ghostdogjr: December 2009

11-21.
bronze - sunny day
it doesn't really get much simpler than this but somehow it works. 2010 will be the year of bronze, a band risen from the ashes of the detachment kit?
the raveonettes - bang!
now, i'll admit that my love for this song has a lot to do with getting the lyrics of the chorus wrong. but i also suspect that the band was not unaware of the possibility. sneaky danes.
gui boratto - no turning back
gui returned with an album that was a little bit user friendly than his previous and excellent chromophobia but takes perhaps a greater inspiration from post-punk. no turning back is probably the most irresistibly poppy track from the album. almost too much so but... oh, well.
health - die slow
strange one this one. draws inspiration from the wimpier (and far more horrible) side of shoegazing and mixes it with something horribly linkin park-ish. and somehow it works out alright. but we'll hate it in a couple of years time.
clark -absence
gorgeous and atypical track from the brilliant totems flare.
oh no ono - swim
more danes!? i don't really know what to say about this song. it's just pretty good.
white rabbits - percussion gun
a great song from a rather disappointing album. a great substitute forthe walkmen after they went all bob dylanesque and shitty on us.
nadja - needle in the hay
i don't really think covers should be allowed on lists like these but this is just too brilliant to ignore. elliott smith's Needle in the Hay is possibly the most beautiful song ever written. nadja turn the volume to 11 but yet manage to retain the spirit of the song. the idea sounds like a bad joke but it works because it isn't a joke.
wavves - so bored
thank god for bands like the wavves. it's sloppy, it's loud, and it's damn fun. sometimes you don't need anything other than a catchy melody.
royksopp - happy up here
pretty damn shamed of liking this so much. pure pop. forgive me.
bear in heaven - lovesick teenagers
probably the song on the list that will age the worst. but for now i like it.
10. polvo - beggar's bowl
the most anticipated and feared release of the year. beggar's bowl was a huge relief when it came out ahead of the album. sure, it didn't break any new ground like polvo's previous albums but this was pretty solid polvo only cleaned up a little bit, which wasn't a bad thing really. beggar's bowl is still in many ways a signature polvo tune and, frankly, these middle aged guys sound way cooler than their younger competitors.
9. clues - haarp
largely overlooked, clues, consisting of one half of the legendary unicorns, released an excellent album this year. haarp starts of slowly but picks up the pace and ends up sounding like a more serious version of, well, the unicorns. sort of the unicorns mixed with codeine. can't be that bad!
8. black moth super rainbow - don't you want to be in a cult?
the song where bmsr just get everything right. the essential 70s psychedelic horror movie soundtrack. and, no, i wouldn't want to watch the movie.
7. patrick watson - fireweed
know the romantic comedy where the girl keeps chasing guys until in the end that her best friend is the guy she was looking for all along? that guy is patrick watson. you don't really notice him until one day you just think 'hey, this guy is smoking hot!'
6. animal collective - my girls
oh, how i hate to admit this. animal collective is just the band i would love to hate but they make it very very hard for me. too damn catchy.
5. japandroids - heart sweats
yeah, far less inventive than no. 6 but, hey, they've got guitars that they are not afraid of.
4. tim exile - family galaxy
this left me gaping the first time i've heard it. starts out like a nice little boards of canada number but then changes shapes about sixty-seven times. while the surprise factor is pretty big, the song actually holds up to repeated listening. and there isn't really anything like it out there.
3. tom brosseau - you don't know my friends
a nice altcountry tune burried in heaps of fuzz, which makes sense for a song about alienation... or that is what i prefer to think. but it doesn't matter, this song would sound great even if it was played backwards
2. yo la tengo - here to fall
to be honest, i'm not that crazy about yo la tengo. or rather, once in a while they write some really fantastic songs but most of the time they are just sort of ok. but the goods songs make it worthwhile keeping track of them and this is one of their fantastic ones.
1. girls - lust for life
the most depressing happy song. or the most happy depressing song. either way, it's all about chasing dreams.

top 2009 songs