BUM-bum-BUUUUUM!!!

Yes, those portentous drums ARE in order because it’s time to unveil the top ten in my countdown of the best songs of the year. Wheee!

(Note: This list includes songs that I became aware of this year, though some of them were released in 2009. But what can you do? A hooker can’t hear everything.)

10. “Tighten Up” by The Black Keys

I first started to listening to The Black Keys in 2008, when the blues-rock duo released their Danger Mouse-produced album Attack & Release, and I liked the raw energy of it so much that I snapped up their new album Brothers right away. It continues their toe-tapping trajectory, thanks to fantastic songs like “Tighten Up,” which has become their breakthrough hit on American radio. (It’s been number one on Billboard’s Alternative Rock chart for the last two months.)

Like all the best Black Keys tracks, this one sounds almost tossed-off, like the band members couldn’t even be bothered to haul out the good recording equipment, since that would cut into drinking time. But underneath the scrappiness, there’s a tight structure, sweet riffs, and dirty-good singing. Plus… whistling!

There’s an official video for this song, but I prefer the teaser clip embedded above. That dinosaur has moves!

9. “Airplanes” by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams

As much as I love B.o.B.’s breakthrough single “Nothin’ On You” (see #35 on this countdown), I like “Airplanes” even more. As I wrote a few months ago, the chorus, the spooky-cool production, the sharp lyrics, and B.o.B.’s admirable flow blend into an unforgettable package. I’d have given this song all the major Grammy nominations that “Nothin’ On You” received, but at least he got something.

8. “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine

You feel me, right? You only need to hear this song one time to realize how special it is. It never got above #21 on the charts, but every time Florence + The Machine played it on TV (or the Glee cast covered it, or the trailer for Eat Pray Love pimped it out), “Dog Days Are Over” got a serious spike in sales. Now that over a million people havebought it, I predict it’ll become one of the most enduring hits of 2010. Like, it’ll be one of the songs you play in 20 years when you want to prove that that this part of the decade was awesome.

7. “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry

Far and away the best country single of the year, The Band Perry’s well-deserved number one hit sounds unique by sounding thirty-five years old. We may not get a lot of them, but I think the public still craves songs like this—simple, beautiful, melodic—that invite us to sing along but not belt along. (Do you know what I mean?)

Along with its gentle musicality, “If I Die Young” offers melancholy lyrics about a young girl pondering her mortality. Songwriter/lead vocalist Kimberly Perry captures the innocence and the narcissism of a young person’s imagination, and she does it with pop-genius passages like this one:

There’s a boy here in town
says he’ll love me forever
who would’ve though that forever could be severed by
the sharp knife
of a short life.

Even if you think you hate country music, I encourage you to give this song a try. I’ve listened to it over and over, and it keeps drawing me in.

(6) “Club Can’t Handle Me” by Flo Rida featuring David Guetta

I see you, D. Guetta! Let’s get ‘em!

Yes, Flo Rida, let’s get ‘em. Let’s get ‘em to shake they damn asses by rolling this electro/hip-hop grenade onto the floor. And when that motherfucker explodes? Hookers better look out, because you’ll be gettin’ ‘em dancing. Dancing forever.

And look, Flo, I know that no one bought your latest album, but don’t sweat it. Half the fools on the album chart will never create something as joy-making as this.

(5) “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” by Arcade Fire

As I said back at #29, I admire Arcade Fire for releasing an album about the troubled reality of suburban America that manages to be enjoyable, serious, and unpretentious. For instance, the first thing to notice about “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” is how damn appealing it is, like a lost classic from 80s New Wave. The gurgling synth, buoyed by drums, only gets better when Regine Chassagne’s vocals are layered on top. And then, like crushed walnuts on your sundae, you get the lyrics, which tell a specific, plaintive tale about needing to escape the crushing sameness of a suburban town, where dead shopping malls rise like mountains upon mountains.

(4) “Waiting for My Child” by Patty Griffin

I can’t find an embeddable version of this song, but if you follow this link to the Google search I did and press the play button that appears next to the album cover logo at the very top of the page, then you can hear the entire track.

It’s worth the effort. Singing as a woman who’s desperate for news of her missing son, Patty Griffin gives a performance that makes me want to stand up, sit down, raise a hymnal… I don’t know. Something that signifies testimony. Maybe I should speak in the Prayer Language. The point is, Griffin slays me… she makes this woman’s sadness weighty and dignified and heartbreaking all at once. She’s so damn talented, so damn effortlessly talented, that other singers should be paying her $500 an hour for lessons in How It’s Done.

(3) “Fuck You” by Cee-Lo Green

When was the last time so many Americans agreed on something? It seems like everyone is on board with this song. Even the Grammy voters nominated it for Record and Song of the Year, despite the fact that’s unabashedly obscene. But what else were they going to do? What else were any of us going to do? This song is flawless. Literally without flaw. From Cee-Lo’s brilliant vocals to the writing and production to the spot-on video, there’s just nothing wrong with any of it. (Bonus points to the indefatigable Bruno Mars, who co-wrote and co-produced.)

(2) “White Blank Page” by Mumford & Sons

You might be thinking, “Player, if you’re calling ‘Fuck You’ a flawless song, then how the hell are you putting it at number three on your little countdown? Why isn’t number one? Huh? Huh? What you got to say?”

Well… that’s because 2010 has been an especially good one for music. Because you know what else is flawless? The ravishing grandeur of “White Blank Page” by Mumford & Sons. From the first plucked mandolin string, you can sense the track’s power, but it doesn’t really explode until 1:33, when a chorus of voices leaps up to join singer Marcus Mumford on the phrase “swelling rage.” It’s just thrilling to realize there’s been a whole community in this song, an entire population of passionately suffering men just waiting to express itself. And once they do, there’s no stopping their power. By the end of “White Blank Page,” we’re spinning in a tornado of voices and strings and drums, and it’s exhilarating.

(p.s. — The “community of men” is really just Mumford and his three bandmates, but the fact that four people evoke so much only increases my admiration for the song.)

(1) “Dancing On My Own” and “Hang With Me” and “Call Your Girlfriend” by Robyn

Uh-oh! It’s a three-way tie! I wrestled over this. I didn’t want this countdown to be all Robyn all the time, but I did want to put her in the top slot. After pondering these tracks, I just couldn’t choose among them. I love them equally.

Each comes from a different mini-album in Robyn’s three-part Body Talk project, which is collectively the best album of the year. Let’s take this one song at a time…

First, there’s “Dancing On My Own,” the biggest hit of the bunch. Enjoy the killer beat—and that moment where the beat drops out—and savor the deep feeling in the lyrics. It’s been said before, but it deserves to be said again: More than any other artist, Robyn gives electronic music a pulsing heart.

Next, “Hang With Me,” which appeared in acoustic form on Body Talk, Pt 1 and returned on Body Talk, Pt. 2 as a delirious floor-filler. As bright and sunny and “Dancing On My Own” is morose and captivating, the song finds Robyn warning a boy not to fall “recklessly, headlessly” in love with her, then agreeing to hang with him if he promises not to be a jerk.

And finally, “Call Your Girlfriend,” which anchors the third album, Body Talk.

“Call Your Girlfriend” crests into greatness for two reasons. The first is the melody of the chorus, which spirals upward like a staircase of rising notes, letting Robyn demonstrate what a strong and versatile voice she has. The second is the topic of the song: Robyn wants her new man to call his girlfriend and tell her it’s over, but this is not a song about screwing over some ho. Instead, Robyn empathizes with the other woman.”You let her down easy,” she commands. “Give your reasons. Say it’s not her fault… Tell her that the only way her heart will mend is when she learns to love again, and it won’t make sense right now, but you’re still her friend.”

And you know what? That’s really perceptive. Because sometimes, you do fall in love with someone else, and it’s nobody’s fault, and the only decent thing you can do is be forthright with your current partner about what’s happening.

Of course, you might disagree with me. You might say that Robyn’s character is being a jerk. But even though we disagree, consider this… how often does a dance song invite this kind of debate?