Fave Songs of 2011

Like last year, I've put together a list of songs that were the forty best in my mind. This has nothing to do with how good I thought the song actually was, just hope much I personally liked it. Therefore I might have given a song a negative review, but it might still appear on the list because I liked hearing it. I tried to stick with songs that belonged in 2011, so "Rocketeer" and "More" might have made it on the list, but they were already gaining attention in 2010. I'm saving songs like "Helena Beat" and "Turn Me On" for 2012 since I haven't had the full chance to appreciate them. So here it is, starting at forty and with one being the highest.

40. Papi
-Jennifer Lopez-

39. Blackout
-Breathe Carolina-

38.Don't Hold Your Breath
-Nicole Scherzinger-

37. Right There
-Nicole Scherzinger-

36. Neon Black
-Candy Coated Killahz-

35. Free
-Natalia Kills and Will. I. Am-

34. You Make Me Feel
-Cobra Starship and Sabi-

33. Set U Free
-Keshia Chante-

32. Never Say Never
-Justin Bieber and Jayden Smith-

31. Wait Till You See My Smile
-Alicia Keys-

30. Moment 4 Life
-Nicki Minaj and Drake-

29. Skyscraper
-Demi Lovato-

28. 123
-Craig Smart-

27. It Girl
-Jason Derulo-

26. Let's Play
-Kristina Maria-

25. Mean
-Taylor Swift-

24. ET
-Katy Perry-

23. Yeah 3X
-Chris Brown-

22. Call me Maybe
-Carly Rae Jepsen-

21. Judas
-Lady Gaga-

20. The One That Got Away
-Katy Perry-

19. When We Stand Together
-Nickelback-

18. Where Them Girls At
-David Guetta, Flo Rida, and Nicki Minaj-

17. Perfect
-P!nk-

16. Merry Go Round
-Suzie McNeil-

15. Wonderland
-Natalia Kills-

14. Tonight
-Enrique Iglesias and Ludacris-

13. I Wanna Go
-Britney Spears-

12. Higher
-Taio Cruz and Kylie Minogue-

11. Drama Queen
-Suzie McNeil-

10. Jar of Hearts
-Christina Perri-

9. California King Bed
-Rihanna-

8. Give Me Everything
-Pitbull, Ne-Yo, Nayer, and Afrojack

7. Just Can't Get Enough
-Black Eyed Peas-

6. Good Life
-OneRepublic-

5. What the Hell
-Avril Lavigne-

4. Mirrors
-Natalia Kills-

3. Coming Home
-Diddiy-Dirty Money and Skylar Grey-

2. Price Tag
-Jessie J and B.o.B-

1. Set Fire to the Rain
-Adele-

David Guetta - Turn Me On

David Guetta has thankfully left behind whatever "Without U" was and has returned to his usual dance style. "Turn Me On" is familiar turf, but it's a nice reminder that David Guetta isn't completely boring now.

The real star of this song, though, is Nicki Minaj. Just when she started to get stale with her style, she's shows off a completely different side of her. There is minimal rap in this song and instead she just autotune sings through most it. It shows that while Nicki's heart may be in rap, she can still change up when she needs to. This new style adds interest back into Nicki's voice. She sounds similar to Rihanna, and the song overall is very similar to "S&M." The blaring chorus, the sliding verses, the pounding repetition of the same phrase over and over again; it's all the same thing. However it's still just unique enough to be its own song and is still very catchy. And that's not all, while Nicki is mostly singing, she throws in one of her signature rap verses, and it's one of her better ones.

Lyrically I'm a little confused. Are they comparing a lover to a doctor? I'm not going to bother thinking about it, since it's a dance track. I'm happy to just bounce along with it, even if it doesn't make sense. It's not the first time that dance songs have abandoned sensical lyrics for just a catchy sound; and at least it's mostly actual words.

Overall it's a good revitalizer for both David Guetta and Nicki Minaj. Hopefully we'll stop hearing the boring "Without U" and "Fly" in exchange for this much more exciting song. The lyrics are the only weak point, but that's easy to ignore when it's such a great dance song.

Javier Colon - As Long as We Got Love

The X Factor is wrapping up, but The Voice will be returning in no time. Javier was a strong winner last season and he proves his place with this new single. Javier manages to find the perfect balance between his own identity and what's popular right now.

The song is immediately catchy, but builds into a nice pounding chorus. It's not quite dance, but will still get you moving. Javier stays true to his sound, while delivering a more pop piece. The addition of Natasha Bedingfield also really helps. This isn't one of those pointless collaborations that they just threw on to get attention; she actually does contribute and improve the song. With her voice it adds another side of the love song with a boy and girl together.

The lyrics are simple, but they have meaning to them. A lot of the lyrics are very cute and loving. Again, the song is delivered in an honest manner and I believe that emotion was put behind these words.

This song should remind people why Javier won The Voice. He's giving people what they want, but not losing his own personality. The song contains meaning and the Javier Colon voice. The music industry really needs more male singers right now, since there is an abundance of females dominating right now and not nearly enough competent males. Hopefully this song will make an impact and Javier will enter the music world again.

Nicole Scherzinger - Pretty

The last elimination episode on X Factor was pretty pointless, I don't think there was any doubt that Marcus Canty would be going home after being in the bottom two three times. But we did get some nice surprises from the guest performers; particularly judge, Nicole Scherzinger.

We've all heard songs about how looks aren't everything and we've all heard break-up songs, but this took both of those ideas and really turned it into something else. "Pretty" gives us a new look at a relationship where the man only tells the woman that she's pretty. Nicole then puts a spin on the word singing how she's, "pretty messed up and pretty upset." It drives a strong message and is something unique. Overall the lyrics are very good.

Nicole's voice also carried a lot of heart in it. She's been doing a lot of pop/dance lately, but this took on something different. She didn't sound so much like Rihanna as she sounded like P!nk this time. She really put soul and emotion into singing an emotional song. It came off as powerful and definitely made the song even stronger. Her vocal abilities weren't the best, but this is a live performance. When the actual single comes out I'm sure it will have cleaner vocals and help perfect the song.

This is a step in right direction for Nicole, her pop songs have been doing average right now. By doing something more Adele's style she is showing off a different side of her that I think people are really going to like. She's doing something unique and powerful and I think it'll be a hit.

Suzie McNeil - This is Christmas

Remember last year when I posted about Suzie's great Christmas tune, "For Christmas Time?" Well, history is repeat itself since she's back with another great holiday song. Suzie is the kind of singer who relies on the seasonal time since she's so underrated that any other time of the year her awesome songs usually go unnoticed.

"This is Christmas" is a really nice break if you're sick of hearing the same Christmas songs over and over again. There's nothing wrong with "All I Want For Christmas is You," or "White Christmas" but the fact is that all those songs sound the same anyway and since there's so many different versions you'll end up hearing the same stuff a hundred times in one month. But with "This is Christmas" we get to hear something a little different. The song is definitely modern with a pop style to it, but it still keeps the usual message. It's an upbeat tune and uplifting lyrics.

The song starts off a little slow, but builds into a catchy, strong, upbeat chorus. It's bound to get you dancing while make you smile with its happy lyrics. Suzie sings about all the aspects that make up Christmas, snow, family, happiness etc. It's really great to just hear it and think about how happy this time makes you feel. And there's a lot of strength behind the vocals, this isn't some quick cash grab for Christmas, a lot of effort went into making this a good song.

If P!nk or Madonna had song this song it would a major hit, but alas nobody knows who Suzie McNeil is. Maybe people will recognize the talent in this song and give her a chance, but that's probably just me being wishful. Anyways this is an awesome song for the holidays and I hope we hear more from Suzie in 2012.

Adriiana - We Are Young

Adriiana emerged a couple of years ago, but wasn't able to achieve much. Now she's back and is taking up the popular dance style. I've been noticing a lot of Canadian emerging girls doing pretty much the same thing, which is making a dance track by abusing autotune. As a result Anjulie, Victoria Duffield, and now Adriiana all sound pretty much exactly the same.

"We are Young" is really catchy but doesn't offer anything unique. We've been hearing the same thing for a while now, can't people try something just a little different? Having a song that's easy to dance to isn't quite going to cut it if you can't individualize yourself.

I've been trying to stop complaining about lyrics since I've found more and more that they're becoming not as important. However this song doesn't really have much structure to the lyrics at all. She is really all over the place and I have no idea what the song is supposed to be about. She sings "We are young," then "heartache to heartache," and it just goes back and forth like that. Eventually they seemed to realize that they couldn't fit in anymore cliches, as Adriiana then sings a repetition of not real words like "Oh na na na." It's clear that they did not put any effort into thinking of the lyrics and I wouldn't be surprise if it turned out they just wrote down the first couple of sentences that came to mind.

I don't think Adriiana is going to be able to get her breakthrough this time. It might be a good dance song, but it'll be forgot and replaced by the next autotuned song next year. Hopefully we'll be able to see some different things from emerging artists soon since this is really getting boring.

Justin Bieber - Mistletoe

Christmas is just around the corner, so let's start with a new Christmas tune. True, it's been out for a little while now, but I feels more appropriate to talk about when Christmas is actually in season. I've never really liked Justin Bieber, and not because I'm a hater, just because his music has a lot of problems. It can be boring, annoying, or in this case, both.

There are some words that just don't sound right when a seventeen year old white kid with a girly voice says; like "shawty" and "Imma Be." Who does he think he is that he can use words that belong to a completely different genre? Not to mention this is a Christmas song, it really breaks the traditional feel when you use words like that in a Christmas song.

But if that was the only problem I could easily forgive it; it's not. The song is incredibly slow and doesn't go anywhere. I know that for Christmas tunes this is sometimes in style, but it doesn't work with this song. The words don't carry a strong enough meaning, and with the slow pace there's no reason why I would want to listen to this song.

Furthermore, I really can't see what he's getting at with the lyrics. He talks about all the things that he should be doing, like playing in the snow and spending time with his family, you know, what Christmas is all about. But I said should, instead he's kissing his shawty. So after we get a million "with you"'s you're going to be bored and confused. Bored because the same thing over again tends to do that, and confused because why is he talking about not doing traditional Christmas activities, but instead kissing a girl who he could kiss on any other day of the year.

Yeah this song doesn't really work for me as a Christmas song; it just doesn't fit with the mood. If he picked up the pace and changed the Christmas theme it might serve as a regular single, but it's too late now. Bieber has yet to really have a smash hit, and I don't think he'll be getting one soon.