What was 2009 really like? Well, the oft-execrable Black-Eyed Peas spent 26 consecutive weeks leading the Billboard Hot 100 this year (with two songs); in happier news, Taylor Swift and the newly ascendant Lady Gaga also dominated radio, while Animal Collective topped the Village Voice Pazz and Jop album poll (no, really they did—never got their preciousness apart from a stray track here or there.) None of these appear on the below playlist, although it does feature artists who came in at #’s 2, 3 & 4 on Pazz and Jop (respectively, Phoenix, Neko Case & Yeah Yeah Yeahs.)

If any trend emerges from this mishmash of one-offs (who remembers “Sweet Disposition” and 500 Days of Summer?), indie singer/songwriter perennials (Metric, Jill Sobule, Andrew Bird) and still-hanging-on veterans (Pet Shop Boys, Chris Isaak, Super Furry Animals’ final album and what should have been Morrissey’s last hurrah), it’s an increasing propensity for lounge-pop, albeit in various guises: modern indie (The Bird and The Bee), jazzy easy listening (Pink Martini) and orchestral ’60s throwback (Camera Obscura), among others. Everything old’s also new (yet) again: Moroder-like synth-disco (Swedish duo Royksopp with Robyn’s crucial assistance), baroque retro-pop (Stuart Murdoch’s one-off imaginary-then-later-made-actual soundtrack via his God Help The Girl project) Kate Bush-influenced spooky splendor (Florence + The Machine, Bat For Lashes) and British new wave revivalism both snotty (Art Brut) and sublime (White Lies).

Throw in a handful of UK number ones (La Roux, Lily Allen, David Guetta with ex-Destiny’s Child-er Kelly Rowland) and you’ve got a shimmering time capsule of end-of-the-decade Anglophilia. Oddly enough, it took a few years for the one of the most Anglocentric, of-its-time tracks to fully register: Imogen Heap’s “First Train Home” is essentially Dido-influenced laptop music but those last, building fifteen seconds always get to me.

2009: Some Kind of Contact

1. The Tender Trap, “Sweet Disposition”
2. Florence + The Machine, “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)”
3. Camera Obscura, “French Navy”
4. Super Furry Animals, “Helium Hearts”
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Hysteric”
6. Morrissey, “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”
7. Jill Sobule, “San Francisco”
8. Chris Isaak, “We Let Her Down”
9. Bat For Lashes, “Pearl’s Dream”
10. Pet Shop Boys, “The Way It Used To Be”
11. The Bird and The Bee, “Polite Dance Song”
12. Lily Allen, “The Fear”
13. Metric, “Gold Guns Girls”
14. Emm Gryner, “Young As The Night”
15. St. Vincent, “Actor Out of Work”
16. Vienna Teng, “In Another Life”
17. La Roux, “Bulletproof”
18. Andrew Bird, “Fitz and the Dizzyspells”
19. Pink Martini, “Splendor In The Grass”
20. Neko Case, “I’m An Animal”
21. Kings of Convenience, “My Ship Isn’t Pretty”
22. Gossip, “Heavy Cross”
23. Phoenix, “Fences”
24. Royksopp with Robyn, “The Girl and The Robot”
25. White Lies, “Death”
26. David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland, “When Love Takes Over”
27. God Help The Girl, “Come Monday Night”
28. The xx, “Night Time”
29. Junior Boys, “The Animator”
30. Serena Ryder, “Little Bit of Red”
31. Art Brut, “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes”
32. Tegan and Sara, “Hell”
33. Bon Iver, “Blood Bank”
34. Sondre Lerche, “Heartbeat Radio”
35. Imogen Heap, “First Train Home”
36. Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, “Goodnight Oslo”