Songs of 2009 part 1

The aim: a manageable list of my favourite songs of 2009

The criteria: released in 2009, and only one per artist (this was hard!)

Presenting, in alphabetical order by artist:

## Not a Robot but a Ghost by Andrew Bird
from Noble Beast

I have this weird word association problem: say the word 'robot', and I think 'Radiohead'. So I don't know if this is why I always think of this song as rather Radioheadesque; or if the combination of the shuffling, insistent beat, the pretty, tremulous melody in minor key and Bird's croon really is reminiscent of Thom Yorke and co. Either way, it's a good song.

Watch: live at Lollapalooza 2009 - I was there! Nowhere as close as the person taking this video was though.



## Travelling Woman by Bat for Lashes
from Two Suns

I love the dreamy, atmospheric mood of this song, how it suits Natasha Khan's dusky voice.

Listen:



## Blood Bank by Bon Iver
from Blood Bank EP

This is muted but so pretty, and I think it's really romantic in a small, quiet way, like being caught out in the snow with someone you love.

Download:
Blood Bank


## Love Drunk by Boys Like Girls
from Love Drunk

This is the musical equivalent of candied popcorn - colourful and nutritionally useless, but it's so damn more-ish. :)

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_uQO6NeFis


## You Belong to Me by Butch Walker

The Taylor Swift original is a guilty pleasure of mine (pleasure because it just begs you to sing along to its catchy lovelorn self; guilty because, well, it rightly sits amongst the pantheon of top 5 psuedo feminist anthems). This gender-flipped cover is equally as catchy, if not more so because it involves a plucked mandolin.

A mandolin! (And not a ukelele, as the link below claims it to be.)

Have I ever mentioned my love of unusual instrumentation in pop songs? :)

Listen:
You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift cover)

Tomorrow: Movies of the Decade 2001-2002