2010 Song Project Countdown - #180-#171

#180 Frightened Rabbit - "Living In Colour" from "The Winter Of Mixed Drinks" - Frightened Rabbit presents a unique combination of the obscurely indie and the stadium-filling mainstream, sort of a Scottish mix of The National and U2. "Living In Colour" is one of their most mainstream friendly songs, but it still maintains the same undertones that makes all their best songs great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bjxQav-jRs


#179 Kanye West - "Lost In The World" from "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" - Sampling both Bon Iver and Gil Scott-Heron, "Lost In The World" is the most experimental song on "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", but the risk pays off big time with one of West's best songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfkacwWf0g


#178 Kid Cudi - "Scott Mescudi Vs. The World" from "Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager" - "Man On The Moon II" took a decidedly darker, more addiction-fueled tone than the previous album in the series. "Scott Mescudi Vs. The World" is no different, with a dark, aggressive tone wrapped around a fast-paced song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62cb9Kh6R9M


#177 The Dirty Heads - "Lay Me Down" from "Any Port In A Storm" - One of the biggest modern rock songs of 2010, "Lay Me Down" was a decent reminder of how great Sublime used to be, preparing the way for Sublime's official comeback in 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnuEOYK1Kps&ob=av2e


#176 The Arcade Fire - "Empty Room" from "The Suburbs" - Like the best song off of "The Suburbs" (we're a long way away from that one), "Empty Room" features lead vocals from one of the female singers in the band. It's a short song with a driving urgency to it, a rarity on this particular album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJIilmx-wGI


#175 American Hi-Fi - "Frat Clump" from "Fight The Frequency" - An unusual source for a great song (American Hi-Fi has spent most of their career miring in the mainstream rock muck with bands like Jimmy Eat World), but this 90's throwback brings to mind hard rock artists like Stone Temple Pilots and when done properly, that's hardly a bad thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlfH18Gy3c0


#174 Black Country Communion - "Sista Jane" from "Black Country Communion" - Glenn Hughes' crazy hard rock vocals are the highlight of this bluesy 70's rock throwback from the super-group Black Country Communion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq62jyh67yw


#173 Against Me! - "White Crosses" from "White Crosses" - The title track from the latest Against Me! album, "White Crosses" is a hooky punk song with darkly political lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-kECVL5lg


#172 I'm From Barcelona - "Anywhere You Looked" from "Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist" - I'm not sure when the new I'm From Barcelona album comes out, but if the rest of the songs are like this hooky indie pop chant-along, it's going to be fantastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhgftwiPK70


#171 M.I.A. - "It Takes A Muscle" from "Maya" - "Maya" was a big of a letdown for M.I.A., but it still managed to include several quirky, brilliant alt rock songs like "It Takes A Muscle", which could have made it on the pop charts if presented as a straight pop song without the digital effects that make it great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbgMqK0CFRs