Make Of That What You Will

As we did for 2007, and again for 2008, some fellow music lovers and I met up over drinks, pizza and video games for our year-end CD Mix Club party. (Um, we met up over music, too.) In addition to welcoming a couple new faces to the group, this year had the added bonus of being the end of the decade. In that vein, the idea was to make a "Best of the Decade" mix to share with the group in place of our typical mixes. While I still haven't actually distributed my "Decade" mix, I made a 2009 mix as well. I'll post my 2000-2009 mix soon but for now, here's my "Best of 2009":

1. There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve... - A.C. Newman

This song was one of the great opening tracks of 2009 but I can't quite pinpoint why I like it so much. It's almost a restrained version of Newman's typical power pop songs. It's like he's holding back for the listeners sake, building anticipation for the upcoming tracks. I have no idea what this song is actually about but I love these lyrics: "And the eyes they were/a color I can't remember/which says more than the first two verses". He ends each verse with "make of that what you will" and I guess I am doing just that. (Watch a live version here.)

2. The Mountain - Heartless Bastards

I first heard this song on a sampler from Paste Magazine and it immediately grabbed my attention. It is driven by a straightforward, catchy guitar riff and splash-heavy drums, but it's the soaring guitar work that comes and goes throughout the song that adds a nice extra layer. While the music remains more or less constant through the track, I love how Erika Wennerstrom's voice builds from a bored, sing-speak to all out wails by the final verse.

3. French Navy - Camera Obscura

Just as Camera Obscura has quickly become one of my favorite bands, "French Navy" has quickly become one of my favorite CO songs. As usual with this band, the big draws here are the clean, crisp lead vocals, smooth harmonies and larger than life hooks. But the horns, strings and even lyrics are not to be overlooked.

4. Pearl's Dream - Bat For Lashes

I'm a big fan of the up-tempo Bat For Lashes songs and this one probably tops them all. Every time I listen to it, I hear something new. Beyond the stuttering drums, hand claps and synth tones, I've been noticing different bass lines and drums and clinks and clanks. Is someone playing the maracas somewhere in there?

5. My Night With A Prostitute From Marseille - Beirut

I got into Beirut much later than everyone else and while I realize that this probably isn't one of Zach Condon's best efforts musically, I really love this song. In fact, this might have been my second or third favorite song from 2009. Basically, we have Condon doing his best Postal Service impression and succeeding.

6. Rockin' That S** Remix (feat. Fabolous, Juelz Santana, Rick Ross & Ludacris) - The-Dream

Think of me what you will but this is my absolute favorite song from last year. First of all, the beat (by Los Da Mystro) is the best pop/R&B beat of 2009. Hands. Down. Secondly, The-Dream just kills it. The hook, the "ays!" and the "oooh-ooh-ohs" all perfectly flow with the beat. I admit that if The-Dream had given this song to Rihanna instead of keeping it for himself, it would have been a bigger hit, but it just wouldn't have been the same for me. And finally, all of the guest rappers put in some good work here. In recent years, I feel like a lot of R&B songs are perfectly fine before the rapper remix--"Forever" is better without Lil Wayne, "1 Thing" didn't need a verse from Eve--and in some cases, the rapper shouldn't have been featured in the first place--"1, 2, Step" was almost ruined by a sub-par Missy Elliott appearance. Sure, the rapper-less "Rockin' That Sh**" probably would have made "Best of 2009" if this remix had never been made but in this case the rapping improves on the original track, especially Juelz's verse which is one of my favorites of the year.

7. She Came Along (feat. Sharam) - KiD CuDi

2009 was the year when KiD CuDi became one of my favorite new artists and this is one of his best tracks (I know it's actually a Sharam song but the version on CuDi's mix tape is the best I've heard). CuDi and Sharam owe almost all of this song's success to the Patsy Cline sample but at least they knew what to do with it. CuDi's rap-singing is the perfect contrast to the Cline's melancholy chorus and Sharam did his part by accentuated the head-nodding bass-line without completely burying the guitar picking and subtle piano tinkling. (Side-note, was I the only one who wasn't disappointed by KiD CuDi's debut album? It was surprisingly good, especially considering how many of his peers either fizzled out of the picture or bombed on their first albums [see: Asher Roth, Charles Hamilton, B.O.B., The Cool Kids. Even Wale didn't impress.])

8. Make Her Mine - Mayer Hawthorne

It's stating the obvious when I say that Mayer Hawthorne doesn't have the strongest voice. However, in some cases his voice isn't that bad and at other times, his music is so good that I don't really care that he doesn't have the voice of Raphael Saadiq. With this song, both of those statements apply: his singing is decent and the music is great. Throw in some of the smoothest "I love this girl and I'm going to get this girl" lyrics I've heard in a while and I could swear I was listening to some classic Motown R&B. (Watch live version here.)

9. That's That - DOOM

In 2009, DOOM dropped the "MF" for reasons I didn't care to investigate. Despite the name change, he kept the same nonsensical rapping and sample-based production style that he's been rocking for years. No one can fit as many rhymes and rhyme schemes into a 2-minute song as DOOM and only a handful of producers can lace a non-sped up soul sample like the man also known as Metal Fingers. And it's fitting that DOOM chose to let loose and sing a bit, riffing on Michael Jackson's "I Wanna Be Where You Are" in the year the King of Pop tragically passed away.

10. The New Wu (feat. Ghostface Killah & Method Man) - Raekwon

Only Built For Cuban Linx, Pt. II was one of my favorite albums of the year, so this mix had to have a Raekwon track in it somewhere. I could have chosen just about any song off the album ("House of Flying Daggers", " Kiss the Ring", "Gihad", "Black Mozart" to name a few) but I ultimately selected this one because of it's simplicity, and because of Method Man's stellar third verse. The RZA sampled The Magictones for the beat and while it's not the best sample I've ever heard, it's really, really catchy.

11. Fresh Air - Brother Ali

One of several highlights on Us (check out "The Preacher" too), "Fresh Air" has Brother Ali triumphantly rapping about his life. It's refreshing to hear a rapper speak on how great his life is without being "bling bling" about it (although I do love me some superficial rap music), but it's even more refreshing to hear a non-mainstream rapper who (a) isn't trying to throw it back to the Golden Age of Hip-Hop, (b) isn't blatantly and one dimensionally hating on mainstream artists and (c) isn't caught up in being the "conscious rapper".

12. 1901 - Phoenix

I had been reading and hearing good things about Phoenix for a couple years but it wasn't until I heard "1901" that I actually bothered to listen to them. I was missing out on something great, wasn't I? Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was excellent; I think I need to get their entire catalog now.

13. 11th Dimensions - Julian Casablancas

I don't think anyone can talk about Julian Casablancas without mentioning The Strokes, so let me just say that I love that band. A few people thought Is This It? was all hype (or over-hype). Some people were bored by Room On Fire. Most people didn't like First Impressions Of Earth. I liked all of those albums and same goes for Phrazes For The Young. "11th Dimension" is one of the standout tracks on the album and similar to Casablancas' work with The Strokes, this song is tight, fun and cool.

14. Gifted (feat. Kanye West, Santogold & Lykke Li) - N.A.S.A.

As I've been documenting on this blog for the past couple years, Kanye is on a loooong streak of extremely good guest verses, just like his "big brother" Jay-Z was around the middle of the decade. Kanye is clearly improving as a rapper and what he lacks in pure skill, he always makes up for with energy, cheeky lines, and by actually rapping to the beat. He goes off on the song's first verse, summing up things nicely by saying, "this verse only adds to the freshness." Elsewhere, Santi puts in a pretty hypnotic verse, Lykke Li shows up to provide some chorus harmonies, and N.A.S.A.'s spaced-out, Brazilian-inspired beat brings everything together nicely.

15. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

I never paid much attention to Gaga until this song. It's not that I disliked her previous singles but I wouldn't say I liked them either; they were just there. I liked "Bad Romance" right away. It's epic and crazy and kind of sinister, too. After repeated listens, repeated video viewings and repeated video breakdown readings, it's clear that Gaga the pop artist is finally catching up to Gaga the balls-y celebrity. And that is a good thing.

16. Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) - Jay-Z

The beat is decent enough, the hooks are strong, the lyrics are good. But the key to this song happens during the last few bars of each verse. As Jay is rhyming, the beat drops out and some simple guitar strumming builds up momentum until he finishes rapping, and then the booming chorus from Alicia Keys soars in. There's just something special about that transition. (As a side note, would this song have had the same impact if it wasn't Jay-Z and if it wasn't about New York? Hell, I would argue that even the World Series played a big part in making this song unstoppable during the latter part of Summer and early Fall. Think about it...)

17. Shine Blockas (feat. Gucci Mane) - Big Boi

This beat is so great--easily one of the best of the year--that I'm surprised that Big Boi and Gucci Mane didn't get out-shined by it. Well, I'm not that surprised really. Big Boi is criminally underrated as a rapper and Gucci Mane is extremely talented, if not a little one dimensional, as well. Their contrasting styles sound great alongside each other and they sound even better over such a dynamic beat. Everyone brought their "A" game for this track. I absolutely can not wait for Big Boi's constantly-delayed album to get released.

18. People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case

This song is about people being stupid for being shocked when animals kill people in zoos and at amusement parks. Some people seem to think it's also about Case being a "maneater" in relationships but I remember reading somewhere that it's actually just about animals killing people. I think I like it better that way too.

19. Military Madness - Woods

I don't know much about Woods, only that their album, Songs of Shame is really good. It is filled with beautifully simple, lo-fi, falsetto-sung bits of pop brilliance, like this Graham Nash cover.

20. Romans 10:9 - The Mountain Goats

This is probably my favorite track from The Mountain Goats' latest album, in which each song is titled and inspired by a Bible passage. Despite the faster tempo to "Romans" this is actually a pretty sad song as John Darnielle has to remind himself that "if you believe in your heart and confess with your lips/surely you will be saved one day".

21. Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

While Karen O as the yipping, wailing rock star is great, I enjoy the change of pace that her calmer, gentler side provides on tracks like this one. As she coos, "flow sweetly, hang heavy/you suddenly complete me/you suddenly complete me", followed by stuttering "oh-ohs" and "ah-ahs", I can't help but get drawn into the song.

And that's the mix... Feel free to check back on my Best of 2008 and Best of 2007 mixes. I think my 2008 mix is relatively weak but 2007 holds up fairly well. Let's hope I can say the same thing about my "Best of 2009" in a couple years!