2009: Top 20

Next, we'll start looking at 2008, but for now, here's another recap of the entire top 20 of 2009.

20. "Hottest In the Hood" - Red Cafe
19. "LoveGame" - Lady Gaga
18. "Move (If You Wanna)" - Mims
17. "Pretty Wings" - Maxwell
16. "Make Her Say" - Kid Cudi
15. "Party In The U.S.A." - Miley Cyrus
14. "Halo" - Beyonce
13. "Respect My Conglomerate" - Busta Rhymes
12. "So Easy" - Red Cafe
11. "Brooklyn Go Hard" - Jay-Z
10. "Sweet Dreams" - Beyonce
9. "Blame It" - Jamie Foxx
8. "Boom Boom Pow" - Black Eyed Peas
7. "I'm Ill" - Red Cafe
6. "Dead and Gone" - T.I.
5. "Amazing" - Kanye West
4. "Bulletproof" - La Roux
3. "Day N' Nite" - Kid Cudi
2. "Shine Blockas" - Big Boi
1. "Poker Face" - Lady Gaga

Artist of the Year: Lady Gaga, Red Cafe (tie)
Producer of the Year: Kanye West

2009: #1 - "Poker Face"

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Though it strangely nicks an old throwaway hit by an Eagle flying solo, the chorus to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" helped it both define and transcend late-00's "electro-pop". Right up there in stature with "Single Ladies", "Womanizer" and "Umbrella" - but better than all three combined because of its stunning chorus, cheeky double entendres and the unforgettable titular robo-hook - "Poker Face" was infectious and bombastic with a sly, modern sheen, both a throwback to the fearless melodies of 80's dance anthems and a look forward to the future of radio pop.

With "Poker Face", Lady Gaga took her place among the decade's pop greats, equaling and maybe surpassing any single by Beyonce, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, Ciara or Gwen Stefani. It even single-handedly made her more important than ex- and current "It Girls" Britney Spears and Rihanna, at least in our book. I don't know if she (or anyone) will ever recreate this kind of magic again, but it was trashy fun while it lasted.

2009: 20-2

Here's a recap of #'s 20 through 2. Tomorrow we'll post #1. First person who correctly guesses what it is will win a mix CD of the top 20 songs!

20. "Hottest In the Hood" - Red Cafe
19. "LoveGame" - Lady Gaga
18. "Move (If You Wanna)" - Mims
17. "Pretty Wings" - Maxwell
16. "Make Her Say" - Kid Cudi
15. "Party In The U.S.A." - Miley Cyrus
14. "Halo" - Beyonce
13. "Respect My Conglomerate" - Busta Rhymes
12. "So Easy" - Red Cafe
11. "Brooklyn Go Hard" - Jay-Z
10. "Sweet Dreams" - Beyonce
9. "Blame It" - Jamie Foxx
8. "Boom Boom Pow" - Black Eyed Peas
7. "I'm Ill" - Red Cafe
6. "Dead and Gone" - T.I.
5. "Amazing" - Kanye West
4. "Bulletproof" - La Roux
3. "Day N' Nite" - Kid Cudi
2. "Shine Blockas" - Big Boi

2009: #2 - "Shine Blockas"

Though the members of Outkast have been going for the jugular since the late 90's - they did weird, sprawling psych-funk on the epic album Aquemini, then tried big, noisy yet intricate pop on the equally sprawling but radio-ready epic Stankonia, then threw everything they could on the really really sprawling double album Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below - they can still be counted on for the effortless, laid back Southern rap anthems they used to do so well ("Southerplayalisticadillacmuzik", "ATLiens").

Case in point: Big Boi's latest single from Sir Luscious Left Foot, his first solo album, release date TDB (Seems any label in their right mind would want to put out an album containing this one, and last year's "Royal Flush", but we digress).

It can be difficult to describe why something that's so cool without being clever, so smooth without being obvious about it, and so well-orchestrated without being busy or trying too hard is so great. So, maybe we won't. Just click on the video (which looks like it cost about $700 to make) and listen to a quintessential 00's - lush, dense, and full of pitch-shifted samples - rap masterpiece.

2009: #3 - "Day N' Nite"

Someday I'll write a hip hop song, and it will sound something like Kid Cudi's "Day N' Nite". When this first came out, a couple friends (who I had constantly bugged about it until they listened and told me what they thought) commented that I probably liked it so much because it sounded like he made it at home in an hour. There's no samples or scratching, and he doesn't even really rap. To be honest, there's not much going on at all.

It works because it's atypical and weird but not inaccessible. At the same time, it's also very familiar sounding, without being retro and faux-"old school" like a lot of bad underground hip hop or neo-soul can be. Similar to something off Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak, it's a little spare sounding and minimal, but the drums are super crisp, all the synths are given the perfect breathing room, and the chorus rips, so it's definitely not underproduced.

I probably played this song more than any other except one in 2009. Before I figured out who sang it, I drove around, day and night, fiddling all over the radio dial just trying to hear it again somewhere, as my wife can attest to. I was obsessed.

2009: #4 - "Bulletproof"

Instinct would tell us that we'd hate this song, but for entirely different reasons than why we should hate, for example, "Party In The U.S.A.". We like the Miley song in spite of its cornball faux-earnestness and its obvious, empty chorus. On the other hand, we like "Bulletproof" in spite of its hipster retro attitude; its legitimate, yet still annoying, earnestness; and its overt and inferior copping of Yaz and Erasure (whom we love dearly, and also probably shouldn't, but that's a story for a later date).

What's good about it? The verses and instrumentation do rip Yaz, and not really in a good way, but the chorus is melodic enough to be considered a worthy successor to Erasure's godlike synth pop legacy. Maybe it won't stand the test of time like that band has, but La Roux certainly gave us something to sing along with, on repeat, in 2009.

2009: #5 - "Amazing"

"I'm a monster
I'm a killer
I know I'm wrong
I'm a problem
That'll never ever be solved"

Only Mr. Ego of the Decade of the Year could turn a barrage of self-pity around by using it as a way to boast about his own complexity. Kanye never ceases to amaze.

From virtually the start of the decade, Mr. West has owned our playlists, beginning with his production for Jay-Z, then really picking up steam in 2004 with the release of The College Dropout and never looking back. He got so good - not only in his own mind, but for real - that he felt he had conquered rap and released an album of Auto-Tuned electro-pop ballads. Amazing.

Believe it or not, 808s and Heartbreak was excellent, if a downer - in some ways it was the soundtrack to the winter of 2008/2009. Even relatively positive songs like "Amazing" are laced with self-doubt and defiance. The production itself defies standard rap fare, with perhaps its most distinct element being its tempo, a slow chug bolstered by minimal piano and the occasional grunt.

Grunts come courtesy of Young Jeezy and act as the instrumental trump card. We'll freely admit - we usually don't "get" Jeezy, but his appearance here really works, blowing through the track like a wheezing bullhorn of proud disaffection. When he bellows, "They like, 'Oh God, why you go so hard?'", you know he's only yelling because he's truly got something to prove.

2009: #6 - "Dead and Gone"

(Not the official video, sorry)

T.I. repents, mourns death and develops anger management skills, while (mostly) avoiding treacle and melodrama in this Justin Timbaland-produced smash.

Can a sentimental rap ballad produced by a former member of *NSYNC actually be any good? Actually, the fact that JT is not only guesting on, but producing, Southern hip hop hits shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. He's from Memphis after all. But this is, of course, no Three 6 Mafia song. The track is super radio-ready, and not surprisingly, very Timbaland-esque (think early-00's Ludacris or even Aaliyah, all heavy synths and syncopated beat boxing). As you will learn, we think Timbaland's sound is great, but JT manages to expand it a little in his own way, almost Max Martin-style. Like when the chorus slams in with full force after each verse, it kind of reminds us of something like "It's Gonna Be Me" or "Oops... I Did It Again".

But those songs, as great as they were, didn't feature the breathlessly nimble rhyming of a rap superstar at the top of his game, trying to bring pathos to a Southern hip hop style that desperately needs some. He's no Leonard Cohen, but in "Dead and Gone", T.I. adds some emotional depth to his great skill and Southern swagger. Combine that with the way it all builds into the near-epic chorus and middle-eight, and you have a powerful mainstream rap classic.

2009: #7 - "I'm Ill"

(Not an official video)

Call us suckers for 80's hip hop cliches, but we loved this Red Cafe track. Hard beat, sparse instrumentation, call and response hook? Check, check, check. It might have even sounded dated 20 years ago, but we don't care.

And it's built around a Jay-Z vocal sample (from a remix of Lil Wayne's "A Milli", which has it's own interesting history - see below). In the absence of anything from Jay in the top 10, this is the next best thing. It's everything we wished his "Jockin' Jay-Z" would have been. (FYI - that song sampled Run DMC, who probably would have thrown out the title "I'm Ill" for being too cliche, but oh well.)

The site Otherground Hip Hop actually has a much cooler, historically-angled write-up of this song. Despite the misspelling of "its" in the post title, it's an interesting read.

2009: #8 - "Boom Boom Pow"

Describing this song seriously almost made me quit doing this blog. It's barely a song. And it's BAD. Yet I love it so.

Why? Well, hardly anything about it, on its own, is good on any level, so talking about "Boom Boom Pow"'s merits, like I've done with every song so far, is impossible.

All the bad parts - nausea-inducing whirring sound, Casio-keyboard beat, batshit crazily shouted non-chorus, Auto-Tune where it's not at all necessary, that part where it's like "Hittin' on y'all with the BOOM BOOM!/Hittin on y'all with the [kick drum] [kick drum]!", those effects at the end that sound like they're feeding back on each other, and that infamous and inexplicably beloved threat, "I'm so 3008/You're so two-thousand-and-late!" - just pile up and up on top of one other until you have this perfect shitstorm of aural diarrhea coming out of your car stereo.

Did anything else in 2009 sound like that?

2009: #9 - "Blame It On The Alcohol"

Despite the supposed "death of Auto-Tune" in 2009 - see the mediocre performance of T-Pain's solo album Thr33 Ringz and its accompanying singles, Jay-Z's very mediocre anti-pitch correction single "D.O.A." where he proclaims its death - the most infectious single of early 2009 was one of the most glorious Auto-Tuned messes known to man. Even the synths were pitch-shifted - and it was awesome.

"Blame It On The Alcohol" sounded like a novelty at first, Jamie Foxx's shameless attempt at a hip-hop megahit, a smart move since no one was really buying into his limp attempts at soul and R&B. He even had a guest verse from T-Pain, once a guarantee for chart success, now a clear indication of desperation.

In spite of everything working against it, the stuttering, effect-laden vocal hooks ("Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol/Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol") made it extremely catchy. And the song's outright silliness couldn't even drag it into forgettable novelty territory, simply because Jamie Foxx takes himself way too seriously. You weren't sure if this song was a joke or not, and that's what made it intriguing.

But the video is awful.

2009: #10 - "Sweet Dreams"

When we first heard this song, we thought it sounded too much like Rihanna. It still kind of does, but only Beyonce can get away with ripping off the sound of a (slightly) lesser, younger pop star and making it better. And based on her latest album, it's safe to say Rihanna won't top this any time soon either.

Like last year's "Single Ladies", this is spare and minimalist-sounding electro-pop that somehow also manages to blow you away with huge chorus hooks and beefy beats. But instead of all those crazy keyboard stabs that screech all over the stuttering, stomping "Single Ladies", you get this thick, slick early 80's bassline that propels "Sweet Dreams" into more icy, menacing and, dare we say, dreamlike territory.

2009: 20-11

20. "Hottest In the Hood" - Red Cafe
19. "LoveGame" - Lady Gaga
18. "Move (If You Wanna)" - Mims
17. "Pretty Wings" - Maxwell
16. "Make Her Say" - Kid Cudi
15. "Party In The U.S.A." - Miley Cyrus
14. "Halo" - Beyonce
13. "Respect My Conglomerate" - Busta Rhymes
12. "So Easy" - Red Cafe
11. "Brooklyn We Go Hard" - Jay-Z

As unexpected as it was for this year's chart to have an appearance from annoying, would-be one-hit wonder Mims; moderately successful comebacks from some second tier 90's stars (Maxwell, Busta Rhymes); some actual promising new rap artists not named Kanye West or T.I. (Red Cafe, Kid Cudi); and NO SONGS from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 ("Brooklyn We Go Hard" came off the Notorious soundtrack), perhaps the most surprising thing on our list is the #15 showing of Miley Cyrus, whose singles output up until now has been absolutely terrible.

And while her voice still sounds excruciatingly like Auto-tuned fingernails on a chalkboard, "Party In The U.S.A." was cute, sort of fun and even catchy at times. Without those adorable keyboard squirts in the chorus, it might not have made this list, but fortunately for all of us, they're there. Sure it's corny, but it beats "The Climb". Let's keep up the good work next decade, okay Miss Montana?

My point is...

We're going to be going through the 200 or so best songs of the decade, or the top 20 songs of each year from 2000 to 2009. Then we'd like to expand to a retrospective of the 30 years of our lives (1980-2009), but we'll see how this decade goes first.

First up is 2009...