Best of 2009: Top 10 Songs

For many writers, the end-of year-list is a sacred ritual. A chance to put one’s thoughts in order before jumping headlong into the potential of the next twelve months. An opportunity to rectify critical misjudgements, to apologise for hasty conclusions. But though it’s largely about tying up loose ends and drawing a line under the year that has passed, there’s always something that manages to slip by. Albums we didn’t quite get round to listening to. Undiscovered gems that won’t reveal themselves for another six months yet. So a “Best of” list is never really complete, its merely in an eternal state of awaiting revision.

For all their flaws though, I find the process of drafting and redrafting annual lists utterly compelling. I’m never entirely happy with any of my lists and actually compiling them usually entails many compromises and tough decisions. This year’s were no different and I fully anticipate looking back in six and then twelve months time and grinding my face into my palm over some of my choices. But that’s what being a critic is all about, right, having to eat your own words sometimes?

Anyway, to kick off the Best of 2009 lists, here’s my Top 10 songs of the year that was. I’ve even thrown in audio for a few tracks.

10. Gorgoroth – Rebirth (from the album Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem)

Gorgoroth’s Infernus has always had a talent for writing dark, funereal dirges and this post-Gaahlgate effort is one of his best. It’s suffocatingly grim and oppressive, its unrelentingly sonic bleakness the signature of a band revitalised and even, as the title would suggest, reborn. Worth listening to for vocalist Pest’s blood-curdling scream at around the two minute, fifty second mark but definitely not one for those who veer away from the darker things in music.

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9. Dinosaur Jr – Pieces (from the album Farm)

While Farm wasn’t quite the album Dinosaur Jr fans had been hoping for, it was certainly a much more rounded piece of work than 2007′s Beyond. Pieces is a classic Dinosaur Jr track, from the minor-key progressions, to the wall of guitar sound that only become apparent at higher volume levels to J Mascis’s nasal vocals. Easily up there with the best from Green Mind and Where You Been.

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8. Infected Mushroom – Herbert the Pervert (from the album Legend of the Black Schwarma)

The Israeli psychedelic trance duo are their best when blurring the boundaries between genres and introducing real instruments into their electronic cauldron. While not quite as magnificent as Suliman from 2007′s Viscious Delicious, Herbert the Pervert once again showcases the mind-blowing results that can be achieved from adding rock and heavy metal instrumentation to a hard dance track. Really remarkable stuff, with a fantastic name to boot.

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7. Dream Theater – The Count of Tuscany (from the album Black Clouds and Silver Linings)

At nineteen minutes and sixteen seconds, The Count of Tuscany falls four minutes short of 1995′s epic A Change of Seasons. And while it doesn’t quite match that particular classic in terms of quality either, it’s undoubtedly one of the finest pieces of work the band have released in years. Endless guitar solos, rousing choruses, acoustic interludes, all are resplendent in their prog-tastic glory. Overly self indulgent, perhaps but no less majestic for that.

6. Butterfly Explosion – Comfort of the Dark (from the EP Vision)

Up and coming Irish shoegaze group Butterfly Explosion may well be the Next Big Thing once they finally release their long-awaited debut album in 2010 but for now they are simply floating in a sea of potential. Though the band usually sound like an Explosions in the Sky/My Bloody Valentine hybrid, this track actually bears more resemblance to something by the Smashing Pumpkins, before Billy Corgan disappeared up his own back passage. The slow build to the song’s glorious crescendo is undoubtedly its highlight.

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5. Katatonia – Idle Blood (from the album Night is the New Day)

Sounding like a lost cut from Opeth’s Damnation, Idle Blood is one the highlights of an album hardly short of choice cuts. Internet speculation on whether Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt was involved continues unabated but regardless, Idle Blood is a remarkably beautiful and haunting track that sees Katatonia incorporate layered vocal harmonies and acoustic instrumentation in a way they have never before attempted on this scale.

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4. Sonic Youth – Anti-Orgasm (from the album The Eternal)

Sonic Youth were never a band to waver in the face of commercial pressure, let alone do what anyone expected of them so it’s see something of a surprise to hear the fifty-something New Yorkers revive the accessibility and sexual politics of their early-nineties major label peak. Anti-Orgasm is a grungy, lo-fi track that’s worlds away from more contemplative recent releases but shows that despite their age, Sonic Youth still have a thing or two to show the kids about how to write abrasive rock classics.

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3. Pelican – Ephemeral (from the album What We All Come to Need)

A tighter and much more focused reworking of an EP track from earlier this year, Ephemeral bears the mark of a resurgent Pelican, confident in fusing their newly discovered sense of melody with the riff-laden legacy of their earlier work. Somewhat reminiscent of the monolithic Drought from Australasia, this track gradually evolves from a simple bass riff to a writhing, complex monstrosity as layers of instrumentation are added, then taken away again before crashing back in once more with double the force. A real lesson in post-metal songwriting.

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2. And So I Watch You From Afar – Set Guitars to Kill (from the album And So I Watch You From Afar)

As well as being an absolutely blistering slab of instrumental rock, this track undoubtedly walks away with the award for Best Song Name of the Year. Probably the best thing to come out of Northern Ireland since George Best, And So I Watch You From Afar somehow create catchy, danceable songs without resorting to verses, choruses or anything else that remotely resembles a traditional song structure. The sheer energy and euphoric joy expressed by the album version of Set Guitars to Kill is surpassed only by the utterly remarkable live performance.

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1. Devin Townsend Project – Addicted! (from the album Addicted)

With a towering Wall of Sound that would make Phil Spector cry with envy, Devin Townsend must surely rank as one of the world’s premier producers. When he turns his hands to his own work, the results are usually remarkable and Addicted! is no exception. The title track of Addicted, the former Strapping Young Lad mastermind’s tongue-in-cheek attempt at creating an MOR rock album in the style of Nickelback, the song stays close to Townsend’s metal roots but adds layers of sound quite unlike anything seen in his previous work. From female vocals to soaring choruses, Addicted! is perhaps one of the most uncharacteristic tracks Townsend has ever released yet is all the more remarkable for that. It’s a sonic wonderland, the sound of an artist both exploring and pushing his limits and a genuine joy to listen to.

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And that’s it for now. Check back over the next week or so when I’ll be listing my favourite albums, movies and games of the year, plus perhaps a look at some of 2009′s prize turkeys.