Dalliance Tracks of 2009 – Are you out of love with me?

  1. Yeah! Oh, Yeah! by Tracey Thorn & Jens Lekman
    To celebrate Score Records 20th year the bitterest song from The Magnetic Field's classic 69 Love Songs is deftly recreated by Everything But The Marine Girl Thorne and Swedish popster Lekman adding a delicate layer of sadness to both parts not heard in Stephin Merritt's original vocal. It is probably everything I like about music.
  2. Funny Little Frog by God Help The Girl
    Which is not really a cover version of the Belle and Sebastian song so much as a new take on it by Stuart Murdoch from his loving 60s girl group meets indie popster act God Help The Girl.
  3. Questing, Not Coasting by Maxïmo Park
    A quirk of the post-Internet age in music is the rise of the fan driven release. This slab of Smith's kitchen sink drama got huge receptions at gigs, is proudly loved by the band and eventually came out as a single. It is Smith smashing years of looking for someone with the moment of finding then played out in three minutes of pulsed guitars.
  4. Rebecca by Blue Roses
    As much as Dalliance adores Blue Roses - the album by Laura Groves - the majority of songs we ad heard a good few times before. This slice of heaven sits towards the end of the album is a powerful, thoughtful and emotional plea of friendship played out over a dramatic footstep drum.
  5. Happiness Will Be My Revenge by The Sweptaways with Jens Lekman
    Jens Lekman moved to Melbourne playing sets in people's back gardens and went to Chile ending up with swine flu this year but - in addition to our best track - managed to squeeze himself onto the girl group bounce along.