R&P: Let's decide -- What are the best songs of 2009 (Round 1 - Part 18)?

Haha, we're ALMOST HALFWAY DONE.....with one round. That's alright, this is enjoyable.

MATCH UP 1: "The Sun Is Down" by Yoko Ono...

Yagh, that Wavves song was almost unlistenable. It reminds me of when you hear a song you like on the radio but you only barely just get that station, so you sit there trying to not hear the static and only focus on the song, but in the end you're like "Ah screw this" and end up changing the station. I liked the little beep-bloops on that Yoko Ono song and I thought it was the better song, but it'll never be a favorite.

MATCH UP 2: "You Dissolve" by The Thermals

I've heard a lot about Animal Collective and apparently they're either genius or crap but I've resisted trying to find out for myself. That made me feel fairly nauseous. The other song seemed good.

MATCH UP 3: "Come Monday Night" by Stuart Murdoch

The Modest Mouse song wasn't terrible, but not really appealing to me. The other song reminded me of these old black and white videos we watched online from the 50s about proper etiquette and reporting homosexuals and stuff like that, but in a pleasant way if that makes sense? I liked it somehow.

MATCH UP 4: "French Navy" by Camera Obscure

Didn't particularly care for either but this one I wouldn't turn off if I was listening to the radio at least.

MATCH UP 5: "Generosity" by Micah

I really dug that O'Rourke song, it reminds me of that TV show I used to watch when I was younger, Little Bear (granted I watched that until I was about 10). I used to love that show. It was nice and nothing bad ever happened. That's how the song made me feel. However, I really enjoyed the other song as well - no particular memory or feeling associated with it, I just liked it a lot. Close call, this one.

No Hope Kids by Wavves

I like the Yoko. I would rather have the Yoko shrieking than the Yoko sex sounds but I'm mature and we all make them so that isn't the reason I'm voting for the other. I just really like the Wavves. It's something I'd probably have in heavy rotation if I had it. So, I guess I'll be getting it.

You Dissolve by The Thermals

Maybe against a different song On a Highway would've been more appealing to me. I really enjoyed You Dissolve and I think that I might have know those kids in the video when I was 12 or 13.

"Come Monday Night" by Stuart Murdoch

I think this song is great. It sounds kind of Ye-ye. The Modest Mouse is a repetitive drone.

I Knew by Lightning Dust

Sophie's choice.

The Visitor" by Jim O'Rourke

The other one seems meh.

Attendance is NOT dwindling.. rather your audience is becoming more "selective" and yet, no less passionate towards 6your terrific efforts and i say Ten answers, not so bad..

No Hope Kids by Wavves

though i would ordinarily never pass up a golden opportunity to show my Yoko Love..

You Dissolve by The Thermals

fantastic

"Come Monday Night" by Stuart Murdoch

terrific

I Knew by Lightning Dust

awesome

The Visitor" by Jim O'Rourke

certainly triumphs over the other selection

all the best and we remain with you until the end..

thank you and miss you.. I wish I could tell you what I know you already know..

Hey Radio.

Yeah, sorry for the decreased attendance. Maybe it was just a bad week. Hopefully it will pick back up.

1. Well in the first battle. I like the Wavves song. Nice little tune.

The Yoko Ono tune was alright. Not so much my cup of tea, but I'm into it.

Wavves - No Hope Kids

2. I liked the Thermals track, actually grabbed the song from iTunes. Good one. I couldn't get into the Animal Collective track at all really. Just not my thing I guess.

the Thermals - You Dissolve

3. I hate to go against Stuart Murdoch (I actually was completely unaware that he had made a solo record), but I just liked the Modest Mouse tune better. Nice throwback MM tune.

Modest Mouse - Autumn Beds

4. You know I've always meant to look into Camera Obscura but to date I haven't really gotten around to it. I can definitely see the B&S comparison. I like the song. Really nice. Another one where I don't know if it gets me to the record store with an open wallet, but I like it.

I like this Lightning Dust thing too. Neat tune. Kind of in the spirit of a Tapes N Tapes, but more synthy thing (in a sort of begging for a comparison kind of way). Good, close match-up. As I've said in other answers, I don't doubt that hearing the Lightning Dust song second may have swayed my vote a little. I may have to look further into both of these acts.

Lightning Dust - I Knew

5. Kind of hard to really judge it at an extract, but I did like what I heard. Reminds me of some of the Loose Fur stuff he was doing with Jeff Tweedy in a vibe sense. Nice.

Well, I checked out the studio cut and I'm kind of torn here. I definitely liked the snippet of the Jim O'Rourke tune better, but in projecting it out to a half hour it's kind of tough. I thought the Mirah song wasn't bad. There were things about it that I liked about it, but there wasn't much that I found to be that special about it. I guess in the end I'll let the faith that I have developed in JO'R carry it the rest of the way. The more I think about it the more I wasn't really into the Mirah tune.

Jim O'Rourke - the Visitor

1. That song by Wavves or whatever was okay. We just heard from them right? Not halfbad as far as Yoko goes.

No Hope Kids.

2. I used to be able to do that trick from :16 - :22. Actually I used to be able to do a lot of that stuff. Once again, I fail to grasp the appeal of Animal Collective.

You Dissolve.

3. Come Monday Night.

4. You could have told me these songs were the same band and I wouldn't have thought twice.

French Navy.

5. The Visitor.

No Hope Kids - Wawes

On A Highway - Animal Collective

Autumn Beds - Modest Mouse

I Knew - Lightning Dust

The Visitor - Jim O'Rourke

Wavves vs. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band

Well, Wavves just isn't my thing. I liked "No Hope Kids" better than the last song by them, but it just didn't catch me. And it was really short. For the Yoko Ono tune, though, I felt like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. it wasn't minimalistic enough to be cool in that sense, not abstract enough to be cool in a "musique concrète" sense, and had too much of those two to be cool in a dancy sort of way. And I could have done without the sex noises. I'll go with "No Hope Kids"

The Thermals vs. Animal Collective

The piece of the Thermals song was pretty "whatever" in my book. maybe the whole song would have been more moving, but I didn't really see it happening. And this Animal Collective song suffers from the same problem I have with most of their material: it really doesn't go anywhere, it just kind of noodles around for a while, then dies. It might sound kind of cool while you're listening to to it, but when it's over, I don't find myself any better off for listening to it. it was a little more enjoyable than the other one, though. "On a Highway"

Modest Mouse vs. Stuart Murdoch

"Autumn Beds" is yet another song that suffers in my mind from being too vocal-centric. There were a couple other interesting parts to this one, but it still seems so much like every other part of the song is just there to accompany the vocal, rather than the vocal performance being just a part of the whole.I guess I just don't like that approach most of the time. "Come Monday Night" was also pretty vocal-centric, though I liked it a little better.

Camera Obscura vs. Lightning Dust

French Navy was a little uninteresting to my taste, aside from the bridge, which was pretty cool. Overall, I think I liked "I knew" a little better.

Jim O'Rourke vs. Mirah

The Jim O'Rourke piece was thoroughly interesting, though not really to my taste. On a side note, the panning in the video had a pretty cool (if probably unintentional) effect. the way it scrolled slowly meant that you figured it out little by little, and looked like completely different things at different times. The Mirah one was kind of cool, but the vocals were far too present in the mix for my taste. I'll go with "The Visitor".

MATCH UP 1

No Hope Kids by Wavves

MATCH UP 2

On a Highway by Animal Collective

MATCH UP 3

Autumn Beds by Modest Mouse

MATCH UP 4

I Knew by Lightning Dust

MATCH UP 5

"The Visitor" by Jim O'Rourke

No Hope Kids

On a Highway

Autumn Beds

I Knew

The Visitor

No Hope Kids

On a Highway

Autumn Beds

I Knew

Generosity