Radio V2.0's 2006 Year-End Countdown

My internet was down a few days, but now we're back to business. We're going to forge ahead by looking back at 2006 with the annual Radio V2.0 year-end Top 20 singles list.

**Disclaimer** Songs NEVER make the list for being cool, sometimes a cool song makes it, but we're not looking for blogger props here, just saying, this is what we liked, check it out if you think we're on the same wavelength, that's all.

Songs DO make the year-end Top 20 for sounding as good to me at the end of the year as they did the first time I heard them. In other words, hipsters beware: TV On The Radio will not be on this list.

Without further justifying, here's the Top 20:

20. Mobile - Out Of My Head (Interscope Canada) - Montreal's Mobile unleashed a full-fledged stormer of a dance/rock track this summer with "Out Of My Head." The searing guitar riff is almost as hot as the big, sticky chorus. Playing both sides of the pop/rock divide the guys keeps the record cool enough to keep you interested, and hot enough to make you surrender to the sound unconditionally. Check it out.

19. K-Os - Sunday Morning (Virgin Canada) - In a land far away, in a time long ago, R&B music wasn't afraid of tempo. People didn't just nod their heads, they danced. In that world, this Canadian rapper's single (which recalls Kenna's deplorably underpromoted New Sacred Cow in all the best possible ways) would have been a massive hit. Either way, it's all big-beat drums, an almost too-cool for the room verse, a made for NFL-highlights chorus ("Every day is Saturday night, but I can't wait for Sunday morning"), and frankly, it should own any dancefloor that it graces. Strangely enough, this year, it was just barely the second hottest record by Canadian act last year.

18. Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On (Universal UK) - While first single "I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor" set the stage for their breakthrough (which never really happened stateside anyway), it was this late-summer single about the moments leading to the "walk of shame" that proved emphatically that the Arctic Monkeys, fat drummer or no fat drummer, were here to stay. The best part about this band's success is that their songwriting chops are so strong no one has yet dared unleash a soundalike project.


17. The Streets ft. Pete Doherty - Prangin' Out (679/Vice UK) - Two guys who obviously know a lot about a bit of blow team up on one of the realest rap singles in a moon or two. Free of gimmicks, ego and zircon-crusted artifice, The Streets, long heralded as the Great British Hope in the hip-hop world finally delivers on the hype. He turns the genre on its ear filling the wax with frailties instead of bravado and has the bookie's odds-on favorite for the next celebrity OD in tow for good measure. Eminem and Elton, this is not.


16. The Kooks - Naive (Virgin UK) - When rock decided to go whole hog for the cool factor, it lost a bit of soul, a bit of pure songcraft, and a lot of what makes music click to begin with. The Kooks eschew any pretense here, and we love them for it. It's a simple equation musically, guitar, drum, bass and a hook-heavy emotive vocal. Sonically, it's the love child of the Beatles and Jack Johnson. Lovely, carefree Brit-rock.


15. Justin Timberlake ft. T.I. - My Love (Jive USA) - Justin's second solo album is a single factory as this taut, space-age, hip-pop jam proved. A man who is finding it tough to make a misstep right now, brought SexyBack and then flipped to Love with equal aplomb. JT managed to deliver a home run of a single that sounds at once different from the rest of the airwaves and exactly like the best R&B you've heard in years. Give Timbaland the credit if it makes you feel better, but you don't need a guitar to be an artist.


14. Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Oooh (Fascination/Polydor UK) - Well, this is a cred killer. A single by a group of British talent show winners that were essentially manufactured to fill the hole in the market left by the Spice Girls...oy vey! The fact that it's listed at all says how undeniably brilliant a pop song this is. This single, Girls Aloud's 13th UK Top 10 hit by the way, is grimy electro-synth pop at its best. Resisting the urge pop often has to go sickeningly sweet, the five vocalists snarl, stomp and shoot the aural equivalent of bitchy/come-hither looks across the dancefloor for 3½ minutes. Let's just say if Britney Spears dared to return with something this hot, we'd forget all about that night out with Paris.



13. Editors - Munich (Kitchenware UK) - With spiraling, towering guitars, a paradoxically passionate, yet deadpan vocal and enough juice to pack any rock dancefloor, Editors' breakthrough single is the perfect soundtrack for a car chase scene through old Europe. In a year when most dance-rock pioneers traded their dancing shoes for a little more credibility, Editors refined the formula and had it both ways, delivering one of the year's most exciting singles in the process.

12. The Feeling - Sewn (Island UK) - The Feeling came seemingly out of nowhere and were immediately heralded as the crusaders behind a 70s AM-radio pop revival. Their debut single "Sewn" was a welcome breath of fresh air in the world of overproduced, dying-to-be-cool, mediocre hip-hop singles dominating radio over the past couple years. The backing vocals are like a gentle ocean tide pulling in and out as the lead vocal and guitar work their way to a controlled, yet energetic climax. Sounding not entirely dissimilar to peak-form Keane or Athlete, this was a gem that should have popped up on more radar screens.


11. Rihanna - S.O.S. (Def Jam USA) - With a paean to the 80s a seeming prerequisite for every pop album, Rihanna upped the ante with her finest single by a mile, the saucy "S.O.S." The girl manages to squeeze every ounce of pop genius out of that Soft Cell sample, and then actually putting a stormer of a song and vocal on top of it, where so many of her contemporaries would've lazily cooed along and let the sample do all the work. Probably the best single of the summer and now a huge hit in its own right.



10. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat (Konichiwa Sweden) - Fast becoming one of my favorite artists, this is the same Swedish singer who had a US top ten hit with "Do You Know (What It Takes)" a decade ago. Since then, she has blazed her own trail, keeping the fires burning in Europe. This single, to be officially released in '07, but on the web for months already is a classic "long past the breakup, but you're still on my mind" track. Slow-burning, slightly claustrophobic electro pop dominated by anxious synths, string flourishes and an expertly-delivered vocal, "With Every Heartbeat" could as easily be the song that gives Robyn a chance to prove that initial flush of fame was no fluke a'tall.

9. Tracey Thorn - It's All True (Virgin UK) - Though "It's All True" isn't scheduled to be released until 2007, considering it's been all over the blogosphere since November, it makes my 2006 list. It's the return of the voice that launched a thousand ships, the singer of Everything But The Girl's house classic "Missing" and Massive Attack's genre-defining "Protection." Here she returns as a solo artist with a true love letter to the 80s. All authentic sounding synths, drum machines and that voice sounding more ebullient than we've heard her in years--perhaps ever, it's hard not to hit repeat on this one. Lyrically, Tracey's on peak form, as she is vocally, look for this HIGHLY anticipated solo project to launch in February.

8. Orson - "No Tomorrow" (Universal UK) - California band goes to the UK, gets a record deal, releases as quintessential a sun-drenched, Pacific Coast Highway single as there ever was, and goes straight to No. 1 in the perhaps greyest country on the planet. "No Tomorrow" is that "best Saturday night we've ever had" song, all fuzzy guitars, wailing harmonies and (presumably) beer-fueled guitar-pop optimism, and we love it. In fact, it is the natural successor to New Radicals' 1997 classic "You Get What You Give" and considering that track's a Radio V Classic, I can give Orson no higher compliment.

7. Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On (EMI UK) - Sneaking in the side door with a jazz-inflected soul voice, a groove as languid as a springtime Sunday afternoon and a song that roots itself in your brain and refuses to let go, Corinne Bailey Rae's single was one of the most pleasant surprises in 2006. As chill as ice-cold lemonade, but as hot as the burgers on the grill, Corinne's "Records" deserves to be put on over and over and over.

6. Madonna - Jump (Warner Bros. USA) - The powers that be have been trying to pin a sell-by date on the Queen of Pop since the first time she put voice to record. That said, 24 years after her first single, she closes her Confessions era with the vital, and sorely underappreciated "Jump." The bassline might have been stolen from classic Pet Shop Boys, but that's neither here, nor there. Equal parts electrifying and icy-cool, this urgent, pulsating houser is arguably her finest single since "Music," and another entry on an insanely long list of great tracks from the Queen of Pop.

5. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (Downtown/Atlantic USA) - It's hard not to be suspicious of a song that everyone likes, but considering every artist has covered it, every critic has dissected it and no one's found a flaw yet, I'll just say it, "Great record." Thanks to Zane Lowe, I've been hearing this since late 2005, but I'm not sick of it yet. At once languid and manic, Danger & Cee managed to create a record that sounded like a classic the first time you heard it. Frankly, over the last 14 months, it's all but acheived that status.



4. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (Jive USA) - Justin Timberlake may be the next Madonna. With "SexyBack," JT erased the Mousekeeter stint, the boyband, the trashy, superstar ex and the lingering stench of Nipplegate. He simultaneously reinvented himself successfully and raised the bar for pop music all over the course of a 4 minute funk/pop workout that channels Prince so well you'd think his next move would be changing his name to a symbol. While "SexyBack" split popular opinion all year, especially after becoming a pop culture catchphrase (Al Gore, leave Sexy where you found it), it still did what it was supposed to. It proved this guy has the potential to be around for a long, long time. If Alpha Dog is as good as Swept Away, I'll change that opener to Justin Timberlake is the new Madonna.

3. The Killers - When You Were Young (Island USA) - Vegas' greatest export may have returned with a spotty second album, but there's no denying Sam's Town's anthemic first single. This is a glittering, scream-it-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-while-driving-100mph-down-the-highway-in-a-convertible-with-the-state-troopers-chasing piece of 80s-evoking rock n' roll, and who knew that could ever sound so friggin' good. Simply epic.

2. Nelly Furtado - Maneater (Geffen Records Canada) - Timberlake has been hogging the credit, but it was La Furtado's turn at Timbaland's mic that brought the real heat this year. Cribbing the omnipresent drumline sound, adding a zombie chorus and some quasi-ominous synths, if Nelly's like a bird, it's a badass hawk and not some chirping sparrow. "Maneater" not becoming as big as "Promiscuous" was one of the biggest disappointments of the year, because on this club banger, the girl brought the goods

1. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole (Warner Bros. UK) - The greatest rock band on the planet kicked off the international campaign for their latest album Black Holes and Revelations with the hands-down, hottest single of 2006. This 3½ minute groove-laden slice of purely electric, funky, dance-rock is a showcase for Matt Bellamy's shimmering falsetto, a submerged, but potent kick drum and a guitar riff that the Edge would cream himself over.