I came up with the idea for these awards because year in, year out there were tracks that didn't have a true home. Very enjoyable songs that didn't quite belong in the regular "Song of the Year" competition. For a thorough explanation of what each of these awards are for, click here.
And now, onto this year's winners.
Funniest Song
It's extremely difficult for me to shake my rep as a "petulant middle schooler" when I continue to be amused by jokes about fucking mermaids, riding dolphins and drinking awful champagne made by Carlos Santana. But here we are, for the second year in a row awarding Andy Samberg and his crew with the funniest song of the year.
Off of their debut album "Incredibad", The Lonely Island has found their stride. Three nerdy white guys who know they're nerdy white guys who knowingly do a poor job of acting tough, cool and hip. "I'm On A Boat" lampoons mainstream rap with such precision that one could actually play this song at full blast and fool true rap fans into nodding their heads and singing along. A joke so good that people start to take it seriously? Yeah, that's good enough for The Lonely Island to win their second straight "Funniest Song of the Year" award.
Song of the Summer
"I've got those lovesick blues and I feel it more than ever"
The opening guitar strings. the opening line, the overall tone. Everything about this song screamed summertime. The fleeting romances, broken apart by the end of sunshine, by the obligations of adulthood, by the realization that the fling you thought had enough gas for the future was running on fumes well before labor day, "Let Down" perfectly encapsulates all of those feelings and will forever be my reminder of how the last summer of the decade felt.
The 18th Song Award
Make no mistake about it, this is not a minor award. I don't hand this one out lightly. It's not just awarded to the best undiscovered track from the previous year, but also to a song that could have legitimately won "Song of the Year".
"Time To Pretend" is the opening song from MGMT's critically accalimed "Oracular Spectacular". In a sense the song is about the entirety of the album. It deals with dreams of excess and the realization that these dreams don't equal happiness. The band spends the rest of the album navigating these emotions, but it is in the opening four minutes that you get them thrown at you, seemingly all at once. The electronic dance rock movement that has seen the rise of groups such as Digitalism and La Roux owes a great deal of any future notoriety to the band that crafted 2008's best hidden gem.
I cosign Time To Pretend
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