50
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The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother
This song needs a write-up!
I'll do it
No of votes: 6, Score:
30, Highest vote: 1st
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49
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Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Half Way
Artist link: 8  43
Okay, I really wouldn't have had 2009 as being a stratospheric return from the commercially orientated Los Angeles hip-hop outfit, but then to be honest I would never have placed the christmas number one either. This was the third of their number one singles, and this one keeps things pretty understated (for their usual level of bombast, at least). The majority of the vocals have gone Fergie's way, which, coupled with a bit of a 1980s vibe sounds like it could have accompanied a brat pack movie about a farmers daughter who abandons her chances of winning the state line dancing championships for donning leg warmers and being a world class aerobics instructor (I'll leave you to dream up the title). It's a testament to them that even taking it outside their usual comfort zone, they can make an inventive and classy funk ballad.
Jason M
No of votes: 6, Score:
33, Highest vote: 1st
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48
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Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses
Artist link: 2 32 35
For a band with such art rock credentials as Franz Ferdinand, the choices for the title of this song are plentiful. It could be a reference to James Joyce's inpenetrable masterwork, or about the hero in Homer's epic poem, though in some of mock-ironic twist perhaps it's just about the 1980's French sci-fi cartoon (which will doubtless turn out to be based upon Homer anyway). No matter, a third lap of the track for the stylish Glasweigans sees them as leaner, meaner and more menacing than ever, throwing out guitar riffs and synth stabs like efficient jabs from a lightweight boxer. It's the dirtiest, scuzziest thing they've done to date, and like all good modern art, it works on so many levels, dahling.
Jason M
No of votes: 6, Score:
34, Highest vote: 3rd
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47
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Paolo Nutini - Candy
I used to live a world that Paolo Nutini didn't intrude - which had never really been too much of a worry for me. I used to get a little bit confused between him and Jack Penate, if I was to be totally honest. But this changes all that. This tender and beautiful lilting ballad has bowled me over, nicked my heart and my Oyster card and bogged off to the other end of the Central Line with both. I can't tell if it's the vocal delivery of Nutini that does it, with an olde worlde folk feel to it (tying in nicely with the folk revival this year), or the melody that touches on the genius of Simon and Garfunkel and a hint of Neil Young at his acoustic finest. Of course, if I could drag myself away from my addiction to this song, I'd probably conclude that it's the whole thing, played with such feeling to it that you can't help but be drawn to it to like a wasp to a toffee apple.
Jason M
No of votes: 6, Score:
35, Highest vote: 1st
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46
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Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name
Forget about Simon Cowell. Forget about the X-Factor. Forget about Joe McElderry. Forget about Facebook. Forget about the race for Christmas Number One.... As the dust settles, 2009 will surely go down in history as the year when, after nearly sixty years of trying, we finally had a Number One single worth a damn. The circumstances of it hardly seem to matter - the fact that it was a song recorded seventeen years ago that only soared to the top of the charts on the back of a Facebook spoiler campaign is neither here nor there. Hell, Joe McElderry only had to wait another week to reach the top of the charts anyway..... so if pissing on Simon Cowell's chips was your motivation for buying this, then at best it could only really be described as a pyrrhic victory..... What's important is that for one glorious week in December, you could turn on the radio and hear real music delivered with a real passion and conviction. How long is it since you could say that about any Number One single, never mind a Christmas Number One? I didn't even know I cared about the chart any more until I found myself tuning into the chart show on a Sunday evening for the first time in years and really, really hoping that they'd made it. They did, selling more than 500,000 copies of the song that had previously peaked at number 25 in 1992. Rage Against the Machine didn't change the world in 2009 any more successfully than they changed it back in 1992 (even if they did raise some welcome donations for Shelter along the way), but they do make a glorious noise. I got a thrill every time I heard that intro, those furious vocals, that guitar solo and...yes... all that climactic swearing too. Best. Number. One. Single. Ever.
Roll over Slade; make way Shaky. There's a new kid in town to liven up those awful Christmas complilations......Huh! Come on!
Swiss T
No of votes: 6, Score:
35, Highest vote: 1st
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45
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JLS - Everybody In Love
The X Factor - the money-makin', headline-grabbin', phone-riggin' (allegedly) brainwave of Sir Simon of Cowell and his boundless quest to fill the pockets of those ridiculously high waisted trousers. A show in which cliches and sob stories lurk round every corner while good taste and genuine musical genius are banished to the basement like tattered unwanted furniture. However, for every Michelle McManus, there's a Leona Lewis and for every FYD (2010 show, Factor Fans), there's a boyband who are actually pretty damned good. JLS may sound like some kind of hardware store but, as far as boybands go, these guys are the Kings of Castle Pop thanks to their irresistable combo of good looks, boy-next-door personalities and feel-good, catchy songs. Of course the lyrics aren't groundbreaking.... Of course the song is predictable from start to finish.... And of course the video involves skin tight tops, randy gazes at the camera and a dance routine so simple that even Pete Waterman couldn't screw it up. But there is no denying that 'Everybody In Love' is sunny, singalong pop music at its very best and is a song that could be background music to any summer romance. So well done boys, may the reign of JLS continue!
Faye P
No of votes: 6, Score:
36, Highest vote: 1st
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44
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Paolo Nutini - Pencil Full Of Lead
This track is true audio marmite, you'll either love its jazzy stylings and scattergun lyrics or hate that rasping muted trumpet and fact that he rhymes belly with telly. Me, I loved it, mainly for the fact that it was just, you know, a bit different to everything else that was in the charts at the time, and it was such an infectious little tune that it was almost impossible not to shake your booty to it. Add to that a great video where a claymation Paolo tries it on with a load of cute bunny girls who proceed to tear him to pieces, and you've got a little three minute gem. Oh, and it was a great bit of plugging for Rob da Bank's Isle of Wight based musical weekend, all together now, "Bestival, I've got my baby, Oh, Bestival, I've got my baby..."
Greg B
No of votes: 6, Score:
37, Highest vote: 1st
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43
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
Yeah Yeah Yeahs were back to their brilliant best in 2009. Alongside the equally impressive single 'Zero' and the album 'It's Blitz!', this makes a good case for it being 'their year', though you wouldn't know that if your musical horizons are E4 Music and The X Factor. 'Heads Will Roll' is a hedonist's anthem, a super-cool dance floor killer, coming on like an indie 'Ride On Time'. While the Black Eyed Peas promise you a good night, they'll be off with the prettiest girls and boys while you are still getting the drinks in and dancing towards death with Karen O and friends.
Danny G
No of votes: 6, Score:
38, Highest vote: 3rd
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42
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Green Day - Know Your Enemy
Artist link:9 10 16
Know your Enemy is the 1st single from Green Day's 8th studio album "21st Century Breakdown". The album is yet another loosely based concept album just like the previous effort "American Idiot". The song now your enemy is a "standard issue Green Day" song that is the 1st release from there albums, sadly Know your Enemy is great appetizer to rather disappointing 8th studio album. The song in its own right is an excellent 3mins punk song dealing with the issues of aggressors, reactions to aggressors and not maintaining silence!!
Emyr I
No of votes: 6, Score:
39, Highest vote: 2nd
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41
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Florence + The Machine - Drumming Song
By all accounts 2009 has been a great year for Florence and her Machine. From indie obscurity to world domination! And the song? Presumably a poignant tale of Florence's battle with tinnitus? As the lyrics describe the pleasure/pain of being in love, so Florence is a thing of paradox; powerful yet fragile, her voice metallic yet beautiful. Plus she likes to dance like a mad lady and she gets her fill in the video for 'drumming song', with silly outfits set against 'a tower where the church bells chime'. So will 2010 bring Florence all that she wishes for? A year even half as good as 2009? Well as Tesco say, Santa loves all children. Even ginger ones...
Isaac H
No of votes: 6, Score:
41, Highest vote: 1st
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A MASSIVE THANKS also to all those who slaved over a hot keyboard to produce the write ups: Danny G, Paul M, Kat B, Isaac H, Milly H, P Shoo, Emyr I, Greg B, Veronica S, Jane B, John C, Swiss T, Faye P