29 Songs I Spent Good Times With in 2009

Yes, yes, it's New Year's Eve and you don't care what music I listened to this year, especially once it gets late and I mention my unyielding love for Lady GaGa, but I'm going to sit in the corner with a fever that makes me seem drunk and tell you anyway. You've sat through 52 songs that take me back to other years, you can sit through 29 more songs that will always take me back to the year that I took control of my brain and had a good time even while half dead.

From what I remember, my favorite albums from the time they were released until now include Ellipse by Imogen Heap, Middle Cyclone by Neko Case, U2's No Line On The Horizon, Time Flies When You're Having Fun by Smokey Robinson, The List by Rosanne Cash, Brendan Benson's solo album My Old, Familiar Friend, Between My Head And The Sky by Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, the Moby album Wait For Me, Up From Below by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and the new Nitzer Ebb album ICP.

But the albums will take too long to play for you tonight! Onto the songs! Clicking the titles will take you to the videos if you want to spend the rest of this year watching music videos...not that there's anything wrong with that. *ahem* Some of them are really worth a view or ten.

This, kids, was 2009 in my ears:

We Are Here To Tell You - Duncan Sheik

Fits and Dizzy Spells - Andrew Bird

People Got A Lot Of Nerve - Neko Case

Wrong - Depeche Mode

Magnificent - U2

Fuck You (Very, Very Much) - Lily Allen

Happy Up Here - Röyksopp

Furr - Blitzen Trapper

Daniel - Bat For Lashes

Strange Overtones - David Byrne and Brian Eno

Sounds Like The Devil - Shemekia Copeland

So Human - Lady Sovereign

Sober - P!nk

San Francisco - Jill Sobule

Funny The Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band

Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective

Pale Horses - Moby

Fire Burning - Sean Kingston

First Train Home - Imogen Heap

Animal - Miike Snow

Fireflies - Owl City

Never Forget You - Noisettes

Uprising - Muse

Sea Of Heartbreak - Rosanne Cash with Bruce Springsteen and Jeff Tweedy

God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl

Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

Foot Of The Mountain - a-ha

Whataya Want From Me - Adam Lambert

Garbage Day - Brendan Benson

Buster Voodoo - Rodrigo y Gabriela

There you go. Is that all? Hell no, I had to mercilessly prune this list to get to 29 and even then cheated with the tangent about the albums. Will I remember these songs in 25 years? I'll bet that I will. If I'm alive in 25 years. ...I'm not starting that again. I enjoyed listening to these this year, and when I hear them again, I'll enjoy them again. And again.

Happy future everyone, it'll be here in a few hours calling itself 2010. Don't waste it, and in the words of the great Guy David (who I also listened to a lot this year), may you never have to listen to music you don't like.

29 Songs I Spent Good Times With in 2009

Oh Hell, She's Getting Up In the DJ Booth Again.

I think this is the tenth year I'm hauling out my music collection in a manner of speaking to go over songs that from this day on I'll hear and remember the past year. Every high, every low, every middle-ish sort of okay moment I was grateful to have.

Sure, Love Song by Sara Bareilles and So What by Pink made my list, because I'm a girly little girl. Nan and Mum ended up liking I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry and Out of Our Heads by Sheryl Crow, but then there were songs I liked just because they were bizarre, like We're Brothers Forever by Reynaldo Lapuz. What? You didn't see that? Don't watch Idol? Then you may not know how fantastic David Cook is.

Part of my eternal paradox is that I'm rabidly active in politics AND I watch American Idol. Crazy, I know, but Cookie David Cook made it worthwhile. His new album is great, the track Bar-Ba-Sol ended up meaning quite a bit to me not only because the lyrics are frikkin' fantastic.

There are people and cats and dogs and birds I've loved and places I've been in every one of these songs, so it's not just me spouting the names of albums that came out, no. Chinese Democracy finally arrived, for instance, and a week later the title track came on the radio and I didn't recognize it as one of the new ones. That's not how these songs end up on my list. I'm giving you the ones I'll never forget.

With the sort-of exception of We'll Go Walking by The Silver Seas, which was the first new song heard in 2008, and I can't say I've heard it since. I seem to recall liking it though.

I'd like to yammer on, but time's ticking away, so enough of that, here's some videos to songs you can use to recapture 2008 if you ever feel the need to:

Invisible Man - Joe Jackson

Conquest - White Stripes

What's On Your Mind by Madrugada

Whole Thing - Big Blue Ball featuring Peter Gabriel

Gravedigger - Willie Nelson

Liverpool 8 - Ringo Starr

This Is Not America - Ahn Trio

Supernatural Superserious - R.E.M.

Declaration (This Is It) - Kirk Franklin

Sentimental Heart - She & Him

Violet Hill - Coldplay with Brian Eno

Stamp Your Feet - Donna Summer

Salute Your Solution - The Raconteurs

Pork And Beans - Ween

Shut Up And Let Me Go - The Ting Tings

Not Now But Soon - Imogen Heap

I'm Good I'm Gone - Lykke Li

Going On - Gnarls Barkley

4 Minutes - Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake (I think we've covered my love for Madonna already.)

Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis (The link is to the routine the song was used for on So You Think You Can Dance, which is how this song got into my head. Really. Mark was neat.)

Damaged - Danity Kane

Cry For You - September

The Only One - The Cure

Thirty-One Today - Aimee Mann

Crazy - Violent Femmes

Borneo - Firewater

Next Life...Let's Just Wave to Each Other - Kevin Bartlett

Head Down - Nine Inch Nails

Human - The Killers

Circus Cosmos - Alu

Byrdgirl - Matthew Sweet

One More (Or Ten) - 7 Seconds of Love

It's Alright - Dar Williams

Carry Your Heart - Catherine A.D.

You Don't Know Me - Ben Folds and Regina Spektor

Another Way To Die - Jack White and Alicia Keys

Love Is A Stranger - Martha Wainwright

Loosen Up - The Shaky Hands)

Numba 1 (The Tide Is High) - Kardinal Offishall f/ Keri Hilson

Tickle Me Pink - Johnny Flynn

Shine On Me - Chris Dane Owens

Chasing Pavements - Adele

Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat

20 Dollar Nose Bleed - Fall Out Boy

Live Your Life - T.I. featuring Rihanna

And then...my number one all time frikkin' favorite forever and ever...Viva La Vida by Coldplay. I loved it from the teeny bit that played in the Apple ads, then Mum loved it, then it snowballed into a life of its own.

I have a lot of great music to look forward to next year...new Imogen Heap, U2, Scissor Sisters...now if everything else in the year can be as great. That's my wish, everyone. Hug your loved ones, enjoy what you do, don't sweat what you don't get to do, and be well.

Oh Hell, She's Getting Up In the DJ Booth Again.

We'll have to wait for the music. I have quite a bit of it.

'Allo everyone, I'm running late but it's all for a good reason. Just want to wish you all a very happy, healthy 2009, hug your loved ones, enjoy what you do, don't sweat what you don't get to do, and be well.

*sends the love to those who have gone before*

We'll have to wait for the music. I have quite a bit of it.

Love Me, Love My Music.

Each time I'd open the file so aptly named "2007Tunes.txt" and add another title and artist to it, I feared this year might not turn out such a mind-blowingly long list, but look...over 50 songs full of, "Yes, I heard that in 2007, and it got me through."

The links lead to videos on YouTube or official sites where the songs can be heard/read/looked at/listened to/telepathically inserted into your brain. I apologize for none of them, I love them all, and if you haven't heard them, and you have a lot of time to spend waiting out winter, I think you should give them a listen. Rawk on in '08, kids.

The first song I heard this year that I had never heard before was Dunder Mifflin Overdrive by Charles V. This was a mashup requested by R Stevens of Diesel Sweeties, and it is technically the first new and amusing song I heard this year. A new version of Across the Universe by The Beatles from the LOVE album was playing in the background on WFUV at the same time, so it could be a tie. Hmm.

Someday by John Mellencamp was the first new song I heard the whole way through in 2007, though.

You Got Me Up by Jamie Lidell (in the video, he sings this to his cat. I know the feeling, man.)

Sly by Cat Empire

Once Upon A Time by Air

Read My Mind by The Killers

Chips Ahoy by The Hold Steady

Over It by Katherine McPhee

Don't Let Him Waste Your Time by Jarvis (I was directed to the fabulous video for this one by dooce. Thank you, dooce, for everything.)

All My Life by Billy Joel

Shine On by Jet

Smiley Faces by Gnarls Barkley

She's My Man by Scissor Sisters

Falling Up by Rickie Lee Jones

Flathead by The Fratellis

#9 Dream by R.E.M.

Save Room by John Legend

Rehab by Amy Winehouse

My Humps by Alanis Morissette

Going To A Town by Rufus Wainwright

In The Sun by Donna De Lory

Kiss You Off by Scissor Sisters

Born To Please by Sound Team

Icky Thump by White Stripes

My Moon, My Man by Feist

For All My Days by Alexa Ray Joel

Working Class Hero by Green Day

Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5

Capital G by Nine Inch Nails

Don't Stop Now by Crowded House

What's a Girl To Do by Bat For Lashes

U+Ur Hand by Pink

Paralyzer by Finger Eleven

Revelation by Prince

Stiff Kittens by Blaqk Audio

Everybody Loves by Constantine Maroulis

Leave by Motus

The Way I Are by Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson & D.O.E

Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday

Whine Up by Kat DeLuna with Elephant Man

You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told) by White Stripes

Kingdom by Dave Gahan

If by Joni Mitchell

Dreamcatcher by Andy McKee

My Dear Country by Norah Jones

Livin' In The Future by Bruce Springsteen

Comfortably Numb by David Gilmour with David Bowie

Let Go by Discrete Encounter

Into The Sea by Sivert Høyem

Rubber & Soul by Ane Brun

The Pretender by Foo Fighters

Under The Black Light by Rilo Kiley

Fuck Was I by Jenny Owen Youngs

Going Out by Mr. Uncertain

If I Don't by Amp Fiddler featuring Corrine Bailey Rae

Down In A Hole by Ryan Adams

The Temptation of Adam by Josh Ritter (which was playing as I won NaNoWriMo '07, you know.)

Anything from Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! Does Judy! Judy! Judy!, Rufus Wainwright's amazing re-creation of Judy Garland's Carnegie Hall concert.

Not Now But Soon by Imogen Heap, which you can only hear bits of in her vBlog right now.

Honorable mentions must go to Don't Stop Believin' by Journey, which came back to me in a most unusual way this summer, as well as Pink Floyd, Madrugada, and Warren Zevon, who I listened to quite a bit this year, hearing some songs I'd never heard before. As always, this list is tragically missing most of the favorites I hear on Echoes, mainly because I can't choose between them, but Anoushka Shankar and Japancakes were there in my head this year too.

Love Me, Love My Music.

The music was pretty good.

This year had some new songs that made me remember what it's like to enjoy music. Tom Waits released Orphans, Level 42 released Retroglide, and then...then there was Tah-Dah. I liked Scissor Sisters before, but after this year, they're right up there, man.

Either because I'm a bastard or I can't count, I will now subject you to my Top 26 songs of 2006. I could call myself insanely clever and add, "Get it? 2...6? 2006?" but even I didn't think of that until I typed it just now. These songs all stand on their own, so I'm not going to do more than simply list them off and say that if you haven't heard them, give them a listen. They're just that good. The links all go to videos on YouTube, my other entertainment for 2006. Some of the videos are great, too--music videos used to be an obsession of mine, so I still appreciate a good one when I see it. Knights of Cydonia, for instance, has old west kung fu and robots in its video. That's right up my alley. Were I twenty years younger, I would be writing fanfics about herding unicorns outside the town of Cydonia. Then again, that's not very far from what I actually write now.

But I digress. This was my soundtrack this year:

 1 - I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
 2 - On An Island - David Gilmour
 3 - Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
 4 - Steady, As She Goes - The Raconteurs (Alternate video here.)
 5 - Land of a Thousand Words - Scissor Sisters
 6 - I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
 7 - Goodbye Innocence - L.E.O.
 8 - Empty - Ray Lamontange
 9 - Knights of Cydonia - Muse
10 - LDN - Lily Allen
11 - Nothing In My Way - Keane
12 - In The Sun - Michael Stipe with Coldplay
13 - Wild Horses - Tim Ries with Norah Jones
14 - I Must Have Lost It On The Wind - Elton John
15 - The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny - Lemon Demon
16 - Perfume - Sparks
17 - Because We Believe - Andrea Bocelli
18 - But Not Tonight - The New Cars
19 - Chinese Translation - M. Ward
20 - Beyond The Horizon - Bob Dylan
21 - Black Cadillac - Rosanne Cash
22 - The Asylum of Your Arms - Cormac McCarthy
23 - Wraith Pinned To The Mist & Other Games - Of Montreal
24 - Here For You - Neil Young
25 - Dear Mr. President - Pink feat. Indigo Girls
26 - O Mary Don't You Weep - Bruce Springsteen

The music was pretty good.