Best of 2009 now ready

Get Lucky: Steve’s Best of 2009: Disc 1

Welcome to my Best Of offerings web site. This is the ninth set I’ve produced since 2001. This year, I'm posting the liner notes included with my CDs here, so click on a song and see what comes up. If something strikes your fancy, please support the artist by buying the album or downloading a song or two from your favorite music store. Meanwhile . . .

Some songs just “feel” right, and “Soft Pedals” by the impressive Modern Skirts hooked me from first listen and leads things off . . . Montreal-based The Stills continues to put out the kinds of material that sounds fresh, yet they’ve been recording for about 10 years now. “Snow in California” is off the Oceans Will Rise album . . . First time I heard Mayer Hawthorne’s “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out,” I thought it was a remake of Eddie Kendricks or some other ‘70s R&B soul artist. But Mayer’s a 30-year-old white guy from Ann Arbor and a DJ and arranger in a former life. His debut album, A Strange Arrangement, is full of songs you’d swear you heard before, but they are all Mayer’s, and to me, the most listenable album of the year. . . . . It’s been awhile, but Toni Childs is back with a stunning album, Keep the Faith. “Dream That We Dream Of” will take you to another place and time . . . . You have to dig around some to find any info on Toronto-based The Dunes. But it’s worth the digging. Their second album, Subject to Change, is full of rock ballads and feel-good tunes, like “Thinking of You.” . . . The irrepressible Lily Allen was all over the place in the early parts of 2009. At first she may sound like a million other young Top 20 singers in the Britney Spears mold, but the difference is the irreverence and self-mockery of her lyrics, and of course the great hooks. “The Fear,” off It’s Not Me, It’s You is the best of a very good batch of tunes . . . . I loved “The Ghost in You” when the Psychedelic Furs did it in the early ‘80s and I really love the haunting play Duncan Shiek gives it here. Shiek’s score for the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening (which played in Sacramento in November) and his rendition of “Ghost” will really stay with you . . . Great seeing Chris Isaak out with a new album in 2009. We had the pleasure of seeing him from the second row at the Dixon May Fair. “We Lost Our Way” off Mr. Lucky is classic Isaac, plus I’m a sucker for songs with California references . . . Metric’s lead singer, Emily Haines, also works with Broken Social Scene on occasion, and Metric’s 2009 release, Fantasies has a BSS feel, but more dreamy, shown by “Collect Call” . . . I always look forward to anything new from the Raveonettes and 2009’s In and Out of Control didn’t disappoint. The album was filled with catchy tunes, and “Breaking Into Cars” really shows off the group’s trademark surf guitar sound . . Schuyler Fisk, the daughter of actress Sissy Spacek, was the show I didn’t get to see. Schuyler was slated to play with Ben Taylor at Sacramento’s Harlow’s nightclub, but was a last-minute no-show for unexplained reasons. Oh well, I loved her debut The Good Stuff, and especially “Who Am I to You” . . . You may recognize the voice of Dolores O’Riordan, but not the name. Dolores headed the 90s band, The Cranberries, who won fans with several one-word tunes (“Linger, Dreams, Zombie”) and on her second solo album, No Baggage, she scores with “Stupid” . . . New York’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (that is their name) hit the indie jackpot in 2009, on the strength of its debut album, A Teenager in Love. The band deserved the accolades. . . Y O U only had a five-song EP, The Long-Playing EP, to its credit in 2009 (the band’s third offering since 2005), but it was enough for me to hook onto “Going Down Swinging,” as good a underdog rally song as you’ll find . . . Mindy Smith consistently releases well-written, hook-laden pop songs that I can’t seem to ignore. There may be a million female singer-songwriters out there, but she always stands out. In 2009, she released Stupid Love, and I picked “Couldn’t Stand the Rain” out of a solid bunch . . . Camera Obscura teeters that fine line between today’s Indie pop and the girl-groups of the ‘60s, but it teeters it well, thanks to singer Tracyanne Campbell. My Maudlin Career was one of my favorites of the year, lead by “French Navy” . . . The Hermit has been putting out sporadic songs since the early 200s, but Turn Up (the Stereo) was my first exposure and I really liked what I heard, especially “Head Case,” which had some very Fleetwood Mac-ish harmonies . . . Hailing from Australia, Empire of the Sun’s Walking on a Dream featured a peppier, more danceable synth-pop version of the 70s Flash and the Pan. The album’s title track is included here . . . Closing out Disc 1 is the cool sound of AM’s “It’s Been So Long,” off Future Sons & Daughters. It’s a nice, mellow way to ease into Disc 2 . . .