Twostepcub's Best of 2012: Part Five - #60-#51...

Well, the world is still here, so I'm back with another ten of the biggest hits of 2012 on my personal chart. You can also check out part one, part two, part three and part four if you haven't already, and I've included links to buy anything on Amazon mp3...

#60 - Matt Nathanson featuring Sugarland - "Run"
         from the album Modern Love (2011)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #16 (one week)
         Weeks in the chart: 18

Matt's Modern Love is a wonderful little gem of an adult-pop album, and the first single from it, "Faster", made my top-100 last year. Now the third, with country duo Sugarland in tow, did even better this year, with elements from contemporary country and singer/songwriter pop to a duet that doesn't seem forced at all, and Jennifer Nettles' voice makes everything 10 times better. It doesn't hurt that Matt's quite the looker as well...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


#59 - Young The Giant - "Cough Syrup"
          from the album Young The Giant (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #12 (four weeks)
          Weeks in the chart: 18 (in 2012)

The California rock outfit's song about escaping the boredom of suburban life was transformed into something completely different with Glee covering it in its most tear-inducing episode as the backdrop to closeted former bully Karofsky getting harrassed to the point of his own suicide attempt.

#58 - LMFAO - "Sexy & I Know It"
         from the album Sorry For Party Rocking (2011)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #2 (two weeks)
         Weeks in the chart: 17 (in 2012)

The uncle-nephew act that gave the world its second huge comedy-dance anthem made a hit so huge my 8 year old niece couldn't stop singing it. Whether that's good or not is a whole different question. But consider this the self-deprecating "I'm Too Sexy" for this generation (or "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" for two generations ago)...

#57 - Green Day - "Oh Love"
          from the album ¡Uno! (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #3 (two weeks)
          Weeks in the chart: 16

Some critics derided the current kings of mainstream punk (anomaly?) for releasing an ambitious set of three albums in three months time. But this no-pretenses balls-on rock stomp went right to the top of the rock chart, and proved they can still excel without a concept-album backdrop.

#56 - Christina Perri - "A Thousand Years"
          from the album Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 1 (Original Soundtrack)     (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #24 (two weeks)
          Weeks in the chart: 21 (in 2012)

Philly-area singer/songwriter proved that "Jar Of Hearts" was no fluke with this delicate yet soaring love theme from the fourth movie in the Twilight series. It makes immortality seem romantic, though how you could pick Robert Pattinson over Taylor Lautner is beyond me. But I'm a sucker for a 3/4 time song on pop radio.

#55 - Carrie Underwood - "Good Girl"
          from the album Blown Away (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #7 (two weeks)
          Weeks in the chart: 19

Carrie takes another page from the Shania playbook with this crossover country track, but she's one the very few with the pipes that can carry the notes and lightning fast delivery of this tornado of a girl-talk song with the ease that she does.

#54 - Philip Phillips - "Home"
         from the album The World From The Side Of The Moon (2012)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #15 (two weeks in 2012)
         Weeks in the chart: 24 (in 2012)

We go from the winner of season four (Carrie) to season eleven (Philip) of American Idol, a show I have absolutely no interest in anymore, but I have to give some props to whatever team gave Phillips the anti-Idol tune as his "winner's song", working on a template of half Mumford & Sons, half Coldplay, that just kept going and going until radio finally embraced the record probably from exhaustion. Of course, the singer has vacillated from disavowing the song as forced upon him to probably shutting up once the checks started coming in. I understand, it took me a while (and distance from the show) to warm up to the little song that could.


#53 - Zedd featuring Matthew Koma - "Spectrum"
         from the album Clarity (2012)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #13 (one weeks)
         Weeks in the chart: 22

Russian-born EDM producer Anton Zaslavski, who records under the moniker Zedd, and he had one of the biggest dance tracks out there not by an A-lister by combining Alan Parsons Project-like vocals by American Matthew Koma with an onslaught of power chords and the video that seems like the hottest episode of the X-Files ever.

#52 - Katy Perry - "The One That Got Away"
         from the album Teenage Dream (2010)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #3 (two weeks)
         Weeks in the chart: 16 (in 2012)

Billboard magazine's endless comparing of Katy's album to Michael Jackson's Bad was tireless, but not totally without merit, since as opposed to MJ's Thriller's organic mega-success, her latest (and its revamped reissue) was planned, scripted, and completely crowd-tested for success. That doesn't make it bad, it makes it product, but good product. And the sixth single from the set proved that Katy can do some great music video acting. And the pop chops of this song cannot be denied, with another subtle hooks underneath to imprint in your brain like a werewolf in Twilight.

#51 - Gavin DeGraw - "Not Over You" 
          from the album Sweeter (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #2 (two weeks)
          Weeks in the chart: 15

In 2012 Gavin went from "the guy who sang the One Tree Hill song" to "the singer guy on Dancing With The Stars". Concurrently, his best song yet, which was my #38 song in 2011, hung around long enough to land on this year's list as well. The dichotomous rhythm pattern on the song is not only sonically interesting, but also appropriate for the separate lives detailed in the song.

That will do it for now....we're at the halfway mark....and I'll be back Monday with #50 through #41, including another Twilight song, a recently passed soul star leaves a legacy, and Billboard magazine's most ridiculous chart policy change ever.

But tonight I'll bring you this week's Top-100 Twostepcubchart...see you then!