Best Songs of 2009

This should really be KM's post, but I am stealing her musical taste and presenting it as my own. I'm sort of kidding - we do like the same songs, but she knows way more about music, is more discerning about what makes a song or album good, and is generally much cooler than me.

Too often, I'm a sucker for depressing indie rock, or I'll mistake a song with atrocious lyrics for being good because I'm distracted by the hand claps or someone hitting a wooden block in it (cute!), or I'll be too focused on singing along to a catchy chorus too notice that it's idiotic. Needless to say, I was grateful when KM came along to gently expose me to the fact that 30 percent of what I was listening to was toothless - soft and palatable, it was the musical equivalent of provolone cheese (Examples, you want? Uh, Mason Jennings, The guy that sings "Orange Sky", other shit like that).

We still disagree about some types of music (I find country music dripping with sentimentality, literalness, and narrative-driven glop to be interesting in a cultural analysis/human response sort of way, she just says it sucks, I can't stand a certain level of noise band no matter how cool it is, she naturally leans that way always), we agree 90 percent of the time about what's awesomely good. And I appreciate her ability to find good music and share it with me, along with admiring her strong opinions on the stuff that makes up a devoted music lover (willingness to listen to new things, passionate belief that one must listen to an entire album several times to truly evaluate it, and compulsion to categorize and record yearly lists of her favorite music). All of which I agree with - although I am less disciplined about exploring it regularly and have a bad habit of selective listening to one or two songs that I like from a band, while knowing nothing about the rest of the album, history, or musical catalog.

That said, she makes a yearly "Best Of" CD, which I present here for 2009, along with whatever clips I can find of the songs. Here is the track list for the Best Songs of 2009:

1. It Ain't Gonna Save Me Jay Reatard

2. Crown on the Ground Sleigh Bells

3. Sleepyhead Passion Pit

4. 1901 Pheonix

5. Dominos The Big Pink

6. Young Hearts Spark Fire Japandroids

7. Despicable Dogs Small Black

8. Antonia Jane Lightning Dust

9. Blood Bank Bon Iver

10. Two Weeks Grizzley Bear

11. Swans Camera Obscura

12. My Girls Animal Collective

13. 11th Dimension Julian Casablancas

14. Psychic City (Voodoo City) Yacht

15. Warm Heart of Africa The Very Best

16. Empire State of Mind Jay-Z

17. The Boys Will Love Us Wavves

18. Lust for Life Girls

19. Young Adult Friction The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

20. Let's Go Surfing The Drums

21. VCR The xx

22. Paparazzi Lady Gaga

23. Zero Yeah Yeah Yeahs

24. Idiot Heart Sunset Rubdown

25. Watching the Planets The Flaming Lips

26. Stillness is the Move Dirty Projectors

27. Calculator Micachu and the Shapes

28. Fiya Tune-Yards

Below, a sampling from the artists - in some cases not the song on KM's list, but hey, it's hard to find shit on YouTube, and these songs are equally awesome. Note: The Grizzly Bear video is extremely creepy and sort of amazing. And Ring Ring is my favorite song of the year.