This is the first of 4 posts with 10 songs each which will make up the “Top 40 Songs of 2009 – According to Coach” at cutbucket.com.  Picking 40 songs out of all of the great music that has come out in 2009 proved to be a tremendous challenge which is a testament to all of the new and wonderful sounds that filled my ears this year.

The thing to remember here is that these selections are my opinion based on many things including “my taste”.  The beauty of music is that we all have our own taste and style of sound we prefer.  2009 was an exceptional year regardless of your taste and my selections are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the great music released this year.  Whatever your taste is, there are far more than 40 songs which can tell the story of music in 2009.  What an amazing musical time we are living in.  The maturity of the internet, while still far from perfect, has allowed so many more artists to find a channel in which to be heard over.  It’s a great time to be a fan of music.

The criteria that I considered were the following -

Number of Listens – How many times did I play each song (based on tracking within iTunes).  Of course, songs that came out later in the year were weighed against the available length of time listen to each song.

Sticky Factor - Did each song have the ability to “stick in my head” so to speak.? Was it recognizable again immediately after the first couple of listens?  Did I find myself humming the tune in my mind days after hearing it?

Overall Production Value – This speaks for itself…

Uniqueness – We don’t want no posers here.

Single Song Value – This was one of the hardest factors in my consideration.  Was the song strong enough to stand on it’s own without being part of an album.  In the day and age of single song downloads this is very important.   When picking the top “Songs” this has to be a factor.  If I were to pick the top “Albums” this would be a completely different mix of artists.

NOTE ::  As it relates to Single Song Value I had a very tough challenge placing the songs from Animal Collective’s release “Merriweather Post Pavilion”.  To truly appreciate the outstanding quality of their album I feel it needs to be judged as just that… AN ALBUM.  It is by far one of the top 3 of the year!!!  What is so special about Merriweather is it’s value as a work of art as a complete album in the day and age of the single song download.  That being said, none of the individual songs jumped into a natural spot within this list.  Therefore, I have included what I believe are the strongest singles from the album and put them at the bottom of the list.  This by no means represents the value of this album, I just didn’t know what else to do.  I highly suggest you listen to the entire album start to finish if you are going to listen to it at all. SORRY FOR THE LONG EXPLANATION.  I FELT IT WAS DUE.

NOW ON TO THE LIST….

31. About Face – Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

32. Tell Me True – Sarah Jarosz, Song Up In Her Head

33. Soldier (Feat. Santigold) – N.E.R.D.

34. Walking On a Dream – Empire of the Sun, Walking On a Dream

35. What You Do to Me (feat. Billy Danze, Jim Jones & Nicole Wray) – Blakroc, Blakroc

36. Ghosts N Stuff – Deadmau5, Ghosts N Stuff – Single

37. Higher Than the Stars – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Higher Than the Stars

38. Things Will Never Be the Same Again – JJ, JJ N° 2

39. Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion

40. Brother Sport – Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion