VMA's are early this year!

It is the beginning of a brand new year, and in the grand tradition of my fellow blogger Geoff, I am going to start it off right by sharing some of the best songs of the prior year! That's 2010, folks. Your time is valuable, and I'm not exactly on top of the music scene, so I'll limit my selections to the top three. That's about as many new songs as I take notice of in a given year anyway. Welcome to the VMA's (Valerie Music Awards)

Third place: "We No Speak Americano," by Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP

Halloween this year kinda sucked. I had a not-too-fun choir concert at which the zipper on my skirt broke, and I only made it to the Halloween party after all my friends had left. Its one high point was when, on my way to the party, I heard this song playing on the radio for the first time. As soon as I got home, I feverishly searched the Internet for the only lyric I remembered: "Americano." Obviously, the song was more popular than I imagined, as, even with that meager input, it was one of the first results on Google. Sifting through several YouTube versions and finally posting one on Facebook kept me up til almost 2a.m.—and it's not for just any old song that I'll stay awake that far past my bedtime! My taste for dance tracks and music that sounds like it's being played backward made "Americano" a shoo-in for one of my favorite songs of the year. Unfortunately, it only made third place due to the fact that it's not really my style. Not quite enough beats per minute to keep my attention very long once the novelty wears off.

Second Place: The TRON: Legacy soundrack, by Daft Punk

Is it cheating to pick a whole album as one of your favorite songs of the year? Because almost every song on this soundtrack is digital awesome! Dramatic classical music of the sort you hear on every fantasy soundtrack, combined with synthy melodic basslines and blips and bleeps galore! Yum! But if I had to choose just a few must-downloads, I'd tell you to definitely not miss "The Grid," "The Son of Flynn" and "Derezzed," which is the song that you'll hear if you click the link.

First Place: "Break Your Heart," by Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris

Considering all the breaking of hearts that goes on in Valerie-Land, it's no surprise that the Grand Prize Winner of this year's VMA's goes to a song about that very subject. It's also no surprise that the chosen song happens to be extraordinarily danceable. Without the beat and the super-fabulous synthesized background music, this song would be totally unremarkable. But add those things plus the delightful interjections by Ludacris and you've got a real winner! Normally rap goes in one of my ears and out the other, but the priceless gem, "I may break your heart, but I don't really think there's anybody as bomb as me" has introduced me to my new favorite adjective! And then there's the part about how he's gonna "shatter and splatter it all into little bitty pieces!" Took me weeks to learn to say that line, but learn it I did, and now I can sing along while I dance to the song. And I do. At work. My coworkers watch me and laugh.

Nonqualifiers

Since I'm always a little bit behind the times on most things, it's often years after its release that I learn about a song I absolutely fall in love with. Two of these shall be presented today.

One, I only missed by a year. It's Andy Moore and Ashley Wallbridge's "Faces."
The other is an older remix of a video game song called "Dreaming on Distant Shores" by the artist known as Rellik. Both of these are archetypal trance pieces that you'll love if you love trance.

Until next year...
Or until the next time I get the urge to gush about some disco-fabulous song I found...
Valerie signing out.