NPR Music - Our No. 1 songs: 2009

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

We enter the stomp-clap era as we look back at our number one songs from 2009.Note: This is a recurring feature in celebration of the show's 25th anniversary. A shorter version of this episode ran earlier in the year.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You are listening to all songs considered. I'm Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson, here. Hello, Robin. So we're talking about our number one songs from each of the past 25 years. It's part of the show's quarter century anniversary. This week, we're up to 2009. And, you know, Stephen, I still laugh when I think about how we thought we were going to do this in a single show all 25 years. We're just going to sit down and knock out 25 years of music.

As long as you pick one 20, of a song for each year. I mean, we're not even playing full songs, but I, you know, I thought, and maybe it'll be a little long. Oh, but what folly that was, because we're only up to 2009 now. And we're kind of doing this as a name that tune. You know, we're trying to surprise each other with our picks here. What's the first thing that you think of when you think music in 2009?

I'm glad you asked, what do you think of when you think of music in 2009? Because I thought you were going to be like, what's the first thing you think of when you think of the year 2009? What is the first thing you think of when you think of 2009? I was thinking because I got divorced in 2010. And so I think of 2009 as like, we are in the best economy since 1928. Oh, gosh, that was a terrible time. Now that you mentioned it, I was totally underwater.

So happy to remind you. Yeah, I was totally underwater in my house. And I had to sell it. I had to cut a check to the buyer. I had to pay them. Anyway, we digress. Anyway, we digress. You'd probably like me to play a song. To me, this represents 2009.

Let's do it, yeah. Oh, yeah. Home. Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros? Very good. So I think this is kind of a perfect pick for 2009. It really speaks to that time. It maybe hasn't aged as well as we thought it might.

It had a real backlash this summer, you know, when it kind of blew up on TikTok and online. There's this kind of had kind of a bad viral moment where people were saying it was the worst song ever. But I think it's kind of an easy target because this song is just so earnest. No, absolutely. And listening back to it now, there is this element. I mean, part of it is you played the part of the song where it's like, holy moly me, oh, my. And I'm like, oh, this is so cloying. Yeah, totally.

But at the same time, all of my resistances fall away. This is a very sweet song. And to have this shambles come in really special. spoke to me in 2009. Yeah, and they brought that to the tiny desk as well. Such a classic. It really is. And it makes me think, you know, as we've gone through all these years, we have been reminded

of trends and things like that, as you mentioned, the Stomp Clap. There was a real arc to that as well that I think was dictated in no small part, there's lots of things, but dictated in no small part by the punishing economics of touring with 27 people in your band or whatever, because that all began to, you know, it kind of peaked, and then it started to fade away where you didn't get all the stomp-clap bands anymore just because... Just the economics of paying four drummers. Right. And just moving people around and, you know.

So we did a version of this show, an anniversary show, in 2016, for all songs considered Sweet 16. I've mentioned that as along the way here as we've been doing this. And the song that we picked for 2016 was Grizzly Bears two weeks, which I think... That's a pretty great pick. But I'm going to go with my personal favorite from 2009, and I think you might know what this is. All right. Are you stuck?

It's beautiful. Is this alluvium? Oh, no, that's a good guess, though. Oh, is this Antlers? Yeah. Okay. That incredible voice belongs to Peter Silberman. If you remember him.

Yes, this album from the Antlers called Hospice that came out in 2009, and this is the song Kettering from it. It was a feel-good rock. It really was. For the whole family. It's just a devastating album about this, a woman who's dying of bone cancer and she's in hospice. And Peter Silberman has been, you know,

he was very reluctant at the time to talk about how autobiographical the album was. But, you know, he did say that it was based at least in part on things that did happen in his life and in his relationships. And this album, it just wrecked me in all the best ways. and I still reach for it every now and then. It is all emotion. Yeah. It's very beautiful, but it is like, it's going for your tear ducts.

It's not messing around. Yeah. And it's not, it sounds beautiful, but it's, there's a rawness to it that I really appreciate. And when I kind of scan through, what were my favorite, what was my favorite album of 2009? It was this record called the First Day of Spring by Noah and the Whale. Oh, yeah. Beautiful record. But it is like, that is a heartbreak record.

That's a concept album about a break. up. And not to knock grizzly bear. But like for me, grizzly bear is a great band that always left me cold. Yeah. And like those guys are still out there doing great work. They're doing film scores and they're incredible. Yeah. Like it's not a knock on grizzly bear at all. But like, I didn't feel like I had really the language to speak about it. Yeah. Compared to to what we're talking about with Edward Sharp and the antlers, two very different bands that are still like going for like an emotional big swing. Yeah. Okay, we got to take a quick break here, but we'll have more songs and memories from 2009 when we come back.

So we originally did these conversations as little segments that ran at the end of every regular episode, you know, every week all through the spring and summer. And we're breaking them out now and expanding them. And, you know, for those shorter segments, we really only played two songs on each episode, which is, I mean, it's pretty impossible to give much of a pitch. picture of any given year with just two songs. Yeah, there is no way to be comprehensive about an entire calendar year, especially when we're squeezing out about

50 different genres. I know. But you must have, if you want to just rattle off a few others from that year that stand out to you. Oh, my gosh. Well, I mentioned Noah and the Whale. This was, 2009 was one of my love affair with the band, Y, Oak. Oh, yeah, yeah.

It began, what, a great band. Swell season put out a gorgeous record in 2009. Nico Case put out a phenomenal record in 2009. Yeah, tons and tons of stuff. I mean, again, like, I don't even know, oh my God, the thermals. Oh, yeah. Wow.

The thermals had a string of, you could drop many different calendar years and find a great record by the thermals. Well, this record, the one they had in 2009 was called, now we can see the song I think you loved most was this one we're hearing called When We Were Alive. I remember you did that, I think, as a song of the day when it came out. There was also, in 2009, there was also that solo album, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, had that solo album that year called Yours Truly, The Commuter, and it had that song, Ghost of My Old Dog.

I mean, he's just thinking about the dog that he had. I mean, his girlfriend or partner, whoever is, like, berating him, and he's just kind of drifting away. He just is just thinking about the dog that he loved and, you know, that has since died. It just, it still gets me. What an incredible storyteller, too. But what else from 2009? There was the Fever Ray album, their self-titled debut. Also, another debut album came out that year.

It had that song, If I Had a Heart. I think it's probably their biggest hit. Oh, sure. I think maybe their most popular song, if I had a harp from Fever Ray. Also in 2009. Laura Gibson? Beasts of Seasons was 2009. We've already been talking about.

Sharon Venetton had a big record that year. Yeah, you know, that's funny. I guess I think of that as 2008, but I guess it was her debut, also a debut album. I think it was, maybe she self-released it in 2008. I don't remember, I think it, but it had its official release in 2009. Yeah, the album, because I was in love. And that opening song, I think, is the one, I wish I knew.

And what a journey she's had. I mean, her new album out this year, under the name Sharon Van Etton and The Attachment Theory, could not be more different. But the number one song that I was going to pick for 2009, I guess this was my alternate number one for 2009 from Pham Farlow, the song I'm a Pilot, the opening cut from Reservoir. You're sleeping in, you'll see me on through all the other soul's start. I think I mentioned in the 2008 episode I was going to pick a stomp clap cut for for 2000.

Great stomping clap, man. And a really lovely tiny desk. But we'll go out on this and until next time. Thanks, Stephen. Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.