The 50 Best Singles Of 2010: 30-21

[Welcome back to my yearly countdown of the finest individual tracks of the year. As always, the rules and regulations: This list is limited to commercial singles and/or videos released in 2010. Album tracks and fan-made clips, good as they might be, don't count. Official YouTube links are included when possible to avoid unwelcome deletions. Thanks and happy listening!]

30. Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver & Nicki Minaj – Monster

Hard to think of a more appropriate title for one of the best posse cuts in ages: Bon Iver gets sinister, Jay-Z raps about zombies and vampires (and love), while Nicki Minaj basically destroys everyone in her path, fulfilling a year of hype with a guest verse miles beyond anything on her own album proper.

29. Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside

Here’s the best reason yet for breaking up the Shins, as James Mercer uses his new project to unleash a hidden soul streak (not to mention a mean falsetto) atop Danger Mouse’s gleaming beats.

28. The National – Terrible Love (Alternate Version)

Revisiting High Violet’s leadoff number for a deluxe re-release, The National swap the original’s murky build for a Technicolor explosion that takes an already classic song to even greater heights.

27. Maximum Balloon featuring Aku – Tiger

David Sitek (AKA TV On The Radio’s secret weapon) stretches his production muscles via assistance from Aku Orraca-Tetteh, resulting in a sprightly mix of modern electronica and Fela Kuti Afrobeat.

26. Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs – Beg Steal Or Borrow

LaMontagne wraps his still-astonishing pipes around gorgeous pedal-steeled country; improbable (but welcome) Grammy nominations quickly follow.

25. Janelle Monaé featuring Big Boi – Tightrope

“Retro” doesn’t have to mean “reserved,” especially when it’s Janelle Monaé complimenting her futuristic R&B with organic beats, daredevil horns, and one monstrous earworm of a chorus.

24. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change

It says a lot about the greatness of This Is Happening when its acclaimed single—a desperate tale of love and bad poetry married to percolating Eighties synths—is only the fifth best song on the album itself. Saving something for 2011, Mr. Murphy?

23. Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie

Superstars attach their personas to everything they touch, and nowhere was this better illustrated than on Em’s #1 summertime single, an unflinching look at domestic abuse given additional weight via the backstories of all involved parties.

22. The Black Keys – Tighten Up

Nine years into their career and the Keys finally get their first true breakout single, thanks to a skittering beat and a fantastic riff—plus the best whistling since “Young Folks.”

21. Kanye West featuring Dwele – POWER

The first glimpse of just how wonderfully, weirdly unhinged Kanye’s new record would be: that African stomp from “Jesus Walks” fused to a left-field King Crimson sample as ‘Ye takes down his own 21^st century schizoid celebrity.

The 50 Best Singles Of 2010: 40-31

[Welcome back to my yearly countdown of the finest individual tracks of the year. As always, the rules and regulations: This list is limited to commercial singles and/or videos released in 2010. Album tracks and fan-made clips, good as they might be, don't count. Official YouTube links are included when possible to avoid unwelcome deletions. Thanks and happy listening!]

40. Gorillaz featuring Mos Def & Bobby Womack – Stylo

Kudos to Damon Albarn for introducing a new generation to the raw, uncut greatness that is Bobby Womack; that sinister electro-funk groove is just a bonus.

39. The Hold Steady – Hurricane J

Craig Finn and company ended their run of consistency this year with the disappointing Heaven Is Wherever, but flashes of early greatness abound on this pounding single—particularly in its final thirty seconds.

38. Ben Folds & Nick Hornby – From Above

North Carolina’s favorite piano-playing son turned out his best album in almost a decade thanks to novelist Nick Hornby; this jaunty track is merely one of many Lonely Avenue highlights.

37. Arcade Fire – Ready To Start

The Montreal collective revisit the go-for-broke energy of “Keep The Car Running,” turning it inward and down. “Businessmen drink my blood,” sings Win Butler, the entire weight of Dylan’s mantle on his shoulders.

36. Robyn – Hang With Me

Bouncy and effervescent on its surface, but of course nothing is ever that simple in Robyn’s world, and gradually “Hang With Me” reveals itself to be that rarest of love songs—one with eyes open and feet planted firmly on the ground.

35. Underworld – Scribble

Long after the fickle tides of dance music should’ve relegated them to the bargain bins, Underworld resurface with their best single in forever, as rapturous and expansive as anything from Second Toughest In The Infants. A marvelous, welcome return to form.

34. B.o.B. featuring Bruno Mars – Nothin’ On You

The less said about guest-rapper-on-his-own-song B.o.B. the better; instead, treat this track as the coronation of Peter “Bruno Mars” Hernandez, whose of-the-moment production and sweetly naïve vocals were all over the charts in 2010.

33. Spoon – Written In Reverse

The minimalists of the indie world finally let their hair down and it suits them well. More throat-scraping vocals and atonal piano on the next album, please.

32. Mark Ronson & The Business INTL featuring MNDR & Q-Tip – Bang Bang Bang

Brit producer-turned-celeb Ronson ditched his trademark retro-soul this year (and Winehouse to boot), exchanging it for a new muse (Amanda Warner of MNDR), a new sound (ridiculously catchy electro), and the always-glorious return of Q-Tip.

31. No Age – Glitter

Easily the most accessible single yet from this no-nonsense punk duo, recalling the best moments of Nineties “alternative” radio with extra dollops of noise.

The 50 Best Singles Of 2010: 50-41

[Welcome back to my yearly countdown of the finest individual tracks of the year. As always, the rules and regulations: This list is limited to commercial singles and/or videos released in 2010. Album tracks and fan-made clips, good as they might be, don't count. Official YouTube links are included when possible to avoid unwelcome deletions. Thanks and happy listening!]

50. Band Of Horses – Laredo

Jaunty county-rock standout from BoH’s otherwise underwhelming (and inexplicably Grammy-nominated) third album, Infinite Arms.

49. Katy Perry – Teenage Dream

Not in any way a validation of Katy Perry, but rather an acknowledgement of the continued greatness of Swedish hitmaker Max Martin; with the right vocalist (Gay Lead #2 from Glee, for example), this is a pop song for the ages.

48. M.I.A. featuring Jay-Z – XXXO (Main Mix)

Revolutionary-turned-spoiled-brat Maya Arulpragasam borrows a beat from Gaga and a guest verse from Hova for an uncharacteristically poppy single. About the emptiness of online hookups, natch.

47. The Band Perry – If I Die Young

Forget Taylor Swift: This was as good as contemporary county got in 2010, un-ironically heartfelt and unabashedly romantic.

46. How To Destroy Angels – The Space In Between

The new Trent Reznor project sounded a lot like the old Trent Reznor project, albeit with ex-West Indian Girl vocalist (and current Mrs. Reznor) Mariqueen Maandig handling “creepy vocal” duties.

45. Bruce Springsteen – Save My Love

A fantastic outtake from 1978 gets an E Street makeover thirty years after the fact, finding new life as the lead single from Springsteen’s justifiably-acclaimed The Promise.

44. Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé – Telephone

On its own, this Fame Monster track offers little more than a beat and a collection of producer tricks, but of course the music is only a part of Stefani Germanotta’s multimedia assault; as a soundtrack to the epic Michael-Jackson-meets-Tarantino video clip, “Telephone” works like gangbusters.

43. The Black Keys – Next Girl

A love song dressed in swamp-blues rags, skuzzy and infectious and further proof that the Keys could do no wrong this year.

42. Erykah Badu – Window Seat

The bare-it-all video grabbed most of the attention but did a disservice to Badu’s sultry, understated vocal, possibly her finest work since the glory days of Baduism and Mama’s Gun.

41. Rihanna – Only Girl (In The World)

Rated R only confirmed that dark and depressing doesn’t suit Rihanna, which made this Loud standout all the more intoxicating; freshly recast as a Euro-house-disco queen lost in 1998, she’s never sounded more alive.