Best Songs of 2009

Just like I created 100-song Best of Lists representing 30, 20, and 10 years ago, I have spent the past year creating lists for every other year I've been alive. So rather than wait ten years to publish them all, I'm also going to share lists from 5, 15 and 25 years ago. I'd do 35, too, but that pesky Best of 1979 isn't quite finished yet.

In the past two years since I started this process of culling tracks from every year of my existence, I have come across a slew of great albums and artists that I had only heard of (but not heard), or, in a few cases, had never known about at all. It's been a wonderful experience, yet again, to piece together this list.

As before, this list is an honest attempt to assess a year in music, merging the reality of a list of 40 made at the end of 2009, with a bunch of others that didn’s make the cut then, plus plenty more that I had not even heard yet. The result is a weird blend of what I listened to heavily just 5 years ago, with songs that I listen to a lot more frequently now. In the end, it is a pretty good document of the year that was 2009, no matter how you look at it.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify or my preferred streaming service, Rdio. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available in either case, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or—particularly if last year's un-annotated lists are a sign of future action—maybe never.

Show Grid

Ben Lee

Ben Lee

Ben Lee Plays Songs He Loves That Were Written by Other People

New West

Notes
(I Want to) Burn You (Down)

Mike Doughty

Sad Man Happy Man

ATO

Notes
Island, IS

Volcano Choir

Unmap

Jagjaguwar

Notes
Brother Mister

Christian McBride

Kind of Brown

Mack Avenue

Notes
Lady Luck

Richard Swift

Atlantic Ocean

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Love Comes and Goes

Lee Fields & The Expressions

My World

Truth & Soul

Notes
Empire State of Mind

Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys

The Blueprint 3

RocNation

Notes
Heartbreaker

MSTRKRFT featuring John Legend

Fist of God

Dim Mak

Notes
I’ll Get You

Classixx featuring Jeppe

I’ll Get You 12"

Kitsune

Notes
Hazel

Junior Boys

Begone Dull Care

Domino

Notes
1901

Phoenix

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Glassnote

Notes
Pursuit of Happiness

Kid Cudi

Man on the Moon: The End of Day

G.O.O.D.

Notes
Sleepyhead

Passion Pit

Manners

Frenchkiss

Notes
You’ve Got the Love (xx remix)

Florence + The Machine

You’ve Got the Love 7"

Moshi Moshi

Notes
Transmission

Hot Chip

War Child Presents Heroes

Astralwerks

Notes
Deadbeat Summer

Neon Indian

Psychic Chasms

Lefse

Notes
Feel It All Around

Washed Out

Life of Leisure

Mexican Summer

Notes
Coastal Brake

Tycho

Coastal Brake 12"

Ghostly International

Notes
Lovers’ Carvings

Bibio

Ambivalence Avenue

Warp

Notes
Leap

The Cave Singers

Welcome Joy

Matador

Notes
Back to the Wild

Langhorne Slim

Be Set Free

Kemado

Notes
Little King

Pufferfish

Swell

self-released

Notes
Acorn Factory

The Dodos

Time to Die

Frenchkiss

Notes
Pulling on a Line

Great Lake Swimmers

Lost Channels

Nettwerk

Notes
Two

The Antlers

Hospice

Frenchkiss

Notes
Kaufman’s Ballad

Megafaun

Gather, Form & Fly

Hometapes

Notes
Good Enough

The Acorn

Heron Act

Paper Bag

Notes
Cello Song

The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez

Dark Was the Night

4AD

Notes
All for the Best

Thom Yorke

Ciao My Shining Star

Mezzotint

Notes
Running to Stand Still

Elbow

War Child Presents Heroes

Astralwerks

Notes
No Sound But the Wind

Editors

Twilight: New Moon

Summit Entertainment

Notes
All the Kings Men

Wild Beasts

Two Dancers

Domino

Notes
Autumn Beds

Modest Mouse

No One’s First, and You’re Next

Epic

Notes
Clouds

The Daredevil Christopher Wright

In Deference to a Broken Back

Amble Down

Notes
Vacationing People

Foreign Born

Person to Person

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Fitz & the Dizzyspells

Andrew Bird

Noble Beast

Fat Possum

Notes
Know Better Learn Faster

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Know Better Learn Faster

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
The Traitor

Sea Wolf

White Water, White Bloom

Dangerbird

Notes
The Walls Are Coming Down

Fanfarlo

Reservoir

self-released

Notes
I Was Young When I Left Home

Antony

Dark Was the Night

4AD

Notes
Aftermath

Doveman featuring Norah Jones

The Conformist

Brassland

Notes
You Can Tell It to Everybody

Air

Love 2

Astralwerks

Notes
Faster Side of Normal

Noise Addict

It Was Never About the Audience

self-released

Notes
Two Tickets to Paradise

Eef Barzelay

Two Tickets to Paradise

self-released

Notes
Take on Me

A.C. Newman

Sweetheart ’09

Hear Music

Notes
So Long, Marianne

Beck featuring Devendra Banhart

Record Club: Songs of Leonard Cohen

self-released

Notes
New Year’s Day

Josh Rouse

Monthly Singles 2009

self-released

Notes
For You

Sharon Van Etten

Because I Was in Love

Language of Stone

Notes
Chalk

Buddy and Julie Miller

Written in Chalk

New West

Notes
Blue Skies

Noah and the Whale

The First Days of Spring

Cherrytree

Notes
Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)

Monsters of Folk

Monsters of Folk

Shangri-La Music

Notes
Train Song

Feist & Benjamin Gibbard

Dark Was the Night

4AD

Notes
Hideaway

Karen O & The Kids

Where the Wild Things Are

DGC

Notes
Blood Bank

Bon Iver

Blood Bank

Jagjaguwar

Notes
Meet Me on the Equinox

Death Cab for Cutie

Twilight: New Moon

Summit Entertainment

Notes
Hindsight

Built to Spill

There Is No Enemy

Warner Bros.

Notes
The Ruminant Band

Fruit Bats

The Ruminant Band

Sub Pop

Notes
Paint Yourself

White Denim

Fits

Full Time Hobby

Notes
Lalita

The Love Language

The Love Language

Bladen County

Notes
Relator

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson

Break Up

ATCO

Notes
Home

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Up From Below

Vagrant

Notes
French Navy

Camera Obscura

My Maudlin Career

4AD

Notes
Knotty Pine

Dirty Projectors

Dark Was the Night

4AD

Notes
Oh My God

Ida Maria

Fortress ’round My Heart

Fontana

Notes
Now We Can See

The Thermals

Now We Can See

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
The Fixer

Pearl Jam

Backspacer

J

Notes
Why I Am

Dave Matthews Band

Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King

RCA

Notes
Percussion Gun

White Rabbits

It’s Frightening

TBD

Notes
When They Fight, They Fight

Generationals

Con Law

Park the Van

Notes
Daylight

Matt & Kim

Grand

Fader

Notes
Tightrope

Yeasayer

Dark Was the Night

4AD

Notes
My Girls

Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Domino

Notes
Sunlight

tUnE-yArDs

BiRd-BrAiNs

4AD

Notes
Let’s Go Surfing

The Drums

Summertime!

Moshi Moshi

Notes
Reruns

Holiday Shores

Columbus’d the Whim

Two Syllable

Notes
Beach Comber

Real Estate

Real Estate

Woodsist

Notes
Sun Was High (So Was I)

Best Coast

Sun Was High (So Was I) 7"

Art Fag Recordings

Notes
Under Your Spell

Desire

II

Italians Do It Better

Notes
All We Want, Baby, Is Everything

Handsome Furs

Face Control

Sub Pop

Notes
Hysteric

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It’s Blitz!

Interscope

Notes
The Backyard

Dinosaur Jr.

Ciao My Shining Star

Mezzotint

Notes
Cascading

Born Anchors

Sprezzatura

self-released

Notes
Young Hearts Spark Fire

Japandroids

Post-Nothing

Polyvinyl

Notes
Floating Vibes

Surfer Blood

Astro Coast

Kanine

Notes
Lust for Life

Girls

Album

True Panther Sounds

Notes
I’ll Fight

Wilco

Wilco (The Album)

Nonesuch

Notes
Everyday

Vetiver

Tight Knit

Sub Pop

Notes
Sweet Tooth

Dave Rawlings Machine

A Friend of a Friend

Acony

Notes
Bowling Green

Alela Diane & Alina Hardin

Alela & Alina

Rough Trade

Notes
California Zephyr

Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard

One Fast Move or I’m Gone

Atlantic

Notes
I’m an Animal

Neko Case

Middle Cyclone

Anti

Notes
Laundry Room

The Avett Brothers

I and Love and You

American

Notes
Living This Life

The Dutchess and The Duke

Sunset / Sunrise

Hardly Art

Notes
Whispered Words

Dan Aeurbach

Keep It Hid

Nonesuch

Notes
Going Home

The Maldives

Listen to the Thunder

Mt. Fuji

Notes
With All My Heart

Clem Snide

Hungry Bird

429

Notes
My Will Is Good

Port O’Brien

threadbare

TBD

Notes
Ashamed of the Story I Told

The National

Ciao My Shining Star

Mezzotint

Notes
While You Wait for the Others

Grizzly Bear

Veckatimest

Warp

Notes
Sun Will Shine (Warm of the Sunship Version)

Akron/Family

Set ’Em Wild, Set ’Em Free

Dead Oceans

Notes