[introducing] 10 spot: the black keys & kanye west

date header separator

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

10 spot kanye west

[introducing] 10 spot: the black keys & kanye west

10 spot black keys kanye west

several weeks ago, my friend bryan stormed (when large men walk briskly, the term “stormed” is usually appropriate…) into my office and laid down a musical challenge: “top 10 black keys songs by the end of the day. go!”.

so, throughout the course of the day, i whittled down my original off-the-top-of-my-head list of about 32 to my final 10. at the end of the day, we compared and contrasted our lists. (bryan’s is here.)

and, of course, good times were had by all.

but why would a list nerd like myself let a one-day musical list-making challenge go to waste? why not keep it going?

so, beginning today, i’m gonna attempt to regularly post what i’m calling ’10 spot’. much like the original challenge, i’ll simply take an artist, rank my 10 favorite tracks and post them here. as an added bonus, i’ll throw in a downloadable mix of my list.

since i’ve already posted my 10 spot for the black keys (via twitter several weeks ago), i’ll post it here again, but i’ll also throw in another artist. what better way to kick off this series than with not just the black keys, but with a kanye west 10 spot?

for my black keys list, i offer a warning to old school (if you call 2001 old school…) fans that my love for the black keys began around attack and release and fully ignited with brothers. so, my list is pretty heavy from that point forward. here’s the list:

10. i’ll be your man (the big come up)
9. lonely boy (el camino)
8. she’s long gone (brothers)
7. next girl (brothers)
6. strange times (attack & release)
5. tighten up (brothers)
4. sinister kid (brothers)
3. gold on the ceiling (brothers)
2. everlasting light (brothers)
1. howlin’ for you (brothers)

as for brother kanye, the list samples relatively evenly from his entire discography (and i’m including watch the throne). as hard as it was to narrow down the black keys list, it was exponentially harder for the kanye list. there’s so many great songs that hit the cutting room floor. with that said, here’s the list:

10. all of the lights (my beautiful dark twisted fantasy)
9. stronger (graduation)
8. love lockdown (808’s and heartbreaks)
7. amazing (808’s and heartbreaks)
6. the glory (graduation)
5. monster (my beautiful dark twisted fantasy)
4. breathe in breathe out (college dropout)
3. gold digger (late registration)
2. otis (watch the throne)
1. all falls down (college dropout)

alright, there you have it. what do you think? did i miss anything? is my order wrong? let me know (and feel free to make your own list and post it in the comments).

if you’d like to download these mixes, you can do so here:

the black keys // download the .zip //
kanye west // download the .zip //