Nine From ‘09
Now that the first full month of January is done, 2009 is in our collective rear-view mirror. And, instead of recapping the year with another annoying “Best Of” list, I’ve decided to bring you nine songs from last year that flew under the radar (for most of us, at least) and should not be forgotten.
Because, really, how many times do you have to be told that “My Girls” and “Two Weeks” are awesome?
#9. Cold Cave – “Heaven Was Full”
I actually toyed with leaving this one off of the list because Cold Cave has been getting a shit-ton of attention lately. But I feel like so much of said attention is spent trying to make “early New Order” comparisons that this song, from their debut full-length Love Comes Close, could be overlooked. A throwback to dark synth pop acts such as Erasure and Public Image Ltd., lead singer Wesley Eisold sounds like Bernard Sumner after a Quaalude overdose. And those drums….just listen to those layers of drums. This is an icy bit of goth goodness.
#8. Tim Hecker – “Where Shadows
Make Shadows”
From the Canadian experimental composer’s album, An Imaginary Country, this track is all dark, distorted, ominous synths, coming in like some great hurricane cloud over the shores of some idyllic beach. A true “mood piece’ that stretches over eight minutes of zone out bliss.
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#7. 
The Thermals – “When We Were
Alive”
To say that 2009’s Now We Can See was a disappointment in comparison to 2007’s political-punk blitzkreig, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, would be a pretty apt statement. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any gems on the group’s understated follow up. And “When We Were Dead” is just that. A blast of in your face, driving pop, the song deftly sums up the album’s entire concept in less than two minutes.
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We finish the countdown after the jump.
