SCQ's Top Fifty Songs of 2009

When asked about my Top Fifty Songs of 2009 list earlier in the week, I preferred to call it a phantom-list. The reasons for downgrading this feature to a bare-boned list are multiple. Firstly, I’m an album’s man - not much of a “trackie” – and I think enough evidence of that was present on last December’s Top Songs list. Following that last point up, I’m sure the idea of me spouting out accolades fifty times over for songs I’ve likely mentioned in their album’s review would be as mind-numbing for you to read as it would be for me to write. Yes, even when you didn’t read those reviews. And let’s be honest: the whole idea of SCQ expanding my most frequently played songs into a feature is pretty nonsensical when I spend 95% of my time treating songs like spokes on the metaphorical album-wheel.

Still, there’s a rule to this list and it’s simple: these fifty songs must amass from fifty different 2009 releases. That way, the list seems fair, less homogenized and I actually finish it! For the most curious of cats, here’s SCQ’s Top Fifty Songs of 2009:

1. Blood Bank – Bon Iver
2. True to Life - Royksopp
3. Never Been Born - Owen
4. Dwrcan - Bibio
5. Aeon – Antony & the Johnsons
6. Stray – Dog Day
7. Dao of St. Paul – Third Eye Blind
8. Lanterns – Evening Hymns
9. The Boy Who Could Explode – Matthew Good
10. Bicycle – Memory Tapes
11. My Girls – Animal Collective
12. Mother – Former Ghosts
13. Barcelona – Reykjavik – Plastik Joy
14. Antoine – Lotus Plaza
15. Flowers and a Wreath – Still Life Still
16. Moth – Burial & Four Tet
17. Soft Shock – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
18. Helen of Troy – Telefon Tel Aviv
19. Leaving Your Death in a Flowerbed – Attack in Black
20. If You Come Back to Haunt Me - Patients
21. It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore - Morrissey
22. Stealing Tomorrow – Great Lake Swimmers
23. Ellis County – Buddy & Julie Miller
24. Along the Line – To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie
25. I’m Not Seventeen - Owen
26. Attic Lights – Atlas Sound
27. Asleep At the Party - Memory Cassette
28. 1901 - Phoenix
29. Aurolac - Nudge
30. Sovereignty – Japandroids
31. Never Feel Alone – The Dangerous Summer
32. Afternoon Birds of Arima (Opening Credits) - You Are My Symphonic
33. Ballad of Sparrow Young – The Gentleman Losers
34. The Leading Edge – Red Box Recorder
35. S.O.S. To the Entire World - Conelrad
36. Lonnie – Richmond Fontaine
37. Dead Love - Papercuts
38. Anesthesia – Six Organs of Admittance
39. I Was Once a Loyal Lover – Death Cab for Cutie
40. The Birds on the Bridge – The Deep Dark Woods
41. Fall In Love Like This – Dub Tractor
42. Iron Range – Venice Is Sinking
43. Hva (Failed Revolutions) – port-royal
44. Blue Sunshine – Syntaks
45. Trichromatic – Lymbyc Systym
46. Paradise Cove – Pete Yorn
47. What I Learned From TV – Felix
48. False Alarm – The Wooden Birds
49. Hollow Earth Theory – Aarktica
50. Phoenix Asteroid - Ecovillage