Don’t worry stupid girl, he’s just a boy.

Like on Boxing Day he’ll soon be over his new toy.

Playlist:

Song / Artist / Album

1. 212 / Azealia Banks / Broke With Expensive Taste

2. The Blend / Herbaliser feat. What What / Blow Your Headphones

3. Car Song (feat. Santigold) / Spank Rock / Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is a F***ing Liar (Clean)

4. Disparate Youth / Santigold / Disparate Youth – Single

5. Leave The Lights On (Album Version) / Meiko / The Bright Side

*6. Dancer / Lanrae / Dancer

7. Andromeda & The Milky Way / Meshell Ndegeocello / Soul Satisfaction

8. Cry / Naytronix / Plug Research SP 2012

9. Soul Music  feat. Santigold / Hezekiah / Hurry up and Wait

10. Gett Off My Back / Public Enemy / Greatest Misses

11. Feels Like Rain (feat. Bonnie Raitt) / Buddy Guy / Feels Like Rain

12. Fast Train / Solomon Burke / Don’t Give Up On Me

13. Don’t Start Me Talkin’ / Sonny Boy Williamson / ChicagoBlues – Blues Originals From The Windy City (Charly Blues Masterworks Volume 28)

14. Seven Nation Army / Ben L’Oncle Soul / New Music UMA

* = Australian Artist

Part 2:

Playlist:

Song / Artist / Album

1. Get Love Feat. Sy Smith (Beat Ventriloquists Mix) / 3kOHM / Get Love

2. Risin’ (feat. Aloe Blacc) / Josh One / Narrow Path

3. Limit to Your Love / James Blake / James Blake

4. This Summer / Rufus / This Summer – Single

*5. Tonight / Emma Russack / Tonight – Single

6. 5 / Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland / Black is Beautiful

7. Love Vibrator / Johnnie Walker / Personal Space

8. RESET BUTTON radio / MOBONIX / RESET BUTTON – Single

9. What Have You Done For Me Lately_ / Naytronix / Naytronix EP

10. Jordans & A Gold Chain (clean) / Tez McClain / Sittin Back b/w Jordan’s & A Gold Chain

11. Namaste (Soul Seekerz Remix) Club Mix / Namaste / Namaste – Single

12. Chervilo (Original Mix) / Mr. Groove / Chervilo

* = Australian Artist

To name Emma Russack’s debut album, Sounds Of Our City, the first great local release of the year says little about Australian music. Though it might satisfy some personal fanaticism (and it is there) or even be critically objective, there’s enough music coming from these parts – from all parts of these parts – to ward off such calls. Not to mention the usual shouts of “Patronising!” that accompany a distinction between the quality of Australian music and that of the rest of the world. And yet there is something about Sounds Of Our City (out through Spunk and launched with a tour through March and April) that needs to be identified by geography. It’s a Melbourne record. A great one.

The album’s bond to its hometown is apparent in its title, which instantly recalls other musical considerations of city life: Paul Kelly’s Somewhere In The City or The Go-Betweens’ Here Comes A City, from their final album, 2005’s Oceans Apart. Like those songs, Sounds Of Our City is more about the relationships that happen within the maze of a city than about praising physical landmarks. Paul Kelly was pining for someone he knew was nestled, lost, in the lights and bars of a metropolis. The Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster was losing himself in a foreign city, distancing from an anonymous “you” – a lover? A friend or family member? – as he travelled further into the tangle of buildings and traffic and people.

Russack has more than one song to draw ties between the mood of city life and her connections to, or disconnection from, other people. What’s initially surprising then, given the concept-outlining title, is how little the features of a city are mentioned. “Tonight I’m gonna go out and get drunk/Find someone to take me home,” she starts against a toe-dragging drum beat and a gnarled country guitar line on album opener Tonight. But that could happen in any city, anywhere. On These Days, Russack sings of walking home from a party, but if that’s within the confines of a city it’s also in one of its pockets – such as, perhaps, Melbourne’s inner north, where Russack has graced a few stages this past year. More obvious are references to the suburbs – as on Reservoir – or a childhood that sounds and feels far away (Russack grew up in Narooma, NSW), from another time and place, as on He Was My Family.

Melbourne – or inner Melbourne – can often feel like the eye of a storm: a place removed from anywhere else, existing on its own terms, but static and insular in that way, too. Russack didn’t grow up in Melbourne. Neither did I; every month there’s a new blow-In, a share-house addition or some newcomer making their mark on the city. Additionally, talk of escape ripples through bars and streets, particularly as summer ends. Other places are never far from our minds. Nor are they from Russack’s album: Colombia, two songs in, reminds us that Melbourne, more so than many other cities I’ve lived in or been to, has its heart scattered across the globe. The song is also where Russack speaks of how it can feel to be stuck in Melbourne when others are elsewhere: “When I’m living in this city/When winter stays much too long… It’s hard to forget that baby you’re gone.”

Perhaps the strongest connection Sounds Of Our City makes to Melbourne, however, is through its sparse instrumentation and unadorned production. As Mess + Noise reviewer (and SPA writer) Doug Wallen has already pointed out, it has that in common with Teeth & Tongue’s recordings. But the approach is also shared by Twerps and by Adalita’s solo record of 2011. Russack sounds little like any of these acts, and in fact takes many of her aesthetic cues from old American country’n’western. But there’s a cold minimalism shadowed by an ominous mystery something, as well as an unexplained attraction to the city, and a desire to deliver the simple, unadorned experience of living in it. That, if anything, is the sound of Melbourne.

As always, my end-of-year ‘best of’ is entirely subjective mix of my own emotional responses to the sound, mixed with a slight hint of critical objectivity. Are they, critically, the best of their respective genres? Perhaps not. But they are, at the end of the day, the sounds that moved me – physically, emotionally – and gave me the soundtrack to live my life to in ’09. Enjoy.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Florence and the Machine – Lungs

More than just a dynamic and powerful vocalist, Florence and the Machine’s debut album was a diverse collection of moody, slightly left of centre (but surprisingly radio friendly) pop songs. With an often thriving percussive beat and an abundance of interesting turns of emotive phrase, this album – at a time where many of her contemporaries were looking to the past for inspiration – never felt anything less than remarkably fresh.

Highlight tracks: Drumming Song, Howl, Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Blinding

SONG OF THE YEAR: Sally Seltmann – Harmony To My Heartbeat

Arriving unexpectedly in the later stages of the year, Sally Seltmann – formerly New Buffalo and writer of Feist’s “1 2 3 4” – made an incredibly welcome return with the delightfully upbeat ‘Harmony to my Heartback’. The track is typically Sally Seltmann: jangly, hand-clappy, immediate pop but with enough intelligence, street smarts and unexpected twists to raise it well above your standard radio fare. Bring on the album.

Honourable mention: Bertie Blackman – Heart

Bertie continued to show why she is Australia’s most adventurous singer-songwriter.

GROUP OF THE YEAR: Metric – Fantasies

Canadian indie-pop-rock darlings Metric returned in 2009 with ‘Fantasies’, a shimmering (but never glossy) alt-pop-rock collection. Showing why she is one of the world’s most intriguing frontwomen, Emily Haines wraps herself in this material like a banshee – whispering, wailing and seducing her way through ten-tracks of pop-rock bliss.

Honourable mention: Gossip – Music For Men

Pop-punk trendsetters take a few Donna Summer pills and produce an unexpectedly dancefloor-driven album that works more than well.

SOLO ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Fever Ray

Taking the trademark sound of The Knife and transferring it to a beguiling, atmospheric, Karin Dreijer Andersson’s solo venture (under the moniker Fever Ray) was a lush, sensual and sometimes challenging album. With worldy beats (and a sometimes otherwordly feel) there was no other album quite as distinctive as this in 2009.

Honourable mention: Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

If Cat Power turned into a Brooklyn electro-pop-goddess you’d end up with an album close to Bat For Lashes’ ‘Two Suns’. As exciting and involving as it as listenable.

Honourable mention: Little Boots – Hands

Of all the mainstream, UK synth-influenced pop albums to drop this year Little Boots was bursting to the brim with catchy, well constructed gems.

Token male mention: Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up

The Scot with the stunning voice and musical range. Soulful, emotive and occasionally funk-driven.

LIVE PERFORMER OF THE YEAR: Sia

Providing the year’s most enchanting shows (March, Metro Theatre, Sydney) Sia showed herself to be an engaging, chaotic personality – and a stunning, spine-tingling vocalist.

LOOKING AHEAD: ONES TO WATCH FOR 2010

Marina and the Diamonds

After a swathe of great singles already released in the UK, welsh-born Marina and the Diamonds is poised to release a great album in the next year. With traces of Regina Spektor and Florence and the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds is a stylised, glamorous and adventurous indie-pop starlet in the making.

Emma Russack

Former lead singer of Australian indie band, Lola Flash, Emma Russack is set to (finally) release her debut solo EP early next year. While an early listen hints at a more jazzy direction than her lo-fo past, she is a strong songwriter with a rich, unique voice.

Ryan Meeking

Hirsute Australian singer-songwriter borrows shades of Jeff Buckley and Damien Rice – with his own superb songwriting and vocals thrown into the mix.

Sia

Having wrapped up working with Christina Aguilera, early previews of Sia’s new material show a sprightly, exciting dance-pop side to her repertoire.

The Ryan boys have a few more gigs before this year is out, including Peats Ridge, Falls Festival (SOLD OUT, sadly) and The Annandale Hotel in Sydney on the 27th with Sherlock’s Daughter and Emma Russack.