"BANDZ A MAKE HER DANCE!": The Singles, 2012.

10/Usher/Climax

They could have set this to Piano. They could have borrowed an electric guitar solo or two from Michael Jackson's back catalog, or the Maybach Music Group. They could have tried to appropriate some sounds from another world across the sea in the form of an bass thumping banger. An ode to a body part. His sexual prowess. A slithering come on in five minutes or less. But they didn't. Usher and Diplo collaborated this year and instead gave us this, a largely bare bones quiet storm of an R&B arrangement with slight electronic flourishes that never overstays or outshines their fellow components in the mix here, including the most important element of all, Mr. Raymond himself. Usher pulls us into his orbit once again with another commanding vocal turn, this time heavy on the Falsetto, used here not to incite a fire in one's loins, but to instead set fire to the rain of a partnership that has reached its breaking point. You can't keep a good man down, and Climax is that catharsis/release operating at its own speed to ensure that this is the case.



11/G.O.O.D. Music Group/Clique & Mercy

12/Bat For Lashes/All Your Gold AND Bruno Mars/Locked Out of Heaven

13/Justice/New Lands

14/Tame Impala/Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

15/Santigold/Big Mouth

16/Frank Ocean/Sweet Life

17/Elle Varner/Refill

18/A$AP Mob & Flatbush Zombies/Bath Salt

19/R.Kelly/Feelin' Single

20/Hot Chip/How Do You Do?

21/Rihanna/Where Have You Been

22/Madonna/Girl Gone Wild

23/Kendrick Lamar/Swimming Pools (Drank)

24/E-40, YG, IAMSU, & Problem/Function AND Odd Future/Oldie

25/Taylor Swift/We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together