Top 40 Songs of 2009: 40-31

After taking the last month to really focus on my top 40 songs list, it's finally ready for consumption by the masses. I will be breaking it up into four posts as to make it look like I've written more than I really have.

40. Miike Snow - Silvia
This song appeared on my radar after seeing a terrific live version at Lollapalooza. For the most part Miike Snow is a run of the mil, electro pop group, but this track stands out as their best work to date. A breezy, synth loaded six minute song that's not really about anything, but sounds good nonetheless. The music itself is a lot better than the lyrics, which I guess is what counts in an electro pop song.

39. We Were Promised Jet Packs - It's Thunder and Lightning
As the opener of their otherwise blah album, this track captures all their pent up Scottish rage. The rage is suppressed for the first two minutes before it blows up into a vein throbbing chant of "Your body was black and blue." It's a great song to get sad and angry too, especially if you can get passed the accent.

38. Ida Maria - Oh My God
I've always been a fan of this sort of anthemic driving British rock track (see: Razorlight's "Stumble and Fall", and The Kook's "Eddie's Gun"), but this is the first female take on the style I've really liked.

37. Harlem Shakes - Strictly Game
While their album Technicolor Health took a beating from most music critics I read, I think they got a little too much shit for being late to the African drum/guitar party and not being as good at it as bands like Vampire Weekend, who popularized the sound last year.While their album really isn't that bad, it's not great either, and this is by far, the best track, thanks mainly to the great chorus: "This will be a better year. Make a little money, take a lot of shit, feel real bad, then get over it."

36. The Cool Kids - The Art of Noise
While their M.O. has been old school-inspired party rap, they're usually at their best when the BPMs are lowered a little (see: Black Mags). The beat slowly shifts over the track's three minutes like an itunes visualizer screen, but Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks flow nonstop with cocky verses about Derrick Rose, drinking Odwalla and hooking up with the daughter of the weather lady on channel 9.

35. The Shins - Phantom Limb
On most of their albums The Shins usually have one or two easily accessible pop songs that sound good to people who otherwise don't really like the Shins. This is one of those songs.

34. F.L.Y. - Swag Surfin'
I guess I have a soft spot for catchy Casio keyboard beats and rhymes about Nickelodeon shows. I'll be shocked if F.L.Y. ever produces another noteworthy song, but the line "Shorty checked my dougie like she Patty Mayonnaise" makes this song top 40 material.

33. Animal Collective - My Girls
I don't totally understand why there is so much indie critic love for Animal Collective (this song and its album were both ranked #1 on Pitchfork's year end best of lists), a lot of times AC's music seems so dense and inaccessible that it's too much work just to try to like it, but I can appreciate the beauty that is this song. First off, it's far more accessible than almost everything else in their library. More over, while simple, the simplicity of the song's lyrics balance the layered complexity of the music going on over and underneath the vocals: "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things, like a social status/ I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls".

32. Passion Pit - Swimming in the Flood
If this were a top 100 songs of the year list there would probably be like six songs off Passion Pit's first full length album, but this track, one of the more mellow on the album, was my favorite. In line with the rest of the album, it's easy on the ears and sounds just as good on the 30th listen as it does on the first.

31. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero
The first single off the album of the year. Karen O was born to croon with the synths on full blast like this.



30-21 coming tomorrow...