See you later 'The Noughties'

I love this time of year: The 6 days I spend the rest of the year aching for, knowing that sitting around in my PJ's watching Jeeves and Wooster and cooking a new joint of gammon everyday is completely acceptable. Maybe it's what retirement feels like.
On reflection, 2009 has been kinda alright. No dramatic work / housing / family changes. With 1 day to go I can also claim no hospital stays or arrests too.
We did kill our (sister) label 50 Bones, throw an utterly unattended party at a Scottish festival and manage to go to Sonar for the whole of 90 minutes. And my most frequently used sentence in 2009 was definitely: "thanks for your patience."
But also worked with a hero, won an iPod battle and threw our arms around our bezzers and sang "IT REALLY REALLY REALLY COULD HAPPEN" in Hyde Park.

But I know you're all really wondering what were the songs that sound tracked my year? Well...

Alex Bean's Top 20 of 2009 (Spotify playlist)
1) Dizzee - Bonkers
2) Friendly Fires - White Diamonds (I realise this came out in 2008 so I'm going to substitute with Kiss of Life)
3) Darwin Deez - Constellations
4) Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning
5) Primary 1 vs. Riton - Radiate
6) The Streets - Trust Me
7) Your Twenties - Gold
8) Hockey - Too Fake
9) Housse De Racket - Sur Le Papier
10) Jack Peñate - Tonight's Today
11) Phenomenal Handclap Band - All Of The Above
12) Good Shoes - Under Control
13) Whitest Boy Alive - 1517
14) Royksopp - Girl and the Robot
15) Everything Everything - MY KZ YR BF
16) Empire Of The Sun - We The People
17) Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
18) The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
19) thecocknbullkid - Clean Apart
20) In Flagranti - I Can Thrill and Delight
SPOTIFY LINK

(But I have to say that just missing out are SMD, PB&J, Whitney Houston and Calvin Harris' I'm Not Alone - which is probably the biggest guilty pleasure I've ever had...)

Albums?
1) Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
2) The Rakes - Klang
3) Housse De Racket - Forty Love
4) Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5) Phenomenal Handclap Band
6) Jeffrey Lewis - Em Are I
7) Little Boots - Hands
8) Let's Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Lets
9) Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
10) Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Probably the least fashionable album list committed to Blogger this year, but as my previous Calvin Harris admission proves, there's nothing fashionable about my music taste.
Which leads me neatly on to...

Alex Bean's favourite 11 albums from the past 10 years
1) The Strokes - Is This It
2) The Streets - Original Pirate Material
3) Phoenix - United
4) Outkast - The Love Bellow
5) Daft Punk - Discovery
6) Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
7) Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
8) The Cribs - The Cribs
9) Kings of Convenience - Quiet Is The New Loud
10) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
11) Justin Timberlake - Justified

God I love making lists that literally 10s of people are going to read so here's one final...

Resolutions for 2010?
1) Learn to drive
2) Get myself off to Egypt, Japan and St Ives
3) Finish (start) my first novel
4) Sit at the piano with Burt Bacharach (I don't think he's going to be around that much longer)
5) Learn when to hold my tongue. This is the most important of all.

I reckon these lofty ambitions are all within reach.

SEE YOU NEXT DECADE...