Best of 2009

2010 is just around the corner and I'm already getting excited about the music that's to come in the new year. As for music this year, I feel like there were a lot of great albums but not many that really grasped my attention for very long. My first choice was really easy but the other four were hard to rank. But I've re-listened to the ones I remember the most and the five that are posted are the ones that my ears seemed to like the most this year.

Number 1

Röyksopp - Junior, March 2009

Hands down, this was the best album of the year in my opinion. It was almost like a Scandinavian celebration album. With Lykke Li, Robyn, and Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife and Fever Ray) as vocalists for more than half of the songs on the album; I was very pleased and impressed. Even the songs without the vocals are amazing. "Röyksopp Forever" is an instrumental that is some kind of emotional and passionate electrorchestra. I'm not going to lie, I probably listened to "The Girl and The Robot" over 100 times this year. The bass is so intense, I imagine the whole world shaking every time I play it. This album makes love to my ears every single listen.

Röyksopp - The Girl and The Robot


Number 2

Vitalic - Flashmob, September 2009

Vitalic is classified as techno/trance but I would say Vitalic is just completely electronic. I feel like Vitalic put a lot of thought into the songs on Flashmob. Don't be discouraged by the description, the album isn't a complete dance fest. There are slow songs as well. This French artist has done a remarkable job of producing and creating his own music. Flashmob is an explosion of noise, i.e. beautiful noise.

Vitalic - Poison Lips


Number 3

La Roux - La Roux, June 2009

La Roux came out of England with some great 80s-inspired dance songs. I heard her first single, "In for the Kill", on Hype Machine. This song was followed up with "Bulletproof" and the album had a hold on me. "Colourless Colour" and "Tigerlily" are definitely my faves. One thing that really stands out on this album is the amazing lyrics. All the lyrics on this album are powerful, coherent and clear; an album well done.

La Roux - In For The Kill


Number 4

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, May 2009

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was a great, upbeat summer album. I remember taking a ridiculously intense summer course and listening to this entire album while studying in the library; it kept me from going completely insane. It was also a great road trip album. It had two major hits: "Lisztomania" and "1901." These were great but my favourites were "Rome" and "Love Like A Sunset Part I & II." It will always remind me of the summer of 2009.

Phoenix - Lisztomania


Number 5

Muse - The Resistance, September 2009

Even though The Resistance wasn't completely what I would have liked, it was still an album that was produced and thought-out well. This may sound strange but Muse has some kind of extra-terrestrial side to them that I've always liked. This album really exudes their out-of-this-world feature. The last three parts of "Exogenesis: Symphony" are amazing and finish up the album very well.

Muse - Undisclosed Desires



Best remixes/mash-ups of 2009:

1. Bag Raiders vs. Chromeo - Shooting Stars/Call Me Up
To be honest, any version of Bag Raiders' "Shooting Stars" is unbelievably elating.

2. N.A.S.A. feat. Kanye West, Lykke Li and Santigold - Gifted (Steve Aoki Remix)
Aoki remix of an already amazing song, enough said.

3. Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart (Fuck Buttons)
This remix has followed me throughout Vancouver for the entire year.

4. Lykke Li - Little Bit LIVE (Death to the Throne remix)
The amazing live version of "Little Bit" remixed into an 8-bit masterpiece with a heavy bass.

5. GRUM - Runaway (SymbolOne Remix)
Image: dancing in circles with confetti falling all around and pink lights flashing.

2010, here we come!

Fresh Media and Fever Ray: All in one day

I know I've already posted an entry about this remix but I really feel like my day had a connection to this song.

So I thought I was supposed to be live blogging today at the Fresh Media Festival but it turned out, I was talking about my blog to future bloggers who wanted to learn more about the subject. This was good. I got to learn about other (more successful) bloggers and learn more about what people want.

Earlier in the day, ION magazine supplied the event with free magazines (these went really fast). On the cover of their issue this month is Fever Ray, aka Karin Dreijer Andersson. I don't know what it is but lately, this woman has got a hold on me. I'm intrigued with everything she does and all the music she creates. I quickly grabbed a magazine so I could read the article inside. To my dismay, there was no real article of Fever Ray inside. It was mainly a cover photo shoot with a small description of her on the same page as the Editorial Staff page. I was disappointed but still impressed that the magazine flew out to Gothenburg, Sweden to take this photo shoot.

So Fever Ray was one of the things on my mind from the start of the day. For the rest of the day, I was observing the people coming in, listening to what they had to say about fresh media/new media/old media, and soaking up everything I could. I took advice, gave advice and above all, learned many things.

At the end of the day, the Fuck Buttons remix of Fever Ray's "If I Had a Heart" popped into my head as I was walking in the downtown area of Vancouver. This song/remix always reminds me of how I feel about Vancouver.

This will never end 'cuz I want more. More, gimme more, gimme more...

These lyrics are repeated throughout this remix with a drum pounding hard in the foreground. Creepy noises accompany the pounding and it adds to the whole notion of searching for something you know isn't lurking far beyond that corner up ahead.

The lyrics and the overall atmosphere of the song always pop into my head when I'm thinking of good ol' Vancouver. And it especially popped into my head after this event because I feel like everyone kind of feels this way about Vancouver. Correct me if I'm wrong but we're all kind of searching for that something-something here. I'm sure this happens in every city but I feel like Vancouver is still evolving so it seems a little more obvious here. Vancouver is still new, fresh and its reputation is still developing. This remix/entry/day focuses on the lyrics posted above; people aren't going to give up on Vancouver ever, it's going to keep developing and its people will want more and will create more as time goes on. Just look at the event that occurred today.

I know I don't usually express my deep and heavy thoughts on my blog but I felt like this remix/song really had a connection to my day (even more so than other songs have in the past). Perhaps it isn't the original intention of the song, or the remix for that matter, but this remix has inspired me to interpret the song differently.

So let's keep getting more...

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart (Fuck Buttons remix)

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart

Vancouver's night scene

Fever Ray's got it down...

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart (Fuck Buttons Remix)

If I had a heart

Fever Ray is the side project of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife. Her debut album is already digitally released and is available on Klicktrack and Amazon. It will be physically released in March (on the 18th in Sweden and 23rd in Europe and America).

Fuck Buttons did a pretty good remix of "If I had a heart". The original song is eerie, ambient, slow and weird. Fuck Buttons gave it a hard, fast beat while keeping the original eerie features of the song present. You can hear the remix at Stereogum.