There has been a terrible mistake at the Idolator flophouse: Upon re-listening to "Yours To Keep"—the bubbling collaboration between Swedish pop outfit Teddybears and Neneh Cherry—we realized that this should really have been in our Top 10, and maybe even our Top 5. What the hell were we thinking? How often do you hear a song about "[driving] around with the top down" that actually sounds good while driving around with the top down? This song is perfect. Our life has been one giant mistake.

Teddybears feat. Neneh Cherry and Annie - Yours To Keep [MP3, link expired]

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' second album came and went, it seemed, absent the fanfare of their previous albums, which is a shame, because it's actually a pretty solid rock record; sure, it didn't have the beer-over-the-head brio of its predecessor, but hey, we're older, too, and those sorts of antics just seem a bit adolescent to us now. The sun-baked "Way Out" was Bones' most-replayed track in our iTunes—its gritty stomp and cascading guitars made it sound as if it had come straight out of a late-night college radio show from 1992.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Way Out [MP3, link expired]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs [MySpace]

Clocking in at 25 songs and 78 minutes, Outkast's Idlewild was a chore to wade through; Lord only knows why no one at the label (or in the group) realized that the thing needed to be pared down by a good half-hour or so. But those listeners who were patient enough to let the album simmer for a bit were treated to a handful of solid tracks ("The Train," "N2U") and at least one great single with "Morris Brown," which combines a marching-band beat with vocals by Sleepy Brown and Scar. It's not "Hey Ya!" part two, but the whirling chorus deserves a bigger audience.

Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown and Scar - Morris Brown [MP3, link expired]

We've been fans of Teenbeat Records founder Mark Robinson's latest project, Flin Flon, since it dropped its first song named after a Canadian city; Dixie, the band's fourth album, is even more tensely minimalist, with the low end leading the way. Dragged along by a thick bassline, "Darlings" is one of Dixie's standouts; Matt Datesman's drumming is sugar-rush hyper, fueling the agitation that's set in place by lyrical descriptions of cops in riot gear and exhortations to fight the power.

Flin Flon - Darlings [MP3, link expired]
Flin Flon [MySpace]

Ciara's The Evolution is one of the most self-absorbed albums of the year—a navel-fixated state-of-Ciara address with song titles like "I'm Just Me" and "I Found Myself" and a spoken-word interlude called "The Evolution Of C"; it's like she's reading a LiveJournal page with an assist from Lil Jon. But "Promise" is as devotional as it is emotional, and even though the liner notes credit the track to more than a dozen names, it's one of the more minimal hits of 2006, relying on nothing more than some synth squiggles and a scorching, relentless beat.

Ciara - Promise [MP3, link expired]

Andrew WK's Close Calls With Brick Walls still isn't out in the States yet—it's available only in Japan, and it's unclear when, if at all, it's going to be released on these shores—but the album made its way to us via the Internet, and we found ourselves idly singing the chorus of "Don't Call Me Andy" on more than one occasion. It probably shouldn't be surprising that the man who penned wall-of-sound odes to beautiful girls and partying hard could channel Phil Spector in such a spot-on way; we can't wait to see Andrew-not-Andy perform this song live, if only to see how the mosh pit reacts.

Andrew WK - Don't Call Me Andy [MP3, link expired]
Andrew WK [MySpace]

Compiling a year-end Top 10 list means making plenty of painful nips, tucks, and tweaks. And so, after preparing our Jackin' Pop singles lists, we present "Stuck At Eleven," a daily look at the songs that came thisclose to making the final cut.

Considering how many young U.K. bands the NME tosses at us on a near-daily basis, it's amazing that a single track stays with us for more than a week, let alone a whole year. But Mystery Jets' "You Can't Fool Me Dennis"—which technically came out in the U.K. last October—has just enough wild mood swings and oddball lyrical touches to stand out among a crowd of dirty pretty things:

Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis [MP3, link expired]
Mystery Jets [MySpace]

"Do It To It," the first single by the Atlanta foursome Cherish, pays reverent homage to "Oh," the scorching Ciara-Ludacris collaboration that ruled our boomboxes a scant 18 months ago. Of course, it always helps to have great source material when your Xeroxing is pretty much wholesale, but the part in the chorus where, in four-part harmony, Cherish sings "Do it, do it, do it, do it" is an absolutely sublime pop moment, and it remained lodged in our brain long past our first (and second, and 105th) listen.

Cherish - Do It To It [MP3, link expired]
Cherish [MySpace]

Compiling a year-end Top 10 list means making plenty of painful nips, tucks, and tweaks. And so, as we prepare our Jackin' Pop singles lists, we present "Stuck At Eleven," a daily look at the songs that came thisclose to making the final cut.

Everyone wants Kelis to make a start-to-finish great record, but that's looking less likely with each new album: Kelis Was Here has a half-dozen or so exciting moments—including "Bossy," which at least got some Kels some love on the radio—but at 17 songs, it's just too damn long and unwieldy. The Scott Storch-produced "Trilogy," though, is a bubbly '80s throwback that maintains Kelis' idiosyncrasy—when she talks about wanting to travel through space, she sounds as if she actually wants to travel through space—while still dropping a Jacob reference.

Kelis - Trilogy [MP3, link expired]