PLAYLIST: CRISTINA BLACK’S YEAR END FAVS

I’ve Got a Problem, It’s Called Living
Clever sentiment, right? It’s from Esser’s “Headlock,” a song (and album, Braveface) I had stuck on repeat for a while around the middle of the year. And now that it’s the end of 2009, I, like every other person who writes about music for a living, am expected to go back and recall moments like that and rank them against other, similar ones: the Gaga craze I willingly went along with, my obsession with West Coast lo-fi, Passion Pit, “Birthday Sex.” I just really don’t want to do it in some kind of clinical way this time, because I can tell you after a decade in this game, getting your personal top ten records of the year together is an exercise in self-hatred.

Since I’d rather not make a list of records that reflects how cool and open-minded I am, how hip yet historically contextual, how culturally aware yet sure of my own taste, how lighthearted yet serious, how smart yet fun, how obscurantist but in touch with mainstream America (and Europe and Asia and the Antarctic charts), I’m just gonna give you a playlist of the songs I listened to a lot this year. Albums are over anyway, as is hip-hop. That’s right, I said it.
Cristina Black