30 December 2009

The Soundtrack of 2009

Although the number of books I've read and films I've watched has gone up this year compared to 2008, the number of songs added to my iTunes library released this year hasn't. Sure, there are 84 songs in my library with a 2009 release date but a) this includes five albums, which don't really count because they are unrepresentative of the way I listen to music and because they contain too many songs about which I am meh, and b) it also includes compilations and soundtracks containing songs that were originally released before this year (it would be unfair to call There Is a Light That Never Goes Out as a top song of 2009, for example, just because it appeared on the [500] Days of Summer soundtrack).

Despite this, I have managed to come up with a top five, proving that either a) I'm down with the kids or b) my knowledge of contemporary pop music comes entirely from Gossip Girl and Radio Paradise. That being said, I really liked all of last year's top five (especially my top three) and regularly listen to them all; this year, on the other hand, I can't see any of them other than the number one song being a regular feature of my future "current" playlists:

  1. Wait It Out -- Imogen Heap [preferably the Live at TED version]
  2. Runaway -- Yeah Yeah Yeahs [GG entry #1]
  3. Laughing With -- Regina Spektor
  4. Bad Romance -- Lady Gaga [GG entry #2]
  5. Whatcha Say -- Jason Derulo [GG entry #3 -- also, I only really like it for the Imogen Heap song, Hide and Seek, that is being sampled, which was used in another Josh Schwartz show]
I added 189 new songs (released any year) to iTunes this year but although there are a few good ones (Lewis & Clarke's cover of my favourite Cure song, Disintegration, Embrace's I Can't Come Down, and All Along the Watch Tower, for example) and I don't think it's worth my doing a top five. If iTunes let me search for my most played choons within a particular time period, that would be interesting but, of course, it doesn't...

Naturally, choosing my top five books and films of the year is going to be harder because there are more to choose from so they are going to have to wait until tomorrow.


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