I‘ve never been one for year-end lists – best-of, worst-of, etc. – but I had some enforced time for reflection last week courtesy of an ugly virus and realized that I did have a few favorite songs from 2009 that people out there might have missed.
Herewith, for your listening/viewing pleasure, the official “Four Songs That Mike Enjoyed In 2009 That You Might Not Have Heard On The Radio” list. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

This qualifies as maybe the biggest surprise of 2009: a band from France made a cool album. France!

I like this song because it’s got me walking around the grocery store singing “I should’ve taken acid with you”, which gets me strange looks in the produce section.

I think Metric’s “Fantasies” is my favorite album of 2009 (and I wonder whether 2009 will be the last year that I, or anyone else, will pick an entire favorite “album”). All of the songs are strong – this one just had the easiest video to find. Great roadtrip music – I’ll always associate this track with midnight on a two-lane road at the bottom of a 5,000-foot deep canyon, no one else around, under a full moon.

This album came out in 2008, but I didn’t hear it until this year, so there. I’ve always been a big fan of the fervent chorus, and this track has that in spades.