Indeed, it is that time of year again when a cultural reckoning is required. Did you have any favourite films this year and what was cooking up a storm on the music front? Just like a friendly chinwag round the internet campfire, all are welcome to spend their two-pennies worth, please share your own Best Of’s for the Year 2009 and leave a comment.
I shall kick things off with my choices:
Best singles:
- Laura Marling – Alas I cannot swim (came out in 2008)
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
The xx – xx
Wilco – Wilco
Wildbeasts – Two Dancers
Yeasayer- All Hour Cymbals
Bubbling under
Tunng- Good Arrows (came out in 2007) / The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love / School Of Seven Bells – Alpinisms / Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz / Polar Bear – Polar Bear / Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs / The Antlers – Hospice
Best Films(roughly in order, best first)
- Fish Tank
The Damned United
Mesrine Killer Instinct
The Class
Moon
Caramel (2007)
Sleep Furiously
Coraline
Doubt
35 Shots of Rum
Frozen River
Let the Right One In
The Reader
An Education
Inglorious Basterds
Slumdog Millionaire
Syndoche new york
Public Enemies
State of Play
…. sadly there were others but they didn’t even make the cut.
scatterdrum is a personal blog by Gill Moore. Gill is a professional photographer based in Manchester in England.
She works for commercial and editorial clients together with shooting personal projects. This side of her work often includes exhibiting, publishing and working with like-minded collaborators on an environmental theme.
For me 2009 was the year of Spotify and I spent hours exploring it’s wonderful catalogue, regardles of year of release.
However my favourite 2009 offerings were…
Notable Singles:
Air – Sing Sang Sung
Calvin Harris – Ready For The Weekend
Lily Allen – The Fear
Lily Allen – F**k You
Pet Shop Boys – Beautiful People (I’m cheating because it was only released in Germany but the best track of a great return to form
album)
Yeah Yeah Yeah – Zero
Notable Albums:
Florence and The Machine – Lungs
Pet Shop Boys – Yes
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men
Best song title found on Spotify in 2009:
Sparks – I Can’t Believe That You Would Fall for All the Crap in This Song
And I only went to the cinema twice this year – can you believe it!? So…
Best film of 2009:
An Education (which was actually excellent)
Worst film of 2009
2012 (sucked like a Dyson)
Sorry to duplicate Mr Chris but the discovery of Spotify has really changed how I access music. It’s ease of use encourages investigation of new music – which is to be applauded.
Here are 2009’s discoveries
Best Albums:
The Leisure Society – The Sleeper (2009)
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures (2009)
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (2009)
Wilco – Wilco (2009)
The XX – XX (2009)
Beirut – March of The Zapotec and Realpeople Holland (2009
(Winner of the most pretentious album title of 2009!)
The Swell Season – Strict Joy (2009)
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
(I know it was released in 08 but I only discovered it in 2009)
Shearwater – Rook
(I know it was released in 08 but I only discovered it in 2009)
Neil Halstead – Oh! Mighty Engine
(I know it was released in 08 but I only discovered it in 2009)
Best Singles:
I don’t do singles. They’re for kids.
Best Films:
Moon
Star Trek
Can you spot a theme here. Very cultured
Disappointing Film of 2009:
Avatar
(Big disappointment after all the hype and 10 years in the making. The plot could have be written by a competent 8 year old. Each cliche becomes more annoying than the last. The special effects are quite convincing and you do forget you’re looking at cgi after a while – but it’s simply not enough to save it. Mr James Cameron you should have burned the script and got a grip of this movie. Must do better – 5 out of 10)
Chris : Cheers for leaving your own top choices for 2009, hurrah we have some overlaps – Air, Yeah Yeah Yeah’ !! I have seen the Sweet Billy Pilgrim mentioned on a few other Best Of’s too, I will rumble that one up on Spotify. The Florence and the Machine I have to admit to being a little non-plussed when I gave that a listen a few months back. Maybe I need to give it another listen?
Thanks for sharing.
Mike : Great to see what you’ve picked. Don’t believe I’ve heard any of Them Crooked Vultures, no idea what style that is or anything. Will give it a listen myself. Grizzly Bear must be near to top of most of the poll’s for 2009, what a breakthrough year for them, smashing to see from a band who clearly love what they do and have ploughed their own way over quite a few years before getting this recognition.
Films. You’ve now totally put me off wasting my money on Avatar
I too loved Moon, really refreshing and innovative on not a huge budget with a tiny cast! Who’d have thought that would spring forth from David Bowie’s son.