In Which We Pick The Greatest Popular Songs Of The Year

The Best Pop Singles Of 2009

by MOLLY LAMBERT

Hard/Rude Boy - Rihanna 

Call Of Duty: Port Of Barbados, Mickey Mouse army helmet, sinister piano plinks, Rihanna hits us and it feels like a kiss. Rude Boy continues to riff on the military theme, drafting Rihanna as Ilsa, Size Queen Of The Caribbean so she can murder dem. Like Britney, Rihanna's voice is weird and nasal and perfect for trying out weird process effects.

She Wolf/Give It Up To Me - Shakira

Lady Gaga can wear leather fetish masks all she wants, but Shakira has more genuine weirdness to spare than Gaga could generate in a year's worth of costume changes.

3 - Britney Spears

I liked this because it sounds like it's already the Sims video version of itself. I mean, surely Max Martin can afford newer keyboard sounds. He must be going for an early Britney slightly discounted Europop sound (maybe). I play this song on the guitar a lot.

The weirdest part is how the radio edit reversed "sin" to "nis" in the pre-hook, so it's "living in nis" but in the bridge she sings "what we do is not a sin" and it's not blurred. It sounds way more Satanic because of this.

A Capella - Kelis

Kelis gets with David Guetta for some electronic shit. Kelis was on the futuristic no genres thing before anyone. She wants to make a Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway album with Raphael Saadiq and I sure hope they do! She says this new album is all dance.

Just Dance/Poker Face/Paparazzi/Bad Romance/Telephone - Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga's Cremenstrual Cycle. Everyone remembers when they broke down about Lady Gaga. It's like the moonwalk or the Kennedy assassination. Sure you were able to ignore the disco stick, and the flaming tits and the Kermit dress. But then one day you caught yourself going "ra ra ah ah ah" and barely vogueing and you knew the jig was up.

You Belong With Me/Forever & Always - Taylor Swift

Here's the deal; he already knows you like him. He's dating the other girl because she is hot and popular and you are a fucking band dork with an A cup. Look I was a thirteen year old girl once too. It sucks, and more songs about kissing in a rainstorm are probably not the answer. But I'm sure my diaries from the time are not any less embarrassing! I hope Taylor gets her heart broken more times because the flip side of her idealistic fairy tale romance delusions is apparently a scary vindictive psycho hose beast and It makes for better songwriting than the Romeo and Juliet bullshit.

The Climb/Party In The U.S.A. - Miley Cyrus

Miley is the Rayanne Graff to Taylor Swift's Sharon Cherski. Demi Lovato is Angela Chase, and Kevin Jonas is Rickie Vasquez. In case you were wondering. 

Pon De Floor - Major Lazer

If you play this at your New Year's party everyone will be like "YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Lemonade/Stupid Wild - Gucci Mane

This year's token rapper that people who don't listen to rap like. But like his forebearers for this honor Weezy and Juelz Santana, Gucci is the silliest. These songs are the goofiest and if the ad libs don't make you laugh you are probably not alive.

Daniel - Bat For Lashes 

I never used to understand why Stevie Nicks was always swanning around onstage with crazy scarves and capes and crystals, but now I get it. It's because it's fucking fun as shit.

Sorry Sorry - Super Junior

A K-Pop band with thirteen members, the self proclaimed "largest boy band in the world." This song is their attempt to catch up with Justin Timberlake, and it's as successful as it needs to be. I mean, for a song that needs to suit the needs of a boy band with thirteen members, most of whom can't fit in the frame at one time.

Two Weeks/Cheerleader - Grizzly Bear

Beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous, and catchy as fuqqqqqqqqq.

My Girls/Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective

The indie rock equivalent of The Grateful Dead soldier on and manage to keep Baltimore weird even as they amass an ever larger and more mainstream fanbase.

Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston

The comeback hit Whitney deserved, and part of the new "taking disco seriously." Disco is camp and if you hate camp you are probably a homophobe and if you're a homophobe you're probably gay. Whitney will roll up that million dollar bill and use it to snort your disco breaks.

Dance Wiv Me (Ft. Dizzee Rascal) - Calvin Harris

The UK has always had an easier time with camp and disco than we do, which explains why they get Queen, Robbie Williams, as well as the overseas popularity of The Scissor Sisters. Although Adam Lambert is fucking knocking at the gate, America. Open up and take it! This is a great song I would dance to any time in an H&M or Forever 21. 

Tik Tok - Ke$ha

Dirtier than dirty pop. Crusty pop. Because girls can be scary drunks too!

Gotta Get It - Juvenile

Organ stabs! So good! Funeral home club banger.

Blame It - Jamie Foxx Ft. T-Pain

Motherfuckers act like they forgot about "Blame It"! This is just a novelty song, and I don't want to hear it for the next few years at least, but I still love making "blame it!" jokes more than anything. Blame it!

Other Singles I Liked In 2009

Hood Pass Intact - Dam Funk 

Exhibit C - Jay Electronica

Iodine Poisoning - Freddie Gibbs

Want You Back - Nite Jewel

Warming To Sincerity - Dan Plaza  

Sapphire - Peacefire 

Gay Fish - Kanye West

Hot N Cold - Katy Perry

Thin Moon - James Pants

Birthday Sex/Imma Star - Jeremih

When I'm With You - Best Coast

Computer Bagel - Lambo

Lust For Life - Girls

Blood Bank/Beach Baby - Bon Iver

Can't Hear My Eyes - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Molly Lambert (on the right) is the managing editor of This Recording. 

In Which These Are The 20 Best Albums of 2009

The Top 20 Albums of 2009

by ALEX CARNEVALE

By every measure the most important release of this or any other calendar year is the three-disc retrospective of Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. In what follows, however, we have confined our selections to original albums released or leaked in the year 2009. Also, we are happy to note that the Grizzly Bear (18 weeks on the Billboard 100) and Animal Collective albums released this year have achieved sufficient notoriety. Please enjoy the best albums of 2009:

20. Adam Franklin, Spent Bullets

Former Swervedriver vocalist Franklin's second album is a shoegaze classic, an album that could have been released in any of the past four decades and still be understood and enjoyed.

"Two Dollar Dress" - Adam Franklin (mp3)

"It Hurts To See You Go" - Adam Franklin (mp3)

"Autumn Leaf" - Adam Franklin (mp3)

19. Bad Veins, Bad Veins

Benjamin Davis and Sebastien Schultz's project achieved early acclaim after a few shows, but their mature self-titled effort is a masterpiece of songwriting.

"You Kill" — Bad Veins (mp3)

"Falling Tide" — Bad Veins (mp3)

"Gold and Warm" — Bad Veins (mp3)

"The Lie" — Bad Veins (mp3)

18. Mewithoutyou, It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright

The Weiss brothers tribute to Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, It's All Crazy! is a wild, rollicking record before it turns around for haunting paeans to Woody Guthrie and other more musical inspirations. Weiss' voice is a constantly flexible tool, swinging up for choruses and down to grovel at the altar of something mysterious. A wonderful, impeccably well-rounded 45 minutes of music. 

"A Stick, A Carrot and String" - Mewithoutyou (mp3)

"Bullet to Binary (Pt. 2)" - Mewithoutyou (mp3)

"Fig with Bellyache" - Mewithoutyou (mp3)

17. Girls, Album

This San Francisco collective's unexpected debut is a synthesis of 50s and 60s influences flaunted opportunistically.

"Morning Light" - Girls (mp3)

"Summertime" - Girls (mp3)

"Lauren Marie" - Girls (mp3)

16. Lisa Hannigan, Sea Sew

Since moving away from collaborator Damien Rice, Hannigan's music has taken on a delightful hopping twinge. Her music with Rice was sorrowful and rich. She hasn't lost the mournful beauty, but she added a sustaining optimism on the most consistently rewarding record of 2009.

"Courting Blues" - Lisa Hannigan (mp3)

"Lille" - Lisa Hannigan (mp3)

"I Don't Know" - Lisa Hannigan (mp3)

"Keep It All" - Lisa Hannigan (mp3)

15. Paleo, Pedestrian Crossing

David Andrew Strackany's become a prolific producer, but he's also a brilliant songwriter and shows as much on this album, which he began in 2005. Of Pedestrian Crossing, he writes: "a little bit of a Frankenstein, a product of meticulous, almost scientific, arrangement and editing techniques. For better or worse, I'll never make a record this way ever again."

"Too Poor" - Paleo (mp3)

14. Handsome Furs, Face Control

Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry are basically New Order but better in every detail. Their second album is every bit as delightful as their first.

"Legal Tender" - Handsome Furs (mp3)

"Evangeline" - Handsome Furs (mp3)

"Talking Hotel Arbat Blues" - Handsome Furs (mp3)

13. The Boy Least Likely To, The Laws of the Playground

Pete Cobbs and Jof Owen's followup to the critically acclaimed The Best Party Ever is pure pop without apologies or insinuations.

"The Boy Least Likely To Is A Machine" - The Boy Least Likely To (mp3)

"The Boy With Two Hearts" - The Boy Least Likely To (mp3)

"I Box Up All The Butterflies" - The Boy Least Likely To (mp3)

12. Volcano Choir, Unmap

Maybe the greatest thing to come out of Wisconsin since Bart Starr, Justin Vernon's collaboration with Collections of Colonies of Bees is another fun jaunt from an artist unafraid of experimentation or collaboration.

"Island, IS" - Volcano Choir (mp3)

"Cool Knowledge" - Volcano Choir (mp3)

"Youology" - Volcano Choir (mp3)

11. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Up From Below

Rollicking, breathless, and multi-instrumental fun to enjoy with your friends and lovers in a safe and orderly setting that holds some kind of underlying fascination or obsession for you. Alex Ebert's voice is a flexible instrument that cycles through country, folk, and rock'n'roll too fast to keep up and still enjoy the music.

"Desert Song" - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (mp3)

"Jade" - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (mp3)

"Home" - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (mp3)

10. Jóhann Jóhannsson, And in the endless pause there came the sound of bees

After releasing last year's masterpiece Fordlândia, Jóhann Jóhannsson proved he could make rewarding and complex music about nearly any subject, given that the album was about a rubber plant. bees has all the austerity you'd expect from a composer of film scores, mingled into a pleasing hybrid form with his command of other genres.

"Inside the Pods" - Jóhann Jóhannsson (mp3)

"Escape" - Jóhann Jóhannsson (mp3)

"End (Snowing)" - Jóhann Jóhannsson (mp3)

9. La Roux, La Roux

Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid's magical project brings the glory of synth pop into new interstices of how far dance music has come since the 1980s. 

"Fascination" - La Roux (mp3)

"As If By Magic" - La Roux (mp3)

"Bulletproof" - La Roux (mp3)

8. Beach House, Teen Dream

It was too difficult to make a follow-up to the imaginative shoegaze pop of 2008's Devotion, but Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand do one better: they manage to improve the alternately smooth and rough landscapes of their songwriting on Teen Dream.

“10 Mile Stereo” - Beach House (mp3)

"Norway" - Beach House (mp3)

7. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Organized around a consistent and penetrable aesthetic that is remarkably joyful.

"Rome" - Phoenix (mp3)

"Girlfriend" - Phoenix (mp3)

"Lisztomania" - Phoenix (mp3)

6. The Antlers, Hospice

Peter Silberman's death project features a massive, swirling unforgettable soundscape. He's among the best lyricists working today, and his use of what seems like "found" sound but really isn't adds to the eerieness of his aesthetic. Hospice is the perfect headphones album and the saddest thing I've ever heard.

"Kettering" - The Antlers (mp3)

"Bear" - The Antlers (mp3)

"Thirteen" - The Antlers (mp3)

5. Miike Snow, Miike Snow

Andrew Wyatt's collaboration with producers Bloodshy and Avant resulted in this masterful first album, replete with incredibly catchy hooks and Wyatt's buoyant, glimmering vocals. A treasure.

"Animal" - Miike Snow (mp3)

"Plastic Jungle" - Miike Snow (mp3)

"Song for No One" - Miike Snow (mp3)

4. AA Bondy, When The Devil's Loose

Formerly of the band Verbana, Bondy's incredible sophomore album is filled with folk music for now, with enduring themes and beautiful melodies. The title track itself is as close to perfect as a song can get.

"False River" - AA Bondy (mp3)

"On the Moon" - AA Bondy (mp3)

"The Coal Hits The Fire" - AA Bondy (mp3)

3. Alela Diane, To Be Still

Haunting singer-songwriter stuff that gets all the little details right. Diane's voice, by itself or in tandem with others, sounds like Karen Dalton if she were actually focused on singing melodically.

"Age Old Blue" - Alela Diane (mp3)

"Take Us Back" - Alela Diane (mp3)

"To Be Still" - Alela Diane (mp3)

2. The-Dream, Love vs. Money

The 31 year old Terius Nash's producing career has recently paired him with the like of Katy Perry. He's vowed to give up his solo career after next year's follow-up to this year's R&B/hip-hop classic. The man who wrote "Umbrella" has a lot more tricks than that in his bag.

"Rockin' That Shit" — The-Dream (mp3)

"Love vs. Money" — The-Dream (mp3)

"Walkin' On the Moon" — The-Dream ft. Kanye West (mp3)

1. These United States, Everything Touches Everything

Jesse Elliott's constantly touring band of D.C. area musicians made an insta-classic with 2008's A Picture of the Two of Us At The Gates To The Garden of Eden. After last year's Crimes, the band brought the energy of their live performances to their songwriting. Instead of a lo-fi masterpiece, they made a studio album worthy of the name.

"I Want You To Keep Everything" - These United States (mp3)

"Everything Touches Everything" - These United States (mp3)

"The Secret Door" - These United States (mp3)

Alex Carnevale is the editor of This Recording. He tumbls here.

In Which Earthquakes Give New Reason For Blog Posts

An earthquake shakes Molly's keys loose...

a SONATA for p/rep/ared KEYBOARD

BY molly LAMBERT

i AM not TRYING to MAKE this P/URP/OSELY look likE a RANSOM note OR because I’m A STR8 GANGSTA now. my COMP/TUR is BROKEN. I am TAKING this BETCH to THE glendale galleria GENIUS bar right AWAY.

i couldn’t STOP/ myself FROM trying TO blog AND it GOT me THINKING that JOHN cage WOULD be reallY into P/REP/ARED comp/uter KEYBOARDS and THE IDEA of BLOGUEING concrète. i’m SURE there ARe P/OETS who HAVe THOUGHT of THIS vis A vis THE internet. THERE was A dep/artment FOR it AT my SCHOOL. thE HYPERTEXT field IS wide BUT shallow. They HAVE yet TO imp/rove ON p/roject XANADU.

The ON the ROAD typ/ewriter scroll

RIGHT now MOSTLY the CAP/S lock IS turning ON and OFF at WILL and SOMETIMES things COME out AS sp/aces INSTEAD of CHARACTERS. It’s P/RETTY imp/ossible TO tolerate. IMAGINE how FRUSTRATING it WOULD be IF comp/utERS were MORE like HARP/S or ORGANS. LIKE if YOU had TO hold DOWN a SHIFT key NOT just TO cap/italize BUT to WRITE vowels OR YOU HAD to TAP/ some KEYS TWICE and OTHERS three TIMES.

WE think OF typ/ing AS being INTUITIVE AND close TO thinking, LIKE kerouac TYP/ING out the MANUSCRIP/T for ON the ROAD as A scroll, but LANGUAGES are ONLY intuitive ONCE you’ve LEARNED them AND thEY become INTERNALIZED. I remember looking At BILLBOARDS BEFORE I knew HOW to READ. Staring INTO THE incomp/rehensible ICONS known AS letters, willing them TO reveal THEIR meanings TO me.

The SCROLL of KUBLA khan by SAMUEL taylor coleridge

unfamiliar LANGUAGES can BE clunky AND HARD to USE. html IS a LANGUAGE but if I ever started THINKING in IT while NOT BLOGGING I’d want YOU to murk ME.

I was TERRIBLE at LANGUAGES in HIGH school. I took FRENCH instead OF the INFINITELY more USEFUL sp/anish p/arce QUE je SUIS un ABRUTI.

but EVER sincE i learned HOW TO P/LAy GUITAR off ABOUT.COM i AM sup/er COCKy THAT i CAN learn ANYTHING from THE internet. (EXCEP/T how TO fix A comp/uter KEYBOARD ap/p/arently).

John CAGE saddle shoes BY RAY johnson

my CELL p/hone IS broken in A way WHERE i CAN’T read MAYBE a FIFTH of THE screen AND i JUST work AROUND IT. Sometimes I get TEXTS where THE key WORDS are BLACKED (or actually, P/URP/LED) out like “HEY MOLLY i WANT to [........] YOU LATER.”

I AM still WAITING for THEM to INVENT a MACHINE that WILL directly RECORD MY thoughts.

THIS recording DIDN’T invent DIGITAL p/oetry WE just P/ERFECTED it. blogs ARE mostly ASSEMBLAGE anyway.

SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE: faggy GOTH kid

Kerouac wrote ON the ROAD IN an AMP/HETAMINE induced SP/RINT. DID Jack GET the IDEA for A CREATIVITY enhancing drug BINGE from SAM coleridge, WHO wrote KUBLA KHAN and THE rime OF the ANCIENT mariner IN an OP/IUM hazeP?

aaron SORKIN was COOKING his own CRACK when HE wrote THE american P/RESIDENT. I WONDER IF he WATCHES the WIRE. if DICK wolf RAN the WIRE there’D be AN amy WINEHOUSE ep/isode THIS season. I’M only on SEASon ONE so far MYSELF. don’t SNITCH.

John CAGE cooks

The VOYNICH manuscrip/t IS a mysterious illustrated book with incomprehensible contents written between approximately 1450 and 1520 by an unknown author in an unidentified script and language.

BOB coover AND his Electronic LITERATURE Organization would ap/p/rove. i LOVE ELO!!!!!!!!

John CAGE with P/IANO

TIMELINE of HYP/ERTEXT technology

great WORKS by TR’s P/ATRON saint JOHN cage

Indeterminacy ONLINE

UBU web IS the HOME of CONCRETE p/oetry ON THE web.

OUTGRAP/O

OULIP/O

ALL the covers OF p/ublished editions OF OTR

P?aul HARTAL

Haptic Poetry

John CAGE comp/osed IN america

Hyp/ertext

HYP/ERCOMICS

Memex

EMERGENCE

OFFICE of The FUTURE

WORLD brain

Symbiotic INTELLIGENCE

situationa/l awareness

Cybernetics

My Life Bits

Life LOG

Dymaxion Chronofile

ATOP/ aN ap/p/le MACBOOK,

yourS truly,

m LAMBERT

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She tumbls it all right here.

"First Interlude" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata X" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata VI" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata II" - John Cage (mp3)

"Second Interlude" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata IV" - John Cage (mp3)

JOHN CAGE READS THIS RECORDING IN HEAVEN