Okay, I lied; well, actually, I figured out another way to get this list up. Here’s songs 25-11. Expect the top 10 tomorrow.
25. Official Secrets Act, The Girl From The BBC
My favorite new rock band of the year put out a debut album (as yet unreleased Stateside) full of old-timey, nerdy Britpop that I’m guessing only appeals to thirty-ish music geeks who still talk about Rialto and Number One Cup (ie. me.)
24. Hockey, Too Fake
I like this song more than this song deserves to be liked, frankly. Two years after LCD Soundsystem’s much-ballyhooed Sound of Silver cemented the world’s love for American Apparel-clad dudes yelling over allegedly dancy rock beats, Portland’s Hockey tried to do basically the same thing, acknowledging at theast that their motivations weren’t particularly sincere.
23. Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, Blanchard
The careful, spooky dream-pop on Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions’ second album was just the thing in a year where nigh on everything produced a panicky feeling of sensory overload. Slow and dreamy without ever becoming cheesy, Through The Devil Softly might be my favorite album of the year.
22. Lady GaGa, Bad Romance
GaGa sounds like a abby on this song, her first single to musically jive with he mildly insane personna. It’s her Pull Up To The Bumper, and she goes all out, from rama-rama nonsense to anthemic whoa-oh-ohs; best of all is when she switches from gurgly French to a congested “I don’t wanna be friends!” tantrum.
21. Mando Diao, Gloria
I love Tom Jones, and heartily approve of blatant Tom Jones homages. So while Swedish quintet Mando Diao’s earlier Dance With Somebody got a lot of plays in these parts at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t until they followed it up with this campy freakout that I felt a real longing for the Austin Powers era.
20. Music Go Music, Warm In The Shadows
A nine-minute disco song by a trio known for making revival-tent gospel music? Yes, please!! Music Go Music’s ABBA-meets-ELO album Expressions was kind of a letdown after hearing this amazing single, which transcends homage and sends listeners into a mesmerizing disco euphoria.
19. Telepathe, So Fine
The pair of Brooklyn ladies known as Telepathe released their lovely Dance Mother album earlier this year. This, the keyboard-heavy first single, is almost religiously fr4osty.
18. Little Boots, Remedy
Victoria Hesketh’s New In Town won my heart this spring, since most of 2K9 was, for me, a lesson in how to have a good time without any money. (If you didn’t know, brokeassness isn’t much fun.) But her follow-up single was even better, with a more infectious chorus and really awesome sounds that could either be lasers or an angry mob.
17. Amerie, More Than Love (feat. Fabolous)
After an epic marketing disaster surrounding her last album–it somehow never got released in this, her native country–delightful R&B singer Amerie returned this year with a new album on a new label; this, the just-released third single, is positively stunning, a big, big number that isn’t can’t be stopped even when Fabolous shows up and starts name-checking Drake.
16. The Twilight Sad, I Became A Prostitute
The Scottish are a bleak and sexy people. I hate to stereotype, but it’s true; this song makes me want to have sex like no song has made me want to have sex since Arab Strap broke up. The rest of the Forget The Night Ahead album is fine enough, but this largely unintelligible single’s blast of melodic noise is positively dripping with sex.
15. Gemma Ray, 100 mph (in 2nd Gear)
At the start of her debut single, British singer Gemma Ray resembles Trish Keegan from Broadcast. But by the time the swoony chorus hits she’s ready to start dancing by candlelight on the heath; if Baz Luhrmann ever adapted the Brontes, this song should surely figure in somehow.
14. Handsome Furs, I’m Confused
The first single off the second album by Montreal’s Handsome Furs is serious party music; singer Dan Boeckner is intense, yes, but he also wants you to dance; it’s an irresistible combination that hasn’t been achieved to perfectly since Julian Casblancas first introduced himself to the world with Last Nite.
13. Ash, Return of White Rabbit
Ash’s new tactic of only releasing new singles in lieu of albums might not make any sense, but who cares if every song they release is as wonderfully poppy as this Madchesterish throwback? It’s their greatest single since Girl From Mars, if not ever.
12. Bat For Lashes, Sleep Alone
This moodily dancy C&W ballad is my favorite track on Natasha Khan’s well-regarded Two Suns album, yet another release that I didn’t listen to as much as I should have because of the whole switch to digital. (I really need to figure that out…)
11. Metro Station, Seventeen Forever
Is there anything better than teenagers singing songs about how old they are? Whether it’s Karina Pasian or Taylor Swift or Alice Cooper, teenaged teen-ness is kind of my favorite musical theme. This shamelessly hokey, stars-in-our-eyes song by the less popular Cyrus sibling and his tattoo-enthusiast friends is only as ridiculous as it is ridiculously awesome. (Though, to nitpick, the album version’s far better than the single mix.)
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