These are some of my favorite songs from the concluding year. Songs not singles.
They are generally, but not exclusively, pulled from albums that aren’t in my evolving Top 10 list for 2009. Too, they are less in order of priority than listed chronologically. One other note: The author does not guarantee certain songs were not released on Latvian 7″ in 2008, or are actually covers of krautrockers Can or Donna Summer, certain limitations apply, mileage my vary, see your dealer for details.
Click on any of these songs to hear my choices for Part III:
A.C. Newman – “There May Be Ten or Twelve” from Get Guilty. Wow this song would be great live. Get Guilty was out in the first couple weeks of 2009 and there wasn’t another purely pop record that bettered it the rest of the year.
Cut Off Your Hands – “Happy as Can Be” from You & I. “Happy” is one of the few songs from You & I that haven’t been floating around as a downloads or on 7″ since 2007 and 2008. It’s also atypical of the rest of the New Zealanders work. Wish I had seen them at Kilby Court in March.
Franz Ferdinand –“What She Came For” from Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. I thought Tonight was a great album and “What She Came For” shows off a little Red Hot Chili Pepper punk funk.
The Crocodiles –“I Wanna Kill” from Summer of Hate. Probably a dozen bands do gauzy lo-fi better than the Crocodiles but none of them had a better single.
The Sounds – “Midnight Sun” from Crossing the Rubicon. Some part of artistic maturity is just liking what you like whether or not it seems uncool. Which this definitely is.
Girls – “Laura” from Album. I’m interested to see Girls when they play Salt Lake in February because I’m not quite feeling them like every other blogger on planet Earth. Some of the sad sack vocals are a nice Paul Westerberg touch.
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down – “Learn Better Know Faster” from Learn Better Know Faster
Thomas Function – “Picking Scabs” from In the Valley of Sickness. Southern fried Sex Pistols.
Alec Ounsworth – “Bones in the Grave” from Mo Beauty. These songs are much more challenging and worthwhile to me than Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
El Perro Del Mar – “Gotta Get Smart” from Love is Not Pop EP. Light-as-air atmospherics from Sarah Assbring and fellow Swede Rasmus Hägg of Studio.
Jesu – “Losing Streak” from Opiate Sun EP. This song is the highlight of an EP that didn’t exactly add to Justin Broadrick’s canon like Lifeline or Conqueror but didn’t detract from it either.
Brother Ali – “Us” from Us. I hoped Brother Ali, from Twin City’s alternative urban scene, was going to turn out an entire album of gospel-infused narrative rap. Alas no.
The Flaming Lips – “Evil” from Embryonic. “Evil” again displays the Lips peerless ability to convey the most profound musical ideas with the simplest arrangements.
Viva Voce – “Octavio” from Rose City.
Eulogies – “Two Can Play” from Here Anonymous. Lovely, if somewhat feckless, melancholy pop.
Ramona Falls – “I Say Fever” from Intuit. Here’s a barnburner to finish my Top 50 songs for 2009. The whole number from Brent Knopf just thobs but the real payoff is at the 3:00 mark.
I managed to avoid most of my Top 10 albums in this list. That post is next. Oooo…Always tease into break!
Nice series of posts – I will be using them as a reference next time I’m poking around for songs to buy.