Wednesday, March 24, 2010

We're Breaking Out This Time

Before I come with my best albums of 2009 post (I know, it's been a long time coming) I just had to blog this song. It just makes me happy.

Free Energy are the least DFA-like band on DFA and that is great. This song is sounds like the great stadium rock songs of the 70's and I love it.

Fun fact: Two of the band's members used to be in the equally great (and very Pavement- inspired) Hockey Night.

This song (/album) is going to be great for the summer...

Free Energy - Free Energy

Friday, March 5, 2010

Best Songs of 2009

2009 was a great year in music. There was new music from great new bands (The xx, Japandroids, etc.), bands we already knew and loved (Grizzly Bear, YYY's, etc.) and surprisingly great music from bands that some of us had almost written off (The Horrors, The Maccabees, etc.). People keep saying that the album format is dying or, more drastically, that the whole music business is dying, but from the evidence of the past few years it is only getting better.

This year there is simply a Top 15 list for songs, a Top 20 for albums and a newly added Top 3 for remixes. The lists have been split into to two posts, one for songs and one for albums. The reasoning is simple and obvious. The greatest songs do not always come from the greatest albums and vice versa.

Disclaimer: A song does not have to have been released as a single to make the list. Rather, it is a list of my favourite individual songs of the year.

1. The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea
There was never any doubt in my mind when I had to choose a favourite song of the year. That this song comes courtesy of The Horrors is surprising, to say the least, considering that their debut album was decent at best. But lo and behold, the band has matured (immensely) and produced a revelation of an album in Primary Colours. Sea Within A Sea was the first single and what a single it is. The song clocks in at 7:57, but at no point do you feel like it is too long. The song sounds like a great long lost Can or NEU! (with vocals) song  and is easily the best krautrock in years. What really makes this the best song of 2009, though, is how it climaxes. When they break it down at around the 3:30 mark and the synth line kicks in, you know something great is about to happen. And it only gets better from then... I don't know if it is more Geoff Barrow than The Horrors, but I know for sure that this is the best song of the year.



2. Wavves - Cool Jumper
This was a tricky one. At first listen the song struck me as being too cluttered and chaotic. Then I gave it a second listen and for some reason everything clicked and it just made sense. There is a lot going on in the song and taking it all in takes a listen or two. But this is exactly what is the strength of the song, as each listen unravels another layer of chaos and in the end you have a really f'ng great song. I am not a big fan of Wavves’ other songs (too stoned for my liking), but adding Zach Hill's ADD drumming takes the song to a whole new level. The laid back 60s surf vocals of Wavves mixed with the distorted guitar, synths and the aforementioned drumming all combines to make a wonderfully vibrant yet dark 'pop' song.



3. Vivian Girls - Lake House
This is simply C86 and surf combined to perfection. I was a fan of the Vivian Girl's self titled debut from 2008, but I always had a feeling that their songs could be a little bit more. Lake House has that little bit more – that extra magic. To me the song is one long chorus, kicking off at full speed with a change of pace midway through before powering on again after about a minute of soloing. Clocking in at 2:05, it is the perfect little 'pop' song. Just long enough for you to love it, but also short enough for you to want to hear it over and over again. The song even came out early '09, so it is a testament to it that I still love it to this day (what can I say, I move fast). It is simple stuff, but it just works so well.



4. Tiny Vipers - Dreamer
This song is all about the intensity and sincerity with which it is sung. Jesy Fontino has a great voice and puts it to such hauntingly beautiful use in Dreamer. It is the little things that make this song work and stand out. It is the care with which she pronounces each word and the way she changes pitch at the end to startling effect. You really feel her pain.

"I'm going to live, but I'm living far away/ I'm going to die. I'm dying for a way out

I do not normally care much for singer-songwriters, but Tiny Vipers get me. It is intense and I feel it deep deep down. It touches me and I love that (I swear I'll cut back on the cheese from now on).



5. Grizzly Bear - While You Wait For The Others
Grizzly Bear really had a break out year in 2009 (in indie terms) and understandably so. Veckatemist was song for song an incredible album that can compare with best of any year. In my humble opinion, the album had two stand out songs: While You Wait For The Others and Ready, Able. To be honest I had this #5 down as a tie, but forced to pick one I went for WYWFTO. The song displays what it is that makes Grizzly Bear such a great band and Veckatimest such a fantastic album. Everything, from the slow build to the immaculate harmonies in the choruses, is so perfectly crafted and wonderfully executed.



6 VEGA - No Reasons  
7 Micachu and the Shapes - Lips 
8 Wild Beasts - Hooting and Howling 
9 Golden Filter - Thunderbird 
10 YACHT - The Afterlife 
11 Lushlife - The Kindness 
12 Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire 
13 The Big Pink - Velvet
14 The xx - Islands 
15 Bat for Lashes - Daniel

Honourable Mentions:
Beach Fossils - Vacation, Ellie Goulding - Under the Sheets, Siriusmo - High Together, The Thermals - When We Were Alive, Phoenix - Lizstomania, Sleigh Bells - Crown to the Ground, Staff Benda Bilili - Polio, Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart, Fuck Buttons - Olympians, The Decemberists - The Rake Song, Harlem Shakes - Strictly Game, Port O'Brien - My Will is Good, Marina and the Diamonds - Obsessions, Atlas Sound - Logos, Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension, Lars and the Hands of Light - Hey Lover (Hey Love!), Snake And Jet's Amazing Bullit Band - Smiling Makes Bitter, Oh No Ono - Hoplessly Young, Delorean - Deli, Hospitality - Betty Wang, Dead Man's Bones - Pa Pa Power

Best Remixes of 2009
The remix Top 3 was added mainly due to the brilliance of the Top 2. The remixes of You've Got The Love and In For The Kill took the respective songs and turned them on their head. Even more so, though, the remixers managed to take songs that were good, but not spectacular, and make something much better (read: great) of them, and that is something to be applauded.

1. Florence and the Machine - You've Got The Love (XX Remix)