Further Listening

Inside each blog post, there's at least one link to a song to allow you to listening to what I'm talking about. And now, I've compiled a playlist of a handful of my top songs of the decade for your listening pleasure. Click here to go to my blip.fm playlist and thanks for tuning in!

Songs Of The Decade: Come On Let's Go by Broadcast

I listen to a lot of peculiar music, I admit it. And I generally don't try to foist it on people unless they are actually inclined to give something new a spin. However, sometimes, there are songs that are so fantastic but sadly ignored that I should carry a spare set of headphones around and share them with the world.

Come On Let's Go is one of those gems that should've made #1 everywhere, and I've been playing it often ever since it came out in 2000. (So it literally is the Song Of The Decade.)

Although Broadcast is known to dwell in the abstract, this song couldn't be more direct... there's always you and me, no matter what else goes on around us. It could soundtrack any number of movie scenes where girl finds boy in a crowded room, they reunite, and the camera locks in on the couple embracing, oblivious to the others surrounding them. But you can film your own scene when you listen instead.

As with the best of Broadcast's songs, the plaintively lovely vocals of Trish Keenan float above an atmospheric soundscape. And if there was ever a song to end a year and a decade on, it's Come On Let's Go. After all, if you can believe William Shakespeare and Tony Bennett, what's past is prologue and the best is yet to come, so come on, let's go. Happy new year!

Album Of The Decade - Someone To Drive You Home by The Long Blondes

Here it is... my album of the decade and I can already hear the chorus of "who?" and "why?". Well, let me tell you about The Long Blondes.

For me, Someone To Drive You Home yielded the total package: great songs, hyper-literate verses coupled with anthemic choruses, a slinky ingenue lead singer singing the songs of a svengali guitarist, and a packaging aesthetic that speaks the language of record store aficionados. There's an overall intrigue and mythos to The Long Blondes and that's something lacking in a lot of bands these days.

Will you like it? You should. The Long Blondes are pop fans, and they have distilled their love of 60's Britpop and 80's indie into rocking songs as well as drawing on cult classic film and literature cues in their lyrics. There's a familarity to the music without feeling overly derivative. (But if you must... I reckon it's a combo of the Smiths and the early days of the Pretenders.)

Is this the best album of the decade? Probably and probably not. My Top 10 is honestly a toss-up. Illinois is a beautiful album, The Bees, The New Pornographers and MGMT made incredibly fun records, and Sarah Harmer and Broadcast created some amazing stuff as well. But The Long Blondes, in the end, got played the most.

But hey, check them all out and for now, let The Long Blondes take you to Giddy Stratospheres.

Songs Of The Decade: French Navy by Camera Obscura

I miss the days where songs leap out of the radio and grab you. Hit me with a big drumroll or an immediate leap into the chorus. Sure, there's a lot of great new music out there, but I'm talking Big League Top 40 stuff. Hooks and hits, please.

Well, speaking of the Big Leagues, Scotland's Camera Obscura just got called up out of the minors, because they've finally put together everything they've been promising to do for three albums.

French Navy is the song that did it for me. The crack of the drum and the hit of the strings pulled me in and the opening gambit of "Spent a week in a dusty library, waiting for some words to jump at me" still forges a strong bond between ears, brain and speakers. Some lovely lyrical twists also continue to beguile. (I still want to finish the line "By the moon of a silvery lake" as "By the light of the silvery moon.")

This is girl-group pop for our time... if the Shangri-Las were novelists or something equally alluring.

French Navy is my Number 1 song of 2009, and is a major player for the decade to boot!

Christmas Song Of The Decade: Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland by Grandaddy

At this point, we've heard them all before. Countless retreads of White Christmas or Sleigh Ride. And we've got our own personal classics. Personally, I'm a sucker for Darlene Love's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and The Pogues' Fairytale of New York, but there's always room for one more.

And so, even though my favorite songs have notes that are wrong, please enjoy this 21st Century Christmas classic: Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland.

Parsing The Decade: Top 10 Covers!

As you probably know, I'm addicted to cover versions. Mess up someone's song and I'll be forever grateful. So, as I put together my decade lists, there's a ton of covers floating around. Without further ado, here's my Top Ten:

1. Knock Loud - Neko Case (covering Sook Yin-Lee) - A beautiful song that hopefully found a bigger audience with Neko's version
2. If You Can Want - The Dirtbombs (The Miracles) - The bangin'-est track from the amazing Ultraglide In Black
3. Come On Petunia - The Blow (a copyright skirting cover of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic) - Weird electro treatment of The Police's fake reggae song
4. Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine (The Postal Service) - A hushed, acoustic take on the indie technopop gem
5. The Waltze Of The Tennis Players - Meg Baird (Fraser & Debolt) Today's obscure folkie (from the Espers) presenting ancient obscure folkies
6. Out Of Step - The Soft Pink Truth (Minor Threat) - Because the world was asking for a jacked-up club jam version of straight edge punk. Right?
7. Bicycle Race - Be Your Own Pet (Queen) - Punk brats eviscerate a dum-dum oldie.
8. He Did It - The Detroit Cobras (The Ronettes) - Michigan's distaff cover specialists give
9. When I Was A Baby - The New Pornographers (The Donner Party) - Worlds collide when the New P's dig up one of Sam Coombes from Quasi's first songs.
10. Hallelujah - Kathryn Williams (covering John Cale's version of Leonard Cohen) - To me, this is the definitive take on a modern-day hymn.

Bonus points to two amazing Kate Bush covers: Wuthering Heights - The Puppini Sisters and Hounds Of Love - The Futureheads. And special recognition must go to Petra Haden's all-in cover of the entire Who Sell Out album. Thanks to Matt Berry for his cover of album covers, including Thriller as seen above.

(Boring technical note: In order to bring you all 10, tracks 1 and 2 go to Lala, not Blip.fm, and #7 and #10 goes to YouTube. )

Songs Of The Decade: Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle & Sebastian

When I was a wee pop kid, I would buy everything that Trevor Horn produced: Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Art Of Noise, Yes' 90125, Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Gals. It had that big pop sound and bombast.

And then, as an older pop kid, I would buy everything by Belle and Sebastian. Every album, every multi-format single, every compilation track. I loved their shambling, romantic la-la thing.

So imagine my surprise when I heard that B&S had hired Trevor Horn to produce them. Genius idea, I thought, but it'll never work. And then imagine my surprise to learn it actually did work! (Even with a song about Mike Piazza on it!)

Dear Catastrophe Waitress is the pick of the litter. (And yes, it's another epic song about waitresses.) B&S manage to channel Love's Forever Changes while maintaining their own arch-indie style with this baroque gem. Horn's production doesn't overwrite the band's sound, so much as it brings them into full Technicolor from their somewhat monochromatic hues, yielding their best work since If You're Feeling Sinister.