Tom's Highly Unscientific Top Ten of 2009!

As you may remember from last year, I'm building a masterpiece in my iPod, currently 24,664 items occupying 118.12 GB.

Now, I've been worrying about this list. As you may remember, I make an auto-playlist which lists my top ten most listened to tracks that were, according to my iTunes, released in 2009. This has several flaws. One, it means that tracks that were in no way released in 2009 get into the chart ("Lewis, Mistreated" by Radiohead is in the Top 20 despite it being released fourteen years previously). Two, tracks released earlier in the year fare better that ones released later in the year, as they have a chance to be listened to more. Three, iTunes doesn't (I believe) allow you to find out how many plays you've given a specific track in a specific year. This is understandable. It's borderline obsessive at best.

Again, the Top Ten is basically made up of four or five albums. Last year it was The National, Vampire Weekend, TV On The Radio, Black Kids and Fleet Foxes. This year, well... take a look.

1) "Actor Out Of Work" by St Vincent
2) "Black Rainbow" by St Vincent
3) "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood" by St Vincent
4) "Lion In A Coma" by Animal Collective
5) "I'm On A Boat" by The Lonely Island w/ T-Pain
6) "Don't Upset The Rhythm" by Noisettes
7) "Never Forget You" by Noisettes
8) "No You Girls" by Franz Ferdinand
9) "Punch You In The Jeans" by The Lonely Island
10) "Uprising" by Muse

Allowing for only one track per artist, the Top Ten looks like this...

1) "Actor Out Of Work" by St Vincent
2) "Lion In A Coma" by Animal Collective
3) "I'm On A Boat" by The Lonely Island
4) "Don't Upset The Rhythm" by Noisettes
5) "No You Girls" by Franz Ferdinand
6) "Uprising" by Muse
7) "Not Fair" by Lily Allen
8) "Lewis, Mistreated" by Radiohead (seriously!)
9) "Runaway" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
10) "Time's Arrow" by Jason Pegg

Which is good as it gets in Jason Pegg's amazing opening track from his bafflingly great solo album, but which is bad as I bought that album on the 22nd of December and it's at number 37 in the proper, non-artist adjusted chart.

Anyway, maybe iTunes will update by next year.

One thing that will be okay, though is my current all-time Top Ten!

1) "Finer Feelings" by Spoon - NON MOVER
2) "Blood On Our Hands" by Death From Above 1979 - NEW ENTRY
3) "You've Done It Again, Virginia" by The National - NEW ENTRY
4) "Florida" by Modest Mouse - NEW ENTRY
5) "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret" by Queens of the Stone Age - NEW ENTRY
6) "Dancing Choose" by TV On The Radio - NEW ENTRY
7) "Widescreen" by Clearlake - NEW ENTRY
8) "I Want This Cyclops" by Destroyer - LAST YEAR'S NUMBER 6
9) "Friends" by Led Zeppelin - LAST YEAR'S NUMBER 4
10) "Tumbling Dice" by The Rolling Stones - NEW ENTRY

Overall, it's been a terrible year for albums. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were disappointing, the Noisettes were good but upsetting, The Lonely Island's album was the patchiest thing ever, and Muse was kind of okay, but a bit ho-hum (much better than Black Holes & Revelations, though).

Top albums though, were Jason Pegg's album (which is, I think titled "Jason Pegg's Album") and St Vincent's "Actor". Both of which were generally brilliant.

In 2010, I'm looking forward to the long-gestating Clearlake album "Dark Blue" and Vampire Weekend, and hopefully something amazing that will surprise me. Fingers crossed!