Halfway through 2009, you say?
Here are the songs I've liked most.

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Hysteric" (For its balance between caution and attraction)
2. Lily Allen - "The Fear" (Best song 'about' the 09 recession.)
3. VV Brown - "Shark In The Water" (Puts some much-needed funny into quirky)
4. TI ft Justin Timberlake - "Dead And Gone" (For its balance between elegy and urgency)
5. Florence And The Machine - "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" (Joseph Campbell meets undergrad amdram)
6. Boy Better Know - "Too Many Men" (Posse cut trapped in a lift)
7. Jordin Sparks - "Battlefield" (Boom, boom, pow.)
8. Fever Ray - "When I Grow Up (Lissvik Remix)" (Pan pipes FTW)
9. Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me" (C86 Indie emotion meets pop-country sheen)
10. Elektrik Red - "P Is For Power" (Out of the strong came forth sweetness)
11. Morrissey - "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" ("YOU SWORE YOU WOULD NOT!")
12. Kid Cudi ft Crookers - "Day And Nite" (Something is squeezing his skull)
13. Blackout Crew - "Dialled" (Best song about viral marketing!)
14. Timberlee ft Tosh - "Heels" (For its balance between roughneck and Right Said Fred)
15. Kid Bass ft Sincere - "Good Girls Love Rudeboys" (Smash robots do Wiley)
16. Royksopp - "The Girl And The Robot" (Kid Cudi's girlfriend kills time waiting for his shift to finish)
17. K.I.G. - "Heads Shoulders Knees And Toes" (UK Funky expands its fanbase to include my toddler)
18. Cassie ft Diddy - "Must Be Love" (For its balance between smoke and mirrors)
19. Pink Dollaz - "Never Hungry" (So why sound so skeletal?)
20. Cobra Starship ft Leighton Meester - "Good Girls Go Bad" (Rudeboys get the good girls all the time)

There are lots of things I haven't heard, of course.