Songs Of The First Half Of 2009

I have recently put together a CD for one of my friends with what I think have been the best songs in the first half of 2009. Here's the list (in no particular order other than what I thought what sound best on a CD):

1. Micachu - Lips (Jewellery)
2. La Roux - Bulletproof (La Roux)
3. Morrissey - Something Is Squeezing My Skull (Years Of Refusal)
4. Ipso Facto - You Don't Own Me (Myspace Release)
5. PJ Harvey & John Parish - Black Hearted Love (A Woman, A Man Walked By)
6. Bruce Springsteen - The Wrestler (The Wrestler OST )
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (It's Blitz)
8. Emmy The Great - First Love (First Love)
9. Manic Street Preachers - Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (Journal For Plague Lovers)
10. Gundogs - Call Out My Name (Call Out My Name (Single))
11. Doll & The Kicks - Roll Out The Red Carpet (Doll & The Kicks)
12. Eminem - 3am (Relapse)
13. Uncle Meat & The Highway Children - Streets Of Camden Town (Myspace)
14. Metric - Help I'm Alive (Fantasies)
15. Taylor Swift - Fifteen (Fearless)
16. Little Boots - Meddle (Tenorion Piano Version) (Little Boots EP (iTunes))
17. Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses (Tonight)

It soon became apparent that the majority of songs on the list were performed by female singers or bands. I do have a natural penchant for the vocal range that women can hit but even by these standards, to have 11 out of 16 tracks suggests a shift in either my tastes or the pop music culture.

This article serves as a nice warm-up for the Mercury Music Prize nominees piece that's coming in the next couple of days. Until then.