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The Best Pop Songs of 2013

With a just a week left in 2013, and with no major album releases coming (except for a Beyoncé wannabe potentially dropping without notice), it is time to unveil the best pop songs of the year.

Last years rating on this site was just messy, we shall never speak of it again. This year, instead of saying "this was the 77th best pop song this year," I'll just be listing some standouts with no relative order.

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Track By Track Album Review: Beyoncé - Beyoncé

So this bitch decided to keep the world waiting for 12 months by teasing with snippets and full versions of songs without ever releasing them. Then, last night, with no prior announcement or warning, her 5th studio album dropped on iTunes, with each track getting their own music video. Since this is being described as a visual album, I will not only review the song, but the accompanying music video as well.

Pretty Hurts: When a woman as beautiful as Beyoncé releases a track called "Pretty Hurts," she has your attention from the very beginning. The video portrays an out of control beauty pageant, showing Beyoncé repeatedly running to the toilet to vomit, cut between scenes of her at home, backstage and on stage. When asked what her aspiration in life is, Beyoncé replies, with much thought and hesitation, "to be happy." The song and video make a statement that no one wants to acknowledge in mainstream media, that just because you're pretty, skinny, successful, you can be unhappy, and there is justice in feeling that way. The drum propelled song itself could become an anthem for struggling girls everywhere (a demographic Beyonce constantly appeals too for better or worse).
Video: A+
Song: A-

Ghost: Not a track on the audio portion, but a video and song on the visual portion. It's definitely very creepy, Beyoncé contorts and twists herself around painted black, while overlapping vocal tracks give off a haunting vibe. It creeps me out too much to give it a grade, and I don't have any desire to watch it again.
Video: Creepy as hell.
Song: Also creepy as hell.
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Live Review: Lady Gaga - Do What U Want (Acoustic) @ Alan Carr

Gaga has had a pretty good year (or not, depending on what side of the ARTPOP fence you are) and she might have ended her year on a massive high note. This performance really showed off all of her strengths, her voice, her ability to sing acapella without issue, and her piano skills. It wasn't too weird, in fact it wasn't really weird at all.

Gaga is at home in both restrained and explosive settings, but this shows off a potential for universal appeal. With just a xylophone, a piano, and a great vocal, Gaga managed to blow the roof off of the place, all without alienating any demographics. Grandpa and Grandma aren't going to be flashed by anything, and maybe the lyrics are a bit too sexualized for them, but they will probably be too busy thinking, "Sweet baby Jesus, she has pipes!"
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Music Video and Single Review: Rebecca Black - Saturday

Rebecca has returned to the calendar, and to the music scene, for her Friday follow up entitled Saturday. And before you bash your head into the keyboard, she isn't taking herself too seriously with this one.

16 year old Black's Saturday video is definitely self aware, something she proved earlier this week by re-watching and cringing through her 2011 viral smash, Friday. She portrays the typical teenage party scene, with a more Disney-image (IE writing fun, fun, fun, fun on passed out party-goers face instead of say… a male body part), and makes sure that this video will prove far less embarrassing. She makes quite a few references to her past work, with a "yesterday was Friday, today is Saturday" bridge, a "gotta have my bowl" of cereal, and the infamous pink clock.
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Live Performance Review: Hyorin - End of Time (Beyonce Cover)

I don't usually pay attention to the K-Pop world, but when I went on Billboard to see the few words, "nail Beyonce,"I knew I had to see what could be described as "nailing Beyonce." And let me be the first to say, this wasn't a mess, but it wasn't much of "nailing it" either.

Now, I probably wouldn't have much to say if I hadn't seen Beyonce perform the song in front of my very eyes at the Super Bowl in February (that performance blew my mind), this performance was clean, but it lacked energy and complexity. Hyroin looked tired with her dancing, sounded boring with the vocals, and no where near as appealing as Beyonce. There was hardly any stage presence, shocking for someone whose been described as Korea's Beyonce. When covering Beyonce, one must be spot on, as Beyonce works like clock work on 99% of performances. This was more like a 90 year old clock that's fallen a little slow.
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American Music Awards - Live Performance Reviews

Katy Perry - Unconditonally: Katy Perry blasted Lady Gaga 3 years ago for using blasphemy as entertainment, yet she does a similar thing by using a culture that isn't her own for her own entertainment. Not as offensive, but it does stick out a bit. She's calling back some of the asian elements she used during her One Of The Boys era, and sadly she brought back some of those vocals. Not nearly as polished as past Prism performances. Though her great stage and stage presence helped save an otherwise forgettable performance. B-

One Direction - Story of My Life: A mature song, mature performance. Solid, but not perfect. Harry was getting throaty/shouty in the bridge, Zayn had some register transition issues, and Niall missed a note or two during his solos, but it was still a vast improvement over their TCA performance. They kept it simple, and it paid off. B

Ariana Grande - The Way / Tattooed Heart: The inclusion of The Way intro made sense, but why Tattooed Heart? Is it the next single? Why not Right There? Of course the vocal performance was everything we have come to expect from Ariana, stratospheric belts, sweet head voice, but a noticeable lack of whistles. It seemed to be a very short performance, and it doesn't seem as if this could send her to the Top 10 again, but there's nothing that negative to say about it. And nothing great to say either. B
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Music Video Review: Demi Lovato - Neon Lights

The much anticipated video for Demi Lovato's Neon Lights dropped today, unveiling a TRON-like visual.

I generally stand by my previous review of the track, that its lacking in euphoria and originality, but its not a bad song by most measures. The visuals for the video itself are a bit too jittery, there are too many camera splices, shifting between 47 different scenes in 2.83 seconds. The still scenes themselves are a bit harsh, dark scenes combined with bright lights and a bombardment of neon colors (of course). It all combines to be a bit of a migraine to watch, and the occasional epileptic seizure.
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Live Review: Miley Cyrus - Summertime Sadness @ BBC Live Lounge

Her twerking may not be universally acclaimed, but Miley proved today (November 12) that she can still sing at least. Taking on 2013's surprise blockbuster hit, Miley brought an effective vocal to Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness.

The vocal wasn't perfect, but it was still a good performance (not quite great). The vibrato got a little too 'yoddelly' towards the middle and end sections, but good lord, those low notes. She didn't venture too much in that range of the voice, but she was spot on pitch-wise, and emotively she gave a strong showing.

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Single Review: Doug Briney - Super Country Cowboy

I was contacted over Twitter this past week to review a single from Doug Briney (whom I've never heard of), but flattered, I obliged. Here is that review:

Right of the bat, the first thing that struck me with the title was "generic." It places two Country-genre stereotypes in the title (Country and Cowboy), while simply placing "Super" in front of it to diversify it. From there, it doesn't expand any further into an original song.

Track By Track Album Review: Lady Gaga - ARTPOP

The day has arrived, ARTPOP has leaked in its entirety, slightly more than a week before its worldwide release. The expectations for Gaga are running high, all eyes will be on her first week sales (I.E. "WILL IT SELL AS MUCH AS BORN THIS WAY?") or "Will she get better reviews than Born This Way?" How does she fare? Lets take a look.

Aura: The initial demo seemed promising, especially considering it was a demo. But this was more of a backtrack from the demo unfortunately; she took out her vigorous growls and let a lethargic vocal replace it. Aura is a disaster, a calling it a hot mess would be putting it lightly. But at least Gaga's knowledge of how to make a fantastic hook is still there. ARTPOP has started out on the wrong foot. D+

Venus: Another mess. Choppy lyrics, jutting from side to side. What is the point you are trying to make here Gaga? "Aphrodite lady sea shell bikini / Garden panty / Venus." What? Again, the chorus saves it from being a true hot mess, but it is still concerning. C

Single Review: Lady Gaga - Venus

Originally slated to be the 2nd single from ARTPOP, Venus dropped in full today. In essence, it is everything we would've thought ARTPOP would sound like.

It's sparse in its lyrical content (and thought), but it is chuck full of gritty synths, drums, and the electro-pop magic that we all dreamt of when we thought "ARTPOP." That being said, thank god this song was scrapped in favor of Do What U Want as the 2nd single. It lacks a hook, along with many other pop characteristics, instead opting for electronic flavors. Lady Gaga did a strong job with the production (the build up in the latter part of the song proves that point), and it does capture an out of this world sound. That is not Venus's problem: the problem is its choppy verses and chorus. Venus hops along with its strange lyricism, being left to stand on one leg, AKA the production.
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