Niki N. Phaser

               Yes, I gave in and embraced the cliché of making ‘best of the year’ tops. Still, ‘top’ is a strong word, it sounds so… hierarchical, so definite, things that can be calculated with numbers. Artistic value has a lot to do with the moment. While I’m listening to a great song and I’m really feeling it, I’m not thinking “This song is slightly less wonderful than another great song”. Music is not a sport. When it comes to art, each individual is the judge. Music is the place where the mind and the heart meet, it has nothing to do with other people’s opinions. You should also know that some of the songs from this list might be released as singles in the future, so read the date when this was posted before sharing with your friends… Ok, enough with this mumbo-jumbo, let’s see who made to number 1, people!!!!!

11. Morrissey – It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore

His recent albums are pretty far from the fresh outta The Smiths stuff. I’m talking about the music, because the lyrics have always been briliant – the guy just can’t be topped when it comes to editing ideas into the most simple and yet poetic words. It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore it’s one of the most powerful songs he wrote in years, talking about how politeness and hypocrisy have nothing to do with one’s expression of love: “All the gifts that they gave can’t compare in any way to the love I am now giving to you right here right now on the floor”. LISTEN

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…suffice to say that Muse were never “the cool band to like right now”, they never made trendy music but managed in the decade since their first album’s (Showbiz) release to become an important name in modern rock history. Maybe it’s because, unlike, for example, the current army of new bands with the same haircut and the same music, Muse became a band because they had a musical vision they needed to express and not just to be cooler than the other kids from their high school. And, in the future, when they’ll close the books, The Resistance will be a chapter that holds its piece to Origin of Symmetry or Absolution.

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Bono and The Edge’s Broadway ambitions have gone full throttle. Their long-awaited Spider-Man musical is in the casting/rehearsal stage and the first confirmed names are Allan Cumming and Marilyn Manson ex-darling, Evan Rachel Wood. She will play Mary Jane and there is also talk of Jim Sturgess (her Across the Universe co-star) playing the superhero, but that’s not set yet. The play will debut in the fall and will run for a year, with no touring as of yet scheduled. Julie Taymor, director of Across the Universe, Frida and the Lion King musical, will be in charged of stage directions. For those of you who are worrying that U2′s members have gone all lame singing-talking Broadway style on us, don’t. Evan Rachel Wood has assured us that the songs are more like pop than your standard “Whaaaaat are youuuu doing? I’m going to the bathrooooomm” musical. She even penned a Bowie Ashes to Ashes-inspired number as her favourite. It will be her solo. Hopefully, there will some good stuff in it and this woun’t be just another proof of how versatile U2 are.