Pancake Song of the Year - part !!

Our Amsterdam friend returns to the blog with a few more songs you need to download illegaly, run around with naked and have sex with from that wounderfull year of 2007. Enjoy and don't forget to put a condome on, pure passion coming your way!

8. TTC – Quand je claque des doigts / De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig - Shenkie

If you try hard enough, you can just about see a common theme in any bunch of things, or songs in this case. Indeed, TTC’s ‘Quand je claque des doigts’ is not only congruent with my Ai Aso review, in the sense that my French is so appalling that I have no idea what these dudes are rhyming about, and it supports the previous song in that it’s as good a hip hop song as anything made this year. No wait, it’s better than anything made this year that features MCs.

To say the lyrics are complete rubbish is a bit harsh, though. Phrases such as ‘petit string’, ‘charmeur’, ‘voluptueuse’ and, er, ‘calories’ pretty much give an indication of this song’s content. But wait, this the twenty-first century, can’t we do better than that? Of course we can! Let me find the lyrics somewhere, babelfish them, and copy/paste them into this already badass review. Yay!

(intro 2x) me I am the guy who makes you smell well in your body in your tete in your heart in your arteries (refrain 2x) opera hat your buttocks when I opera hat your fingers, wets your lips when you speak about me, all your ex do not make the poid, opera hat your buttocks when I opera hat your fingers tito: hey woman, Ca goes my hind? I answer yes yes Ca goes L artist I answer yes well on and then gives the north wind to him, one night more or I will not sleep I tells him mask baby my nonC is cuizicuizi you is convened has a disciplinary board how to say, including all taxes xy on the track heureusment that your dad N it on the track I did not etais am the guy here the hottest step J have ideas in the tete J would like that T takes part in it you want to go there one go there one go there one over D hotel of luxury I takes load above. gives your soutif and one embarks your pincots, known as theirs that J have the receipt to lose kilos, known as theirs which I am a boy well as him fauts go ahead bulge your thighs by crossing like scissors stp. (refrain 2x) tito: in spite of my bad habits J résté simple I knew hide behind you and under besses your centres you wonders who C are and push a small cry and then you while making bind your small string finally you recognize me your rappor favourites is turned over you voil reassured and heats as a ravioli come bruler a few calories while dancing under neons tekilathek C is has the fashion every season, and I know that you know my normal name come here the moment to give me your portable. I will say you what everyone thinks low T is Roman when your buddy is in cansva you T amuses with the graçon you know all their sentences and make green you stirs up the glaçcon end of your page and that made (refrain 2x) you have this smile as a jaunor you likes this is delirious of charmer the pleasure carnal the skirts and Porsche jartelles you scents himself to make me enjoy your good odor you look at me very sinçere for me let T epanouir shown as you tremble you know what I thus speak give to me this chance and one recommençe when you want because your red lips m it are culpeuse ton body of reve m attracts you evolutueuse and C is marvellous when you opera hat of the buttock that I crac above if you plates your guy you directs me C is on (refrain 2x) (refrain 2x)

…Right, that doesn’t look exactly reader-friendly, but didn’t I already say that foreign-language lyrics are a good thing? I just love rhetorical questions. Also, misinterpretations like ‘ton body of reve’ are quite hilarious, to be honest.

But wait, what’s all that ‘Shenkie’ stuff next to this song title? Oh, you know what it is: me blatantly cheating by counting two songs as one. Hey; call me post-modern if it comforts you. I included what is probably the most annoying hip hop collective ever to surface this planet, not only because this minimalist electro-with-a-hint-of-reggeaton-and-whatnot is more addictive than crack cocaine; not only because the ‘yor krayzie for dis wan’ intro is the most hilarious song intro in years, but for a large part because ‘Shenkie’ is ridiculously similar to TTC’s ‘Telephone’ (go on, youtube it). Coincidence? I don’t give a fuck when the results are this good. Oh, those ‘Shenkie’ lyrics kind of resemble Dutch, but are really completely indistinguishable and incomprehensible rubbish. Don’t let them fool you.

7. Animal Collective – For Reverend Green / Fireworks

I know, I know: it’s virtually impossible for a young Western European male to be so damn multicultural for a whole top ten list, and not include any of the usual indie suspects – as far as the previous peeps do not apply for that already. But I must say: I have always tried very hard to not at all like these Animal Collective dudes. It was hard at times: ‘Leaf House’ from 2004’s Sung Tongs was quite a challenge to dislike, but not impossible because of the all-too-abstract nonsense they kept putting on each of their albums (check out ‘Visiting Friends’ for a reminder) as either filler or none too tolerable statements.

But fuck, Strawberry Jam, their latest album, really caught me struggling to maintain my position. In fact, I find that album so convincingly awesome that I again force myself into breaking the most obvious rule concerning top ten lists (that’s putting ten songs in the actual list, dickheads). Really, I tried flipping a coin or asking others to pick one for me, but alas, I just have to include both ‘For Reverend Green’ and ‘Fireworks’.

I mean, let’s face it: both songs are fucking awesome. ‘Green’ has such a fucking powerful undercurrent in its stuttering guitar riff, all-over-the-place badass vocals, high-up leader guitar and subtle yet utterly psyched rhythm, shifting the emphasis from the first and third to the second and fourth count after every measure – I still don’t completely get it. The great thing about ‘Fireworks’ nearly seamlessly following, though, is that it ups the tempo a few notches, going all melodic and euphoric and shit, and thus slams home the energy that ‘For Reverend Green’ builds up. I guess that is the main consolation for putting both songs in the list: together, it is more than the sum of its parts.

And by the way, I even took it easy on myself by omitting the solo efforts of Panda Bear, one of AC’s members, and especially ‘Bros.’, which not only reminds me of the greatest duo in computer gaming history, but is also a spectacularly good song worth of inclusion.

6. !!! – Heart of Hearts

One of the most infuriating things I have read all year was some shitty ‘worst band name ever’ contest, which in itself is not a bad thing at all if it depletes this world of one more Nickelback or Limp Bizkit – amen to that. The horrible thing about it was that !!! was actually number one in the list, for large part because you cannot search it on google. I was both baffled and furious at the lack of appreciation for !!!’s wonderful invention of a band name that can pronounced however one pleases, as long as it comprises of the same monosyllable thrice. Still, I amazingly managed to restrain myself from flying to Alabama, buying an AK-47 or whatever weapon creates plenty of carnage and let loose around the first shopping mall in sight, after posting about five suicide notes on youtube of course, and realised that in spite of this whole episode, what really owns about this band is that they’re the closest thing to a rightful heir to the Happy Mondays – amen, again.

Think about it: the mindbogglingly instant groovability, the spacey guitars, Nic Offer’s mumbling vocals, the soulful backing vocals (think ‘Kinky Afro’); it’s all there. Moreover, this band has managed to be consistently amazing, not only live but also on record, since 2001, and since 2003’s amazing single ‘Me and Guiliani Down by The Schoolyard (A True Story)’, which indeed would’ve probably been my number one single in any year this decade.

This is the number six in the list already, and to be that far up, a song has to include some sort of icing on the cake. Unmistakably, ‘Heart of Hearts’ has this in the shape of one of the greatest New York City music traditions: a restart. Holy smoke, how I love restarts since first listening to Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’. If only more bands would acknowledge the holy restart’s strengths, the world would be a far better place.

Speaking of restarts, I’m about to pull one myself. In concreto: I’m putting my already stupendously enjoyable list on hold for a short while, and continue with the best five songs of 2007 later. That’s right: I’m cliffhanging you like Sly Stallone. To make up for this utterly unpleasant surprise, I will add a little bonus as well, to unequivocally emphasise that your taste in music is suboptimal, to put it nicely.

Who made the best song of 2007? Is the best band in the world still from Oxford? Is Jimmy Page really possessed by the devil? Whatever the fuck happened to Kofi Annan? What the hell is global warming anyway? Find answers to these questions and more, in the Pancake Song of the Year Top 10 – part three.