Musical moments of 2012: Critics pick their guilty pleasure tunes

As 2012 winds down, we remember the musical moments we’re not ashamed to say that we loved

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      Danny Brown
      “Grown Up” 
      After the success of this Detroit-based rapper’s break-out album XXX, Danny Brown has rocketed to stardom. Although his songs are great, it’s more his persona—that infectious, insane laugh—that has taken him to the top. “Grown Up” was a single he dropped this year in collaboration with Scion AV. Peep that chorus. So good.

      "Grown Up" by Danny Brown.

      Taylor Swift 
      “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” 
      This kind of digitally buffed overproduction is killing music like CGI is wrecking the movies, but when Taylor Swift bitch-slaps her ex over his cooler-than-thou taste in music, she delivers the single best and most honest lyrical hook of the entire year.

      "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift.

      Adele
      “Skyfall”
      Professing to like any James Bond movie theme song is inherently embarrassing. No matter how good it seemed when it came out, each one of them has become something dated or kitschy with the passage of time. Sure, Shirley Bassey hammily shouting her way through “Goldfinger” is still amusing almost five decades later, and Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die” is a bona-fide classic, but when was the last time you felt compelled to listen to a-ha’s “The Living Daylights” or Madonna’s “Die Another Day”? Nevertheless, Adele sings the shit out of “Skyfall”, and that alone makes it worth a listen. But only when no one’s watching, so you can point your index finger like a Walther PPK and strike 007 poses in front of your bedroom mirror.

      "Skyfall" by Adele.

      ZZ Top
      “I Gotsta Get Paid”
      A great ZZ Top song! In 2012, no less! And the best thing about it is that all those rednecks thrilling to the Reverend Billy Gibbons’ infectious guitar riff have no idea that the song is based on “25 Lighters”, a screwed-and-chopped classic from Houston’s underground hip-hop scene.

      "I Gotsta Get Paid" by ZZ Top.

      Diamond Rings
      “Runaway Love” 
      On Diamond Rings’ sophomore album, Free Dimensional, the Canadian indie-pop prince moved into guilty-pleasure territory with Britney Spears–esque dance tracks and cheesy ’80s throwbacks. Still, it’s hard to resist a melody as sticky-sweet as the one in “Runaway Love”, a punchy new-wave anthem with a cartoon heart and ridiculous lyrics like “When I’m with you all the skies have rainbows.” Aww.

      "Runaway Love" by Diamond Rings.

      Kreayshawn

      “Left Ey3”
      Diminutive Oakland MC Kreayshawn is a lot of things, including epically obnoxious, trashier than an East Side dollar store, and the most shameless black-culture appropriator since Vanilla Ice. But—sorry, haters—she can also be a shitload of brainless fun, as proven on this crunk-jacked ode to late TLC singer Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. Who cares if Kreayshawn looks like a mentally challenged Mount Pleasant librarian—the important thing is that she actually makes you want to grab the gas can when she slurs “Caught my man cheating on me rolling through the west side/’Bout to burn this fucking house down like I’m Left Eye.”

      "Left Ey3" by Kreayshawn. 

      Comments

      1 Comments

      the rev

      Dec 28, 2012 at 3:35am

      danny brown is a guilty pleasure? whoever wrote that needs to die.