Best of 2011: Songs from March

In July of 2010, Back Ted n Ted, a solo project by eclectic musician Ryan Green, released "The Mirror," a rather mediocre album of electro-pop.  But right there amongst forgettable songs more fitting to a John Hughes soundtrack than, you know, the twenty-first century, "Lose Control" jumps out at you, surging with adrenaline and catchy hooks.  It's like a five-hour energy drink for your ears-slash-soul.  Sadly, there's not a video for the song, so I'm posting a fan made video full of a curious montage of beautiful women and Conan O'Brien with a watermelon on his stomach.  But, even with the weird images, the lyrics still speak for themselves. Over the synth and the drum machine and the clapping, lines like "Every time I see someone running I think it's you" come through, speaking of that universal, yet unnamed, experience of catching ghostly glimpses of someone you still love.  Even if you know there's no chance of running into the person who just broke your heart, you're still flooded with panic every time you see a face or silhouette that even slightly resembles her, and everyone resembles her.



So here's a question: what has been in British water for the past few years that it keeps turning out soulful singer-songwriters, from the bevy of retro songstresses like Adele, Kate Nash, Amy Winehouse, et al, to the raspy blues of James Morrison and Paolo Nutini.  As you can see from the Jools Holland clip above, Nutini was only 19 when "Last Request" became the big hit off the 2006 record These Streets.  I had heard the song a few times on Pandora in '08 or so, but somehow last March the music gods really wanted me to pay closer attention, and I did.



Yeah, I don't even have a back story for this one.  But like the Black Eyed Peas' "I Got a Feelin" and Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me," it's just an irrepressibly happy song on an increasingly longer list of songs that I really have no excuse for loving; I just can't help myself. So go ahead, throw your hands up in the air sometimes. You know you want to.