The Soundtrack To 2009
By the time 2009 wound down I had more albums I couldn’t stop playing than I had weeks to listen to them. The year had been full of that kind of music - the kind that grabs you and doesn’t let go.
The View came out of nowhere with Which Bitch?
- five Scottish guys who made one of the best indie rock albums of the spring and nobody seemed to notice. Their loss. Kyle, Kieren, Pete, Steven and Darren deserved better.
Regina Spektor had already done the quiet depression-and-piano thing, but Far
proved she could do it without getting precious about it. Clever ballads, small stories, heartbreak without the cheese. That Russian thing she does, that dry way of moving through sadness - it’s hard to explain but it lands every time.
Peter Doherty was a mess, obviously. Still is. But he’s also one of the best songwriters alive, drunk or sober. Grace/Wastelands
went into some dark places - his own dark places - and you could understand why he’d chosen the drugs and the drinking over clarity. It was bleak but it felt honest.
Little Boots with Hands
was lighter, brighter. Kanye somehow praised her, which was weird, but the album was just good electro-pop. No philosophy, no statements. Just solid music that didn’t need to apologize for being straightforward.
Lily Allen spent half the year either naked in magazines or announcing she was quitting music, and the other half making pop songs that stuck with you whether you wanted them to or not. I got why people hated her - the sarcasm, the depression underneath it all. But she was interesting. That album, It’s Not Me, It’s You,
had hooks you couldn’t get rid of.
La Roux - Eleanor Jackson with that red hair and her collaborator Ben Langmaid - just came in and started hitting. Quicksand,
In For The Kill,
Bulletproof.
Three singles that just worked. I kept thinking they’d disappear as fast as they arrived, but for a while there they were everywhere.
Amanda Blank was all sexual confidence. I Love You
was basically the opposite of modest, waving her excellent ass in front of crowds, making videos that didn’t pretend to be subtle about any of it. And the music was actually good. Especially when she worked with Lykke Li.
Bat For Lashes - Natasha Khan - did this mysterious, hypnotic thing that made you want to follow her somewhere. Two Suns
had this pull to it that made you believe in the whole thing.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs snuck in with It’s Blitz!
- no big announcement, just tracks you kept coming back to. That’s the mark of an album that sticks, isn’t it. The songs you play over and over because they won’t leave you alone.
Marina and the Diamonds with The Crown Jewels
was the sweetest thing pop had going that year - genuine talent, real charisma. I knew the album was coming next year and I was already sold on it.
That year felt full, just from the music.