A new year means we all look back at everything we did last year, so here (for my own personal reasons) are my most listened to 20 songs and artists for 2009.
Clearly the Smashing Pumpkins (yet again) take out the number one spot and this is for a number of reasons. Obviously my work for them involves listening to multiple interviews, live recording, plus that I enjoy listening to their music and I own a considerably large collection of studio and live material. It will be interesting to see if they take out the number one spot in 2010.
My favourite Canadian boys, Wolf Parade, were easily my most loved track from 2009. Even though I discovered them a few years earlier, it was during the last 12 months that their music started to really become something more to me. Apologies to the Queen Mary was on high rotation for the entire 12 months of ‘09, so no surprises that the opening track ‘You Are A Runner and I am my Fathers Son’ took out the number one played track. Was honestly surprised with The Smiths coming in at number two, although there was a few months where that song did get played a lot.
So there you have it, but I’m not not done yet. As for most listened to albums of the year, according to my last.fm stats here is what it ended up being:
- Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
- The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
- The Smiths – The Best Of The Smiths
- Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
- TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
- Handsome Furs – Face Control
- The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
- My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
- Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
- Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Pretty staple albums for my listening diet I guess and it did include two of my favourite releases from 2009. Franz Ferdinand’s – Tonight came out at the start of the year and I honestly beleived that nothing to top this album, even though I new that I was expecting new music from the Flaming Lips, Manic Street Preachers, Them Crooked Vultures – bands I knew that would produce music I would love.
Well Franz held the title for quite a while, until I heard ‘Face Control‘ by Handsome Furs. This album was just the constant ‘go-to’ album for me. When I was confused, when I was happy, when I was down, when I just wanted to dance, when I was walking and wanting to switch off from the world around me … this was my soundtrack. Seeing Handsome Furs in 2009 also cemented this record as my album of the year too … so, to use that old Molly Meldrum cliché “Do yourself a favour and go check it out”
(Did I just link to a MySpace page? – wow!)
