Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 12/10/2011 at 3:32 PM News

The Popdust Files: weekend playlist

Playlists get weird around this time of the year. Half of them are big Best of 2011 retrospectives, maybe 40% are the same generic holiday-party playlists that double as non-holiday party playlists, and the rest are just full of holiday music that you already hear while shopping, doing errands or really just being anywhere near a storefront.

Where does this one fall? Well, our Best of 2011 is coming soon and will be awesome, and we’re not a fratmusic.com competitor. That said, timely webcomics aside, we can’t say this is a holiday tradition-free zone. But we understand. We get it. So we’re going to taper off the holiday songs just as the world’s tapering them up. By that, we mean a couple towards the end, when the party’s good and jolly. Nobody will mind.

1. STOOSHE, “BETTY WOZ GONE”

R&B girl groups aren’t as common as they should be, even taking into account that the U.K.’s been more receptive to them than the States. R&B groups with this much quirk (imagine if Nicki Minaj decided to front one and you’ll get a little close) are rarer still. This track was nominated for BBC’s Sound of 2012 poll along with such noted newcomers like, uh, Skrillex; the other great track on there, “212,” wasn’t new to me, but this was. And now it’s new to you!

2. KE$HA, “ONLY WANNA DANCE WITH YOU”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vftkFdEhJew

Ke$ha getting her Cyndi Lauper/non-problematic “I Kissed A Girl” on as the beats race accordingly? Frankly, we don’t care where this track came from or where, if anywhere, it’ll go; this is clearly the better of Ke$ha’s two songs released lately. (The other, of course, being “Put Your Beard In My Mouth.”)

3. STEVE WINWOOD, “VALERIE”

2011: the Year of “Valerie”? The obvious reference is Amy Winehouse, whose version of “Valerie” is older, yes, but which appears on the surprisingly not-uncomfortable Lioness: Hidden Treasures. That’s not why this is on the list. “Valerie” is on this list because, thanks to our weekly Turntable scrabbling and the services of whosampled.com, we just now realized that “Valerie” = “Party Rock Anthem,” certainly among the year’s biggest tracks. Listen to its chorus and the synths therein. Have your mind blown.

4. MGMT, “ELECTRIC FEEL”

Another from that “songs referenced in 2011 songs” room; this one’s from Frank Ocean’s decidedly raunchier “Nature Feels” from Nostalgia, Ultra. I’ll turn this blurb over to what a staffer said in the office that day: “The first time I heard this song, I was blown away. I didn’t know that a song could be this good.” Sums it up.

5. SISQO, “THONG SONG”

Last of the classics. And yes, “Thong Song” (which is prominently, if possibly unintentionally, referenced in dance act The Rapture’s “How Deep Is Your Love”) counts as a classic; it’s a lot better-produced than you probably remember, because you probably remember it as a gimmick song. The strings, the beat, the heaps of ado piled upon the key change–it’s 2011, it’s been years and the regrettable fashion trend it encouraged is over, and now you can just enjoy it.

How many times do you get covered by Amy Winehouse and Mike Tyson in the same week? Nearly a half-century after its release, Getz and Gilberto, still getting it done. You just don’t get much more timeless than this.

For Goldfrapp and those holiday tracks we alluded to, click NEXT.