My 2009 Playlist (thus far)

A lot of people have been asking me, “Dave, what’s the best album of the year?” and I gotta say, if you know me, I don’t judge until the end. I mean, I keep a quiet list in my head of good stuff, but I never really choose until I’m sitting down at my computer writing up the list. In fact, last year Vampire Weekend was my number one album until I sat down in a noisy Subaru dealership and realized just how great Atmosphere’s album was. But all of this aside, I won’t tell you what’s the best, but I will give you an idea of my favorite tracks of the year thus far. This is not in any order, it’s just a list of the songs that have held my attention for several plays...

1. Mos Def ft. Slick Rick-Auditorium
I’ve been talking about this track for the last week or two to people, but it’s been played a whole lot in said week. Up until The Ecstatic came out, I was against Mos, his last two albums were extremely disappointing, and his ego is completely out of whack. I saw him make a fool of himself on Bill Maher and remember just shaking my head in shame. But the new album is straight up classic Mos, and this track in particular shows that he still has a grasp of how to pull some strings to add credibility. Slick Rick hasn’t been “relevant” for a long time, but this track shows that unlike so many rappers that lose their lyrical game with age (Fat Joe, Snoop) he’s still got it and he’s not just glitzy chains and an eye patch. The beat is chill to the point of being haunting and the lyrics are nice.
2. The Cutoff Frequency-Danny pt. 2
Considering I know all of the members of this band very well, this song making the list shows something of its quality. I am a very harsh judge of local music, especially with people I’ve played with, and in the case of the Cutoff Frequency that’s every single member. But something about this song, the harmonies in the chorus, the synth line, it just hits the spot for me. And the mix is really dirty sounding, in a good way.
3. Eminem ft. Dr. Dre-Old Times Sake
Relapse is a lackluster album, if there is one thing I can forewarn you of my list for best of the year, it’s that unless #2 is a classic, Eminem won’t make it. But this song shows how good the album could’ve been. Granted the lyrics are hollow, but it’s Dre and Em showing they’ve still got the rhythm that made them so famous. I think this may be the closest we’ll get to the Eminem we all loved so much.
4. Kid Cudi ft. Ratatat and MGMT-Pursuit of Happiness
The first time I heard this track I thought it was pretentious, as I think Cudi’s ego exceeds his ability (my friend did sound for him and told me some horror stories) but the MGMT and Ratatat combo on this track really makes it. And I don’t dislike Kid Cudi, I like his slow moving delivery, he’s not trying to show you he’s the best lyricist in the game, because I think he’s aware he’s not. He’s more about cranking out decent jams that make you think for a little while. Ratatat’s signature sound just stinks up this track and it’s great.
5. Lily Allen-The Fear
By far the best pop track of the year. Lily is the anti-hero for pop music and that’s why I love her. Not only does she completely buy into the paparazzi, but she makes incredibly catchy, yet credible music. Since this is an early album I think a lot of critics will forget to put it on their lists, but it certainly deserves to be there.
6. Sneep Deepy ft. Mike Falzone-Better Than Me
I like hip-hop music. I like friends from my hometown. So this is a logical choice for this list. Mr. Deepy raps about things that are relevant to any CT townie, but at the same time speaks to people getting dirt from others who have no reason to lay it down. There’s a great line that where speaking on a beer pong game, he coldly taunts his opponent with, “Nice state school sweat shirt. You ain’t better than me.” DAMN!
7. RX Bandits- It’s Only Another Parsec...
Nice Star Wars reference first of all. Secondly this song rocks out hard. I was weary that without the horns RXB would lose their signature sound, but the sick nasty use of keyboards fills that void perfectly in this song. The heavy rocking of the tunes combined with the jam-friendly hands of guitarists Matt Embree and Steve Choi make this track a near perfect one of its genre.
8. Slaughterhouse-The One
Slaughterhouse is a “supergroup” of four underground emcee’s looking to break through to the mainstream, and this track is the one in which they tried the hardest. They spit about celebrities, drugs, alcohol and partying, but do it in a classy old school Slim Shady manner, showing that while they may talk smack, they are doing it intricately enough that you have to respect it. There’s a line where Royce Da 5’9” mentions old school icons Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osbourne, only to follow it up with witty lines about Keri Hilson and Paris Hilton. If only Joe Budden didn’t run his mouth and get knocked out by...
9. Raekwon ft. Inspektah Deck, Ghostface Killah and Method Man
At Rock The Bells in New York they were giving away free posters for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. II and I said to myself, “I’ll hang this up on my wall until the album comes out and if it’s good I’ll keep it up.” Little did I know just how good it would be. This track is reminiscent of classic Wu-Tang, the lyrics on point and the beat as kung fu influenced as you’d expect it to be. Awesome.
10. Mike Falzone & The Peppermint Trick-Leave a Little For the Fallout
I love Stratford CT’s king, Mike Falzone’s music, but in the past, I felt that it wasn’t complete. There was always something missing from it. On his album Fairview, it felt like the hip-hop beats were taking away from his songwriting, and on his next release Fun With Honesty, the music was there, but the band didn’t feel like it was truly a band of it’s own, rather an ensemble gathered to record the EP. On his newest release Do It For the Story, Falzone and new band The Peppermint Trick hit gold. This track is so well put together, it’s a great first track to the EP, and the layering of instruments into an extremely satisfying explosion of sound is awesome. The keyboards especially make me smile.
11. Spinal Tap-Stonehenge
The new Tap album is kind of pointless, a few new tracks and refreshed recordings of the old songs, most of which don’t sound as good as their originals. Stonehenge however, takes the greatness of the classic version and injects some modern ROCK into it. It’s the same song it once was, but it kicks so much harder now.
12. Dylan Connor- Breakaway and Burn
Wow, I love local music. Dylan Connor, the teacher by day, rock star by night, is somewhat comparable to Mike Falzone. On his last album Plug In, his songs were beautiful and well written, but they lacked the kick that would bring them up to classic level. On Breakaway Republic, his live band took to the studio and made this album, but specifically this track great. The way the slap bass smoothly layers in the chorus and the drums move the verse along is beautiful.
13. La Coka Nostra-That’s Coke
La Coka Nostra are a bunch of angry white middle-aged rappers who still grip onto their gangsta personas and pray that the public believes in them. The only catch is that it’s all entirely believable! They come off as scary dudes that seem like they may kill you. Made up of House of Pain (Everlast, DJ Lethal, Danny Boy O’Connor) and Ill Bill and Slaine, LCN are not afraid to scare you, but make you bob your head along for the ride.
14. Miley Cyrus-Party in the USA
If you consider the fact that a group of Disney pop songwriters crafted this song, tracked the instruments and came up with everything and then autotuned the hell out of Miley Cyrus’s voice, it’s really easy to get behind this track. It’s so catchy and the synth line in the chorus is awesome. Just put your hands up!
15. Drake ft. Lil’ Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem-Forever
Wow, what a lineup. I think this song blew “Swagga Like Us” out of the water. The beat is instantly memorable, the clichéd airhorns adding to the power of it. Lyrically it’s none of these guys’ best verses, but it’s certainly worth listening to. The best part is the beat under Wayne’s verse, it gets so dark. And this also proves how good Relapse could’ve been had Eminem tried.
16. Chickenfoot-Sexy Little Thing
Something about this supergroup made up of Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith screams, “Stay away, we’re pure cheese!” but anyone who knows me I will dive head first in! It’s awesome! It’s fun, mindless and catchy.

Now there are other albums I really like, and some of the tracks on this list are parts of a lesser whole, so don’t let this little mixtape give you assumptions of what’s number one or two or three!