My Favorite 09s

This is my last semi-lame, cop-out entry about the best of 2009 and it's unapologetically stolen from Bill Simmons. The link below is to an iTunes playlist of my favorite songs from the past year.

My Favorite 09s!

Hooray.

The one song I tried to include but couldn't because the version in my iTunes is the radio version (or something) is "Exhibit C" by Jay Electronica. Now, I don't listen to that much hip-hop, but I would if it were more like this. I heard this song via Soul Sides, one of my favorite blogs, recommended to me by my friend Julian. It's sampled from this Billy Stewart song, which is plenty groovy in its own right, and when Jay Electronica's version unmistakably kicks in at the 0:27 mark (on the Youtube vid) that's as funky a moment as there is. I'm going to keep my eye on this kid.

Anyway, on to the real list, in alphabetical order by artist:

"Anonanimal" from Andrew Bird's Noble Beast - To be honest, Noble Beast was a bit of a disappointment for me. I liked it well enough but it was a clear step down from the fantastic Armchair Apocrypha and The Mysterious Production of Eggs. The songs were too similar to each other and he shyed away from anything really poignant or grand. Regardless, this is my favorite track from the "new" album, some nice, classic Andrew Bird looping and understated, racing vocals.

"What Would I Want? Sky?" from Animal Collective's Fall Be Kind EP - It was a great year for Animal Collective and this was the proverbial cherry on the top of that year. The first half is typical, mechanical, AC noise that gradually melts into accessible pop perfection for the second half.

"My Girls" from Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion - Before this album I really wasn't much of an Animal Collective fan. My previous experience with them had been the dense, somewhat robotic Sung Tongs and I never got into that record in any significant way. However, so many people whose opinions I respected swore by them, so I gave them another chance when MPP came out. My friend Robbie, one of those aforementioned people, told me to listen to "My Girls" five times, while reading the lyrics for at least one of those times, and that if I still didn't like Animal Collective at that point then they probably weren't for me. I only had to listen to it twice.

"Summertime Clothes" from Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion - A meticulously layered, soaring masterpiece. This piece, due in no part surely to the power of suggestion, really makes me feel like I'm out on a deck at night in midsummer with frogs and peepers in the distance.

"Brother Sport" from Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion - This track has turned into my favorite from this album. This one, to me, really epitomizes what's great about AC in its thick build-up of tension--over a minute and a half of computerized, androidal escalation--suddenly being pulled away into this sparse, sublime release. The first time I was really blown away by this song was when I fell asleep on a bus listening to MPP and awoke in the middle of the build-up, naturally making me think, "What the hell am I listening to?" The longer it went on the more grating and disorienting it became, but when the voices came back in and I was suddenly in this pulsating digital rainforest of sound, I thought it was the most brilliant thing I'd ever heard.

"Blood Bank" from Bon Iver's Blood Bank - The title track from my theoretical album of the year (detailed in full in the post below). This could have been any of the first three tracks from this gorgeous record. I think this one is the most memorable and, thus, it was my choice here.

"...And the Hazy Sea" from Cymbals Eat Guitars' Why There Are Mountains - I like how untamed and wild this song is, moving between frenzied almost-screaming and mellow verses. I got the full album based on my enjoyment of this song but didn't quite like the rest of it as much. There are some good moments on it, but they sound too much like a less-talented Modest Mouse for me.

"All the Money I Had is Gone" from Deep Dark Woods' Winter Hours - It's no "Leopold Canal" but it's a beautiful, if fairly standard, country-type ballad. I've yet to fully digest this album but I've really enjoyed their sound so far.

"Cannibal Resource" from Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca - Most people seemed to get excited over "Stillness is the Move" from this album, but I found that track too Mariah Carey and I cringe every time I hear the lyric, "Isn't life under the sun just a crazy dream?" Nevertheless, the album on the whole was fantastic I think lead track "Cannibal Resource" voices its distinct, dazzling, fastidious mood right away. I was lucky enough to catch them live in DC this summer where they opened for and completely overshadowed TV on the Radio.

"Two Doves" from Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca - It seems odd to pick a fairly avant-garde and innovative band like Dirty Projectors and then choose their most ordinary song, but I really love this one and it just goes to show that orchestration and complexity are never a guarantee of outdoing a simple guitar and a pretty melody (see: Pecknold, Robin ; Vernon, Justin).

"Two Weeks" from Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest - This song got more than enough publicity this year but I couldn't not mention it as no song on this list got more plays on my iTunes. It's just an amazing song. From its retro sound to its remarkable drumming to its magnificent backing vocals, it's a triumph of songwriting. The second vocal harmony at 3:17 is the best moment for me. They did an incredible version of this on Conan with Victoria Legrand from Beach House but it's not online anymore as far as I can tell.

"While You Wait for the Others" from Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest - Another standout track from a standout album. Grizzly Bear, like Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors, jumped a few levels in the public eye this year due to strong, accessible albums that didn't sacrifice their originality from past endeavors.

"Casablanca" from Malajube's Labyrinthes - This song is in French so despite studying that language for seven years, I don't really know what it's about. Either way, it's a bit of prog-pop splendor that has these really groovy interludes that bounce effortlessly along in the pocket, but also ornate guitar lines and key changes as the song develops.

"Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'" from Mayer Hawthorne's A Strange Arrangement - The feel good song of the year. Hawthorne may not have the vocal virtuosity of his contemporaries like Raphael Saadiq or the Dap Kings' Sharon Jones, but he writes wonderful, jovial foot-tappers that have just enough modern sensibility to differentiate themselves from the 60s/70s Motown/doo-wop that surely inspires him.

"Amber Gris"* from Medeski Martin and Wood's Radiolarians II - No band that I've ever heard--and I've spent a lot of time looking for one--is better at blending classical/pop song structures with jazz musicianship and improvisation. They are staggeringly good live and in the handful I've times I've seen them I have never been disappointed. Not all of their songs translate to recordings and this one, believe it or not, is no exception. Live, however, this song just explodes. My 2009 list wouldn't be complete without them.

* I just noticed iTunes didn't add this one to my list for some reason. Here is the music vid, which is probably better anyway.

"Repeater Beater" from Mew's No More Stories... - I've already written my encomium on Mew but need to give them one last nod here. I'm still listening to this newish album and have yet to pick out my favorites. This one will do for now.

"People Got A Lotta Nerve" from Neko Case's Middle Cyclone - I can't not love a song that sings, "You know they call them killer whales, but you seem surprised when it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank, where you can't turn around. It took half your leg and both your lungs and I craved I ate hearts of shark. I know you know it." Neko Case has the perfect voice for her folksy pop songs, though her lyrics and song forms are so creative I wish I could label them more flatteringly.

"Little Secrets" from Passion Pit's Manners - Passion Pit isn't my favorite band, but I really dig how imaginative their sound is. I caught them in Baltimore in the spring and they played a unrestrained, exciting set--though one that was barely over half an hour. The falsetto-screech singing can get a little tiresome, but I think they're one of the best examples of melding live performance with pre-recorded/computerized sounds.

"Suburban Dogs" from Real Estate's self-titled LP - I wrote about these guys when I saw them live this fall, and not much has changed in my regard for them since then. They write solid, unpretentious indie rock and probably have a nice career ahead of them. Unless an album is slipping my mind this was probably my favorite debut record this year. I could have gone with "Beachcomber" as my selection on this list, but I like the casual, laziness that "Suburban Dogs" demonstrates.

"Pistol Dreams" from The Tallest Man on Earth's Shallow Graves - A great guitar/vocal number that has this amazing sense of romantic old timey rambling. Could've picked any song from the wonderful Shallow Grave LP.

"Island, IS" from Volcano Choir's Unmap - A side project of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. I haven't gotten to know this album as well as I should yet, but it is definitely a separate entity from his Bon Iver songs. More production, more oddities. It's not bad, though doesn't thrill me the way Bon Iver stuff does.

"New Theory" from Washed Out's Life of Leisure - Another artist I've already written about, though this EP has probably grown on me even more since then. "New Theory" is a beautiful machine, like the kind of song one would play over some fast-motion journey of watching a blueprint get drawn and subsequently turn into a futuristic construction site and then an assembly line for flying cars...or something like that.

"Percussion Gun" from White Rabbits' It's Frightening - I'm usually not the kind of person who listens to only singles, but this song occupies this weird space where I really like it (obviously even to the point of including it on this list) yet I haven't gotten the rest of the album. I have no idea what the rest of the songs on It's Frightening sound like, only that (in this song) when the guitar/bass enter underneath the vocals and drums that that moment is so good that this list would be incomplete without it.

"Rain On" from Woods' Songs of Shame - When this song first starts, it sounds like it's going to be a pretty standard indie number, until these bizarre falsetto vocals enter that sound like they're going through a guitar amp. There's something very eerie about this tune despite its mostly upbeat demeanor. Really worth a listen.

That's all folks. May 2010 bring even more and even better songs.