25 Songs That Befriended Me In 2009

Warning: You will not find Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, or Grizzly Bear on this list.

(Loses 99/100 of potential audience...)

Now then. Here are 25 songs that I adored in 2009, in no particular order.

Mexican Chili Taco Fiesta - Tamales Oaxaquenos (via KEXP). If you had told me that I would include a mostly instrumental song about Oaxacan tamales, where the only lyrics I can understand are the title words of the song, on my year-end mix, well, I might not have laughed at you, but I would have been skeptical. But then again, yum, tamales oaxaquenos.

The Dead Weather - Hang You from the Heavens. Take Jack White and his affinity for dirrrrrty blues and side projects that obliterate other people's main bands. Add Alison Mosshart, the lead singer of the Kills, whose albums I could (and have!) listen(ed) to on repeat infinitely. Insert a simple guitar riff and some bass drum. Rinse. Lather. Result: this, my favorite song on my favorite album this year. Repeat.


K-Naan - America. He says it better than I can: that shit was cool in English (especially the Chali 2na bit, all you people pining for Jurassic 5), but give me that Somali verse.


Spinnerette - Ghetto Love. The hip online reviewers, they did not like this album. Me, I can't stop rocking out to this song.


Tuneyards - Sunlight (via Pitchfork). It's pretty rare, when you get to my doddering age, to stumble across music that is unlike anything heard before. So, Tuneyards - also, incidentally, unlike anything capitalized before. So much so that I'm not even going to try it.

Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara - Fulani Coochi Man. For the first 15 seconds, this is just a typical blues song, which, you know, yawn, just give me some Muddy Waters instead. But at 0:15 exactly, something extraordinary happens, and all of a sudden this is something new and fresh, and at the same time, so, so old.


Beyonce Ft. Lady Gaga - Video Phone. Oh Beyonce. I try, how I try, to keep your songs off my year-end lists, to retain some minimal sort of indy cred. But always, always, you end up making something amazing that I cannot ignore. The fact that it is a duet with Lady Gaga? Doubly insulting and even more ignominious. Curse you!


Muse - Uprising. This is an excellent anti-whatever-is-keeping-you-down anthem (You hear me, Beyonce???). They will not control us. We will be victorious. Handclap. Hey.


King Midas Sound - Darlin'. This song whispers of seduction like twilight in the tropics.

Mos Def - Quiet Dog. Making the best old-school hip-hop hands down year after year in and out without even thinking about it is Mos Def. Which I like to think is what the title of the song is all about.

Whitley - Poison in Our Pocket. And the winner of the Grammy for best depressing song expressed optimisticly is...Whitley! Wait a second, wait a second...What do you mean there's no such category? Well, invent one.

Petracovich - Heaven Help the Day. I already wrote this once, but I can't say it any better. I like this. I like the tinkling way it starts, the dissonance of the lonely lyrics and the warm music, the unexpectedness of the guitar strumming when it kicks in, the way she turns the tables, the acceleration into a torrent of fierceness, the emphatic full stop.


Ramona Falls - Russia (via Pitchfork). When this song, from the lead singer of Menomena, comes on, it sweeps me up and sends me soaring over the world, with cherry blossoms blowing in my face.

Here We Go Magic - Only Pieces. The jittery guitars sound exactly like my mind feels, skimming the surface of the questions this song asks.

Blakroc - Coochie. Why yes, yes, this is the second song on the list with Coochie in the title. No, no, it wasn't planned. Yes, yes, I do see some sort of rhythm and rhyme to it.


Das Racist - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (via Pitchfork). This song is completely, utterly ridiculous. It reminds me of every pointless summer job I ever had, of every pointless quest I ever went on just to kill time, of time wasted, junk food eaten, of cruising the strip.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll. This album didn't grab me as instantly as the Yeah to the third's previous efforts have. But ultimately I installed a disco ball in my brain and embraced the glam.


Florence & the Machine - Cosmic Love. Because the music and lyrics match so perfectly.

Chris Brown - I Can Transform Ya. I feel vaguely queasy about including a Chris Brown song on my list, at least without some kind of balancing "I will survive" anthem from Rihanna, but I HAVE TO. I sing along, I shimmy, I am transformed from a human to a Carter, without any reluctance at all.


Fresh Espresso - Big or Small (via KEXP). If they did a remake of Saturday Night Fever, whoever tried to fill Travolta's shoes would dance to this, and not just because of the Stayin Alive sample.

The XX - Crystallised. Have you ever heard something so simultaneously simple and complicated?


Bat for Lashes - Daniel. A friend says this reminds him of Imogen Heap's "Glittering Clouds," which I had not heard before. So in some ways, this was like finding two great, gloomy, ominous songs in one.


Frankel - Anonymity is the New Fame. You had me at minor chord modulation number one. The lyrics are just the rose tied to the satellite.

Kurt Vile - Inside Looking Out. This song reminds me of trains. But not of actually being on a train. Instead, more like sitting at a railroad crossing somewhere that still qualifies as the wide open spaces, with the bars down and the red lights flashing and the train moseying by, not in any hurry, and neither are you, and neither is this song, and when the song is over maybe the train will be too, or maybe you'll listen to the song again.

Richard Hawley - Don't Get Hung up in Your Soul. Good advice for a new year.