*UPDATED

Dear Fan Club Members,

Traditionally I have posted my top 10 favorite songs of the year on Facebook (and Myspace, but who remembers that crap). Now that I am a pro-blogger, I can impose my tastes on a much wider audience, which I am extremely excited about.

2009 was a delicious year for music, so the list was a toughie to whittle down- BUT I have crafted a pretty accurate representation of all that was awesome this year, so enjoy. (Uhhhh, I cheated a bit and there are actually 11 songs, but I combined the two from Iceland into one slot. Because… I can do that. Shut up.) 

Lé List:

10. Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear

aaaahaaahAhhhAhhhAHHHAHHH! Yeah. That’s what you’ll be doing all the time after you listen to this. Making that exact sound with your mouth. And you’ll freaking like it. Also the video has creepy heads with big eyes. Which I like. Almost as much as I like making the previously described sound with my mouth. Don’t read this the way I know you are reading it, perverts.

9. All The King’s Men – Wild Beasts

It’s pretty hard to talk about Wild Beasts without mentioning the guy who sings in falsetto. He doesn’t sing quite as much in this song, but when he does, it’s effective.

My favorite part: when he goes “uhhhWATCH ME WATCH ME!!!” You kind of have to stop and go, “Whoa, alright dude, I’ll watch you.” And even though you are a little taken aback by this man’s uncomfortable and obnoxious screechiness, you start nodding along and even begin to look forward to the part when he shouts at you like a 4-year-old from the Twilight Zone.

The whole thing—the chanting at the beginning, the weird start-stop beat, the jingly guitar, it feels a little out of control.

Which I like.

8. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z

Aww hell yeah.

You know it.

So, for those of you who don’t know, I’m on the cross country team here at Seattle U. When not blogging about Farmville or slaving at the paper, I like to run. This year for our final meet, we competed in Brooklyn. I of course was really really excited; I’d never been to New York.

We are in the van driving over the bridge from New Jersey to Manhattan to see NY for the first time when THIS song comes on the radio. The DJ on the station was this slick guy who was hyping the crap out of the song before it played.

“Yoyoyo it’s time for OUR song boy, it’s time for New York to shine with this new ill joint from none otha than the Jigga Man, JAY-Z and his girl Alicia Keys,” and then boom, my mind was blown. Having Alicia Keys wail “IN NEWWWW YOOOORK, concrete jungle where dreams are maaaade of, there’s nothin’ you can’t doooo, now you’re in NEWWW YOOOORK” whilst literally seeing the skyline of New York for the first time was I think one of the highlights of the year.

I felt like I was in a movie.

Not to mention the first thing Jay-Z says in the song is “Yeah yeah I’m up at Brooklyn.” I was like, “I’m running where Jay-Z is talking about. Oh my god. It’s like I know him.”

Plus, this happened, and made everyone wish they were from New York. Sigh. How could the Yankees NOT WIN? My favorite moment, When Jay-Z has the balls to say “I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can.”

Damn Jay-Z. Damn.

7. Clangour and Flutes – Sin Fang Bous/Sing Along – Múm

In Iceland, over half the population believe in the possibility that fairies and pixies exist, to the point where they build roads around possible elf dwellings.

This is why it is the coolest country ever.

ALSO- they make really awesome music. This year, two of my favorite Icelandic bands, Sin Fang Bous and Múm released wonderful albums and toured together, putting on an amazing show in Seattle complete with kazoo solos and square guitars. I couldn’t choose which song I would include on this list, but since both bands are Icelandic—eh, I’m combining them. Yes it’s cheating.

But this isn’t your list.

WATCH BOTH VIDEOS. Icelandic people make really cool music videos. One has little paper-y animation things, and the other has singing dead deer.

6. Brothersport – Animal Collective

“Open up your throat.” What? I don’t know, but when Animal Collective sings it over and over and over you stop caring and start bobbing along to the most euphoric song of the year. Nuff said. (Here’s some weird homemade video a guy made for it, using… a Cartoon Network show?)

http://www.vimeo.com/5267319

5. Cousins – Vampire Weekend

Everyone went ape over Vampire Weekend last year. People drool over them. I liked them, but I never understood why everyone was wetting their pants in happy fits. Now I understand. “Cousins,” the single from Vampire Weekend’s upcoming album Contra, is fun defined.

The song is short, punky, full of yelping, and ends with a big bell being banged over and over. It makes you want to run around and throw confetti everywhere. It also makes you feel bad for ever feeling bad in your life. Listen to it, and be happy.

4. She Wolf – Shakira

Shut up.

I don’t care what you think, this song is amazing.

YES- I know it’s the Hips Don’t Lie chick and YES she does pat her belly and rub her head or something like that in the video, but y’know what? It’s a damn good song.

I’ve got to admit, when I first heard this, I thought “where the hell did this come from?” But that guitar is dancey and choppy and wonderful, the bassline is the most badass thing ever, and the part where she pants at you like an animal is gold. Apparently, the lead singer of The Bravery co-wrote this. I think it’s the best thing he’s ever done, and honestly, if I had more balls, I might make this song #1.

Quit lying to yourself and trying to be cool, this song WILL destroy at any party. I don’t see how this song is even debatable as being great, so give up and just give in.

There is a She-Wolf in your closet, let it out you asshole, so it can breath.

http://www.dailymotion.com/videoxa0nky

3. Ambling Alp – Yeasayer

The music video alone for this merits it a spot on the list. Floating heads, gooey fondue substances, nekkid people, everything you could want is in there.

Ambling Alp doesn’t sound like anything before it, it’s all over the place and revels in it’s bizarreness as it chugs along with those great farty synths in the background. And the chorus will get you singing along “Stick up for yourself son!” even when the song isn’t playing (I’ve repeated this line to myself in the shower an unreasonable amount of times this year.)

Yeasayer pulled out a great one here, tribal drums and all. Let’s hope the new album can match the single next year.

2. Crystalised – The xx

The song Crystalised is cooler than you. It knows it, and it doesn’t care. That’s how cool it is.

It makes you look like crap because it manages to do way more than you’ve ever done, effortlessly, without even trying.

And what’s worse, it manages to be cool using almost nothing to accomplish this. The song is barely there, full of as much empty space as actual music, yet it murdered all other songs this year when it comes to catchiness.

You’ve got, what, two people kind of whispering at you, a drum machine, and a guitar and bass that aren’t even used like half the time and somehow this #2 Song of the Year came out of that nothingness. It almost seems like The xx are cheating.

Ah well. Gotta give it up to them.

1. Idiot Heart – Sunset Rubdown

Idiot Heart is one of those songs you internalize. You sing it to yourself when you feel down and out because it brings you back up. You play it when you are alone because it makes you feel like you can conquer entire nations. You blare it in your car because you want everyone in the world to hear it.

Due to all the hype recently surrounding The xx and all the singles coming out for new albums due in 2010, I almost forgot about Sunset Rubdown. I almost forgot that their album “Dragonslayer” is actually probably my favorite album of the year, I almost forgot “Idiot Heart” is probably one of my 5 favorite songs ever, and I almost forgot how much I love frontman Spencer Krug.

And why did I forgot all this?

Because I love them so much they feel like they’ve been around for way longer than they actually have.

I forgot the song came out in 2009.

Idiot Heart is the most epic, inspiring, fun, rocking, and all around awesome song of the year- so much so that I forgot to put it on this list the first time. Why? Because it’s so dear to me it doesn’t have a date on it. It exists only in the realm of awesome.

The song has like 5 different acts in it that each has it’s on little climax (it’s a long song, just over 6 minutes) and they all overlap to create something that you would want to put in a theatre and act out scenes too. Big scenes.With dragons being slain (heh heh, the album’s called Dragonslayer. Get it? Get it?).

How could you not want to write a script and act out a play to accompany a song with lines like “I hope that you die, in a decent pair of shoes, you’ve got a lot of long walking to do, where you’re going to.”

How freaking Shakespearean!

How freaking cool!

But the real reason I love this song is because it makes you feel invincible every time you listen to it. It’s that little rush that makes me love music so much, and “Idiot Heart” never ceases to remind me how much I love music.