Dear listeners,
I spent the weekend reviewing Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” and thinking a lot about 2009, a recent moment the album explicitly references. When I was trying to put my finger on exactly what 2009 sounded like, there was only one thing to do: make a playlist.
I graduated from college in the fabled year of “Bad Romance” and “Paparazzi” — and of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Got a Feeling” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” — so I attach a lot of emotions and memories to that musical moment. My favorite 2009 albums at the time were a trifecta of stellar and ambitious indie releases that would come to define their era, too: Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavilion,” Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest” and Dirty Projectors’ “Bitte Orca.” The line between underground and mainstream music was becoming provocatively blurred, in a way that seems a little quaint today. The writer Andrew Unterberger recently devoted an entire episode of his Billboard podcast to an event that somehow made headlines in 2009: Beyoncé and Jay-Z attending a Grizzly Bear concert in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Naturally, her cool younger sister, Solange, took them.)
You’ll hear Grizzly Bear on this brief tour through 2009, along with higher-profile artists like Miley Cyrus, Jason Derulo and Mariah Carey. This is hardly meant to be a definitive look at the year’s releases, but a quick refresher on what it sounded like to, as I put it in my “Mayhem” review, party like it’s 2009.
All up in the blogs,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Phoenix: “Lisztomania”
Let’s kick things off with this irresistibly upbeat opening track from the French pop band Phoenix’s 2009 LP, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.” This song prompted one of the more wholesome memes of 2009, when a YouTube creator used it to soundtrack a montage of Brat Pack movie dance scenes. That video became such a sensation that it inspired countless copycat clips — including one featuring a future member of Congress.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. La Roux: “Bulletproof”
Released in June 2009, this steely electro-pop jam was an instant No. 1 in the U.K. but more of a sleeper hit in the U.S., where it would slowly but surely crawl to its eventual peak at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. I miss the days when I did not associate this song, or at least a poorly sung desecration of it, with allergy medicine.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Animal Collective: “Summertime Clothes”
Perhaps the most acclaimed indie album of 2009 (it topped Pitchfork’s best-of list that year, for what it’s worth), “Merriweather Post Pavilion” represented a new artistic peak for the experimental Baltimore group Animal Collective. The lead single, “My Girls,” (another 2009 underground rock/Beyoncé crossover event) usually gets all the love, so let’s dig a little deeper with another highlight.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Mariah Carey: “Obsessed”
One of my favorite later-period Mariah Carey hits, this sassy single from Mimi’s impeccably titled 2009 album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” is rumored to be about a certain world-famous rapper whom she impersonates in the music video. “Obsessed” is still a classic, but definitely of its time: In the late aughts, even a vocalist as gifted as Carey was reveling in the aesthetic possibilities of Auto-Tune.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Jason Derulo: “Whatcha Say”
Speaking of Auto-Tune, this proudly synthetic debut single from the R&B singer Jason Derulo doubles down on vocal effects, prominently sampling Imogen Heap’s 2005 pitch-shifted a cappella tune “Hide and Seek” and heavily processing Derulo’s own voice to match hers. For better or worse, few songs recall the retrofuturistic sound of 2009 more evocatively than this one!
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. The xx: “Intro”
Another defining indie release of 2009 came from the London trio the xx. Romy Madley Croft’s hushed vocals lent the trio’s self-titled debut its distinct cool, though this wordless opening track remains the most potent distillation of the band’s vibe.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Grizzly Bear: “Cheerleader”
On its immaculately atmospheric third album, “Veckatimest,” the Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear mixed tight four-part vocal harmonies with more outré post-rock experimentation, punctuated by blurts of Daniel Rossen’s expressive guitar playing. The bright, catchy “Two Weeks” is the most recognizable song from the album, but this slow, creeping number is just as haunting.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Dirty Projectors: “Stillness Is the Move”
Yet another unexpected Knowles family favorite, this soulful centerpiece from the Brooklyn group Dirty Projectors’ art-rock opus “Bitte Orca” features a sparse, stuttering groove and an impassioned vocal from the singer-songwriter Amber Coffman, who has since begun a solo career. It is also perhaps the unlikeliest entry on the soundtrack of the video game NBA 2K13.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Miley Cyrus: “Party in the U.S.A.”
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention this enduring 2009 smash — a profoundly wholesome, universally relatable ode to the superpowers bestowed by a favorite song — which a small portion of the population probably believes is the national anthem. I count myself among them.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“Party Like It’s 2009: The Playlist” track list
Track 1: Phoenix, “Lisztomania”
Track 2: La Roux, “Bulletproof”
Track 3: Animal Collective: “Summertime Clothes”
Track 4: Mariah Carey, “Obsessed”
Track 5: Jason Derulo, “Whatcha Say”
Track 6: The xx, “Intro”
Track 7: Grizzly Bear, “Cheerleader”
Track 8: Dirty Projectors, “Stillness Is the Move”
Track 9: Miley Cyrus, “Party in the U.S.A.”
The post Party Like It’s 2009: The Playlist appeared first on New York Times.
