The Best of Twostepcubchart 2011, Part 1....

Hey folks, the new year is only 11 days away, and I'm kicking off the next year with a recap of the 100 biggest songs from my weekly music chart from the last year. Hopefully you might hear something you haven't before, like a country song or a dance song you don't hear on the radio, or maybe something that was so worn out but in retrospect is a pretty damn good song. I guess I've always used the "chart" method to put order in a pretty unordered hobby slash obsession, and thanks to anybody out there reading my blog for hanging in there. Now I've got big plans for next year, getting back to my roots expanding the music part of the blog back to my daily political and cultural rants, but until then, here we go... (I've included the chart peaks both from my blog and my "Bible", Billboard Magazine - by all means visit their website for lots of the best music news and reviews.

100. Billy Currington - Let Me Down Easy (from the CD Enjoy Yourself)

twostepcubchart peak: #28 (2 weeks)
US Country Singles peak: #1 (1 week)
US Hot 100 peak: #46

Ahhh, Billy. Those damn eyes. The country singer/one-time Playgirl model (not full monty, sorry to disappoint y'all) scored his fourth #1 country single in a row with this breezy ballad that was much more pop than twang, though the country shuffle still gives this track its charm. Here's Billy doing the song acoustically (there was no official album cut video), and being sweet as all hell talking about "butt signing requests".




99. Dev - In The Dark (from the upcoming CD The Night The Sun Came Up)

twostepcubchart peak: #20 (3 weeks)
US Hot 100 peak: #11
UK Singles peak: #37
US Dance Club peak: #1 (1 week)
US Dance Airplay peak: #2
Global Dance Tracks peak: #13

Californian Devin Tailes, under the nickname Dev, created quite a buzz supporting the hook for the Asian-American dance-rap collective Far East Movement's #1 hit from last year, "Like A G6". She followed that up with a couple of singles with the producer-rap duo the Cataracs (who also were featured on "Like A G6"). The first, "Bass Down Low" was an underground sleeper hit that actually broke her first in Britain, becoming her first lead-artist top-10 hit. She followed that with "In The Dark", which would not have sounded out of place back in the late 80's early 90's heyday of house music, and between this and Alexandra Stan's "Mr. Saxobeat" (which will be coming up much later) brought the saxophone back to dance music in a big and cool way. The video is totally ambiguously sexual retro 90s style as well...




98. Kylie Minogue - Better Than Today (from the CD Aphrodite)

twostepcubchart peak: #13 (3 weeks)
US Dance Club Play peak: #1 (1 week)
UK Singles peak: #32
Global Dance Tracks peak: #30

I had the great pleasure to hear this, the third single off of Kylie's stellar Aphrodite CD, back last year when she did a mini-tour including New York City (where I caught all three shows). It was a lifelong dream to see her live, and I always imagined that involved schlepping myself to Europe to pay an astronomical price for a arena-style binocular-wearing seat. But as a true gift, she brought her show to the relatively cozy Hammerstein Ballroom, where I was right in front (after waiting for hours to get into the standing-room orchestra). Amongst her greatest tour hits, she previewed this song, written by British ingenue Nerina Pallot, and I immediately fell for it then. She used this and Pallot's title-track song on the CD, and "Better Than Today" became the third of four singles from Aphrodite to hit the top of the US dance club chart (the fourth will be coming up later). Now by all means if you can get yourself to Amazon or the like and buy the DVD or Blu-ray for the tour - it's totally worth it. Two words: Bellagio fountains!




97. Rihanna - California King Bed (from the CD Loud)

twostepcubchart peak: #23 (4 weeks)
US Hot 100 peak: #37
US Dance Club Play peak: #1 (1 week)
UK Singles peak: #8
Global Dance Tracks peak: #23

Rihanna was everywhere this year. She was the most oversaturated artist on the radio, with twelve singles (both under her lead or supporting acts like Nicki Minaj, David Guetta, Kanye West, and Drake). Every time I feel there's gonna be a firehouse-red-hair backlash, her next hit outdoes the last. She has three songs on my top-100, as well as three that just missed (including her current 2sc top-3 "We Found Love", and last year's former #1 "Only Girl (In The World)"). Surprisingly, the Loud power-ballad "California King Bed" didn't find the mass appeal that I figured, given her exposure and her success with songs like that ("Take A Bow"), but the timing as well as two concurrent single promos (along with the darker, tropical "Man Down") hurt the track, however she did manage to extend her #1 dance tally with this song. And her voice doesn't sound better than this on the whole album - she proved she can belt like the best of them.




96. Bleed Red - Ronnie Dunn (from the CD Ronnie Dunn)

twostepcubchart peak: #29 (4 weeks)
US Country Singles peak: #10
US Hot 100 peak: #62

After spending 20 years as the "Hall" of country's "Hall & Oates", Ronnie Dunn parted professional ways with Kix Brooks (who is currently enjoying a stint as country radio's Casey Kasem) to release his first solo album, along with this very Brooks & Dunn-ish ballad that foretold his very Brooks & Dunn-ish CD. Since Kix didn't have a single-release solo in ages, it was only a natural progression.




95. The Zac Brown Band featuring Jimmy Buffett - Knee Deep (from the CD You Get What You Give)

twostepcubchart peak: #14 (2 weeks)
US Country Singles peak: #1 (1 week)
US Hot 100 peak: #18

The rise of the Zac Brown Band defies the logic or corporately-controlled country radio, and is the most positive bellweather for the health of that genre. More a "jam band reigned in" than a true country group, Zac and the boys would've probably found Hootie-like success in the mid-90s, but having their lucky seventh #1 country hit ain't bad either. Even though it mines the same territory as their last-album hit "Toes" (as well as, like, Kenny Chesney's everything right now), it still was a simple, fun respite from the overproduced forced-hick country-rock that Nashville was been churning out lately. Jimmy Buffett is pretty much here for the ride, but it's Zac's voice that carries this.




94. Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly (from the CD Speak Now)

twostepcubchart peak: #20 (1 week)
US Country Singles peak: #1 (1 week)
US Hot 100 peak: #17

As much as Rihanna dominated the radio, Taylor Swift dominated the virtual and real record stores over the last 18 months. Her latest studio work sold over a million copies in its first week, and every one of its tracks (including the originally Target-only exclusives) sold enough to make either the Billboard Hot 100 or Bubbling under chart (which consists of the 25 biggest songs below that haven't hit the Hot 100 yet). Six of those songs were on my chart this year, and three made the year end, including this track which became her first country charttopper since the juggernaut of "You Belong To Me" in 2009.



93. Jennifer Hudson - Where You At (from the CD I Remember Me)

twostepcubchart peak: #10 (1 week)
US R&B Singles peak: #10
US Adult R&B peak: #1 (1 week)
US Hot 100 peak: #64
US Dance Club Play peak: #3
Global Dance Tracks peak: #35

Hudson followed her debut album with a more R&B-flavored sophomore effort, but the lead single still allowed her to push all the diva buttons in both the ballad and remixed versions. The rest of the CD doesn't dish the bombast that this kiss-off track does, and it seemed her weight loss story got more play than her CD release did, but I guess too much may not be a good thing (or could it?)...



92. David Nail - Let It Rain (from the CD The Sound Of A Million Dreams)

twostepcubchart peak: #25 (1 week) (still climbing)
US Country Singles peak: #5 (so far)
US Hot 100 peak: #54 (so far)

One of the couple of songs still climbing up my chart (in its 21st week on mine, 45 on the country chart), singer and quite the handsome Nail scores his biggest hit with this heartbreaker of a cheating man that would've been overblown had it not been for his powerful yet reverently soulful delivery.




91. Lady Antebellum - Hello World (from the CD Need You Now)

twostepcubchart peak: #22 (2 weeks)
US Country Singles peak: #6
US Hot 100 peak: #58

The fourth and final single from LA's Grammy-winning CD, which nabbed them Country Album, as well as all-around Record and Single of the year, "Hello World" showcased the group's sensibilities to its California-style adult-pop most.




That's it for the first bottom ten, next up will see more from four of the artists in this post, as well as a couple hits from a country star from another country. Thanks again for reading, listen and give your thoughts about the artists and songs if you can, it'd be really cool. Ciao!