January In Music

I decided to make a conscious effort to cover music a little more around here in 2009 and I think I've been doing okay thusfar. If you were here at the end of the past couple years, you know that I usually end up posting a Top of the previous year. But for '09, I've elected to do one of those each and every month.

Without further adieu, the Top 5 Most Played "New" Songs of January 2009:

Honorable Mention:
You You You You You - The 6ths And Katharine Whalen
Half Asleep - School Of Seven Bells
Let It Slip - The School
More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley

5. The Wrestler - Bruce Springsteen

If this was a subjective list instead of based on playcount, I'd have this as my Number One song of the month. I hadn't really heard much of the song until we went to actually see The Wrestler a couple of weeks ago. So, after this fantastic, gripping, heartbreaking story that hits far too close to home for someone who has watched pro wrestling since the mid-80s, the end credits come on and this song starts up. If there's such a thing as an absolutely perfect song to sum up a movie, it's this one. One of my favorite "new" Bruce songs ever.

4. Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack

It's Soundtrack Mania here at the B-Spot for the month of January as three of the Top 5 spots are held by songs from movies. I dug the hell out of Slumdog. As much as I loved The Wrestler, I thought Slumdog was even better. And I'm really glad I didn't see Slumdog in 2008 so I wouldn't have to face the struggle between that and The Dark Knight as my favorite movie of 2008. But what really surprised me was how much I liked the soundtrack. I'm not much of an electronica guy and even less of a guy who likes "world music." But somehow, they knocked that combo out of the park with the Slumdog soundtrack that I bought the night we saw the movie.

3. Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle - The Mountain Goats & Kaki King

Okay, okay - I'll admit it. I downloaded the song because of the Super Mario reference. Are you happy now? But the beauty of it was that the song turned out not to be some gimmicky tune aimed at those of us feelin' the nostalgia of the 80s - it's actually a good damn song. I always have to give credit to a band that has the balls to stick their vocalist out there all alone to sing with hardly any accompaniment. That's got to be a tremendously difficult thing to pull off. But with a simple piano backing and a little shuffling percussion, the lead singer here knocks this the hell out of the park Roy Hobbs style.

2. We Rule The School - Belle & Sebastian

What was I saying about a band with the balls to toss their singer out there almost all alone to sing their hearts out? Oh yeah, Belle & Sebastian does that almost every single time out of the gates. I linked to a live version of this song instead of the studio version that the Blues have been rockin' out to over the past month but the point still stands. Belle & Sebastian are easily one of my favorite bands so it's always very cool to stumble upon a song from them that I haven't yet stumbled upon.

And the #1 song of January 2009...

1. Latika's Theme - Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack

Soundtrack Mania strikes again! Oh, and in this case, you can also say that the Missus strikes again because as much as I love this song and think it's probably the best piece of music on the Slumdog soundtrack, I did NOT listen to it eleven times in January! When I was updating iTunes this morning, this song had 5 plays until I plugged in Mrs. Blue's iPhone. As Joe Rogan would say... BAAAA-BLAAAAAAM!

But seriously, for those of you who haven't seen Slumdog yet or if you have and didn't bother to check out the soundtrack, listen to the two very different songs on the Top 5 of January and see if you change your tune.