Jimmy's Favorite Songs from 2009 (in a semi-serious order)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We've got another 6 or so days till 2009 is over, so who knows what could happen, but I think these are my favorite songs from 2009. Check 'em out!

#20 Drummer - "Feel Good Together" - Worst. name. ever (the band is a collaboration between a bunch of different drummers from all different bands, led by the drummer of The Black Keys). I suppose it's a cute name, but in the age of the internet a name like that might as well make it goddamn impossible to find any information about them. Fortunately, names don't really affect music and their talents shined through in a big way.

#19 Spiral Stairs - "Maltese T" - I need to write a post about music that might not have been from released in 2009, but I discovered it then and it was awesome. Pavement would be one of those bands. I'd never heard and I don't recall why I did it, but in March of this year I listened to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and was hooked immediately. With the announcement later this year they would be reforming, I looked deeper into the catalogue and stumbled across this new track recently by their guitarist. Great stuff.

#18 Miike Snow - "Animal" - The two i's aren't a typo, nor is this song's inclusion on the list. Upbeat, fun song with a pretty sweet music video.



#17 Dinosaur Jr. - "Over It" - Also has a cool video. Nice lil grungy redux in 2009.



#16 Atlas Sound ft. Noah Lennox - "Walkabout" - The influence of Noah Lennox a.k.a. Animal Collective's Panda Bear is immediately apparent in this one and that's a very good thing. It's like if Animal Collective wrote a 3 minute pop song for the radio. Super chillin'.

#15 Yeasayer - "Ambling Alp" - You fucking hipsters did it again. Nice work.

#14 Metric - "Gimme Sympathy" - Metric should be a lot more famous right now.

#13 Animal Collective - "What Would I Want? Sky" - Phil talked about this song and he's dead on. I think "My Girls" is a really great song and it deserved of the many accolades people have heaped on it this year, but I think this new one that just came out takes the cake.

#12 Wale ft. Lady Gaga - "Chillin" - I think a lot of people don't like this new Wale album because of the outrageous hype surrounding it and the crummy track list that bounces 903909239023 places (aside: for somebody that talks about DC in every song, maybe you should like...embrace that style fully on your debut album? I dunno, seems like a pretty obvious choice if you're serious about all your past criticisms you have about recording industry.) BUT, I think this song is a blast no matter what. It's basically a Lady Gaga song, but that's okay, Lady Gaga rules. Wale's parts are pretty trivial, but they're fun and in the spirit of the song so it gets a big thumbs up from me.

#11 Iyaz - "Replay" - one of the few songs on hot 99.5 that I didn't get sick of. That says a lot--they played it every hour for 2 months this fall.

#10 Pearl Jam - "The Fixer" - Kick ass pop-rock tune. It's cool to hear Pearl Jam sing a pop song. It keeps the rest of their work honest. If everything were an epic grungy bitter alt-rock songs trying to recreate Ten and they never smiled, the whole body of work would be diminished. They're older guys having fun now and this let me in on it. Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E1UxWOFSvw

#9 Julian Casablancas - "11th Dimension" - review my thoughts here. Great, great track.

#8 Girls - "Lust For Life" - Very short, very weird and very cool.

#7 Passion Pit - "Moth's Wings" - There are certain morning songs I like to hear when I wake up. You know the songs that seem to be written for sunny sunday mornings when you've got a day free ahead of you and not a care in the world. "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel's "59th Street Song" immediately come to mind. This song has joined that group. Compared to Passion Pit's other work, it's very gentle in nature, but it still maintains the group's energy and the result is a truly uplifting experience.

#6. Kid CuDi ft. MGMT & Ratatat - "Pursuit of Happiness" - Truth be told it's a sad song, but goddamn do I like kickin' it hard with this playing

#5. Franz Ferdinand - "Lucid Dreams" (album version) - I knew I had to put a FF song on this list somewhere because I listened to the album all year, but I had a lot of trouble deciding what song I liked the very most. I first heard the single "Ulysses" around this time last year loved it. When the album arrived, I heard "Lucid Dreams" in full and was blown away. The full 7+ minute version that closes the album turns into a kickass acid house electronica jam. It's also an incredibly fitting tribute to one of my favorite bands of all time and a major influence on FF, The Stone Roses. This past summer, I saw the band live and they closed their set with a fantastic 15 minute version of the song that ensured that it was one of the top three concerts I'd ever witnessed in my life and the best part of any concert I went to in 2009. Great, great, great song.

#4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll" - It's simultaneously a dance track, heavy as metal, and with clever lyrics to boot.

#3. Alice in Chains - "Check My Brain" - I'm not sure what I'm more impressed by: this song or the fact that it has been basically 15 years since any serious AIC work and somehow, with a new lead singer, Jerry Cantrell & Co. were able to put such a great album that revels in the past style of the band, but still is new and innovative with a new lead singer and new vitality to it all.

#2. Them Crooked Vultures - "Nobody Loves Me & Neither Do I" - best...rock song...of 2009. New in style, but it harkens back to the heaviness that made the 70s so great.

#1. Grizzly Bear - "While You Wait For The Others" - just a beautiful, beautiful song that still carries all it's vibrancy with me almost 10 months after I first heard it.