Here is the list of the year’s best 25 songs, as voted on by NPR listeners (All Songs Considered). You can listen to the songs at the link below, and you can also download a free podcast with the full-length version of each of the songs from either the link below or iTunes (go to podcasts, search for "all songs considered").

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=121103815

Format:
Start time on podcast, Band: Album, Song

01. 1:49:10 Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest, Two Weeks
02. 1:43:14 Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion, My Girls
03. 1:38:47 Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Lisztomania
04. 1:35:04 Neko Case: Middle Cyclone, This Tornado Loves You
05. 1:30:20 Andrew Bird: Noble Beast, Oh No
06. 1:26:45 The Decemberists: Hazards Of Love, The Rake’s Song
07. 1:23:35 Wilco: Wilco (The Album), Wilco (The Song)
08. 1:18:31 Bon Iver: Blood Bank, Blood Bank
09. 1:13:14 The Avett Brothers: I And Love And You, I And Love And You
10. 1:08:39 St. Vincent: Actor, The Strangers
11. 1:03:58 Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!, Zero
12. 0.59:52 Regina Spektor: Far, Eet
13. 0:56:10 M. Ward: Hold Time, Stars of Leo
14. 0:53:25 The Swell Season: Strict Joy, Feeling the Pull
15. 0:50:16 Monsters Of Folk: Monsters of Folk, Say Please
16. 0:44:36 The Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca, Stillness Is The Move
17. 0:41:26Passion Pit: Manners, Sleepyhead
18. 0:30:44 Various: Dark Was The Night, You Are the Blood
19. 0:27:04 Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career, French Navy
20. 0:22:18 Metric: Fantasies, Sick Muse
21. 0:18:22 Beirut: March of the Zapotec, The Shrew
22. 0:15:00 The xx: XX, VCR
23. 0:10:23 Bat For Lashes: Two Suns, Daniel
24. 0:04:51 Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Up From Below, Home
25. 0:00:22 Modest Mouse: No One's First And You're Next, Satellite Skin

NPR: Radio for Hipsters

Completely agree. A bit pretentious? Nahhhh...

No disrespect to anyone who listens to 'Grizzly Bear' or 'Animal Collective' but when I sample their music at various places (to understand the fascination all these outlets have with them,) the picture that always comes to mind is a group of late teens/early 20-somethings sitting Indian style in their dorm room apartment in front of a stereo, smoking a fat reefer and muttering, "right on, man" a lot...

Man, it took 3 hours for the music snobs to show up. You guys are slipping.

That is a pretty damn fantastic list of tunes. There a few I don't care for, but mostly it's how I'll remember 2009. And for anyone calling that a list for hipsters, I'd prefer to think you have your head buried in the sand. If these songs were played on the radio more it wouldn't be "hipster" music. It just happens to be better.

Animal Collective is pretty inaccessible, but Grizzly Bear...? I'm not an overwhelmingly huge fan of theirs or anything, but their music is nothing out of left field. I think they have enough of a chance to creep through into the mainstream that there'll be a backlash at some point. (Playing with Jay-Z and stuff, there probably has been a backlash and I just wasn't paying attention.)

It's not a pretentious list. If anything, it's kind of unimaginative. It actually looks like someone just took a peek at a few CMJ charts and cribbed the higher charting bands (although I do really like several of 'em).

I'm very happy to see St. Vincent on the list.

Agree. I only saw two concerts all year and one was St. Vincent. Incredible live.

Here are what I think are the best songs off of the list but like I said in the first post, download the podcast and you can listen to full length versions of all of the songs with minimal commentary.

24. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Up From Below, Home
04. Neko Case: Middle Cyclone, This Tornado Loves You
06. The Decemberists: Hazards Of Love, The Rake’s Song
05. Andrew Bird: Noble Beast, Oh No
10. St. Vincent: Actor, The Strangers

Edit: I went back and listened to the St. Vincent song, I remember it well but didn't put the song / artist together in my head. I'll put that at number 5 of my favorites from the list.

I'm driving to Kansas in February to see St. Vincent. I'm very excited about it.

I've never heard of any of those bands....

I've heard of a couple of them, but never heard their music.

Here's a direct link to the podcast:
http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/n...eshow.mp3?dl=1

a bunch of hipster crap. Hell the only song I've heard on that list (and its not even my fave song on that album) is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song

Andrew Bird is an artist I had never heard of whose album I bought when it was the MP3 album of the day. I really liked it. Grizzley Bear was also like that, though I'm not as fond of them. That's one nice thing about that Amazon promo, it makes music cheap enough that you can essentially "blind buy" and get exposed to some new stuff you'd otherwise miss out on.

So you've never heard of it, but you're immediately dismissing it all as "hipster crap"? Again, it's all college radio stuff: the closest thing to mainstream for the stuff that's just outside of the mainstream...the most popular of the not-overtly-popular. It's the musical equivalent of the Coen Bros., kind of.

(I love, love, love Neko Case, and I'm really glad to see "This Tornado Loves You" make the list.)

Perhaps you fellas would be more comfortable discussing the Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert CDs in the other thread.

So its "hipster crap" just because you never heard of it?

I actually think its a pretty descent list, I own 18 of those 25 albums. The only song on it that would make my top ten are Bon Iver's Blook Bank which is phenomenal & The Dirty Projectors which should be #1 on their list. But Two Weeks is a song worthy of ranking high on anyone's list. Probably the worst thing about the list is many of the bands they name, the songs they picked weren't even the best songs on those albums.

The best song of the year though by far & away is Two by The Antlers which I can't believe didn't even make that list.

The people calling this hipster crap must be totally jazzed with what they play on commercial radio these days.

Decided to give the podcast a shot, having only heard one of the songs in that list prior (yeah, it was the YYYs), although I am familiar with (and enjoyed) Regina Spektor's previous work and of course, I know Modest Mouse from "Float On".

I really liked the tracks by Passion Pit and Dirty Projectors, and dug the Metric song. Many of the songs I found interesting on an artistic level but just not my cup of tea. The low key stuff like Avett Brothers and Andrew Bird just doesn't do anything for me.

That Dirty Projectors album is amazing with very unique melodies. Metric is always good. Glad you were open-minded & tried something new.

It's definitely some of that, I look at what some people post in the "what are you listening thread" & I never heard of it, I google it, & then see it's like a #5 selling album but I have no clue what it is.

Plus its just an age thing, I mean who calls someone a "hipster", that is something my grandfather would say. Also I think there is a big metal fandom on this board. I'm not angry so its just not my thing, but I think metal fans like to rag on music that isn't loud and screaming.

It's still in pretty frequent use: http://www.latfh.com/

OK, but I still thing age has to do with people liseting to the music on this list. I don't think there are a lot of people in their 40s listening to The Dirty Projectors.

Edited because I swear I don't look like a "hipster"

if those songs were played on the radio more, you wouldn't like them.