The Best Recordings of 2009: Annotated Version Posted by Sasha Frere-Jones

December 9, 2009
The Best Recordings of 2009: Annotated Version Posted by Sasha Frere-Jones

A few notes on this best-of-2009 list.

SONGS

2. The Streets "Blinded By The Lights (Nero remix)": The Streets song remixed by a duo called Nero—"Blinded By The Lights"—is not new: it was first released in 2004. For the 2009 remix, Nero applied the sea-floor bass sounds and stately pace of dubstep to a pop song about taking the wrong drugs at the wrong time. The result made the nightmare sound even more plausible, and possibly even worth the trouble.

3. Pet Shop Boys "Love Etc." (EMI): Pet Shop Boys have written so many good pop songs over such a long period, and with so little diminution of quality, that their lack of American super-stardom can only be attributed to occult forces. I don't think critical analysis can solve this one.

20. Jesse McCartney "How Do You Sleep?" f/Ludacris (Hollywood): This song has a great chorus, complete with old-world chord changes and a steely top melody line. McCartney's team had reason to believe they would get what they paid for; songwriter Sean Garrett was involved in Usher's "Yeah!," Ciara's "Goodies," and Beyoncé's "Check On It." He knows the proportions of a hit. What I wish, for McCartney's sake, is that he had made it onto this insanely pleasurable list of Billboard's One-Hit Wonders. (He's got a shot for the next decade, but a slim one, dependent on Garrett, The-Dream, or whoever writes the song.) You won't be shocked to hear that Kevon Edmonds, brother of Babyface, got to No. 10 with "24/7" and never returned to the charts. But Tweet? S Club 7? Vanessa Carlton? Surely they must have had two hits! And yet—no.

ALBUMS

1. Sleigh Bells: My No. 1 album of the year isn't really an album. I simply listened to the Sleigh Bells MP3s more than any others, and I listened to them together, not as individual songs scattered through the day. Maybe five songs makes for a short album, but that's a trend I don't mind encouraging.

5. Mastodon "Crack The Skye" (Reprise): The only thing that surprised me about Mastodon this year was how many conversations I had about whether or not they are really metal. (Last count: seven.) Perhaps I am a cheap date, but if somebody looks like this while sitting down, that's metal enough for me. I look forward to Saturday's Black Metal Theory Symposium, which will illuminate one subgenre of metal. The larger ontology of metalness is too big for any symposium. When needed, I apply the "walks like a duck, talks like a duck" metric.

8. Lily Allen "It's Not Me, It's You" (EMI/Capitol): In the course of an average year of Lilyness, Lily Allen announces many plans: retiring from music (or not), fighting illegal file sharing (or not), and Twittering (or not). Allen's unpredictable movements, diffracted through the sweaty prism of the paparazzi, made it easy to forget that she released an album in 2009. Don't. Just because Allen wears music lightly and may abandon it soon doesn't mean she doesn't have a gift, and lightness is central to it. She may sound immediate and charming, in part, because she has no grand stake in being a musician. Producer and co-writer Greg Kurstin does, though. The pairing works.
The Best Recordings of 2009: Annotated Version: Sasha Frere-Jones : The New Yorker (26 December 2009)
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2009/12/the-best-recordings-of-2009-annotated-version.html
http://snipurl.com/tv78g