Now that the countdown is complete, all that is left is to present my 2009 Mixtape, an annual mix of the songs that helped shape the past year in music. This is maybe becoming my favorite part of my yearly top albums tradition because it’s fun to see what tunes I can pack into an 80 minute disc. I started doing this on my own just to make a mix cd of some of my favorite songs of the year to keep for listening in my car, but it has evolved into a way for me to kind of summarize the best music of the year in just a “mixtape” form, especially since I find it pretty impossible to do a ranking of the best songs of the year. And people seem to enjoy it, so here we are again. By the way if you want to see my complete top 25 Albums of 2009 on one nice, put together page, head on over to my Amazon.com list to give it a look.
So, here’s some stats about the mix. This year I packed 19 songs on the disc (down one from last year’s 20), but as usual this does not necessarily mean these are my 19 favorite songs of the year. There a plenty of songs that I had to leave off because they were too long, or maybe they just didn’t fit with the mix. Also, as usual the order here is how they appear on my mix, but it is not a ranking. The songs are placed based on how they appear on their respective albums. For this year, 9 of the songs are off albums in my top 10 (Antony & the Johnsons is the only top 10 album not represented). Five of the songs are from albums in my #11-#25 range and two songs come from albums outside my top 25. The lowest ranking album with a song in the mix is Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free by Akron/Family (ranked #44) with “River”. And finally, three songs (“Blood Bank”, “My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille”, and “It Gets Your Body Movin'”) are songs off of EPs, and thus came from albums not eligible to be in my rankings. Most of these songs have been featured somewhere on this blog in the past, or in the top albums countdown, but now here they are all in one place!
The picture above is thanks to Amy Boyd, who for the second year in a row has provided me with the album art for the Mixtape. Another fine job indeed. Today is her birthday (as well as Zooey Deschanel’s) so she also has that going for her. Enjoy!
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[“French Navy” – Camera Obscura :: My Maudlin Career]
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[“Blood Bank” – Bon Iver :: Blood Bank]
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[“1901” – Phoenix :: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]
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[“Two Weeks” – Grizzly Bear :: Veckatimest]
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[“River” – Akron/Family :: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free]
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[“My Girls” – Animal Collective :: Merriweather Post Pavilion]
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[“Young Adult Friction” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart :: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart]
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[“Crystalised” – The xx :: xx]
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[“Funeral Singers” – Califone :: All My Friends Are Funeral Singers]
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[“Now We Can See” – The Thermals :: Now We Can See]
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[“Stillness is the Move” – Dirty Projectors :: Bitte Orca]
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[“Don’t Haunt This Place” – Rural Alberta Advantage :: Hometowns]
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[“Never Seen” – Lightning Dust :: Infinite Light]
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[“Home” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros :: Up From Below]
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[“Two” – The Antlers :: Hospice]
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[“My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille” – Beirut :: March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland]
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[“Marrow” – St Vincent :: Actor]
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[“Sleepyhead” – Passion Pit :: Manners]
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[“It Gets Your Body Movin'” – Suckers :: Suckers EP]
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 