The Top Forty Songs of 2009
Alright, it’s that time again, the single best part of the whole calendar year. No, I’m not talking about Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or any of that mess. Not even Festivus. I’m talking about End Of Year Music List Time! That special moment when we can all come together and argue for hours on end about the exclusion or inclusion of this or that band that nobody will even remember next December. OK, folks, dig in below the jump.
40) Fire Ant | Bibio
from “Ambivalence Avenue”
Bibio usually makes the kind of techno that helps slip you off to sleep, typically sitting somewhere on Pandora playlists between Boards of Canada and Brian Eno. But here he channels more caffeinated fare like RJD2 or Prefuse 73, chopping up a sample-heavy beat like he’s been doing it his whole career. Not sure why he needed that boring thirty second intro, though.
39) Warm Heart Of Africa (Feat. Ezra Koenig) | The Very Best
from “Warm Heart of Africa”
The Vampire Weekend frontman lends a hand on the catchy title tune, the name cribbed from the official slogan of Malawi’s tourist department. Here’s hoping they don’t get copyright suit crazy. How could a pamphlet compete with this in making a case for your country?
38) Make Her Say (Feat. Kanye West And Common)| Kid Cudi
from “Man on the Moon”
Somehow one-upping performance artist par excellence/occasional musician Lady Gaga, Cudi and Pals gleefully appropriate both her voice and her bravado from “Poker Face”. Cudi heads straight towards the gutter with this one, and Kanye and Common don’t seem too shy about jumping in with him to share their own lurid tales of cocksmanship.
37) Lithium | The Bad Plus
from “For All I Care”
The Minneapolis jazz trio sound like they’re actually on the title drug in this loopy but inspired take on the Nirvana classic. See also their versions of Comfortably Numb and Barracuda.
36) I Want You To Keep Everything | These United States
from “Everything Touches Everything”
Over, baby, we’re over
Jesse Elliot and company do a bang-up Tom Petty impression in this throwback rocker, a rare breath of Americana in an age of avant-garde knob-noodling.
35) Surf Solar | Fuck Buttons
from “Tarot Sport”
And speaking of avant-garde knob-noodling, enter Fuck Buttons. Bravely overcoming the handicap of having the single dumbest name in electronic music, the two-piece experimental group consistently churns out the kind of challenging and bizarre techno trickery – like Surf Solar – that’ll almost make you forget that Aphex has been absent for way too long.
34) Borderline | The Flaming Lips with Stardust and White Dwarf
from “Covered, A Revolution in Sound: Warner Brothers Records”
It’d be damn near impossible to top Madonna’s bouncy original – and this one doesn’t – but it’s still a riveting song on its own. Cutting the BPM in half, they pump the song full of drums, dust and massive feedback, adding another song to the Flaming Lip’s already swollen portfolio of successful covers.
33) Any Fun | Coconut Records
from “Davy”
I’ll be up front with you: Coconut Records is really just Jason Schwartzman. Yep, the main dude from Rushmore. But thankfully, Davy feels more like a visit from Ben Kweller’s brother than The Return of Bruno. This is no vanity project banged out between takes. Just undeniably infectious, piano-driven pop about that worst of relationship sins : becoming lame.
32) Despicable Dogs | Small Black
from “Small Black”
It’s a banner year for drowsy, fuzz-drenched electro-pop, Small Black’s specialty. The steady boom-kak of the drum machine is the only disciplined element on display, keeping time while garbled guitar tones and a muffled organ fight for control of the track. And the vocalist, singing from a mic I can only assume was recovered from a wet dumpster, is so pained with nostalgia he sounds like he could nod off at any minute. That may not sound like an endorsement, but I swear it is.
31) All or Nothing | Au Revoir Simone
from “Still Night, Still Light”
An excellent case of compare and contrast with the previous song. Whereas Small Black run their digi-glitch equipment through the ringer, Au Revoir Simone sounds like they just pulled the keyboards out of the box. Everything’s clean and absolute, right-angles and ultimatums, and the girls go about their tune craft as cold and professionally as a brain surgeon. Yet that icy remove doesn’t preclude a graceful touch.
30) Rave On (Ft. Zooey Deschanel)| M. Ward
from “Hold Time”
M. Ward smartly brings back She and Him collaborator Deschanel to help him out with the Buddy Holly hit. The two know better than to try to top Buddy at his pace, so the track gets slowed to a syrupy crawl, becoming more bedside serenade than sock-hop anthem.
29) Heart Skipped A Beat | XX
from “XX”
This entire album is a How-To for building baroque pop from the most minimal of musical elements, and you could probably snag any song off of it to make that case. But this one’s being making the rounds for a reason – it’s stupid gorgeous – so here you go.
28) Alocatel | Mexican Institute of Sound
from “Soy Sauce”
DJ Camilo Lara, the brainchild behind M.I.S., is also, incidentally, the president of EMI Mexico. But don’t be fooled: this ain’t music for stuffed shirts. This stuff moves. I jammed along to Lara’s irresistible combo of mariachi, funk, hip-hop, and techno forever before I got even mildly curious about what the lyrics were actually saying. According to Google Translate, it’s got something to do with 1) being armed and dangerous 2) helping old ladies across the street 3) using “strawberries” as a term of insult, and 4) vowing to not make music like the Strokes and Pink Floyd, via the help of cowbells and tambourines. In other words, the usual pop clichés.
27) Deadbeat Summer | Neon Indian
from “Psychic Chasms”
A warped old disco record plays out of your massive woodgrained 70’s Hi-Fi, the volume bobbing up and down from distortions in the twisted vinyl. And then your little brother comes in and screws with the left-right fader, and only a sincere threat of serious clobbering convinces him to beat it. But you have to admit, it made a kinda cool effect, and you end up wishing you had a way to record it.
26) So Ambitious (feat. Pharrell) | Jay-Z
from “Blueprint III”
I’m not saying I like this track better than D.O.A. or Empire State of Mind, but they’ve gotten all the love everywhere else, so why not let the bench get a chance? This is Jay doing his usual look-at-me-then/look-at-me-now number, but even on autopilot he soars above everyone else in rap right now. Killer horns, sick drums, and three verses of Jay settling scores from all those who said “You can’t do that” early on:
There’s few writers in my cipher.
So they made light of, my type of
Dreams seem dumb, they said wise up.
How many guys, uh, you see making it from here?
The world don’t like us, is that not clear?
Alright but I’m different:
I can’t base what I’m gon’ be off of what everybody isn’t
25) Walkabout f. Noah Lennox | Atlas Sound
from “Logos”
Again, another interesting, unintentional contrast between the previous song and this one. Though obviously Atlas uses very different means of conveying the message than Jay-Z, they’re both about not letting circumstances or people keep you from becoming what you want to be.
What did you want to see?
What did you want to be
when you grew up?
To go away and not look back
And think of what the others say
To go ahead and change your life
Without regard to what they said.
24) Hey, Snow White | The New Pornographers
from “Dark is the Night”
Yet another reason to pick up the excellent Dark is the Night compilation, this track is testament to the power of repetition divided by emotion. Each time they say the same set of words they take on a different texture, and by the end, “It’s gonna be alright” sounds like the least comforting thing a person could ever hear.
23) Lust for Life | Girls
from “Girls”
Oh, I wish I had a suntan.
Oh, I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine.
Oh, I wish I had a beach house.
Then we could make a big fire every night.
Instead I’m just crazy, I’m totally mad
Yeah I’m just crazy, I’m fucked in the head
And maybe if I really tried with all of my heart
Then I could make a brand new start in love with you
You gotta lotta nerve, Girls, naming a song the same as that classic Royal Caribbean Cruise theme Iggy Pop punk classic. But I’ll let you slide this time. This is such a intoxicating little lump of indie schizophrenia, equal parts world-weariness and young desire, that I can’t really stay mad at ya.
22) Love is a Wave | Crystal Stilts
Sounding like a thirty year old beach-pop eight-track left in the sun, “Love is a Wave” is, sadly, not a response song to a rival band positing a “Love is a Particle” thesis. It’s just a charmingly sloppy summertime romp that does its job in two minutes flat. What’s not to like?
21) Tightrope | Yeasayer
from “Dark Was the Night”
So I think I can solve all my problems by myself
Nevermind, nevermind, nevermind, nevermind
And you think you can solve all your problems by yourself
Nevermind, nevermind, nevermind, nevermind
The song that first sold me on the Dark was the Night compilation was also the first one to make me pay attention to this Yeasayer thing. The band deserves a lot of credit for finding the perfect container for those disheveled, shivering vocals that can sound furious and fragile, all in the same breath.
20) 10 Bricks Ft Cappadonna and Ghostface Killah| Raekwon
from “Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. II”
The wife ran, white van pulled up
They caught him out in Brooklyn with a white man
Slutted out, rosed out, sister was gone, she geeking
She threw the rifle in her mouth and said ‘good evening’
It would’ve been impossible to top the energy of the original Linx, but on tracks like this, Rae, Ghost, and Cap at least duplicate it. With the help of a beat that sounds like the audio version of the Psycho shower-stab, the crew spin a lush tale of urban criminality that’s half ridiculous and half reportage.
19) Stillness Is The Move | Solange
Let me take a breath. Okay.
It’s a R & B cover by Beyonce’s little sister of an inescapable indie song from this year by experimental group The Dirty Projectors that itself cribs part of its lyrics from the voiceover to a German arthouse movie about angels, and, oh, I should also mention that it samples the beat from a Dr. Dre song that was a sped-up reworking of a track from Shaft.
Whew.
I think that’s all you need to know.
And, oh, it’s damn good.
18) My Girls | Animal Collective
from “Merriweather Post Pavillion”
I don’t mean to seem like I
Care about material things,
Like social stats,
I just want
Four walls and adobe slats
For my girls
Every new generation learns the old lessons for themselves and it took this AnCo synth-shower to teach the hipsters “Money ain’t everything”. They could’ve gotten the gist listening to The Hollie’s “All I Need is The Air That I Breathe”, but this does have better drumming, I guess.
17) Talking Like You (Two Tall Mountains) | Connie Converse
from “How Sad, How Lovely”
Talented-beyond-her-years folkie tries to make it in New York in the 1950’s, meets only rejection and depression, and packs it up to Michigan. After leaving a note in 1974, she’s never heard from again. Fortunately for us, her incredible music is having a better third act than she did.
16) Night By Night | Chromeo
Note to TV producers of the future:
When you’re putting together that remake of Miami Vice in 2049, about a pair of pastel-tinted, oversexed robot detectives hot on the trail of international cyber-drug-runners, this is your title track.
You’re welcome.
15) Freeway | Kurt Vile
from “God Is Saying This To You.”
Sometimes my reckless ways,
Shock my self-system for days.
Now I’m channelling my faze,
In an anacin haze.
A late-night, post-bar, pre-pancakes, mid-regret, vehicle to get you from here to there in one piece – probably.
14) Feel it All Around | Washed Out
from “Life of Leisure”
In a perfect world, this is the kind of product easy-listening stations would be blasting non-stop. After all, the stoners and the lovers can’t be that far apart on the Slow Jam Venn Diagram. Alas, it seems this kind of hazy, headphone-friendly loveliness will continue to stay segregated to dorm-room iPods and internet radio.
13) Two Weeks | Grizzly Bear
from “Veckatimest”
Would you always,
Maybe sometimes
Make it easy
Take your time
It’s not the most representative Grizzly Bear track, that’s for sure. The Brooklyn-based (aren’t they all, these days?) indie band normally specializes in sleepy drone rock best enjoyed with chemical accompaniment. But if you’re wanting to showcase sheer talent, this piano powered rocker is the way to go.
12) Moth’s Wings | Passion Pit
from “Manners”
Michael Angelakos has a voice that encourages conflicting interpretations. I don’t mean whether people love it or hate it, though that’s certainly true, too. I mean it invites ambiguity where you’d least expect it. The lyrics and the music on Moth’s Wings play out like an epic scold, an invitation to take the next flight out of town, but the quivering falsetto seems to be begging the object of affection to fly back down to Earth. Thankfully, it’s such an infectious track that playing it over and over to figure out its contradictions doesn’t seem like that bad a prospect.
11) Pursuit of Happiness (Steve Aoki Remix) | Kid Cudi
from “Man on the Moon”
Tell me what you know about dreaming, dreaming,
You don’t really know about nothing, nothing,
Tell me what you know about them night terrors every night,
Five A.M., cold sweats wakin’ up to the skies
I always start on the fence whether I like this or the original version better, but by the time the giant keyboard tsunami wave hits at :45 in, I remember it’s not really any kind of contest.
10) Ambling Alp | Yeasayer
from “Odd Blood”
Now, the world can be an unfair place at times
But your lows will have their complement of highs
And if anyone should cheat you, take advantage of, or beat you
Raise your head and wear your wounds with pride
You must stick up for yourself, son
Never mind what anybody else done
The wiggly, hypnotic music says Animal Collective, but the pleading vocals and melodies conjure up notes of none other than Culture Club. An oddly insistent little ditty that uses Joe Louis and his rivals to sing the praises of pursuing self-interest, world-at-large be damned. [NSFW video]
9) I And Love And You | The Avett Brothers
from “I And Love And You”
One foot in and one foot back
But it don’t pay to live like that
So I cut the ties and I jumped the tracks
For never to return.
Ah, Brooklyn Brooklyn, take me in.
Are you aware the shape I’m in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins,
Ah, Brooklyn Brooklyn, take me in
The Avett Brothers have long made doing nothing that fancy seem like something pretty special, but they’ve outdone themselves on the Rick Rubin produced I and Love and You. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, the saying goes, and you can definitely see that principle in action on the title track about jumping without a net.
8. French Navy | Camera Obscura
from “My Maudlin Career”
Spent a week in a dusty library
Waiting for some words to jump at me.
We met by a trick of fate,
French navy, my sailor mate,
We met by the moon on a silvery lake.
You came my way,
Said, I want you to stay
Befitting their name, Camera Obscura spin a cinematic tale of foreign legions and love gone to pot over a Spector-style sound wall that all but grabs you by the collar and forces you to listen and lament alongside them.
7) Psychic City (Voodoo City) | YACHT
from “See Mystery Lights”
I used to live in a voodoo city,
Where every little thing had it’s own secret life.
I might be washing up the dishes
And the kitchen might say,
“Hang around baby baby, hang around baby baby,
Hang around baby we’ll be baking a cake for you.
I first dismissed this as a silly novelty song. I now praise it as a silly novelty song.
6) Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix) | Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I’m convinced Karen O makes a better dance-floor diva than a riot grrrl. I’m always more taken with club targeted remixes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs than I am of the originals and this album hasn’t reversed that trend. If you can get past the generic thump-thump-thump of the beginning, you’ll find a track that’s been given the adrenaline it needed all along, lending O’s throaty threats and commands the power they deserve:
Off, off with your head! Dance, dance till you’re dead!
Heads will roll, heads will roll on the floor.
5) My Body’s A Zombie For You | Dead Man’s Bones
from “Dead Man’s Bones”
An indie movie actor leading a children’s choir on a song about supernatural sexuality sounds like all the ingredients needed for Shitty Music Stew. But somehow Ryan Gosling, Ryan Shields, and the Silverlake Conservatory Children’s Choir pull off this weird, sway-inducing anthem without coming off like a complete joke. If you ever wondered what the Langley Music School Project would sound like if they hooked up with the weird, sketchy janitor instead of the hippie music teacher, this is it.
4) Lisztomania | Phoenix
from “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”
A deservedly inescapable little earworm proves that, every now and then, things are popular for a reason.
3) Daniel | Bat for Lashes
from “Two Suns”
Subscribing to song-of-the-day podcasts is an exercise in patience and standards-lowering. The listener gets used to “good enough”, and being blown away by a track is usually far too much to ask. So, after months of the mediocre and merely passable, a song like “Daniel” made me stop everything I was doing and check out what the heck I was hearing. Sure enough, it was the brilliant Natasha Khan, and as usual, every element clicked. From the lyrics to the music to the voice to the video, I was sold the second I came in contact.
2) Hold the Line ft. Mr. Lexx and Santigold | Major Lazer
from “Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do”
Diplo and Switch, going under the moniker Major Lazer for some reason, steal the spotlight from guest stars Lexx and Santigold by throwing down a Dick Dale-meets-dancehall beat that clocks in around, oh, 440 miles an hour. I don’t know half of what either vocalist is talking about and with a backing track this propulsive, I doubt I’ll ever care.
1) Home | Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
from “From Below”
Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie,
chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
Ain’t nothin’ please me more than you
As soon as I finished listening to “Home” for the first time, I knew it’d be my number one song of the year. Unpretentious, unironic, and utterly unashamed of being big, fun, and a little dumb, it wears its throwback twang and oversized emotion on its sleeve.
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What a great post! Not that I have an opinion about your selections, sad to say but I only recognized a couple of artists, but with your included links and commentary I’ll now be able to simulation hipness–at least for a few months!