Top 20 songs of 2009

As can be heard on my latest JeffMix podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes here.

20. “Quiet Little Voices” by We Were Promised Jetpacks
If you were actually expecting quiet little voices, you’d be highly disappointed. But you’d get a shouty Kasabian-meets-Arctic Monkeys debut single from the promising Scot band with the best name in rock. Best line: “Quiet little voices / creep into my head / I’m young again, I’m young again.”


19. “I Love College” by Asher Roth
I don’t care what anyone says, this is a great song. Best line: “I am champion at beer pong / Allen Iverson, Hakeem Olajuwon.”


18. “Shelia” by Atlas Sound
Fragile Bradford Cox makes the most delicate love song of the year. Best line: “Shelia / You’ll be my wife / you’ll share my life.”


17. “Embers” by Just Jack
Captivating, poignant and virtually ignored in North America. Hope this one gains some traction next year. Best line: “Through all of the develish things we do / We are all embers / from the same fire.”


16. “Warm Heart of Africa” by The Very Best ft. Ezra Koenig
The Very Best give Vampire Weekend singer Koenig a chance to go even more Graceland. Fun stuff. Best line: “Zip operator / I don’t know / The boys move fast / You should take it slow.”


15. “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap
I thought this song would get a more sizable bump from its prominent placement in the decent rock-romance flick (500) Days of Summer, but I clearly don’t know much about the music business. I’ll take this over Owl City any day. Best line: “A moment, a love / A dream, aloud / A kiss, a cry / our rights, our wrongs.”


14. “Raindrops” by Basement Jaxx
A stomping, welcome return from Simon and Felix. The Jaxx was baxx in 2009. Best line: “On those lonely afternoons, in June / I need you / Just like raindrops.”


13. “Quiet Dog” by Mos Def
This might be the first boogie-woogie rap song, expertly done by Mos Def, sounding smoother and groovier than ever. Grab your zoot suit. Best line: “And the rocket don’t stop / Brooklyn and the kids heat up the stovetop.”


12. “Something Good Can Work” by Two Door Cinema Club
Big things are in store for the barely-out-of-their-teens trio from Ireland, and no wonder based on this infectious, exuberant, well-crafted first single. Can you tell I like it? Best line: “Let’s make this happen, girl / You gonna show the world that something good can work, and it can work for you / And you know that it will.”


11. “Who Do You Love” by Museum of Bellas Artes
Can a song be a one-hit wonder if it was never big? I’m not sure, and I’m also not sure whether we’ll hear more from the oddly named Museum of Bellas Artes. But in a year when critics fell in love with lighter electro pop (jj, Javelin, La Roux), this out-of-left-field cover of an obscure 1960s R&B track was the best of the bunch. Best line: “Mama said you were bad / And I should leave you alone / You had a playboy’s reputation / With all the girls you know.”


10. “Tonight’s Today” by Jack Peñate
Another from the rank of woefully under-appreciated, UK troubadour Peñate adds a slinky bassline and shuffling beat to his usual high-quality pop songwriting. Best line: “I’m ringing church bells, church bells.”


9. “Heads Will Roll” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
And now the over-rated … or at least I wish the new YYY album It’s Blitz matched the intensity of this blistering, glammy track. Best line: “Off with your head / Dance ’til you’re dead.”


8. “Young Hearts Spark Fire” by Japandroids
Existentialist punk at its best. Best lines of the year: “We used to dream / Now we worry about dying / I don’t want to worry about dying / I just want to worry about those sunshine girls.”


7. “The Reeling” by Passion Pit
I had a hunch that when I kept ace track “Sleepyhead” off my list last year, Passion Pit would deliver better in 2009. And, by turning up the funk on “The Reeling,” they sure did. Best line: “Look at me, oh look at me / Is this the way I’ll always be / Oh no.”


6. “Cosmic Love” by Florence & The Machine
After a string of brilliant leaked tracks, I was mildly disappointed with Florence Welch’s full-length CD Lungs. But not this stunning, pounding album track. Harp never sounded so good. Best line: “The stars, the moon / They have all been blown out.”


5. “Brother Sport” by Animal Collective
When this song first leaked last winter, I was blown away. I thought it did for pop music what Avatar wants to do for movies. Okay, that’s overstated, but it really is nothing like anything you’d call pop music: no chorus, tribal beats, screams, sirens, lyrics repeated over and over. And a harbinger of what was to come with the mind-blowing, album of the year Merriweather Post Pavilion. Best line: “Open up your, open up your, open up your throat.”


4. “Animal” by Miike Snow
Swedes really do know how to do pop music better, and Miike Snow pick up where Peter Bjorn and John left off, turning up the electro heat on the shuffling “Animal.” Best line: “I change shapes just to hide in this place / But I’m still, I’m still, an animal.”


3. “Lies” by Fenech-Soler
And the award for grossly under-rated song of the year goes to this cracker of a dance-rock track by UK trio (despite the French-sounding name) Fenech-Soler. Disregard it at your peril. Best line: “You’re telling me white lies / Sleeping with another man.”


2. “Dominos” by The Big Pink
A superbly produced gloom-rock anthem, ebbing, flowing and peaking at exactly the right moments. Magical. Best line: “As soon as I love her / It’s been too long.”


1. “1901” by Phoenix
Phoenix really pulled off quite the hat trick in 2009: a hit-filled album (my No. 2 of the year), my favourite concert of the year (including two plays of this song, with the last a triumphant, sweat-filled, stage-diving encore), and with the sly, spunky chart-topping “1901,” my favourite song of the year. Hell, they’re also my artist of the year, something I would never have expected from the lightly-registering French indie rockers. They’ve made great alt-pop tunes in the past, but this year they proved they could do it better than just about anyone else. And if you’re counting at home, that’s two for France: best techno act (Daft Punk) and best indie-pop act (Phoenix). Harder, better, faster, stronger. Best lines: “And I’ll be anything you ask and more / Going hey hey hey hey hey / It’s not a miracle we needed /And no I wouldn’t let you think so / Falling, falling, falling, falling.”


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And please make sure to check out my list of the Top 10 albums of 2009.

Top 10 albums of 2009

1. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
Who am I to disagree? The consensus best album of the year is also mine, and not due to a lack of effort. I listened to this record hard for about a week last January after it was first released, because I just wasn’t hearing what every blog from Pitchfork and Stereogum on down were describing, a record that would blow away all other competitors as the best of the year, if not the decade, if not the millennium, blah blah blah. The majority of Merriweather Post Pavilion is simply not as accessible as the Frankie Knuckles-influenced “My Girls,” my No. 5 song of the year “Brother Sport” (which, itself, is still an anti-pop pop song), or the sweet “Summertime Clothes,” and it took me a while to understand these songs don’t just need to breathe, they need to grow. For a record that is so electronic and effects-driven, it’s amazingly organic and communal. Try “Bluish,” a track that, at first blush, is too soft, too spare, too echo-y. But after time, it becomes one of the album’s standouts, a delicate tour-de-force. No wonder Simon Cowell recently admitted he’s never heard Merriweather Post Pavilion. Animal Collective have made the best album of the year that stands completely outside of an American Idol-influenced music world. And thank goodness for that.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “Brother Sport,” “Summertime Clothes,” “My Girls”

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Phoenix
So the songs start to sound a bit like each other, and “Love Like a Sunset,” parts 1 and 2 are momentum stoppers, but with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, French rockers Phoenix unabashedly delivered a monster set of catchy hits – “1901,” “Fences,” “Lisztomania,” “Lasso” – without losing any indie cred. Formidable!
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “1901” (mp3), “Lisztomania,” “Fences”

3. Miike Snow by Miike Snow
Electro pop was big in 2009, and no one triumphed larger than Swedish trio Miike Snow and their under-the-radar, double-vowelled self-titled debut. Similar to Phoenix, it took a few listens to realize it was okay for a so-called indie act to be this accessible.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “Animal,” “Black & Blue,” “A Horse Is Not a Home”

4. Manners by Passion Pit
Need another high-quality, highly listenable, electro pop debut? Passion Pit deliver on “Sleepyhead”’s wildly inventive promise with a CD that is far more dancefloor-oriented than I expected from what began as a bedroom project. Ones to watch.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “The Reeling,” “Sleepyhead” (mp3), “Let Your Love Grow Tall”

5. Ambivalence Avenue by Bibio
Maybe not as even as I’d like, but Bibio scores huge points for creativity, expanding on Moby’s template for found sounds and beats and funking them up – and in some cases, carefully slowing them down, like on the wonderful “Haikuesque (When She Laughs).” Glad I found him.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “Lovers’ Carvings,” “Fire Ant,” “Haikuesque (When She Laughs)”

6. xx by The xx
A celebration of minimalism – in both sound and packaging – and a favourite of graphic designers for years to come. Some great songs, too.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “Basic Space,” “Islands,” “Shelter”

7. Love Vs Money by The-Dream
A late-comer to the top-album party, The-Dream fuses the best of Usher, Kanye and R. Kelly into a salacious, sexy, and surprisingly arty album.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “Fancy,” “Right Side of My Brain,” “Mr. Yeah”

8. A Balloon Called Moaning by The Joy Formidable
They’re calling this an EP, but eight songs, especially of this can’t-miss calibre, is enough for me to put it on my favourite albums list. I expect big things from this Yeah Yeah Yeah-like trio in 2010. (purchase)
Best tracks: “Austere,” “Cradle,” “Whirring”

9. Post-Nothing by Japandroids
Speaking of eight songs, noise-pop B.C. duo Japandroids crank out a short, blaring set of tuneful slacker-ville tales.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “Young Hearts Spark Fire” (mp3), “Wet Hair,” “I Quit Girls”

10. Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons
It suffers from a sleepy finish, but the first half of Sigh No More sparkles with five-star folk anthems.
(Previously reviewed here.)
Best tracks: “White Blank Page,” “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave”

Honorable mentions:
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Ecstatic by Mos Def
Logos by Atlas Sound
Lungs by Florence & The Machine
The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z

And please make sure to check out my list of the Top 20 songs of 2009, along with the accompanying podcast.

Top songs of 2009 (so far)

I’ve seen a few lists posted recently of the best songs and albums of 2009 so far, and I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring. My list isn’t as thought out as my year-end one will be, but it’s an opportunity to take stock of the wealth of great songs already heard this year. Most of the songs can be heard on my podcast, JeffMix, a mix of the best new-music tracks I dig up each month. And check out the imeem playlist I embedded below to hear all 20 of the songs I think were the best from 2009, part 1. Now on to part 2…

• “1901” by Phoenix
• “3 Little Words” by FrankMusik
• “4 3 2 1” by K-OS
• “Animal” by Miike Snow
• “Brother Sport” by Animal Collective
• “Cosmic Love” by Florence & The Machine
• “Heads Will Roll” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• “I Love College” by Asher Roth
• “London Girl” by The Invisible
• “My Circuitboard City” by The Wombats
• “Quiet Dog” by Mos Def
• “Quiet Little Voices” by We Were Promised Jetpacks
• “Raindrops” by Basement Jaxx
• “The Reeling” by Passion Pit
• “Rubber Lover” by Marmaduke Duke
• “Something Good Can Work” by Two Door Cinema Club
• “Supernova (Calvin Harris Remix)” by Mr. Hudson ft. Kanye West
• “Tonight’s Today” by Jack Peñate
• “Young Adult Friction” by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
• “Young Hearts Spark Fire” by Japandroids