threevue

Here are my picks for my favourite songs of this year. These songs aren’t in any rigid order per se, though generally speaking, the further down the list a song is, the more I liked it.

Florence & The Machine - Cosmic Love

I didn’t spend as much time with this album as I should have this year. That’s not because I didn’t like it, but rather because I was too busy checking out other bands. This song is an excellent reminder as to why I should spend more time with this album.

Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land
Frightened Rabbit’s album Midnight Organ Fight narrowly missed out on a place in my album of the year post due to the fact that it was released just at the end of 2008. This single, however, was released in 2009, and definitely deserves a place in this list.

Glint – Kernel Panic
I first checked out Glint this year, when I downloaded their self-titled EP, from which this song is taken. Whilst the band have two albums prior to this EP, Kernel Panic was the song that piqued my attention first.

Broken Records – Wolves
I would much rather have put the song A Promise up here, but couldn’t find a video for it. However, Wolves is a close second, and this video perfectly showcases Broken Records’ love of string instruments, which is what got me hooked on them in the first place.

Local Natives – cubism Dream
Taken from the album Gorilla Manor, Cubism Dream is one of the finest efforts on a pretty solid album. This song is taken from the latter half of the album, which, whilst being a little less accessible than the first half, is, in my opinion, by far the better half.

We Were Promised Jetpacks – This Is My House, This Is My Home
As you may have noticed, this album featured on all three of our Album Of The Year lists. Needless to say, we all think this album is a bit special. Check out this song to see why. While this is possibly not the best song on the album, it has a particularly nasty habit of getting completely stuck inside your head.

Maybeshewill – Last Time This Year
Taken from the 2009 album Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony, this song showcases Maybeshewill in their element; raucous noise given texture by the addition of piano and samples, causing the songs to evolve to the point where they finish up as completely different entities from what they started out as.

Cymbals Eat Guitars – and The Hazy Sea
Whilst there is no video to speak of, And The Hazy Sea is the opening track on the bands debut album and showcases their breathless, manic nature perfectly.

Tubelord – I Am Azerrad
This song was originally released on one of the bands 2008 EP’s but found it’s way onto their debut album Our First American Friends. This song garnered the band a great deal of attention as it references killing music journalist and author Michael Azerrad, who wrote a light-hearted follow-up article in Spin magazine by way of retalliation.

Fanfarlo – Finish Line
This is a fantastic song, and a great video, which sees the band playing live in a garden somewhere, almost like they don’t have a care in the world. It’s bizarre, but it works strangely well.

Mumford & Sons – Winter Winds
This is the song that got me hooked on Mumford & Sons, and this video is taken from the Bookshop Sessions – where the band recorded a bunch of songs live in the back of a dusty old bookshop, which seems to really fit the tone of the songs, as well as the band.

MewithoutYou – The Fox, The Crow, And The Cookie
One thing that comes through with MewithoutYou’s music is just how borderline-insane these guys really are.  As if trying to illustrate this visually, the video for this song is equally as mad. The fact that this video is gorgeous, and features some truly stunning art direction - which reminds me a lot of the video for the Smashing Pumpkins Tonight, Tonight), really helps nail the feel of the song.

And So I Watch You From Afar – Set Guitars To Kill
Though there are probably better songs on the album to include than this one,  Set Guitars To Kill is the opening track from ASIWYFA’s debut album, and is the perfect introduction to what this band is all about; noise! And lots of it!
Plus the video shown here is actually a bunch of live footage spliced together from one of their shows, and actually works incredibly well with the song.

Cats And Cats And Cats – A Boy Called Haunts
I. Love. This. Band.
Cats x3 are an unsigned band from the London area, who have two previous (self-released) albums under their belt. Part of the reason I love this band so much is that they make the kind of music they want to make, and they don’t care if people like it or not. It should come as no surprise then, that the band aren’t exactly hugely popular in mainstream circles.
The band wrote and recorded a new album earlier this year, but have so far been unable to release it.  This song was released in October as a single to help the band build some support to try and get the album released, and is possibly the band’s most accessible work to date.  Personally, I would have liked to put the B-side to the single The boy With The Beak up here instead, but as I was unable to find a video for it I decided to stick with A Boy Called Haunts, which is still a great song – even though it is framed by a particularly lo-fi video.