2011’s Newly Discovered Old Song of the Year:...

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

2011’s Newly Discovered Old Song of the Year: George Michael - “Freedom! ‘90”

Obviously I knew this song existed before this year because I remember when the Berlin Wall fell and I have older siblings who watched MTV when my parents weren’t home. But, really, I didn’t know it was more than a bit of piano and someone singing “Freedom! Freedom!” in a different way than the other song that goes “Freedom! Freedom!” I never paid much attention to this song until I was in one of those trendyretro tchotchkes resale shops in Silverlake in April, still treading water after a lost, booze-filled 2010, and hearing “Freedom! ‘90” in a completely different way than I’d heard it before.

It fits in the year of “Born this Way” and “4,” which were pretty much the only new records I listened to in 2011. It fits because last year I really liked LCD Soundsystem, and I’m still into pop gospel. It fits because I felt redeemed, goddammit, and it’s a marvellously complex song.

(And also it is, like, so hard to be famous.)

Runners up for the Newly Discovered Old Song of the Year were “Cool for Cats” by Squeeze (when a British man says “give the dog a bone” it’s deliciously dirty) and “Ever Fallen in Love?” by the Buzzcocks because it is a perfectly constructed song, but those were too obvious because duh, I like Britpop and punk.