THE 50 BEST SONGS of 2009: PART FIVE

THE SINGLES FINALE...









10: Metric
Gold Guns Girls

The fabulous electro-based pop we’ve been waiting for in vain by Kelly Clarkson ends up here instead on Emily Haines’ tongue. She has stated in interviews that the song deals with the ennui that faces those who can never seem to get enough of whatever they reach for but the smartly-contrived pop beat underlines the complexity of this impasse. Pop music of late has offered anything this intelligent or probing outside of FrYars so it’s great to see Americans still clenching hard to a fleeting idealism.





9: Here we go Magic
Fangela

My guess is that finally there’s a term to describe a Jewish vampire but you can’t go by my interpretation. What is clear though is the brilliant juxtaposition of the glossy soundscapes and an undeniable 80s vibe so much so that Luke Temple can reflect shimmering electro-hi claps at will.





8: Major Lazer feat. Santigold & Mr. Lexx Hold the Line

Even when tinkering with dancehall, Diplo and Switch grab Santi and explode gloriously.




7: Yeah Yeah Yeah
Heads will Roll

A swift rollick into the depths of punk, O-style (‘dance/ dance/ dance ‘til you’re dead’). The glamorous new wave style that the band champions is dipped in spectral synths and an urgent house beat.





6: Sunset Rubdown
Apollo & the Buffalo & Anna Anna Anna Oh

All of Krug’s tireless energy bound in one defined moment. Wrapped up in Greek mythology and fierce poetry (‘my God/ I miss the way/ we used to be’), Krug channels an inner demon we’ve never had the pleasure to witness before.




5: FrYars
Happy

Bridging the gap between Antony Hegarty and Boy George and adding his own bookish, morose yet totally dance-driven aesthetics, FrYars gets moving.





4: Grizzly Bear
While you wait For the Others

In what must surely be the oddest collaborative effort of the year, Grizzly Bear enlist soul-man McDonald to help shape this sickly-sweet psychedelic wonder. There is a substantial amount of impatience driving the beat and vocal urgency here, as if positing a response to lack of action. Even without such deep meaning though, Grizzly Bear has come up with the nascent equivalent to the cropped vocal style that made Animal Collective’s MPP such a hit.





3: Animal Collective
Guys Eyes

The band’s most challenging song on MPP because the ambivalence of sexuality rears its head. The opening couplet is a clear fight for control, the type of fight men have been losing once their second head takes over. The dizzy, repeated vocal usage is apt as if to compliment the rush of blood that floods the mind when such sexual decisions arise. So whether this is an exploration of temptation to cheat or being bi-curious or plain masturbation, Guys Eyes is a clear step-up from the bizarre topics these guys used to sing about.






2: Patrick Wolf
The Bachelor

By even his lofty standards, The Bachelor represents a triumph of passage that not even Wolf could’ve expected given the tumult that surrounded the album of the same name. Fed-up with his own securities and an expressive sexual tone that was proving worrisome to market, Wolf unfurls a ballad, somber in its own admission of that highest ideal of heterosexual bliss: marriage. Or more precisely his exclusion from it given the global Prop 8 stance that hinders gays to get hitched. This is a personal lament too however, one where the true Wolf, finally sheds his accustomed excess to strip himself bare and vulnerable.






1: Jay Z feat. Santigold
Brooklyn we go Hard

Leaked exactly a year ago for the Notorious soundtrack, the song was thankfully spared from being on Jay Z’s latest self-gratulatory album. Ignore its charm at your own peril though because this display of swagger reeks of the street chops he’s lost for the past few years. Santi’s opening couplet threatens to disrupt the flow but her verse grows in head-nodding strength as it should; the sample is from her own excellent track Shove It.

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:

Anniemal (Annie) (2004):

The electro/pop albumthat shows just how capable the genre can be. ()

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:

Figure 8 (Eliott Smith) (2000):

The final album recorded before his death proves how sadly Smith is still missed. ()

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:

Turn on the Bright Lights (Interpol) (2002):

They’ll never shake the Joy Division comparisons but here was the debut that didn’t have to care about such trivialities because it was too caught up making a surprisingly soulful point. ()

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:

Madvilliany (Madvillian) (2004):

Gimmick-filled hip/hop but innovative and brilliant as well. ()

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:

The Body, The Blood, The Machine (The Thermals) (2006):

For those naive listeners who think mainstream punk bands like Greenday matter, please pick this gem up and realise otherwise. ()

THE 100 BEST ALBUMS of 2000-2009:

White Blood Cells (The White Stripes) (2001):

The start of a remarkable decade by Jack White. ()

THE 50 BEST SONGS of 2009: PART FOUR

Part four, or, the Animal Collective edition. The band has a stunning three (3) tracks in this section. Catch the last part as soon as it gets published in the upcoming Sunday edition of The Observer (Bookends section).












20: Dead Man’s Bones
For Weddings and Funerals

Ryan Gosling as a band with fellow ghouls and this is very interesting. A little polka riff, some ghoulish vocals and Zach Shields utterly shivering wailing all combine for some pretty terrific stuff.




19: Andrew Bird
Oh No

With his signature whistling to guide him, Bird takes arresting flight among the very same harmless psychos that he so lovingly describes.




18: Elvis Perkins
Heard Your Voice in Dresden

Its big-tent revivalism peels away layers of structure for an emotional connection that is refreshing.





17: Grizzly Bear
Two Weeks

Like angelic choir music, Two Weeks is the track on Veckatimest that most enhances the band’s reputation for grand statement. It shows great maturity and adventure too. Quite a few pundits have noted how similar the track is to Dr. Dre’s Still D.R.E, with the persistent keyboard loops and indeed Grizzly Bear appear to be showcasing nuance in their choral aesthetic. Of course this can only be a good thing.




16: Animal Collective
In the Flowers

MPP’s opening track is a statement on a grand stage, with the directive of the band clear. For their many followers this was the tribute…the summation of what it feels like being on the road so far away from families, from partners, from a comfort zone. I won’t be this way too long, croons Tare and for a full minute as he loses himself into the psychedelic bliss, the whole thing collapses into shocking pink beauty. Then he cleans up in the end creating a type of cinematic sound that only a mature band could pull off.






15: Animal Collective
Also Frightened

Dub-step meets persistent electronic waves of distortion; trust Animal Collective to unearth a sub-genre within their cadre of sound. The great thing about MPP is how relatable it is to everyday situations. With the global recession still raging, the shadowy concern on Also Frightened feels terribly real. The imagery of a parent watching over their kids wondering if they are as frightened of the future as they are is worrisome but the song rises to the challenge with a defiance that gives heart. The concern seems mainly fatherly, as if welcoming a new birth into the world and wondering so many things simultaneously.



14: Prince
Valentina

While his fans continue to wait in vain for one more brilliant entire album, Prince has at least rewarded them with this gem reportedly written for Selma Hayek’s daughter. The chorus playfully recalls his heyday of effortless yet provoking music




13: Swan Lake
Paper Lace

Soul-weariness manifest yet evinces great strength even as Krug, Mercer and Bejar tackle a conventional topic such as marriage.


12: Animal Collective
Bluish

A lovesick Panda Bear gets erotic in describing his lust and love for the woman he loves but the intimacy of the detail espoused is shocking. One never thinks freak/folk as a sexual genre but here the thought of cunnilingus comes to mind in the purest love-making way. The title may refer then to the indescribable feeling the persona gets after the act and relaxing still on a high. The bubbly soundscapes juxtaposed to the low-wattage vocal style compliments the feeling of calmness.





11: FrYars
Benedict Arnold

A seamless beat ripped up with flowing Brit poetry and undoubting wry sensibilities. ‘Here on your final hour/ take your shelter/ in the shower/ I’m on your side/ in this life, in this life’, rails Garrett in a sublime fit of crashing beats and evocative multiple vocal work.

THE 50 BEST SONGS of 2009: PART THREE

Part three (3)











30: Polly Scattergood
Nitrogen Pink

No, it’s not Tori Amos recovering her mojo but 22 year-old Scattergood who has recorded the best Amos track of the year. With swelling honesty juxtaposed with slurring innocence and girly recollection the track builds on a decidedly electro-meets-party vibe that spills over once Scattergood blows it all towards the end.





29: Franz Ferdinand
Twilight Omens

A camp delight, especially with its smart lines like, ‘I put your number into my calculator’. The band’s punk style has definitely cooled but suffusing it with dance/pop has definitely started to pay off.




28: Jenny Wilson
Hardships!

Wilson has channelled her interpretation of a Simone de Beauvoir quote into an existential brilliant pop number. When she breaks out the final couplet, it collapses into this breathless, giggly thing.




27: Bat for Lashes
Glass

Fits the sprite imagery best on her sophomore Two Suns. Khan adjusts her spare atmospherics with drums and fabled lyrics and comes up with a winning combination.




26: Micachu
Vulture

Glittering cut and paste methodology works well because Mica has learnt to craft her timing.



25: Tanya Morgan
So Damn Down

Where the band reaches a level of hypnotic groove that makes it impossible not to nod your head off.




24: Fever Ray
When I Grow Up

Stunning how Dreijer manages to effortlessly juxtapose her cold soundscapes and monotone and unearth undeniable funk.



23: FrYars
The Box

A track that obsesses wryly over death and a criminal cover-up. When Garrett tears into the final couplet it becomes the sheer bliss that Antony Hegarty hasn’t produced in years.




22: Deerhunter
Rainwater Cassette Exchange

Dreamy shoegazing with lovely doo-wah twitches, proving that Cox can dip his hands into pop whenever it suits him.




21: Blackout Beach
Cloud of Evil

Epic in its giddy scope, Mercer croons his longing for Donna, the fictional character that crops up throughout his latest solo effort.

THE 50 BEST SONGS of 2009: PART TWO

Part two...










40: Jenny Wilson
Like a Fading Rainbow

A pas de deux that she alone inhabits its space, replete with groovy synths and an uncanny vocal workout that is as subtle as it is urgent.




39: Bear in Heaven
Casual Goodbye

Lo and behold the Midwestern delights come caving in with the lo-fi atmospherics run through a grated sound that strums handsomely along.




38: Ola Podrida
Your Father’s Basement

Expands nicely like an adolescent soundtrack to things vaguely remembered but always close at hand.




37: Bachelorette
Her Rotating Head

Life courses through this electronic effort easily, not quite Bjork but sufficient enough.





36: The Sandwitches
Marry Me

A stunning yet totally feminine perspective on a marriage proposal, Marry Me gives insight to what such a process means and, more importantly, what it does not.




35: Solilloquists of Sound
Heroes

Its multiple vocal female work interrupted ever so slightly by Swamburger is a sublime fit especially the overdubbed parts.




34: Ebony Bones
Smiles and Cyanide

A brittle hip/hop-pop mash up that shines despite its robotic casing.





33: Subburbia
David Duchovny

A grand mess replete with all the trappings of punk behind it. What the band achieves here is the stylistic trick of drag juxtaposed with bleeding guitars. The bass-line pops with a catchy chorus and the most gleeful cheese since the heyday of Sublime.



32: Noisettes
Never Forget You

While we pine for Amy Winehouse, here is the best refrain she’s never expressed on record.



31: The Love Language
Nightdogs

Old school heartbreak, 1950s style and it works!

TOP 50 SONGS OF 2009: Part One

The most curious thing happened with my list this year: no one song stood out largely from the others. Don’t get me wrong, I love my top pick dearly but honestly, I could have re-arranged my top seven choices and still happily not cared of the order. Therein proves a point though that it wasn’t a great year for singles but call it post-millennium blues and let’s examine the goods. Here is part one:








50: Blank Dogs
Over and Over

Creepy synths abound on this standout track on an album that explores the darkness of the goth-pop divide. The ghoulish warble that compliments the chorus has acoustic guitars and paranoia.





49: Peter, Bjorn & John
Nothing to Worry About

Apparently leaked by Kanye West , The Swedish group jingles things up fully aware that one can’t go wrong with sped-up children voices in a dance track about white heat.




48: The Fiery Furnaces
Even in the Rain

Lush yet intricate, the Friedberger siblings continue to beat the hell out of complex piano pop.



47: Cass McCombs
My Sister, My Spouse

A dreamy, psychedelic wonder that cannot mask its disturbing subject but the yearning in McCombs’ voice is enough to stop you dead in your tracks.





46: Handsome Furs
Evangeline

No word on who the title references but the husband/wife duo cull the hell from Interpol’s detached pop style and deliver the goods.



45: Tune-Yards
Sunlight

Immediately breaks out Merril Garber’s intent... inherently a mixture of metallic beats and an uncanny trip/hop vibe.





44: Chester Francis
The Jimmy Choos

It’s like having the Devil wears Prada soundtrack in your head.




43: Mos Def
Quiet Dog Bite Hard

A slow-burn hip/hop joint that proves Def hasn’t lost his witty skill.






42: St. Vincent
Actor out of Work

Just last night I saw Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge for the first time and this was the song I imagined would have been the perfect soundtrack. Go figure.



41: Sergeant Buzfuz
Rebellion with Flies

A nasal look at British popular culture but the clever lyrics are universal and hold up the inevitable passage of time as a truth no one, not the Queen, not Mick Jagger—as referenced—can avoid.