Best of 2009: Top 5 Songs from Bad Albums

I did this list before in 2007 and had a lot of fun with it, so I thought I’d bring it back. Here, for your written-enjoyment, I present to you the Top 5 Songs of 2009 that just so happened to be on bad albums.

#5. “No You Girls” by Franz Ferdinand, from the album, Tonight – Franz Ferdinand has had trouble recapturing the magic of their debut album way back in 2003. I think even they could admit to that. However, in 2009 they tried something a little bit different and for that I totally commend them. Franz’s self-described dance album had a few decent tracks on it, and this one was the standout. “No You Girls” is the catchiest thing from the group since “Take Me Out,” featuring one of the grooviest choruses of the year! Handclaps, syncopated guitars, and a catchy hook; hell, it’s got pretty much everything you need for a great pop rock song!

#4. “Glass” by Bat for Lashes, from the album, Two Suns – This was the first song by Bat for Lashes that I ever heard, so it tends to stick with me much longer than any of the other tracks on her overrated and mediocre 2009 album. In fact, it’s not too much of a stretch to say that it’s her ONLY song that’s still getting listened to by me at this point. Now I know I’m going to get a lot of negative comments for calling this one a bad album, but really I just never could get into it. You can’t really fault me for that….right?

#3. “Waters of March” by Anya Marina, from the album, Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II – “Waters of March” (or “Águas de Março” in the original Portuguese) has been around in its various forms since the 1970s. In fact, in 2001 it was named as the all-time best Brazilian song. I’m not familiar enough with Brazilian music to hop onto that bandwagon, but it is a delightful tune either way. On her 2009 sophomore release, Anya Marina covered the song beautifully and its been getting steady plays ever since. I love this song! A friend of mine calls it (the original) his favorite of all time. Meh…I don’t speak Portuguese. So I’ll stick with this one.

#2. “Deja Vu” by Eminem, from the album, Relapse – Relapse was the best thing Eminem has done since The Eminem Show, I’ll give him that much. But for the most part the album was filled with insincere tracks that seemed more or less aimed at recapturing the edginess of his first three albums rather than creating something that spoke of who Marshall Mathers is now. There’s your standard songs about murder and drug abuse, fair enough, but all of it sounds forced rather than real. The one exception to this is the song “Deja Vu” which finds Marshall lamenting about his on again off again relationship with substance abuse. It’s the only time on the album when I feel like he’s opening up and being real with his fans rather than trying to imitate the Slim Shady of a decade ago. The result is a downright amazing song, and one of the best rap tracks of 2009!

#1. “French Navy” by Camera Obscura, from the album, My Maudlin Career – In 2006, Camera Obscura did much this exact same thing. They created a somewhat okay album with a stunner of an opening track that just somehow managed to become one of the year’s best. To say “French Navy” is 2009’s “Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken” is probably stating the obvious at this point. Oh well, it is. While it may not be near as classic as that magnificent song, “French Navy” has all the magic and catchiness of all of Camera Obscura’s great ones!

Worst of 2009: The 5 Most-Overrated Albums

One of the most frustrating things as a fan of great music is reading nothing but positive reviews about an album, only to pick it up and be blown away by how bad, mediocre, or disappointing it actually is. 2009 had its fair share of critically-adored albums that just never clicked with me (and a few more that just pissed me off entirely). The following list is for the 5 Most-Overrated Albums of 2009. Now excuse me while I go put on my flame-retardant suit.

#5. Bat for Lashes: Two Suns (Metacritic: 77) – No, no, no, there’s some good song’s on here, you have me all wrong, reader. But as far as it being one of the year’s best? Well, I disagree wholeheartedly. Natasha is an extremely talented young lady as evidenced here, and on her previous record, but Two Suns is too often an album that lacks consistency. “Oh this song is amazing, oh this one is alright; this one is totally crazy, this one just put me to sleep.” Thus concludes the insight into my thought process when listening to the album. So to close, allow me to reiterate: tons of talent, doesn’t come together well enough. Fin.

#4. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Metacritic: 89) – Holy god there’s part of me that wants to put this one at the #1 spot on this list just due to the sheer amount of hype surrounding it. Positive review after positive review after positive review and the only thing I can walk away with after hearing this album is that there is one good song “My Girls.” My honest opinion is that this is Animal Collective’s worst album I’ve ever heard, and I’ve been listening since Sung Tongs came out. So technically that may make it the most overrated, but it’s not the worst album that got rated well…so we’ll move on.

#3. Fever Ray: Fever Ray (Metacritic: 81) – Okay so all I really know is that this album got fantastic reviews from several reputable sources. I check it out, listen to 6 songs and then never give it a serious listen ever again. This album is bad.

#2. Girls: Album (Metacritic: 79) – The most amateur crap I’ve heard since Boddicker. Each song contains mediocre music accompanying really awful (just awful) lyrics sung by a mostly terrible singer. This is why people don’t listen to indie music, because shit like this gets made. It’s one of those albums that you just have to think wouldn’t be around if the artist didn’t have a totally harrowing backstory (they do, I suppose). Personally, I don’t buy into this nonsense. This is easily one of the worst records of the year.

#1. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest  (Metacritic:  85) – Yeah I know. Believe it or not, I had never heard Grizzly Bear before 2009. Now, like you, I’d been hearing amazing things for years. So when this album dropped at the beginning of the year, I didn’t waste a second picking it up. What I got was a collection of really uninteresting, boring music that did nothing but disappoint time and time again. I’ve seriously listened to Veckatimest several times through but have yet to grasp what the hell everyone is going on about. But hey, at least I know better now.