Best Canadian Songs of 2009

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    2009 was another typically diverse year for Canadian music, with standout songs running the gamut from spooky blues and booty beats to post-hardcore screamo and heart-pounding electro. Even our rap stars ranged from promoting perseverance to declaring ambivalence.

    But what these songs have in common is an innate greatness that should see them remain in playlists well into the next year, if not decade. Here's our list of the ten best Canadian songs of 2009.

    10. Thunderheist, 'LBG'

    With sparkling disco synths bouncing off a menacing analogue bassline and robo-clap beat, Isis proudly dubs herself the "black Kate Moss," attacks pop music's ass stereotyping and drops a dancefloor instructional for her fellow little booty girls.


    9. k-os, 'I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman'

    Genre-mashing MC k-os teams up with Saukrates and Nelly Furtado, samples 'The OC' theme (Phantom Planet's 'California') and uses the song title to score a date with Queen Amidala. Also, it's a love letter to America. Or something. Catchy as hell, though.



    8. Great Lake Swimmers, 'Pulling on a Line'

    Yet again Tony Dekker manages to make age-old folk-rock sound fresh thanks to his world-weary vocals, waterlogged lyrics and typically impeccable instrumentation on this ethereal single, which proceeds as slowly and powerfully as the tide.



    7. Alexisonfire, 'Young Cardinals'

    Heavy as ever but now with more on their minds than shreding vocal chords, 'Young Cardinals' takes the St. Catherines-born screamo stars in a bold new direction. Don't believe the title -- this ornithological anthem is the sound of Alexisonfire growing up.



    6. Timber Timbre, 'Lay Down in the Tall Grass'

    Taylor Kirk's black-hearted roots music doesn't get much more macabre than on this raw, spectral blues ballad. With organ keeping time alongside a slow drum shuffle and occasional reverb-drenched guitar, Kirk moans about grave-digging, choking children and zombie love.



    5. Drake, 'Successful'

    The former child star has been mobbed by enough 'Degrassi' fans in his day to be familiar with fame and its fallout. So even though 'Successful' seems like any other aspirational rap song, that melancholy beat and ambivalent "I suppose" reveal Drake has a head and a heart beneath the hype.



    4. Japandroids, 'Young Hearts Spark Fire'

    Noise-rock duos may seem dime-a-dozen these days, but few bother to write an actual song underneath their noise -- not so Vancouver breakout band Japandroids, whose fear of aging -- "we used to dream / now we worry about dying" -- inspired a song as emotional as it is loud.




    3. K'Naan, 'Wavin' Flag'
    "Out of the darkness, I came the farthest," raps K'naan, using his own Mogadishu memories for the foundation of this rousing people-power sing-along that decries Africa's exploitation and celebrates its struggle. No wonder 'Flag' is the official anthem for next summer's World Cup in South Africa.



    2. Handsome Furs, 'Talking Hotel Arbat Blues'

    It wasn't easy picking the best song off the Furs' brilliant 'Face Control' album, but with its wailing guitars, electronic handclaps and Dan Boekner wide-eyed realization that "every little thing's been bought and sold," this post-Soviet single is like the greatest electro-punk song Springsteen never sang.



    1.     Metric, 'Help I'm Alive'

    Opening with a guitar crunch, double-time drumbeat and an admission of vulnerability ("they're gonna eat me alive"), 'Help' soon picks itself up and goes for broke. Emily Haines' synths swell, Jimmy Shaw's guitars chime and as the song grows into an electro-pop epic, Metric steadfastly refuse to stumble.



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