The 13 ditties that have tickled the T-dawg’s fancy the most throughout 2009.

1.Real Estate
Suburban Beverage

“A mere six word refrain is all that this six minute
song comprises, and yet, whenever I hear that
simple, moreish bass line roll in, a gloriously dumb
smile is slapped right across my silly phizog.
‘Budweiser, Sprite, do you feel alright?’ enquires the singer.
And, when he’s through, we have a guitar coda
that swirls like a youth giddy on one too many
mid-summer Tom Collinses,
and is nothing less than very heaven.
Endlessly, endlessly enjoyable. “ The Big T

2. The Felice Brothers
Her Eyes Dart Round

For The Future Mrs. Thropplenoggin

“One day, a greater man than I will pen an essay
on this song and its performance here,
on the raggedy perfection contained therein,
on the wonderful suggestiveness of
‘but the room in the back is quiet and black’,
and the sublime juxtaposition of song and setting.” The Big T

3. Animal Collective
My Girls

“As I have yet to produce Thropprogeny, it is impossibly
to fully appreciate the patriarchal sentiment weaved within
this ditty’s persuasive rhythms. And yet, its tribal yelps
induce misty-eyed remembrance of many a campaign
off Africa’s little-known Cape of Good Grope.
Needless to say, I always packed a Horn of Plenty.” The Big T

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4. Real Estate
Pool Swimmers

‘O snail

Climb Mount Fuji

But slowly, slowly!’ Issa

“A multitude of melodies uncoil at a snail’s pace,
doing so with gorgeous looseness on this early E.P. version,
something the more polished album variant lacks.
Warm your wintry bones on this
encapsulation of summertime.” The Big T

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5. Animal Collective
Brother Sport

“Although it tests one’s patience to the limit in the middle ‘Ravey Davey Gravy’
section, the coda’s pay-off is ultimately worth it. This ditty came second in the
‘Best Start To A Song’ category, which means the first must be truly exceptional;
fear not, gentle reader, it is. ” The Big T

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6. Atlas Sound
Shelia

“Not, as first appears, a dyslexic cover of ‘Sheila Take A Bow‘
but rather an ode to a funeral pact, that sounds
anything but funereal.” The Big T

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7.Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down
Know Better Learn Faster

“The Thrifty 13 sets phasers to ‘Oof!’ from hereon in.
No, having been sufficiently sated on moping dirges,
it’s high time I upped the ‘cojones’ element melodically and put the
‘pop’ back in Thropplenoggin (well, if one anagrammatises it).
This filly is feisty, Feist-y, sultry, sassy, and is accompanied here by Andrew Bird,
fiddling like a Bangkok hooker when the Navy’s in town.
If this doesn’t make you swing your hips, then you’re probably dead.” The Big T

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8.Ah Holly Fam’ly
Young Veins

“The most pleasing two-part-and-two-gender harmony
of the year. If Albrecht Dürer had used notes instead of
stipple gravers, this could well be his Melencolia I.
“Sir, I fear you are overegging its brilliance somewhat!”
I hear you exclaim. Listen, and prepare to stand corrected.” The Big T

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9. Bill Callahan
Jim Cain

“‘I ended up in search of ordinary things,
like how can a wave possibly be?’
Ah, if only Messrs. Camus & Sartre had weaved their existential crises
into pop songs as adroit as this one.
Lyrically impeccable and open to multiple interpretations,
verily, the @rejecter of the Thrifty 13.” The Big T

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10. Atlas Sound
Criminals

“‘You think that I don’t know’
sings Bradford Cox, an unlikely successor to Brian Wilson,
but hearing the above line sung – doused as it is
in a polyphony whose gorgeousness is manifold -
you’ll probably agree with Ye Olde T-dawg.
Boswell inevitably puts it better: you will be
‘…elevated as if brought into another state of being.’ The Big T

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11. Grizzly Bear
All We Ask

“‘I can’t get out of what I’m into with you‘ croons
the singer during the coda of this popular beat combo’s
chamber pop ballad. Thus is it with myself and the nigh-mythical
well-cushioned wench, her of the behemoth buttocks, Ghetto Booty.
This song almost irks me with its bombast, but the shifts in tempo
and that moreish coda sealed its fate as being worthy
of the Thrifty 13.” The Big T

12.Bibio
Lovers’ Carvings

“As a self-syled (and self-credentialled) ‘ethnosexographer to the stars’
Lovers’ Carvings are as familiar to me as a pair of Harris tweed breeks.
This song aims to invert the proverb, killing one bird
with two differingly melodious stones:
the first sounds like Boards of Canada covering ‘Camberwick Green‘
(hit that link’s 0.40 second mark for children’s TV’s aural equivalent of ‘Albatross’);
the second comes doused in cunnyLingala, that’s Soukous-y guitar licks.
I daresay I’m not wrong.’ The Big T

13.The Rest
The Lady Vanishes

“Many’s the time I’ve been a-wooing a filly, such as
the well-upholstered wench, Ghetto Booty, only to find
she’s hotfooted it to the ladies to ‘powder her nose’,
to never be heard of from again. Oh, how the ladies vanish!
Melody-mongers The Rest appropriate this idea
in their epic ballad. The guitars chug, the vocals pine
and, happily, it all stays the right side of winsome.
Verily,  your foot will tap to the tempestuous tempo.” The Big T

Tags: Ah Holly Fam'ly, All We Ask, Animal Collective, Atlas Sound, Bibio, Big T, Bill Callahan, Brother Sport, Camberwick Green, Criminals, Grizzly Bear, Her Eyes Dart Round, Issa, Jim Cain, Know Better Learn Faster, Lovers' Carvings, My Girls, Pool Swimmers, Real Estate, Shelia, Suburban Beverage, Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down, The Lady Vanishes, The Rest, Thrifty 13, Thropplenoggin, Young Veins