poptimists | Poptimists Tracks Of 2008 PART FIVE

Here it is! The ten best tracks of 2008 according to YOUR votes.

10. MJ HIBBETT AND THE VALIDATORS - "It Only Works Because You're Here" (28 points)

I'll let the voters go into more detail on this one, I think.

9. ADDICTIVE ft T2 - "Gonna Be Mine" (29 points)

Mariachi bassline explosion! 2008's most unjust non-hit gets its due.

8. LIL WAYNE - "A Milli" (30 points)

Hip-hop's biggest crossover ripples through to Poptimists.

7. CASSIE ft LIL WAYNE - "Official Girl" (33 points)

That rarest of things, an actual Cassie release!

6. MGMT - "Time To Pretend" (40 points)

MGMT are too hip for embeds. Their other hits picked up a vote each too.

5. SANTOGOLD - "L.E.S. Artistes" (45 points)

A handful of these points were for the XXXChange remix (which is also very good). Santogold. A horse. Rum goings-on.

4. GOLDFRAPP - "A&E" (47 points)

Alison G. cavorts with some leafy otherkin. Benefitted from a late flurry of votes.

3. WILEY - "Wearing My Rolex" (78 points)

featuring N London dance troupe the River Fleet Foxes.

2. JORDIN SPARKS AND CHRIS BROWN - "No Air" (94 points)

The runaway early leader, then flagged a bit in late voting.

1. ESTELLE ft KANYE WEST - "American Boy" (113 points)

"Who killin them in the UK? Everybody gonna say you, K" - it is impossible to find an actual video for this song on YouTube!

Thanks to all who voted - tomorrow I'll put up the full list and appendix (every song mentioned). Now let the debate begin!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I like most of these, voted for none. "L.E.S. Artistes" was my number 25 (and the Santogold/Diplo remix of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Posse On Broadway" was a near miss at number 11, and their mashup of Amanda Blank's version of LL's "I Need Love" and Santogold's "I'm A Lady" was number 13), "No Air" would have been top eighty (I'm not saying that sarcastically; top eighty is a good score). I was considering "Gonna Be Mine" as 2007 (and anyway, I forgot about it). "A Milli" was only my third favorite on Tha Carter III, after "3 Peat" and "Shoot Me Down." Estelle is someone I haven't given much attention to, but from what I've heard I think I way prefer some of her other stuff to "American Boy," which has too much of modern blah classiness for me.

Seven of my choices got into the top fifty, which astonishes me and is only owing to Xhuxk's loving Daveigh Chase's "Happiest Girl In The Whole USA" and María Daniela Y Sonido Lasser's "Duri Duri."

i'm impressed that the Santo/Diplo mixtape got three tracks in your top 25, frank. i was pretty underwhelmed by it myself, though you're making we want to go relisten... the "posse" mix is only a minute long!

a year of hearing it everywhere and i still can't get over "american boy" being a blatant recycling of will.i.am's "impatient" from his (totally unfairly overlooked) songs about girls from '07. not sure why that should matter so much but it's really prevented me from getting into the song. though i guess kanye's presence doesn't help too much, despite his cleverness. oh well.

yay for "no air" though.

Actually, I don't like the Santo/Diplo mixtape that much. I like a lot of the song choices ("Sonic Reducer"!) but found them often mashed together for dissonance, with a wearying result. I kept trying to brush away the extra dirt. But "I Need Love" and "Posse," back to back, are beautiful, and the transition where Mix-A-Lot's glowering boasts impinge on Santogold's haunting "oh... oh... oh... oh..." is one of my great intense moments of the year.

The I need love / I'm a Lady mashup is brilliant, easily the highlight of that mixtape, i just wish it was longer!

Poptimists Tracks Of 2008 PART FIVE

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