Songs I Discovered in 2009

"There's an interesting paradox in the consumer electronics industry. For an increasing number of music fans, the pursuit and appreciation of high-fidelity sound has diminished as technology has advanced. When I was a child, we had a 78 rpm record player. Then, in the late 1940s, my father bought a 33 rpm "high fidelity" system. The quality difference between it and our older 78 rpm system was truly amazing . . . Digital audio can sound amazingly good. Unfortunately, some of today's most popular digital sources - MP3 players, satellite radio, and Internet radio - often do not. These technologies are wonderful in many ways. But their operation typically depends on lower-resolution signals than you get with CD. Therefore, millions of young people may never have experienced true high-fidelity sound reproduction." (Bill Crutchfield, Founder and CEO, Crutchfield mail-order catalog, Winter-Spring 2009)

"A musician, however legendary, is trapped by the limitations of his instrument. But as a DJ, you have the entire history of recorded sound to play with. Unlike a band, forced to plow through you back catalog (again) through bad amplifiers, you can choose from every artist, every track, every remix ever made, and you can deliver them with clear, crisp studio perfection. You might pick the funkiest two bars of a musician's entire life and loop them as a little intro. You might take two records made thirty years apart and place them neatly side by side. You might pick the one track Supertramp made that can send a deep house crowd bonkers and happily dismiss everthing else in their entire career as pointless. We won't deny that the average musician is probably far more skilled than the average DJ, but doubtless, the DJ controls more musical power than the musician ever did." (Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster, How To DJ Right, 2002)

Just as "sound has diminished as technology has advanced," my listening tastes have paradoxically gone more downtempo while simultaneously getting edgier. Is this a sign of old age, or can I just blame it on the late night "Big Sonic Chill" program on San Diego's FM 94.9? I started listening to that show when I picked up my wife from work a few years ago, but that was also around the time one of my coworkers started preventing me from playing any music that wasn't upbeat and funky, so maybe it's all a reaction against that too. Anyway, the reason for me including the second quote above is that I think I know which Supertramp song it's referring to, and that may be "Goodbye Stranger." The following playlist is comprised of songs (in alphabetical order) that I bought with an iTunes gift card I got for Christmas. Most of it might qualify as big, sonic, and/or chill. These songs are the ABSOLUTE best songs I have come across in the last couple of months. I GUARANTEE they're all worth downloading, and for each artist featured, there are many more songs to check out. Don't get bogged down by the sheer volume of artists though - each one is different from the rest, so variety is the spice of this playlist:

1. "Also Frightened" - Animal Collective (1/20/09) the follow-up to my 2007 favorite song, "Ponytail" by Animal Collective member, Panda Bear

2. "Another Term For" - Miwon (11/7/08) say what you will about the vocals - you're talking to a guy who likes Björk and Lykke Li; also the music sounds like old ambient Aphex Twin

3. "An Army of Watt" - T. Raumschmiere (11/12/05) takes me back to Gone in 60 Seconds

4. "Big Weekend" - Lemonade (11/7/08) old school house sound with vocals that fall somewhere between Madchester's Shaun Ryder and Perry Farrell, the latter who incidentally has appeared recently on both the Twilight and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans soundtracks

5. "Chain" - School of Seven Bells (10/28/08) for the Cocteau Twins comparisons, which I don't know if I agree with

6. "Granada" - Emilio de Benito (8/12/08) my favorite song of 2008, from the Vicky Cristina Barcelona soundtrack

7. "Kiss Them for Me" - Siouxsie & the Banshees (6/11/91) I didn't realize that was them before; like The Stone Roses meets One Dove

8. "Mars" - Fake Blood (6/8/08) when deciding which songs to use my gift card for, my wife chose this one over some others for being "the funkiest"

9. "Meet Your Master (The Faint Remix)" - Nine Inch Nails (11/20/07) love that chopped-up, stuttering beat and the fax machine squelching sound

10. "Miwonovi (Afro-Beat)" - Susu Bilibi (7/6/08) accidental discovery, but afrobeat seems to be the word of the year

11. "New Hollywood Babylon" - Don Cavalli (3/25/08) reminds me of my other local favorite late night radio show, "The Swami Sound System" (on the same FM 94.9 as "Big Sonic Chill") which plays "primal punk, raw funk, scathing soul scorchers, lysergic psychedelic excursions, blown out reggae and dub" with lots of "feedback, tape hiss and reverb"

12. "No Excuses" - Air France (10/5/08) proving that there's better pop in Europe

13. "Paris Is Burning (Peaches Remix)" - Ladyhawke (9/20/08) you'd think I'd get into this new wave scenester, but only Peaches' edge makes it tolerable

14. "Pretty Please (feat. Cee-Lo)" - Estelle (3/28/08) I was excited when a second volume of the Sex and the City soundtrack was released, because the first one didn't have the song I was looking for; this isn't that song either, but it's actually better than the one I bought the soundtrack for

15. "Single Ladies" - Beyoncé (11/18/08) my guilty pleasure (even guiltier than the one above)

16. "Skunk Walk" - Michna (9/23/08) acid jazz for my coworkers

17. "Too Lost in You (Various Production Mix)" - Sugarbabes (7/14/08) the least hard-hitting song from its album; in other words, Various Production ain't easy listening

18. "Wake Up Call (Mark Ronson Mix feat. Mary J. Blige)" - Maroon 5 (12/9/08) recommended by my cousin

19. "Who's Gonna Care?" - CaUSE co-MOTION! (10/28/08) my HAPPIEST discovery since Vampire Weekend

20. "Yellow Lasers" - MC Frontalot (9/1/05) nerdcore rap all about Star Wars, but that's not why I got this song; I met this guy at Comic-Con and after listening to a few dozen of his most popular songs, this one had the best bassline

OUT TODAY ON DVD: HAPPY-GO-LUCKY