BrokenTV’s Top Ten Songs Of 2009

A quick update before we dash out to watch Avatar 3D.

10. Burning Hearts – Aoba Sleeping

One of the nicest surprises of the year, so fresh it’s yet to crop up on iTunes, and the band have yet to merit a Wikipedia entry (which rather messes up our research). A blissful number from the Scandinavian purveyors of dream pop.

9. The Sound Of Arrows – M.A.G.i.C.

Another band without a Wikipedia entry. Do they want us to write about them or not? What do they expect us to do, research? Anyway, this is ace, and the album is possibly this year’s ‘Sonny J – Disastro’.

8. Pati Yang – Timebomb

Former vocalist of underrated Polish alternative act FlyKKiller, 2009 saw Pati Yang transmogrify into  Wroclaw’s answer to Annie (who narrowly missed out on our rundown herself – we’re sure she’ll cope with the loss).

7. West End Girls – A Little Black Dress

The Pet Shop Boys cover act, taking on an unreleased PSB demo, adapted specially for them by Mr Tennant and Mr Lowe. And it’s utterly brilliant, too.

6. Metric – Help I’m Alive (Acoustic Version)

Metric’s Fantasies has been one of the playlist mainstays on the BrokenTV iPod Touch throughout the year, and sneaking in front of the entirety of that waxing is this version of the lead track. Given away as a free MP3 on the band website to promote the album, the fragile beauty of Help I’m Alive, stripped away to Emily Haine’s vocal and a piano, the songs inner beauty becomes all the more obvious.

5. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Tom Justice, The Choir Boy Robber, Apprehended at Ace Hardware In Libertyville, IL

The tale of a bank robber, quite moving (or, if you must, miserablist), and longest, most ungainly song title of the year, we suspect.

4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero

Hard to pick out a standout track from this year’s YYY album, but this one pips it. Karen O’s voice has never done such funny things to the special part of our insides.

3. Royksopp – The Girl and The Robot (feat. Robyn)

Robyn – as seen on The Daily Show – puts in a brilliant performance on the standout track from ‘Junior’.

 2. Dragonette – Fixin; To Thrill

Our find of the year, mainly thanks to excellent people playing their songs on Blip.fm. Fixing To Thrill hits you like a bowling ball to the solar plexus, but in a brilliant way.

 1, The Big Pink – Velvet

Their track “Dominos” has been all over the place this year, not least on Xbox Live adverts all over the telly this festive season, but it’s this that takes the big prize, by far the best thing on their album “A Brief History Of Love”. Almost mesmerisingly powerful.