Favorite songs of 2009?
I was really out of it for most of 2009 when it comes to new music. So I’m hoping I can get caught up by checking out what everyone’s faves were this year.
Here are mine:
Silversun Pickups – “The Royal We”
I’ve probably listened to this album more than any other released this year. Over and over…and still not sick of it.
Mastodon – “Oblivion”
I love it when bands have multiple vocalists. This song features three different band members on vocals—the drummer does the first verse. My favorite part is when the guitarist starts singing.
Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
I love everything about this song, including the lofi production. But in particular these lines:
We used to dream
Now we worry about dying
Decemberists – “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid”
I think a lot of people don’t like the progressive turn the Decemberists have taken? I love it. My favorite part of this song is the female vocals in the “Repaid” section.
Everything else I’ve been listening to this year are from 2008 or earlier. (Bon Iver, Interpol, etc.) What about you?
Dark Was the Night had some of my favorite songs.
For example:
Also loved this song (along with many others) from RAA:
And maybe my fav song of the year:
don’t know if any of those embeds will work though.
Comment by Jeremy — January 6, 2010 @ 10:33 pm
In case those embeds don’t work (looks like they didn’t), these were the three tracks I was trying to post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YML_-zi_Dc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAwu63uEaUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lge2wt5aiBg
Comment by Jeremy — January 6, 2010 @ 10:37 pm
When is Kulturblog going to do a Best Albums of 2009?
Some of my favorite songs:
“Rome” by Phoenix
“Papillon” by Editors
“Vengeance is Sleeping” by Neko Case
“Wrong” by Depeche Mode (didn’t much like the rest of the album though)
“I and Love and You” by Avett Brothers
“Bluish” by Animal Collective (actually, every song on this album)
Comment by Matt Thurston — January 6, 2010 @ 11:23 pm
“Summertime Clothes” by Animal Collective
“Sovreignty” by Japandroids
“Walkabout” Atlas Sound feat. Panda Bear.
“Two Weeks” by Grizzly Bear
“All For the Best” by Thom Yorke
“Two” by The Antlers
“Growin’ Trade” by Levon Helm (Though the whole album is basically perfect.)
“Last Dance” by The Raveonettes
“Dragon Queen” Yeah Yeah Yeahs feat. Tunde Adebimbe
“Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zero’s
Comment by Tyler — January 6, 2010 @ 11:55 pm
susan, i loved “oblivion” and “young hearts spark fire.”
my other favorites:
-
Comment by mike d. — January 7, 2010 @ 12:49 am
oops, continued.
my other favorites:
- japandroids, “wet hair”
- baroness, “sweetest curse”
- passion pit, “reeling”
- neon indian, “deadbeat summer”
tyler, funny that you like “sovreignty.” i liked the song, but thought there were several better songs on the album. i like that people can listen to the same album though and have different songs latch onto them.
Comment by mike d. — January 7, 2010 @ 12:55 am
The best albums for me are when different songs latch on to me at different times, which is what happened with the latest Silversun Pickups.
I’d do an album post but I don’t have many albums from 2009. I’ve been slacking.
Comment by Susan M — January 7, 2010 @ 9:20 am
Wrong – Depeche
I Just Knew – Better Than Ezra
Low Rising – Swell Season
I’m sure there were more, but I can’t think right now…
Comment by gabby — January 7, 2010 @ 9:33 am
Actually, I may have love In Chains more than Wrong…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IicRRRjG3sI
Comment by gabby — January 7, 2010 @ 9:37 am
Some great stuff here. Keep ‘em coming. Stand outs for me so far have been:
Rural Alberta Advantage
Avett Brothers
Animal Collective (“Summertime Clothes” which I was already familiar with)
Passion Pit (the video for that song is cool)
And gabby, would you believe I didn’t know the Swell Season had a new album out this year? That’s how out of it I’ve been.
Comment by Susan M — January 7, 2010 @ 10:14 am
Really? Wow. I even posted it on my blog! You have been out of it.
I try to like Avett Brothers. I just can’t.
Loving Passion Pit, though.
Comment by gabby — January 7, 2010 @ 10:34 am
“Daylight” by Matt & Kim
“The Great Defector” by Bell X-1
“Folding Chair” by Regina Spektor
“Don’t Haunt This Place” by Rural Alberta Advantage
Some others I’ll think of in time.
The new Silversun Pickups hasn’t really caught on for me yet, but “Panic Switch” is an okay song.
Comment by BTD Greg — January 7, 2010 @ 12:34 pm
I probably overplayed SP’s Swoon when it first came out, so the songs have lost some of their luster. I liked both The Royal We and Panic Switch, but my favorite track from the album is probably Growing Old is Getting Old.
Love the Pickups sound — esp the way Brian Aubert’s androgynous voice slithers and snakes around the guitar lines — but Swoon sounds a little same-y following Carnavas, dontchathink?
Comment by Matt Thurston — January 7, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
Not for me. I actually never got into Carnavas and it wasn’t until I got totally obsessed with Swoon that I gave it another try. I like it but find myself listening to Swoon much more. My first fave off of Swoon was “Panic Switch,” then it became “It’s Nice To Know You Work Alone,” then “Spiraling,” then “The Royal We.” And somewhere in there were all the rest as well.
Swoon was a grower (which always have the staying power) and I’m sure Carnavas would be for me too if I spent enough time on it.
Comment by Susan M — January 7, 2010 @ 1:20 pm
Makes sense. I was a Pickups early adopter and loved Carnavas to death. Swoon’s probably just as good, it just didn’t come first for me, and lacks that fresh/new feeling I felt with Carnavas.
I kinda hope they try something new with their third album.
gabby, what from Avett Bros have you tried? I and Love and You may be a tad too precious. I prefer Mignonette and the two Gleam EPs.
Comment by Matt Thurston — January 7, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
In no particular order, my favorites of 2009 were:
“Marrow” – St. Vincent
“1901″ – Phoenix
“Arrow” – Tegan and Sara
“Toy Boy” – Mika
“Major Tom (Coming Home)” – Shiny Toy Guns
“Laughing With” – Regina Spektor
Comment by Mudhead — January 7, 2010 @ 1:39 pm
Matt – the whole of Emotionalism. I’m not sure what I was expecting (but, a lot…EVERYONE recommended them!) and I just didn’t love them, but felt I should.
I’ll check out the ones you listed.
I agree with “Laughing With” – Regina Spektor and Mika.
Comment by gabby — January 7, 2010 @ 1:58 pm
Pretty much all of the New Moon Soundtrack is great listening. The Thom Yorke, Bon Iver & St. Vincent, Killers, and Band of Skulls songs are standouts.
Others:
“Hindsight” – Built to Spill
“Stone’s Ode” and “The Hidden Stone” – Mount Eerie
“Someday” Tegan and Sara
“Blue” Regina Spektor
“Skeletons” and “Little Shadow” Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Comment by Andres — January 7, 2010 @ 4:48 pm
Sometimes I feel like the music comments at KB are a competition to see who can name more obscure bands and look most hip.
I’ve only even heard of a hand of these- where do you guys find them all?
Comment by Tracy M — January 7, 2010 @ 7:06 pm
Everything is obscure these days. It’s nothing special.
Most of the stuff that’s not obscure is horrible. Like Nickelback.
Comment by BTD Greg — January 7, 2010 @ 7:13 pm
Tracy, there’s places all over the net to find music. Pandora, Pitchfork, stereogum, etc.
Comment by Susan M — January 7, 2010 @ 8:10 pm
Ha! LOL Tracy, you nailed it. Obscurity is the currency of hipness among the musical cognoscenti. It’s obnoxious but true. Anything well-known or (gasp! choke! dare I speak it?) popular is automatically discarded out-of-hand.
Comment by MCQ — January 7, 2010 @ 8:16 pm
Actually, the real hipsters these days are always careful to mix in a little bit of straight pop. This is why you always see Pitchfork plugging music by people like Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift, when they are not being condescending and snarky.
Comment by BTD Greg — January 7, 2010 @ 8:27 pm
Agreed, Greg, but you have to admit there’s a fair amount of musical snobbery that says everything that sells more than 1000 copies must have something wrong with it.
Comment by MCQ — January 7, 2010 @ 8:39 pm
And Pitchfork should really go away and die of a terrible disease, don’t you think?
Comment by MCQ — January 7, 2010 @ 8:40 pm
To be honest, I’ve only read about two reviews on Pitchfork, and they were so annoying that I’ve never read anything else that site has ever posted.
But I assume it’s a good resource to find out what new releases are out.
Comment by Susan M — January 7, 2010 @ 9:52 pm
Maybe it’s just cuz it makes me all sentimental, but I’m surprised nobody else has included “Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zero’s. I figured it would fit in well with this crowd. ’09′s cutest song.
How about “No Intention” by the Dirty Projectors? That guy can play the guitar.
“Love Like a Sunset Pt 1″ by Phoenix
“What Would I Want? Sky” by Animal Collective
“Graze” by Animal Collective
“On a Highway” by Animal Collective
“Keep the Streets Empty for Me” by Fever Ray
Fever Ray was a stellar release!
Wilco (The Album) would be my most disappointing album of ’09.
Comment by Tyler — January 8, 2010 @ 12:11 am
How about:
Comment by MCQ — January 8, 2010 @ 1:19 am
[...] here it is, because you demanded it. The list of the top albms of 2009. I was hoping we could do this in a dialogue like last year, or [...]
Pingback by Kulturblog » 2009 Albums of the Year — January 8, 2010 @ 2:52 am
Hasn’t it become trendy to bash Pitchfork? Or are did we already reach the backlash-against-backlash-against-Pitchfork stage?
Whatever the case, I find that their reviewers consistently underrate qualities that I value. But I got to watch the Low documentary many months ago when it was streamed by them so I gotta give them props for that.
My favorite songs of the year were mainly songs from 2008, but I do like:
Gimme Sympathy and Help I’m Alive from Fantasies by Metric
1901 from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
Actors Out of Work from Actor by St. Vincent
Feeling the Pull from Strict Joy by the Swell Season
And that’s about it. The only I album I bought this year was Fantasies. And I have yet to go through most of my The Current Song of the Day tracks (and possibly lost almost all of them to a hard drive crash) so most of the newish music I listened to this year was all from 2008. For the second year in a row, my album of the year is Boxer by The National.
And I rely on the following sources to find out about music:
Kulturblog
Sound Opinions podcast
NPR All Songs Considered podcast
The Current Song of the Day podcast
Comment by Wm Morris — January 8, 2010 @ 9:30 am
Tracy M and McQ: I’m not sure I buy the argument that most of the songs I’m seeing here are obscure, or represents any Hipness Factor by those who selected them.
Take for example my list, which included songs by St. Vincent, Pheonix, Regina Spektor, and Mika. Yes, I wouldn’t put them in the Lady Gaga/Taylor Swift/50 Cent category of massive hits. But they did have strong followings. Their albums were prominently reviewed on the Washington Post when they were first released. Their songs received extensive airplay on some of the Sirius/XM stations (especially those who cater to college-age music fans).
St. Vincent, Phoenix, Mika, and Regina Spektor were all profiled on one of the NPR shows (All Things Considered or Morning/Weekend Edition.) They all did the rounds on the late night TV talk shows. And a couple of the songs on my list were optioned for TV commercials (though I have to admit to some Hip Pride that I heard them and added them to my collection long before the advertisers discovered them).
So none of these were platinum-record top sellers in 2009, but their marketers did a respectable job of getting their names and songs out in the ether.
I also agree with Wm Morris. When I went to my list of most-listened tracks (according to my iTunes), I was surprised at how few from 2009 I listened to regularly. Most of my favorites were released in 2008 or 2007. Either I didn’t discover them until this last year (points off on the Hipness Scale), or I got them at the time and continued to listened to them as favorites this year.
Comment by Mudhead — January 8, 2010 @ 3:44 pm
All Pitchfork baggage aside, when I reviewed their top 100 singles and albums lists for 2009, I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t a very great year for music. I also had a lot of new music in 2008 that I liked better and when I sat down to try to come up with a list of top albums of the decade, I’m not sure any from 2009 made the list.
Comment by BTD Greg — January 8, 2010 @ 3:49 pm
Mudhead, I would agree that none of the bands you mentioned qualify as obscure, nor are most of the other choices on this thread, with some exceptions. My comment was really not directed at this thread specifically, but rather music criticism and discussions generally, especially online.
It’s also true that the vast majority of the public would find even most of the bands mentioned on this thread to be pretty unheard-of. But that’s likely to be because the public is about a year behind those who actively seek out new music.
For example, most of the public is just finding out about Kings of Leon in 2009, even though their most recent album came out in 2008.
Comment by MCQ — January 8, 2010 @ 5:46 pm
Hmmm. I think you’re probably right about that. I notice that most of the bands from the “Bands of the Decade” thread did not have albums that came out in 2009.
Comment by MCQ — January 8, 2010 @ 5:49 pm
I thought their top lists for 2009 were a little weak too, but they did convince me to give the new Baroness album a listen, which I now know totally rules.
Also for those that like the Japandroids they were on Jimmy Fallon this week. You can probably view it at NBC.com.
Comment by mike d. — January 8, 2010 @ 6:15 pm
The best two songs of the year, hands down, were by the same band: “1901″ and “Lisztomania” by Phoenix. I also like “Two Weeks” by Grizzly Bear and “People Got A Lotta Nerve” by Neko Case. Also the Weezer song “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” and Wilco’s “You Never Know.”
Comment by Greg — January 8, 2010 @ 7:20 pm
Here’s that performance mike:
Comment by MCQ — January 8, 2010 @ 7:37 pm
Man I love those guys. Thanks for posting that MCQ. The kids in the back totally crack me up.
Comment by Susan M — January 8, 2010 @ 7:58 pm
Japandroids are OK (STUPID name aside) but they sound so much like Raise-era Swervedriver that I can’t see why you wouldn’t just listen to that. I grew up on that sound, so I guess I can’t complain about someone sounding like something I like. Good for them for getting some more mileage out of that sound.
Comment by Brian V — January 8, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
I’m glad a few others are saying that 2009 wasn’t a very strong year for music. I wanted to contribute some thoughts/comments on this post and not just be an old “get off my lawn” curmudgeon who doesn’t appreciate new bands.
So last night I spent some time going through two online lists of best albums from 2009. One was a top 40 list and one was a top 50 list. I also went through a list of albums that have been released in 2009 that was on wikipedia – and there were even some bands on there that had past material I’ve liked.
Still, I had a lot of trouble finding -anything- to appreciate.
The one song that was kind of interesting, in a superficial but fun way, was a song by the Drums called “Let’s Go Surfing.”
Here’s the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OsTUnkqSi4
Musically, sort of reminds me of a chirpy or cheerful version of the Jesus and Mary Chain or the Cure. If that’s possible. Actually, after writing out this whole comment, it reminds me a little bit of Joy Division too. I tried listening to some of the other songs by the same band and they weren’t as immediately accessible – but it was only one or two listens.
By the way, I didn’t love this Jet song “K.I.A.”, but the video was really unusual. Never seen a deli slicer used in quite that way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6JwF9SjNAs
So those are my attempts to find something laudatory for 2009.
One of the things I look for in music is some kind of immediate connection. Yes, there are songs that get better and better the more you listen to them (I feel U2′s 2009 album was that way) – but a great song will smack you on the head the first time you hear it. I haven’t really found anything from 2009 that does that for me. But I’m still thinking about it. There has to be something.
Comment by danithew — January 9, 2010 @ 6:54 am
Thank you, you are so right.
Not sure what you’re looking for but I hope you find it and tell us about it. For me, the biggest “smack me on the head” songs this year were from Band of Skulls. But that’s just me. I think it’s always different for everyone.
Comment by MCQ — January 9, 2010 @ 12:50 pm
By like Joy Division, do you mean the bass line, danithew? Because that’s the only thing I can see relating at all.
Comment by Wm Morris — January 9, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
That Jet video is just so wrong.
Comment by MCQ — January 9, 2010 @ 11:23 pm
William, that would be it. I’m still trying to figure out how to categorize them.
Comment by danithew — January 10, 2010 @ 7:41 am