Part II of a III Part Series of music critic self-importance...

In the interest of brevity, I'll omit any songs from the four albums I highlighted as my favorite albums. I love em all. Nuff said.

But there are so many other songs I grooved to this year. Here are my favorites (though I'm sure I'm forgetting some) - these are really in no order, I'm just pulling them off of an iTunes list.


Breakin' Up - Rilo Kiley  Go ahead, I DARE you to sit still when Jenny Lewis gets to the "Ooh!  It!  Feels Good To Be Free!" break.  If you can, then you are a whiter man than I, Gunga Din.

Still Alive - from the game Portal/written by Jonathan Coulton  Some may know that I'm a bit of a gamer.  This song was tucked into the end of the fantastic Valve game, Portal (part of The Orange Box).  Sure, it's a novelty song, and the lyrics only resonate if you've played the game, and saying that I love this song exposes me as more of a geek than I'd like people to think that I am, but dammit - this is a great tune.  I'm ashamed to say how many times iTunes says I've listened to it.  (It's more than 25.)

Shoes - Kelly  Damn you, ;!

Let's Go To The mall - Robin Sparkles  introduced me to this song, recorded as a gag on How I Met Your Mother (a show I don't watch).  The song, and accompanying video, fill a much-needed gap in my music library.  So many of my current favorite bands are trying to be the next Cure, The Smiths, or Duran Duran, but nobody was trying to be the next Debbie Gibson.  Until Robin Sparkles.  Thanks CBS!

Eternal Flame - Joan As Police Woman  There's a certain low-techyness to this song that I really love, maybe it's the not-always-in-sync-with-each-other "Oohs".  And the lyric is pretty damn good, too.

Mistaken for Strangers - The National  I have no idea what this song is about.  But I do know that I listened to it daily for about three months.

Firecracker - Voxtrot  The rest of the CD was somewhat disappointing, but this song is everything that I like about Voxtrot.  Great chorus, and I just love the voice on the singer.  Especially when he's scaling up to his falsetto "Did I turn myself - oh! Against myself!".

Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars  If forced to make a decision, I'd say this is my favorite song from 2007.  (I know - it's not from 2007, but I didn't hear it until 2007.  Leave off.)  A pretty, well orchestrated tune about really being over someone.  "There's one thing I want to say so I'll be brave/You were what I wanted, I gave what I gave/I'm not sorry I met you/I'm not sorry it's over/I'm not sorry there's nothing to say/I'm not sorry/There's nothing to say" is my favorite line of the year.  I wish I felt so certain.

Trying to Pull Myself Away - Glen Hansard (from the soundtrack for "Once") A great tune off a really terrific album.  Hansard's voice is the vocal embodiment of anguish.  Just about every song on the soundtrack was in heavy rotation at some time this fall, but this is probably my favorite.

From the "I'm only human, of course I liked these, too" list: Rehab (Amy Winehouse), Smile (Lily Allen), 1234 (Feist), North American Scum (LCD Soundsystem)