My 15 (+1) Favorite Songs of 2009: 6. Ximena Sariñana, “Vidas Paralelas” (2008).
6. Ximena Sariñana, “Vidas Paralelas”
- from the 2008 album Mediocre.
- Official website.
Sigh – two years of Spanish classes in college have sadly failed me for this song, but my lack of comprehension hasn’t stopped me from loving it anyway. (Parallel lives – I got that, at least, but I never did figure out the conditional tense.) And I wonder, of course, whether my inability to understand the lyrics (cf. my affection for the Japanese band Puffy) is a good thing: that it allows me to focus instead on the craft of the song, written by Ximena Sariñana and Baltazar Hinojosa. And, it should be said, to perhaps blissfully ignore what may well be mediocre lyrics; let it not be said that she wasn’t playing with fire by titling her album as such.
Sariñana – the scion of a successful showbiz family, telenovela actress, and all of 22 years old when her debut album was released – arrived carrying the unfair burden of expectations regarding what talent she actually had, given her network. Surely this song – and the album’s later comparisons by critics to Come Away With Me – quells any such worries: a perfect slice of breezy, summery pop.
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The rest of the list so far:
7. Thomas Tantrum, “Work It” (2008)
8. The Zombies, “I Want Her She Wants Me” (1968)
9. Ben Kweller, “Old Hat” (2009)
10. Ida Maria, “Oh My God” (2007)
11. Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel, “How Do You Judge Me” (2003)
12. The Phenomenal Handclap Band, “15 to 20″ (2009)
13. Speech Debelle, “The Key” (2009)
14. ComaR, “I Want You D.A.N.C.E.” (2008)
15. Michael Jackson, “Happy” (1973)
16. Wonder Girls, “Nobody” (2008)
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