Companion.
02.
Blur
“Under The Westway”
[New Song Live]
It’s not clear whether the current desperation for new music and tours from Blur is coming more from fans of the band from back in the day or new fans who have been turned onto Blur’s music in their time away, but what is abundantly clear is that these two sets of fans together are a pretty big group. This live version of Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon performing the first new Blur song we’ve heard since 2010’s “Fool’s Day” came out in various different quality recordings, but it didn’t seem to matter, as long as people got to hear it. The song instantly garnered comparisons to the likes of The Beatles, but to fully judge on that point we’re going to have to wait for a recorded version. For now, we can still speculate using this live one.
MP3: Blur – “Under The Westway”
Original post (watch the video here)
01.
Gorillaz
“DoYaThing”
(Feat. Andre 3000 and James Murphy)
[Converse]
Damon Albarn has taken the top 2 spots this week, with songs that could not be much different. It’s not really all that surprising that this clusterfuck of alternative music gods brought in the most number of clicks this week, but it is possibly surprising – and definitely delighting – that the song lived up to the expectations placed upon a collaboration of this magnitude. With the 4-minute radio edit we have a pop song that manages to combine the eclectic pop that Albarn saves for his Gorillaz project flawlessly with the schizophrenic vocal stylings of Andre 3000. The full, 13-minute version is where we get a little more James Murphy and lot more weird. Talking with Pitchfork about the song, both Albarn and Murphy emphasized that it was a moment of pure inspiration, which becomes emphatically clear upon listening, and somehow that makes Andre’s repetition of the phrase “I’m the shit!” even more awesome instead of downright annoying, as it easily could have been in another song.
MP3: Gorillaz – “DoYaThing” (Feat. Andre 3000 and James Murphy) [13-minute version]
Starting next week — in a sort of homage to another Top 10 — we’ll be having you guys, our readers, vote for either this week or next week’s top track in a “Best of the Best” battle that we hope will keep track of the rest of the year. It’ll be your little way of telling us which tracks have the most pull and define the year.
See you then.
