We take a break from our exhaustive review of the decade to give way to the one for 2009.
During the next few days we’ll look back at our favorite music during the last twelve months which, following the downward trend from the second half of the decade, have been rather hideous for popular music. We can put the blame on the economy, the state of the world or global warming drying out new ideas, but the lack of good albums has reached alarming levels. So much so that for the first time our selection will only include the best 30, leaving the rest for our multiple honorary mentions section.
The element of surprise was stolen right from the second week of January with the release of “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, maybe the only true classic of the year. We all knew it would be the record to beat. No one managed and very few got even close. Other highlights among our selection are some welcome confirmations from Brooklyn; French bands who finally reached the heights of their preceding hype and members of the Clan returning to a long-time missed good shape.
Revalidating single track as the format of choice for our attention deficit-inducing digital times; our selection of 100 songs of the year provides more reasons to be cheerful, thanks to an abundance of emerging new artists; bringing at least strong hopes for a forthcoming wave of fresher and more creative propositions.