2009/2010 folk/pop/rock favourites

[vaneramos]

Here is a list of my favourite new non-Classical songs. I haven't done anything like this in a while, so it also covers two years. Links lead to YouTube, mostly official videos.

1. Charlie Winston: In Your Hands. The frantic rhythm, driving instrumentation, compelling story and Winston's vocal intensity grip me every time. The video is excellent, too.
2. Basia Bulat: Run. The link shows a live studio performance with piano, backup vocal, viola and percussion. It is close to the version that caught my breath first time I heard it on the radio. Bulat's yearning lyrics, swift-flowing tempos and lush folk instrumentation are captivating. The album, Heart Of My Own, which was long-listed for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize, is consistently memorable.
3. K'naan: Fatima. This radiant, devastating song tells a true story from the rapper's childhood in Mogadishu.
4. U2: Moment Of Surrender. This will be old news to most by now, but I can't talk about 2009 without mentioning the inestimable album, No Line On the Horizon. This song left the most powerful impression on me.
5. Hawksley Workman: Warhol's Portrait of Gretsky. Now for some comic relief. There really is such a painting. Google it and gaze into Gretsky's eyes as you listen to the brilliant lyrics (the Youtube link is just an audio track). It will make your day.
6. A Fine Frenzy: What I Wouldn't Do (lyrics video). This is a sentimental, upbeat song to play when you need cheering up, but there is a sting in the final verse.
7. Coco Love Alcorn: Revolution (live performance). This takes the prize for an intelligent revolutionary message: "Black is the colour of the good rich soil we sow with greed/Red is the colour of the ink we use to buy for free/Grey is the colour of the manifest destiny/Green is the colour of the old growth shade I long to see."
8. A Fine Frenzy: Blow Away (official video, cute but cheesy). Another selection from the same album, Bomb in a Birdcage, and another feel-good indulgence.
9. Charlotte Gainsbourg: Heaven Can Wait. This falls on the darker side, with a disturbingly funny video.