Burn Your Hits: Guest List Week: Jamie's Top 50

[Up next on Guest List Week, it's my friend Jamie, who sends me a link to a new and interesting song pretty much every day.]

When Aaron asked if I'd want to throw together my top 50 songs of the year I was excited and terrified. Is opening my list of favorites up for judgment tantamount to a car owner plastering a "Got Nickelback?" sticker on his car, getting a mall kiosk attendant to make a "Chad Kroeger" license plate frame, and waiting in line at the DMV to register for a NCKLBK vanity plate?

If you asked me in 5th grade I'd have filled my mixed tape with my impeccable taste in female vocalists like Toni Braxton, Annie Lennox, Tracy Chapman and Desiree. While I still dig a good vocal and respect an album that can capture my attention from start to finish, my musical tastes are now more analogous to my television habits. I spend a good chunk of time hopping around blogs to find new tracks . . . channel surfing.

Sometimes this develops into shameless full blown obsession (Degrassi = Clock Opera), other times I just want to revisit a certain episode (Walker Texas Ranger "Medieval Crimes" = ANR "It's Around You"). But if I am honest with myself, I end up DVRing the Lifetime Movie Network and "Extreme Couponing" more than a 28 year old should admit. So, similarly, despite my internal claim that each track fills a distinctly different mood and I like ALL music, my musically inclined friends have teased out some common threads in my musical predilections which are pretty apparent in my Top 50 mix. Surprisingly they still let me send them links. So thanks:

-Aaron for making me aware of my unwitting obsession for all songs that involve gratuitous whistling

-Ilana, who was an early victim of my Brit Electro Pop obsession (I subjected her to Track 12: "Sussudio" on my "Best of Phil Collins" CD almost as many times as I forced her to watch "Cable Guy")

-Jason for pointing out that I am sucker for "funky bass"

-Ben and Philippe for continuing to send me some of your favorite off-beat, brooding tracks to tamp my otherwise electro-pop heavy tendencies

SONG OF THE YEAR:

Clock Opera - "Lesson No. 7"

AND 49 OTHER GREAT ONES:

Active Child - "Hanging On"
Alt-J - "Breezeblocks"

AlunaGeorge - "You Know You Like It"

ANR - "It's Around You"