Music of the Weak: The Mid-Year Check-In, Part Two

Typically, we don’t need an excuse to pore over our favorite music of the year, but since it’s the halfway point of 2009, we just happen to have one. Yesterday, we looked at some albums that have been running their flags up our pole. Today, we’ll look at songs. We’ve covered a good number of our favorite songs in this column before, but we’re happy to re-point you in the direction of “Gibberish,” “Stillness is the Move,” “Portofino,” “Quiet Where I Lie,” “Andrew,” “Atlantic City,” “The New Wu,” “The Island,” “My Wife, Lost in the Wild,” “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble’s “War,” which finally got a proper release. Plus, here are seven more tracks to add to that list:

DJ Kaos – “Love the Nite Away (Tiedye Remix)” 

DJ Kaos, possibly the only artist Best New Music-ed by Pitchfork who is available to play at your wedding, originally arranged “Love the Nite Away” with a definite edge. The vocalist may sing about unrequited lust, but the music is all hard, grinding house music that ultimately erupts into an electric guitar solo. In the hands of remixer Tiedye, on the other hand, the music matches the lyrical content exactly, and the song becomes into a summery jam where the lust is less coked-up clubby, more lazy and lounge-y.

Dyme Def – “Get Off Me” 

It originally leaked in January ’08, but Dyme Def’s “Get Off Me” finally got an actual release this year on the Seattle-based threesome’s Panic EP. There’s not a whole lot to the song, except for some ferocious horns, a little bit of guitar wank, and some, you know, rapping, but that’s all these guys need to churn out a serious banger.

Free Energy – “Dream City” 

Prinzhorn Dance School and the Shocking Pinks may have their plusses, but the idea of a straight-up rock band on the DFA Records label is still a little bit of an iffy proposition—James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy have proven over and over that dance music can work with a high level of self-awareness, but rock music usually needs its self-seriousness. Case in point: 2003 saw the rise of LCD Soundsystem, The Darkness and the Electric Six, and look who’s still standing.

Free Energy have a fair shot precisely because it’s impossible to tell where they fall on the ironic/sincere scale. “Dream City” is layered with handclaps, “na na na na” choruses, and a Glenn Frey-worthy sax solo to cap it all off. Yet it’s all played with a straightforward ebullience, which may be confounding in terms of easy categorization, but is phenomenal when it comes to providing a summer rock song.

Gui Boratto – “No Turning Back” 

House of House – “Rushing to Paradise (Walking These Streets)”

Both Gui Boratto’s “No Turning Back” and House of House’s “Rushing to Paradise” build up to monstrous payoffs by delaying their vocals as much as possible. “No Turning Back” introduces itself with a rusty, metallic groove, while “Rushing to Paradise” dabbles in some extended piano riffing, but when the respective singers finally make their appearances, each song turns into a wistful, nostalgic triumph.

Junior Boys – “Hazel”

Nobody loves the Junior Boys anymore. After a ridiculously hyped first couple of albums, and a couple killer singles, the group’s third effort, Begone Dull Care, had little impact on its arrival. Nevertheless, “Hazel,” at the center of the new album, can stand alongside previous singles “Birthday” and “In the Morning” as some of the brightest 80’s influenced synth-pop confections in a decade full of ‘em.

Yeasayer – “Tightrope”

Among all of the uniformly excellent downers on the Dark Was the Night, it’s the uptempo songs that stick out—Dirty Projectors & David Byrne’s “Knotty Pine,” Spoon’s “Well Alright,” and especially Yeasayer’s “Tightrope.” The Brooklyn-based, Eastern-influenced indie band contributes one of the tightest songs in their catalogue, and it manages to be upbeat and laconic all at once—fitting in perfectly with the compilation, and also rising above it.

-Martin Brown, 2009

Comments

[Marty]

So, what are YOUR favorite songs and albums of 2009 so far?

[Sean Witzke]

The Burial/Four Tet double-A side, Dead Weather covering "Are Friends Electric", the piano version of Metric's "Help I'm Alive", The Horrors' "Sea Within A Sea", YYYs' "Hysteric", Quik and Kurupt's "9x outta 10", and of course Jamie Foxx and T-Pain's "Blame it on the Alcohol".

[bp]

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

[Zebtron A. Rama]

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
J Dilla - Jay Stay Paid
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Esoteric - Serve or Suffer
...so far.

(that Junior Boys track is hot)

[Tucker Stone]

Tim Hecker-imaginary country
DOOM-born like this
Wale-Back to the feature
Dalek-Blessed are they who bash your children's head against a rock
Fires of Rome-Set in stone