The Best Songs of 2009

Best Of 2009

While the playlist above says 1-10, it's actually in "Countdown" order, so that the best song is last. Also, it's important to note that KISS is stingy with their on-line finds, so just know that "I'm An Animal" should be on this list too. Let's begin. (song titles link to lyrics / artist links to awesome youtube videos)

10. No One Loves Me & Neither Do I - Them Crooked Vultures
The first of FIVE side-projects on the list. This one is by far the dirtiest. The tale of emotionless people having selfish filthy baseless sex. Full of clever entendres- single, double, and the rare trois entendre, the main draw is the full stoner jam. If you're not convinced at first, stick around to around till the end for the song to really deliver the full fist.

9. I Do Not Hook Up - Kelly Clarkson
I stopped being embarrassed of my love for Kelly a couple of albums ago. And its hard not to agree with me once you realize that she is singing directly to me on this one. Someone who will nurse this poor boy back to health from the mess left by the others before her. Perfect for a victim-card-playing drama queen like myself. Plus, how do you escape that hook?

8. Future In The Past - Chickenfoot
A real "kitchen sink" song. The last track on an awesome album, they really just tackle what the hadn't already on the rest. But like the rest of the album, the song is very cohesive. All parts moving equally. Sammy doesn't over-yelp, Joe doesn't over-shred, etc. It's got a really early '70s vibe, like Mountain or Cream. The track starts off with a near-ripoff of "Thank You" before quickly jumping to a swamp blues riff. Next movement goes into some middle east jungle boogie before ending on a huge arena-rock jam. It's simple- the points are not deep, but I still get the goose bumps.

7. Cornerstone - Arctic Monkeys
A pathetic story really. Rock star gets all the tail in the world and always blows it by asking if he can call them your name. We all have our days of pining and shouldn't be especially proud of it, but Alex Turner has a real way of describing his surroundings that brings a realness to the tale.

6. A Whole Lot Better - Brendan Benson
Simple pop awesomeness. I actually was not impressed with Brendan's album in whole, but this first song sticks in my head in a way that Paul McCartney was always trying to do in Wings, but failed. Plus, I like the indecisiveness of the song's protagonist. "I fell in love with you and out of love with you and back in love with you all in the same day" Exactly. Us crazies gotta stick together.

5. Peacemaker - Green Day
I thought in general, that Green Day's latest album was an attempt to capitalize on the stupid crazy huge (and deserved) success of American Idiot. It's still about youthful alienation and government control. Fine. But it's not as cohesive or hooky and there was just not enough reason to continue down the EXACT same path. Having said that, "Peacemaker" is high water mark in Green Day's creativity. Still tip-tapping on their punk roots but adding what, samba? I'm surprised Ennio Morricone is not a co-writer.

4. 15 - Marilyn Manson
No I'm not kidding. Manson very famously got dumped by Evan Rachel Wood in 2008. A so he makes an album filled with anger and disappointment. Typical. Then- he caps it off by ending with the most depressive thing this side of Joy Division. It's not "childish", but it is completely regressive of a dude with a broken heart. It's when a man really starts to admit that he needs things. Then he gets particularly stalky and dark. It's probably the best song of his career.

3. White Shoes - Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band
No real band on this one, but that's the official album artist. It's hard to say why I love this song so much. I generally like songs that mean specific things to me. This one, with its oblique lyrics and loose folk strumming can take me in a different direction each time I hear it. When Conor returns to the quote, "Anything you wanna do" I get to pretend. Even though I do have that desperation, I get to pretend that I have the commitment to follow through with such a request.

2. Hang You From The Heavens - The Dead Weather
This one is straight up about one of the most awesome drum licks in the history of rock. Jack White rarely misses his mark and this is no exception. Power and thick sticky goo all over this riff. The singer Alison, often left me not believing her on the album. But on this song, even though I really don't like any pain in my pleasure, I'd still let her drag me by the hair anywhere.

1. Aeon - Antony & the Johnsons
If the voice doesn't break your heart while at the same time bringing you a spiritual awakening, then I can't help you. Let's do something differently. Let's take our power back.

The Flaming Lips - The Dark Side Of The Moon

Before delving into this review, let me make a couple of admissions. One, I don't really care for the Flaming Lips. Yes, they're inventive and weird and they're not stagnant to any one musical idea. I can respect their existence I just don't listen to them all that much.

Second, and I said this to the Smithereens a couple of years ago (and they keep doing), what's this bullshit about covering an entire album. What makes you think that you can re-record one of the biggest, most important classics in rock history and bring anything to it that sounds like your own or unique? Why, if given the choice, would anyone listen to your version? But then I learn that Henry Rollins is involved, so I give it at least one spin. Let's see if Wayne has an answer...

For me? Not so much. Sure, Wayne and his blotting buddies change some stuff around here and there. The first quarter of the record, for example, is quite crunchier than Pink's original. "Any Colour You Like" dials up the funk to a much fuzzier level. "Money" is creeped out with updated electronic sounds and tweaked vocals, which I think undercut the smooth R&B walking bass coolness of the original.

My fave from the original is the "Brain Damage/Eclipse" conglomerate. Here, the Lips dial down the Damage to a hushed church organ, and do not even play the guitar riff at all. The Eclipse is punked out, aside from Wayne's vocals, which never waver from his standard tin can chalkboard murmur.

The highlight of the album is "The Great Gig In The Sky". The instrumental is faithful to the power of the original. Taking Clare Torry's place on the wailing vocal is, oddly enough, Peaches, a weirdo obnoxious singer known for the youtube hit, "Fuck The Pain Away". To her credit, she delivers a great vocal, as you can hear below.

But at the same time, even with some knob twisting, all the lyrics and melodies are the same. The arrangements are basically faithful. There's nothing ironic here to laugh at. So it comes to, how do you like your psychedelic rock? Classic or Neue Indie? (3 of 5 stars)

The Great Gig In The Sky [feat...

The Willowz - Everyone

The Willowz, whom I have only otherwise known from the Eternal Sunshine soundtrack, is not unlike the Black Lips cd that was just in my car. Garage rock, not as psychedelic>; and the drums were often recorded with the most echo possible.

It's not treading much deeper water than that soundtrack 6 or so years ago. It does seem like they're exploring melody a little more. Also, it looks like singer Richie Follen has come out of some shell, or maybe the producer decided just to get bolder, because he's much more dynamic and much further out in the mix. It's a good thing. It's little more than punk wailing, but but Richie turns left when you expect a right sometimes, and it becomes more interesting.

"I Know" for example, is quite clean. It could be Kings Of Leon at their most raucous. "Destruction" and "Repetition" too are more melodic and upbeat and ripe for a party jam. "Jimmy James" on the other hand is for us beer swilling bastards who want to push over a nerd. If I had to choose, my bully-pulpit in the garage rockness of this album is better served on "Twenty Five" which awesomely adds a subtle barroom piano sounds to follow the chords.

For a swift kick in the Wha-Just-Happened, the Willows pull a damn near Rolling Stonescover with the misspelled, "No Heros". It's got soul, and by "soul", I mean some horns. Definitely worth a listen.

And at 25:34, it's the perfect album length for the new decade. My main complaints with albums that could've been much better is that they tried to max the cd capacity to get people to feel more of a value. Bullshit. The value comes more in this package, where more of your songs are worth hearing. And the Willowz deliver in great style. They have almost completely shed the notion of Jack White late-comers and have shelled out some great West Coast sweaty garage anthems.(4 of 5 stars)

30 Seconds To Mars - This Is War

"Here we are at the start. I can feel the beating of our hearts."

This is a lyric from "Vox Populi" off the latest 30StM record. Which is track 8 of a 12 track collection. So, no Jared, we are not at the start. Timing is only one of your problems.

You know how pretty girls can go on and on with some fucked up story that she heard on Oprah but is currently getting totally wrong- and no one stops her or corrects her because she's beautiful? Jared Leto is that beautiful girl just getting it wrong.

Like song titles.

"Night Of The Hunter"
"Kings And Queens"
"Closer To The Edge"
"Search And Destroy"
"Stranger In A Strange Land"

Jesus, is this the lost Ratt album?

The themes of all the songs revolve around the concept of rallying the troops of the downtrodden kids to overcome their evil oppressive overlords. There are youth choirs ALL over the record to drive the point home that, "we will need you to sing this part at the concert."

Now, having bitched about that portion of the production, I'll call it more of a band decision. The production otherwise, delivered very purposefully by U2 collaborators Steve Lillywhite and Flood, is the best part of the record. I can appreciate that the Letos want to sound grandiose and "epic" and the producers delivered on what they were paid for. But when every song is trying to be its own "Jesus Of Suburbia" or "The Black Parade" or "Use Somebody", then no, this is not "war"- it's dodgeball at best.

I'm coining a new music genre for Jared Leto now. Pass it on. "Cheesmo" or "Cheesy Emo". It's the only way I can describe Leto's songwriting. I, for one, do not believe that Jordan Catalano has some overwrought hostility for the holy evil of the organized church. I'm saying people don't, I just don't believe he does. And whoever does can describe their emotions certainly way less insipidly than Jared does. "Looking for Jesus/Get on your knees" and "I'm guilty of treason/A Vatican son".

In "100 Suns", he speaks of believing in nothing, not several things that are somehow paired together. And it makes not a lick of sense. I assume he was going for "...except our love". But instead, he says, "but the beating of our hearts"- which is just a biological function. How can you believe in that if you don't believe "in the earth"? Answer that one before the narrarator destroys you.

There are too many lyrical faux pas to take seriously. And I've seen the band live. Jared is especially engaging and lively and oh so very beautiful. And he may have the utmost intention of relating to those kids that he's trying to help. But the failure comes from pandering to a teen mentality, or being too stupid to know how to communicate to them on a greater level. Someone needs to interrupt this guy's story. (1.5 of 5 stars)

The Bravery - Stir The Blood

The Bravery come back to us from the same place they left us at last time... 1982 London. Which is all well and good for me if you're talking about the NWOBHM-ers down the street, but no- I'm talking about the wavers de neue.

Keeping an open mind, the first track, "Adored", could be a lost track from U2's Boy.Like U2's "Rejoice" this song is a celebration of all things youthful.

The second track, "Song For Jacob" continues on with the retro, but this time turns its eyes on a born again friend. But unlike other songs of this ilk, it never passes judgement on Jacob or assumes that Jacob simply had a need to fulfill. It simply lets Jake rejoice in the glory that he's now experiencing. It's defined by a great vocal that could easily have been downplayed without anyone noticing, but Sam goes above and beyond and I for one, appreciate it.

"I Am Your Skin", and to a greater extent, "Hatefuck", I assume the Bravery boys are going for the club sexiness of Franz Ferdinand's Tonight, but they don't cut it here. While I'm all for a satisfying screw to someone who deserves a little disrespect, the bulk of the latter song just comes off rape-y and its pleas to "mercilessly love me" are hollow and shameful for a guy who obviously had a big enough pair to get this far.

We grab a near "Call Me"-via-Muse ripoff with "I Have Seen The Future", but it's still under the umbrella of the general feel of the rest of the album. The only time the Bravery escape the Cure ghost is with the lone track written by the bass player. Hindert's "She's So Bendable" comes off like a Brian Jonestown, who is cleaned up and gone out for the evening. A welcome breather in an album plagues with a little too much sameness. (2 of 5 stars)

Song For Jacob - The Bravery

Tom Waits - Glitter And Doom Live

I'm going to break one of my rules. I don't normally fill my pages here with live albums or reissues or compilations. It's too easy to rave over what you obviously already liked when you started. They generally already include your favorite songs. I'm making the exception here, because, well... for several reasons.

1.) It's late November. People don't release new albums this time of year. That's because the record buying public is only buying the compilations and reissues and packages for Christmas gifts. 2.) Tom Waits is awesome, is awesome live, and I'm really excited to get to this. and... 3.) I'm on it. (I was at the Columbus show).

The album was recorded over his entire Glitter And Doom tour, which was just a random collection of shows that he made well after his latest release, which was a rarities compilation. The set-lists varied a bit, but not too much from show to show. What is included here is a collection of songs from the latest part of his career, all since his last live album in 1986.

Waits parts his time between the two vocal styles that he's used in this part of his career. The cool cat jazz whisperer and the gruff drunk howl. It is a live effort and time has passed, so I certainly wouldn't expect Tom to display the dynamics that he had, but I'm still questioning why he chose to use the gruff style here for a couple songs that was whispy on the studio version.

A highlight is "Falling Down", a favorite of mine which was recently covered quite blandly by Scarlett Johansson. The version here replaces the Northern-Isle folk gospel feel for something more '60s blues, trading the horns for piano. "Make It Rain" absolutely rocks. It's a more desperate "I Put A Spell On You", with Tom's son hitting the shit out of his drums.

The closer, "Lucky Day" is a divine ending to the story, a train-yard scream-along that is re-done here as a beautiful funeral ballad. The 2nd disc compiles some funny stories that Tom told between some songs. And that's fine, but I wouldn't have minded seeing more of that to break up the show on disc one. (3.5 of 5 stars)

Falling Down (Paris - 07/25/08...

Them Crooked Vultures

You've undoubtedly heard of this collection and have probably heard raves about it before it even started. Even just a look at the album's wikipedia page will show a collection of reviews that are all in the 90th percentile. Don't worry. I'm not going to dash your dreams and really rebuke any of those praises. But I also don't mind saying that such universal accolades are more of an idea boner related to the company we're keeping.

Them Crooked Vultures is, of course, Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin's least laid member, John Paul Jones. Two guys who have achieved greatness fronting their own bands, and all of whom who have also sprinkled their career with enough off the cuff jamming and collaborating that each of their seats here are sure to be filled with supernatural ease. Now, I'm a rock guy; so what I hear is what I know of the participants. But even if you're too cool to have listened to Foo Fighters or Queens Of The Stone Age, you can still pretend that you're serving your indie cred hipness by relating this as a recall to Nirvana or Kyuss is some massive new Desert Session project that would only be more alternative is PJ Harvey were singing.

Point taken- we're all excited by the collaboration. How does it sound? They started off with the right idea: Make the first and the last songs the best ones.

The first track "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I" is absolutely vulgar, from the sick riff to the lecherous lyrics. It reminds me of Josh's other side of a side project, Eagles of Death Metal, except there the singer would be Jesse Hughes who would make it sound comical and fun, whereas Josh sings it straight up blasé, just like that asshole that you're probably fucking.

"Spinning In Daffodils" on the other hand is a heady lengthy jam, avoiding the trappings of success OR failure and just relishes in the experience of being high. (Drug references are abound on the record.)

With Josh leading the guitar and vocal, it sounds mostly like a Queens record than anything else. Fuzz toned '70s licks and powerhouse drums. You would be inclined when getting John Paul Jones in your band to just embrace everything Zeppelin, and the influence is there to be sure, but there's certainly no Plant ability in the group (thankfully) and versatility of Page is traded here for the Whole Lotta Love riff. Even when some organic orchestration is blended in from Jones, it's done as a subtle backing for the song than like Zeppelin, which would feature a more instrumental break.

In total, the trio absolutely plays great together (quartet live - shout out to the great Alain Johannes). Great stoner rock from great stoners. But let's be honest, take all those 90% reviews that we discussed before. Package the same songs in a QOTSA album with credits of: Written by Josh, guest drums by Dave, guest bass by John... and those reviews would get knocked down a point. The hype of the whole is greater than the sum of the songs. (3.5 of 5 stars)