You make me feel like the act of love is empty

Is there a song with sadder lyrics than Darren Hayes's "Unlovable"?



The electro-pop song's structure is flawless: the verses find the former Savage Garden singer aggressively spitting out his feelings while the chorus mixes a squelchy beat with a more expansive melody that in another context would be radio singalong fodder across the world. Musically, it's perfect. Darren could be singing almost anything and I'd love it.

Those lyrics, though. They, in all their awful emotive specificity, are what secures this song its place as one of the best things recorded in the '00s. The disgust the narrator feels for his subject and for himself, his depression, his anger, his desperation, his helplessness--I hope no one reading this ever has reason to feel "Unlovable" strikes them straight to their core, but it captures the tormented state of mind of an emotionally abusive relationship better than any song I can imagine.

"Unlovable" is on Darren Hayes's excellent second album, The Tension and the Spark, which can be purchased here (physical) or internationally on iTunes here.

Use me, I know the way to paradise

How does the idea of JC Chasez singing something by the creator of Jennifer Paige and Nick Carter's charming duet "Beautiful Lie" from last year sound to you? Like not such a bad idea, right?

Don't Stop by poppostergirl

Swedish songwriter Carl Falk has an eclectic discography but has recently been delivering quality work in a way that gives you the impression he's just about to break out and get the credit he deserves soon (personally, I've got high hopes for his work with Darren Hayes). When he feels like it, he does a good job updating the Cheiron sound of the late '90s with the more electronic sound of today to create catchy, fun pop songs like this one, with its little percussion progressions sprinkled throughout the kicky, poppy beat. Unlike, say, "Beautiful Lie" or the Backstreet Boys demo "Fire & Water," "Don't Stop" is pure fun, an up-tempo romp without any real dark undertones (or any of the dirty funk of JC's own earlier work). Carl posted "Don't Stop" to his MySpace, so the safest bet is that he and JC wrote it together with the intention of selling it to another artist--it's just a demo, but it comes with the pleasant perk of being sung by JC.

Speaking of JC-penned and -sung demos, a few more have leaked this year: "Teenage Wildlife" is a "Mr. Brightside" imitator that AJ McLean recorded for his debut solo album and "Build Some Love" was a ballad Kris Allen considered using. JC has always been one of the more underrated American male singers and I still regret that his second solo album was never released. Schizophrenic, its predecessor, deserved more success than it found; it's a fun, sexy/ridiculous-in-an-entertaining-way summer album. I still carry the hope, no matter how in vain it might be, that he'll release music again in some way.

There's nowhere to buy "Don't Stop," but you can purchase JC Chasez's album Schizophrenic here (physical) or here (digital).

#9 Darren Hayes, "Casey"

If you take me away
All the pain will change into a memory
Of when we were amazing

There are so many things I could praise about this song. I could rave about the gorgeous synth backing. I could (try to) wax eloquent about the emotion in it. I could focus on the strings that bring a touch of class and poignancy to a song that already has both of those traits but can only be enhanced by the fleshing out of its musical skeleton with the use of that section of the orchestra that makes any pop song better. I could talk about the melody, the lyrics. What best sums up my relationship with this song, though, is the fact that every time--without fail--"Casey" reaches a certain point about two-thirds into the song and begins to wind down, I always think it's about to end and wish that wasn't going to happen...and then it doesn't, slowly unfolding itself and instead cycling back for another minute of music that, if anything, is even better than the minutes that preceded it. That a year and a half after it debuted "Casey" still enchants me so much that I never want it to end, still captures me in its journey, and still surprises me with its musical twists and turns says more about the enduring power of the song than anything else I could ever write.

Find it on: This Delicate Thing We've Made