This year, in order to determine the Top 50 songs of the year, we reached out to The Factual Opinion’s extended family, which included Noah Berlatsky, Matthew J. Brady, David Brothers, Philip Dhingra, Sarah Engelman, Andre Harris, Tim O’Neil, Zeb L. West, Sean Witzke, and Josh Woodbeck, in addition to Tucker and I. The results have a sliiiightly more populist bent than they typically do, but they also represent a wide cross-section of what was happening in music this year, from indie rock to pop to rap to even jazz and dubstep.
Previously: The Top 50 Songs of 2009: #50-26
25. Yeasayer – “Tightrope”
Just about every morning for the past month I’ve been getting the chorus of Yeasayer’s Tightrope stuck in my head while I shower. The song is layered with sleigh bells, hand claps, something that sounds like cooing chickens and desperate, quivering vocals that come together and create a delicate and powerful ballad about regret and moving on. I’ve heard three very different versions of Tightrope so far, involving everything from kazoos, rattling keys, a melodica and a highly staccato Chris Keating (but always keeping the haunting “ahh-ahh”s); and they’re all my favorite. –Sarah Engelman
24. Jay-Z – “Run This Town (Feat. Rihanna & Kanye West)”
I'm not sure what this song is about exactly (something about being famous, maybe; the most quotable lyric is Kanye's "She got an ass that'll swallow up a G-string, and on top (uh) two bee stings"), but man, is it entertainingly listenable and put together impeccably. It's the kind of thing that just keeps piling nice wordplay on top of a great beat, with pauses for a forcefully wailing Rihanna to go on about running this town tonight. The song will keep running through my head, that's for sure. –Matthew J. Brady
23. Sleigh Bells – “Crown on the Ground”
I'd be a damned liar if I said I heard these guys before Pitchfork did - so I won't even try. Still and all: so fucking what? You'd have to be an idiot not to know these guys are up to something good. I can't even really describe what is so awesome about this song: it sounds like Swizz Beats remixed by Merzbow, with that awesome chick from Beach House on top. (OK, there's maybe a slight resemblance to Crystal Castles, except for the fact that these guys aren't antisocial crust punks.) I don't even know if the raw, bleeding-red lo-fi sound is intentional or just a product of the fact that this is an unreleased demo which we probably aren't supposed to have. These guys don't even have a label yet and already they're already bigger than Jesus. That's the music biz in 2009, but I hope they don't suffer the whole dastardly Behind the Music fame and disaster cycle before they get the chance to release their debut on Interscope in 2011. (Joke! They're probably not going to sign to Interscope.) But put all your sorries in a satchel for the present: just listen to the way the chorus crests with the sound of a woman having an orgasm on top of a Casio keyboard, and tell me that's not the future of music. –Tim O’Neil
22. Massive Attack – “Pray For Rain (Feat. Tunde Adebimpe)”
I think I like this song so much because of how I was introduced to The Doors. I hadn't heard them until high school, when a friend sat me down with one of their greatest hits discs and we listened to it all the way through. Something about the sequencing on that album reminds me of the phases Pray for Rain goes through, almost as if it were a Doors album compressed down into six minutes. The haunting voice that's just a little subdued, the pounding drum and echoing bells, and that bit when the songs elements slowly fall out of the track a couple minutes in right before the voice comes back, leading the charge as the music comes back in, but different-- this is really, really interesting stuff to listen to. It feels like a story. –David Brothers
21. A Sunny Day in Glasgow – “Failure”
Sometimes I have manic panic attacks where I feel giddy and confused, a little light headed and slightly lost. That’s how the first half of A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s Failure makes me feel, and like a dirty scab picker I like it. The schizophrenic jumble of noises sounds like a mad fun house with vocals and synthesizers swimming and swirling around chaotic drums and angry guitar strums. The second half of the song is like my calm and quiet boyfriend coming in to tell me it’s time to start winding down and getting ready for bed so I have some chance of getting to sleep. I fight and fight and fight for a little while and eventually succumb to the tinkling piano and zzzz… –Sarah Engelman
20. Beach House – “Norway”
Beach House misspelled this song for fun (she sings "no way" for sure). This song isn't about Norway at all! Why did they call it that? Maybe they think songs are valued by their emotional effectiveness on the audience not their actual meaning I dont know. I mean everything hits everyone differently right? So its not the way your hit but how hard. So while this song Is about love and loss and hurt and all that, its really the way that its expressed that makes it incredible. How those almost whispered "ah ah ahs" and shimmery synths morph into this droning extended organ note and back again. How that steady synthetic drum beat lulls you into its dreamy surf like presence. Speaking of presence; Victoria's performance here sounds like the cries of a fallen angel. Her voice croons, screams, yelps and soars like some unbound force. The performance itself has a meaning that no one else in the world can recreate. And thats what counts in the end: The captured moment. –Andre Harris
19. Gui Boratto – “No Turning Back”
No matter how many times I play this song, I never see it coming, it never fails to just stop me as the track is slowly overtaken by sequenced guitar distortion. It's never abrasive, it's not an assault on the listener. It's a blossoming, geometrical expansion of sound that collapses in onself and expands out multiple times over the song's nearly 8 minutes. It's fucking gorgeous too - mostly in its subtlety and control, the song really only making minor changes to maximum effect. The voice finally coming in at three minutes, completely muted - a real voice made to sound like a sample. When the decade switched over there was a lot of talk about how turning an EQ knob couldn't have the same effect as a live band contorting it's groove - but here Boratto is doing just that and the effect is devastating. –Sean Witzke
18. Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career”
"My Maudlin Career" is huge, wall-of-sound pop, but its real power doesn't come from its vastness, it comes from the casual manner it just drifts out. Tracyanne Campbell's melancholy voice is just pretty, like all the 60s pop singers whose boyfriends had left them, but so much better than Leslie goddamn Gore, etc. Her voice is like gauze, the words kind of fall apart when you look at them too close, it's really more an execution of emotion than a work of poetry, it's so aching and warm. "This maudlin career has come to an end, I don't want to be sad again" equates the relationship with an awful job, but with automatic inescapable sadness. It's about not being up for something like this again. One of the best lines in a song this year is "He kisses me on the forehead and his kisses give me concussions". –Sean Witzke
17. Animal Collective – “My Girls”
16. Crystal Antlers – “Andrew”
“Andrew” would be a great dive bar jukebox song, perfect for a surly and sulky late night slow dance. Singer Johnny Bell will plead for your forgiveness while you sway to the organ chords, and make your whiskey-breath’d apology. The grumbley lyrics, though not always intelligible, can be understood more through their earnestness, on a simple rhyme scheme that culminates in a last-chance appeal for relief from last-call loneliness, “don’t let me die alone.” –Zeb L. West
15. Beirut – “My Wife, Lost in the Wild”
This is good for slipping into a daydreaming trance. The repetitive instrumentation sets a hypnotic rhythm which eases you into equally hypnotic, unintelligible vocals. You may find yourself in a little trance which, by the end of the song, will make you press repeat, again and again. –Philip Dhingra
14. DJ Quik & Kurupt – “9x Outta 10”
The harshest, most inhumanly detached, raw beat last year was weirdly enough a Portishead record, so this year the universe realigns itself and the most raw thing is "9x Outta 10". The beat is a stuttering mechanical punch in the face that pretty much just keeps happening for 3 minutes. It keeps punching you in the face, no break. A voice is diced up for an unintelligible flourish. But it's pretty much just a beat and Kurupt going off. Talking about... something. Who cares? It's at least partially about how bad-ass Kurupt and Quik are (and yes, they are). This shit is proof that sound means a million times more than content - how he says it over what he's saying, but what he's saying is great too - "Don't talk to me no more about no motherfucking money" is the kind of shit someone needed to say to rap in '09, and it wasn't some whiney backpacker asshole who said it, it was a member of the goddamn Dogg Pound. –Sean Witzke
13. Atlas Sound – “Quick Canal (Feat. Laetitia Sadier)”
This isn't gonna be too hard. I love this guy. I've listened to his stuff so much my ears should be bleeding. Three cheers for Bradford Cox! He's my bff forever. I listened to this song thirty times before it even had lyrics. Id listen everyday before I went to work. A ten minute masterpiece of beautiful noise and hypnotic drum beats. I listened to it whenever i was bored because time just flew by when it played. This song is like smoking cigarettes except not gross but beautiful, always there for you when you need a friend. this song makes you feel like your floating in space on a huge dance floor. For some reason your all by yourself but you dont notice cause your having too much fun. Its like a beautiful tapestry weaving itself together before your eyes...IN SPACE! Its like breathing the freshest air around. Its a pure joy ride. I guess I dont need to say anymore right? Enjoy –Andre Harris
12. Raekwon – “House Of Flying Daggers (Feat. Inspectah Deck A.K.A Rollie Fingers, Ghostface Killah A.K.A Tony Starks & Method Man A.K.A Johnny Blaze)”
THIS REVEIW HAS BEEN RATED F FOR FUNKY ASS LANGUAGE.
NEWSFLASH! WU tang is STILL, after twenty years homie, nothing to fuck with at all....like not even close though seriously. Man remember that album 36 chambers? That mother fucker stank it was so good! Remember Clan in da front? Yeah ya do man its one of the best rap songs ever! This song sounds like that song as a cyborg. Except that cyborg is a zombie...and high...and dancing like hes in thriller! And I ask you my dear fellows have you heard these dudes rhyme lately? Its crippling shit. They break your ankles with rhymes. Let me bust out some examples to make myself feel good: "Dont fuck around I will spill on you and kill you on the streets boo" "Our guns are chunky" "Cry Syria bury me in Africa" "You can see me on the street on a yatch" and so on and so forth the shit is bananas. I listen to this song my heart starts beatin, I feel like if I dont bop my head somethin bad will happen, but who cares? Pure rap bliss and one of the best songs of the year. WU TANG are still killah bees so you best recognize. –Andre Harris
11. Bon Iver – “Blood Bank”
Bon Iver’s Blood Bank feels like a warm, lonely, beautiful moment filled with great longing. The lyrics are simple and intimate poetry, touching on themes of family, home, secrets, love and honor. The harmonies and guitars come together to make it feel like a memory from long ago, yet it feels like it’s being created just for me each time I listen. And as sappy as this review is, Blood Bank manages to carry a respectable weight. Justin Vernon may be self conscious ex-jazz band geek who sulkily locks himself in a cabin for months after a rough break up to write folksy indie-rock love songs, but I don’t get the sense that I’m listening to a sissy whine about his life. –Sarah Engelman
10. Burial & Four Tet – “Moth”
Burial and Four Tet, two songs on a record, no fanfare or pre-release mentions, you know the frill. If you're at all like me you had it coming in from rapidshare about ten seconds after you found out it existed, and you felt a little disappointed. One song was a Steve Reich thing with dubstep drums, the other was a lush downbeat track that actually sounded like the two artists collaborating, both songs were 9 minutes long. The one that actually sounded like Burial and Four Tet on equal grounds, turns out that one's a grower. Actually maybe it's more than that, it's a really amazing collaboration all restrained beat and shimmering fuzz, creating lush expanses with only stereophonic chiming and keyboard notes, a pair of female voices just far enough away for us not to hear them completely. Turns out it’s the best thing either of them has ever done. –Sean Witzke
9. Teengirl Fantasy – “Portofino”
One of those rare instrumental songs that you can loop forever. There's approximately four layers to this, with the dreamy twinkle being the longest-lasting and most indelible part of the song. I get strange visuals while listening to this, like psychedelic Disney elephants in a marching band. Perhaps this is because when I first heard this song, it was on Portofino's MySpace, which had an animated background of twinkling stars and a looping profile pic of Jean-Claude Van Damme in fluorescent spandex, clapping his hands like a dork at a dance-off. –Philip Dhingra
8. Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”
Do you know who dislikes this song? No one. Like Outkast’s “Hey Ya” unified the entire early-decade hip-hop bell curve, this song takes all the indie-pop fans, outliers included, and gives them all something to love. The pretty instrumentation and vocal harmonies smack of a fighting-weight Paul McCartney composition. The vaguely earnest feel fits squarely in the “do we really believe in irony for irony’s sake” zeitgeist without over doing it and offending those who don’t like to be told what to feel. The lyrics (and the high notes) are eerily reminiscent of Andre 3000’s “it’s a slog sometimes, but let’s stay together” triumph. You can make out to this song. You can teach children’s ballet to this song. You can cook with your parents to this song. You can play this song in a really bored bar and watch the positive recognition spread. It’s a veritable Swiss-Army knife. We owe this song some gratitude. –Josh Woodbeck
7. Passion Pit – “Little Secrets”
Songs like this are magic dust. Sprinkle em on a booty and it just starts shakin'! Just a pinch and suddenly Grandma’s wrinkles ain’t saggin' no more. Some voodoo combination of generous beats that drop right when you need em, big snare hits that command you to rock, a bed of synth chords that are just elevating you until you’re hit by a children’s chorus that makes you feel like you’re at the fattest Sesame Street block party ever! Even Mr. Hooper’s ghost is pumping his fist, shouting “higher and higher and higher!” So maybe the lyrics are vague to the point of subjectivity… (Drugs? Sex? Who knows?) Who cares! I’m over here high-fivin’ Mr. Snuffleupagus! –Zeb L. West
6. Das Racist – “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)”
5. Big Boi – “Shine Blockas (Feat. Gucci Mane)”
Back in the early years of this misbegotten decade CW had OutKast pegged as straight invincible. Then after the bloom faded from Speakerboxxx / The Love Below, our heroes were suddenly quite vincible indeed, bumbling around movie theaters and subsequently getting lost in rumors of perpetually imminent solo albums and improbable label limbo. But even if CW could not have foreseen just how quickly things fell apart, it also couldn't have predicted how totally Big Boi would eclipse his partner in critical estimation. In hindsight it's easy to see why: Andre had ambition, yes, but no focus and no discipline. Seriously, when was the last time you listened to The Love Below? If he ever drops a solo joint expect it to feature sampled whale sounds and XTC covers, maybe a Terence Trent D'Arby cameo. Big Boi may not have written "Hey Ya," but he's got something better: "Shine Blockas" rolls like classic mid-90s ATL bounce, but the thick soul samples swoon and soar like Girl Talk. Somehow it manages to be both a player's anthem and a future disco crossover - a Cato Institute white-paper on old-fashioned family values as elucidated by Gucci Mane, and a post-Dilla, post-Kanye rocket to Mars. Perhaps if the damn album ever materializes it might actually be good enough to convince me that it hasn't all been a terrible let-down since Aquemini. Leave all that pop shit behind, forget Ms Jackson and all those Grammies (but I'll keep B.O.B., kthx) - just go back to putting that bump up in our eyes. To that effect, this is a good start. –Tim O’Neil
4. The Roots – “How I Got Over”
"How I Got Over" opens with Black Thought ad-libbing and goes right into the typical conscious rap chorus- street life, we gotta do better, "someone has to care"-type stuff. And then, when Thought's verse should begin, we get... Black Thought singing. His voice is raspy, like paper on paper, and sad, which makes it a perfect fit for a song about being down and then standing up. He's tired, he's burnt out, but life is still straight. By the end of the song, Black Thought has rapped for maybe thirty seconds, sang for the rest of the song's three minutes and thirty seconds running time, and you don't even notice at all. Black Thought is consistently underrated as a lyricist, and maybe he's even more flexible than we thought on the mic. This feels natural. –David Brothers
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Hysteric”
Wait a sec, YOU thought that YOU loathed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? The dumb name? The horribleness of having to play “Maps” again on Rock Band? The buzz that just can’t be explained and that no one seems to buy? ME TOO! And yet, this song makes me reconsider the whole catalogue. It’s that spot on. The hooks are polished like vintage ditties from the Strokes. The superficially sappy lyrics rise to the material instead of making you wonder what the hell any of this has to do with anything. The fuzzing and buzzing sound like something Johnny Greenwood would mix into a Santogold single. It’s incredible. It’s actually… cool. If you attached this song to a commercial, I’d be hard pressed not to buy whatever you were selling. Look, I’m sorry to slam the Yeah Yeah Yeahs so hard while including them in a best of the year list, but come on, I’m as shocked as you are. –Josh Woodbeck
2. Phoenix – “1901”
Phoenix sure seems like everybody's favorite indie band this year, or at least the one that people who don't pay much attention to the music scene can identify, and listening to this song makes it obvious why; they've got a great combination of catchily melodic singing, a nice, simple guitar riff, and some electronic background sounds that add an ethereal mood to the typical hipster stuff about love and relationships and whatnot. Not bad for some skinny French guys; they're sure to be the toast of Pitchfork for quite some time to come. –Matthew J. Brady
1. Dirty Projectors – “Stillness is the Move”
Reading this list just highlights how out of touch with music I was in the 09. My highlight of the year was hearing Talib Kweli and Hi Tech working together again (Cincinnati for the win!). Other than the DOOM, Felt, and Rae albums, I don't think I have anything from 09 on my iPod. Oh well...hopefully I'll be hip again in the 10.
Posted by: Kenny Cather | 2010.01.11 at 08:53
Oh man...not Dirty Projectors. Say it ain't so.
And Amerie was the one who got killed by vote splitting. That makes me sad.
I really liked your Sleigh Bells review, Tim.
Posted by: NoahB | 2010.01.11 at 12:19
9/12 people voted for Stillness is the Move. I was pretty surprised it hit #1. I was betting on 1901. I'm pretty happy about it, though--it was my #1.
Amerie's the one big omission, IMO. She ended up coming in at #64, #77, and #121.
Posted by: Marty | 2010.01.11 at 12:26
No one else voted for Yo La Tengo? Be honest - the fact that it was last in the alphabetical listen, did you just not get to it? It's OK if you did, just askin'.
And I am sort of mortified that Das Racist made the list - I honestly thought its inclusion in the initial list of MP3s was a joke. I just . . . wow. That's some terrible, terrible music, and if you voted for it you should be ashamed. Ashamed!
Posted by: Tim O'Neil | 2010.01.11 at 15:47
8 out of 12 people voted for it! And it was my #4!
YLT, on the other hand, ended up as the third highest song to only get two votes--behind Zero and Laughing With.
Posted by: Marty | 2010.01.11 at 16:01
I will scream at people as well.
THE LAST BARON
TWO
I HEARD NOTHING ELSE IN 2009
SO I GUESS I AM FINE WITH MOST EVERYTHING ELSE
EXCEPT FOR DIRTY PROJECTORS
I THINK THEY ARE DREADFUL
Posted by: Chris Jones | 2010.01.11 at 16:32
Kenny: Oh man, I am ridiculously unhip; I'd never heard of most of the stuff on this list, but after listening to it, I dug a ton of it. Passion Pit! Dirty Projectors! Das Racist! Crystal Antlers! Sleigh Bells! Who the hell are these people! Who cares, they make some awesome music. Here's to broadening horizons, amirite?
I actually really dug Stillness is the Move, and the Das Racist is silly, but man is it one catchy song. I regret nothing.
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2010.01.11 at 21:19
Actually, looking at the breakdown, I guess I didn't vote for Stillness is the Move, so I do regret that, although obviously it didn't make much of a difference. And I quite liked Amerie's Tell Me U Love Me, so it's too bad it didn't make it. Them's the breaks. The other one that I voted for that didn't make it was Basement Jaxx's "Raindrops", which was pretty cool. Like I said, lots of good music here.
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2010.01.11 at 21:35
Matthew, I'm a Certified Rock Critic (I have a little button) and I hadn't heard most of the stuff on the list. There's just infinite music; can't hear everything.
Man, that Grizzly Bear review is hysterical. And so is the Sunny Day in Glasgow review. Some great little write ups here.
Tim is so wrong about Outkast though. Idlewild is probably the most underrated album of the decade, damn it. Nobody gives that album enough love.
Posted by: NoahB | 2010.01.11 at 21:44
I usually LOVE Basement Jaxx, but Raindrops totally left me unmoved, oddly enough. I have a copy of Scars but it seems kind of dry in a way that the somewhat patchy Crazy Itch Radio didn't.
I wrote the Popmatters review for the Idlewild soundtrack, and remember thinking that it was about half good and half terrible - and that the good parts were Big Boi's doing, and the bad parts were Andre's attempts at trying to be Funkadelic. Lackluster on balance.
Posted by: Tim O'Neil | 2010.01.12 at 03:39
You are so, so wrong. So wrong.
I didn't know you wrote for Popmatters. I like that site.
Posted by: NoahB | 2010.01.12 at 10:04
Yeah, NoahB, wrong as fuck. Idlewild is a superb album and one of the most grossly misunderstood and severely underrated works in recent history.
Posted by: Michael | 2010.05.14 at 02:02