Top Songs In America – Week ending June 12th, 2010

Posted by Wade_County | 0 comments

Currently these are the three top, and therefore, best songs in America. At least as far as the record labels are concerned. Don’t like it? Buy better music. Anyway, on to this week’s finest musical achievements:

1. Usher & will.i.am – OMG

OMG indeed. This is the third single off of Usher’s comically titled new album “Raymond v. Raymond”. The fact that the title for his new album could be inspired by an Academy Award winning film (Kramer vs. Kramer) about divorce that explores the natural beauty and ugliness of human relationships is beyond me. Luckily, we have Usher to break things down for us. It was difficult to choose just one gem, but this is definitely a winner:

“Honey got a booty like ‘pow, pow, pow’
Honey got some boobies like ‘wow, oh wow’”

Usher is definitely the modern day Don Quixote. The idea of finding an attractive woman at a dance club is a complex and idiosyncratic thing, and he wants you to know about it. Also, will.i.am’s production is flat-out boring. Besides the embarrassing use of auto-tune and lazy hand claps, they employ a criminally cheesy chant during the chorus that is no doubt going to make millions want to make love in this club.

2. Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg – California Gurls

This is the first single off Perry’s upcoming new album “Teenage Dream”, and simply, it works for me. Despite it’s laid back vibe, the production is a work of academically precise design. The bass licks, wavering guitars and subtle synths all work as strengths on the song. Even the ad-libbing and sound effects (Jeep’s honking, Perry giggling, Snoop mumbling “Cali-fo’-nia”) are meticulously placed. Also, for laughs, check out the laundry list of California-based musicians who do not agree with Katy Perry’s opinions on California girls: Beach House and Best Coast & Wavves (themselves no strangers to inter-artist beef).

3. B.o.B. feat Eminem and Hayley Williams – Airplanes

B.o.B. has shown serious promise despite being lumped in with scrubs like Asher Roth and Charles Hamilton as part of XXL’s Class of 2009. His syrupy flow and technical proficiency are not on display here at all, although that’s to be expected from an obviously record-label driven single like this one. Throw the girl from Paramore (yikes) in there and hope that people still identify with Eminem and pray for a hit. The song works well enough, although it’s a bit too sappy for my tastes. Eminem still does the “messed-up-childhood-underdog-8-mile” thing better than anyone, and his appearance, as well as other recent collaborations, sets the bar pretty high for his upcoming “Recovery”. Ultimately, B.o.B. needs to show more versatility than he did on “The Adventures of Bobby Ray” if he wants those Andre 3000 comparisons to go anywhere else other than both of them representing Atlanta.