Favorite Music 2009

I usually do my favorite albums from the past year, but I also downloaded a lot of singles that I loved. I didn’t want to forget them. For most of these, I have the albums to go along with the song, but some of them are just really good songs all on their own when the album didn’t really do it for me.

Below there is a clip of each song. The entire playlist is also available on YouTube.

Favorite Song 2009

Artist: Miike Snow
Song: Animal
Album: Miike Snow

How did I determine which would be my overall favorite song of the year? In 2008, I could not stop listening to “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon  over and over and over again. This year, that honor goes to Miike Snow’s “Animal”. I still am not sick of it. It is just catchy and makes my head start bouncing whenever I hear it. I heard it for the first time while I was listening to the new releases on Amazon, which I really need to get back to doing. I then heard the song a couple of times on 94.7. It wasn’t played too often, but I loved it. They are a Swedish band. I saw them live a few months back. They were excellent.

Best of the Rest

The rest of these are not in any particular order.

Artist: Phoenix
Song: 1901
Album: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

This song grew on me. It was released early in 2009 and I didn’t think much of it, until one day, it just clicked. Whenever I heard it (on the radio, in commercials, etc.), it made me very happy when it was stuck in my head. They are French. I know they have been around a few years and I think I know one of their older songs, but I never bought anything from them until this year.


Artist: Franz Ferdinand
Song: Can’t Stop Feeling
Album: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

I didn’t even know this song was an official single. They never played it on the radio around here. It is my favorite song on the album. The only songs that were played off of it were “Lucid Dreams,” which I thought was only okay and “No You Girls,” which I found to be a much better song. I’m not sure why this never made it into regular rotation. I have never seen the video before today and it is damn goofy.


 

Artist: Of Montreal
Song: Triphallus, To Punctuate!
Album: Skeletal Lamping

I’m cheating on this one. The album was released towards the end of 2008, but I didn’t discover it until early 2009. I got to see the band at the Sasquatch music festival up in George, WA. What a trip! There were so many costumes and weirdness going on, that I couldn’t believe I was sober. There is no official video for this and the live versions I found had horrible sound quality so it’s just a non-video linked below.


Artist: The Lonely Island
Song: Boombox (feat. Julian Casablancas)
Album: Incredibad

It’s the group made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. They all work at Saturday Night Live, but they have been friends and making funny stuff for years. They are mostly famous for “I’m on a Boat” or “Dick in a Box” that are popular on SNL. The entire album is completely juvenile and is quite popular with teenage boys. I do love this song. It’s catchy. I also love listening to Julian Casablancas singing with more emotion than I hear on The Strokes songs.


Artist: Little Boots
Song: Meddle
Album: Arecibo

This is another cheating one since it also came out at the end of 2008, but I discovered it at the very beginning of 2009. It is essentially a band for Victoria Hesketh from the UK.  I read about her in Rolling Stone and went to check out her music based on what they wrote. She has a bunch of EPs and extended singles. Her first full-length album came out last year as an import, but I can’t find it available to download anywhere so I’ll just wait for that to happen.


Artist: Kinky
Song: Papel Volando
Album: Barracuda

I love Kinky. They get no radio airplay that I know about in the States. They put on fabulous live shows. I learned about them years ago from a CMJ cd that had one of their songs on it. Sadly, my favorite song on the latest album does not have an official video. I did find some live versions, but the sound quality on most of them were really bad. I did find some in studio performances, but it is a shame to watch them in the studio when they have so much energy live. While searching for a more exciting video of this song, I did stumble across them doing a cover of “Mexican Radio,” complete with accordion. Awesome!


Artist: Prodigy
Song: Warrior’s Dance
Album: Invaders Must Die

For old school Prodigy fans that have decided to ignore Prodigy lately, I think you will be pleased with this album. This goes back to their old school sound. I really didn’t think I would like the album, but just bought it for the hell of it. I was pleasantly surprised. I love this song. It reminds me of the poppy goodness of  “It’s No Good.”

https://youtu.be/4ec2csY2-_o


Artist: White Rabbits
Song: Percussion Gun
Album: It’s Frightening

The New York City band’s second album was produced by Britt Daniel from Spoon. I really like “Percussion Gun”, but the rest of the album didn’t grab me as much. It’s still a really good song. I love the dual drums.

https://youtu.be/IClBpch9vmM


Artist: Grizzly Bear
Song: Two Weeks
Album: Veckatimest

I’ve heard about Grizzly Bear for a few years. I’ve heard some of their songs, but for some reason, none of them resonated with me until this past year. They were just one of those bands that snuck up on me. I never hated the songs, but they just didn’t do anything for me until recently. As for the video, it freaks me out in a good way.


Artist: Hockey
Song: Too Fake
Album: Mind Chaos

This was the first song that I blipped on blip.fm back in April 2009. They formed down in Southern California, but wanted to move somewhere else so they ended up in Portland. This song is beyond catchy. I saw them play up at Sasquatch Music Festival in May and they were very entertaining live. The rest of their songs are as catchy as this one.


Artist: Passion Pit
Song: Sleepyhead
Album: Manners

Even though “Sleepyhead” showed up on the Chunk of Change EP in 2008, it also showed up on their first full-length album in 2009. I also discovered both EP and album in 2009 so it all counts in my book. I read about Passion Pit while I was at Sasquatch. They sounded like something I would like from the description, but they were playing at the same time as the Doves so I chose to see the Doves. Little later on in the  year, I kept hearing a fifteen-second snippet of a song on the radio as new music they were playing. I wanted to know what it was and I wanted to hear the entire song. It turned out to be “The Reeling.” I bought everything I could find from them at that point. That’s when I fell in love with this song.


Artist: Metric
Song: Help I’m Alive
Album: Fantasies

This was another song that  slowly grew on me. I loved that it wasn’t a typical-sounding song. I didn’t think I would really like much more from the band than this song, but I saw them live last month. They were phenomenal. The live energy was insane. Good stuff.


Artist: Van She
Song: Strangers
Album: V

I discovered this band by listening to an ITunes indie music sampler a few months ago. It doesn’t appear that you can buy it from Amazon, except as an import. It is on ITunes and I downloaded it from emusic.com since I subscribe to it. I downloaded this album and the previous EP. They are both really good, dance rock tracks.


Artist: Living Things
Song: Oxygen
Album: Habeas Corpus

This is another song I discovered this band by listening to an ITunes indie music sampler a few months ago. I just downloaded the album and started listening to it. The rest seems to be more in a ’70s rock vein, moreso than this song, but I do love this song. It has a poppy feel with a great guitar sound.


Artist: The Temper Trap 
Song: Sweet Disposition
Album: Conditions

I fell in love with this song first before I saw it in 500 Days of Summer. The guitars sound like U2, but while I do not like U2, I like this. I believe it is the singing that makes all the difference.


Artist: The Knux
Song: Bang! Bang!
Album: Remind Me in 3 Days…

I found this song on an Austin City Limits sample from ITunes earlier this year. I don’t know anything about the band, but I really like the song.


Artist: Peter Bjorn and John
Song: It Don’t Move Me
Album: Living Thing

I really liked “Young Folks” when it came out a few years ago, but I took it as a one-hit wonder and ignored the band. I really like this song, so I really should buy something from them. I just haven’t done it yet.


Artist: Michael Franti & Spearhead
Song: Say Hey (I Love You)
Album: All Rebel Rockers

Spearhead used to be played on the radio station I listened to in high school and college. I was not a big fan. I do love this song, but that’s probably because it is different than anything Michael Franti and Spearhead have ever done. It is a happy song so I’ll just enjoy this one.

https://youtu.be/ehu3wy4WkHs


Artist: Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
Song: Relator
Album: Break Up

I’m not a Pete Yorn fan but I do like this song. Maybe it is because of Scarlett Johansson. I just love the chorus when they are both singing together.

https://youtu.be/RHGecjIgJ70

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