LHNA's Best of 2009 Pt. 2 (50-1)

 

50. The Dutchess and the Duke - Hands
 

49. Camera Obscura - French Navy
 

Best song on the new album? But of course.

48. Ramona Falls - I Say Fever

[E:] That video. Those drunken piano notes. That Poeesque sense of atmosphere. Jesus.

47. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Wind Phoenix
[E:] Electric guitars are not out. Proof.

Also. Don't dare take the lovely ohoohoh at 1:48 for granted, for it's only offered once during the whole song.

[S] If you are a cymbal, we definitely do not recommend eating guitars. Should you ingest even a small piece of a guitar (or even a pick for that matter), please induce vomiting and seek medical advice immediately.

46. Devendra Banhart - Angelika
  

  [S] If you Google Angelika, the first batch of hits are for a girl called Angelika, who just happens to  be naked and posing in a rather suggestible manner throughout - usually around a swimming pool. Actually there appear to be several Angelikas. I don't think Devendra Banhart had any of these in mind when writing this, but I can't be sure. In fact, the song above may well be about the same girl.

45. Julie Doiron - Consolation Prize

[E:] Harshly realistic after-the-breakup lyrics sung by a sugary-voiced girl who manages to sound heartbroken and amused at the same time. Like she sees the humour in the situation as well. "People insisted on telling you what a great couple you had been". A song about survival with a folky-pop vocals feel, yet with Ramones-like power chords and drumbeats. The sound of glass breaking and Julie screaming "Look out! LOOK OUT!". I'm in love.

44. Dawes - When My Time Comes
"I thought that one quick moment that was noble or brave
Would be worth the most of my life

So I pointed my fingers, and shouted a few quotes I knew
As if something that's written should be taken as true"

[E:] This song makes me feel better about failing, about stumbling about, about getting lost, about screwing up, about not knowing what the fuck I'm doing.

43. Los Campesinos - The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future
 

"It affords me a curious pleasure to stand upon this bridge and watch the violent forces which the churning waves, advancing or retreating, generate within the confined space of the rocky hole."
The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch)
 

42. Modest Mouse - The Whale Song

41. Cursive - From the Hips

[E:] 2009. The year Cursive release "Mama, I'm Swollen". Practically every critic, reviewer or blogger on the planet says it's either bad or not-that-great. Take your pick. I'll go with not-that-great. I won't say bad because there are two or three songs like this one on it. It sounds like typical Cursive and it reads like fin-de-siècle literature. Tim Kasher going on about how he hates the Enlightenment and how people are better off as animals. They're certainly not the first band to sing about this but somehow it sounds different -edgier, more dangerous - when Cursive do it. If there's one thing this song does it's this: it leaves me hopeful that one day I'll sing along to "Oh, Cursive is so cool!" again without wondering if I still mean it.

40. Animal Collective - Bluish

 

[S] From the album the blogosphere collectively fell in love with, listened to on repeat and used up last year's supply of superlatives on. My Girls was great, but for me, this was the real standout track.
  
39. Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind

In New York,
I'm from where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can't do,
Now you're in New York,
these streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
lets here it for New York, New York, New York

[S] Don’t know about you, but every time I hear Empire State Of Mind, I have to fight the urge to surf to Skyscanner.com to check upcoming prices to NYC.

38. The Wailing Wall - Sister, I

[E:] How refreshing that the sweetest love song of the year should be addressed to a sister, not a lover. That piano has one superpower: it can crawl right into your bones and numb you.


37. Fever Ray - When I Grow Up

Fantastic imagery:
"When I grow up I want to be a forester
Run through the moss on high heels
That's what I'll do
Throwing out boomerang, waiting for it to come back to me.
When I grow up I want to live near the sea
Crab claws and bottles of rum
That's what I'll have
Staring at the seashell, waiting for it to embrace me."

36. Slow Club - Our Most Brilliant Friends

 

[E:] Slow Club finally released their first album. In a way I envied people who hadn't heard of them before this album because they got to experience the glee of stumbling upon such irresistible, teasing songs like Me and You and Because We're Dead, or bittersweet, hopeful ones like When You Go or Apples and Pairs. Slow Club didn't ignore their fans though and rewarded them for their patience with great new material the likes of It Doesn't Have to Be Beautiful (in the vein of their catchiest songs), I Was Unconscious It Was a Dream (continuing the tradition of their quirky ballads) and this, Our Most Brilliant Friends which is effectively a combination of their two types of songs and probably my favourite of their new ones. Part 1 of the song would make you believe this is really just a tune about dancing; but when a song so catchy and melodically unpredictable manages to pack lines like "All our most brilliant friends are doubting themselves" , you know you've got something great there. Part 2 of the song  - several seconds of silence after the end of part 1, as is customary with last tracks - is here to calm you down after all that dancing. Lyrically though, the quirkiness continues: "I just wanted to see that new Tim Burton movie/ or hang around with Laura, Jane, and Suzie /And I definitely want to be a rapper/ but I'm just a northern girl from where nothing really happens/ And the bones inside my shins are crumbling/It's from all the crunking I've been doing"

35. Future of the Left - The Hope that House Built

[E:] This is 2009's "American Jesus". Too big a compliment? Don't think so.

34. Lil'Wayne - A Milli (DJDT Remix)

[S] Motherfucker, I'm ILL, not sick.

33. Nurses - Caterpillar Playground
[E:] I want to paint all my dreams over with this song. Mash them all together until they're one big gooey mess of whistles, rainforests and polka-dotted galoshes stomping around. 2,3,4. 1,2,3,4.

32. Dead Man's Bones - Young & Tragic

[E:] DMB's debut album is one of those records you can play without the necessity for song-skipping ever arising. So I listened to it lots this year. I listened to it at home, I listened to it on buses, I wrote about it on this blog, I posted lyrics from it as Facebook status updates. My Body's a Zombie for You was the first song from the album I fell in love with, Pa Pa Power is the catchiest one, Flowers Grow Out of my Grave probably the most unconventional. But for some reason it's Young & Tragic that struck a chord with me the most. Possibly because it sounds like it could belong on Nosotrash's "Popemas" (anyone who knows the album will understand what I mean), possibly because it sounds like a Japanese proverb put into song, or maybe because it doesn't even feel like a song at all but a magical incantation or prayer reiterated by a chorus of dreamy children. Possibly because it makes me nostalgic. Possibly because these two lines might be the most beautiful ones I've heard all year: "I wish that we were magic, so we wouldn't be so young and tragic"

31. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring - A Question of Trust
Without a doubt, their best song to date.

30. The Juan MacLean - One Day

[E:] Seeing the title on its own would suggest a song full of clichés about world peace and saving the environment and all that. One day ...*wistful sigh* there will be no possessions. And no religion, too! But then you realize it's actually a song full of clichés about an unfulfilling relationship! ("You've denied me, baby, the satisfaction of your love so I've been walking home alone because you left me out in the cold.") Of course by that point you're bouncing up and down faster than a yo-yo, so you don't really care that much what the song is about. You just wish all electro was this catchy.

29. Passion Pit - Eyes As Candles

[E:] This is how I sing this song: BLAAAAH! BLAH BLAAH! BLAH BLAAAH! BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH! BLAH BLAAAH! BLAH BLAAAH! BLAH BLAAAH! BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAAH IT FEELS THE WAY YOU TOLD ME HOW IT ALWAYS FEELS.

Repeat.

It never gets boring.

28. Philip Seymour Hoffman - Roads and Paper Routes

[E:] The Books have been successfully proving to everyone, for a while now, that not only musical sounds, but also random snippets of conversation, interviews, scientific babble, laughter or crying or coughing, or any other sound generated in the human larynx can be used to improve a song. Philip Seymour Hoffman, with this song, consolidate that theory beyond any doubt.
 

27. The National - So Far Around the Bend

 You've been humming and I think it's forever
Praying for pavement to get back together
Nobody knows where you are living
Nobody knows where you are

You're so far around the bend
 

[S] Perhaps it was the cumulative force of thousands of hipsters worldwide singing along to this line that did it, perhaps it was just the promise of a mountain of cash - whatever the reason, fuck it, it's happening. Just another reason to love The National.

26. The Music Tapes - For the Planet Pluto

[E:]Holy interplanetary yard stick, Batman! Who needs clever lyrics and storylines when strange spaceship sounds and a simple enumeration of planets can sound so damn cool? They should introduce this song in kindergarten. "The easy way to learn the planets of the Solar System." Now, come on children, let me hear you sing: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus and Neptune and Pluto...and Pluto!!! (And hey - if these guys say Pluto is a planet, then it's a friggin' planet again, ain't it?)

25. Royksopp ft Robyn - The Girl and the Robot

 

24. The Paper Chase - What Should We Do With Your Body? (The Lightning)

[E:] This is creepy and  seductive and morbid and addictive at the same time. And of course by saying that I'm completely missing the point the band is trying to make, which I'm sure is something huge and important about the fate of humanity and religion and war and all sorts of grand things like that. But I'm not gonna talk about the lyrics this time. I'll just say that this is a beautiful song. Of course it's very possible that the main reason I'm saying that is the part from 3:58 onwards. It's a possibility.

23. School of Seven Bells - Iamundernodisguise
(in an interview with LHNA earlier this year:)

LHNA: What are the advantages of being a band? And what’s not so great about it?

School of Seven Bells: "Putting everything you have into what you love. Putting everything you have into what you love."
Can you tell?

22. La Roux - Quicksand

 
[E:] Some might say the singer's voice gets annoying after a while. Some might say it's not exactly "sophisticated". Some might use the words "trendy" or "commercial". Some might say it's nothing new. I say: it sure gets your body moving though, doesn't it?

21. Karen O and the Kids - Rumpus
[E:] I know now what this song is all about.
It's about moments.
Moments like these:
0:24 seconds into the song - "LET THE WILD RUMPUS START!" (aka "this is what childhood tastes like")
0:28 - the most exhilarating transition in a song this year. Max's roar ends. Screams of "Go! Go! Go" in the background. The gleeful, inebriating piano. The drumbeat pulsing with a sense of wonder and adventure. I feel I'm six again. I feel HAPPY. Not just happy - but genuinely, thrillingly delighted and HAPPY in capital letters.
1:40 - Ahahahhhah ahaaahahh aaaahhh aaaaaaahh aaaah

20. Matt & Kim - Daylight

[E:] I dare you not to move, bounce, clap, sway, waggle, rock or shake any body parts during this one.

19. Kings of Convenience - Boat Behind
 

[S:] 2009 surely saw few images as joy-inducing as the two Kings of Convenience driving their car through the countryside singing ‘so we meet again, after several years’.

And about time, methinks!

18. Cats On Fire - Horoscope

[E:] Points for the Morrissey-esque vocals. Bonus points for lyrics such as these:

"You say you don't belong here because someone once said you look like a star

Another drunk man saw a chance."

And extra funpoints for the lovely and incredibly catchy guitar riff that sounds like a bouzouki. Trrum trrumtrum truumtrumtrum trumtrum trumtrumtrum trum.


 [S:] Letters have no Arms strongly discourages you actually setting fire to your c... oh, you get it


17. Mew - Silas the Magic Car
 

[E:] Daydreamers of the world unite. Time for some serious woolgathering.

16. Atlas Sound - Walkabout (ft. Noah Lennox)

15. Regina Spektor - Hero

[E:] No one can say I didn't try to get into Regina Spektor's new album this year. I failed abysmally. Maybe I'm weird in that I notice and care a lot about the lyrics in a song but I just couldn't get over the absurdity, idiocy or plain awfulness of some of the ones on this album. "No one laughs at God in a hospital/ No one laughs at God in a war /No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor"? Seriously? If she was kidding it might be funny but the scary thing is she's actually serious. Wait it goes on. "No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests/ No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late and their kid's not back from that party yet"? I'm sorry but NO. Let's try another track. "It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song /You can't believe it, you were always singing along /It was so easy and the words so sweet /You can't remember; you try to feel the beat"? I'm 101% certain that if I payed a five-year-old to write  poetry he would come up with better rhymes than so sweet/the beat. Thankfully on "Hero" Regina has kept it simple, and it seems simplicity and repetition work for her in this case. The hero of the story doesn't need to be saved. No one's got it all. It's alright. It's alright. Simple but powerful sentences. The song was also an excellent choice for the soundtrack of 500 Days of Summer and played during what is arguably one of the film's most poignant and wonderful scenes (poignant and wonderful partly because of this song). I could have done without the bit about TVs trying to rape us (wtf?!) but okay, "no one's got it all", right?

14. Au Revoir Simone - Take Me As I Am

[E:] Au Revoir Simone's 2009 release, "Still Night, Still Light" was so good I didn't listen to anything else for the whole first week after it came out. It was so good it proved impossible to pick one representative song from it - as they are all great - and we ended up picking one at random. It was so good that David Lynch hastened to proclaim himself a fan of the band: "Their music really makes me dream. It opens up a world that wasn’t opened up before.” I'm glad he did because the album probably reached a wider audience than it would have without his blessing. And it deserves a wider audience, damn it.

13. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Young Adult Friction

[E:]  Geeky teenage romance in a library. With an unhappy ending. And a song full of library / sex puns: "you put your back to the spines", "don't check me out". Get it? Oh, you clever New Yorkers. I'm so glad you're making music.

12. Yacht - Psychic City (Voodoo City)

 

11. The Antlers - Wake

[E:] The Antlers had plenty of good songs on their debut album. Songs people raved about. Songs posted and re-posted. Most of them in a way easier to like than this one. Most of them that require less patience. Wake, at 8 minutes and 44 seconds, is a track you must invest in. With a build-up that lasts pretty much until 2 minutes before the end and the only semblance of a chorus kicking in (actually more like tiptoeing in) at around the same time, this is obviously not a song that offers instant gratification. But it is on this, the last song of the album before their Epilogue, where the Antlers reach a greatness they merely promised with the previous tracks. Everything about it is understated, subtle. Missing instruments replaced by a subdued background hum. Explanations offered only through gentle suggesting metaphors. " When your helicopter came and tried to lift me out, I put its rope around my neck. " A grimace of pain rather than an agonizing scream. An understanding nod that's more moving than the strongest hug could ever be. And that's because you feel they're actually sincere - it actually means something: "Some patients can't be saved, but that burden's not on you. Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that. Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that."

10. Ghost Mall - Johnny Appleseed

[E:] We said: "Their songs feel rusty but comfortable, kind - like a friend's handshake and the promise to see you later; to get you through the day. "Let's save the world. Let's save the world. That's why we do this. " As if they're constantly trying to jolt you, make you move, wake up, do something. And if extending a sweaty helping hand is what it takes for you to start living, they'll offer it to you. They'll do that. They'll mutter words of encouragement: 'Listen, we can do this together. But you need to be a part of it, too. That's the point we're trying to make here!' " But nothing we said can possibly put into words what is surely the best intro to a song we've heard all year. Possibly the best intro to a song ever since 'You! Me! Dancing!':
 

" It will be at a party or at some sort of reunion or a funeral... I won't recognize you right away but I'll make sure we talk. You'll paw at the ground with your patent leather shoes, eyes staring straight at the floor if we talk about you - but that little flicker in your face when we mention those historic 792 days, 11 hours, 18 minutes and 47 seconds will let me know that you know that I know that you know *emphatic pause*  

you fucked up."

*enter guitar*

9. Jeffrey Lewis - Bugs & Flowers
 

[E:] Oh how I love Jeffrey Lewis this year. I didn't use to. In my head for a long time he was always in the same vague indie folkish dudes I kind of like but will not put on any favourite lists any time soon. You know. Andrew Bird. M Ward. Iron & Wine. Whatever. Until I saw him live. That's when I realized that this is not a guy that grew up on indie pop or folk and then decided he wanted to sound like that so he joined a band. Nope. This is a guy that grew up on a diet of punk and rock-n'roll but was talented enough to put his own soul into them and brave enough to write clever lyrics for them and not care whether someone would notice or give a damn. We have here not the geeky guy in school (the geek look is cool now anyway)- but the nerdy one:  the one that was drawing comics and making music in the hope that he would be a little cooler. And of course, the irony of it is that now he is cool for a lot of people exactly because he's uncool. Anti-folk, or whatever they call it these days, is a scene and people love you more the weirder you are. But you know what? It doesn't matter. You can call him anti-folk or folk-punk or indie-rock or indiepopppofolkiehiphotwee or whatever you want. As long as you listen to his music. Which is fan-fuckin'-tastic.

8. The Drums - Don't Be a Jerk Johnny

"You used to be so pretty but now you're just tragic
Believe in something! You're full of horseshit."

[E:] The ultimate after-breakup revenge song? A casual lovers' fight in an endlessly repeated series of casual lovers' fights? One of those couples that get off on being mean to each other? Are the lyrics meant to be bitter or angry or funny? And why is it that I feel a deep sense of satisfaction and smugness every time I sing them?

 

 [S:] In an alternate universe, this could be a sequel to Jonathan Richman's I'm Straight, which concerns a boy by the name of Hippie Johnny (he's always stoned, he's never straight).

7. Grizzly Bear - While You Wait for the Others

  

[E:] Best song from the new album, hands down. And with an album as unanimously praised as this one, that really is saying something.


6. Metric - Blindness
  

 

Find us a trap door, find us a plane
Tell the survivors help is on the way
I was a blindfold, never complained
All the survivors singing in the rain
I was the one with the world at my feet
Got us a battle, leave it up to me

What it is and where it stops nobody knows
You gave me a life I never chose
I wanna leave but the world won't let me go

[S:] This was the year Lost went all crrrazzee. Time travel! Death! Love! Madness! More time travel! This was also the year Metric blew our minds with their album Fantasies. Just when did Metric become THIS GOOD??!! I couldn’t help but think of the former while listening to Blindness by the latter.

5. Emmy the Great - City Song / MIA

[E:] Both of these songs were really on my Best of 2007 list, when they were just demos. But Emmy's debut album was only released this year so I suppose they count. as 2009 releases. What I love most about her songs is probably the same thing that makes me love the Magnetic Fields: the combination of incredibly beautiful, sugary-sweet instruments and mellifluous voices on the one hand and the sad, tragicomic, downright depressing, or even gory lyrics on the other. That's why these are songs that take you by surprise. When you hear the soft chords and the barely heard mutter-sung words at the beginning of MIA ("The day that we took out a car in the rain...") you expect this to be a typical I-love-you or a why-did-you-break-up-with-me? song. You certainly don't expect her to say, two lines later: "I still remember holding my hand against your face just before it was sprayed across the radio!". "Fingers and voices and teeth". Eww. Did she just say that? And the truly Great thing about Emmy the Great is she tackles this sort of topics - loss and death and abortion and betrayal - without ever over-dramatizing. Her tone in City Song while singing "they pulled a human from my waist/ it had your mouth, it had your face/ I would have kept it if I'd stayed" is matter-of-fact, not whiny. The universe reacts to the death of her loved one in MIA with indifference rather than sympathy. "The scenery moves - well why would it stop just 'cause suddenly there's one where there used to be two?" Her own reaction to a best friend's betrayal in My Party Is Better Than Yours is this: "Tomorrow I will buy a new friend at the New Friend Shop because my friend you are not and I hate you". And just when you're ready to go with this tone and you think she won't surprise you, the song continues with "...as much as I miss you." Surprise!

4. Lady Gaga - Poker Face

[S:] Lady Gaga. Pop mutant. Sex freak. Hermaphrodite starlet. 2009 in a nutshell.

3. The Thermals - Now We Can See

[E:] Hypothetical but entirely plausible scenario:  Thirty-eight-year old male, medium height, balding slightly, impeccable music taste, let's call him Bill. A banal and ugly name but what can you do, most people have those. Bill here goes to the doctor to some test results. It could be serious. He's not too worried, though. Doctor's secretary has made the mistake of leaving the radio on in the waiting room. Bill's turn is up, he steps into the doctor's office and closes the door behind him. This, unfortunately for Bill who has to hear some bad news twice,  does not block out the music coming in from the waiting room. Bill is humming in his head ohehohehohoh ohehohehohoh while the doctor greets him with a quick sitdownmrReese and a worried look on his face. (ohehohehohoh). "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you." (We were born on an island, we grew out of the sand) "It's worse than we thought." "Oh really?", says Bill but in his head it's all ohehoh-s and drum beats. "You have 3, maybe 4 months." "A-ha. Sure." Bill is now humming loudly. OH-WAY-OH-A-WHOA. "Mister Reese did you hear what I just said? You may-" "Sure, yeah. Whatever you say." OUR ENEMIES LAY DEAD ON THE GROUND AND STILL WE KICK, HEY. "Mister Reese! I understand you are in a state of shock but -" YEAH, NOW WE WE CAN SEEEEEEEEEE. End song. "I'm sorry did you say something, doctor?" [ All this nonsense to say that if we had a prize for "Most Addictive and Hummable Song of the Year" this one would win it.]

2. Fanfarlo - Finish Line

 

[E:] It's true, it hasn't been a great year for indie pop. What with the ultra-commercial  freaky pop sensation that was Lady Gaga, catchy alternative anthems (see: Now We Can See, Walkabout, Lisztomania, Lust for Life, Sleepyhead), dozens of folk/freak-folk/anti-folk acts (Devendra, Noah and the Whale, Cass McCombs, Elvis Perkins, Dave Rawlings Machine, Daniel Johnston, Taken By Trees etc etc etc) and electronic music being all the rage these days (please stop sending us remixes.) there was admittedly not much room left on people's iPods for indie pop. Music trends come and go, people's tastes change and it seems that they are simply moving in a different direction nowadays. Electro, experimental, synthpop, psychedelic. Animal Collective and the XX. Good ol' indie pop isn't cool any more. Now it has to be electropop, or folk-pop or synthpop. Maybe it's the fact that artists are aware of this fact or maybe they're just getting lazy but many records released in the genre this year - records I had been impatiently waiting for - were huge disappointments for me. New albums from bands like Bowerbirds, Modest Mouse, Noah and the Whale, or Tegan and Sara could not reach the standard set by their previous efforts, unlike the vast majority of the Earth's population, I was not impressed with Yeah Yeah Yeah's latest album, I regret to say that for me Florence and the Machine is the definition of mediocrity, Idlewild's 2009 release Post Electric Blues was... okay, Morrissey released yet another album that won't make a difference, and last, but certainly not least, The Decemberists broke my heart by releasing their first album to date that did not live up to my expectations. All this indie pop-rock starvation could have pushed this dedicated blogger,music-lover and incorrigible nostalgic into serious depression had it not been for the miracle that was Fanfarlo's "Reservoir". Comets, The Walls Are Coming Down, Drowning Men, Finish Line - song after fallinloveable song, each more wonderful than the other. Let's forget that this is a best songs top. Go get the whole album.

1. Phoenix - Lisztomania

  

[S:] du-de du-de du-de du-de du-de du-de du-de du-de din din din din din din din der der was the sound of pure unadulterated GLEE being injected into the hearts of anyone who was lucky enough to have this song in their lives this year. Phoenix were always brilliant, but this took them to new levels of greatness. What's it all about? Who knows!

Not easily offended
Know how to let it go
From a mess to the masses!

 And yes, that brings us to the end of another year. The end of 2009 and the end of the decade people don't seem to know what to name. I don't know about you, but I find comfort in the fact that every year we think, shit, it's never going to be as good a year as this, and then sure enough, another year comes to an end, and we think the same thing all over again.

 

A big thanks to you all for following us. We really do love you for it.

 

Bring on 2010!


-- Sorry, we had to remove the songs for legal reasons! --

LHNA's Best of 2009 pt. 1 (100-51)

100. The Silent Years - Forest Fire

"I'm just trying to act my age

Find some new ways to pretend

I'm not everybody's loser friend"

99. Octoberman - Thirty Reasons

A sweet come-back-to-me love song to wipe that cynicism off your face.

98. Shelley Short - Time Machine/Submarine

97. Lily Allen - Not Fair

[Eliza:] A lot of unhappy Lily Allen fans wrote angry letters to NME complaining that she "sold out" because she changed the, ahem, 'controversial' line "I spent hours giving head" to 1950s-housewife-style "I spent hours kneading bread". Frankly, it doesn't matter whether it's one or the other about when the song is so addictive.

96. Best Coast - When I'm With You
[E:] What I like about this song is that is avoids hyperboles. No grand statements, no rich metaphors or romantic declarations. Just: when I'm with you I have fun. Because, at the end of the day, what else is there to it? When I'm with you I have fun. I hate sleeping alone. Simple as that.

95. Big Spider's Back - Perfect Machine
[E:] No idea why the band chose that horrible name for itself. Or what sort of contraption its members had in mind when they were singing about this "perfect machine" of theirs. I can't even make out the lyrics most of the time. But in unexpected moments after a glass of wine I find myself singing "I've got a perfect machine, I've got a perfect machine, I've got a perfect machine" ad nauseam; sometimes literally.


94. Monsters of Folk - Man Named Truth
[Steven:]Yes, this really should have sucked as hard as a porn star in debt, and yet, it's actually pretty good. Perhaps there's hope for Conor after all...

93. Orba Squara - Come So Far
Maybe my favourite song off Orba Squara's 'The Trouble With Flying'. Like the rest of the tracks from the album, it's extremely understated. It never peaks. It's content with dancing softly around, a leaf carried by the autumn wind. And that's precisely what makes it stick with you.

92. Go Away Birds - The Year of Letting You Down
Catherine Ireton proving she doesn't need to sing Belle & Sebastian songs to win us over.

91. Sunset Rubdown - Apollo and Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh
[E:] The problem with Sunset Rubdown is their songs are often so complex they shift and transform right before your eyes when you least expect it and jump around and slip between your fingers. Each song seems to take so much out of you that it's hard to listen to the whole album. So you focus on two or three tracks that stand out. This is one of them.

90. Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
[S:] Well what do you know!?! Who knew Julian had it in him!? It bleeps, he beeps and pings and makes us want to shake our metallic asses.


89. Tinariwen - Imidiwan Afrik Tendam

88. Emmanuel and the Fear - The Rain Becomes the Clouds

[E:] Sometimes I have weird, dystopian-novel dreams about the end of the world. There is a huge hurricane, or a fire, or the trees start swallowing the Earth or the air solidifies and closes in on us and squashes us. My most memorable one is of a volcano. I've had this dream more than once. There is lava everywhere  - everywhere! - covering every little surface apart from skyscrapers and mountain peaks. I know it's the end of the world, me and everyone around me, we all know that. But no one is scared. It takes me a while to figure out why; and I'm swimming around and around in lava until it finally clicks: the reason no one is afraid is because nobody is hurt. Nobody is going to get hurt. It's the end of the world, yes, but not for us, we are all swimming in lava that I now realize is cold. It's not hurting us. The planet looks different but we're still the same. We'll build new homes that float on top of the volcano. It's all okay. It starts to rain. That's when I wish this song would start playing in my head.

87. The Lovely Feathers - Lowiza

[E:] If I say this is the catchiest song about asexuality you're likely to hear this year you'll probably think that's not saying much, right? After all, there aren't that many songs out there that tackle the subject. Well, uhm: "it's the catchiest song about asexuality you're likely to hear this year". There, I said it.

86. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Little Girl

The coolest little girl in this whole town!

85. The Pastels vs Tenniscoats - Vivid Youth
[E:] When we run and then come home. When we lose each other and find each other. When we think it's over but it starts all over again. When we feel older every day and suddenly find something that makes us act like children again. When we do nothing but stare at the sky, and still understand each other perfectly. Silently. Easily. Like this.

84. Sister Suvi - Deadwood

[E:] Sister Suvi's 'The Lot' was one of our favourite songs of 2008. And, though I still think it's better than this one that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to love in this song. It just means this one needs more listens in order to get what they're trying to do here. It just means that this is the kind of band that will have you falling in love with a different song of theirs every month. It just means that it's a damn shame they broke up.

83. Cuddle Magic - Expectations
Thanks Said the Gramophone for this one.

82. Woods - To Clean

For once a band that sounds exactly the way its name suggests it might.

81. Themselves - Roman Is As Roman Does

[E:] A: "What do you call this? Can you call this hip hop? If not, what else? Do you call it electronic? What d'you call it? Experimental I suppose?"

B: "You call it brilliant. Then you recommend it to your friends. Then you start writing Anticon Rocks! with permanent markers on white T-shirts and give them out free at kids' lemonade stands. That's what you do."

80. Window Twins - Maybe It's Time

79. The Sound of Arrows - Into the Clouds

[E:] They have disco parties in heaven every time someone plays this song.

  78.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero
[S:] 2009 was the year Yeah Yeah Yeahs took back the zero from Billy Corgan, while the latter lost the plot even further.

 

77. Bill Callahan - Jim Cain

76. Thunder Power - Ship in a Bottle

75. Black Lips - Starting Over

[S:] This was the year the Black Lips (almost) got  kicked out of India, released 200 Million Thousand and blew our minds (again) at Pukkelpop in August.

"We'll it’s just a wasted year
I'm doing my time
If things don't go right I'll drink some more beer
And I'll blow I blow out my mind" 
Hear hear.

74. Egyptian Hip Hop - Rad Pitt

[E:] Back in 2001, the Moldy Peaches released their by now legendary self-titled album. There was a song on it called 'On Top'. Its lyrics went like this:

"We hate dance and we hate rap
But we like to contradict ourselves
And that's alright"

The irony of it all was that they were actually rapping these words, not singing them. It looks like someone was paying attention, because seven years later this couldn't-get-any-indier band decides to name itself Egyptian Hip Hop and put pictures of 50 Cent on their MySpace page. And make some good music while they're at it, too.

73. Old Canes - Little Bird Courage

In the face of danger, these guys are not afraid. It's essential that you know that.

72. Girls - Hellhole Ratrace

71. David Shane Smith - Miserablism

Don't dismiss the track until you reach the shift at 3:20.

70. Museum of Bellas Artes - Who Do You Love

The only cover in this top, so it bloody well be good huh? Have a listen.

Can you get more... Swedish?

69. Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar
 [S] In which our heroes fill a rusty blender with several buckets full of coloured and trampled glass, feed it to a blender. Then RE-mix the contents of said blender (+a bag of sugar) and push RECORD while chasing small children around a small circular wallpapered room until all participants are puking up their cupcakes, feet are bleeding and the children crying.

68. Wale - New Soul

67. Dark Mean - Lullaby
"I close my eyes, haven't slept in five days
I'll sleep when I'm dead again."
[E:] In the year 2617, all the joie-de-vivre in the world will be squeezed in glass jars, left there to soak up the summer sun and freeze in the winter cold for a whole year. After exactly 365 days, on the first day of spring, the jars will be thawed and emptied out and their contents will reemerge as these two song lines. Mark my words.


66. Jónsi - Boy Lilikoi
[E:] I've tried thinking of little starving African children, 101 gruesome ways to carry out the capital punishment and puppies crushed to death by merciless filthy trucks - all in an attempt to wipe that ridiculous dopey smile that appears on my face whenever I hear this song. Pointless.


65. Warpaint - Billie Holiday
Well if you want to know me, I'm a war. Come paint.

We are birds of a feather.

We can't explain it any better than that.

64. The Crayon Fields - Impossible Things
[E:] I would like to play this song in the morning, rain beating confused drops against the window, a barely-alive flame glowing faintly in the fireplace; slippers on my feet, coffee mug in hand. I would like to say that it makes me feel good, makes me dance, makes me whistle. I would like to pretend its rhythmic handclaps are hopeful rather than nostalgic. I would like to be able to listen to it on cold days like this one without longing for warm summer sun. I still want impossible things.

63. Glass Ghost - Ending
Something new is happening, indeed.

62. Windmill - Big Boom
I can't say Windmill's 2009 effort is a great album. It's a good one. Not a great one. As far as concepts albums go, better than many. An album nostalgic for a lost childhood, for fleeting moments gone unnoticed. Well worth listening to for their fans. If you've never heard of them before though don't start with this. If you've never heard of them RUN get your hands on Puddle City Racing Lights. Fall in love with them. And then listen to this.

61. City Center - Open House
[E:] Doorbell. Key. Open house. Open Arms. Come in. Noise, noise, noise. Beautiful Noise. A thousand nails scratching, a thousand bottles breaking, a thousand voices screeching, noise. It's all coming together.

60. Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer
Bounce?

59. Horse Shoes - The Imperial School
"I want to be your only friend in life
I want to hold your hand all through the night"
So sweet.

58. Cass McCombs - Dreams Come True Girl (ft. Karen Black)
 
57. Daniel Johnston - Mind Movies

56. The Rest - Modern Time Travel (Necessities)

[E:] It is a truth universally acknowledged that all songs about time travel must have a few oh-oh-ohs and yeah-yeah-yeahs in them. These guys are well aware of that fact.

55. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Killers

[E:] Fuck lovers. Why should we be lovers when we could be killers... just for one night?

54. Delay Trees - Desert Island Song

[E:] The first time I heard this I thought of Cast Away. Yep, that movie with Tom Hanks and no one else in it. I wish my first thought would have been something else set on a desert island - something cooler than that - maybe Lost or The Tempest or Lord of the Flies or, heck, even Robinson Crusoe but no - it was Cast Away. I imagined Tom hanks crying his eyes out and asking the volleyball "Do you really think that they are coming back? We're stranded on this island..." And I smiled. Then I imagined him  hugging the ball romantically and singing: "I know I'd never make it without you". And I smiled. Then I stopped thinking of Tom Hanks and started paying attention to the soft tropical-sounding guitars and the singer's voice. And I smiled again.

53. The Lonely Island - I'm on a Boat (ft. T-Pain)

[E:] Continuing with the Cast Away theme (I know, where the hell did that come from?) this song should play during the part where... well, come on you can guess this. YES, that's right , during the part where Tom Hanks thinks he's dead and then he's unexpectedly found by a passing cargo ship.  Of course that would make the movie funny for five minutes, something that its creators would definitely not want. It would totally ruin the "this is SO dramatic" atmosphere so maybe instead it should play during the part where... you know, fuck this. Forget Cast Away. The point is this is the funniest shit I've heard all year. If you can't see the humour in this, then I think it's safe to assume you have no soul. (ultimate proof: you probably didn't think Coco Jumbo was funny either) I mean just listen carefully to the way the singer/rapper shouts at the world: "I'm on a BOAT motherfucker!" with the same sense of pride and achievement as if he were saying "I've just single-handedly put an end to world hunger, motherfucker!" Someone less shameless would be embarrassed to do this. These guys don't give a fuck.

52. Yeasayer - Tightrope
A charity album one of the best of the year? Yep.

51. Taken By Trees - Anna
[E:] This song made me think of the countryside and barns and yellow hills in summer and how there are so many sounds out there I never pay attention to - crickets, bells, wind, voices, feet. The sound of leaves cracking under our boots,the sound of pencil on paper, the sound of our breath. It makes me want to start listening harder.

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Top 5 reads of 2009

1. "I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb

Recommended for: people who like depressing books, people with an interest in mental illnesses or twins, people who like complex, daring, good books in general

I don't know what I can say about this book that will make you go and read it NOW. I wish you would just go and read it because I said so, but that's not how these things work. So I'll start by stating boldly that I haven't read anything this good in a very long time. Although I'm not sure it's the best way to go with this one, let me lay out the plot for you a bit. I Know This Much Is True is essentially the story of two brothers: Dominick - our protagonist and narrator - and Thomas, his schizophrenic identical twin. They do not know who their real father is and their stepfather is...well...let's just say he's not a role model. Their family history is a big mystery. And their lives are pretty much as f***ed up as they can get. Sounds like a big cliché? If only all books were such stunning and heartbreaking clichés. Like all amazing works of literature, I Know This Much Is True contains little glimpses of life scattered all over the place. Reading the words on every page feels a bit like sucking on your favorite lollipop - you just have to stop every now and then, the better to savour its taste. Me, I had to pause a bit after each paragraph. As soon as I started it I knew it would be one of those books - the ones you're sad to say goodbye to, the ones you want to keep reading forever. The storytelling is fantastic, nothing overdone, but nothing understated either. The plot is compelling and believable, the conclusion is realistic yet extremely touching, and the characters make you love them and hate them and be angry with them and fear for them and pity them – in short, they act like real people.  Not one person feels secondary in this book; everyone has a role, everyone has a story, there are no peripheral "flat" characters that are just there to fill a void. The book manages to discuss and explore religion, racism, identity, education, politics, war, parentage, jealousy, immigration, history, and pretty much everything in between. Also, bonus points go to the writer for the effort he has put into researching the issues that the book explores: Lamb has evidently done his homework on schizophrenia, on twin brothers, on the Italian immigration to America, on psychoanalysis, on the history and geography of the area where he places his characters and weaves his story. Like many reviewers of this book have done before me, I urge you not to be put off by its size. Believe me, as soon as you start reading it, you will want it to be long. There are about 5 novels that can brag about having made me cry. This is one of them. Only one warning: this is not a jolly holiday read. You have to be there. You have to invest in it. You have to be in the mood.

Opening sentence: "On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother Thomas entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut Public Library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable."

2.       “The Last Samurai’ by Helen DeWitt (really this is number 1 as well)

Recommended for: fellow whizkid-lovers!, fans of the Glass family, people interested in foreign languages, education, and child-rearing, people who like bildungsromans, smartasses.

I have mentioned my obsession with whizkids many times before, although now that I think of it, it was never on this blog. So then you won’t mind if I repeat myself. Here goes. I LOVE WHIZKIDS. There is possibly no subject matter in the world I find more fascinating. If you happen to mention in passing a movie that has a child prodigy protagonist in it, or a child prodigy secondary character, or possibly even a child prodigy chimney sweeper that only appears for five seconds during the entire movie, chances are I’m gonna watch it. This all started years ago with Salinger’s Glass family, my favourite favourite favourite fictional characters which no one has yet – and probably never will - manage to dethrone. There were many whizkids I fell in love with after that. Stanley Spector from Magnolia, Klaus and Violet from the Series of Unfortunate Events, Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory, Brain (Pinky & the Brain – although not exactly a “child”), Hermione Granger, Velma, Teddy and Esme and more recently (recently for me) Joshua Waitzkin from Searching for Bobby Fischer. Like I said none of these will probably be able to dethrone Seymour and Zooey Glass from their no.1 spot. But Ludo, age seven, child prodigy and the protagonist of The Last Samurai sure comes in a close second. I loved this boy with all my heart. And though usually when people say they love a kid they only mean it in a “aww he’s so cute” way, I mean it in a “aww he’s so cute and smart and interesting and brilliant and damaged and fantabulous and loveable and heartbreaking and great and can-I-please-please-please-order-one-just-like-him-somewhere?”

I want to make one thing clear in case you were wondering: the title coincides with the title of a known Hollywood movie with Tom Cruise in it. Like I said, coincides. Totally accidental. The book in fact takes its title from another movie: Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The relationship between Seven Samurai and this book is not so straightforward as the back cover would have you believe. Yes, it’s true that Sibylla, Ludo’s mother is worried about her son growing up without a role model since his father is ignorant about his existence, so she decides to play the movie every day for him in order to give him not one but 8 male role models: the seven samurai and Kurosawa himself! But the truth is that the relationship between book and movie is much more complex than that. There are beliefs and ideologies embedded in the movie that have become part of who Ludo is. There are life lessons to be had from it. There are languages to be learned. There are words of wisdom to be memorized and repeated. There are fictional characters that become real friends.  The complexities of the parallel that DeWitt is trying to draw between the two is mostly up to the reader to figure out. I don’t want to say anything more because the book is not so much about the plot. Suffice to say, The Last Samurai ties with I Know This Much Is True for my number one spot this year. Go read it.

3. “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin

Recommended for: sci-fi fans, people interested in gender roles and sexuality, people with a passion for folklore and legends, people who like a good alien-human friendship story (see: E.T., District 9 - but 10x more complex than either), people interested in ethnography and sociology

"Our entire pattern of socio-sexual interaction is non-existent here.(...) There is no division of humanity into strong and weak halves, protected/protective. One is respected and judged only as a human being. You cannot cast a Gethenian into the role of Man or Woman, while adopting towards "him" a corresponding role dependent on your expectations of the interactions between persons of the same or opposite sex. It is an appalling experience for a Terran..."

Genry is sent to the planet called Gethen as an envoy, his mission being to further the cause of the Ekumen - an alliance of various planets, including Earth, that would like to count Gethen amongst its members. He is sent there alone so as to prevent Gethenians from seeing him as a threat, and so he can explain to them the benefits they would experience if they were to be part of the Union: benefits economic, scientific, medicinal, political and, of course, cultural. His mission, however, is complicated by many factors. For one thing, Genry is considered a "pervert" because he is not androgynous and because his sexual potency is not limited to a few days per month - he is in constant "kemmer". For another, while his reproductive system is considered abnormal, such cases have been known to exist on Gethen and so many do not believe that he comes from another planet, having never seen an "alien" before. In fact, no birds or any sort of winged animals exist on Gethen and therefore, not only do they not believe it is possible to build spaceships, but they think it impossible to fly at all. "How could it ever occur to a sane man that he could fly?", asks one Gethenian. Further complications arise when political considerations get in the way of the mission; when leaders that are suppose to care for the general good of all mankind, are too blinded by personal interests and territorial disputes to see the bigger picture.

Because of the ambiguous sexuality of the Gethenians, who are potentially both Man and Woman, the novel is often seen as a study on gender and sexuality. It is true that by using an alienating device (no pun intended) to great effect, Le Guin makes us reconsider gender roles. She manages to explore the way in which such a trivial factor as sex can determine our entire roles in society and shape out behaviour patterns that we follow through life. But The Left Hand of Darkness amounts to so much more than gender study. There are so many layers of meaning! Le Guin creates a whole world filled with the myths, legends, religions, popular beliefs and traditions of a rich and complex society. Many of these are interspersed throughout the book not necessarily to advance the story but, it seems, for the single purpose of enriching our experience. The ideologies and unspoken rules of behaviour that surface through the Gethenians' speech and through their actions make it possible for us to see their true nature. We recognize that the inhabitants of this cold planet (nicknamed "Winter" by Earthlings) are so very different, yet at the same time so similar to us; that they are unmistakably human. Le Guin does not only teach us about gender, but also about friendship and trust, about politics, about tradition, about respect, about patriotism and about bigotry, about lies and truth, about ambiguity, about the acceptance of the Other, whether that Other is of a different gender, or of a different colour; whether that Other is merely an inhabitant of a different country, or whether he is a strange black alien who is considered a pervert because he "must carry always his sexual organ outside himself" .

4. “The Crimson Petal and the White” by Michel Faber

Recommended for: Victorian period fans, people who like London, people who think they would like a story about a prostitute called Sugar and her attempts to climb up the social ladder, people who don’t get “offended” easily, people who like big books

The Crimson Petal and the White is a book that knows precisely where it stands - and where it stands is at the utmost edge between Victorian and postmodern. Its themes, its conflicts, its setting, its people, and the motivation behind their actions and thoughts are utterly Victorian. All the concerns of the era, from the Woman Question to the technological advancements and the loss of the "natural", from the "evil of prostitution" to the inhuman working conditions, from the religious dilemmas of the time to the conflict between "tradition" and "modernity" - everything and anything that might concern the Victorian man or woman is addressed here. Issues of poverty, hunger, dirt, and criminality are dealt with so perceptively and touchingly that it would flummox even Dickens. The hypocrisy of the upper classes and their preoccupation with nothing more than balls, parties and "social calls" are ridiculed with a wit and sharpness worthy of Austen. But if you glance at the novel's form and writing, the daring pen of Michel Faber makes it clear that The Crimson Petal and the White, despite the title's allusion to a famous Victorian poem, does not belong to the 19th century. Faber, the writer, often steps into the story - to great comical effect - to offer the readers advice or to stir the story into another direction. He makes his authorial presence known and, in true postmodern fashion and in the spirit of Lemony Snicket, often addresses the reader directly: "So there you have it: the thoughts (somewhat pruned of repetition) of William Rackam as he sits on his bench in St. James's Park. If you are bored beyond endurance, I can offer only my promise that there will be fucking in the very near future, not to mention madness, abduction, and violent death." It seems that he uses every device and trick known to writers to keep the reader interested in the story, but makes the whole thing seem so effortless - he never lost me for one second. Most importantly, the distance between mr. Faber's era and the era he is describing makes it easier for him to see the past in a clearer light, and allows him to express his observations and his critique openly. "This is the novel that Dickens might have written had he been allowed to speak freely", The Guardian says, and they're definitely onto something here. It was a comfort to see a writer that finally has the courage to address that most mystifying feature of the Victorians - one that jumps out at me whenever I pick up mr. Dickens - the fact that sex is an unmentionable topic with them. Of course, the conflict between the Victorians' behaviour and their "morals" is transparent: while prostitution is soaring and people are certainly no less interested in sex than today, they insist on acting as though sex is simply inexistent, far way from their thoughts and lives. The effects of this sexual repression on society's part are made clear enough in the novel: people battling with their consciences, trying to reconcile the idea of sex as something that is clearly natural and desirable in their hearts of hearts with the idea of sex as filthy, degrading and evil.

The only reason why I didn't award it a full five stars is a certain death that I thought was completely unnecessary - it seemed to me that it was just an easy way to dispose of a character that served a purpose no longer. Other than that, this is a wonderful book. Sugar - our prostitute heroine - along with William Rackam, Henry Rackam, Emmeline Fox, Agnes, Sophie, Caroline, Colonel Leek, Clara, Ms. Castaway will draw you in and never let you go. Great cast, great story, great writing, great book.

5.  “The Book of Daniel” by E.L. Doctorow

Recommended for: history buffs, people interested in American politics, people who like historical metafiction, people who find random trivia fascinating, people who love stumbling upon an unusual authorial voice, people who like the 60s

I can tell just how much I love an author's writing mostly the days after I've finished reading one of his books. When I start writing an e-mail to a friend and after a couple of sentences think"wait a minute, this is not my style, where did I get this from?". When an author is that good, his way of using punctuation or syntax, his unusual metaphors or sentences or a certain attitude and tone behind the words inevitably work their way into your own writing style. Doctorow is that kind of author. His voice stuck inside your head for days and days. Using language and writing in a way that constantly undermines the reliability o language and writing. "The early morning traffic was wondering - I mean the early morning traffic was light, but not many drivers could pass them without wondering who they were and they were going" Or if you prefer: "In any event, my mother and father, standing in for them, went to their deaths for crimes they did not commit. Or maybe they did commit them. Or maybe my mother and father got away with false passports for crimes they didn’t committ. How do you spell comit?" And if you think all this is postmodern mumble-jumble and where's the plot, the story? The story, I will let you know, is wonderful. Wonderful and sad and infuriating and thought-provoking and suspenseful and everything you could wish for. This is the story of the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (renamed in the book Paul & Rochelle Isaacson) seen from the point of view of their son - Daniel in the book. Our protagonist. Trying to make sense of something that could not and should not make sense for any person calling himself/herself a human being. I could go on but I find that all I want to do is not describe the book (which would be doing it an injustice) but quote passages from it. So I'll just say for me this is a must-read. And stop there.

"The difference between Socrates and Jesus is that no one has ever been put to death in Socrates’ name. And that is because Socrates’ ideas were never made law."

Disclaimer: this post is about books I happened to read this year, not books that were published in 2009.

Lately we've been listening to:

Lady & Bird - La Ballade of Lady and Bird

Dave Rawlings Machine - Sweet Tooth

The Magnetic Fields - Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree

Elvis Perkins - Doomsday