#3. Catchiness Caught

The Pursuit of Catchiness, you say? The #3 song of the year has pursued catchiness, captured it, and feasted ravenously on its juicy innards. Brought to you by the awesomely weird Ariel Pink (né Rosenberg) and his band, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, the many-splendored thing entitled "Round and Round" was recently described by Gorilla vs Bear as "the undisputed best song of 2010." I guess I'm disputing that to a degree - there are still two songs left to come on the countdown - but there's no debating that its robust harmonies, clever orchestration, and Mona Lisa of a chorus make this a song for the ages.

Speaking of the ages, it's fascinating to think that before the late 19th century, nobody had ever heard the same exact song twice. Meanwhile, I have personally enjoyed this track well over 200 times since it came out in the spring of 2010. This comes out to an average of about once a day, meaning I successfully listened to this song with more frequency than I remembered to take my One-A-Day® vitamins. Get your first dose below and see what has kept me coming back for my daily booster shot of boogie.

#3. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round 


The song opens with a hint of the deep harmonies that will come to define the track, mixes in a little interplay with the keyboards, and finally settles down into a cool groove. Choose your metaphor to describe the initial sensation of Ariel's hypnotic voice and the persistent, repetitive bass line: a merry-go-round seems facile; I prefer to envision Alice descending the rabbit hole, or George Clinton's fully operational mothership making a swirling approach into a black hole formed by shrunken cosmic (bass) strings. 

However you see it, after about two minutes you get your first taste of the song's crown jewel, its unapologetically poppy chorus. If you insist on describing it as cheesy, at least grant me that it is more of a sharp Vermont cheddar than a Kraft single. Appreciate the earnestness with which it is sung - and Ariel is a pop enthusiast, so irony is not intended. There is something undeniably uplifting in the utterly uninhibited refrain, a Phil Spector-esque "Wall of Sound" that deserves a place in the Cooperstown of Choruses.

Ariel wisely hitches his wagon to the refrain's star, riding it into the sunset. In the end, is there something almost saccharine about "Round and Round?" Maybe. But Diet Sunkist is full of saccharine, and that's a pretty damn good drink. So drink it up - on ice or straight out of the can, Ariel Pink's "Round and Round" always goes down smooth.