My 2009 in music

This year, I got more acquainted with my Last.fm scrobbler, and got to use the “Recommended Artists” page more frequently. This list is my personal best-of for the year 2009. The music or albums I’m going to list here were not necessarily released or produced in 2009. But the music listed in this entry were the ones that were released or discovered in 2009 that actually stood out, or really caught my attention.

2009 was also the year that my iPod finally gave up on me. It forced me to get a new mobile phone, which has a built-in music player because I was tired of lugging around so many gadgets (I used to have two cellphones, plus an iPod). Now I’m thinking of getting a modu because it’s so damn cute. But we’ll see.

Ah, yes. The music.

Marit Larsen – The Chase

If you belong to my generation and ended up liking the pop duo M2M in your teens, the name might ring a bell. Marit was half of that duo. I always had a soft spot for Marit since she seemed so sweet and innocent compared to the other girl, Marion.

She still sings pop, but it certainly sounds different from her M2M days. My favorite song from her record is If A Song Could Get Me You. According to Last.fm, I listened to this song 106 times in 2009.

Tim Reynolds – Betrayal

When an audiophile friend of mine gave me a DVD of his show with Dave Matthews in New York a few years ago, I was impressed. This guy does some of the best guitar playing I’ve seen (and I’ve seen quite a bit, since my dad is a musician). See (and hear) it yourself.

Newton Faulkner – Hand Built By Robots

This album was released in 2007, but I only discovered it in 2009. It was around the time that I started playing guitar again and decided to look around for acoustic artists to listen to. He has a pretty interesting style, which consists of finger-picking and tapping/hitting the guitar’s body. He plays well.

Florence + The Machine – Lungs

I think I discovered her through Marit Larsen’s Twitter feed. Florence Welch makes pretty good music. She reminds me a bit of Regina Spektor. I love Dog Days Are Over.

Lenka – The Show

Who hasn’t listened to Lenka at some point? I have to admit, listening to The Show makes me sick nowadays. However, there was a period in 2009 where a friend and I would always listen and sing along to it in the car during long drives.

Imogen Heap – Ellipse

Being a total Imogen fan, I snapped this up the moment it was available. While I have to admit that Speak For Yourself will always be my favorite Imogen album, this is a pretty good release. This album is definitely worth listening to. It kept me company during a lot of sleepless nights. I especially love the song First Train Home.

Ingrid Michaelson – Everybody

Be OK is still Ingrid’s best album. I had been waiting for Everybody since the beginning of 2009, since I learned that Ingrid had started working on the album in late 2008. I bought it online immediately the day it was released (I remember this vividly because I had to bug customer service because my digital download had a couple of defective MP3s) and bought the physical CD a few weeks after.

It’s a great release, with a lot of great songs. My favorites are Everybody, Mountain and the Sea, and Sort Of. It pales in comparison to Be OK, though. Still, my mom and I love listening to her.

Gold Motel – The Gold Motel EP

I just had to mention this. Granted, the EP was released mid-December. I think it still counts, though.

The Hush Sound, as mentioned before, is one of my favorite bands. When they went on hiatus, I was rather disappointed, but I also wanted to see what they’d come up with on their own. Finally, Greta released her first solo EP. And it’s pretty good. Listening to it feels weird, though. I half expect Bob’s voice to pop out somewhere.

There you have it. My 2009 in music. I hope to be more adventurous this year and discover more music. Hopefully from genres I’m not too familiar with.