Listening Post

The album version of this song features the always sensual Lykke Li, but alas she probably wasn't able to make it to the BBC 1 Radio Live Lounge for this in-studio performance by Miike Snow.

Regardless, this is a great song -- one of the best of the year, actually.

Here's Black Tin Box.

Listening Post

Because I just found out that I'll be going to see these guys live next month, here's the new single from Miike Snow.

This is The Wave.

Listening Post

Swedish trio Miike Snow's debut album was one of my favorite records of 2009. Now they're back with a brand new single, and it certainly won't disappoint anyone who loved their last effort.

Can't say there's a whole lot to this video, but the song's great.

This is Devil's Work.

Listening Post

At the end of last year, I called this song one of the best singles of 2009 and posted a live performance of it from KCRW in Los Angeles.

Well, Swedish band Miike Snow has now made an actual video for it -- one which is, not surprisingly, as evocative as the song itself.

Here's the studio version of Silvia.



And as a little bonus, here's Miike Snow's Black and Blue.

Listening Post: The 20 Best Singles of 2009 (12 & 11)

12. Miike Snow -- Silvia

Another Swedish band -- although light years apart from The Sounds (#13) -- Miike Snow had a very, very good year by eschewing convention and creating one of the most interesting and textured aural soundscapes put to record in 2009. Their self-titled debut album was a study in contrasts: cool and aloof and yet oddly warm and inviting, simple and seemingly indie-inspired and yet displaying its lush pop sensibilities proudly on its sleeve at every turn. While Animal and Black and Blue were the first and second single from the album, respectively, it was the song adopted by L.A.'s KCRW and assorted other excellent alternative programming stations here in the U.S. that really knocked it out of the park. At well over six minutes long, Silvia was this year's I Will Possess Your Heart -- a layered, hypnotic and atmospheric journey that pulsed with a thick yet unobtrusive techo beat. Its subtlety was its surprise, since this kind of sound is the last thing you'd ever expect from the production team that brought you Britney Spears's Toxic, the members of which make up two-thirds of Miike Snow.




Little Boots -- New In Town

If this list considered only straight-up pop songs, New In Town would be perched comfortably at the top without a challenger in sight. British singer and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Hesketh -- AKA Little Boots -- seemed to come out of nowhere in 2009 with a breakthrough track that's honestly one for the pop music ages. New In Town was everything a great single should be: brash, fun, funky, immediate, and at the same time showing a hint of playful malevolence lurking just beneath the surface of all that gloss. It was the perfect track to make audiences sit up and take notice of Little Boots, and it'll be interesting to see in which direction her career goes from here. For now, we can be content to listen to New In Town on repeat, since it's tough to imagine it getting old anytime soon.



Tomorrow: 10 & 9

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 13. The Sounds -- No One Sleeps When I'm Awake; 14. Blue October -- Dirt Room

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 15. Jay-Z (w/Alicia Keys) -- Empire State of Mind; 16. Company of Thieves -- Oscar Wilde

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Heads Will Roll; 18. Doves -- Jetstream

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 19. Mos Def -- Quiet Dog; 20. Florence + the Machine -- Kiss With a Fist

Listening Post

This is a really spectacular song from a really spectacular Swedish band called Miike Snow.

Recorded live in the KCRW studios in L.A., here's Silvia.