Top 10 Tracks of 2009: Six

10. Chiddy Bang. "Kids"

Xaphoon Jones, one half of Drexel duo Chiddy Bang, just knows how to sample fellow former collegiate band MGMT (his Bob Marley mashup I Wanna Know Now is unreal). “Kids” is a justifiable jam, featuring absurd lines that reference Anchorman and Twitter and a seriously satisfying call out of Asher Roth. The new middle-finger-to-the-failed-economy-future anthem for last and this year’s seniors is clearly: “Cause life is a party/and I’m never growing up.”

09. The Dodos. "Fables"

Listen to this song while driving through a fall landscape and you will understand its magic. Bright and crisp chords kick off the song and it spirals off into a pleasing harmony.

08. Passion Pit. "Little Secrets"

Passion Pit continues to impress after releasing quite possibly the most addicting song of the 2000s, “Sleepyhead”, back in 2008. Their first album Manners continued the trend and this track is uptempto, mxing their trademark high-pitched lyrics with some killer beats. Their recently released, mindblowingly out of this world music video doesn’t hurt either.

07. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. "Heads Will Roll"

From its reverberating opening beats, you can’t help but get out of your seat and feel uplifted. The song takes you on a quasi-indie Brooklyn band, quasi-electro journey, layering piano chords and beat upon beat throughout. Andrew Wyatt’s lyrics of forlorn musings give the song an ominous but catchy sound: despair has rarely sounded so good.

04. Andrew Bird. "Anonimal."

The musical prodigy with the ever-morphing sound and always increasing talent works wonders on his fourth album Noble Beast. The standout track is definitely “Anonimal”, which features some vibrant violin work and atmospheric vocals. Bird’s pause halfway through the track, where he grasps for his next note adds a little extra. He’s almost taunting us with his talent.

03. Major Lazer ft. Nina Sky & Ricky Blaze. "Keep It Goin' Louder."

Major Lazer, according to his Wikipedia page, is an animated Jamaican commando who “fights vampires and monsters, parties hard and has a rocket-powered hoverboard.” I dare you to find me something more awesome. In truth, it’s the combo of DJ/Producers Diplo and Switch, and this track off of the duo’s Guns Don’t Kill People….Lazers Do, is fire. Plus, you get a double dosage of music videos, one psychaedellic, acid-trip gone wrong involving some deliciously demonic dancers, and another with some, err, bizarrely proportioned female dancers. Hey, as long as you're six chicks deep.

02. Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys. "Empire State of Mind."

You almost wonder whether or not it was HOVA’s track that gave the Yankees that extra push this year to win the World Series. From his show-stopping performance at the VMA’s to his appearance before World Series Game 2 and finally at the Bombers celebratory parade while onstage with Mike and Rudy, the Jigga Man picked an incredible year to write his ode to New York. Though these unbeatable stages did increase the song’s overall epicness, it stands alone, comfortably standing in the historic ranks of anthems to the city everyone loves.

01. Phoenix. "Rome"

I’m tempted to put the entire Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart album on here, especially the gloriously upbeat album starter “Litsztomania” or the kick-ass (and kick-assly-remixed)“1901”. But the track on the summer’s best album that really gets me is “Rome”. Its sun-drenched beginning, electro pickup and calm interlude all build to an uplifting, crescendoing finish that amazes. Now if Phoenix could only roam over to LDOC for this year….