| Follow "Straight Fire 2017" on Spotify |
| #200 - 166 || #165 - 131 || #130 - 101 || #100 -71 || #70 - 41 || #40 - 21 || #20 - 1 |
| All 200 Songs |
165. Ryan Power “The Cavalry”
164. Headroom “How To Grow Evil Flowers”
163. Tera Melos “Don’t Say I Know”
162. Code Orange “Kill the Creator”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Ka0YhwegU
161. Pile “Texas”
160. Two Inch Astronaut “Snitch Jacket”
159. Miguel “Harem”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AvKmWO5_vw
158. DiCaprio “Ectoslavia”
157. Ariel Pink “Time To Meet Your God”
Free video idea: The priest calls out, "Congregation, please rise for our hymn." Everyone has really serious looks on their faces and stands up and then everyone sings "Time to meet your God / Time to meet the Lord thy God / Time to get with God / Time to face the firing squad." VHS & drugs. Nothing's changed.
156. YG “Fuck It Up”
YG channeling Nelly. Mom approves.
155. C Struggs “Go To Jesus”
The history of hiphop continues its proud tradition of very large rappers who straight murder on the mic.
154. Migos “Call Casting”
153. N.E.R.D. f/ Gucci Man & Wale “Voila”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK57YRwYGvY
152. Dreamdecay “Ian”
Brace yourself for the freakout.
151. Palehound “Room”
150. Leikeli47 “Money”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAM_ONZgPnE
149. Maren Morris "Sugar" / Maren Morris “Rich”
Sugar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiNvbXUE2M4
Rich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsC0x-LSLNo
148. Lil Yachty f/ Young Thug “On Me”
"22 hoes on me." It's one of those songs where we were going to make a joke about getting the lyrics wrong, but we looked it up on Rap Genius and those are the actual words.
147. Elder “Blind”
146. Selena Gomez “Bad Liar”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVtzQms7lps
145. Liars “Cred Woes”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkvbO0cY1TE
144. WV White “Broken Arm”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFCjGuApohg
143. Potty Mouth “Twisted”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp24x3JD6Ho
142. MOZART “Love Knows No Bounds”
141. Ty Dolla $ign “Message In A Bottle”
A greatest hits album with all of his best solo tracks would fill up an impressive collection of 12-14 very hot jams. Throw in a bonus disc of his best 12-14 featured tracks from the past 5 years, and we got a sizzling commodity on our hands. "Message In A Bottle" is one of the best late night summer driving songs of the year.
140. Charli XCX f/ Carly Rae Jepsen "Backseat"
An historic pairing for sure. Hopefully the first of many.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGqKwy4yM0
139. Weaves “#53”
138. 03 Greedo “Mafia Business”
"Mafia Business" was a nice mix of hazy purp. It's probably 03 Greedo's last time placing on this list for a very long while since he was just sent to jail for like 20 years.
137. Vince Staples “745”
136. Dua Lipa f/ Miguel “Lost In Your Light”
Yes, we like this one way better than "New Rules." You wanna fight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-AuLm7S3XE
135. Palberta “Pick Up The Phone”
134. Tyler The Creator “I Ain’t Got Time”
133. Squidnice “Trap By My Lonely”
132. Alex G “Guilty”
131. Lil Pump f/ 2 Chainz “Iced Out” / Lil Pump “Gucci Gang”
| Follow "Straight Fire 2017" on Spotify |
| #200 - 166 || #165 - 131 || #130 - 101 || #100 -71 || #70 - 41 || #40 - 21 || #20 - 1 |
| All 200 Songs |
Insane David Lynch Posse. Flat Eric probably loves this song. If you don't know who 
Palberta has lots of songs about going to the store. Two of these are tied here. This makes us wonder, what exactly is going on at this special "store" that keeps them coming back for more? Is it a product or a person? Is it neither? Is it both? It's all very cryptic and mysterious. One might notice the triangle in their live presentation suspiciously resembling the Illuminati symbol. The looseness in their musicianship seems to drastically counter-balance and mask meticulous craftsmanship. We refused to believe all those minor-2nds and diminished triads just miraculously ended up in their songs by accident, as if mom dropped them off at daycare that morning and within seconds they all looked at each other and decided "let's do a band" and all at once they ran into the kitchen pulled out some pots and pans and Marshall halfstacks and started screaming "I WENT TO THE STORE" in unison. They won't even crack a smile within their live setting - not unless it's been written into whatever song they're playing. And they have choreography! We usually hate choreography in rock music, but Palberta is the exception. Go team dissonance.
Breaking news: We got the final word from Sam Rosenberg, Matt Gatwood and Andy Chervenak about "Black Fridge Area." What we learned may shock you.
We're bummed that it took us until this far down the road to realize that the title of Geromimo!'s demo cassette series 
After Mary Timony spent decades dabbling in ass-kicking renaissance-influenced math rock, who knew she had it in her to dream up so many flawless power-pop gems? Did Mary even know? We sometimes get the impression that she doesn't know her own strength. Her latest batch rivals all the giants of late '70s garage and power-pop: The Undertones, Blondie, Joan Jett and Buzzcocks. It's been years since THIS kind of album has sounded THIS good. Track 1, Side 1. Start with the big hit. "Like Motown used to do." (Wasn't that in the liner-notes for 
"What's that one that's like 'Bang Clang Pow?'" "Boom Clap" initially felt lost in the haze of faceless summer hits not long after it got linked into the promotion for 
It might not be fair to tag "Special Snowflakes" as Pile's "Stairway to Heaven." We'll instead reserve that honor for 
We’ve given up hope for a Neptunes-resurgence despite their continuing appearances in our Hot Mixes over the years. (“Trouble On My Mind” in 2011, “Fun Fun Fun” in 2010, “I’m Good” in 2009, “Us Placers” in 2007, Hell Hath No Fury in 2006, and various appearances from every year prior. The only year they missed completely was 2008, which is better than a lot of other people can say.) For this reason, we were happy to learn that Pharrell is partially responsible for the early-80’s Stevie Wonder homage “Sweet Life” (acting as a companion-song to “Super Rich Kids,” the song that follows on Channel Orange) divulging the blinding effects of materialism to someone unreachable. “Why see the world when you’ve got the beach?” 
“Claustrophobic” is probably the best term to describe Beak>’s sophomore release which arrived on Bandcamp unexpectedly in late-June. Their first record is one of our favorite albums of the past decade, and we always assumed they were a one-off project. So it became a total surprise when this immediately turned into (possibly) our favorite full-length of 2012. It’s truly the best kraut-influenced record since the early-70’s spawned all of Can, Neu! and Faust’s best full-lengths. “Liar” sounds like it could be used during a Sesame Street segment demonstrating the process of some sort of bizarre factory-produced item, like Halloween masks or something. 
Yet another 7/8 jam. (Animal Collective’s “Moonjock” is also in a much slower 7/8. Could this be our official time signature of the year? Both songs use it with a similar cadence to Radiohead’s “2+2=5” and one section of Tool’s “Forty Six & 2” but that’s just music nerd shit that literally no one ever cares to hear and so we’ll move on...) One of Pile’s signature strengths lie in their ability to build tension through enormous dynamic changes. However, “Grunt like a Pig” immediately stood-out for us as NOT using this motif, instead plowing through the muck and filth with some serious-ass fire power for the entirety of its 3 minutes with crucial buried scream-vocals tremendously benefitting. Gimme tension fuck yes. 
2012 marked the 10th anniversary of Kylie Minogue's Fever LP (or 11th anniversary depending on your country). We hear “This Kiss” as a proper tribute to this album, specifically its classic “Love At First Sight” (also ripped off more recently by Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” and Katy Perry’s “California Gurls”). While the chorus isn’t as huge as “Call Me Maybe,” “This Kiss” feels like a more fully realized single, less labored and more carefree. (The kids disagreed, and this only reached #87, but what the fuck do they know anyway?) 
Comparing 17-year-old rappers who broke in 2012: Chief Keef embraces abrasive, harsh club-elements and his singles have been described as “earworms” when they’re actually not. As for Joey Bada$$, we don’t really see anything wrong with preferring warmer production, inspired jazz and funk samples, and rappers who can actually rap. There’s an abundance of unfortunate hiphop fans who take it personally when the sound of the radio moves farther from where it was in 1994, which is not really our stance. But hopefully these people finally got what they wanted with Joey Bada$$’s 1999 (probably the most solid 90's-influenced rap album of the past 10 years) even though it has no shot of ever getting played on commercial radio. 
The same general theme of so many pop songs throughout history, it’s likely to never get old. Searching for fulfillment, wondering if it’s possible. “Maybe I’m out of luck, maybe it’s running still.” Mac Demarco’s first album Rock & Roll Nightclub from early 2012 was full of warped jams like “Baby’s Wearing Blue Jeans,” setting a neutralizing tone and helping to define his placement among singer-songwriters working strictly with home-recording technology. When “Dreaming” appeared early on his second higher-profile release only months later, the progression was obvious: Instead of more expensive methods of recording, the subject matter was suddenly deeper, without tongue-in-cheek sarcasm or (noticeable) tape manipulation. We still love his first LP, but 2 will likely be placing in our 10 favorite LP’s from 2012 (which may come as a surprise since we’re bigger fans of Ween’s pre-Chocolate & Cheese-era). 
Let’s all fully understand how fortunate we are to be alive during the era of the greatest fat ginger rapper of all time. We give much mad props to Action Bronson for completely not giving a fuck, straight-up candy-gobbling and blunt-puffing in his videos. That’s some #yolo shit right there. The bass sample inserted by Party Supplies is a big part of what pushed “Steve Wynn” into our 2012 favorites. This is the one where the music pauses for the line “long as she got big nipples and a tan face.” Well done, sir. 
Outside of the context of good kid, M.A.A.D. city, this song could work well as the “trailer” to Kendrick’s “short film” (described on the album cover). It's split into four parts: 
What’s the word everyone used to describe this song? Oh yeah, “languid.” Cool word, not. How about "fucking hilarious?" Do you like that word? The first line of the song is "Let me see them tittayys." Yeah, something suggests this song wasn't really meant to be taken as seriously as his previous stuff, despite the detailed soulful and subdued Atlanta-style instrumentation. Overall, we found the three bonus tracks far more satisfying than the album itself. Maybe he should stick closer to ATL-soul and steer clear of fusions with modern indie-rock, a style which sounds best separated from hiphop. His efforts seem well-intentioned, but not anything we were interested in hearing more than once, whereas “She Said OK” is the type of song we’ll always welcome. Also we've been informed that a Family Guy joke is referenced somewhere in the lyrics, but it didn’t register for us since we don’t watch that crap. We’re hoping Outkast have been storing up amazing songs for the past 9 years, anticipating the moment when their legal obligations finally allow them to work as a unit once again. We’ve been waiting forever. The kids need Outkast. They really do. 
We were ready to label the recent Barlow contribution “Rude” as the most Sebadoh-sounding Dinosaur Jr song since “Poledo,” but then we remembered Without A Sound which included a few Mascis-penned vocal melodies (including big hits “Feel The Pain” and “I Don’t Think So”) which felt somewhat congruent with Barlow’s writing style, helping to place “Rude” in a different light. It’s one of the biggest reminders since their 2006 reformation of how well J and Lou complement each other, while also displaying their differences in execution. Mascis does not typically lean towards “Rude’s” pop-formula-brevity (similar to 60’s-Britpop style) or drastic emotional contradictions, such as bleak lyrics (“It’s better for my health / If I don’t intrude / ‘Cause caring is rude / Nature is crude”) juxtaposed by a melodic major-key vocal melody and uptempo happy-sounding accompaniment. Halfway through, Mascis supplies a vital 8-bar solo, obliging the song’s “fake smile and pretend” theme for just a moment. The song easily places alongside “Poledo” and “Take a Run at the Sun” as one of Dinosaur Jr's most noteworthy anomalies and a standout amongst their reunion material. 