In my continued
effort to make all SOTO readers hate me, I bring yet another
Top 40 Round Up. It’s a lot like West Campus Round Up,
hopefully with less vomiting. Here are my top three favorite
pop songs making the rounds currently:
:Ellie
Goulding - Lights:
I’ll start off with the most respectable of the list. Leave
it to the British to show us how Top 40 should be done. The
first time I heard this song, I wondered if it was a calmer
Robyn. Goulding has that charmingly ambiguous foreign voice
and the beat is dancey without being overwhelming. It’s a
pleasant party song that could also double as useful in a
late night angst session. All I know is that she’s got me
humming the chorus to myself in awkwardly public places.
:Rihanna
- Where Have You Been?:
Okay, it took a lot of courage to admit to loving this song.
The first few times I heard it, I hated it. Rihanna, ripping
off Johnny Cash? Is this the apocalypse? But then the chorus
comes in, and I just wanna jump up and down and fist pump
... which would probably be decidedly unwelcome in any
establishment that played this song. It gets a little too
intense and almost dub-steppy at points, but as with many a
Rihanna song, her rich vocals save the missteps. And
ultimately, that’s why otherwise mediocre beats and lyrics
become golden in Rihanna’s hands; her voice could be singing
a funeral dirge and I’d probably still jam out on it.
:Maroon
5 - Payphone:
The summer that I was 10 years old, I saw a Maroon 5 music
video and fell hard for Adam Levine. Even after becoming a
hardcore/punk rock lifer, I still have a soft spot for those
songs about Jane. Another impressive vocalist, Levine is
smooth and manages to make Whiz Khalifa seem amateur. While
it’s not my usual club-bumping fare, this song is an easy
afternoon tune to pick up your mood at work or school, or
all those times you imagine Adam Levine is about to pop out
of your computer screen to sing to you personally. Oh,
that’s just me? Cool.
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